Eagle94-A1

My youngest was the same way. I called Mom and had him picked up. That helped. but did not solve 100% the problem.

We got a lot of Scouters who are concerned about this policy change. I know my district lost a lot of district level leaders when the policy change occurred regarding gays. In fact my district had 3 active committee members as a result of the last policy change until today. Now have 2.

I do not know if it was in jest or serious as it was an email. But one father said he would say his daughter identify as male so she could join Scouting. BSA has opened a can of worms.

I have reservations, serious concerns about this. I know for a fact that BSA will remove long time volunteers at the hint of misconduct, even if investigated by law enforcement and shown to be false charges. There have been lawsuits about Scouting babies. In my neck of the woods, we had one female Venturer whose parents tried to sue because she "ran away" to work at summer camp with her boyfriend. Only reason it didn't go anywhere was because she was 18. Thankfully it all worked out in the end; the two Venturers are now married and the parents and daughter are reconciled. But it got interesting. As for me personally, I have no idea what I am going to do. I'm still shocked by the announcement coming out as it did. here I was concerned about "Helicopter Mom" going to summer camp with her just crossed over son, and this announcement happens. I have lots of reservations, and I see this as a precursor to Scouting going completely co-ed (I am thinking by 2020 it will happen, especially with the language the current CSE has been, and continues to use) But I am really concerned about my sons, and all of the boys. It seems as if there are getting to be fewer and fewer 'boys only" organizations as they are constantly getting attacked, yet having girls only organizations are not only OK, but encouraged.

I'll ask my son's SM about this and take notes. He is partially deaf, and does lipread.

The word saying tour planners would be going away was premature. It's not official yet. EDITED: This information was posted on Bryan on Scouting, and the retraction was on Facebook.

Here are some online sources that may help. http://thecouncilguide.com/ http://www.patchcamp.com/ http://scoutpatchcollectors.com/category/council-shoulder-patches http://www.scouttrader.org/ And an FYI site http://www.scouttrader.org/collecting/csp.pdf

WOW!

One of the patch collecting organizations used to put out a book. But I think it's now on DVD.

Actually more on the lines of, " Don't make the mistake I made....." VERY TRUE!

Me personally I say run for election as often as you want. And run for reelection as often as you want. I admit, I do not like how my troop does elections: only 1 six month term of office for a position is allowed. So you need to wait 6 months before running for the position again. They do the same thing for appointed PORs: SPL can only appoint new people. Once the successor's term is over, then you can run for election.

I'd tweak it a bit, but it is similar to the National Honor Patrol Award, what some of old fogeys know as the Baden-Powell Patrol Award. Looking at the current requirements, it can be done in 3 months. I though it used to be 6 months. http://www.scouting.org/filestore/boyscouts/pdf/512-021_WB.pdf

Agree, low key and simple.

Back when I turned 18, nothing special was done. But I also had an ECOH to plan, and they gave me a position patch. 5 years later, when I graduated from a local college and was moving out of town for my first professional job, they had a special roast for me going away. Since his ECOH was a while ago, mabye doing a simple Scoutmaster/ASM Investiture ceremony at the April COH? ideas here: http://scoutdocs.ca/Documents/SM_Investiture.php and http://www.settummanque.com/coffeeweb/LO/newsm.htm or have your PLC come up with their own.

My biggest challenge as a new adult way back when was transitioning from a Scout to a Scouter. Boy Scouts trains ya to DO and then when you hit 18, WHAM! You got to sit back. I still have trouble sitting back. I see a lot of Cub Scout leaders having the problem too. Heck the next crop of new Scouts we get in March will have many parents in that situation. Regarding NSPs, well you probably read my opinion of them. We are a mixed aged patrol troop.

IMHO, I'm the prime example of last minute Eagles. I was a Life Scout for 5 years, and earned my last MB 5 days before turning 18, and all the paperwork and SM conference completed about 3 hours before turning 18. EBOR was over a month later due to scheduling. I always tell my Scouts not to do what I did.

1) @@LeCastor 2) The only TL unit I knew about in my neck of the woods closed shop. Do not know what happened. I found out when one of their church members joined the pack that my troop is affiliated with.

Back in the day, SM Fundamentals was the course to be trained and when I did it, it was completed over 4 weeks. In my council growing up, one Saturday was a mix a class and outdoor, hand on stuff, AS A PATROL. ( all caps are for emphasis here on out). Then we had a model troop meeting, AS A PATROL. We were expected to have a PATROL MEETING ("party line" calls were OK too) to discuss our duty roster and menus for the last part of the training: the camp out. The camp out was done by PATROLS. Now did I learn anything new? Only the paperwork side of Scouting. I was a 19 year old ASM who had done the weeklong Brownsea 22 course, so how to run meetings, camping, and other skills were already ingrained in me. But it really helped those new Boy Scout leaders who were Cub Scout leaders with no Boy Scout experience, and reminded a few experienced former Cub Scout leaders that they need to switch gears. While I think the training was better, it did require a commitment. I had to wait a year to do the training since it was only offered twice a year, and I couldn't fit it into my schedule. Even then, I had to miss a troop camp out to complete it.

Thank You!

