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I never knew of William Hillcourt growing up. Baden-Powell was the figurehead held up to us as Cubs and Scouts but most anything about him went in one ear and out the other of my self-centered teen-aged brain. Now the lives of Lord Baden-Powell and William Hillcourt are absolutely fascinating to me. Dedicating their lives to scouting, to the betterment of society from the ground up. There was a Scouter who had much the same brilliant impact on me as a Cub and then a Scout, and eventually sat across the table from me at my Eagle Board of Review. Jim McKellar, known to all in the local Scouting

In your case, the Moose Lodge signed the charter and committed to provide space. The church did not. I also know many churches are financially hurting right now. I'm surprised this is not happening way more often. We had a very similar issue and it resulted in our moving our charter. For us, one member of the church chartered the troop with the church. The church never really felt we were part of them. Rather they felt we were a community outreach / support effort by the church. Essentially, good will to the community. The church did not ask us for money. For us, we kept getting

I think it's clear enough. It is also the case that the decision about whether to accept work previously done is up to the counselor, not the Scoutmaster. An SM has no say at all in whether a Scout has successfully completed a merit badge, with that one fairly new exception for cases where it is clear that the counselor signed the card but the Scout did not actually complete the requirements. But that is not what is going on here.

The volunteer moderators of this forum do cheerful service, usually just keeping SCOUTER.com organized and enjoyable. The policy and standard of decorum for participation here has always included (1) acting Scoutlike and (2) behaving as you would standing around a campfire where Scouts and Scouters could gather. The Issues and Politics Forum have always had greater leeway, because important and interesting issues deserved to be discussed. The expected change in policy by BSA is a major inflection point (one long overdue in my opinion, though I respect that some may disagree based

Internally, I think the CO would just do whatever they do when terminating any other volunteer associated with their organization. The BSA does not impose specific procedures on the CO's for that. Externally, it would be logical for the CO, having removed a volunteer, to direct the CC to write a letter to Council informing them that the person is no longer affiliated with the unit and should be removed from the charter. (I don't think you get a refund though.)

I have to agree with most on this subject. To say that the new scripts form National are ‘rather lame’ would indeed be a kindness. Any Scouts can perform these as written; there is absolutely no need for the OA to do these. The Crossover is essentially an infomercial/promo on high adventure camps that are so cost-prohibitive, most Scouts will never be able to afford to go. There are plenty of AOL/Crossover scripts out there on the internet that incorporate Native American themes. A Pack may choose to do any one of these. Most OA Crossover/AO

I think the changes came with venturing. They were integral to my first VLST instruction. I agree and disagree. My real-world experience is with venturers who, because they had PoRs in both units, spent consecutive years in leadership positions and took their good old time with rank advancement. With youth that dedicated, there's nothing to argue about. Something less esoteric would (e.g., too busy having fun to wrap up one requirement) slow the earning of awards concurrently. In the cases where there could be overlap, I would rather those ambitious youth get both awards and

Actually, please do double dip on everything except the service project! Thus, his time as media specialist counts as PoR toward Life Rank, and if he plans activities as a result of that position, that same time can be applied toward the leadership requirements of a Sea Scout rank. He doesn't have to serve six months as media specialist for Life or Eagle and then serve as an activity chair for Ordinary just because those positions overlap. He can certainly have his Skipper fill the role of SM. Depending on the Ship's experience, he might find himself more responsible for the admin

Program has already changed. After October 1, 2018 the patrol method will be replaced with the den method. If that is not a reversal, I do not know what is. 18- 20 year old SCOUTERS (emphasis) will no longer county towards Youth Protection requirements. IMO that is a reversal. We spend 7 years to "Train 'em. Trust 'em. LET THEM LEAD!" then when they become adults, say sorry, we don't trust ya. Heck National no longer trusts them, as seen by the Den Method removing the last bit of INDEPENDENT Patrols ( again emphasis). Forgot to add, Tigers can no longer do BB Guns. That is a

A very nice remembrance. As we grow older, we tend to remember those that held us in their hearts, if only for a moment. Concerning that last remark, " Scouts get out of it what they put in to it. So put your whole self in and imagine the SELF that's going to come out. " , I have a t-shirt given me by my mom, it reads ""What if the Hokey Pokey is really what it is all about?"" There you go, put "your whole self in and shake it all about...."

Thanks, that is what I thought.

Huh? My point was that this changes harms something that is important to both my wife and daughter and I'm not going to contribute to that. BSA is free to make this change. I'm free to not be a part of it. Others are free to be a part of it.

