Leaderboard

We have a summer camp in the area that flooded badly last weekend called Bear Creek. The only people up there were the Ranger and his family, because the camp is shut down for repairs this summer with all Alamo Area Council activities moved to McGimsey Scout Park in town (and a lot of folks going out of council this year). The eponymous Bear Creek is a tributary to the northern fork of the Guadalupe and it did flash flood, but in the wider context the camp just needs some cleanup. Images council sent out attached. Debris in the Order of the Arrow ring (amphitheater-style seating for campfires) and on the wires for the slides. (We have a swimming area in front of the boathouse (on Bear Creek itself of course) with waterslides and zip lines and a floating dock, but the water slides themselves are only on the river during camp sessions, so they weren't in the river when the flood came.) Our floating dock has been lost. Water entered the Dining Hall from runoff coming down the hill; cleanup will be required. (The dining hall is pretty high up on a hill, where the campsites are also located, and it's a pavilion with rolldown closures of openings rather than real walls.) The Eco Pavilion appears unaffected, and all canoes and kayaks remain in place. The road below the Dining Hall has been washed out, exposing a water line and currently preventing vehicle access to the Valley View campsite. Water also entered the Main (storage area behind a novelty facade of an Old West town at the entrance) and the Ranger’s porch, though thankfully not the Ranger’s home itself. Some fencing is down, including a fence belonging to a neighbor near the rifle range. (The rifle range is located in the creek valley.) I think a lot of us in Alamo Area can't help but put ourselves in the shoes of the parents who lost campers on and off. And in those moments, other than working with other unit leaders to make sure we're Prepared(TM), I often become very proud of Scouting America and scouting. As you may know by now even if you're not in the area, Hunt is geologically very prone to flash flooding and is part of an area colloquially called Flash Flood Alley. Just like heat, severe flash flood risk is baked into the experience of camping there. (This is not the first time campers have died in flash floods outside Hunt.) So, this requires Being Prepared. And all the campsites as well as the staff housing is located near the tops of the hills. The entire valley below would have to fill for campers to be washed away in the middle of the night. That's good, because cell phone reception at Bear Creek ranges from none to text messages only at the hilltops. Had Bear Creek itself risen as much as the entire Guadalupe did at its worst, scouts camping at Bear Creek would probably have had their camp week ruined but they would be alive. Camp Mystic (not accredited) had cabins in not just floodplains but floodways, and we have no people sleeping in even floodplains other than (for some inexplicable reason) the Ranger's house. Source: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/projects/2025/texas-camp-mystic-guadalupe-fema-floodplains/, for reference Bear Creek is really close to Camp Waldemar which is marked on the map. The floodway that goes upwards to the left left of Camp Waldemar is Bear Creek the creek.) Apparently FEMA and Camp Mystic argued about flood plains and cabin locations repeatedly, including when they last expanded Camp Mystic in 2020. (Source: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/12/camp-mystic-flood-plain-FEMA/) And we didn't even get close to needing to do anything like that - we just put our campers well away from flash floods and make them all hike up and down hill instead. Good for the folks who planned this camp! Is it irritating to have to hike up and down steep hills in the heat when you're down in Program Valley and realize you forgot something you really must have at your campsite? Yes. Does "Cardiac Hill" deserve its nickname? Maybe not. We are in the physically fit business, after all. But is all the up and down worth knowing that you and your scouts aren't going to die in a flash flood? Absolutely. Safety rules are written in blood, let's not forget. May we all learn to respect the power of nature and be mentally awake enough to recognize when advance planning is the difference between life and death.

Doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result.... the definition of insanity 😜

What do these people do at work when they need to train someone? Do they just go "hey Jimmy, find someone around here to teach you!" or do they pair Jimmy directly with a mentor, or themselves as a mentor.

That's exactly where we are right now. Most of the adults in the troop were not Scouts. They took the youth lead concept to an extreme and now we have a patient that is sick. I'm trying to avoid getting to the life support stage, much less CPR. The oldest Scouts have succumbed to sports and the fumes. Half the troop is under the age of 13 and a quarter is under the age of 12. We are going to have to actually teach the PLC, such that it is, how to do the skills and then get them to retain the information long enough to teach it to their patrols.