My troop acquired a bunch of gear. Some too old and torn up to be of any use, some old but still quite usable. And some that are like new. Two of the old but usable items are vintage BSA backpack frame, specifically the "Large Cruiser" and the the smaller L-shaped "Frontier Frame" What the troop is looking to do is get a hip belt, and possibly updated straps, so that we can loan it out for those getting started in backpacking. Any ideas on which hipbelts and pads top go after? Only thing I can thing of is going after old Camp Trail hipbelts and straps since they made the BSA frames.

My thoughts. 1) While the Advancement Report is needed for council records, THE BOY SCOUT HANDBOOK WITH THE SIGNATURE IS THE OFFICIAL RECORD THAT ALL OTHER RECORDS (ADVANCEMENT REPORTS, SCOUTNET, ETC) MUST BE BASED UPON! (Caps, bold, and underlining are emphasis, not shouting. OK maybe a little because the original troop is messed up) 2) I can understand the new troop not wanting to sign off. None of their committee members conducted the BOR. I know I would feel signing. 3) My suggestion would be to submit the Advancement Report with a copy of the signed book with "See Attached" on the signature spot. In the two cases I had to deal with regarding council having incorrect or incomplete records, in both cases the Boy Scout Hand Book with the signatures were used to correct the records or reconstruct them.

Seen this happen too many times. Even when a council offers a pre and post course session that includes One thing I have done recruiting staff is to find those who need IOLS but have the knowledge, skills, and abilities to to teach sections of the course they know, and sit in on parts they need work on. For example, the combat medic I know did the First aid section, helped in several others, and sat in on the rest. Etc. SMs so that they know what is goignon and how to support the Scouts, it still happens.

@@sst3rd , Chapter locally has both an AOL Ceremony and a Cross Over Ceremony. Usually they are done one after the other, but some packs want one or the other. In my experience with the OA, only once did a ceremony team not show up, and they were involved in an car accident on the way to the ceremony. Even then, they got a ceremonialist from another lodge to step in and do the Call Out Ceremony. Funniest "no show" was when two principles and the paddler flipped over in a canoe on the way to the ceremony. Long story short, the 2 who made it to shore, and the paddler, ad libbed the full ceremony. And if the guy who caused the canoe to flip ever got Vigil, his name would translate to "Chief Big Feather." ALL, THANK YOU! Your words have really helped me out on this.

I admit, I need to calm down a bit and not take it personally. Especially since this isn't new. I'm just tired of this guys antics. I'm tired of him blaming me for stuff he himself has done to himself and unfortunately his troop. And it appears that he may be trying to blame the OA, an organization that not only means alot to me, but also an organization that I and others worked our butts off to improve locally, for things he did not do. And yes, he definately has blinders on. Before the situation got really bad, the night oldest Crossed Over to be exact, I attempted to have a nice chat about some of the issues he had with the district. Long story short, he didn't want to hear it and it went in one ear out the other.

What a day yesterday was. Middle son Crossed Over into Boy Scouts, and unfortunately there was some drama. According to the CM, the OA bailed out on us at the very last minute. 4 hours before the ceremony. Needless to say he was furious, and so was several other pack leaders. For the past month, the WDL, my wife, had some concerns because the other troop's SM and OA rep would not answer her emails/messages. First she asked me to get involved, but changed her mind since the SM has a very strong animosity towards me. She eventually was told OA is a go from the CM because he talked to the SM and the OA rep had set everything up. No one was worried about it for 2 weeks. 4 hours before the meeting, a message goes out that the OA has backed out. As mentioned several people were furious, CM asked if we should cancel or could I come up with a backup ceremony since I wrote most of the pack's ceremonies, and OA AOL/Cross Over Ceremonies back in the day. Since the Cross Over Ceremony would be to 2 troops, mine and the troop I've had issues with, I messaged my SPL, SM, and the other SM and CM to tell them what was going on regarding the OA, and how I was working on a script for the Cross Over. Of course the other SM sent out an email saying how I was "taking over and turning it into a Troop XYZ show," and that what I planned to do was not done in Cross Over ceremonies ( before reading the script ) Had to message the group that, no it wasn't a troop XYZ affair, but rather modifying a Scout Investiture Ceremony to have 2 troops doing it. Both SPLs and all PLs in attendance would have parts in it. While modifying the script, the group gets a message that he found a script online that could be used so I don't have to waste any of my time. Ok no problem, but then he doesn't send it. So I finish mine and post. While helping set up, The CM pulls me aside and tells me he using the one the SM sent him. No problem, his son is going to that troop and they don't want to make waves. Then it gets interesting. First one of the Scouts asks if I know where the pack's Native American headresses are at. I haven't been active with the pack except on an activity basis for over a year now, so I have no idea. Then the wife calls me and she says she FINALLY got a response from the SM saying he never got her messages until thaty day. He doesn't know much of what is going on, the OA never returned calls and messages, yada yada yada. Basically the SM contradicted everything the CM said about his conversations with the SM. Now the SM has a history of not following through on things, putting the blame on others, etc. He's cancelled things at the last minute because he did not follow through. In addition to al the drama, I'm wondering if he ever really contacted the OA, because again from the message the wife got, the OA never returned the SM's messages. If that is the case, I'm going to be ticked off because you now have a bunch of folks ticked off at the OA.