Leaderboard

Maybe the BSA is playing 4 dimensional chess. See, if they get the rumor mill started that annual dues are going to $100, then announce an increase from $33 to $67, everybody will be relieved even though the dues doubled! Brilliant!

Our troop is at the 8-month mark in doing exactly what you are now beginning. We are not linked and have a very supportive CO. We are not perfect, but I would say the reason why we now have 15 adult leaders and 30 girls is that a group of us developed a vision for an unlinked girl-centered troop at an early stage. The program and standards for advancement are exactly the same, but we were especially mindful of the schedule and other structural preferences of girls and their families in designing our troop operation. You can visit our site at http://www.ScoutsBsaDcGirls.org if you wan

@RichardB, I think the confusion is over the term "overnight". Is it limited to one night, as in, "go camp overnight and come home tomorrow"? Or does it mean overnight for as many nights as you want? Also, the rule used to be "Cubs only do family camping", but your chart above shows family camping and "den/pack overnighters"...can you define the difference, please?

You can't sue the same defendant for the same tort covering the same facts in two courts. Or I suppose you could but the defendant would be able to have the suits consolidated. If you could, people would have been doing that all along suing in both their home state and Texas. So, no, you couldn't sue the BSA in both PA and NJ for instance. You could sue the local Council in PA and also sue the national BSA in NJ, but you would be doubling your costs of litigation without changing what you could recover so there's no incentive to do that. If you can bring suit in your home state because th

Maybe. But probably not. It's not straightforward. There are a lot of issues around gathering firewood that we're becoming more aware of and that are becoming increasingly important as we face ever-diminishing open lands. While we might view dead trees or downed wood as fuel ready for gathering, it is also a food source to some species and a habitat for others (think birds picking up twigs to build nests, beavers using branches and logs to build their dams, etc.) Bugs like termites might directly consume wood, and they, in turn, become food for birds or other animals. There can b

Very similar memories here. I was the kid who was up early and re-lit the fire using an ember buried in the ash. I was always proud I could go the entire weekend with only using a single match. Even now, I am usually the first to arise and re-light the fire when I am out with friends (or with the adults on a scout trip). My camping hasn't changed much since my scout days, except for I have learned more and am able to do more advanced types of trips. IMO unless there is a fire ban, scouts should be using open fires for cooking and camraderie. Yes, even in sub-zero winter.

Boy! You sure stoked a lot of memories. Fires are where scouts, boys, men, gathered for the important lessons of life. Jokes, stories of school, cars, airplanes, movies, and girls (for the older scouts) were the typical subjects of the patrol campfire. I knew all the words to the movie "Patton" before I saw it a few years later. "Patton" means something different to me than most of other people who have watched it. And while we imagine ourselves sitting around the red and orange natural combustion, more often than not we stood next to it, as if the smoke and the heat bonded us all t

That's the only way we cooked back in the 60s...wood campfires. No propane or white gas ...no trailers or patrol boxes either...everything went in our backpacks....

Just spoke to the local pros in our council. Of 13,000 youth members in Scouts BSA, we now have 800 females. In over 75 new all-girl Troops. There is no comparable circumstance in my 50+ years of association with Scouting when we have experienced an opportunity like this -- which is available to every council and chartered organization willing to act. As these Troops swell in membership over the next couple of years and are joined by additional ones, our collective future will be a lot brighter. Our new membership directions are much better than our recent decades spent focused on excludi

I would make sure the camping is cleared by her doctor, and I stress DOCTOR. When dislocated my shoulder on a camp out and popped it back in, I asked the nurse if I could still camp, and was told yes. Several hours later, I dislocated the shoulder while sleeping on the ground and had to go back to the ER. Shift change, so none of the original folks who saw me were there. Doctor told me no way I could sleep on the ground. Even after surgery and started rehab on the shoulder, I was limited as to what i could do by the doctor.

I can't promote Country Meats enough. I love them. Like others say, they practically sell themselves. Yes, in theory you have to move more product but you stand a better chance of people wanting to get $5-$10 worth of sticks as you will with popcorn or nuts. I also like to support them as they are what I consider a local company for us as they are in our council area. Excellent customer service also. Plus as a parent I can use one of the promotional items they send you(for free) and just sit a box of them on the corner of my desk and as people walk by they see them and buy

This is where I'm at too. Parents in a pack or troop need to be able to trust the adult leaders to take their kids camping. Gender is secondary here. However, if the BSA really believes they need this rule, then I'd rather it simply say:

We should have a contest: Pale Horse can have a group of kids standing outside a shopping center selling $20 bags of popcorn and I'll have a group of kids right next to 'em selling $1 meat sticks. Whoever makes the most money gets to buy the nicest tents for their troop.

Yep. It's never been about gays or girls or atheists. It's a postmodern requirement to "deconstruct" everything that contributes to what they perceive as immoral power hierarchies. The BSA, by kowtowing, has signed it's own death warrant. They will drive traditionalists from the program and pin their hopes on people who would rather see it dismantled.

Sons previous troop was exactly as you describe, and had evolved to that starting in about the few years before he joined it. Patrols are kept together, and touted as "they are all going to be the group of friends they will have long after their time in scouting is over". Well, except for the kids who quit because they just weren't friends with their patrol mates after a time, but were not given an option to move to another patrol. Many of those kids who left had just grown apart from the other kids, there wasn't any actual animosity. A few went on to go to other troops, but sadly, many ju

I wish I had your optimism. Unfortunately I have seen pros take over and ignore the boots on the ground. Not only at the local level, but national as well. One example is the "instapalms" that 94% were either against (18%) or strongly against (76%). And to this day, they still have not released the results of the last membership poll they took. I have seen a few pros that have a passion for the movement. Sadly they tend to leave quickly and the ones that remain and move up tend to view it as a job. And they willdo anything to keep their positions.

Old Guy? The BSA is becoming No Scouting for Old Men, particularly for those learned in scouting from back in the day. Next stop working with Habitat for Humanity or joining a Men's Shed or maybe enjoy what are they called, oh yes, a hobby.

We received a few high value items i sold on ebay and we ran ads locally for appliances. I'm working on the flier for this years. it will be in a few weeks. You need a plan for storage and a plan for what to do with unsold stuff. This year I'm working a deal with a flea market seller to come pick up my unsold stuff.