Stosh Posted November 4, 2013 Share Posted November 4, 2013 Ah heck half our POR patches are wrong. Dang patch magic. I am pushing for: (1) POR starts about time you sew on correct POR patch. (2) If you have your old POR patch and dont take it off I'm gonna make you do that job if I need to (that might get rid of the lazy ones) (3) No SMC will be scheduled with wong patches. In the military if you do not have correct identification on the uniform, you are "out of uniform". Stosh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horizon Posted November 6, 2013 Share Posted November 6, 2013 Ah heck half our POR patches are wrong. Dang patch magic. I am pushing for: (1) POR starts about time you sew on correct POR patch. (2) If you have your old POR patch and dont take it off I'm gonna make you do that job if I need to (that might get rid of the lazy ones) (3) No SMC will be scheduled with wong patches. I had a boy put a tan velcro patch on his uniform, and he kept a stash of PORs that he had held, each with the other side of the velcro. He would just attach whatever job he is currently doing. Quite funny really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tampa Turtle Posted November 6, 2013 Share Posted November 6, 2013 I did the velcro thing when I was an ASM one day and a Webelos DL the next. The boys loved it. One used to peel it off and turn it upside down when I had a big fail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basementdweller Posted November 6, 2013 Share Posted November 6, 2013 I did the velcro thing when I was an ASM one day and a Webelos DL the next. The boys loved it. One used to peel it off and turn it upside down when I had a big fail.The worst scouter I ever met did the velcro patch thing. Met him at round table. Before he would speak with you on another subject he would dig thru his shirt pocket and with great ceremony strip off the incorrect patch for the subject being spoken, replace it with the more relevent patch and then he would say "I understand you had a question or feedback for blah blah blah". He did this all night every night I saw him at roundtable......Just an FYI he was a bead wearing card carrying member of the coffee circle. Not sure if it was a really bad attempt at recruiting or an ego trip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tampa Turtle Posted November 6, 2013 Share Posted November 6, 2013 I always thought it was funny. I guess it is better than the roundtable guy changing shirts! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stosh Posted November 6, 2013 Share Posted November 6, 2013 "Changing hats" is a lot easier than changing patches or shirts. Stosh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horizon Posted November 8, 2013 Share Posted November 8, 2013 "Changing hats" is a lot easier than changing patches or shirts. Stosh When my son was elected SPL, we made a pact that if I addressed him as SPL I was speaking as Scoutmaster. If I used his name, I was talking to him as his father. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perdidochas Posted November 8, 2013 Share Posted November 8, 2013 I created campout attendance requirements. It makes it so much easier to have the discussion Eagledad mentions. What I'm learning is the clearer the expectations the easier it is for the boys to grasp them and harder for them to fudge them. The SPL or ASPL has to be on every campout baring an act of God. Same for PL and APL of each patrol. The PL is expected to go on most of the campouts (yes, that's fuzzy for a reason). My PLC just had to deal with a PL that hasn't been on a campout with his patrol since he became a patrol leader 4 months ago. The expectations above triggered a discussion with the boy and the PLC that was good. Turns out he's in over his head with all sorts of activities. They finally agreed that it would be good for the PL to swap with his APL until he can get things under control. The participation requirements made it easier to start this conversation. It's a tool, I try to use it wisely. I'm with you Fred, with the exception of PORs. A scout with a POR should be there most of the time. That is what responsibility means. My oldest belongs to a youth orchestra. They practiced at the same time as our Troop meeting. He didn't sign up for a POR because of that. That went about 6 weeks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stosh Posted November 8, 2013 Share Posted November 8, 2013 I created campout attendance requirements. It makes it so much easier to have the discussion Eagledad mentions. What I'm learning is the clearer the expectations the easier it is for the boys to grasp them and harder for them to fudge them. The SPL or ASPL has to be on every campout baring an act of God. Same for PL and APL of each patrol. The PL is expected to go on most of the campouts (yes, that's fuzzy for a reason). My PLC just had to deal with a PL that hasn't been on a campout with his patrol since he became a patrol leader 4 months ago. The expectations above triggered a discussion with the boy and the PLC that was good. Turns out he's in over his head with all sorts of activities. They finally agreed that it would be good for the PL to swap with his APL until he can get things under control. The participation requirements made it easier to start this conversation. It's a tool, I try to use it wisely. For me, it would depend on the POR. SPL and ASPL, Scribe, etc. would all be involved with pre-activity responsibilities. QM, may need to be on-hand during the activity, obviously the Bugler would need