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My observations generally concur with @gpurlee's friend -- chances are we compared notes. With some added detail: 1) Each American unit was in a different subcamp, so there was only international contact. In contrast to the last WSJ, it felt good to be the minority. For those into trading, US swag was in high demand. Regarding facilities and emergency services, they were adequate to the task at hand, and we saw them improve daily. 2) The contingent management team (including our troop's commissioner) did not visit our site (which I found to be splendid) until after they decided to ev

@Eagle94-A1, while a lot of us have bad stories, your council is the worst. Just to balance things out a bit, don't forget all the threads we see here about bad scout leaders. I once asked why we didn't have a commisioner and the answer was that we had one of the best troops and they trusted us and they had much bigger issues with out of control drama, drinking, etc in other units. @5thGenTexan 's troop is probably not too far from typical. Anyway, these are the things that we have to work around. None of the issues with a bad council are nearly as bad to a unit's program as not having pa

In case you did not know... A text message requires much less signal connectivity (strength and duration) than a call, or to load up some data. Some 911 call centers accept text messages. Your mileage WILL vary 😜 The Federal Communications Commission REQUIRES all carriers to notify you with a "bounce back" message if your text to 911 does not go through. https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/what-you-need-know-about-text-911 If it does not go through to 911, next try sending a text to your designated support person back home. (Yes, you need to recruit someone to fill

@qwazse welcome home. Hot water on stove, Hario drippers, some ground medium roast. @SSScout just baked some cobbler.

Not as much as you think. While the BSA plan has gone effective it is still under appeal. So, it is reversible. One of the reasons the Trust is moving quickly is because sometimes a Court of Appeals will effectively say "The egg has been scrambled so any ruling we make shouldn't undo what has been done. In this case, the Court of Appeals is expected to NOT rule since it knows that the Supreme Court is addressing a key portion of the BSA plan, the third-party releases. I agree but remember that the settling insurers are NOT required to make a large portion of their payments until AL

@welcome to the forum, @Prime00. My suggestion is ask your scouts what they want to do and give them some options to get away from this troop. Find another troop, start a troop so they can get eagle, ... This situation is toxic.

Wow, the scouts run afoul of a bird sanctuary. So much irony to choose from.

The Knights who say Ni!

My gray matter seems to recall, they delivered a shrubbery to the sayers of Nay?

So not having seen it you've formed an opinion huh? Sorry, but I fall into the camp of "Let's see what it has to say" before I form any sort of opinion. If it moves the needle at all to prevent what happened from re-occuring then good. As Santayana said "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." The fullest understanding of what happened and why will be the best way to step toward preventing its being repeated. I don't think you're black-hearted. I just hope ALL of us will do our best to watch with an open mind and consider its values and faults. Too much was secre

Guess what's left is classic small town manipulation. Kill him with kindness, especially in front of the scouts. The more obvious you can make it that what he's saying isn't true, the better.

Don’t interact with that troop anymore?

I was the BSA District Executive for both the Cheyenne and Laramie Districts way back in 1981-1982. At that time, Warren Holm was the Scout Executive for the Longs Peak Council residing in Greeley, Colorado. Sometime in 1981, Warren made the decision to *not* renew the $99/year annual lease on Camp Chimney Park as he wanted Scouts to focus their camping efforts on the Ben Delatour Scout Ranch near Red Feather Lakes, Colorado. A lot of Cheyenne and Laramie Scouters were not happy about Warren's decision, so they put together a group of Wyoming Scouting supporters who paid the annual lease p

Most people never experience what you are referring to in your post. They will forever remain "In Search of Scouting." I just finished a 6-day river trek, with 10 Scouts and three other adults, in two crews. All Scouts earned their 50-miler award (the 10 hours of service is actually the most difficult part...) The older Scouts also did the Kodiak Leadership Challenge. Each night, we camped on an island in the river. A few had pit toilets. Even then, Scouts preferred to dig and use their own catholes. 😛 We brought a good deal of fresh water, but for meals (since we had t

Volunteers are the life blood of the program. Too often, the same volunteers are asked for more and more support over and over. If you look who has the least free time to volunteer, it is parents. They are busy working to earn enough money to support their family, save for retirement, pay off mortgages and college loans etc. They are also the ones who typically coach their kids little league games and serve as unit leaders. Councils should focus on past scouts (18-30 year olds) and empty nest past scouters (55+) for the core of district/council leadership. Instead, I am typically ca

If you go into the wilderness... (I now define "wilderness" as no cell signal, LOL), consider purchasing one for your crew. At around $400, they are getting more affordable. Recommended reading for your edification: https://www.sarsat.noaa.gov/emergency-406-beacons/ One example: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PPJGFKK Register your device, if you get one!!

We rarely have cell service in the mountains. If you have service you're either on a peak or, possibly, at a trailhead. I'm glad they figured it out. Also glad the other hikers came by. A GPS that can mark a point seems like a useful idea. Does all trails allow you to mark a point? Also there are GPSes with emergency satellite communications. We rent them when we go rafting because the canyons are not only far from signals but far from people.

I suppose if a NCAP advance team had seen this cache of water guns, the US contingent would have stayed state-side. https://25wsjnewsroom.imweb.me/74/?idx=15972542&bmode=view

A friend of mine has been on-site with the American contingent at the WSJ. Some of his comments include: (1) The parts of the jamboree that they were able to participate with were very good. The interactions with Scouts from around the world were outstanding. Many made it a special point to visit the American contingent before they were bussed out. (2) Communication with the BSA contingent participants and the top leadership was poor. They were disappointed that their input felt ignored and the perception was that decisions appeared to being made by officials housed in air-conditione