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I don't understand. Why should the troops provide any opportunity? Isn't it up to the scouts to contact the counselors? When I was a scout in the 70's I remember maybe getting one or two MBs at summer camp (that lasted 2 weeks) and no MBUs. I'm okay with the idea of starting a MB, or even just finding out what the MB is about. But it should just be an introduction to the MB. Our district is doing something interesting this year. First of all, they talked to the counselors from last year and any counselor that said they had a bunch of scouts that were there only because they h

I skipped school to attend the first Earth Day in Philly. In author's essay, I identify with her father, well except his politics. Some organic food for thought. https://www.greenbiz.com/article/my-dads-conservative-naturalist-im-environmental-hypocrite If things had gone differently since the first Earth Day in 1970, the fight against climate change easily could have been led by ranchers and fishermen. These leaders may have been Boy Scouts like my dad was; they may not have had fancy degrees but probably could identify almost any leaf or animal species at first sight. They may hav

Here are the B.S.A. rules that are largely ignored with the tacit acquiescence of B.S.A. "There is more to merit badges than simply providing opportunities to learn skills. There is more to them than an introduction to lifetime hobbies, or the inspiration to pursue a career—though these invaluable results occur regularly. It all begins with a Scout’s initial interest and effort in a merit badge subject, followed by a discussion with the unit leader or designated assistant, continues through meetings with a counselor, and culminates in advancement and recognition. It is an uncomplicated pr

"rebellion against his Eagle Scout/Scoutmaster dad" seen that a couple times!

Yes, exactly. What we found is the troops would attend the MBC and the scouts would come home with a hand full of MBs. That was easy, a lot easier than managing a program where scouts searched for a counselor, called the counselor, filled out the Blue Card and got the SM signature, and then set up a series of meetings with the counselor. Taking a path of least resistance, the adults got in the habit of letting the MBCs and summer camp do the hard work. IN THE PROCESS of going this route, scouts didn't learn how to search for counselors, didn't learn how to communicate with the counselors

Depends on the boy. Does the boy really want it? How bad does he want it? Some boys even at 18 may lack organizational abilities because of a disability and that becomes an obstacle. Others lose interest...I give 'the speech' and move on. I know in my Troop adults will work hard to remove any artificial obstacles for a boy making a good faith effort. Several times I have been 'on call' for last minute sign offs for one of my Eagle required Merit Badges if I know ahead of time. If I am going to be out of town I will suggest other MBC's that I trust and give them a heads up (but I never tell the

Hey, no fair! I'm a teacher. The boys see me every day at school.

Welcome to the forums! And thanks for all you do for the boys.

Interesting question. For some Scouters, and most especially parents, not getting Eagle is considered failure. To them I quote: "Failure, the best teacher it is." BUT WHAT DID THE SCOUT FAIL AT REALLY? The goal of Scouting is NOT earning Eagle, but "...helping boys become men, training them for citizenship." Will that "Life for life" be a good citizen? That is what we should be asking. The Scout who saved my life in Canada never got past Star. Do I consider him a failure because he didn't earn Eagle and I did. No I do not. Do I consider the Scout who has no interest at al

Do not abandon your current app just yet. I have heard in back channel discussion that ScoutBook Lite will include and API that will allow syncing between some apps like TroopMaster. I am not sure if TWH will be one of them. Or if BSA will even continue that effort. But so many units use something other than SB I would be shocked if they did not get enough pressure from the masses to create such an API.

As in all things Scouty, "the fault, dear Scouter, lies not in the stars, but in ourselves...." As we find the means to advance our Scouts in Merit Badges, and let those that counsel such to "allow" Scouts to slide on by ('eh, what's it matter".), and allow the standards of passage to slide... I was a temp teacher for some years, and (as always) my students often taught me... early on, I learned a new word: Gudnuf as in "Mr. SSScout, is this 'gudnuf'? " Even in Scouts, I came upon this new word: in Totin'Chip, "Is this tentpeg gudnuf?" In Pioneering: "Is this lash

IMHO, Sustainability MB takes the bad parts of the Environmental Science merit Badge and expands on them......... I saw no reason to create it, should just have added a bit to Enviro Science.

