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"Ambient temperature" as a friend reminded me when I reported that night #1 at Jambo was pocked with multicultural screams of souls subjecting their hides to such water for the first time. Such is life when you've been assigned a site adjacent a shower house.

Lawyers are officers of the court, with professional standards, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, local court rules, and civility standards. Compliance with those rules are part of their professional obligation. The judge found their conduct crossed the line and is hitting them hard for it. Beyond that, the lawyers apparently forgot who their clients are and what their clients stand for, risking reputational damage to their clients from their misconduct. That was dumb, not aggressive representation.

First thing: Wood Badge can be well worth your while because it will teach you the same material they learned at NYLT. I found Wood Badge helpful and I'd already been to NYLT. Otherwise: I like Eagledads advice. Ask them what they learned and want to try in the Troop. NYLT talks a fair amount about creating visions for yourself and your team and creating SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time set) goals to accomplish that. If they are SPL or ASPL's ask them what their vision is for the troop, what goals they want to set, and as they go along, help them refine their

There is no formal order of precedence of square knot awards, but mine are starting to accrue in an unattractive way. It got me thinking about how to sort and rank them for the purpose of shaving them down to the ones I would consider most important. 6 look good. 9 looks OK. 12 is starting to get questionable and past that the shirt starts getting stiff and uncomfortable. That being said, I completely support everyone making their own decisions about what to wear and in what order, but I am curious what everyone thinks of my system of determining order of precedence and what to wear.

Our troop had a crew return from a backpacking trek with MOHAB. The Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Ranch is a truly beautiful base camp with the best view of any high adventure base and the staff was all super friendly. Our guides, Stephen and Conner, were awesome with the scouts from the minute we walked in the door through training as well as along our trek and all the way to getting up at 6am to have breakfast with us before we headed home. Having completed a Philmont trek I though I was prepared for the hikes but some of these climbs were kicked my butt but every view was well worth it. The

Ok - uncle. I give up. If the BSA basketball team got so ticked off at the GSUSA basketball team that they refused to give them the ball I don't think I'd care either.

The longer than dkurtenbach , but still short answer here is that no, stalling is not an acceptable tactic, making it more difficult for the other side to make their case by being untimely or uncooperative is in fact strictly prohibited under various court rules and the general rules of ethical behavior that govern the profession. Unlike what may be portrayed on TV or in the media, there aren't supposed to be surprises in legal cases. The point of the process of Discovery is that both sides are supposed to have the same full set of all the information relevant to a case. Each side has a

Kind of a minor observation, but I sort of get a chuckle when I see US scouts and scouters so quickly switch from the tight neckerchief to the loose friendship knot style as soon as they get to jambo. And I wish they kept it that way when they got back home. I think we're a bit too tightened up when it comes to uniforms compared to many of our overseas friends in scouting.

@ParkMan, in answer to your first question, the judge explained what they did wrong: "Discovery is intended to advance the merits, efficiently and economically. It is not intended to create a tortured maze to hinder the other side." In the character of the Scout Oath and Law, the lawyers should comply with their obligations under the rules that govern litigation: "The interrogatory and discovery demands of both sides are clearly relevant and proper, and should be answered, fully, promptly and responsively." Your second question is premised on the notion that when they were engaged in t

We started working with a PLC meeting one hour before the Troop meeting for a few reasons. First, even companies would struggle updating action items every four weeks. One small meeting each week is a lot easier for young adults than one long meeting once a month. Action items are just easier to process and report every week. Second, the scouts practice the discipline of doing the the process of meetings efficiently. The SPL gets very good at making agendas and getting through meetings efficiently. The PLs learn the process simply by attending. I found myself bored to death with Troop Committe

@qwazse that must have been a fun experience. I find it odd that SBR doesn't have water heaters, when our camp here in CT has water heaters for the campsite showers. Luckily my wife has been moved up off the waitlist, so she will get the experience of 'ambient temperature' showers.... I am still waiting for my chance. Mike

I read what you posted here and all it looks like to me is that the lawyers were making it difficult for the opposing side. This case is stupid, but the ramifications of it are a big deal. I am glad the counsel for the BSA is aggressively representing their cause. While I'd love it if everyone could hold hands and get along, I recognize that in some circles - like law, when you're in the midst of the case you have to push boundaries at times. I saw nothing in what you posted that suggested unethical behavior. Simply a judge who thought they were not playing nicely with each other an

@dkurtenbach, this is a century-old fight. What the lawyers are trying to prevent from discovery is all of they ways each party had tried to impose more-or-less unwritten branding rules on the other for decades.

Oof. You don't want to be on the receiving end of an order from an unhappy judge.

