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Just a quick note on a conservation idea that's super easy. Mason Bees are very important pollinators and making little houses or Bee Hotels can be quick, easy, and fun even for Lion Dens. You can make them out of old bird houses falling apart, scrap lumbar, or a cleaned up tin can, some rolled up scrap paper, or old garden bamboo canes. The links below give good basic info on why and on how to do it but there are many more ideas on Pinterest. Painting is always the funnest part for the kids. https://baynature.org/article/backyard-boarding-house/ https://www.turningclockback.com/diy-

IMO, every scout a swimmer should be program. Fix the problem, get it done (yes it is hard), and done right. My younger son nearly drowned at a pool (not BSA). He was underwater in the unmarked deep end of a new pool when rescued. I wasn't there for him (Dad wasn't there). Years of anxiety therapy ($$$) were needed before he would go near the water to just fish. He would take a bath but not a shower as he became terrified if his face got wet. We tried private swim instruction - myself, his older brother who was on a swim team, BSA, Red Cross, and the Y swim instructors without success.

Our chartering church has experience fighting with National. Our home family church is the same denomination. We have had gay/trans leaders and scouts forever. We opted out of the gay ban and were a major force pushing our council to also opt out of the gay ban. For that I am grateful. My wife's church in NH just dropped their BSA charter. Our early 2000's outdoorsy church in Seattle had no scouts since 2 of our 4 ministers would be banned from contact with scouts for being gay. I am glad some liberal churches pushed through that culture war to allow a more inclusive movement.. But non

This came up in another forum recently so I went back to my bear book from when I was a Cub Scout. The number of required camping events in the 1984 edition of the bear handbook was zero. There was an option for the outdoor adventure that could involve either camping or a hike or some other outdoor event, but even the outdoor adventure wasn't required. Looking through all the old roundtable, den leader, pow wow guides my mom collected back then, it was all arts and crafts stuff. The model of cub scouting back then was pretty heavily a thing that moms were expected to do in their homes to keep

It's not? Now I know where I've gone wrong.

It has been my experience (during my 32 years as an attorney) that when a lawyer makes an absolute statement like that (BSA can do as they please), which isn't really true, what they are really saying is that they don't think you have a good case, and/or they don't think they can make a profit from your case. But they don't want to tell you they don't think you have a good case, and/or they don't think they can make a profit from your case, so they tell you the BSA can do whatever it wants. I have seen attorneys tell potential clients all kinds of not-quite-right things (and occasionally jus

The Troop and Scoutmaster mentioned need to have their fallacies put before them. The adult leaders are "selling the Scouts a bill of goods". I rather imagine the story about the swim test must hold true for fire safety, cooking, first aid and navigation. We hear of these things at summer camp, where a young Scout may be put in charge of a Skill Station or MB class, but not from a Scoutmaster? . . The false sense of accomplishment will come back to haunt them. Both the Scouts and their Scouters. Trustworthy? What does that really mean? The Troop of my Yooooth took us to a local h

@ParkMan, hope my "like " bandages your perplexity over a down-vote. Frankly, I appreciate the occasional "-1". I read this thing to understand people whose ideas differ from mine. If I want a bubble, I go to council venturing committees. I think you captured the sense of what's happened over the past few years. We've heard about troops going rogue over a number of issues. Folks like me (who care about the promise of scouting being delivered to girls ... not about laser tag), talked to tag-along girls and leaders who sanctioned them, and GS/USA moms who created close collaborations with

Yes, in an idealistic world. Leaders of a teams focus on the objectives, coordinates the proper resources to the required tasks, and maintains motivation toward the vision of the tasks. Without consistent direction and correction in any of those three processes , the group will tend to stall and sway away from the vision. An observer will note that the most successful organizations are, in one way or another, constantly and continually reminded and motivated toward their objective. Modern communication of emails, tweeter-twaters, texting, and even phone conversations are far more challe

Someone can go through the trouble of finding my quotes from a couple years ago, but I posited that 10K girls would be a sufficiently critical mass for BSA to open up its program to girls.

It is the Chartered Org. Rep's job to "hire and fire" adult leaders in a unit (pack, troop, etc). If there is a problem with the Committee Chair, and you've already tried talking to her about it, then the next step would be to talk to the Chartered Org. Rep. The unit "belongs" to the charter organization.

I was there at the spring pilot course at Philmont, as a student. Here is what I recall: B & G + crossover at Lunch Day 1 I was told more topics taught by troop guide Ticket ideas due Day 2 EOD (9PM), Completed tickets turned in Day 3 EOD, Approved tickets returned Day 4. No other homework or late-nighters. Patrol Project was a 7-10 minute on what we got out the course. No PPTs. Day 5 in AM. It took us about 45 minutes to put it together taking and white boarding. Students politely challenged the lectures on occasions for the better. 5-hr outdoor segme

And I cleaned up/reopened the thread.

You think that’s great. Just wait until a three year old girl starts asking you every night at bedtime, “I can be a Cub Scout when I be bigger?” And you can smile and say “Yes.” This is my happy reality. And being able to pass that Bear Cub scarf down at Crossover that used to belong to my now-adult boys... priceless.

I'm generally pretty opposed to troops freelancing on the rules. There are too many troops who decide to ignore key program rules because they are confident they know better. I.e. "patrols? Nah, we don't need those." This seems to be different to me. What I see here is a faithful (I hope) deployment of the program with a reasoned exception for the inclusion of girls - which is coming anyways. It is troops like this that will help push national in the direction of co-ed troops. Someone has to push the issue. Sounds like this is the kind of place to do it. They may succeed or the