Leaderboard

My favorite events are ones where I can just show up with my son and be a dad. I would gladly pay more in fees if it resulted in better, more frequent program opportunities at the council and district levels (unclear if that's the case). I'm a pretty frugal guy with a regular job and $165 doesn't seem that ridiculous by today's standards. Anyone else ashamed to admit what they spend on youth sports or their pets? 🙂

Admittedly, the online Den Resources Guide looks good, but I did have to chuckle at the "no printed book because that is a cost to bear to deliver the program and we're trying to remove these barriers", and yet, if your pack requires the full uniform for each Cub: Lion $74 (tshirt, cap, belt, neckerchief, slide) Tiger $130+ (field uniform, socks, council patch, pack numbers, world scouting movement patch, cap, neckerchief, slide - extra if you want standalone shorts, new Cub needs belt etc, slightly less for girls as the girls roll-up pants or skort are cheaper than the switchback pants)

@BetterWithCheddar when my sons were cubs, I only paid for the youth and didn’t need to register to overnight with them. BSA does risk pricing itself out of hey market. It’s not that they compete with sports, but they and sports share a pie with many things that parents want their kids to have.

I'm suggesting it's OK for adults to express reservations about membership changes online or in a Zoom meeting, provided it's done in a tactful manner. There is no need to "crack down" on them unless their comments target specific youth members or are deliberately hurtful. If you feel a youth in your area has been treated unfairly, by all means intervene on their behalf. Scouting would not exist in some communities today were it not for some of these "old school" scout leaders. Change takes time and I'm not sure you can get there by extinguishing dissent.

Horseshoe Curve, Altoona, PA "Scouts from Boy Scout Troop 9 of Clearfield recently rode Amtrak’s The Pennsylvanian from Altoona to Johnstown. Scouts also studied the history of the Horseshoe Curve and the South Fork Dam in Johnstown. The rail trip was part of a requirement for the Railroading merit badge." Sources: https://www.railroadcity.org/horseshoecurve https://gantnews.com/2024/04/07/scouts-complete-railroading-merit-badge-requirement/

B&O Railroad Museum offers Merit Badge Day! If you're in the neighborhood..... Railroading and Scouts: B&O Museum Welcomes Scouts for Railroading MB, Electronics MB and Inventing MB. Cub Scout Stuff, Too! Saturday 26 September, 10a to 4p For one day only the B&O welcomes all Boy Scouts to meet merit badge requirements toward Railroading, Inventing, and Electronics. Hands-on activities that are age appropriate from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts will be offered throughout the day. Contact the B&O Museum: http://www.borail.org/Calendar-bo.aspx AND.... STEAM IS NOT GO

So the boy units who have the exact same problem are left out again. There are lots of boy units who have the exact same problem, especially in the inner city, like Charlotte where that council is located. You would think that they would open it to all new troops. Might be a great way to get boys off the streets and into the woods.

I have to take back my outrage at that specific girls-only camporee. Just in case there was some additional context, I reached out to the organizer, and it turns out that the camporee is there to solve the problem of weak scoutcraft experience among both scouts and leaders. I had most of the facts, I just didn't put them together in a way to predict the problem because of my own scouting and family backpacking experience, including my current scouting involvement in a family pack with family dens where girls and boys learn the exact same scoutcraft skills, hike the same miles, set up the

@AwakeEnergyScouter, having grown wiup in a troop from a small-town (plenty of farm boys) and interacting with boys from troops of more urban areas, I kind of got the impression that our SM often picked the more remote campsites at summer camp and camporees. That might have been partly because some of the boys (yours truly excepted) were pretty rowdy. But it could have also been that some leaders absolutely needed more immediate access to showers, or needed weekends with a cabin (something our troop never spent a night in), or some other amenity. We took some pride in being that little bit mor

It sucks. I don’t mind, but I have a job where these fees aren’t hard for me to pay AND I already buy into the program. The hard part is when someone is new, when a person can’t really afford the fees, or when a unit doesn’t have the funds to pay for the adults. So, this really hinders growth since the growth comes at the margins, not from existing members. The $25 fee that is now gone, was a good example. “Let’s make it more expensive for new people, that will be a great way to get new people to sign up.” Sure. Great plan.

IMHO every issue should be reviewed to confirm that. I do not think we should take comfort by saying, to paraphrase, "We have the best YP...". I would rather hear We are constantly reviewing our YP procedures policies and procedures by examining incident reports with YP experts. Here is a link to our YP Committee reports on actions for those incidents, including legal actions, and legislation lobbying. My $0.02,

I've also seen Girl-only Camporees. That really gets to me. Imagine if we had Boy-only Camporees these days. More than one person actually defended it by saying that all of them were Boy-only prior to girls joining. Seriously? I fully support girls being in the program - my daughter loves it. However, I insist that all events be open to boys and girls. To do so otherwise is an insult to the members of BSA who are excluded. Even our Catholic Camporee is open to everyone.

My apologies for not understanding This is a challenging time for young people. Politics and cultural extremisms are driving everyone to pick a side with no gray area. Life was simple when I was a scout, it was a little more complicated when I was leader, but nothing like now. My high school teacher son is very frustrated. He had a student commit suicide a few months ago. One of three in the past few years. The problem from his perspective is social media. Kids today get all their identity from social media and that puts them in a very volatile place to find themselves. One day socia

Such is the culture we find ourselves in. "Either you agree with me, or you will be neutralized and canceled." There is no longer room for civil discourse. I attribute it to the way those younger than us have been raised...never having been told "no" and rewarded for anything they do, noteworthy or not. Temper tantrums worked growing up...why not continue into adulthood?

And Cabela's / Bass Pro Shop

Well, LL Bean supports shooting sports. 🙂

I would ROCK these! LOL