I did a quick Google search, and there are hundreds of media accounts on this that will be present over the next several days. Most seem to be written in a manner to lead the reader into thinking that there is a current problem (couched as an "epidemic") with sexual abuse in the BSA, when the suits are related to events from the 60's, 70's and apparently some from the 80's. We have had our YPT act together for a long time and those who read this blog know it. Individual reporters on the far right or far left can be motivated to allow such a misunderstanding for reasons previously and fully

Well, I'm certainly willing to be convinced. But just so we are clear on the kind of patrol I'm talking about (what I call a Patrol Method patrol, or "real" patrol), here's a description of the patrol experience from the Boy Scout Handbook, Seventh Edition, Third Printing, January 1967, page 93: -------------------- "Patrol Doings. An honest-to-goodness, live-wire patrol does plenty of things on its own. It always has lots of interesting plans underway, whether patrol meetings, hikes, camps, Good Turns, stunts, making tents, fixing up a patrol den. "Patrol meetings

A valiant effort. But I think the time of real patrols in the Boy Scouts of America has passed. For most troop adults/parents, the only things that they will every really know about patrols will be the explanations they hear from very young Scouts working on Scout rank requirements 3.a. and 3.b. and Tenderfoot rank requirements 2.a. and 2.c. -- that patrols are about symbols and meals. Scout rank: 3.a. Explain the patrol method. Describe the types of patrols that are used in your troop. 3.b. Become familiar with your patrol name, emblem, flag, and yell. Explain how these items create pa

There is one checklist: the trail to First Class. Scouts should master each item on it. For example, no scout should ever think that they only need to present their gear to their PL once for rank advancement.This should be routine at each camp-out. Who has what gear, who needs what gear, and how to balance loads is an essential discussion for every hike and camp. Why? Because adults aren't going to be there to bail them out. Oh, wait, I confused BSA with the European and South American girls and boys who explained to me how their patrols work. Sorry ... Jamboree residual.

I think this discussion, in the general sense, has not moved in years. On the one hand there's a possibility of kids getting hurt and on the other there's a loss of growing up. It's been stuck there. First of all, I think quantifying the risks and benefits might move things forward. Maybe the BSA has specific reports of scouts getting hurt when left on their own but we don't know how many and what the severity is. On the other side, there is no quantifiable information on the benefits. The entire discussion is Someone mentioned child abduction. How many scouts have been abducted by p

I like seeing "our scouts in the XXX patrol decided". IMHO, this is the key to success. The scouts in the patrol decided.

Barry, I took your advice and talked with the SPL. We reduced our total number of patrols in order to have a higher number of scouts in the patrols. All of our scouts in the NSP decided to stay together and absorb some of scouts from the other patrols. We will keep this format for as long as it works. Thank you, Mike

Wow, this thread is OLD - I was barely out of high school when this conversation began (it's funny to think that this site is old enough that I could have joined as a youth member had I been more internet savvy then!). Anyway, as long as it's been resuscitated ... 1) Yes, we have a troop neckerchief 2) It's the stock black neckerchief with silver trim 3) It's worn by all the boys under the collar, except for one boy who wears a vintage uniform and so prefers to wear his over the collar to better fit the era of his attire 4) The black and silver go with their patrol emblem, which is a silv

That would make a good one for Eagledad's A Scouter's Motto thread.

He got it for free by asking someone in the dining hall for one. Walks onto the porch and sells it.

Hello, World .... at subcamp Charlie, SBR ... World Scout Jamboree.

An indoor Wood Badge course is pretty bad. An indoor Wood Badge course AT A HIGH ADVENTURE BASE is just nuts. What's the adventure, trying to avoid getting a splinter from the seat?

I too, a BSA volunteer, would like to know the answers to Representative Speier 's questions regarding BSA paid state lobbyists. Sad day when in order to get transparency from National, we need Congress's power to investigate. Maybe Rep. Speier will also ask what happened at the National Annual Meeting last month.

I don't know how accurate the earlier claim of 5 cases of sexual abuse in the BSA in 2018 is, but assuming for a minute that it's in the ballpark of accurate, can we just acknowledge the immense progress the BSA has made in curbing abuse? If we go by the available data from these articles, 12,254 victims of sexual abuse in the BSA have been reported since 1944. On average, that's about 163 per year. And surely the rate of abuse has diminished over time, likely with recent years tapering off and years further back having significantly greater numbers of abuses per year. We've gone from hundreds

OK "My son came back a changed scout. It was after this course he dropped a school activity and decided to run for SPL. He came back proud to be a scout, wanting to lead. The NYLT patch he wears is the most important patch on his uniform to him." Convinced me I will wait the year to send him he will be 13 in September and is already a Star and has all his MB's for life needs his 6 months tenure in his POR. He hates his current POR Troop Quartermaster but it makes him stronger in his weak areas organization and keeping track of things. He talks about SPL and the next day talks about qu