Armymutt

That would be great. It would also be great if 75% of the troop actually wanted to be there rather than being forced to be there by their parents. Most of them want to be on their phone or running around. We've tried to give them ideas for games, given them resources, even conducted a game or two to show them how to play it. They always move back into some "game" that has no apparent rules. The rest want to sit on their phones and play games. They have no desire to be good at Scout skills. No desire to plan or prepare for the campout that is coming up. We've given them guidance on what to practice for the camporee because their skills across the board are not up to snuff. Half the Scouts First Class and above can't tie anything other than a square knot. We have 3 PLs that have no interest in the job. Our SPL was elected for some reason that escapes the kids who actually want to be there. He's constantly lost, does no prep work outside of Scout meetings, and has to be constantly reminded about everything. He was teaching lashings last week and taught them incorrectly. The ASPL was the previous SPL and he acts like an 11 y/o most of the time. The SM told me last week that it would be great to put together a patrol of kids who actually want to be there and put the rest into two other patrols. Then we can just let those two patrols do whatever while the rest actually do the program.

That's a separate issue altogether. I agree with you, however, this troop, and others in the area, seem to believe that BORs are on the adults' schedule, not the Scouts'. Makes no sense to me and doesn't jive with the servant leadership idea.

I'm an ASM and one of the things I do is track our Scouts below Star to provide a resource for planning to the PLC. I was updating my tracker last night and noticed a Scout that needed to fulfill Second Class 8c and 8d on Tuesday night was signed off, along with the SM conference. I distinctly remember this Scout needed those because I counseled him on it on Tuesday night toward the end of the meeting. I pointed out to the SM today that me may have mismarked it in SB because it wasn't done on Tuesday. He said that he met with the Scout this weekend and completed the requirements then, along with holding a SM conference. Contrast this with another Scout who completed all of the requirements for Second Class short of a BOR, was denied a BOR for November due to Veterans Day falling on our meeting night. He finished up First Class, minus the SM Conference before the end of November. Our BOR night is normally the second week of the month. For some reason, the CC decided to move BOR night up a week. The Scout was denied a SM conference that night before the BOR, so he could only complete the Second Class BOR that night and had to wait another month for First Class. Never was an SM conference offered on a weekend. No public announcement of offering to complete any requirements was made, other than swimming, this past weekend, and the SM was not in attendance at that event. The optics are really poor here. The troop was accused of favoritism under the last SM. It feels like the Scouts from this family are being favored over the rest of the troop. The Scout's older brother was slammed through rank progression as fast as they could. The excuse being that he is 15 and has a short timeline. Meanwhile, the Scout lacks the skills his current rank indicates that he should possess. So how do I tell the SM that this is an unacceptable way to do business? At this point, I'm ready to move to another unit, even if it adds another 15 minutes to my drive. Between the CC and SM being married and unwilling to relinquish either role and a complete lack of transparency on the troop finances, it's frustrating.

I don't know that I would call it "woke". Seems like democracy is a foundation of the country. As qwazse said, they can vote with their feet. That's probably a less desirable outcome than having a mechanism whereby the Scouts can decide they want a new adult leader.

I spend a couple hours each day in the car driving the kids to and from school, so my brain wanders around. One of the musings I had was, Can Scouts elect their Scoutmaster? Has anyone heard of such a thing? Can the PLC decide that they want a new SM and hold an election?

Nope. Parents work for the govt. Church is in and out. Parents take him to school. About the best we came up with is a YMCA camp he goes to for summer day care.

This requirement makes some assumptions and forces a Scout to lie or not get the merit badge: 9. Document and discuss with your counselor three or more areas in your life outside of Scouting where you feel you can actively provide stronger leadership in: I have a Scout who goes to school, comes home, and does Scouting. That's it. So are Scouts who don't have other activities unable to earn Eagle? The Scout lives in the country with no neighbors around. He doesn't play sports due to his grades being bad this last semester. The areas of his life are Scouts, family, and school. You'd think this would have been more well thought out, considering the MB is all about consideration of others.

That sounds a bit like every summer camp I went to as a Scout. I earned four merit badges during summer camps - Pioneering, Motorboating, Waterskiing, and Backpacking. The last was Philmont. We just had fun at our camps. The troop in IL had a routine that we sometimes modified - we did a float trip on the Current River, swam in really cold springs, went water skiing, swimming, and motorboating on Clearwater Lake most days, and had some side trips to a state park or two. Those were filled with hiking, fishing, and cliff jumping. In England, the first troop didn't do a week trip. The second one did Philmont and Kandersteg. My sash only has 22 merit badges, but none for all the memories.

We never had a BOR, other than for Eagle. Maybe we had a rolling BOR? In my second troop, I wasn't aware that we had a committee until 3 years ago, and I left that troop in the summer of '90. The next two troops didn't have them either. We just did our thing. Maybe it was a military culture and the constant challenge of learning and leading were just ingrained.

As expected, he has to wait until January. He was able to complete the Second Class BOR and First Class SM conference on Tuesday. Crappy situation.

Trying to light a spark, not take over. The problem is, the CC and the SM are married and the former SPL, now ASPL, is their son. There's a lot of undue command influence, as we would call it in the Army. I asked the SPL why we were having this drug talk again and was told "my mom said we had to have one". This summer, the SM said he was done at the end of the year. I volunteered for the job and he said he was staying on for another year. I watched this troop for a couple of years before we joined. They were very active - camping at least monthly. Things changed when the original SM left. Now we aren't even going camping in December as a troop - just a game day.

I don't know. I told him to immediately hit up the SM for an SMC on Tuesday and then we'll try to knock out both BORs.

Well, I know this one won't drop - he's mine. I retired from the Army this month, so now dad has plenty of time to support him in Scouting. His best friend (who became his First Class requirement 10) also has a retired guardian, so they are hitting as many Scouting events, with or without the troop, as we can.

We got notification that there will be Boards of Review this Tuesday. It's starting to feel like there's an intent to hold him back. Normally the BOR night is the second Tuesday. The plan was for him to have his SM conference this Tues so he's ready to go next Tues. All of a sudden, the BOR gets moved up a week, so he can only do Second Class, even though all he needs for First Class is the SM conference.

It's a massive loss of momentum. In two weeks, I can completely switch my focus to something else because the signal I'm receiving is that Scouting isn't important enough to meet every week. It's like skipping a workout for two weeks. Very hard to get going again. I don't see how national is getting any extra money from regular troop meetings.