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On the eve of St. Nicholas, I am proud to announce that my son was awarded the rank of Eagle Scout. I have never seen him so nervous. Did not help that my hubby told him he would not need his sash and when we got to the community center, saw another Eagle with his sash on and had to race home for the sash before the meeting which would begin in 5 minutes. The committee took me in first anyway, which gave hubby time to go home to retrieve sash. The committee was soooo very nice. Asked me a couple of questions and then it was my sons turn. He went in there and did what he does best. The answers he told my husband and I that he gave were excellent! So much for being nervous. The committee told him that he did a wonderful job on both his project and the write up, one of the gentlemen even went so far as to say it was one of the best he has seen. I am so proud of my son and my husband as well. Thankyou all so much on this forum for all of you words of wisdom and kindness when I needed them to support my son in scouting. My son is now trying to figure out how he can plan all of these camping trips and such around his sports. At least he doesn't have to feel that he is slighting either one any longer, the monkey is off his back. Again thank you so much and happy holidays and Merry Christmas to all.

Hi all, I know I have been absent for awhile and you probably would like to know what is happening with my son. Since my last post, he has joined a new troop, one which meets on Mondays, has like 60 scouts instead of 15, and he fits right in. There are other sports guys in the troop, they have existing Eagles, a couple who are just 13 and 14, so no excuse why he won't be able to get Eagle at 15. New SM asked him if he could get to know him for couple of months and then he would be happy to give SMC and sign his application. The first two meetings while son was interviewing troop, SM elbowed my hubby and said "why is he here?, why did his other troop not support his Eagle?!" "He is already jumping in and instructing my young scouts on what to do!" He fits right in, when is he going to join? LOL. Hubby said it was son's decison to make. So two weeks later, son turned in his application to join and he actually goes to meetings after a full day of school, 3 hours of football practice, whip home for 15 minutes and has a smile on his face going and coming home from the meetings. SM said he will give him a SMC sometime in October before basketball starts up. SM would like to see son in action at a clinic they hold for WeBelos in October. Son did not want to go disputed EBOR route. He wants nothing to do with his old troop and certainly did not want their name on the Eagle certificate. So, he is back in the saddle again and is happy. This troop does a lot of fun things and he wants to go to Boundary waters with them one of these years. He does half 2.5 years left, so he can have lots of fun too. Thanks for all of your support and advice. All is well all is well

Big, huge question. Is the troop boy led or adult led. Take a look at WHO is telling whom to do what at the meetings. If there are a lot of adults telling the boyscout what to do at the meetings, RUN! Do not look back. Trust me you do not want adult led unless you want a glorified cub scout troop in boyscouts.

No, he has not talked to SM of receiving troop yet. He met with one troop last week to work on an eagle project, but I don't think he mention the app to the SM. He has a meeting with another troop tonight. I will remind him to ask.

Hi all, we'll SM told son last week he will not sign his application or give him a SMC on the grounds that son did not act appropriately at summer camp and he did not show correct leadership while SPL from Jan till last week.son already has POR signed off in book as,PLC for liferank. My question to y'all is this. Should he just have his new troop SM sign it, or should he go the disputed route. He wanted to leave this troop after how he has been treated the past couple of months. SM and ASM claim that they were constantly trying to work with him, but no results. Rather hard to have results when there are no PLC meetings for 3 months and then cutting meetings short if not cancelling altogether.son is meeting with two troops this and last week to see how they are. I am just mom, don't know what's really going on, just what I hear. And I haven't really seen too many good things from this troop. Can you please give me your take. He does not mind "putting in dues" with new troop to have paper signed. But would you go the disputed route, or new troop? Advantages, disadvantages to both?

David CO you are way off base. SPL JUST made the decision to leave this week. SM does not have "wind" Of anything. This guy had been pegged correctly by most of these posters, he is not a good SM and has never even read a scout masters book, doesn't even have one.

Oh Beavah, you funny. Thanks for the chuckle

Son has a few troops in mind. Hubby already knows three troops that wanted son after he Eagles, maybe they can be bumped up a bit.

Eagle based on dispute. Can son then have his Eagle COH with his new troop? How long would dispute take and would it involve son having to testify?

You rock Beavah!

COR wants NOTHING to do with this troop. The feeder pack will not get close with a ten foot pole. UC has tried to get COR invomved, they want nothing to do with this troop. Have not had any cross overs now for three years. They do not even try to get new scouts. Had a mad exodus of 8 families lije 4 years ago. Gee, I wonder why. Son joined this troop two years ago in fall when he needed a troop that met on Sundays, and they do.

