Giltweasel

We are set up with age segregated Patrols. This is what I inherited. Coming Monday we have a PLC and Patrol reorganization is on the agenda. It will be interesting to hear what the arguments are. Very much looking forward to some younger guys arguing that they have as much credibility in their woodcraft skills as some of the older Eagle-bound parlour Scouts, and should be given more chances for Troop leadership and authority. Or it might be more smolder and less fire. Love this stuff.

These all seem like great issues for the PL or youth-side trek planner to be exposed to. It might be interesting to compare notes with a separately tasked adult to see if there are things they come up with that the adults don't think about.

Seems that one of the requirements for post-1C rank is teaching certain skills via EDGE method. You might be familiar with this fact, I don't know. Maybe "Scoutcraft" isn't a prerequisite for a leadership position, but there have been plenty of threads and posts on this forum that complain about older Scouts with rank that can't tie the basic knots or start a fire. It makes sense to have the skills if you're expected to teach the skills, right? The point is not that the younger Scouts should have the Scoutcraft skills, but that the older Scouts, who would otherwise waste their tenure(as they have in the past) in the POR--and by poor example pollute the future leadership, not be encouraged to attend unless they are on board with the program. Making the first phase of the training a campout will effectively disqualify them by their own refusal to take part. I'm talking about Star and Life Scouts who are on the Eagle and out plan that are extremely reluctant to camp, do not want to participate in the various derbies, and generally show poor Scout spirit. They've had a chance in the PL/APL SPL/ASPL continuum and did nothing other than open meetings with the Pledge of Allegiance for 6+ months. I was not in a position then to guide them towards acceptable leadership practices, and now that I am in that position and have asked them if they can see a better way to get involved, they don't feel they need to participate since their POR is fulfilled. Anyway, enough of the snarky exchange you seem to favor. I think a campout for TLT is a fun idea and it's new to this Troop. I can not turn back the clock and train the older boys from scratch, but I can work with the new and enthusiastic boys going forward. Incidentally, the current PLC is populated by two Life Scouts, two 2Cs, and one Scout. The 2Cs and Scout are more competent and excited than the Star and Life mentioned above. I DO consider enthusiasm a prerequiste. Whether it's stated in a manual or not.

I think we're going to do our first ITLS session in the next couple weeks. The first part is going to be a hiking/camping overnighter to weed out the few kids that feel they should get PORs despite their aversion to Scoutcraft and campouts. The second session is likely to be a lock-in with pizza as suggested above. In the coming years I can see TLTs being organized around different kinds of outings to keep them fresh. Theme park visits, a day at the lake, skiing or winter sports day at the local fake mountain. Plenty of opportunities to try new environments for the training. Just a matter of making sure the business priorities are covered before the fun parts get a full head of steam built up.

wahooker said: "A Little background: I have 1 Webelos, 2 Tigers, and Daisy, and a wife that is a very involved GSUSA leader. I would love to have a co-ed program. More specifically, I would love to have a program for girls that is as well run as the BSA's Cub Scout program is. I find the current Girl Scout program as it is delivered and run by the local council to be a disorganized trainwreck with little or no support for leaders." My family's experience with GSUSA reflects what you are saying in your post. We found the program inconsistent and lacking at the Troop level, and the national and council leadership offered little in the way of support. BSA, with all its faults, still provides a basis for a national and effectively consistent program. My wife has given up GSUSA as a leader and camp nurse(she has some horror stories from that experience) in favor of AHG with its more BSA aligned approach. Our sons and daughters are loving the promise of AHG and BSA integration for "family" events. I think it makes sense to have parallel programs with different focuses and goals, but with similar and potentially cooperative methods.

I want to emphasize that this forum is an inspiration. In dealing with the multitude frustrations that are inherent to Scouting, seeing others having the same situations, and seeing that they have dealt with those situations effectively really helps me repair my enthusiasm. Thank you all, once again!

Hello everyone, I've been lurking here for a few months trying to gauge the different approaches to Scouting so I can take advantage of all your collective years of experience. I've noticed the forum has had a system update and that caused me some issues with looking for threads I needed to reference, so I went ahead an joined up so I could better use the new forum software and participate in the conversations. I have to admit, it seems more than a little buggy at the moment, but I'm sure things are on the mend. Like Scouting itself, when the backbone of an organization is based on volunteer support, it takes time and patience to get the hard tasks complete. Thanks for all the advice, and thank you for this site that shares it. Giltweasel/Joe