Leaderboard

Let’s focus on our reality. We have girls in this country who crave adventure and challenge. Let’s work on extending our program to them in a way that is a credit to our personal sense of service and our larger hopes for the nation’s future. Nobody can propose a better place for these young women to discover their futures. Nobody.

There is no prohibition. I applaud the focus on adventure where advancement (specifically T-fC ) is a by-product and not the goal. However I would be cautious about the "launching a program..." because this sounds like an adult designed, adult planned, and executed program. The scouting program us supposed to be planned and executed by the scouts at the patrol level. Advancement, specifically mBs are supposed to be chosen, planned, etc... by the individual scouts.

A woman brought a very limp duck into a veterinary surgeon. As she laid her pet on the table, the vet pulled out his stethoscope and listened to the bird's chest. After a moment or two, the vet shook his head and sadly said, "I'm sorry, your duck, Cuddles, has passed away." The distressed woman wailed, "Are you sure?" "Yes, I am sure. Your duck is dead," replied the vet. "How can you be so sure?" she protested. "I mean you haven't done any testing on him or anything. He might just be in a coma or something."

I volunteered as an MBC because I feel boys are underserved. Nothing against girls in BSA but I would rather spend my limited time on boys.

I'm a simple person - but gotta admit that I'm not following you here.. My daughters as GS/USA members - so if you perceive a slight in my comments, it's not intentional. What I have come to realize is that the GS/USA programs and structure are largely different from the BSA program. The GS/USA system is probably more flexible than the BSA model - but many of the GS/USA troops out there are focused differently than BSA troops. I've also witnessed first hand successful community troops for girls. It has convinced me that the best way to build up troops for girls is to start focused

Because our GS/USA troops are outstanding, and I don't want to jeopardize my cookie supply chain.

Silence falls on the scouts as the brave young girl launches an arrow true, spearing the large troop, custom-wrapped, double-axle trailer. Hushed tones carry her name ... mocking jay.

I agree with @Navybone On this topic, I would only try to bring it back to the initial line of discussion in the thread to say that I believe it's important for Councils to remember that our roles here are to deliver the Scouting program to Scouts. For most of us, we got involved with a specific unit to help there. Sure, most of us are willing to help another unit from time to time when asked. But, there are practical limits to that. I believe councils need to tread very lightly in how they conscript unit level volunteers into council level programs.

When a Scouts BSA Troop forms in our area, it has not detracted from the local GSUSA units. In fact, in our city both programs are growing. There was an initial push-back from some of the GSUSA volunteers who thought we might be trying to strip-away their members, but this has just not occurred and their initial opposition to us has abated (at least among their volunteers). What has occurred is that girls who join our three Scouts BSA Troops for Girls are looking for something distinctly different from the GSUSA program. I'd let the girls speak for themselves, but believe a key difference

@prof, the GTA does permit a troop to limit the number of badges a scout can earn from one counselor (and also the council can limit the number of badges a single counseleor counsels. ) From the Guide to Advancment 7.0.1.4 ( https://www.scouting.org/resources/guide-to-advancement/the-merit-badge-program/ )

In late 2019, the Board of the Stonewall Jackson Area Council (SJAC) chose to abandon the name of their council that had been a powerful banner to Scouting in central Virginia since 1927. Now in light of this transition (either welcomed or not by current scouters, boosters, and onlookers), I think it appropriate to ....read here

Yes, I agree on the need to err on the side of caution. But I'd also question the appropriateness of refusing to work with a Scout based on that Scout's gender, race, or religion. That said, it's still a free country and we have the ability to associate freely with whom we wish.

I would most certainly not look at it as an either/or situation. A troop can certainly build up a MBC list from within their parents and also have outside counselors. In a different topic @Cburkhardt mentioned the value he sees in a larger troop. I'd echo the same thing here. In our troop of 75 Scouts, we've got enough adults that we've invested in things like having an adult to co-ordinate our MBC list. In our case we don't go out and solicit other local volunteers - but we could. If were were a smaller town troop and we had a bunch of Scouts who'd been asking about the automotive

SMs NEVER were automatically MBCs. My documentation on this goes back to the 1930s. In fact MBCs were not required to be registered either. And for many years required to be men.

I would have possibly thought the same thing, what possibly could the issue be?? That is until I had a conversation with some of our council professionals about the leader requirement for girl troops, had to have a female. I felt that was gender biased as no requirement for a male leader for boy troops. Why can't two dads of girls BSA members be the leaders? So the professionals go into a dissertation about statistics, and adult male incidents with females, etc etc. My initial feedback was "well they should be following YPT so what would the issue be?". Then some doublespeak on optics

I cannot fathom a reason that a MBC would not want to council a female scout. At least so long as the MBC is meeting all the Youth Protection requirements.

I encourage SMs to counsel the badges in areas that they are better than anyone else. I earned Music from my SM.

IMO a SE that would sign off on a 2 person troop is more concerned with numbers of units vs getting these two into a troop with an operating program. The number of adults on a charter should not be twice as many as the number of scouts.

It's a whole lot easier to walk up to a parent with a kid in the troop, ask them their interests, and then get them to be a merit badge counselor. Hey, Mr. Smith I hear you are an arborist. Would you be willing to be a forestry merit badge counselor? I see that your son has been working on several merit badges already. It's free of charge and the rewards are huge. Since it is a role where you'll interact with kids directly we'll need you to fill out this application and take the online YPT class.

Interesting. I may have a reason to use that 20-30% REI members coupon they always seem to send me around March, about the same time as they release the dividend info. 😃

No. I meant that exact situation. Scout's should be reaching out to MBCs, not handed to them on a silver plate. It subverts the program. Scouts should be experiencing MB programs in many different environments and styles. At some point, I question the MB program and wonder if troops should fully focus on skills at each rank ... plus nights of camping ... and plus leadership. Maybe every 5 more nights of camping could replace one MB.

I think we may be talking about troops of different size. Our troop, for example, has 75 scouts. That's a hundred troop parents and other adults who almost never camp with the troop or serve as a leader in another capacity. Some benefits: Provides for a healthy supply of merit badge counselors. Having those parents engaged in the merit badge program is a great way for a parent who doesn't otherwise help out to contribute. Serving as a MBC can often be the first step towards a larger role in Scouting. Just my .02. Rather than seeing councils scaling back, I'd rat

Troop MBCs make me question the value of the merit badge program. I'm okay with the troop having some MBCs and such. But when a troop has an inventory of MBCs for key badges, ... imho ... it really hurts the value of the MBC program. The MBC program is about getting the scout out of his comfort zone and learning something new ... AND working with someone new. When the scout mostly works with troop MBCs, the MBC program really changes from an individual scout focus into a troop run program. IMHO, it fully subverts the program.

Transfer your Good Turn coin from your left pocket to your right pocket.

A lady I know has a daughter who teaches at a small, indigent elementary school outside one the Navajo reservations in New Mexico. When I heard about the difficulties they have gathering resources and helping the children who attend that small facility, my heart went out to them. So when I heard they had almost no books in their school library, I put on a combined book drive with five other packs to collect gently used books they could enjoy and use for their education. I set a date for the book drive to coincide with our monthly pack meeting, and then sent information to everybody on every ro

Looking down the road, I think it is almost inevitable that, sometime soon, merit badges will be entirely taught (not counseled) by council employees, in a classroom-like setting (just like school). Safe and efficient, standards-based, and totally boring.