Leaderboard

The first camp out for our new class of crossovers was on a very dark and very rainy March evening. After we reached camp, the new SPL was just repeating the routine that he had observed and assisted over the years of him and the Patrol Leaders taking a hike to locate all the patrol camp sites. Each patrol tries to get as far from each other as they can, so it can take a few minutes. Mean while all the patrol QMs start to instruct the rest of the scouts in unloading the gear from the cars and trailer. It's raining pretty hard as I watched the troop in action. The new scouts are disoriente

My older son got the Eagle, my younger son was much like yours that he didn't want the leadership so much. But let me tell a story about my younger son. He and a bunch of his friends organized a Boundary Waters canoeing trip for their Senior graduation. He grew up with these guys, play soccer with them, church and scouts until crossover where my son went to his dads troop. It was their Sunday school teacher who organized the trip. He was a scout leader in a troop that six of the seven friends got their Eagle. He also did the Boundary Waters when he was a young scout many years ago. My son

I am just fine teaching girls,different nationalities, etc. I have done so in church groups, campfire, IWLA, and a wee bit in Girl Scouts as well as BSA Right now though I feel ignored ,dismissed, deceived, and belittled. It's pretty obvious that national made up its mind long before they "asked" our opinion in this matter, and the pitiful smokescreen they threw up makes me think they either have a very low opinion of the rank and files intelligence, or they just don't care what we think. It seems that every "improvement " (excepting GBB's ) has made it harder and harder to intere

Looking around the world I don't think there is any worry that BSA will collapse altogether. Kids these days aren't really all that different to what they were 20, 50 or 100 years ago. They have more opportunities and live in a different social environment but what hasn't changed is that put them outdoors and get a fire going and they are as keen for adventure as they ever were. What also hasn't changed is a very hman desire, whichis particularly strong among the young, to belong to something. BSA and scouting more widely provides that. There will be changes, it may not end up l

Maybe the Eagle Scouts in Trump's administration should take him camping. Get the President out in the woods, away from the TV and Twitter. Have a nice campfire with lots of coffee and dutch oven munchies. Around a campfire you can give each other crap and laugh about it. You can also have some really deep conversations that may transform you into being person with empathy and humility. And, if the President causes too much trouble out in the woods, they could always take him on a nice snipe hunt.

At the moment I have a group of 5 scouts working on the "herritage" section of our local knowledge badge. They are looking at the history of our troop, which is pretty extensive going back to 1911. This evening, having found out the various places the troop used to meet they went for a bit of a walking tour. Nice and easy, all within half a mile of our current building. One of the venues is a picture framing gallery. It's a working workshop but surprisingly, given that we don't think the troop has met there since the 1940s, there are still markings on the walls marking the patrols. B

I am a youth, sophomore, and one merit badge away from Eagle. Give them a leadership role, make them feel welcomed. We put senior scouts as guide, or usually they are elected for SPL. Senior scouts will feel needed if you give them a topic to teach. Knots instructor, first aid, etc

Thank you. I think someone ought to capture more stories that for SM training. Our troop is a fair bit off from that. But - that's a topic for another day. What you describe here is a very good example of how Scouting develops the character and leadership qualities of youth. My son could have benefited from that. Goodness - I could have benefited as a Scout. Though he would have grown from that, I doubt that leading other scouts would have kept his interest. My son never showed any interest in leading within the troop. He liked the camping & camaraderie. The rest all see

There's an idea. Maybe he could go camping for the next 1,040 days, and leave things to his second-in-command. No, wait...

@AAONMS , welcome to scouter.com

At bare minimum, a Swimming MB instructor should be Lifeguard Certified (ARC, YMCA or BSA)...again, that should be a bare minimum standard. A caveat to that, is that the person should be fully Lifeguard Certified and not hold the shallow water "lifeguard" certification, which in my opinion, the American Red Cross should not even offer. ARC WSI (Water Safety Instructor) is a more ideal standard for swimming MB counselors. Competitive swimming and coaching experience is most definitely a huge plus, albeit not completely necessary at the goal is for the boys to become proficient swimmer

@codger I agree that the program may change (I do not think females are a foreign species but they are female) but that does not AUTOMATICALLY equate with "morphing into a pale shadow". That seems to be happening, arguably, quite nicely without the introduction of girls.

Lot's it seems. There is a Facebook group with over 1000 either interested or involved in such. No idea how many girls that translates too. My Pack has not been very successful in their recruitment. I am currently a Den Leader of 1 (we had one more that backed out for some reason) and I don't know how many others there are in the Pack. I am going to spend some time trying to recruit more Webelos to get us up to 3 or 4 for the Den.

Many volunteers have made the mistake of taking National at their word, when the evidence of National's untrustworthy behavior has frequently been clearly on display. Exhibit A is the survey and how it was handled. The "survey" appears to have been hastily rolled out to a select small group of Scouters to justify a previously-made decision. It is plain to me and many others that there is no need to speculate on whether certain changes will come to pass - that in the immediate or very near future: Packs and then Troops will become FULLY COED, forced into this by a confluence of pres