So we have a framework right. It's clear that adult leaders have to step in and instruct the senior scouts when there is a knowledge gap or lack of retention. This goes back to BP and his original Aids to Scoutmastership. The program has always allowed for adult leaders to step in; how we step in is critical though. My advice, which I would say is backed up by the solid century+ of the program and going back to the root (BP) is, in the absence of capable elected youth leaders, adults step in to teach those youth leaders and get them to the point where they are capable. In short it's a 2 part solution. Part 1) Adults are on hand and always willing to teach the PLC members what they need to do to teach, mentor, and lead the rest of the troop. Part 2) Constantly assessing if you're not being a lazy fat slob by flopping on the phrase "Have you asked your SPL".

In the two years of fumbling it took us to get enough girls to start a girl troop, we lost five kids (two sibling pairs + 1 friend of of one of the families) from out of our own pack to a neighboring town because they had a functioning linked boy troop and girl troop. We managed to get our stuff together to charter a girl troop with minimum #s that next year, but by year's end one aged out and one of our female adults moved. We were down to four girls going into 2024 and knew one would age out over the summer, so the mixed gender pilot was the saving grace for 2025. Very doubtful that BSA is going to drop that, and would bet the farm that by 2026 it is just one of the membership options that any unit can use.

I can add that in my area a couple of hold out packs decided that they wanted to be boy only. A couple of packs tried to do single gender dens. In both scenarios everyone watched as those units shrank, and shrank, and shrank while the family packs maintained or grew. The last couple of hold out packs are basically cookie cutter of each other now, 5-6 scouts with 5 adults; everyone in the district knows that those packs are folding when a member of the Key 3 crosses over with their AOL. My buddies pack tried to stay boy only until they got down under 10 scouts; they went to district and some of us peer leaders at other units for help and the shock was insane. I had to tell my buddy that I was not wasting my time trying to help him recruit when he could easily pick up another 5-10 scouts by just letting the sisters that were tagging along to meetings and participating join the pack. The COR of that pack, his head, it was deep raspberry with rage, I thought he was going to burst a blood vessel in both of his eyes; he really didn't like me telling him to his face that he was killing his pack by being sexist.

This is absolutely correct. Also note that there are height restrictions beyond just weight. I know of 1 person that was denied the ability to go to Philmont due to his height; he was told that his total length when prone exceeded the capabilities of the rescue helicopter cage.

Maybe it's that I was a scout, maybe it's that I'm from a country with high accountability expectations for politicians, maybe it's because it was my job for many years to foresee and prevent problems so that we delivered to spec on time... But it blows my mind that people keep doing this. Both that the government allows it and that people don't learn and so many act like this came out of left field. It absolutely did not. It's one thing to not know. Even if perhaps you should have been more curious or critical or something. It's something completely different to know and not act. And it sure wasn't the responsibility of children to do floodplain management.

Aquatics guide is now available digitally: https://filestore.scouting.org/filestore/Outdoor Program/Aquatics/pdf/Aquatics_34346.pdf?_gl=1*o4y99g*_gcl_au*MTQ1MzU5MzYwOC4xNzQ5NzM1MDgw*_ga*ODM0ODQ1MjkxLjE3NDk1ODQ2OTI.*_ga_20G0JHESG4*czE3NTI1MTMyNTAkbzMkZzEkdDE3NTI1MTMyNTckajUzJGwwJGgw&_ga=2.213894036.1402502429.1752513250-834845291.1749584692 All swimming and activity afloat must be supervised by mature and conscientious adults, age 21 or older, who • understand and knowingly accept responsibility for the well-being and safety of youth members in their care, • are experienced in the particular activity, • are confident in their ability to respond appropriately in an emergency, and • are trained and committed to the nine points of Scouting America’s Safety Afloat and/or the eight points of Safe Swim Defense. The Den Leader, Cubmaster, Scoutmaster, crew Advisor, or Skipper who accompanies the unit on an outing is responsible for the first and last bulleted points. However, Scouting America policies do not specify that the unit leader must be the one who satisfies all of the above criteria. Under appropriate circumstances, the unit leader may delegate responsibility to others. For example, a Scout troop at a water park with trained lifeguards on duty need not assign separate unit personnel to perform water rescue. A Venturing crew on a whitewater excursion may rely on a licensed outfitter to provide the necessary equipment and trained guides. As the above examples demonstrate, a unit can participate in fun and challenging aquatics activities even if unit leaders lack the knowledge and skill to conduct the activity themselves, provided leaders ensure that others, such as venue staff, provide the required components. On the other hand, a troop on its way to a jamboree need not forgo the use of a hotel pool just because the facility does not employ a professional lifeguard, provided unit leaders are properly prepared.

