rangersteve

BobWhite, boy#3 is the former SM's son, highly competitive and missed alot of last year due to a conflict with a speech and debate club schedule. Dropped the club last month until fall. He won't be at many meetings starting in the fall again. He says this is the only time left for him to be SPL. My decision is to tell Boy #3 that he has to make a hard choice regarding next years schedule because this years schedule has already been made. I was thinking about gently steering the PLC into this decision if it started looking like the PLC would want another election. I just thought the decision ultimately should be the boys to make, as well as be more legitimate than mine alone.

Thank you for the benefit of all your collective experience. This is why I like reading here. After watching the previous 3 SPL's during their year long terms I thought it to be too much of a burden, so I decided to reduce the term to 6 months while keeping the PL's at one year. My military experience tells me it doesn't really matter who stands at the front of a formation. It is the PL's that provide the continuity and consistency for the boys. After taking this position last summer I started polling the senior patrol. All the way into september I kept polling them looking for interested boys. At election time only two boys stood up to volunteer for the job. Everyone else turned it down for various reasons. (16 boys in senior patrol) I thought since only two interested then these two would be the SPL for the year. I made boy #2 the main ASPL for the first 6 months. Everything fine until boy #3 decides we should have a new election because now the job fits into HIS schedule. I know what my decision is already. I just think this decision needs(whatever it ends up being) to come from the PLC.

Greetings, for the most part I just like to read all the other posts. This time I have an issue that just came up that I could use some advise with regarding troop elections. Some background first, I am a new scoutmaster,

You might try the Mississippi Palisades State Park. It is about two miles north of Savannah right on the river. Beautiful overlook views of the river. I think Savannah is about 30-40 miles north of Rock Island. Steve

I think the Army's Ranger program is fairly competent in whipping youngsters into "reasonably" good shape. (insert sarcasm here) As a product of said program I can attest to the fitness levels achieved. That being said I would strongly advise you have the boys develop a realistic plan, utilizing all available time, to condition all the boys planning on attending. Backpack Backpack Backpack

The troop I serve has around 80 registered scouts and around 45 registered leaders.

I think the balance is just fine. If you want strictly military type activities than find a military group or venue. Steve

Hello, I have been enjoying reading from the forums so much that I just had to ask a question. What do troops charge, if anything, for a fuel surcharge for camping trips. With the price of fuel this summer being so high, it is starting to become somewhat of a burden. I usually pull our trailer to campouts. The farther campouts end up costing $200-$300 for gas for my truck alone. Summer camp alone cost me over $350 plus the cost of my kids to go. Our troop has around 75 scouts registered. We discussed briefly at a committee meeting having some kind of a fee to help the driving parents to offset the cost of gas. The SM did not want to place an undo burden on all the parents. Advice?