Summertime POR credit

[Stosh]

Shutting down the troop for the summer would drive me nuts! 75% of our planning in the cold winter months is what are we going to be doing once it gets warm! Shutting down for the summer is knocking 25% of the best scout time of the year!

 

Obviously I've never had the concern of summertime POR credit. A scout pays a program registration for 12 months, that's the program I give him!

 

Stosh

[Twocubdad]

This is such a grey area, I tend to agree with da Beav that if the troop has set clear expectations of how POR time will be credited, then no one has much of a beef. Personally, I don't have a whole lot of sympathy for a 17.5-year-old who is just now getting around to serving in a POR. If there really are extinuating circumstances beyond the Scout's control, he could do a "Scoutmaster-approved leadership project" as provided for in the requirements.

 

We're dealing with this on a very minor scale in our troop. We go to a modified program in the summer. June is a normal troop program, preparing for summer camp which is usually the last week of the month. We go to a modified program for July and August. Activities are preplanned in the spring and pretty much on auto pilot for the summer. For example, one week we will meet at a local park for mountain biking. No program, no meeting, no plan -- just show up and ride. Another week we'll go to a neighborhood pool and swim. Again, nothing for the PLC to do, just one of the adults clearing it with their homeowner's associations.

 

Consequently, the guys with PORs over the summer don't do much for those two months, although we have always given full credit. The concern is more of a fairness issue between fall and spring terms. This coming election cycle we're going to shift our troop elections back a month so that terms run Feb. thru July and Aug. thru Jan. This way the two slower months are split.

[nolesrule]

" I don't have a whole lot of sympathy for a 17.5-year-old who is just now getting around to serving in a POR. If there really are extinuating circumstances beyond the Scout's control, he could do a "Scoutmaster-approved leadership project" as provided for in the requirements. "

 

That's not an option for Eagle.

[John-in-KC]

Nolesrule is spot on.

 

Brent, I apologize to you. I meant to spin off the the topic from Frank17's post. Sigh, what's done is done.

[NJCubScouter]

In our troop there is very little activity between the end of school (around June 20-25) and the beginning of school after Labor Day, the main exception being one week of summer camp in late July and a swimming test a few weeks before that. Nevertheless there is no "suspension" of credit for POR's. I have never even heard the topic come up (in our troop, that is... it comes up periodically in this forum.) POR's are for a one-year term (which I don't really like, but anyway...) so there is no issue of fairness between terms. I suppose if one were to try to justify the continuation of credit over the summer, one might observe that there are some things for the quartermaster to do before and after summer camp, presumably the librarian might have a thing or two to do if a book comes in, some may be doing other Scouting activities such as NYLT or participating in the affiliated Venturing crew (which has either one two-week or two one-week trips during the summer), but I guess this does not really address the overall issue. I think if the question were asked in my troop the most common answer would be something like "Ah, give the kids a break."

[Twocubdad]

Joisey! Good to hear you're still around. Haven't heard much from you lately.

 

Nolesrule -- I stand corrected. I was writing off the top of my head and assuming language from Star and Life.

[Venividi]

It all boils down to what your goals are; what drives your program. Is your goal to develop character, citizenship and fitness, is your goal to give out awards, or something else? Once you define your goals, what you should do in this situation becomes clearer.

 

[John-in-KC]

Venividi,

 

Good to see you

 

Spot on, Sir

[NJCubScouter]

TwoCub,

 

Thanks. No, I have posted only very rarely in this forum for awhile. I do stop in once a month or so to read up on what's going on, but even when I see a thread that I might contribute to, by the time I see it the discussion has pretty much passed me by. A larger issue is probably the fact that my Scouting "focus" for awhile has been dominated by the issue of whether my son was going to make Eagle. His 18th birthday was about a month ago, and he did make it -- just barely. He needed a lot of support, and I think some extra roadblocks were thrown in his way by the process that our district follows. The people involved both at the district and unit level were great, but there are these "checklists" that I think exceed the actual requirements and also require things to be done sooner than the requirements require them. Sorry to be cryptic. Maybe I will start a thread mentioning some of these issues, though I know it is not a new subject in this forum. The bottom line is that my son got the requirements completed and signed off under the wire, has now passed his BOR and his application is on is way to National, so all's well that ends well -- but it was an irritating and frustrating process, partly due to my son taking so long to get his act together, but partly due to the process itself.

 

Sorry to go off-topic.