chrisking0997

Mike Rowe is a man who has his stuff together.

Im sure the grass IS alot greener on the other side....for now. Then what happens when TL gets a case of the same diseases that plague BSA now? 'course, it took 100 years to get here so maybe the new TL-fers are just happy to kick the can down the road for now

as someone who admittedly struggles with accounting, Im not grasping how NOT having ISAs works. I get that all the money goes into one fund...what I dont get is come time for camp payments how do you know how much Johnny raised and how much Tommy still needs? And once you have that figured out, if a boy needs to "borrow" against the troop, by what calculation do you determine that he has worked off that debt so to speak? It seems to me that if you know how much a boy has contributed or how much he still needs to contribute, somehow you are still going thru the motions of an ISA but just not calling it that. of course, this is why I wont be a treasurer, cuz clearly it works for some people out there but I just dont get it

something needs to be done about that NYLT example. I cant see any reason that should have happened, example or not. Clearly the staff (and the advisor) do not understand how to teach leadership, probably as a result of being taught poorly themselves. By teaching that "method" they are spreading that bad behavior back to the units and possibly other locations like schools. And by telling the participants not to tell anyone about it, it shows they know its wrong. I shake my head as to how that was allowed to go on for 3 minutes, let alone 3 days

my, what a wonderful service that CO did for those boys. Saved them from the mere possibility of having to interact with a gay person, and at the same time gave them alot more free time /sarcasm

Easy: A scout new to your troop brings you a handfull of bluecards that were signed off in a Merit Badge Clinic over the summer. You know that some of those badges cannot be earned in a class on one Saturday. A few simple questions about what was done, truthfully answered by the scout, expose the shortcomings. -It's a tough situation for the SM: He never got to approve the MBC, so he didn't get to steer the Scout away from Clinic level work. If he accepts sub par MB work from this new Scout, what precendent has he set for the rest of his troop? hmm...could be. Without the whole story its tough to know. But it sounds like the SM is paying close attention with good intention so I say good for him. Id say the OP is lucky to have him.

as an MB counselor, Im baffled by how a SM can look at a blue card and deem a signed off requirement as lacking. what MB was it? also interesting that the MB counselor in the current troop didnt question it. regardless, I would take heart that the SM takes that level of interest in your boy attaining the skills of a given MB. Get your boy in touch with the current MB counselor and have them work it out.

each generation is the product of the one before. and each generation has questioned why the next one is full of a bunch of slackers.

hmm...guess I better pull out of scouting, since I currently let my sons go off into the woods with women that are sexually attracted to males

well, yeah....when you have a 100 year old preexisting program, handbook, uniform, units, leadership, members to base your organization off of, you're gonna look like you've hit the ground running.

yeah, my first thought was this scout is trying to phone it in....literally.

all I can envision is "City Slickers". Rollin, Rollin, Rollin...

sounds like mom is being obtuse. you'd really have to have your head in the sand to not know that your son, the SPL and leader of the boys, would not need to be at the meeting prior to the COH and the COH. Would she have told the basketball coach "oh, I didnt know he needed to be at practice"? Im guessing not. So were you harsh? dont think so. the boy (and by extension the mom like it or not) made a commitment to his fellow scouts and the troop, and he is shirking it for another activity. Its your job to call him on that and get him to step up and do whats right, because others are depending on his leadership. Hopefully you dont lose the boy, but it doesnt sound like mom was very supportive to begin with

agreed. Had this conversation with my son the other night. All those other activities (sports, schoolwork, jobs) have mandatory requirements. Scouting is optional.

how does looking up someone's training on myscouting.org work then, if there were multiple people assigned to the same number?

our troop surged to almost 50 2 years ago. I cant even fathom a 150 boy troop

Ive googled/searched on this issue, and can only find old (3-4 years ago) references to the problem of the BSA red lettering coming off of the shirt. My son's letter has been slowly falling off, and its just getting under my skin. I went to the scout shop as I had heard they had a replacement patch, and they gave me a 4x6 strip of cloth with the lettering embroidered on it. I left dumbfounded....what the heck am I supposed to do with that? Ive seen several scouts with missing letters, its starting to become a pet peeve. Why hasnt BSA just issued a patch with the lettering on it (or have they, and I just fail at finding it) and fix the issue? I really dont want to have to buy another shirt

Im sure its possible, I just question how much the boy retained from cramming all of those badges into that short of a time (combined with all his schoolwork as well). I know its not a requirement to retain anything from a merit badge....just seems like this is more of a "just so I could say I did it yay me" instead of actually learning 134 topics. How much could he tell you if you asked him about Pottery, or Scout Heritage, or Oceanography?

hello all, long time lurker. Just wanted to post this to hear other scouter's thoughts on the subject. We have a few scouts and families who will be leaving the troop on Dec 31 due to the membership policy change. Some of them are extremely close to earning Eagle, and have been plowing down merit badges and eagle projects in a rush to get their eagle before then. Do any of you have members of your troop doing this, and what are your thoughts on it? Personally, I understand taking a stand and sticking with it (even if I dont agree with it). But what kinda sticks in my craw is that if its so important to take a stand against "what boy scouts has become", then why is it so darned important to get eagle? My feeling is that if they really had a problem with scouting, they would have left immediately and to heck with the rank. Why should it still be important? I know, I know....so their kids can pad their resume. Just seems so hypocritical. I dont know, maybe its just me. Thoughts?