Eagle94-A1

I was planning to visit the museum in Irving whenever I visit the family. I can't afford to goto Philmont.

Yes, I'd have some challenges with Boy Scouts having family activities. I still remember when one trip was ruined because it turned into a family camp out. And I am concerned about my troop as they have had a history in the past of having a family camp out each year. One of the ASMs and the old SM both commented on it. My challenge is that we have 6 months of camp outs "preplanned:" one month we staff Webeloree, 2 months are "pre-camporee camp outs" that we must do to earn points in competitions, 2 months are camporee, and 1 month is summer camp. Add in the annual lock in that the Scouts do not want to get rid of, and over half the year is planned out.

SO TRUE!!!!!! You're going to laugh, but I started the process as Tigers. Working with the district's Webeloree chief, I took my Tigers to the webeloree so they could not only see what they had to look forward to as Webelos, but also see the Scouts in action running the events. That was part of the hike they had to do back then. My council does a combined camporee, with an area for Cub Scouts Only, Area for Boy Scouts only, and a common area for both. Cubs can hike inthe Boy Scout area and look around. Take the Cubs there every year. Our Webeloree is run like a camporee, and that introduces them to some aspects fo Boy Scouts too. And having a Den Chief is also a good step forward. BUT THE KEY IS HAVING WEBELOS DEN LEADERS WHO WILL GET THE PARENTS TO UNDERSTAND THEY NEED TO SIT BACK SOME AND START WATCHING THE WEBELOS DO THEIR THING!!!!!!!!! (emphasis, ok maybe shouting at the top of my lungs ) I started explaining the differences since Tigers. I used Den Chiefs when I could, I talked to parents about the differences between Boy Scout leaders and Cub Scout leaders and I have demonstrated the ideal position of the Scoutmaster, aka "The Al Bundy," i.e sitting in a chair with a cup of coffee, or herbal tea or hot cocoa for our LDS brethen, and repeating the mantra "Have you asked your patrol leader?" What's interesting is to see my pack's Webelos dens, especially the ones I was involved with at one time, act and compete, versus the other packs. Also the only time I had a NSP work somewhat like the book was my old den.

I admit I liked how my troop growing up did it. No restrictions on being a PL. You could be reelected as many times as the patrol wanted you, or until you moved up to the Leadership Corps. SPL did have 2 restrictions: A. Must have been a PL and B. must be First Class or higher. rationale for those requirements was 1) you needed some experience as a PL to be able to mentor and work with them and 2) You really needed to have mastered all the basic Scout skills in order to teach them. Yes, APLs were appointed by the PL. Troop level staff had a restriction: must be chosen from the Leadership Corps or be eligible to be in the Leadership Corps. And the "have been a PL and be First Class" was needed to be in the LC.

@@Stosh No worries. That was me lamenting. Both the wife and I are concerned about this Webelos, her since it is one of her Scouts, me as a potential ASM for him. And we both see where the family camping is going on the Cub Level, and the pack encourages Webelos' parents to step away, prevent siblings from coming etc. I really do not like siblings tagging along on Webelos only events, nor having parents acting like parents. But I admit am a bit hypocritical at the moment. Troop has a survival camp out that Webelos are invited to attend. Wife feels obligated to attend with her den since she is the WDL. doesn't matter that the old WDL (now TDL), the CM and the ACM will be there. It's her den her responsibility. And I will be with the troop that weekend. So we have no one to watch the Bear. Guess who is going. On a positive note, he's been building survival shelters for over a year now with his brothers an by himself. And when he found out about the survival camp out his brothers are going on, he's been begging, pleading, and building even more shelters. Yes, last camp out, after all the fun stuff was done, he was building shelters. Ditto in the backyard. But I know it's a bad precedent that I don't like. In all honesty we have 2 like that in the troop already. One more so because of his mom. Overprotective, drop-everything to protect her "baby." I honestly think Mom has the harder time when he is away then him. The other is an ASM's kid. Sometimes he is OK, and does very well. Other times, he has break downs.

DON'T. GO. THERE! (emphasis) Wife has a Webelos who has some emotional/maturity issues. If dad or mom is not there, he has a meltdown. Even with mom or dad there, meltdowns have happened. While I believe there is more to it than maturity, The wife and I don't think the Webelos is ready for Boy Scouts at this time.

Council can probably help, and that's IF they kept records. My first den had some issues in that the records were NOT being recorded by the council. I hand delivered multiple ARs, and when it came time for their records, it was not showing up on the reports. Ticked off the SE when he made a comment about Cub Advancement not being done in my district at a commissioners' meeting, and had to tell him they were not being recorded at the council level. How I handled that situation, and others, was SCOUTNET. I just imputed the data just before they crossed over so their records would be correct.

