Transfers from an LDS unit

[shortridge]

Eagle92,

 

When I staffed the first-year-camper program at my local camp, we made it very clear that none of the boys would be "mastering" the T21 skills by the end of the week. It was an introductory program, covering the basics, and we made no claims about competence at the end. That, we told them over and over, comes with lots of practice.

 

Oftentimes, I think it was more useful for the brand-new ASMs that the units sent along to "help" - they got to see the skills in action for perhaps the first time.

[Eagle92]

Short,

One of the things I suggested was to have the First year camper staff teach IOLS to new leaders. that way A) the new leaders could see inplace what Scouting does and how they don't need to baby them and b) teach the m the basics.

 

Forgot to add the two folks who I knew basically drilled the heck out of the new scouts by putting them in situations where they had do use the skills learnt. Culminate with the Thrusday mite campout.(This message has been edited by Eagle92)

[Gary_Miller]

BartHumphries, "Four weeks is plenty of time, presuming that the boys did homework. Shoot, at the 100th anniversary campout locally recently, there were programs to take the boy from Tenderfoot to 1st Class in one long weekend (Fri-Sat-Sun). There are no time requirements for those ranks."

 

Yea Right. What about the 10 separate troop/patrol activities, three of which have to be camping overnight. I guess you could do it if you camped every weekend went on 8 other activities during the week. But most leaders and boys have a life outside of scouting so not likely to happen without some stretching of the requirements. And in the end you would just have a boy who did stuff and not a 1st Class Scout.

 

As for the rest of, BartHumphries, post looks as if he has a troop where the meetings are MB give aways and not troop meetings. To bad its the boys who suffer in the end.

[gcnphkr]

Sometimes you just got to wonder what is the deal with some leaders.

[BartHumphries]

You missed the "presuming that the boys did homework" part. I did miss the Tenderfoot requirement, though. We have a separate 11-year-old scouting patrol and they all at least get Tenderfoot before coming into the older patrol where I work with them.

 

Speaking of homework, take a look at the Tracking merit badge. It requires that a bunch of pictures of animals be taken (and also probably casts of tracks). There's no way you're going to be able to do that for all the boys during an evening. But if a boy's on vacation for four weeks and mostly bored out of his mind (and thus really motivated to go do that "homework" each week) then the weekly meetings can easily cover what needs to be covered while he does all the rest himself (like take pictures of animals). Go find a chipmunk, wait for a gopher, look for a bird.

 

There's nothing that says that boys can't work on merit badge or rank requirements on their own time, presuming that they can hand in something to prove it. They have to make something? Ok, make it. They have to write something? Ok, write it.

 

Take, for instance, the Reading merit badge. You better believe that nobody is going to sit there and watch a boy read for hours on end. No, that's what the reading log and the discussion with a counselor afterward is for. The same goes for most merit badges. The actual time that must be devoted to them during an evening's meeting is rather small, presuming that the boys do their homework (namely all those things that can't really be done during a single evening).

 

Like I pointed out, if a boy practices Morse code and semaphore on his own then he can get good enough to pass the requirements. You're not going to do that in a single evening and once you stop practicing you may not remember it a month later, but while on vacation for weeks bored with nothing else to do? Boys should keep practicing and using what they learned in a merit badge, but if you leave afterward to go to another troop then that could be pretty difficult.

[gcnphkr]

There is also the activity requirements.

 

Is it possible for them to have completed everything? Yes.

 

Did they do it? I do not believe so. From talking with them they went to a week of camp and a couple of troop meetings. No way they managed 8 troop or patrol activities.

 

Did they do their homework and learn these skills? Not that I can tell from what they've demonstrated since they have been back.

 

Do I think that the leader of the troop in Utah pencil whipped them through? Yes.

 

Is there anything I can do about it? Not a thing other than help them learn as they work towards Star.

[John-in-KC]

jet,

 

If you are SM, you can refuse to start them on any MBs other than camping and first aid, so you can be sure their basic skills are in order...

 

You can also have a long and serious talk with their parents.

[gcnphkr]

Or, when they want to have a POR they could be Instructors where one thing we do in our troop is make sure they know their stuff before they teach it...

 

"Next month you will be teaching lashings, be here at 7:00 next Tuesday so we can go over how to teach it."

 

 

Not sure about preventing them from taking merit badges. It is not their fault.

[Eagle92]

Jet,

You are the SM and can pick the MBCs they use. So if they have partials, and they need to find a local MBC to complete, You can pick one. Grant you some MBCs will accept what other MBC have signed off on, others will do a quick review and finish up.

 

However if they have them signed off by a MBC approved by the other SM, they do have the MB. Depending upon which MBs it is, they can either A) start teaching those skills to the younger scouts (FA, Camping, and cooking come to mind) or if a major trip is involved that deals with skills learned forma MB, then a shakedown trip that they must pass in order to go is in order. That's for MBs like backpacking and canoeing. Heck I wouldn't even single them out, ALL scouts would have to pass muster in order to go on a week long trip.