What does your troop do/allow for the sports/band

[Albert_H]

Good Day,

 

In our case we try to do as SMT244 mentions. We do all of our planning with School calendars sitting on the table. If we have half of our Scouts in Band, then we do try to schedule outings around their contest dates and parade dates. Typically band does not interfer with weekly meetings. Similarly we try to avoid Dance and Homecoming weekends when it comes to our Troop outings and COH's. I know this sounds like a lot of stuff to schedule around, but even with 2 School districts represented, we seem to be able to do pretty good at avoiding most stuff.

 

When it comes to High School Football there's not much that you can do as every Friday Night during the season the Junior Varsity and Varsity are playing and every Monday Night the Freshmen play. Typically, if a boy wants to make a Troop meeting, he can. Football practice usually gets over earlier than we start our Troop meetings. Of course if he has a lot of homework he may need to skip the meeting.

 

One of my best suggestions is to go to the Band Director, the Chorus Director, and the Coach(es) and introduce yourself. Explain that you want to do your best to work around their schedule when it comes to Scout planning. I have found that they appreciate it and will work with you. I have even had Football players excused from weekend practice to join the Troop at a local College game. I've had special permission for the Boy Scouts in Band to come directly to the parade route instead of riding the bus to the parade route, so they could go on an outing. It has worked for me, hopefully it can for others as well.

 

Al

[John-in-KC]

Albert,

 

Welcome to the Forums.

 

You hit on a key point: Adults, and not just the parents, have to run interference for the children. I laud you for going to bat with your Scouts' teachers!

[Gunny2862]

Good point John,

about the Scout being able to extract to go to their other event.

Given that notice that they were going to leave and their ETD then I might not allow them to start an event they might have problems finishing (e.g. in the middle of a long compass course) but certainly wouldn't make them finish one that would break their timeline - besides the parent would most certainly overrule me and take them anyway.

 

OTOH, I don't know how long I'd wait to start back if a parent had said they were picking up their child at X time at X location if they hadn't shown up and it was time to leave to get everyone else back to the meeting hall. I think we might have to just watch for each other on the road... of course cell phones are wonderful things when appropriately used - where there's coverage.

[ASM915]

Albert,

Good advice. It might also work with asking coaches and directors if the scouts can leave from a location with their parent, so they can be brought out to camp, instead of riding the bus back to the school. This definitely cuts off a lot of time. Plus they aren't arriving at midnight. The problem is getting the parents to bring their scouts out to camp after Friday night events. Today's parents don't want the bother. We never had this problem back when I was a scout. I guess the closer you live to your Council's camp, the better.

 

I've known SM's that have sat new scouts and parents down and explained that if the boy wants to be in the troop, that the SM expects the boy to put forth the effort. Also ask what would happen if the youth showed up for practice, a game, or concert out of uniform, what would happen, and that they, the SM expects the same at meetings and outings.

 

My oldst joind right before his 16th birthday. He managed to swim varsity, belong to a Crew for a while, illustrate and write for the school's literary publication, belong to the German, Spanish and International Clubs, make 90% of the troop activities, work 20 hours per week, volunteer with the county parks, sat on the village park board, and achieve Eagle in 27 months. And he didn't drive until 18.

 

The boys can do it if they put their minds to it, and the parents leave them alone and let them manage their time. Help when asked, and don't be pushy.