Leaderboard

Yes! Our district made it a weekend camping program. We had 6 scouts complete the radio merit badge and 4 begin pioneering. We are in NJ and we connected to folks, some scouts, in Maine, Florida, Tennessee, Ohio, Louisiana, Canada and Germany. It was open to cubs, scouts and venturers. It was cold, but lots of fun!

Bring back the pioneering and Native American skills and games that were in the old Cub Program. Let them play games that they can get filthy dirty in. Our fall hike was based on the old Bear leaf ID elective and the kids had a blast stomping around to identify them with an arborist dad. One Grampa in the group found paw prints near the water and the cubs were trying to ID them back at the luncheon with the old stalking/tracking MB books the troop in town keeps on hand. parents need to let the youth fail - fail at making a fire, or a meal or having their tent set up so it doesn’t

Popcorn.

When outdoor adventure was the cornerstone of the BSA, adults knew what they signed up for. They'd either be outdoors as a leader, or in a support capacity that directly helped folks get outdoors. Not so today. Now you can have a long career in the BSA, as a pro or volunteer, and not have to "deal" with outdoor "stuff." Sure, you might have to gut out two weekends for WB, but after that the coast is pretty clear. Clean uniforms, lots of meetings and conferences, etc. Hike 5 miles into camp? Chop wood with an axe? Start a fire in the rain? Cook a meal on the coals with a couple

I am the chartered organization representative for our units, vice-chair of the church board and a long time Scouter. As a sponsor, we have hosted Scouting continuously since 1911. We view it as an outreach ministry to the youth and families of our community. The following is our thinking at this time: The Scout troop has adequate reserves and can probably handle increased costs between $50 to $75 per Scout and Scouter. We will certainly have to look at our fund-raising capabilites in the future. Our Cub pack was totally re-organized this year. The good news is that we

No matter what the registration is for 2020 and beyond, I will continue to work with an inner city pack and troop. The youth need Scouting and I am helping to fulfill their needs.

I know there are many well meaning people working at the National level. However, I would wager that a lot of rational people would say that somehow, the ship has lost its rudder. Frankly, I think it's time for local units to work toward a down-up reorganization, because our parent organization is clearly not meeting our needs. Successful organizations do not operate this way. You are attempting to normalize something that is largely dysfunctional and unresponsive. The idea of National patting us on the head and saying, "Go, shepherd, go tend your sheep and don't worry about all this," is not

To the question: The priorities of National are to maintain a program template that works and arrange for sensible business services and highest-end program experiences unavailable at the unit and council levels. I think they are on-task and doing reasonably well, now that they have withdrawn from social policy development and enforcement — and now that they are conducting YPT effectively. The priorities of councils are to form and maintain units and to provide program experiences to supplement and support units (camp properties, camporee, etc.). The effectiveness of councils varies greatl

In theory it does not, but in practice it is a facility that is not fully utilized, and takes resources from other areas. In general it puts the organization at financial risk. For a local unit, not so much impact until they see the update registration fee and may not realize that some portion of that is in fact a Summit Tax. Similar to a unit that goes all out for popcorn sales working to exceed last year, not necessarily a bad thing in general, but units, like organizations, only have so much bandwidth and human capital. They all work on the sales and then other parts of the program

Getting the push to be 100% trained in the district, which is an admirable goal, so took the Merit Badge Counselor on-line training. more just fluff, very little nuts and bolts. That's the same comment most of our leaders made with the "NEW" YPT, it was more theory and convincing us that endangering children was bad and less about how to be compliant and "DO" YPT. The old training was really applicable, DO this DON'T do this etc etc. When we do training for the Troop Leaders our emphasis is on them having the Scouts DO stuff. When doing fire building we do not need Scouts to underst

A wise old scoutmaster used to love saying, "Team work makes the dream work." I have no idea whether he made up that quote or borrowed it, but the truth behind it is apparent in myriad situations (including fundraising). If you've got an idea for a fundraising activity, but you think that your unit might be too small to support it, a good solution is to simply team up with another similarly sized unit and work together, then split the proceeds. As I was reading some news articles about scouting, I came across this story about 2 BSA troops that were working together to host a S

Weird part was the camporee wasn't at the restaurant, it was at a church nearby the Restaurant. We got up there and found all the garbage in there and the troops decided that it'd be a good service project for us to take the garbage down to the city dump. So we took the half-a-ton of garbage, put it in the back of an SUV, took shovels and rakes and implements of destruction, and headed on toward the city dump. Well, we got there and there was a big sign and a chain across the dump sayin', "this dump is closed on account of the camporee" and we'd never heard of a dump closed for a camp

I'm not sure the fire pit was large enough for 3 pots. We also needed to cook the beans in a skillet and of course the schnitzel in a skillet. We do have a nice cowboy fire cooking setup for grilling or hanging a pot over a fire. It will likely be used at Iron Chef next month.

Double Eagle: Stop Running / No running is acceptable. Especially in our council camps - when my boys were cubs we had a summer camp week where the ODD (oppositional defiance disorder) child was told stop running in camp several times and it was explained daily why no running in camp - until he ran in camp, tripped on a rock or tree root and broke his hand. Safety doesn’t always need gentle reminders this weekend we had a cub Activity day with picnic & s’mores after. One cub family left early because their child wanted to eat s’mores while everyone was eating lunch (everyone was t

Easy solution - keep activities at the unit level, avoid the WB snobs AND the uniform police

Most of our competition -- other youth organizations -- generally do not have these kinds of issues. There is usually a highly functional public interface, things are usually very organized, and the organizational messages and goals are coordinated from the top, wherever it is, down to the local level. I don't have any issue with BSA reexamining fees. It's understood that we have a financial crisis. I do have an issue with the timing and the total lack of contingency planning. Something has really gone off the rails and without some degree of honesty beyond the spin, I'm not sure what's next.

@mds3d, Eagle Projects being considered a troop activity is a relatively new thing, within the past 10 years if memory serves. As for requiring 2 adults over 21 to be present, that came about October 1, 2018, when patrols could no longer do day activities and meetings without 2 adults over 21 present. Had that discussion with my oldest as we had some challenges getting a 2nd registered adult for his first workday. Worked it out with a neighboring council's council commissioner who worked at the place it was being done at. Between his periodic visits, and other Scouters working at th

Leave? No. I’m going to be right where I am, as CC of my daughter’s troop until she ages out, then working with my sons’ Cub pack as they get older. The program is solid at its core. I’ll take care of my local kids and they’ll have a great time. National can do whatever National does, and it doesn’t affect the day-to-day unit program a whole heck of a lot. I do agree that Cubs has gotten far, far too long. If my boys join, they’ll be waiting until Tiger or more probably Wolf. Lions is pretty ridiculous. There are only so many times you can visit the police station and go pumpkin-picking a

I do not agree with the overall negative tenor of comments in this posting. We are in the process of working out our financial, liability, program and membership fails. We have changed more in the last few years than the last couple of decades -- and for the better in my view. We are no longer a cultural punching bag. We are indeed limiting our future liability by tightening-up things and will soon deal with the liability of the Youth Protection fails through the bankruptcy. Our over-reliance on a particular national chartering organization is being replaced by a more-balanced membership

I can understand why you would hear "Clean", I would probably hear "Trustworthy" or "Loyal" or, if I'm joking around, "Obedient." If anything like that ever happened to me, of course.