vrooman

I have worked with several great individuals in resurrecting a troop over the last three years. We had all the enthusiasm and energy of a College football team getting an invitation to a bowl game. All this began to fall apart about a year ago when support for the committee began to decrease because the old guard were used to doing things without an active committee. Volunteers do not take hostile criticism to well, and it wasnt long before we began to loose committee membership. As the CC, I have assimilated the duties of the resigning members and I am finding it almost impossible to get replacements because no one wants to be a target of the SM and one of the ASMs. Not only did we loose the Mom who started the Pack and Troop back up, but we have lost our Outdoor Activities Chair, our Advancement Chair, one Secretary(who was replaced) and we never did obtain our Training coordinator. Before I end up loosing my mind taking on too much, is there any way a committee can get assistance handling the responsibilities for our unit? Our district is low on volunteers, and I dont know if this is something our council can provide assistance on. Has anyone used other local resources, or can offer suggestions? And trust me, I have already tried to get more help from our Chartered Org, it isnt there We are about two to three weeks away from having a non-existent committee. This is how the old troop ran many years ago, and it ended up dieing. The committee was just some names used to re-charter. I dont know, but I see the program really suffering if there isnt a committee. vrooman

Pete, You are right; all I want is for each scout to do their best completing each of the requirements necessary for the rank. I honestly dont care how difficult the SPL or SM make it, I just want the scout to feel they accomplished the requirement. Once they show they know how to do it, and demonstrate it to the leader who knows what the handbook requires, they get that signed off. At the BOR, I only ask if they did the requirement, I dont ask if they were in a mountainous area with cliffs, drop-offs, thick brush and ponds. Or if they were in a large parking lot to do the compass course, I just want to know if they completed the requirement. Scouts who say well I was there when whats his name did it, or I was shown how to do something dont really meet the requirement. I also want to maintain my friendship with our SM, but seeing what is happening to the boys, and the complaints I am getting from most of the parents is putting quite a lot of strain on everyone. Working with three separate boards with three separate groups I see all sorts of conflict between adults, but I dont like to see it effect the kids. I know that change must happen, and I agree, it needs to be slow and considerate of everyone. Vrooman

Oren, I fear that you are right about this issue being a major concern. Our troop has been becoming more and more divided recently. As the CC I have been dealing with the SM directly sending him back through training and working with him on trying to keep the troop from decreasing in membership. I realize that all these recent efforts have been too late in coming though, we are now down to four members from over 13 a year and a half ago. The boys have been subjected to double standards and situations such as the one I have here. One such case involved a 1-mile compass course that was for one of our now ex-members that traversed some of the most rugged terrain including cliffs and steep drop offs(he didnt have to traverse the cliffs). He was unable to complete this course. Later the SM created a course that covered the nice streets in the town, and was quite simple, but this was done exclusively for his son and one other chosen boy. I actually found out about this secret course by accident, the boys were walking by my house and I just simply asked how they were doing, and the story was revealed. I realize what must be done, I know that if the scout tells me that he didnt meet the requirement as described in the Scout Handbook, we cannot provide him the rank. If I end up being the only outspoken member of the BOR, I may end up having to resign because of possible pressures from the SM and two other adults who follow the philosophy promoted by the SM. Who knows, perhaps Vicki is right, maybe the other MCs sitting on the BOR would be in agreement, but I have seen first hand what our SMs personality can do, so I might be the dissenting opinion in this case Vrooman

I forgot to provide an example of evidence anyway, the young man has never been on an outing that I or one of the other ASMs, that I have discussed this issue with, have NOT been on. His old Patrol Leader(now since moved to another troop). Told me that one of the reasons for his leaving the troop is the special treatment of certain scouts and how the requirements were never met on the outings. He mentioned specific campouts and patrol activities in detail along with who did what. Now, to get on with things as evmori mentions - I will ask the questions just after I discuss what Trustworthy means to the young man, and ask him how he feels about the requirements in question. I want him to know that if he says he did it and can site an example or the trip activity etc. I will support him. I do want to keep the trend from continuing. Again, Vrooman (This message has been edited by vrooman)

To answer SemperParatus: We wont know what he missed for his First Class until we have the BOR, I do know that he has not made a camp gadget or served as the patrols cook on any of the campouts, so there is already some question. As far as the Second Class, he never built a fire or cooked his meal for himself, but he received that rank. The other concern there, that supports this, is the fact that he has never received his Firen Chit. Shouldnt he have that before he can continue using fire for more requirements? I always want the boys to do their best as it says in the oath. I realize that some boys are more talented than others and will have beautiful lashings while some may struggle but complete the task even though the lashings may not be the strongest. I never compare any scout to another, but this young man can do the work, he just chooses the easy way out. Thanks for all the information, Vrooman