Yep, VERY hard to break a precedent. Oldest has his AOL plaque hanging up, and really could care less. Middle son at the moment sees big brother's, wants one, and is going on and on how he completed his last requirement for AOL. As for parents being more concerned about their choices than the kids' picks, It's going to get interesting when they get into Boy Scouts.

Looks like we will need to do something when one pack's Webelos Cross Over. Had a brief conversation on summer camp, and several of the parents want to tag along, not a scouters but as parents. One dad commented how his son isn't ready for summer camp by himself, and one mom stated that since they joined Cubs as Tigers, the family has done all of the camp outs. Another family went to a Webelos weekend in a camper. They made the comment that another troop has no problem with parents, including moms, camping with them. Had to comment that the hardest part is moving from being a Cub Scout leader to a Boy Scouter because you need to learn to step back and let the youth run things and make mistakes. Heck my wife, who should know better, is complaining because the Scout working with her den is having communications challenges. Me thinks it will get interesting

Only CO that I know about that doesn't allow camping at the Cub Scout level is the LDS church. In my neck of the woods, I actually lost a Cub and his family my first year as a DL because "you don't camp enough." And my pack was one of the most active ones with 3 pack camp outs per year. I admit, I initially was concerned about the new program. It was radically different and I knew it would take heavy pre-planning in order to execute it. BUT after hearing what my sons are goign through, I do like it, and think the 2015 program is better, just needed time to for leaders to readjust. You can not implement a radical change in a program in 1 year. Heck you need about 3 years: one to implement the new program, one to tweak it and work out the challenges, and one year to perfect it. IMHO national is reacting too soon. At my RTs when it was being unveiled, I not only emphasized the changes, but constantly emphasized planning, planning, planning. I knew from reading the changes that planning would be the key. IT IS PLANNING INTENSIVE (emphasis). The pack I'm associated with, and my wife is the WDL for, is essentially ignoring the new 11/30/16 changes and following the 6/1/15 program because A) those requirements are in their books and it will cause confusion and B) they already made plans for the year and do not want to redo any planning already done. Heck the majority of the Webelos IIs finished the last activity badge's requirement for AOL, and will be crossing over on January 2nd. The pack my troop is associated with is essentially doing the same thing. The Webelos IIs are almost done with the AOL and ready to Cross Over. Their WDL is not changing anything. From the quick chat I had last nite, most of the DLs didn't know a thing abut the changes, and the CM isn't promoting the changes. He's continueing with the plans they made last summer.

"AWESOME! TOTALLY AWESOME!"

If the pack I'm with thinks about it in time, we make our own. Most of the plaques are outrageously priced. When I found out how much the pack was spending per plaque, I almost had a heart attack. That's when I suggested we make our own. For about $80, we can buy the supplies to make 8 - 10 plaques ourselves. The time consuming part is making the arrows. For 2 years, we made our own. Last year it was not thought about until the last minute, and they had to rush to get plaques. GREAT SCOTT! 6 plaques was over $400 when everything was put together. One OA chapter I was in decided to make the plaques and arrows as a fundraiser fro the chapter. When we got it started, we didn't have many takers. But I'm told the OA plaques became quite popular.

We currently have one of those. Older Scouts do not like him at all, and I and a few others have been asked by the Scouts to keep him away from them. The one time I wasn't able to do that, the Scouts acted properly, but didn't talk at all the entire hike and essentially ran through the trail with their gear. They did a 5 mile hike with gear in under 90 minutes. I don't know if they did that to finish the hike as soon as possible, or try to walk him into the ground. But he is a tri-athlete and kept up. I can relate to them and their feelings as I always hated when we got new Scouts from a pack: their leaders and parents followed them and would interfere with us until the SM or CC took them away from us.

The big question in my EBOR was "What would you say if we didn't approve you being an Eagle Scout?" Talk about being surprised and angry! Long story short I calmly, to the best of my ability at the time, explained to them that it was approved and completed. If they did not like it was too late and that I would find out how to appeal any negative decision. I did receive my Eagle without having to appeal.

Actually the new handbooks and leader guides came out between May 2015 and August 2015. Because we lost out local distributor and have to drive 45 to 60 minutes to get Scout merchandise, my pack buys a bunch and sells it. Thankfully we didn't have too much of the 2009 stuff when the change came about last year. But I think we have a bunch of new stuff since it just came out. Talk about a mess.