Hi everyone, I am a parent of two. My older son joined Rip Van Winkle Council Troop 16 last year. I've been an adult leader on several campouts since he joined (most recently at a week of summer camp), and am also a fully trained Troop Committee member. [Definitely not bragging or anything, just trying to give the kind of introduction information that might be appropriate here.]

Maybe I'm just overly cynical, but that sounds like someone in your council fighting the success. It could just be poor job performance, of course. But the kind of stiff, emotional resistance to girls and women being a full, authentic part of Scouting America that some people in the organization have doesn't just evaporate in a year or even in the face of evidence. For them, it's not about success for the organization, it's about forcing the world to be a certain way. In this case cooties-free. It could definitely be that your council's policy is a result of an internal struggle between people who wanted coed and people who didn't. Did you see Scouting Maverick's take on postponing coed in Scouts BSA earlier? https://scoutingmaverick.com/2025/01/21/celebrating-a-sexist-scam-linked-troop-wood-badge-highlights-sas-cultural-rot/ Your example of a CC who is so invested in no girls that he's going to de facto let his unit die rather than go coed isn't the only one I'm sure. Actually, you mentioned several such units, so... They're going to keep shrieking until it stops working, which seems to be roundabout now or soon. But some won't stop shrieking because they realized it's actually fine, they will still sabotage what they can. Meanwhile in my corner of my female-friendly council, many leaders are working together to build out a coed pipeline from Cub Scouts into Scouts BSA. Not coincidentally we're about equal numbers of men and women. And it's working - all of our units are growing. If we keep working, Scouting America is going to come back from cultural oblivion in a decade or so.

I get what you're saying; I would counter though that national should have been able to see that and should have planned that timeline to release the coed program earlier. So right now female membership growth is significantly outpacing male membership growth (I think the NAM numbers were 3x the number of females are joining right now), and most of us have no where to send our female AOLs. I don't know about you guys but my council adopted the dumbest policy during the coed pilot. Only existing linked units from prior to the coed policy can be coed, so we have female AOLs just dropping from the program. Who could be so stupid to think retention of female scout was going to go up in some of these councils where we're stuck telling parents that if they want to keep their daughters in the program they will have to continue to drive an additional 10+ miles just to go to a troop meeting when their sons are swinging around the block for a meeting?

They aren’t teams, they are patrols. They aren’t junior scouts, they are scouts or new scouts. They aren’t lead by an ASM, but by a PL and a troop guide. It’s been awhile, 31 years, I suggest reading the PL, SPL, and SM (Unit Leader) handbooks again. Words matter.

Be advised, the max weight allowed for HA is also the maxed weight civilian med evac helicopters have. Too bad the HH-47 Pedro are no longer active.

BMI is a litmus test. Fun fact, you can be 300lbs of fat or 300lbs of muscle; regardless, your heart is getting TAXED hard from the body mass. If you don't meet BMI it doesn't mean you're trash, it just means a deeper discussion and more accurate tests are merited by a doctor.

The trust is going after the non settling insurers but there still won’t be enough to fully fund.

Most likely the best case of action is to hold a scoutmasters conference. Let the scoutmaster get an idea of what is going on with the scout. You never know, maybe the scout was told something unexpected.

If his Board of Review has been completed and approved by National, he IS an Eagle Scout. Whether he can remain a member of your Troop is another question. Sorry this has happened.