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The more I think about (and you guys talk about it), the more I feel that dues should be one of those things that is always there. I appriciate the wake-up smack.

Thank you all for the valuable feedback. I am seeing the value of keeping some form of dues (weekly, monthly, quarterly, as several have stated). It does provide a valuable personal finace management lesson for the boys. We were trying to collect weekly dues and running into the record keeping headaches that acco40 spoke of. We are looking for a balance of ease of adult management and maximum youth invlovement at the same time giving the boys an incentive to participate in fundraising. The origional idea the TC had (outlined above) is not it.

I think I'm posting this in the right place... oh well here goes. One of the things that I perceive as a "sore spot" in our troop is how we collect and disperse money. We are looking at revamping how money flows through our troop. Here's the proposed idea. Each fiscal year the Troop Committee forms a budget (we already do that). Based on that budget, we could calculate an amount of money that each Scout would need to contribute to the troop. We do a handful of fundraising events throughout the year; the proceeds from those events would be divided up among the boys (according to participation) and deposed into their own troop accounts. The boys would then use the money in their accounts to pay off their debt to the troop. At the end of the fiscal year, if any boys have not participated in enough fundraisers to have the money in their account to clear their dept, they would then be expected to pay the balance themselves. We would use this method instead of charging dues of any kind. The hope being that the yearly amount per boy would be small enough that he could get it knocked out relatively quickly, the rest of the fundraising earnings going to his troop account for him to spend on whatever he needs (gear, uniforms, outing costs, etc). Even more optimistically, if the numbers work out we could also offer camperships, reduce the cost of outings, and so on. Is anyone doing something like this? What are the potential problems with this system? What do you guys think about this idea?

You are both correct. I did attend Outdoor Leader Training in the Spring of '04 and I'll qualify for my Scouter's Training Award in a month or two. I look forward to Woodbadge. I learned a great deal of things at ALT, but we never stop learning. ALT set a good foundation, hopefully Woodbadge will build on it. Thanks guys, Andrew

Thank you all for your words of advice and encouragement. Although at times I have felt overwealmed, I gladly embrace the challenge. I'm trying my best not to get caught up in the politics (I can see forming already), keeping myself foused on Scouting's goal: helping boys grow into moral men. I do not want to lose touch with that. That's why I still consider myself an ASM also. Handling the administration is great, but I don't want to give up interacting with the boys. I want to take a NSP under my wing every couple of years; teach a merit badge; take a patrol geo caching; council a new SPL about what to look for when picking his Second; take a corner off a tote-in-chit when the occasion merits. I happily do my best as CC. "Pursuing it with eager feet," as Bilbo Baggins would say. I accept the charge. But my real joy not approving the yearly budget and such.

Greetings all, I've been browsing this forum for a little while and am amazed at this community. Its like a district round table but bigger and better. I earned my Eagle back in '96, graduated High School, and was hardly invloved in Scouting through university. Now that I'm established near my home town, I got invloved with my old troop again. I've been an ASM for 2 years now and was elected Committee Chairman to fill a vacancy just recently. Wow, these are big shoes. At the still-wet-behind-the-ears age of 24, I think my biggest challange is going to be earning the respect of fellow leaders nearly twice my age.

You both make a good point. As this peticular situation unfolds, it looks like we are going to be able to keep them together. We are now thinking that we could move one boy from one regular patrol to the other (moving this boy would slove a personality conflict that has been brewing for a while now). This would make the patrol losing the boy able to receive all 4 without being overly full; and the patrol gaining the boy would only be one boy smaller then the other patrol. We try to avoid moving boys once they have chosen their patrol, but I think this warrents an exception. To respond to the idea of transitioning a large NSP into a regular patrol, I have only one reservation: We have found age diversity within the patrols to be a wonderful thing. It gives the younger ones boys to look up to, and gives the older ones great leadership trials (some of the boys even take on a "protective older brother" mentality and take one of the younger boys from their patrol "under their wing" -- and I absolutely love watching the dynmanics of that kind of relationship develope). Anyway, that's the only thing I would modify. Instead of creating an entire patrol of 12-year-olds, I would want to get some older boys in there too. Any thoughts? experiences (alike or different)? Andrew

This forum is great! Thank you all for your advice, stories, and pointers. We are making progress. I think I realized what went wrong; thanks to Barry/Eagledad for making it painfully obvious. We never really told the new Scouts what to expect regarding patrols when they first crossed over. Our "Welcome to the Troop" packet does not spell out the mechanics of how patrols work/form in our troop. We describe the patrol method, but not how Scouts transition from their Cub den to their Boy Scout patrol. So when we first mentioned disbanding the NSP (just recently) it was quite a shock to the boys. It will take some time to work though this with this group of boys, but will definately not make the same mistake spring '06.

Our troop is currently experiencing problems with the next step of Web->NBP transition. Four webelos crossed over last fall and have done very well. We formed a New Boy Patrol for them, the Troop Guide did a wonderful job, the ASM assigned to the NBP was there to help. The 4 boys are doing great, they are all at least Tenderfoot, two are Second Class; and they all have at least one Merit Badge. It is time to start thinking about disbanding their patrol: aye, there's the rub. The four new boys are fast friends and are not too keen on being broken up. Their parents are all against it too (they are all a touch over protective of their boys). Part of me questions how much of the boys' parents' opinions are influencing the boys' own feelings. I do admit, the 4 do work well together. But how do we (the Scouters) not only convince the parents that this is the right thing to do, but to convince the 4 boys as well?