Folks, New requirements for the various Cub Scout Adventures and ranks have been implemented as of November 30th, 2016. Here is the Blog post http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2016/11/30/cub-scout-modifications/#comment-168431 Here is the 56 page documents with the changes. http://www.scouting.org/filestore/cubscouts/pdf/CubScout_Advancement_Modifications.pdf

I can relate to being confused with a student. Happened to me during student teaching too, especially since I accidentally dressed according to the school's dress code. At least I didn't get a detention for not having a name tag. Didn't wear khaki pants and white dress shirt again. As for being called MISTER being the most awkward for you, I wish. Try having your cousin (who doesn't know you are related to her) and her friends in the class you are teaching and trying flirt with you Thankfully my girlfriend at the time, who was an alumna, decided on the spur of the moment to visit some of her old teachers and just happened to see me during lunch on my second day of teaching. That stopped the flirting.

Growing up, it was always Mr. First Name. Except 1 SM whom we called '"DOC" Last name as he was an MD. Those 18-20 year olds that stayed around, depending upon whom it was , would either go by Mr. First name too (usually the younger guys) or last name only (those they grew up with) Except one guy. He was THE FIRST NAME LAST NAME! He left the troop before his ECOH, going into the USAF. He was one of my SPLs while I was a PL, and really was a great mentor. Lots of sayings he used, I used later on when I was ASPL, and even today.He came back 4 years after earning Eagle and had his ECOH. Even though he knew only a handful of Scouts, EVERYONE knew him and his sayings. One of the new Scouts asked me if he was THE_________, and when I said yes, everyone started calling him THE ______________ and was in awe of him. A true legend in his own time.

Troop has a designated meeting nite, 4th Monday of the month. Scouts have until the 3rd Monday to notify the SM he wants a BOR.

You'd be surprised at how little awkwardness there is. Besides, what other position is there for 18-20 year olds to be in a Boy Scout troop except as a Merit Badge Counselor, a district position.

I too was an 18 y.o. ASM. I jumped through the hoops to get "trained," although like your son I could have taught the courses. Despite all the training, knowledge, skills, and abilities, it was hard for me to make the transition. Yes working with the younger Scouts helps a lot. I've found young Scouts have a puppy-like devotion to the older ones. The older ones may be a challenge as they are use to him being a peer. But for me, I had to be reminded multiple times and be mentored multiple times that I'm no longer a Scout, but a Scouter, and I need to act like a Scouter and not a Scout. Yes, I was that bad. The other issue being a "G.A.S.er" (Gray Area Scouter, i.e. 18-20) was not being taken seriously as an adult by other adults outside the troop. I got active in the OA, and in turn on the district and council levels, as a young adult. Some folks told me I don't know what I'm doing, ignored my ideas, etc. It can became frustrating at times.

Actually 2 were 16 year old juniors and one was a sophmore at an early college HS. The two 16 year olds had Civics as freshman, and they didn't know a lot of the MB material. the Sophmore will take Civics/poliSci next year.

MBs serve a variety of purposes: make sure Scouts have basic life skills, intro to hobbies and future careers, etc. Now I'm not a fan of "paper pushing" MBs, but after my experiences this weekend, I am deeply upset with the public school education system in my neck of the woods, and am glad Citizenship in the Nation is required. NONE of the 4 Scouts I was working with this weekend, 3 of whom were supposed to have taken Civics already, could not give the background on the origins of the Revolutionary War, didn't know what our grievances were, and did not know that there were 3 coequal branches of government. One Scout told me "The Judicial Branch is the most powerful since they make the laws." No concept of Checks and Balances, no idea of the actual duties of each branch ( one Scout was surprised at the actual duties of Congress. I cut him some slack since he hadn't had Civics yet). Again 3 of the 4 were supposed to have had this topic in school already! What is encouraging was my Webelos son. He's homeschooled and was invited to go on the trip to DC. He was stuck with me and the folks working on Citizenship in the Nation. He had a better understanding of some of this stuff than the HS age Scouts. His curriculum has covered some of this, but not at the level of detail as the MB.

My old DE, who is now a FD in another council made this comment about the rule change and the judge's blocking it: how many DE's have already either lost their job, or received notice that they will be losing their job, over the executive order?

True. I say the law school divorce was worst because it came completely out of the blue. The others had some inclinations as they were having problems, and in one case, the DE gave up the job to work on the marriage only to still have it fall apart. Even my wife was giving me signs of frustration with the job before the ultimatum. Long story short, I do not wish the job on my worse enemy,