slontwovvy

I can't provide many details, but I have heard of a troop that is a marching band. They do little advancement work, but they are chartered as a troop and do all marching in Scout uniforms.

I don't know, it's always been a big joke at the camp that I work at....Sleeping Merit Badge. Requirements include correct form, a brief history of sleep, etc. Also, it wouldn't be bad if they brought back Botany or General Science. Botany especially was a good one, looking back at the requirements. A shame it had to go.

In the past five years, our troop has had 11 Eagles, and we've only had one do a project under three hundred hours (175 hours). Although our troop is a bit abnormal in our parts because we earn our Eagle rank, we've found that most projects go between 30-100 hours.

A similar incident happened with our troop. Despite the fact that we have the most eagles in the city, do the hardest projects, and have the best high adventure program, another troop was swallowing up all the feeder packs. They had adult leadership--ours was boy led. This ended up turning out for the better for us (though we only had three boys at the time). Their troop gained so much that they had to close their membership at 75 people. All the packs spread out to the other four troops in our town. When the members of the other troop dropped out, the packs did not go back to that troop. It all works out in the end.

A similar incident happened with our troop. Despite the fact that we have the most eagles in the city, do the hardest projects, and have the best high adventure program, another troop was swallowing up all the feeder packs. They had adult leadership--ours was boy led. This ended up turning out for the better for us (though we only had three boys at the time). Their troop gained so much that they had to close their membership at 75 people. All the packs spread out to the other four troops in our town. When the members of the other troop dropped out, the packs did not go back to that troop. It all works out in the end.

Make that 18 chapters of the United Way that decided to drop funding. Our local chapter just cut funding in the past week, $200,000 dollars now gone down the hole. Since then, our council has been flooded with donations, which actually eclipse the amount they would have gotten from the UW. So it turned out all right.

My troop, whether meant to be so or not, has added several "requirements" to the Eagle Scout badge. NO ONE in my troop gets Eagle under the age of 16, because as part of our program, you need to take a JLT course or be a counselor in training at a Boy Scout summer camp (neither of which occurs if you are under fourteen). Also, you must attend at least 3/4 of the meetings to be considered to advance a rank. Leadership does not carry over, so if you didn't show up for a month, you start anew. In addition, none of the projects are to be under 250 hours labor. Our troop has the best reputation of any in the county for this reason. We do our projects well (over and above working-grade) and they are always the kind of project you can point at twenty or so years down the line because they will still be there. Our troop also applies the JLT, 15-year-old policy to Order of the Arrow as well, and, sadly, our boys have been the oldest Ordeal members at our lodge's fall conference for many years. This summer, while on staff at a camp, there was a week where almost a quarter of camp got tapped out, and five of the boys were FIRST-YEAR-CAMPERS. Here's my few cents on the issue.

Our group is trying to get together an international trip, but money has been a big problem. Any ideas on how to get some to go to a big event?