We have an interesting situation, and I am sure that this is not that uncommon. We are running Boards of Reviews (BORs) in accordance with the Advancement Committee Policies and Procedures where we are only asking questions relating to how the ranks objectives were learned, and not re-testing the scouts. It is evident that one of the boys has not actually done what he was required to do to get the requirement signed off, and he did end up receiving his Second Class as that Board passed him(somewhat reluctantly). His First Class BOR is now about to take place, and I an sitting on this board knowing full well that we will probably find out that he didnt do all of the requirements despite having them signed off. Our Committee is rather complacent, and feels that they would be stepping on the Scoutmasters toes if we failed a boy who he provided a Scoutmasters conference for. The boy in question has all of his requirements signed off by his mother who is one of our ASMs, and his family donates quite a bit to the troop so this makes many MCs look the other way. The troop is suffering from this situation, and the boy himself is being taught that he can get ahead in life if he just has someone cover(lie) for him. Any suggestions as to how to handle this situation? I dont believe that there is a scouting resource that has the answer for troop and BoR dynamic like the one described here? Thanks, Vrooman

I have an excellent idea for a Merit Badge, if we are indeed interested in keeping up with the times! How about an Electro-Optics or a Merit Badge for Laser Technology? I work for the worlds leading Laser Company, and I have been with the Scientific Technical Support Group for the last few years, along with over 15 years of experience supporting Laser Instrumentation. What I am getting at, a question> is there is anyone who knows who to contact to get this official and would like me to set up a Merit Badge for Electro-Optics, or even more specifically, Lasers! Please let me know, since I not only have the expertise to design the program, but I have some of the worlds leading laser research scientists at my disposal. Vrooman

In the town where our troop resides, we have a small elementary school with about 170 students who attend. The High School(15 miles away in another town) is in the recruiting district of another Troop, so we are limited to obtaining who we can before they attend the High School. The number of students in the 5th through 8th grades totals less than 70, and half are girls, so we have about 35 scout age boys to recruit from. Currently nine of them are already in the troop, another ten were members, and we are working on getting them to return. What I need to know is, what would be a good number to expect from this small of a pool? Is 50% reasonable? We are also looking at roughly 15 or so home schooled boys in the area who we might be able to pursue as well. I just need to know when enough is enough - so that we can focus on enhancing what we have. vrooman

Thanks Bob, I just wanted to make sure that the boys werent going to be violating any policies by doing this. They are working together as we speak to fit our SPL into a patrol position for Camporee. As for our dwindling troop, looks like we might be able to bring back a few of our lost scouts, but it is still far from what we were at a year ago. Our mistake was not pushing the training early enough we are now making all the adults attend as much training as possible. Vrooman

We have a shrinking troop, and now we are down to one patrol. My question is how does the SPL co-ordinate one patrol? Effectively, should we make the SPL, and PL one position? The SPL wants to be part of the patrol for the upcoming camporee, do we make him take the PL role? Or do we place him in the patrol similar to another thread < SPL / Positioning how does your troop?> I found on this forum?

Boy does this sound familiar. I am the CC of a resurrected troop in a small town as well, and we have been struggling with training and gathering volunteers to make this work so the boys can operate on their own. We have made quite a few mistakes, but I think we have a chance now that the adults have been enlightened. I am curious though Old ASM New SM, you have nine boys in your troop, we have about eight now ourselves(lost several long story). How do you run with what would logically come out to be just one patrol? We have one patrol, and dont know the answer for the boys when they ask about inter Patrol activities. Anyone know the answer to this? Vrooman

All, You honestly dont know how convenient it is to know that I have all of your experience to use as a resource. I will actually share your comments directly with our SPL, so he understands that our efforts to offer suggestions, or provide ideas are not intended to derail the Boy Run ideals, but to offer support as per the methods of scouting via Adult Association. The hard part is to judge exactly how much slack we can supply at this point as we are still on the learning curve and only partially through with some of the training programs. Things dont seem to be running as smoothly as the next troop down the roads program, but any idea as to when you all think we will be there? Vrooman

Hello, I have spent some time looking over all the great information here, and I may have missed this question if it has come up before. Anyway, we have a very new group of boys in our troop; we are without any experienced boy leaders. We had them take on their first patrol leaders council just recently, and we are letting them run the show. We try and avoid influencing them, but it appears that they need some guidance. Are there any suggestions as to how we can make this their program, and still keep things from falling apart in front of them? Vrooman