Leaderboard

If you didn’t see it, available online, a fantastic story on ScoutsBSA and the opening up to young women. Nice to see major national news coverage in addition to the huge amount of local publicity.

Your understanding of YPT is correct. However, she could save the $33 and register as a Merit Badge Counselor.

You are too kind and gentle on National BSA. Even though I support STEM initiatives in this day and age, scouting's value is still in its core outdoor program. That's what kids (and the public at large) expect. Nova is okay as a purely optional program for those scouts (or parents) who want to do it, but the outdoors is the crux of scouting. Turning STEM into the entire focus of a BSA unit is indeed "idiotic". STEM Scouts really doesn't belong in BSA. Maybe BSA and GSUSA could settle their legal differences with a fair trade: we'll give them all the namby-pamby indoor boys

I thought it was a great segment. I particularly enjoyed the anchor conversation at the end and thought it was exactly the message the BSA was hoping for.

I enjoyed when one anchorwoman talked about always wanting to earn Eagle, and they joked maybe it's not too late ... at least to help another girl along.

Here is the link https://www.cbs.com/shows/cbs_this_morning/video/mUObu4_8ouVgu0VRyBo8BuwWgSwwGXcf/a-new-era-begins-for-the-boy-scouts-of-america/

I read this differently. If it was a meeting of one scout with an ASM then I'd agree. Once you start to add in other scouts, I think you need a parent of each scout there. You could have: ASM, patrol leaders mom (registered in any position), 6 scouts ASM, 6 parents, 6 scouts I don't think you could have: the ASM, patrol leaders mom (currently unregisterd), and six scouts.

My daughter is 4, going on 5 this year, and she's skipping the Lion year. I don't see the point of it, and it will only contribute to burnout, possibly hers, more likely mine. Maybe this is a little selfish, but I don't want to learn the Lion program and end up running it, which I will since I'm already a DL and I'm sure I'll get pulled into that role in the Lion den too. So I'd rather just skip that whole year. And I doubt my daughter will miss much. I doubt my son would have missed much skipping Tiger, and half of his Wolf den was first-year scouts, many who had older siblings and knew

So many good thoughts in your comment @ParkMan. Thank you. Yes the troop is on life support and has been for at least 6 to 10 years. The pack was, but we have gone from 3 to 18 active scouts (22 registered) in 3.5 years. I have come to realize that the troop does zero recruiting! They rely simply on crossover scouts and word of mouth. The pack on the other hand is more active than the troop in every way & has a good recruitment program too. Your 2 points are spot on... my son & my CO some tough decisions are ahead. I did think of contacting a former SM to see if he can help the tr

The OP raises a good question. Balancing need to know (safety), privacy, and treating adults with respect. Before "Family Scouting", our unit treated adults as adults, i.e. as an adult, it was up to you to have and hold your current health form and meds. Just as you, as an adult, do outside of scouting. You have a plan for your asthma, your diet,...you check food ingredients,...you are a responsible adult. Here is a link to the relevant BSA FAQ . My $0.02,

BSA dragged venturing down by a thousand cuts. The worst being last years' youth protection mandates. What group of 14-20 year old co-eds would want to be dependent on the presence of two adults for every meeting and activity? Before that, the distinction between adult and youth participants put an effective wedge between members of a crews with a wide age span. Before that, the jump in registration fees exceeded the average cost of a weekend in the woods on borrowed gear. For late teens, it is now easier to fulfill the vision of a pinnacle scouting experience of hiking and camping indepe

He is covered in the MB. In fact when I teach it, he is in there a good bit. He is one of the people the Scouts can write about, and I talk about him for the Handbook. In addition to what's specifically related to him in the requirements, I bring him up patrol method and Wood Badge. I also talk about Burnham, even though he isn't specifically mentioned in the requirements. We cannot add to MB requirements, but nothing says we cannot teach MORE than what is in the requirements.

Our troop requires two 3 hour long sessions that take the place of the regular meetings prior to going on the Shooting Sports weekend. If a scout doesn't pay attention and/or fails the written test, we don't let them near a loaded firearm. The basics of gun safety are best taught in a tightly controlled environment where a boy's attention isn't distracted by "Enough about safety; when are we gonna shoot!?" So far, none of our instructors have ever been swept with a loaded firearm.

1. Yes, venturing is dying. Which is incredibly unfortunate because I think it's the best program the BSA has to offer. When I was a kid, I heard so many other kids say "I quit scouts because I just wanted to camp and do fun stuff, I didn't care about the badges". Well that's exactly what venturing offers!! To make it even more gloom, every council has a "Camp Crew" where you register camp staff who are not involved in traditional Scouting. So the total number of actual ventures is even lower than the national report. 2. National BSA is making the same stupid mistake GSUSA is doing by fo

Hi @karunamom3, Sounds to me like you've got a Scouting program at your CO on life support. Ouch! I think you've got two different choices to make: what do you do for you sons? what do you do for Scouting at your CO? You want your sons to have the absolutely best Scouting experience possible. I wouldn't let personal pressures about supporting the current Scouting program get in the way of that. If your sons get into a dull, boring program and they quit after 2 years that would only hurt them. As for your CO's program, I think that @Treflienne asks a key question.

Sent you a mailing address via private message

Exactly what I've been hearing, "We want to go have fun with our friends, hiking/camping/fishing, we have our own cars, gear, and $. Why do you imagine we need you and your silly rules?

We do a Shooting Sports weekend too. Our NRA-certified instructor covers safety rules within about 30 minutes and does another 15 minutes while out on the range showing the boys how to operate the specific bolt-action .22 rifle provided by the council at camp. The boys are then closely supervised by NRA-certified RSOs with the instructor acting as coach. The boys get MUCH more time out on the range than they spend in lecture. 2 3-hour sessions. Wow. Just Wow. I'm not even a kid and I'm bored just contemplating it...

Define "work correctly." I consider working correctly to be fulfilling vision of the pinnacle scouting experience of hiking and camping independently with your mates. So under today's strictures, to work correctly, a patrol would have a non-BSA meeting absent adults, develop a plan for an overnight camp-out, have a caring adult (sometimes called an SM) review the plan, improve the plan until it's approved, implement the plan (which, given two registered adults of the desired sexes would be a BSA campout, otherwise not), return and meet with other patrols (sometimes called a troop meeting)