I think it is just one of a series of misunderstandings, in some cases by people who are paid to know better. If the first girls join Scouts USA in Feb. 2019, there is no way any of them can make Eagle in 2019. Unless time travel is invented between now and then. I know Iowa always wants to be the "first" in everything, but they are going to have to settle for a "tie" this time.

That was what I thought but then I heard this Iowa interview starting around minute 2:55 Sometime in 2019, we (Iowa) will have our first female Eagle Scout. We have groups currently waiting for young women to start...so in 2019 we will have the inaugural class of girl Eagle scouts. There will be a big announcement... Confused? So am I.

Who’s been saying that? Of course it will be competition for GSUSA, in the same way that soccer and drama club and first jobs and the SATs are competition for both organizations. But neither BSA nor GSUSA has a monopoly.

We're almost certainly going to add girls to the Pack this fall. I don't think our CO will have a female troop yet, but the council is making sure that each district has at least one female troop ready to go in February --- our district definitely has a CO and the necessary leadership for at least one troop. I had one sister of a current scout ask me when she can sign up, she says she has at least one friend maybe two who also want to join. I'll make sure she and the new troop are in contact.

Our commissioner asked if we were going to add girls to our troop and I said they needed their own troop. He said they could have their own patrol and I repeated the above. But, to answer your question, I think this is going to take some time to happen. I think there is interest for the younger cubs. Our troop has had nobody asking. There is one troop in our town that is all in, got an article in the paper, and has a couple of girls interested. It's similar to the number of boys that join after not having been in cubs, very few. I suspect this will all change in a few years as girls work

Refer to BSA GTA 7.0.4.7 Limited Recourse for Unearned Merit Badges To make sure we are saying the same thing, the scoutmaster does NOT to ask the scout to demonstrate a MB skill before accepting the badge. If the scoutmaster has a concern, it's address through friendly discussion with the scout, but not discussion such as "show me how to ..." or "how would you handle ...". It's discussion more such as "How did the MB counselor cover this requirement?" ... "I don't see how the MB counselor covered the meal planning requirement for the camping merit badge. Where was that covered in th

The old forum posts had links to the Bryan blog where it is clearly said. There may be no writing that says a blue card can be denied but there's no writing saying it can't? Here is the link to the blog that addresses this but it's 2013. I don't have a copy of '13 GTA and if it is directly said in that publication, why would it not be included in '17? https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2013/12/23/ask-the-expert-mailbag-merit-badges-blue-cards-first-class-requirement-10/ The excerpt from Chris Hunt, advancement team leader for the Boy Scouts of America.is below. "The polici

I think the answer is stated clearly enough in the sentence I have bolded below from section 7.0.0.3 of the BSA's Legal Code on Advancement Guide to Advancement 2017. I have included exerpts of other parts of that section to provide context:

We currently have six girls who are already meeting/planning. Active committee (setting up financials). SM is a longtime ASM who is easily the most skilled backwoods camper in the Troop! Also have an ASM lined up— 25 y/o, Venturer. They are ready to roll! We are recruiting the same way we recruit boys— word of mouth, mainly. Flyers. Community service events. I suspect they will be up to 10-11 girls by February.

Prepared isn't quite the word for it. Working for smiles, I'm always prepared for anything. But is our CO prepared to support the launching of a BSA4G unit? That's the wrong question. Are the youth and moms/older sisters with integrity ready to be launched? Occasionally people are asking about it, but nobody is introducing me to those 5 girls and 1 female ASM. If there's no demand, all other questions are moot. I'm not even hearing, "I know this one girl ..." I wrote that up and sent to our CC. He's planning on meeting with the COR and UC, at the district's request, but unless I

It's only six months till girls in Scouts BSA. Will you be ready to start up a girls' troop in February? I know that @AVTech is planning to be scoutmaster for his daughter's troop. I know the @Hawkin's daughter is already planning her patrol name and patch. @Hedgehog was talking about a linked troop. My daughter is eager to start as well. So, for any of you planning to be associated with a girls' Scouts BSA troop, how close are you to ready? Do you have the necessary five girls already planning to join as soon as possible? How are you planning to recruit more girls? Do

Our troop has a "patrol" of girls at summer camp for the past 2 weeks. We run our own camp with usually one other troop. We've regularly had 1 or 2 associated Venture crews that are majority female doing all camp activities . Our girl patrol sent in registrations as Scouts which were rejected. We refused to take the apps back. I *think* council converted them to Venture apps and we refused to take the cards. Anyway, all the females are over 14 but we invited younger girls and would have allowed them if they wanted to attend. This is the female scouts' first troop activity, some of them did a e