Mom2Scout

even if it's just asking the simple question, "Have you ever thought of...?" And during this situation with Covid, where there are restrictions or opportunities that youth may not even comprehend, I think some adult input might be helpful. No one has ever lived through this before. ^^^ this When I say my scout is a germophobe, I mean it. Like getting him to go out at all this summer has been a chore. I was looking for ideas that I could seed into his mind as safe, because he doesn't look at doing anything outside of the house as safe. For instance, weeding... that's a safe activity. Now think about who could use this and then go pitch your mbc about it. I want him to come up with a project that he feels safe doing, but a lot of the normal things our scouts do for this merit badge are not something he can/would feel safe doing. He knows he has to make calls to find out what an org might need. I'm not doing that for him. He is hanging back out of fear/phobia. I'm trying to find a way he can move forward safely and be that brave scout I know he can be. I'm not going to pick his service hours place for him. He has to do that. If he would feel safer with me going with to help, I'd do that too. (I am horribly allergic to grass, but would suck it up for my scout).

The bummer summer has bled into next year! Gah. My scout's HA for this year already got rescheduled to next.... so glad we got to go to World, at least!

Fingers crossed here, too. My scout is signed up to go. He's older, so he would be aged up/out by the time the next one rolls around.

No graffiti here in rural Virginia. Yes, it is for the Citizenship in the Community merit badge, so the 8 hours have to be to one org. I'll give him some ideas about outside clean up, but it is July, so very hot and humid. There are a few trails around here, so maybe that would work too. Our troop has sort of adopted part of a trail locally anyway.

Hey all, I have a germophobic scout who needs to perform 8 hours of service for a merit badge. Have you encountered this before with another scout and have ideas that would be something a scout could do? The normal opportunities our community has are out (library closed, for example). I'd prefer he do it before school starts to just knock it out since it would be the one thing for that merit badge that would hold him up. Any ideas? Thanks P.S. He went to the first meeting our scout troop had clad in rubber gloves and was a strict adherent to the masks/don't go within 6 feet of another scout policy.

Thanks so much for your response! My kid really wants to go and if I have to troll the council website for when they put out a link, it may be a good, long while. I want to make sure he signs up in enough time to secure a spot.

Can anyone explain the difference between registering my scout as a participant vs. registering him as a participant of our council's contigent? (not yet live to do online yet) I checked a neighboring council's page and their contingent is taking 160 and cost is 1700 per scout. Registering as a scout costs 1200 on the jambo page, so ??? I don't know what difference it would make aside from the extra $500 (assuming travel expenses?) cost. Do regular registrants get grouped together vs. a contingent of scouts you could potentially know? Summit is only 4 hours from our house, so we could theoretically take our scout to/from if needed. Thanks for any insight. We just want to make sure our scout has the best possible time. Our troop has no plans to go (other than if families want to visit type of thing).

We got a large group of AOLs who bridged over. They were allowed to form their own patrol to stay together... and the results are mixed. The issue we are having is they have bad behavior. They don't have older scouts in their troop to model good behavior for them. They have learned to not respect the rank of older scouts in the troop. It's like their patrol is an extension of Cub Scouts and not what it should be. They are so unruly, several scouts in our troop no longer want to camp with them.ever.again. They finally now have an ASM assigned to them, but not looming over them like they probably need to be doing. And we have another large group coming this year and, frankly, it terrifies me we could have a repeat. Scouting should be fun and for it to be fun for everyone, they need to use the patrol method for everything, get a boot camp if they need it to understand what exactly it is and what expectations there will be. At U of Scouting, they said that buddies who are kept together tend to stay in scouting far longer. So it's a terrible dilemma. You want to integrate them, but you also want them to have those bonds that make them want to keep scouting. Personally speaking as a scout parent/CM, I would not do two separate patrols unless you have assigned TG's to each patrol and a dedicated ASM who is willing to roll up their sleeves and put in the work to help build the patrol up into a finely oiled machine, if even by whispering in the PLs ear and helping him/her make smart decisions and enforce discipline. That's my two cents! Edited to add: The goal of the NSP was to get them to rank up and move out. Instead, they want to stay together and not many of them are doing well on rank advancement.

I took a class on this topic at U of Scouting in my Council. One of the things they suggested was to give the Den parents a break (who doesn't love a break!) and have your scouts go take over a den meeting at least once. Let them see your scouts in action teaching their kids, showing up in their uniforms, and talking about the fun they have had and are having. Cubbies love games! Have your troop plan a game for them to play. Get den chiefs in the pack. You are more likely to get AOLs to bridge to you if you maintain a presence in their pack. Also, if you do a summer camp, you want to make sure your troop is talking about the fun of camp and sharing action shot pictures of their fun with these scouts and their families. Do you have a troop historian that can put together a photo album or power point presentation (maybe one that can knock out a requirement for a badge?) that can be used to sell the troop to the pack.

Have you considered Messengers of Peace? https://www.scouting.org/international/messengers-of-peace/ If you put a M of P emphasis on a service project and share, you are spreading the good that scouting can do for a community. Also, don't be shy about letting local media know when you are up to a service project. Our troop has increasingly been relying on committee members to keep 2 deep for events to make sure we have coverage. Hopefully, M of P will inspire kids to do service outside of their scouting.

Not really. Ours is more like a wear your uniform to your church service that day and let me know kind of thing. It's not even put in our calendar of events because some churches do the Scout Sunday a different day than the one that BSA sets aside for it. This weekend my scout is going to a church that does celebrate Scout Sunday. The patches are always so cool. It's a tradition to collect them for him.

I'm going to weigh in here... I do the JTE for our troops. It is very confusing to do anything when both troops use the same number. There was some finagling for Council so that we could enter JTE for the girls troop. In addition, the JTE excel sheet and a lot of boiler plate things do not let you add a letter and only accept numbers in the field. Our girls also do not wear a G on their sleeve after our troop number, nor do the boys. It would have been easier to have separate numbers from the get-go. On another note, council folks have messed up our popcorn prizes because they saw the girl form first. Still waiting for my kid's free tickets he earned two months later... I'm just saying that adding a leading digit is a good idea or just a whole other different number.

We have linked troops and our girls haven't yet gotten a female AOL to join. Mostly, it has been friends convincing other friends to join. I imagine that it will take a while for more girls to join Cub Scouts and matriculate up. Our Webelos activities are also done as a linked group. Our girls are out there showing off their skills. Maybe what you need is some good PR? Hit up the newspaper for a interest story. Have them show off skills at a community event. Recruitment is really a year long process and not just a few months before bridging ceremonies. One activity we do every year and invite Cubbies to is flag retirement. Perhaps do more than court the Webelos, but invite Lions, Tigers, and Bears to events too.

I would start with recruiting at least a small cadre of adults before recruiting scouts. You need engaged adults to help shoulder the burden or you will burn out quickly. Get your leadership together and then start reaching out. As someone who lives in a rural(ish) area with, as kids say, "nothing to do", offer a vibrant program that dovetails into the rural culture. Be willing to bend your vision to meet the community at least half way. Oh, and get your program out there --- newspaper articles, Facebook page, IG, etc. <--- Kids are very social these days.

My troop is in NCAC, so we will do it next weekend and the following will be picking up. Has everyone else switched over to those tags? Last year, we noticed a steep decline in houses who put out food. We think it is because the bag is more of a visual reminder to put out food than a tag is. Those sticky note things fell off of doors, mailboxes, etc. They just did not stick well in the colder weather at all.