Every youth that truly wants to pursue his Eagle Scout Awards should be encouraged, mentored and assisted appropriately. It should be their decision and desire that is driving it though, not the parents, SM or anyone else. For some Scouts, Eagle is just not their goal, and that is perfectly fine. Scouting is not, and should not be, about achieving Eagle Scout. Character, citizenship (including leadership), and fitness are the goals, and what we should be trying to instill in every youth. If we do not make every effort to instill those three characteristics into Scouts, then it is our fail

The problem lies when MBCs do not do there jobs properly and award MBs that the Scouts could not earn in a few hours. And there is pressure for MBCs at these events to award MBs. I'd rather someone earn a partial and learn something about a topic and have a good time, than just receive a MB for showing up. I find that it cheapens the work others do to actually earn the award. I'll take Chess MB as an example. One camp essentially gives it away after a Scout plays 3 or 4 games. There is actually a lot more to it than playing games. Oldest has been playing Chess competitively since Cub Scou

If you have a spare hour, this is pretty fascinating*... https://www.gapminder.org/videos/dont-panic-the-facts-about-population/ If memory serves, we need people to keep getting educated, this raises living standards, which lowers infant mortality, but that makes parents have less babies, so it looks like the population will top out at some point. * If you like anecdotes and stats.

I know when I Crossed Over in 1985, my buddies signed up for First Year Camper, and the rest of those going to summer camp signed up for MB classes. I didn't go that summer, so I cannot comment. When I did go to summer camp in '86, I was taking MB classes. That troop, the one I grew up in, essentially had a policy: 5 MBs classes max, preferably 4. Everyone, adults and Scouts, wanted you to have at least 1 free period to have fun doing free swim, boating, and shooting. Plus a lot of the MBs required extra work outside of class. I remember many a night that I was working on MBs under a lant

Good questions, and they really get at the crux of our culture wars when it comes to parenting these days. The boys you mention are Life scouts, I assume. Then they are already successful boys. It's okay if they are not Eagle scouts. Not a problem. I've been at university graduations where the valedictorian proudly had "Life Scout" in on his bio. People sometimes talk about this age 18 deadline. They had seven years to proceed through a 3 year process. Nearly all of us boys know this. We all come in, add up the time requirements in our books, and think to ourselves, "Easy-peasy. I go

Mid-70's: Our district called it a MB Pow-Wow. It was fun. We met counselors. Got partials. Got familiar with the college campus. Completed badges by making phone calls and following up.

Not gonna judge those who move into the nuisance - people just being people. But, all those folks who stopped harvesting deer basically rolled out the welcome mat for coyote reintroducing themselves in Western PA. (SM says a lot of his buddies are generating conspiracy theories that this was the game commission's doing.) A Saudi acquaintance got invited to a local ghost coyote hunt. I wished him luck, and explained that the beasts were as likely to be tracking him - for no other reason than sheer curiosity - as the other way around. Conversation then turned to if, on the chance he ha

My older college son and I have had many arguments other "energy saver appliances" that use more kilowatts, Tesla should focus more on batteries (Powerwall 2) and less on cars, product packages, rebuilding homes in flood-prone areas, replaceable batteries, product recycling, component standardization, simple vs elegant design,... Global warming: On my bucket list was a journey to the North Pole but I think there is only one safe $$$ walking route left. And there is our biggest argument, he believes global warning is the #1 environmental problem, oh and Dad should shoot the new coyo

When it was decided that advancement numbers were a performance metric for employees, it was inevitable that the system would be gamed as membership numbers have been games since very early on. There were no MB midways, days or universities in my council twenty-five years ago. I am sure they have been "on" for the last fifteen years. Some are worse than others in that some are more likely to hand out MBs without actual testing, but the trend is so towards cheating in the councils around here, that I have decided not to participate. When council SEs began to see MBs as party favors to

When did the MB U phenomena start? Who is driving this corner-cutting: national, council or misguided parents? My Webelos son will be in a troop in about 14 months and it would benefit to more about this. As a scout in the early to mid 70's no one came back from summer camp with more than 2 MBs, and these were usually ones unique to camp, or super time consuming to do at home (lifesaving, oceanography, pioneering, canoeing, etc.) During the school year one was lucky if they averaged three per quarter.

