Tampa Turtle

In some boys it is obvious (they are always helpful, cheerful, etc) but I want to know how they are applying it in everyday life (I am reverant because I pray and reflect everyday, I am clean because I am trying to stop swearing, I am brave when I jumped off the high dive)...

Our advancement chairs burn't out from work overload and kept quitting so we are trying dividing the jon into three persons (one does advancements, one keeps track of event attendance and service hours, and the third merit badge tracking.)

Gee, I learn something new everyday. I had to Google that after reading GA Mom's comments. Had a little vomit in my mouth looking at the pictures. Must have missed the forum outrage at the time...

I'd consider it for about 30 seconds and then realize my wife would veto it.

Do it quick before the fun police find out!

I think it was an opportunistic opinion piece. I learned more by reading the kid's "biography"--yup, I think sociopath was the right call. I have met 1 or 2 (one was basically benign). I think some therapy can be useful but there is a component of it that is so non-judgemental as to be useless.

To answer your original question: no. I will use whatever buttons are on the shirt. Good deal ,though.

I have a "high functioning autism" son who Scouts has been very, very good for but YMMV. When he was younger he had a lot of transition issues so the campouts were good training. I did volunteer so I could be around 'just in case'--I think that is the right to do as if other adults have to spend more time working with your son then you need to pick up the slack elsewhere. I found other adults got my son to do things that my wife and I could never do, I also agree my son liked the structure. I have observed that boys 'on the spectrum' often do not get along with each other; resist the other adults well meaning efforts to get them to tent together, He will probably find an area in scouts he will excel at. For some boys it is Merit Badges, others hiking. Mine liked hiking and knots. Really is a star at that--and I would have never found that in the school environment. Scouting has a pretty big menu of activities to pick from. I am not very objective, The school system pretty much failed my son his early years and I think scouting kept him in the game. Now he is a Life Scout, got elected Patrol Leader (and was not bad), and will do public speaking as a Chaplain's Aide (though it is a very painful process). I think the confidence he got from his achievements gave him confidence he needed at school.

We do some concessions at some (drunken bacchanal) parades. We often have the lowest prices (we don't gouge) and do pretty good business. We also did camp-cards from council but it entirely depends on if there is a good deal with it. (one year it it was $5 and you got $15 off pool supplies at a store. we sold tons outside that store as it had offers as well.

Our Troop charges $35 a year of which we get pretty much nothing. No monthly dues. We expect participation for our two big fundraisers. We sell popcorn but proceeds go to Scout Accounts. Campouts average $25 though some are $40 if farther away and an occasional $150 'big one'. Summer Camp is about $475. We run the Troop (with about 50 actives) on about $5,000 to $8,000 a year, Main income is a Spaghetti Dinner take away and parking/concessions on several big parades. Our CO kicks in $500 to $1500 a year. CO gives us space but we pay our share of utility, insurance, and wear and tear on vehicle. As well as beaucoup service hours. Our Pack charged $150 a year. Some years we did great in Popcorn and we charged $35 to keep skin in the game. No other charges, Our Pack (with 150+ cubs some years) could earn $12-15K in sales easy.

Our boys LOVED the belt loops--the more metal the better--kinda like a transformer robot thing. I HATED the beads--boys would lose them, 2/3rds of the parents would not put them on, folks upset that their kid didn't get one, still finding them all over the house years later. I swear one Tiger Den I must have given out an average of 3 sets per boy.

I always feel like I am patronizing Indians and play acting a bit when I use a 'traditional indian prayer' (which for all I know someone just made up). That is just how I feel. If I was to say this too much someone will no doubt tell me "well I am part indian" though I doubt most folks have not been near a reservation for decades. (I too have an indian ancestor -a Delaware Choptank--they had the distinction of surviving my assimilation with the colonists as fast as possible. So I don't feel a get a vote on authenticity) I was struggling with some of the issues and one of our Methodist pastors who was an ex-army chaplain for 30 years gave me an inter-faith book which I have used for Chaplin's Aide training. The more secure I get in my faith the less threatened I get with other faiths BUT I do feel the 'all are equal' argument is a bit of a cop out. But I always have lived in very multi-cultural areas and have been a religious minority a couple of times, I also enjoy discussing theology. I think what 'ol BP was getting at was respect for God as expressed by individuals. I do lean on my scouts to explore their faith, push their families boundaries a bit if need be, and be reasonably active. If there are really not believers I encourage them to be open to the possibility and hope and pray God helps them find a way. I really smack down disrespect to others--I would not tolerate the 'Jesus' remark because that would be offensive to other scouts. But I think we have a relatively diverse Troop for our part of town. The biggest problem I have is religious bigotry with the middle school age boys--they seem to see things so black and white. The muslim and hindu boys get called 'terrorist' -- that sort of thing. The elementary age newbies are pretty nice and the high schoolers are starting to get more tolerant again. Getting boys to get up and discuss their faith is usually pretty effective--especially if combined with an appropriate holiday treat.

