Tampa Turtle

I agree. Our boys have been doing the 'Color Guard Swicheroo' with few collisions and little loss of decorum since Wolf Cubs!

I agree with Beavah...it would be the talk of the camp...the OTHER Troops would be talking about it. This is the kind of Team spirit one should encourage...

Some pirates were among the Americans under Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans. Just saying.

I would suggest having your son (not you) make his SMC requests in writing (email) and cc: the CC in preparation for kicking it up to Council. But he has to meet whatever the local troops attendance rules, etc are. Too much Mickey Mouse here...as a career ASM I would never tell a boy he is not Eagle Material...I have kept a few thoughts to myself. In retrospect half the time I was wrong anyway. Your son will get there. Wish me luck, Son #1 has his EBOR tonight!

It takes a united brownshirt front to support boy-led from fast track parents.

ASMinVirginia I thought you were talking about our Troop! This was a few years ago and I was you. Very difficult to be publicly supporting the SM while privately trying to get him to stop micro managing and talking so long. Nothing discourages a boy more--especially those who really bought in to Boy Led--then micromanagement. Boys do not like letting their ideas get shot down 'just because'. I had to listen in on some of those 1-2 hour calls...it was torture for me and I am a bureaucrat. The cost of boy-led can be chaos--on that point the SM is right. And I would agree on the scout skills being taught whenever possible by boys. The impact and frustration by ASM's is a separate issue. Our SM eventually moved on but not before hitting the morale and membership hard.

(Besides from the comely lasses looking like high schoolers) I personally do not patronize Hooters because I do not like the objectification; as is my right as an american. However by all reports the ladies seemed clad respectfully enough and all in all not something to get in a tizzy about. Are we against Heterosexuality now? I suspect it was more of a distraction for the adults. I have been to other scout and church youth outings where the girls wore much shorter shorts.

I do this MB as well. I used to be a ESF-1 (Emergency Special Function '1' - Transportation) at our Emergency Operations Center (only got assigned because I was a scout leader!) and found you can crib a lot of stuff from FEMA training. Before the SAR MB we used to do an actual Search and Rescue exercise for E-Prep MB at a camp out. Some scouts would be 'hurt' and hidden in an area and the other scouts (who had been trained) had to organize a Troop level search, do some traiage, 1st aid, etc. Then we would do an After Action Report. Adults were just there to make sure no one got hurt. Boys enjoyed it. Can be hard to find a good drill as the cool ones are usually based on funding but ask Fire Departments and Military units. Better yet ask the County FEMA Designee for contacts. But be prepared to make something up. We did a Zombie Apocalypse one that was mostly a paper exercise and the boys really liked that. (I used the FEMA one) Once we did some vague 'surprise' scenarios during a meeting where the older boys got gory make up and various injuries. Once it was an 'auto accident' outside the scout hut. The victims have the most fun and even if it is a drill some of the boys really have to stop and start working the procedures. You never know which one is really gonna step up. The mobilization plan is always hard. We really don't do that but boys have submitted phone trees and did a dry run. One boy did a physical one and got his patrol mates to show up. One time a boy started the MB real quick when we had heavy rains and got his buddies to shovel sand bags at a City pick up point--I liked that. For E-Prep I made each scout find his home on the Hurricane Storm Surge maps (most live in high risk categories), find his evacuation center, and discuss with his parents. We also did a walk through of our Scout Hut's neighborhood and went through post-storm re-entry procedures. My advice is to NOT dumb down the material. Boys eat this stuff up--once they get past the "I'll just call 9-1-1." But yeah finding the exercise is hard.

VERY Nice!

Having the correct med form, carefully and correctly filled out and current insurance information is a lot of work BUT really pays off when it hits the fan. (My worst case I have been involved in (so far) is some amputated digits. The training and procedures DID payoff.

I was a little disturbed by the strip where the SM tells Chunky to strip naked to avoid hypothermia.

We do $16-23 for two color anti-microbial synthetics. We had some boys do it on the side as a business and we got them for $14-18. We did find a local shirt shop that did all the High School and church group shirts and they were pretty competitive if you ordered during a down-time like summer. We had used Class B and it cost a little more but was very easy.

Our Troop has some boys on the AT doing Dickey Gap to Damascus as we speak. Is that your neck of the woods.

Welcome. Some good advice to be found here and lots of the other kind too!

Man, no machine guns....

Now that would be a good story for a Insect Study MB class!

Boy this is the thread that keeps on giving...I am getting so confused..so is the kid ever gonna get his Eagle?

(Welcome). You see some these very bad and messy things in Cub Scout age splits. I also recommend moving Packs...what your son loses in familiarity he gains in stability. I wouldn't stay in that Pack because they are likely to make other poor decisions. You are obviously not welcome...he got the Pack in the split up.

Our Troop is just like TAHAWK's--maybe 1/3rd Methodist and the rest a mix. Our CO is a Methodist church. I don't think we ever had a Chaplain but some very good Chaplain's Aides. Mostly encourage boys to be the best "____" you can be.

Oh RichardB where are you when we need you!

Younger kid never. Older kid maybe if parent is OK and I friend both of them. Keep everything in open. I have friend-ed some former scouts.

"One of da things that often happens in troops is that the volunteers who are selected are the parents who are more engaged and responsible, eh?" The responsible will be punished.

Ah yes 'the game with no name' or BS ("Boy" "Scout". yeah right).

IMHO a Troop Guide is a very special cat who enjoys being around the young guys or at least can maintain a sense of humor. The Den Chief analogy is perfect. As for Instructors we have had some success for instructor-specialists (a guy for knots, a guy for fire making, etc)

Meow meow hiss hiss