Tampa Turtle

What a good question! (We need to clear our some deadwood!) 54 Scouts (40ish active) 1 SPL 2 ASPL 7 PL 1 SM 8 ASM (active +4-6 past ASM good for one event a year) 2 ASM(jg) (Past Eagles who are 18 who make occasional appearence) 9 Committee (active + 9 on paper not sure why) 14 Parents w YPT, MBC, occasional campouts, drivers

It is a fine line. The oldsters have their own Patrol Box and cook more complicated meals which occasionally inspires some Boys for the next campout. We make a big show of being courteous and helpful with each other. We try to model a good patrol. But sometimes the more competitive adults want to compete with the boys in the Patrol competitions. It is their time not ours. I think the only time I would think it was OK would be if we were invited by the boys and the chance of adult humiliation would be high.

When it works it is a wonderful thing.

OK...I thought you had some unusual experience. I have heard one of our scouts who I was pretty sure was an atheist get by with a 'I search for truth in the universe and if that leads me to God or not, so be it'. He passed. Another who basically stated he would never step in scouting again and would not let his kids be one because it was a lot of wasted time conceded that he would use some of the skills he learned in other aspects of his adult life. He passed.

I thought Bridge over the River Kwai would go great. We loved it in High School. But it went down in flames. I guess it was the pacing. You never know.

Usually shown on long Bus trips Godzilla (1954) Bond Films (Guns for the younger boys Girls for the older ones) Monty Python + Holy Grail (Occasional Language) Boys either love or hate it The Dark Knight+Batman(1966) double feature (billed as the Depressing One and the Mayor from Family Guy) Das Boot Apollo 18 (surprised me) Shaun of the Dead. World War Z. Most any other Zombie movie. Star Wars (New Hope and Empire Strikes Back most popular) Independence Day (the 1st one) Finding Nemo (the older boys will recite the entire movie word for word-it is a nostalgia trip for them) The Longest Day (surprised me)- they liked the gear and the theme songs Bridge Too Far (mostly for the tanks-the boys will watch things if it relates to a game they have been playing) Lord of the Rings Trilogy (once for a lock-in.) Very much depends on the age of the boys and the event.

I think they got the pants pockets right...I have worn them on trips because I could put a booklet in the pocket. I always WANTED to like the 'smokes' pocket but never it never seemed to be the right 'home'. I tried a small MP3 player, paper, lighter, and compass. Didn't really work. Agree there are many opinions to what is best but there really is an art to pocket design and placement. The poor design of many new packs keeps me soldiering on with my old one.

'Questions about reverence or continuing in scouting (giving back) worry our scouts. ' What do you mean?

I was at a recent HS Football game and saw the stands completely trashed with bottles, etc. I was starting to clean up my section and was stopped by a teacher that said the stands are cleaned after everygame by kids who are doing it as part of their detention...90 minutes after every Friday night. During the game they are sweeping the corridors and emptying the trash. The Janitor reports to the principal if he has to redo anything, if so they get to do it again.

My wife calls school 'zero tolerance' rules 'no tolerance' because the ones who often get swept up in them are ESE kids or kids with issues that adults are not flexible to deal with.

We usually go by Mr. even to each other. I got him a Mr name tag which he liked.

Well that did not go well. We had a worse then usual (or so it appeared) boy-run meeting and he felt it was a complete waste of his time given he was taking time away from school work (which he wouldn't have been doing anyway). Just a poor meeting- SPL plan went up in smoke- as it happens. A lot of boy leadership and adults did not show. Doesn't help when the SPL is your younger brother who won't listen to you anyway. His advice was sound. But ASM Son really did not have anything to do. Afterwards I told him that he needs to find something fun he wants to do in Scouts and we will try to make it happen. He is interested in a couple of the harder trips and a merit badge or two. I wish he would work with the younger boys. I will suggest but not push. My main work will be making sure he doesn't officially quit. He had his delayed ECOH a few weeks ago and it was a huge success so maybe the reality of being an adult grunt is a let down.

I asked because I saw a few come and go. Will be hard on Dad most of all and younger brother SPL. I will ask the SM and SM-Elect (both are good guys)

We have had better luck on blocking out time before the meetings for SMC and during or after meetings for BOR. Scouts can go online and schedule the blocks. Sometimes they fill up early and sometimes a scout jumps on an empty time slot at the meeting. (We use Trooptrack BTW) We do this now through-out the year instead of the 'Review-fests' we used to have. Sometimes a boy shows up, sees that everything is full, and goes online on the spot and signs up for next week. (which I take as progress) We also expanded our informal 'pool' of BOR members; if you are a parent hanging around the building expect to get roped in once in a while. The current system seems more fair to our SM and CC as they know they will show up early on a regular basis and spreads it out over the year...

Son#1 (Eagled July 2016 and aged out late August 2016) missed scouts and is coming back as a (part-time) ASM. As he is a Junior in High School he should stick around for a while and is intending to go to Summer Camp with the Troop and do some training there). He is all registered up and has his YPT. I did not twist his arm; I think he missed the meetings he had been going to for 6 years. (Taking IOLS will be a tough sell as he had 132 nights camping and the CC says he needs to take Trek Safely though he has almost 800 miles of Backpacking and Hiking as a scout. But as I explained BSA makes everyone jump through hoops equally ridiculously LOL.) My real question is how to help him with the transition from Scout to Scouter vs the Scouts AND the adults. I sense that this is no easy transition in the best of cases. He is strong on field-craft and aquatics. The SM and SM-Elect seem supportive. I was thinking it might be best to have him start with the younger guys who know him the least and help with some of the Canoe and Backpacking trips where a young buck comes in handy.

How old is that story? I have not heard of any 'loin cloth' Ordeals in quite some time. The other points have merit.

Yes, my new-ASM son#1 is sewing his on; though why they chose red and green is beyond me. It looks like the Christmas knot.

To me the bigger issue is the boy offering the weed to the younger scout. (If I understand things correctly)

Sewing on the badges should be a requirement and then the boys could teach their Moms.

I am a severe dyslexic and a horrible speller. My dad, an english professor type, used to return my Father's Day cards with all the misspellings circled in red. One year I got a copy of the Bad Spellers Dictionary in return. There is a lot of scouring in OA; my son and I always pull kitchen duty LOL.

Seems to me sending a boy home for voicing dissent, as long as it was respectful, will quickly kill any Boy Led momentum in a unit. In our Troop a boy was sent home because he was screaming for an hour in the face of the SM on how he didn't have to listen to the SM, the SPL, and how everyone sucked (this was after being reprimanded for almost burning down a tent with 3 scouts in it as a practical joke). He had to be quashed. That kid was real rude and his Mom backed him up 100% so we never saw him again. He was really out of line. If he had come back and just apologized we would have welcomed him back. It is a shame since the kid has gotten in alot of trouble since scouting. Even for all that he was given his rank at the next COH (in absentia) cause he had earned it and been signed off. The only time I could see removing a rank might be in a case of fraud (he never did the MB in question or something).

OA kept my son#2 in scouring and got him fired up on Boy-Led. Now he is SPL and applying the lessons and fun he learned in our Lodge.

I did not disagree about sending a boy home...even I have done that. But I would not strip a rank because of it.

In our neck of the woods the Council Office knows little about OA; the Lodge knows whose dues are paid up. We just guilt members into paying. We have some healthy competition about boys wanting to be active enough to get Brotherhood.

Son#1 Had his ECOH last night wearing OD BDU. I do not think any one even noticed excepted he looked better.