Yeah we want to kick out any college age folks, right? My son, almost 16, was looking at Venturing and now is more likely to drop out. I understand the need to standardize but it still seems like another National shot to the foot. But it's been a few months, right?

I do not mind rotate other faith prayers though usually if done by an adherent. A protestant believer to me doing a Sikh prayer always seems patronizing to me. I think a lot of it depends on the spirit it is given. I was at one event when one person did the invocation said something to the effect of "recognizing that scouts are of different faiths I respectfully invoke the lord in the way of my faith" and went on to a standard 'Jesus Lord' Baptist style prayer. I was standing with some of our Hindu and Jewish folks and they said it was nicely done. But sometimes folks are just waiting to be offended no matter what.

A lot of boys jump the gun. I think the process is good training for all the other cumbersome bureaucratic processes he will face in life--my son had a long time to learn that. As a MBC I will sometimes accept pre-work if I think he really did it in the spirit of the thing (it was summer, he shot me an email, and we never got the SM to sign off/find a blue card, etc) but I would look more askance at TWO Eagle required ones that had 90 day requirements. I'd have to talk to the boy...

(1) Did he contact his Scoutmaster first and get a Blue Card? That is the first step. (2) He is supposed to contact his MBC in starting; part of these 90 day processes is the intermediary progress communications with the MBC. Technically the MBC's are right and since these are Eagle required IMHO the MBC's should be stricter. That said the MB process seems to confuse a lot of scouts...is your son new? BTW my son is on the Spectrum as well...

We occasionally do longer trips on these weekends.

We used to share a track but some folks just don't take good care of it. When we went to the electronic score keeping it was a lot easier but took a lot of the fun out of it IMHO.

We do this often. You do need to keep an eye on the boys. The main issues seem to be getting shade,sunburn, potable water, and DIY latrines ('Pack it Out'). We require PFD's on the Canoe and Kayaks out even if there is only 12 inches of water. These trips are youth planned. (adults are mostly involved for boat toting and safety requirements) Safety wise I do sweat these trips out. Another challenge is the more primitive beach trips a lot of the older boys seem to have a problem with the lack of entertainment...don't know how to relax. The fishing types are pretty happy. One time we worked on the Sailing MB and that was a big hit. Also a beach and in the water obstacle course. Another issue is that some dad's who come along on these trips think because it is a beach trip it is Margaritaville time--I don't want to mix water+scouts+booze. I know there is always a prohibition but it seems to need more reinforcement on these trips. The times we have camped on a sandbar we always check in with the Coast Guard/Ranger when relevant so they know we are out there in case some weird weather event comes up. If it is a pretty long haul over open water we will have a motorized chase boat or two in case we need to do a rescue or emergency transport. We once camped on the east coast of florida and were in the tropical storm edge of a hurricane when it changed course. Sleeping in a Hammock in 35 mph gusts was an educational (and religious) experience. Needless to say some boys learned the value of staking their tents, The boys kayaking around an island one time and discovering the topless girls was another memorable trip. I say plan carefully and go for it.

We bought our own (about 2K -all metal) but storage would run us $40 a month accept our Cubmaster has space in a storage unit.

Touche.

In my Scouter experience the PROCESS of divorce seems bad for some kids. While I know of situations where the kids were removed from a bad situation it seems so many adults can get 'crazy' for a while if it gets less amicable. It is discouraging when Scouting gets used as a bludgeon by one of the parents; I have seen when the dad supported it the mom seemed to go out of her way to schedule events at campout times. In any case if there is shared custody issues of where the uniform and book and who is helping the boy work on what comes up. I will say we have picked up a good handful of scouts because the single-parent household mom wanted their boy exposed to some male role models in scouts...