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I look back at all the things I learned in scouts and one of the most important, because it might have saved someone's life when I said "how do you know there's no bullet in the chamber?", was gun safety. Tool safety would be close. I just don't understand why the same idea behind teaching gun safety isn't used to teach other types of safety that could enhance the program.

There was a hearing today and while I didn't attend, there is a great series of Tweets from @melissabjacoby Richard Pachulski from TCC is stating that the AIS firms are essentially messing up this entire process. The judge must demand they send a joint letter to their claimants or the entire voting process may end up in being subject to debate. The judge basically said it may be too late, but she doesn't know what authority she would have to demand this of AIS. TCC said they would amend their motion. Expect some fast action over the next week or so over: 1) Demand on AIS to send

https://www.nj.com/news/2021/11/2-nj-boy-scout-councils-selling-camps-to-pay-for-sexual-abuse-settlements.html Patriots Path Council is selling Sabattis, their high adventure camp, and Jersey Shore Council is also selling some property.

Hell, my shop classes were all in middle school. The only pieces of equipment we absolutely weren't allowed to use were the table saw and the power miter saw. Even the band saw could be used, but only if the cut you needed to make allowed you to keep your hands 6" away from the blade and under the teacher's direct observation. The belt sander, jointer, planer, palm sander, drill press and lathe were all fair game. Though the lathe was only allowed for 8th graders and only with special dispensation from the teacher. I didn't understand why then, though I do now after seeing videos of lathe

Update Nov, 2021: GONE "The Patriots’ Path Council — which includes 11,000 Scouts in Morris, Somerset, Sussex, Union and parts of Middlesex County — told its members earlier this month that it entered into a contract to sell Sabattis Adventure Camp, its beloved campground in the Adirondack Mountains. ... A previous proposal to sell Sabattis Adventure Camp in 2017 was delayed by the Boy Scout council after nearly 2,000 people signed a petition to save the camp. ... The sale of the camp will help Patriots’ Path Council pay a portion of the $3.7 million the council is ex

@NealOnWheels and @69RoadRunner, there is a FB group dedicated to Dolly Sods. Lots of pictures, but also discusses issues like LNT, traffic, hunting, edible plant seasons, etc…

Our troop always rolls our own. Great adventures at a fraction of the cost of HA bases. We have gone to Shenandoah National Park and Smokey Mountains National Park. Both are practically in your back yard. Shenandoah not so much wilderness. The Appalachian Trail runs very near the main road. You always here car traffic. We took some side trails down the mountains and saw plenty of water falls and swimming holes. But the side trails had heavy hiker traffic. Smokey Mountains is huge you can find plenty of trails and if you are a few miles from any road you may only see a few

Annual Planning Weekend is this coming month. I think I'll whisper this in one or two of the scouts' ears.

This^^^^^^^^^

Boy, I'm not sure why you want to set people's teeth on edge before you offer input, but you sure do a good job at it. It's not the way I'd try and persuade folks, but I'll assume you have a reason. I put my scouts at risk at pretty much every camp-out, it's called "adventure". Last campout they went trail (bike) riding and we had 2 kids take headers off their bikes when they hit stuff. One kid got what I assume was a really really mild concussion cause he went headfirst into a tree (a little dizzy for 3-4 seconds), the other got a long shallow scrape down his wrist. They also used ha

@RichardB I know better than to not follow the rules. So I do my best to keep up with BSA policies to the point that I have often had to tell my council's professional staff what is and is not allowed by BSA as they are not aware of the latest rules. My biggest problem is that BSA continues to break the first point of the Scout Law, Trustworthy, with the repeated lie in the FAQ found here https://www.scouting.org/health-and-safety/prohibited-activities-faqs/ , that "Dodgeball has never been an authorized activity in Scouting." As I have shared with you and others repeatedly THA