@Kahuna - Direct Service was transferred over to NCAC (National Capital Area Council) a few years back. I was in Direct Service as both a youth (1976-1979) and then multiple times as an adult (Asst. Scoutmaster Panama 1992-1995, and again Scoutmaster 1997-1999) and in Bolivia (Cubmaster) 2008-2010, and finally Ecuador (Cubmaster) 2011-2014. I retired from the Army in 2014 and my son and I became members of NCAC. Due to my experience- I was asked to become a ACC for Direct Service, under NCAC. Seems that Direct Service ceased to exist as we knew it under National in Texas and was passed over

Sounds like a good start. Although other disagree, I do not consider it disloyal for you to look out for the best interest of your youth, even when that might be at odds with your CO. It is not disloyal to the CO to make sure your youth have the best Scouting career possible. If it is with the CO awesome, if it is with someone else that is great too. I would try to get more details about the CO's plans for the troop, the leadership (SM and CC at least) and what steps are being taken to move the troop forward. Also, Scouters have long memories and more than a few flap their gums.

I'm not sure if anyone is still following this thread, but I talk with the CC/COR today. For those questioning my level of respect or loyalty- please stop. It's there and he knows that. Basically, I think he is attached to the very long continuous scouting history of this Troop and does not want to let the charter lapse and start back at zero. So he is working to covert the many leads he has received from council this year into real scouts, and also get a few of the older scouts to reengage with the Troop and breathe some life into it. He has many experienced scouters to act as leaders s

This is the thread that just keeps on giving!

To be clear: "new" and "helicopter" don't go hand-in-hand. The first one is easily fixed. Show them the lanes, maybe partner them with someone who's don it before, let them run in those lanes! The second one is not so easy. Someone has to stand in their way and firmly nudge them back in the lane (i.e., out of the boys lanes). If they are successful, that person will wind up looking back and laughing at himself/herself. If not, no matter how well the boys do, there will be criticism for every little thing that goes wrong.

I received some advice from our long-time Eagle coach in our unit. He would have the Scouts read and re-read (several times) the application and the workbook. He would then have them take notes, noting the action words, bolded text, noting where they use the terms like "not" or "shall" or such. Really break it down and read it as if you were signing your first mortgage contract. This advice opened my eyes and has been something we continue to do as a unit. The output of this is a checklist, that the Scout creates, that has all the "deliverables" or artifacts that must be completed and/or

That's the plan!! I have two boys in the pack and I really like both my boy's den leaders. I'll be much happier as a pack parent, life is too short and as much as I was looking to help, there's always the prospect of helping more in the future or moving on to another pack if the issues start affecting my kids.

First, here is a discussion about it --- very old, from 1997 -- that covers a lot of the topic: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.scouting.usa/DXEr2AotQiw Second, look at the news right now and inappropriate touching. Society has changed since the 1950's. There is to reason to physically manhandle a kid at a Pack meeting and it's wrong. Not everything about the good old days is good.

When my sons reminisce about their path to Eagle it is rarely about those kind of classes. It is the field trips, cool demonstrations, adventures, and larger than life characters. So many Eagle driven boys are focusing on the result and not the journey.

It's not the content that's the problem. It's the window dressing: the thinking that all girls want out of life is to be a Disney princess and therefore need to be "lured" into fields by presenting them with a "feminine" touch. At a certain point, girls rightly become insulted by the patronization. (The above picture was from a young woman at a local college who at first assumed the Science Center was responsible for the gender bias in the program titles.) There are (and have been for decades) young American women who marched into the most desolate parts of the darkest continents to heal

I could insert my comment about Bird Study becoming an elective MB and the rise of climate change denial, but that would be too much on topic. Speaking of which, the murder of crows, fed up with last week's cold spell, have left Pitt's campus. No more twigs dropping on one's head as one crosses the Cathedral lawn at dusk.