Council wanted the advancements taken away from SM, he loses all blue cards and does not "seem" to submit them to council. Sits on everything and when he is asked for the blue cards, amazingly "loses" them. He is also MBC for "all" merit badges. Most of the signatures on the scouts in this troop are SM's or ASM's. I could go on for about an hour about what is not right about this troop. What is right, is that they have about 9-10 boys that would like to be scouts and enjoy the scouting program, if only they did not have a ASM that is constantly telling them what and how to do it.

totally agree Beavah

These are monies that have been transferred over from the old troop. Sons have not really done any canvassing since they joined this troop and husband pays for campouts and summer camp cash usually.

Council is rather upset right now and wants answers from the troop for questions. Even they told hubby to encourage son to find a new troop or just have another SM sign off. Sad sad sad.

Questionable that this SM has OAK leaf. Highly dysfunctional troop. Husband and son did not find this out until in it for a bit. Then stuck it out because hubby was appointed UNIT Commissioner for this troop to straighten them out. That's when it started hitting the fan for my son. Best thing to do for this troop is to disband or major reorganize. I don't want my son sticking around for reorganization. Too many other troops out there. Oh, another thing. Second son, scout in troop as well did not go to summer camp, but funds $300 were taken out of his and brothers account. They put the two together when they transferred over. Now, they won't refund the $300. Say they need to look into it. Also will not reimburse me for a campout that son purchase all of food $125. Hubby thinks they have no money. Ughhhhhh. As Unit Commissioner, he is trying to get the troop turned around. He got advancements away from SM, and got them to wear class As for meetings. Also might have gotten them to have a formal COH, still no date. Otherwise the boys waited until January for any awards, which were few any way.

I think council was more concerned that this tropp had NO COHS and not so much elections. I have since found out that SMS son needs two ranks in the next year, so I think SM is preparing the way for his son to get two sets of leadership. SM son is,already 17. They have NEVER had a proper COH. They have been calling their electronic weekend in January their COH and even then, no family present and no class "A"s.

Truth is that he has has such a crummy experience with this troop. He was just going to hang it up after his COH. But, if he can find a fun troop he originally wanted to stay in and earn palms, until he wad 17 as long g as he could do his sports.

Set meeting for the following Sunday, August 7th, which falls out of line with every other eeek

Well, not really cancelled I guess because on the calendar it says "no meeting". When that was put up I am not sure. But I am sure son is making first call to a troop SM tonight. No sense waiting and prolonging the agony.

Thanks Guys.....yes, son will be moving on. And yes all troops have their own cultures, this one rather blindsided son. Can't really tell much about a troop in just a couple of visits before joining. But this time, hubby has already been able to meet other troops through his UC position and kind of knows that SMs already. Stosh and Tampa Turtle, you hit the nail on the head, both counts. SM needs to be seriously worked with and reminded of the scout oath and law.

There is no good times to be had in this troop. ASM does all the talking at the meetings and does not let the boys have fun on outings. Everything has to be done Perfectly, they cannot have a learning curve. His own son, he took away fire building from him at summer camp becauseche,was not doing it right. SPL had A SPL go over and calm the ASM son down and get ASM away. Heck, the boys aren't even allowed to eat snacks when they want to on camp outs because it costs money. ASM runs the troop not SM Again NO FUN allowed, this is serious learning here at this troop. That is why one scout has been a tender foot for three years now and SPL got him to second class. SM is not pleased SPL cannot get said scout to first class's. Said scout won't even give SPL respect by returning phone calls or emails. SM holds on to all blue cards until the scout eagle's and THEN, if he can find them gives them to the scout. Because my son had most of his merit badges done before this troop, SM only lost 3 eagle blue cards and two others on him. Instead of waiting, son went back to MBC to get another blue card signed. This troop is high maintenance to say the least. Ughhhhhh.

This is what son is saying as well. If he had never been elected SPL none of this would be happening. Hubby and I told him it would be a great chance to experience leadership when he ran for the position in January. He thought he might be able to turn the adult led troop around to boy led. Never did he dream that the SM and ASM would be such Jenks and not teach him how to lead. Just constantly told him what a bad job he was doing and that his leadership socks and he had better pull his head out. This all on the very first meeting he conducted as,an SPL in February. Has not gotten any better since. No, he will not be staying in this troop. If SM signs his application by some miracle on Sunday, he SPL will hold his,Eagle COH and then either transfer to another troop or hang up his class "as. If SM does not sign on Sunday, SPL will be on the phone on Monday talking to other troop SMS to get his SMC and application secured.

SPL just turned 15 the 6th of this month. 3.5gpa, basketball, football, wonderful kid. Very quirky when it comes to friends. Only has 3 or 4 really good friends. Nails chewed down . I am super proud of this kid, he has worked very hard to "fit" in. Will be a sophomore next year.

Mom's not on committee, just clothes washer and patch sewer.