BobW0

Thanks to you all for your collective wisdom. This situation has been eating at me and I need to let it go. My gut feelings are in support of him. I guess I need to handle the situation with the adults, and you all have given me some ammo - thanks. I'll "forewarn" the boy that they are going to ask him what he has done lately with the troop in the Board of Review and maybe this will get him a little more active. Also, few of the Scouts know him, so few would be inclined to help him on the Eagle project - another reason for him to get more active. Thanks again for all of your suggestions.

Their complaint is the lack of Scout Spirit on the boy's account, and in their defense, yes, the boy has not shown any Scout Spirit for the past 2 years. He even dropped the ball in the last 2 months(of a 1 year position) as SPL, but the troop was sort of SM-less during that time and was struggling. He is not showing Scout Spirit is what they are saying, and I have to agree. Maybe I can find a compromise?-I always look for a win-win.

OGE, Thanks for your insights, good point. Believe it or not, myself and one assistant are actually the only ones that are on the boy's side. The fact that his mother is a pain in the neck is irrelevant. So far, he has followed the rules. How do I best handle the situation without angering (and possibly dividing) adults in the troop? I started to ask them "Define for me what you want from him that would be acceptable?", but got no response. Should I ask them again?

I am sure this has been discussed many times, but I would like to pose again. Our troop has a scout who has not attended meetings or outings over the past 2 years. He had been the SPL and when the prior Scoutmaster quit, he dropped off the face of the earth. This LIFE scout is a likeable boy, with a very pushy mother. To my surprise, he emailed me the other day indicating that he wanted to "finish up his Eagle". I mentioned this to several adult leaders and they were disgusted. The boy's mom even sent in the check(via another mom) to reregister him for the upcoming year. The boy is working on his Eagle project (has been for 2 years) and as a Life scout HAD participated for 6 months in leadership position. I plan to call him and talk with him about his inactivity in the troop and try to get him participating(perhaps, called a SM conference?). Along with this, I would talk with the adults and see if 6 months of full participation would be acceptable to them. I don't want to cause division in the troop. What would you do? By the way, I am the Scoutmaster who took over when the prior Scoutmaster quit, have been trained, and am an Eagle Scout myself, so I am familiar with many of the rules/guidelines/etc. for the trail to Eagle.

I've been serving as scoutmaster for the past 9 months after having been assistant for a few years. I spent a lot of time planning all of the campouts (once per month) for this past term and would like to have others do this. I solicited ideas from the scouts, ranked them according to interest, then set dates and planned them. I would welcome everyone's feedback as to how you plan your outings. Does your committee do it all, do your scouts do it all? What works for you?