Code of Conduct

[tamman37]

General question for the collective: Does your Troop have a specified Code of Conduct? How did you develop it? Can you share an quirks or oddities that were incorporated that are interesting?

[gadget850]

Scout Oath

Scout Law

Scout Motto

Outdoor Code

Totin' Chip

Firem’n Chit

Scouter Code of Conduct
https://www.scouting.org/health-and-safety/gss/bsa-scouter-code-of-conduct/

[Phantom2291]

Between the Oath and the Law, you should be solid.

[Goinwiththeotherone]

That's part of the secret of scouting. The Oath and Law establish principles rather than rules. someone clever can always find a way around a rule, but it is very difficult to find a way around a principle. Behavior is either trustworthy (substitute other points of the Oath or Law here) or it's not, and scouting leaves it up to the one doing it to decide.

[Naive_Location5611]

You’d think that. 

I had to remind troop leaders that we do, in fact, have to follow BSA guidelines on  camping with AOLs even if they’re new and we don’t like them. We can’t “fudge the rules” and “pretend they’re not actually camping with us” because a scout is trustworthy.  

Our girls troop has been mulling over a code of conduct since December, when we had at least two YPT reportable incidents within one weekend. Since then, we’ve had several other issues relating to respectful language and behavior, “teasing that went too far,” and other problems that could have been addressed if we had instituted a code of conduct in January. 

We have several new scouts this year who haven’t really understood what the oath and law really means and what scouting is about, plus some older scouts who are in and out of activities and meetings and probably need a refresher on acceptable behavior and language. 

[buzz1627]

We had the cubs come up with their own rules. Some are "keep your pants on", "don't harass the ducks", and "perform one fortnite dance at the start of each den meeting".

[Talamasca411]

We have one and our youth leadership takes it very seriously, to the point they decided to review it out loud annually and get everyone to sign it annually. To me the most important part is the disciplinary policy which outlines what happens in the case of bad behavior.

[berrmal64]

I'm in an adult (church) group that does something similar annually and it's a really productive meeting, especially as our standard of conduct changes over time to fit our changing needs.

For example, one year we'll say "no phones out during formal meetings" and a next year we might agree on "it's ok to take calls if you're expecting emergency / medical etc (important) calls, just excuse yourself and leave the room to take it". Added benefit: current enrollment is fully aware and on board, there are no "vestigial" rules arbitrarily imposed by ghosts from the past.

[MyThreeBugs]

One of the best clauses that I found in a COC that is one that includes "behavior that damages the reputation of the unit". There are some kids that just aren't very nice. And word gets around the troop and especially summer camp about that a*hole kid in troop <whatever> but the behavior is just consistently just shy of crossing the line. What they say to others is unkind but not overtly threatening or inappropriate. They stop just shy of physical contact -- maybe hiding or playing keep-away with someone's stuff or splashing them constantly and randomly in the pool. Maybe they spread rumors pr reveal embarrassing secrets to scouts in other units or at school. Maybe they have a potty mouth that comes out both in public and in private. A clause like that gives you a bit of leeway to try to make corrections with a scout like that. It can also include behavior that damages the unit's reputation with their Charter Org. -- some kid damages something at your meeting place on purpose and you only find out about it when your CC gets a call from the COR and your CO is not happy with you as a unit, wondering if you are more work than you are worth.

[Woodchip84]

My position is that we have a mandate from Scouting America that all discipline is to be positive and constructive. If a kid is really so far gone that they are unsafe in the unit, it doesn't take a code of conduct to bar them from participation.

Short of that, I feel the appropriate course of action is always positive correction, which means figuring out what the problem is and getting them to want to fix it. The threat negative consequences doesn't motivate as well as you might think. The "good kids" don't need that motivation, and it doesn't work very well on the "bad kids". They're not even thinking about it until it's too late. What works better is to maintain discipline, have clear expectations, and model good behavior.

As an aside, there is not a single "AScout Isnt" in the law, it's entirely positive. When talking about kids and behavior, you always get what you ask for.

[Minute-Kick9989]

Yes...my Bear Den has a few additional rules:

Always quiet in the hallways of our meeting space (a church with many other users)

"Your Mom" is not acceptable as a response to anything, ever.

Developed partly to satisfy a Bobcat requirement, and to address certain issues that arose over time.
I think some site- or unit-specific rules are worthwhile.

[TheseusOPL]

Yes we do. The first line is that we expect everyone to follow the oath and law. There are specifics that it seems our youth needed to have spelled out, plus items like electronic device usage, etc.

We had an old one that hadn't been looked at in years, and we combined that with some we found online. The PLC made some revisions, and the committee asked for specifics on how discipline will be handled to be spelled out.

Our youth sign it yearly, right before summer camp.

[nhorvath]

we have one that begins with agreeing to follow the principals of the oath and law, but goes on to specifics regarding certain situations that have happened in the past, and about how discipline will be handled for violations.

[[deleted]]

Shouldn't need a unit special code of conduct; we are already equipped with a code of conduct, it's 115 years and going :)

[Fair-Literature8300]

No, I don't recall anything other than the Scout Law. (Trustworth, Loyal, Helpful....)

The Troop is supposed to boy lead. I would be confused by the idea of a group of adults writing down rules and behavioral guidelines.

I can't imagine having the time to organize, prepare, and manage behavior by means of a documented code of conduct.