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I would agree with @HashTagScouts that the Venturing's organizers were playing the "have your cake and eat it too" tune. Their intent was clearly to cajole former boy scouts to pick up where they left off in rank advancement. (This, if I understand scouting history correctly, was a play inherited from the Explorer book.) One side-effect, as some troops began to micromanage every aspect of a scout's career, was that this policy could be used to entice dual-registered scouts in a troop to forget accountability to their troop-method SM's. This did not happen in my crew (my venturers kind of got

Ah, it's finally been updated! Lots of interesting changes in this new edition too. Thank goodness the square knots have been officially limited to nine; the ambiguity of the previous guideline made rationalizing excessive patches too easy. Now it reads specifically "the number of knots is limited to three rows of three." As for the rest of the Guide, it's very nice and much improved over the last edition. There are plenty of new images, and as a whole this new edition is far more detailed than the last. CSP's have a whole new detailed re-write with images. There is a whole new set of gu

I would say that @qwazse is on the right track of "how we got here". The Explorer program was really set about as one of many attempts by BSA to have an older scout program, and at various times in its existence advancement was allowable in similar fashion as it is in Venturing today, at others times it wasn't. Eventually that was all spun off and became Exploring, and the concept of "Venture Patrol" within a troop began. I was around for those later days of Explorer program, and my CO chartered both a troop and a post. Heck, the spruce green shirts for Venturing came from the Explorer BS

@PACAN, how is that any different from a bunch of boys who know Scouting's ideals before their troop is registered? Two years ago, if a bunch of boys started a troop this way, of course you'd tell them to date their scout rank from the day the charter was signed!

I'm sure you mean any book or document he might have read in the past. Barry

Scout rank can be earned in about two hours - or less - by someone who knows their stuff. The only time requirement is that you have to describe some things after attending a troop meeting. Pretty simple. And there’s nothing in the Cyber Chip requirements that necessitates doing it in the day. You can watch the videos in the dark.

@qwazse, that's brilliant. Not sure about gps count. I could mark the corner of each section and then the scouts could go from there using a compass and pacing it out. Not real accurate but gps's have their issues as well. One scout wanted to do something at night. They could set it up at night or the next day. @Eagledad, that's hilarious. It will have to be in there. It could be radios. Or it could be semaphore. Semaphore would match the steam punk theme. You will get full credit. You'd like the weapons I had in the clue-like murder mystery game: cotton, an outhouse, burnt pancakes, dull

Good idea. { Poof } Done.

In related news, Sydney will be in attendance tonight at the State of the Union address as a guest of Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, D-New York.

Which brings back memories of my being a scout. I recall my SM asking me first to teach another scout various skills. Then after teaching them send them to another scout to verify. Later I was to teach and sign off without anyone verifying. I realized the program when the time came for me to stop teaching and start verifying some of those I had taught. My troop is just three years old so we don't yet have a full compliment of older boys. But we are moving the right direction and scouts teach while a leader sits off and observes. Then the scout teaching lets us know when he believes the wo

And... you may have the reason your pack is so small. Few parents want their children exposed to such behaviors.

Quite right. My carrier evidently knows how much I enjoy reading other peoples' mail because he gives me PLENTY of it!!

This post was a warning to all those that disagree with the change that you don't want to hear about it and NOT about best practices. (Besides wouldn't THAT be better off in Program?) Since the original post covered avoiding upsetting sensitivities and appears to be in violation of the spirit of many points of the Scout Law, I felt it pertinent to call out the underlying tone of the post and it's impact on me. Appears that I'm not the only one. Or is that not allowed either? (Yes, that's an honest question) If you want to be taken seriously, then be open and honest (after all, that's

It's restricting freedom of expression, plain and simple. But this is a private forum, so restricting a discussion by the owner is also a form freedom of expression. What I didn't like was the implication that the disagreements were hostile and unscout like and dangerous to youth. On the contrary, I felt most opinion were well thought out and set the example of safe discussion environment for a difficult subject. Implying that is was dangerous to youth was sad. Barry

Most certainly. I also don't buy into the "Family Scouting" theory when girls are in separate troops from boys. Sooooo....let me get this "family scouting" thing straight....my son does camping one weekend with one troop and my daughter does camping on another weekend with an entirely different troop (or maybe the schedule conflicts and I have to decide which kid I'm going to support that weekend). Either way, my family is not scouting together. Instead we have a new potential friction point. If girls and boys can't be integrated in the same troop, it's really not "Family Sco

This is where Sydney starts to loose my support. This is one push too far. BSA has now given her the opportunity that she has been asking for, too be able to earn Eagle Scout even though she will turn 18, and now she wants her Eagle now. I understand the frustration she (and a number of Venturers I know) have about not being able to count camping and activity they have already done. But the fact remains that she didn't complete ALL the requirements, which include signatures from council, and being a member of a BSA troop. Webelos do not get credit for camp outs or activity they do befor

Merit badge requirements must only be signed off by approved merit badge counselors. The committee chair is not authorized to sign them off unless he or she is also an approved counselor for the badge cited on the application. Finding the original counselor is not a problem; just make sure a new counselor is found ASAP, and that that individual is district-approved.

RookieMom, you are getting opinions with a lot of years experience behind them shared with you here. I was a Cubmaster for 10 years. We operated out of a parochial school, so most of the scouts were from the school, but at least a couple times a year we had families visit our Pack with a boy who was "done". For whatever reason, their old Pack wasn't a good fit for their son and he now hated being a Cub Scout. I really felt for those families and tried to go all out making them feel at home. A lot of those boys ended up joining us and having a blast the rest of their Cub Scout careers

I had a similar problem, but it involved adults. My sons expressed their opinions on the problem adults to me, the SM, and the oldest to his BOR ( middle son had both problem makers on his BORs) Other Scouts complained about the behavior.. Problems got worse and worse. I finally had enough, and left the troop. BEST. DECISION.I. MADE! ( caps, underline, and bold for major emphasis). I admit, I miss my Scouts and my Scouter friends in the other troop, but the decision to leave was the best one. The attitudes my sons have towards the new trrop are a 180 degree turn around. Instead of dreading cam

Having listened to lots of people with troubles in their current troop stay miserable for far too long, people really should consider it more often and quickly.

Whatever is encouraged, it should be for the character growth of the scout. The goal of the scouting program is to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Law (BSA Mission). In short, character. Character is simply judging self-behavior and making choices without being influenced by our personal nature and temptations. I think the phone would be a great tool toward developing character because it is such a strong temptation and repetition of habits. The scout is forced to make a choice against his nature

I'm good with that as long as the adults follow the same rules.

I 100% agree qwazse. I do this this was to help keep troop numbers up artificially IMHO. One thing we have encountered in my son's Sea Scout Ship and Venture Crew is that if he wants to finish his Eagle they aren't willing to do the advancement work so he had to dual register with a troop. Of course the troop is confused because he rarely attends troop meetings because he is almost always at a Ship activity or Crew activity they aren't really willing to help him with signoffs. So he is kinda stuck to either find a troop that is more willing to work with his signoffs or not finish. Th

To everyone on scouter.com, Now that girls are already in the cub program and they are about to enter the scout program it's time to welcome them. That's a nice way of saying stop complaining about girls in the BSA. Every thread that is about girls entering troops has gone off the rails. There have been complaints about how the decision was made, the negative impact on boys, what's wrong with the BSA, and just a lot of anger. I understand that people want to complain in general but we can't have complaints about the decision to include girls any more. The reason is simple. No scout should