to be there, Chaplain Aide should be there. PL and/or APL HAVE to be there. If the Scribe does all the registration work, financial collection, and paperwork for an activity, in my book, the only necessity he would have on an outing would be to have fun. If the SPL/ASPL haven't done their prep work of assisting the PL's getting ready, they would be along only for an occasional need here and there, but the SPL and ASPL could easily tag-team that process. Part of teamwork is getting the boys to either be there to fulfill a responsibility of train someone (leadership) and assign (management) to get the job done. There's nothing in my "book" that requires rules for attendance. One can fulfill their responsibilities and miss an occasional event due to scheduling conflicts. Like I said before family, school, church all have a higher priority than scouting and I never seem to have a problem with the boys' attendance. Stosh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagledad Posted November 8, 2013 Share Posted November 8, 2013 "Changing hats" is a lot easier than changing patches or shirts. Stosh I eventually addressed all my SPLs as "Senior" for the same reason. In fact address all SPLs as Senior because they seem to like it. I guess it rings as much authority as Scoutmaster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stosh Posted November 8, 2013 Share Posted November 8, 2013 "Changing hats" is a lot easier than changing patches or shirts. Stosh I refer to all my scouts as Mr. _____. It really cuts down on the respect issues. Stosh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagledad Posted November 8, 2013 Share Posted November 8, 2013 What issues have you had Stosh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattR Posted November 8, 2013 Share Posted November 8, 2013 I created campout attendance requirements. It makes it so much easier to have the discussion Eagledad mentions. What I'm learning is the clearer the expectations the easier it is for the boys to grasp them and harder for them to fudge them. The SPL or ASPL has to be on every campout baring an act of God. Same for PL and APL of each patrol. The PL is expected to go on most of the campouts (yes, that's fuzzy for a reason). My PLC just had to deal with a PL that hasn't been on a campout with his patrol since he became a patrol leader 4 months ago. The expectations above triggered a discussion with the boy and the PLC that was good. Turns out he's in over his head with all sorts of activities. They finally agreed that it would be good for the PL to swap with his APL until he can get things under control. The participation requirements made it easier to start this conversation. It's a tool, I try to use it wisely. Fred says: "Personally, I'm glad my troop does not have your attendance requirement. It's forces the older boys choose between scouting and other activities. I'm afraid at 14 / 15 years old, many will choose the other activities and it's the beginning of the end of their scouting career. It also puts the focus on the wrong place. Scouting is about character and advancement is not gate keeping." A lot of adults said we'd have a bunch of scouts quit if I put in an attendance requirement, but nobody else wanted to be SM so I got my way. A very small number of scouts did quit but most of them decided that scouts was important and they needed to put more time into it. There was something else going on as well. I used to spend a lot of time talking to scouts that were wavering on whether they wanted to stick it out. I tried to find ways to help them out. I finally said forget it, I was going to spend the time with the scouts that wanted to be there to make it the best program I could for them. That's when I came up with the requirements. I told scouts they needed to decide, and that scouting is a team sport. Patrol leaders can't learn to lead if they can't get older scouts to help them out. I made those decisions to help the PLs. The result is the patrols are forming identities, they don't want to be broken up, they want to go out on their own, and now scouts want to be patrol leader whereas it used to be a "nose goes" kind of thing. The older scouts are much more active and help out a lot more since I put in that requirement. Most scouts are unaware of the requirement because they just show up. One other thing, fulfilling the requirement is necessary for a POR, but not sufficient. They still need to do everything expected of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankpalazzi Posted November 8, 2013 Share Posted November 8, 2013 Ah heck half our POR patches are wrong. Dang patch magic. I am pushing for: (1) POR starts about time you sew on correct POR patch. (2) If you have your old POR patch and dont take it off I'm gonna make you do that job if I need to (that might get rid of the lazy ones) (3) No SMC will be scheduled with wong patches. The US military now uses Velcro for all of their patches. (On BDU uniforms) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankpalazzi Posted November 8, 2013 Share Posted November 8, 2013 Ah heck half our POR patches are wrong. Dang patch magic. I am pushing for: (1) POR starts about time you sew on correct POR patch. (2) If you have your old POR patch and dont take it off I'm gonna make you do that job if I need to (that might get rid of the lazy ones) (3) No SMC will be scheduled with wong patches. The US military now uses Velcro for all of their patches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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