JosephMD

My state just mandated that the school year start after labor day and end before June 15 with a 180 day requirement. They can extend beyond June 15 if there are emergency closures for weather, etc. My children are home schooled, and they do go year round, and since we set the scheudle, we can work it around any scouting activities.

In the end, yes. But... there is always a but Suggest your son check his e-mail in our troop, a lot gets posted on the facebook group, I suggest that he checks facebook give him some time ask if there is anything going on at xyz time suggest that you think there might be and that he should contact his patrol leader give him some time ask again and after all of that, give him the message This worked well for my son, but, I'm sure not every boy can do it. Turning 13 and getting access to Facebook was a big help. I know the troop shouldn't communicate that way, but the committee chair is a social media type person, so, that won't change any time soon. These days, just suggesting that he check his e-mail and facebook is usually enough.

Well, after years of talk, speculatoin, and rumor. My district is combining with the district to the south to make a single county wide district. Chapters, well, merging by default. History, the districts were once one, the Francis Scott Key district, witht he boundries of our county, Frederick County Maryland. In 2003 they were split north and south, right through the middle of the county seat, to make the Catoctin Mountain (north) and Appalachian Trail (south) districts. What's old is new again, as the combined district and chapter will be called Francis Scott Key. Looking forward to the new chapter. The scouts should be better able to staff their committees and teams. They'll have to figure out who's chief, co-chief, or whatever. For practical purposes, the merger is effective right away, budget and paperwork, January 1, and they don't have chapter elections scheduled until April.

My son's troop has had a hard time fundraising, size, local competition, etc. They changed their dues structure a few years ago to $40 / month, covingering BSA registration, awards, most camp outs, and summer camp, and some shared troop gear. Since the cost of council camp went up this year I have a feeling we'll be talking about $50/month before too long. If scouts do fundraise, they can get a month discount, it all depends on what they are doing. scouts are expected to supply their uniform shirt, preferably a full uniform, but we aren't too picky, and personal camping gear, sleeping bag is the biggest expense there. Yeah, scouting isn't cheap, but it is still a great value!

15 is not a young eagle, considering one could earn eagle before they are even 12 if they join when they are 10 1/2. It takes 17 months, that's it. Of course, it will probably take most longer. My son seems to be on track for earning Eagle at 14, still has personal management, fitness, & family life, all of which he has started, and a project to do. His goal is to have is Eagle Court of Honor before he goes to the National Jamboree in July of 2017 (he'll be 15 in March). I know a scout who earned Eagle at 12, he might have been young, but nobody would look at this scout and say he wasn't Eagle material.

When I was doing my early rank boards of review back in 89, they were really hard. I was tested thoroughly, but that was the expectation given to me, that I would be able to answer any question and / or demonstrate any skill that I had learned to get the requirement signed off. I studied my scout book all week before the BoR, to be sure I knew everything I was supposed to have learned while working on skill awards and the first aid merit badge. It was actually kind of scary, but that's just how it was done in my tiny troop. Of course, I never forgot how to tie most of my knots, or my first aid skills, so, there is that. My star rank BoR was the most scary, knowing everything about all 5 merit badges I earned ... but that is when things changed, I wasn't so much tested on the specific skills, but rather, it was a conversation about what I had learned. Even in 89 & 90, this probably wasn't the way it was supposed to be done. But I think my SM, hey, he was the troop adult, so he did the BoR with his wife, the CC, and that was it, I think his goal was to make sure we would always be first class scouts, as long as we should live, and know what a first class scout should know. Would I do that today, no, but only because it is against the rules, not because it wouldn't be the right thing to do.

I wouldn't worry about a couple of weeks if he hadn't taken the opprotunity during the previous six months, especially if basketball takes priority. He should schedule his scoutmaster conference at the next time that it is convienent for both of them. If the SM will not set a schedule, then, it is time to go to the distirict or council under disputed circumstances. In most cases, this will take several weeks, or even months, but committees have to meet, they have to make a determination, all of that takes time, they are just volunteers.

My son, 14, has been in his troop just over 3 years now and has 96 nights of camping under the auspices and standards of the Boy Scouts of America. Oh, he has 24 more nights scheduled before the end of August!

I'm not sure what your role is in the process. Has the scout completed all of the requirements? Your focus seemed to be on the project. Was it approved by your council or district? You also mentioned leadership, has he completed requirement 4? As for outdoor skills, if he has completed the required merit badges, there really is no room for judgement. I don't like it, but the requirements are the requirements. Take some time to read the guide to advancement, again if you have already done so. When I run into situations where a scout doesn't meet my idea of what a First Class, ... Life, Eagle, scout should know and be, I just have to remember, it isn't up to me to set the standards, the standards are already set.

