Permission slip / Contract

[OldGreyEagle]

This may be a local issue, in one place, just saying we will act like scouts and in another local the written notice may be a good idea. it may be that we trust each other to do what is best for the youth under or guidance.

 

BTW, whether written or not, signed or not there has to be a threshold behavior level that will get you sent home and its best if all the adults agree on it before the event. I am not looking to send kids home, but after the incident is not the time for the adults to argue about whether or not its "bad" enough to send the youth home. In the troop I serve its up to the socutmaster or "acting" scoutmaster to decide and there is no room for debate.

[Beavah]

This to me is a verbal contract. To add a signature to this strengthens the contract.

 

Just curious, SM224. Why?

 

Isn't the boy's word fully binding? I expect yeh teach 'em that their word is their bond, and they live up to it even if there isn't documentation. If the lads in your troop were to appear in court and swear (verbally) to tell the truth, would that not be strong enough without a signature?

 

In contract law, a verbal contract is binding, and the presence of a signature does not make the contract any stronger. A sworn verbal statement is just as binding as a written one. The documentation just provides proof, eh? Makes it easier to enforce, and provides a mechanism for dealin' with misunderstandings and disputes. But it ain't "stronger." So is that somethin' you really want to teach your boys?

 

Yah, guess I'm just feelin' like an old-fashioned curmudgeon these days. I prefer Grandpa Beavah's notion that the measure of a man is livin' up to his word.

 

Beavah

 

[SMT224]

Beavah -

 

Like the original post in this discussion, an "incident" prompted our Committee to add the Scout signature on our activity permission slip. Before that it was all oral.

 

Now that it's both, I find that it just adds a level of clarity of the kind of behavior we expect. I resisted at first - for the reasons you and others have given - but have actually come to like it. It requires that the parent and Scout sign together, so it's clear to them both that the Scout needs to behave according to the Scout Law to participate in the activity. As I said earlier, I believe their signature strengthens the contract in their mind, and signing it in front of a parent adds to that.

 

Nevertheless, I agree with you, our word is the real binding contract.

 

 

 

 

[eagle90]

AS a SM of our Council's Jamboree troop in 1997, there was a behavior contract supplied by National that had to be signed by all scouts and parents prior to the trip. Unfortunately, I don't have a copy any longer.

[Beavah]

Yah, thanks SMT244. I understand. We sometimes use da tools that get people's attention.

 

B

 

[Eamonn]

A little while back (About a week or so). In another thread, there was talk about "Good Cop -Bad Cop".

I was feeling very dumb at the time and didn't really get it!

Now the light has just come on!!

 

I'm a very easy going, kinda simple guy.

At work I'm charged with the "Care, control and custody" of the inmates.

To help this work inmates are given a handbook, it's about sixty pages. I'm not sure how many pages and books of policies, I have to help me? Needless to say there are several thousand pages.

If I catch someone doing or not doing something that they should be doing or not doing, there is a long list of charges I can write them up on This then goes to a hearing examiner who decides what or what not will happen.

In mates of course have lots of time on their hands and can spend many happy hours filing law suits against people like me for not following the policies that are just too many to know.

Which brings me back to the "Good Cop -Bad Cop".

I really don't have a problem knowing what is right and what is wrong.

I when the situation requires can be the bad cop.

I don't need to lead by committee.

If I'm the Skipper, SM or CM. The buck stops here.

I don't have a problem picking up the phone and asking a parent to come and remove their little darling.

Having said that passing on the what happens next to the Committee is fine and dandy with me.

I also believe that kids know when they have been little toads.

They don't and their parents don't need some meaningless bit of paper to tell them what is not acceptable.

Have I ever before a trip or an event given a few wise words from Eamonn? You bet I have!!

But I think to do it before each and every trip would make it almost worthless.

 

Everyone knows what is expected of them adding it in written form is not changing anything or adding anything.

Eamonn.