tkwetzel

troop8een, many scouts participate in many activities with many conflicts. Many people will attend sports practices instead of going to meetings, but they still have time to do "the time to fulfill the duties and responsibilities a Scout has to God, country, and others." We have scouts who show up for the last 5 minutes of a meeting (after coming from another activity) so they can get information, sign-up for events, and do anything else they need to do. This doesn't affect the patrol planning, because the scout can let the patrol know before they plan if he is going or not, and if he doesn't the patrol can look at the sign-up list and see if he is going or not. These scouts participate as much as possible while participating in there other activities to the fullest extent. And if my troop adopted your 70% attendance requirement, our 90 member troop would lose about half it's members. -Tyler

acco40, I somewhat agree with most of what you said. What you said is that having an attendance requirement is wrong. But about your following statement, "How do you handle camping trips? Do you let scouts decide to attend at the last minute, with 24 hour notice? What about transportation needs, tour permits, food budgets, tent assignments, permission slips, etc.?" As I mentioned earlier, I am the SPL of a 90 member troop in Northern Virginia. We are lucky to get half of the troop to go on a single campout. We have sign-up sheets for every outing and there is always a deadline that you have sign-up by or you can't go. Our patrols then plan according to who is going, and when only a couple members of a single patrol go, they are joined with another patrol for the weekend. We have hardly any problems with this. -Tyler

After what Bob said, I went back and looked at the requirements. Through first-class there are no requirements that say you have to be an active scout. However, second- and first-class have participation requirements, requiring scouts to participate in a minimum number of activities since joining. For Star and above you need to be an active member of your troop for a designated amount of time. And Bob, their is nothing that says being active is more than paying your dues. -Tyler

Do you think that having several different limited patches every year is a good idea(i.e. the National Capital Area Council's Monuments and C.O.N.T.A.C. series')?

Eisely, you said, "I don't see anything wrong in principle with a participation/attendance requirement as part of "show scout spirit"." You should not need this. Scouts can and do show scout spirit without being at meetings. Coming to all the meetings doesn't mean that they show scout spirit. I've seen scouts come to meetings and sit around and talk the whole time. And you said, "Nevertheless, an absentee patrol leader seriously hurts the program,". I don't completely agree with you here either. You should have assistant patrol leaders who will step in when the patrol leader is not present, which makes no difference because they can do the same thing that the patrol leader does. -Tyler

Thank you sctmom, that is exactly what needed to be said. And anyone who says that they can have an attendance requirement is crazy. -Tyler

Hi everyone. I am the SPL of my 90 member troop and we have no attendance requirement. Active scouts who don't attend any of the meetings or campouts don't advance and that is their problem. The scouts who want to do it will come. I play sports year-round. This past year I struggled through Monday nights when we had our scout meetings, because I would go from school, to practice, to the scout meeting, and then go home and not have time for homework. The only reason I went to all of the meetings was because I was the SPL. I think the 75% attendance is crazy. -Tyler

Hey, I would love your Far East Council Patch. I can get you a National Capital Area Council Patch. Actually, I can give you several different csps. Our coucil puts out many different patches each year. Please send me your address and I will get you some patches. I'll be sure to tell you how many are coming so you can get me your csps asap. -Tyler(This message has been edited by tkwetzel)

Hi again. I said I had several Pentagon patches earlier. Well several is now few. So if you want one please let me know soon. -Tyler

Hi everyone. I don't trade much, but am willing to trade 1 for 1 for any csp that I don't already have. I am in the National Capital Area which puts out several patches every year. If you do not specify any patch I will assume you want the standard one that has been around for a long time. One patch that might be of interest to many is the pentagon patch, of which I have several. Please e-mail me at tkwetzel@juno.com if you are interested. -Tyler