The closing ceremony was great. We went to pick him up as a Family, and hoped that my younger son would see something he thought was awesome. At the closing, each participant had a chance to speak. You could definately tell that these scouts were going to go on to be leaders for some time, weather it be SPL, OA Officer, VOA Officer, I'd bet a paycheck a few of them will become young second lieutenants or ensigns in the US military. Like NYLT, it his descriptions seemed to be a lot like Woodbadge, with NAYLE adding a lot more of experience and taking some of the core concepts to a more advanced level. So, the name is pretty descriptive. He should be well prepared to staff NYLT on July 9.

My son is at N.A.Y.L.E. this week. I'm thankful for the Summit Bechtel Reserve, although it is a long drive, it is drivable from where we live opening up opportunities that we would not be able to afford given the travel involved to, for example, Philmont. Other than that it is the next thing after Natinoal Youth Leadership Training, I don't really know much about what N.A.Y.L.E. is. I'd imagine it is a chance to reinforce what was learned at NYLT while at the same time getting to take in some of what the high adventure camp has to offer. He did call from camp on Tuesday, just to let us know that parents are invited to their closing ceremony on Friday night. I've already booked my room out that way & I'm looking forward to it. This is the first of his two trips to the Summit Bechtel Reserve this summer. I don't know at this point if "I have to drive to the summit" or "I get to drive to the summit" I'll make that judgement in August, but I must say, I really enjoyed the drive from the gate to the welcome center and back on Sunday!

Strange, so, it isn't something that needs to be filled out - it is just an extra page (looking at the link for the summit). It looks like I can just print out that page and staple it to the ABC he already has. J

It has been a while since I've been to a high adventure base. Did they do away with the D section of the Annual Health and Medical Record?

Having seen what goes into budgets, you are right. I think it comes down to, our youth do the planning and from the top down, it is stressed, you can't be negative under any circumstance. So, they are overly cautious with their budget estimates that dictate the price. The nice thing is, when the event comes in at a surplus, that surplus goes back into the program in different ways, so it isn't money wasted in the end, so it doesn't really bother me.

I don't know what makes sense or not. But I just write the volunteer mileage off. Keeping track of it for a year can be tough, but it really adds up.

Inspired by another thread on budgets, etc. I thought I'd do some discussion on OA related expenses. Lodge Dues - $14 Banquet - $35 Spring Fellowship - $35 Ordeal - $35 (regular member price) Conclave - $40 LLD - $10 Fall Fellowship - $35 That's $204 / year. I think I captured everything. Our lodge does a deal that includes Dues, Banquet, Spring & Fall Fellowships that saves about $15 if you pay in advance. That's what I do for myself. Not sure why the banquet is that expensive. I suppose I could look at their budget. I will probably also attend a fall ordeal this year, so, probably another $35

Before I got involved with the troop, they started having a lot of problems with fund raising. Too many fundraisers, too few scouts showing up, not enough money being made. So charging per activity was common. It was also common for scouts to show up without payment, not because they couldn't pay, but because, they, forgot, or, their parent, forgot. 11 camp outs per year at $25 adds up, plus $60, plus summer camp, sounds like it will almost always exceed $480/year. Scouts, lets face it, it costs money, have you noticed how much a merit badge costs these days? $2.49 -- wow, why? Ranks $1.99. Food is getting more expensive, especially given that scouts are not the thriftiest of shoppers, go figure. But it adds to the cost of camping. First aid supplies, and so on. I'm not particularly fond of the system, but it does work.

Troop dues are $40 / month, covers registration, awards, food on camp outs, & summer camp. Flirting with $45 / month as summer camp has gone up quite a bit since this scheme was started. The idea behind including summer camp in dues has really improved attendance. If you can't make it to summer camp, the cost can go toward a make up summer camp held in our county. you can do both, but you have to pay for one of them out of pocket.

This was an actual question asked in a lodge candidate forum. It isn't required but the last few lodge chiefs have purchased the polyester/wool uniforms to wear when performing their official lodge chief duties. They do make for a nice looking uniform, considered it for meetings, but if I were to have a third uniform, I would still want it to be useful in the outdoors.

Of the three dens you noted, how many had den chiefs? Den chiefs that were trained and engaged? Den chiefs that come from healthy troops?