dScouter15

Beavah - I think you're right, that the BSA generally does support its volunteers very well in a number of legal situations. However, I have to believe that the BSA's and individual leaders' liability is managed by the extensive training offered through the BSA and other organizations. I'd also like to think that discussions such as the ones on this forum and elsewhere, in which volunteers are directed away from plans or ideas that may be harmful, also play a role in reducing personal liability. However, there are a couple of points I want to make. Firstly, and to be quite blu

Surprised to see dues are so much. Our troop charges $50/year, which covers annual dues to the council, insurance, and advancement materials for the year. We do charge $75 the first year, as the troop will provide a neckerchief, handbook, unit numerals, a troop t-shirt, and some other "introductory" material. Each year we make a new troop t-shirt, which we sell pretty much at cost, generally $7-$10. We do not charge adults any annual dues. Our camp outs, with the exception of summer camp and some high adventure activities, are subsidized by the troop, and the cost to each Scout is typ

BrotherhoodWWW - Laws are supposed to keep us safe, and give everyone a reasonable chance at being treated fairly and equally. More and more traffic laws have nothing to do with any of this, and instead are blatantly being used as a source of revenue for local governments. Consider traffic cameras setup at intersections to catch those who run red lights. Numerous studies have conclusively shown that the best way to reduce accidents as a result of running red lights is to lengthen the amount of time the light is yellow prior to turning red. Instead, cities put up a traffic camera at an

Oak Tree - Some food for thought might be a Federal law governing only controlled substances (ie, only those in Schedule II - Schedule V) - see CFR Title 21 Part 290, which governs the dispensing of controlled substances.

Beav - Clearly there is a risk for an individual Scout should he forget to take certain medication, deliberately choose not to take certain medication, lose his medication, or accidentally or intentionally take too much. This risk can easily be extended to other Scouts in the troop. For a few examples, what about a Scout who develops a medical or psychological problem in the backcountry, or on a high adventure activity? What about a Scout who steals another Scout's medication? Also, I'm not saying that the adult leadership should be required to control all medications for all Scouts.

TwoCubDad - I understand what you're saying, but I think you're making it unnecessarily complicated. Policy is policy, and recommendations are recommendations. If the BSA intended for every word in the G2SS to be taken as official policy, they wouldn't have intentionally separated the official policy from the advice and guidelines. As I've stated, in my opinion, the advice on medication management is rather poor, and I instead chose to work off of the recommendations of people whom I feel have more medical and legal credibility, and whose advice more closely relates to the specific chal

Twocubdad - that's not exactly what the policy states. The recommendation in the G2SS does acknowledge that any given adult leader is not obligated to take on the responsibility of supervision the taking of prescription medications. However, it does not absolve the *unit* as a whole from its responsibility to provide a safe and healthy environment for its Scouts. Which, in my opinion, unfortunately would mean that the adult leadership would have to take on some degree of responsibility for ensuring that Scouts under their supervision maintain their health and safety by taking their prescrib

I'm sure this topic has had to come up here before, but I can't remember seeing it recently. What are some of your favorite Scout camp fire skits? Hopefully some readers might get some new ideas for upcoming campfire programs. My all time favorite skit, from the time I was a youth in the program, is the "Princess Princess" skit, where two scouts act out a scene in which they each portray five or six different characters. Others of mine include the "Emergency Broadcast System" skit, where the camp staff starts making a long "beep" noise and lines up orderly and calmly in front of th

Hi jcb7265 - this topic actually comes up on here quite a bit, maybe even around once every month or so. If you search the archives for "medication," you'll probably come across pages and pages of discussion on this topic. You'll probably also note that discussion of legalities surrounding Scouting medication is a common factor in these discussions, and you'll hear all kinds of claims from people with varying degrees of medical/legal experience and knowledge. My first recommendation would be to get in touch with your DE or council program director and find out if there are any laws spec

Thanks all for the perspective. I think part of my concern may come from the fact that I spend a lot of my time in an environment heavy on off-color jokes and innuendo. Sometimes I realize that I have to make an effort to not let that carry over into Scouting environments that I'm involved with, and I think that this skit just triggered my internal censor, so to speak. But enough psycho-babble. I guess I can see where this skit could be funny if delivered well, but I don't think it was really well done in this case. In any event, I think I'd try to guide my own scouts away from doing this

"Knowledge is good." Or, more seriously: "Eh, let's see what happens." Now, I know that may sound even less profound than a quote from Animal House, but its an attitude that I wish more adult leaders would adopt. The goal of Scouting is not perfection, and it is not to avoid failure. So the next time your Scouts come to you with a ridiculous idea that you know has no chance of working, maybe let them go for it and see what happens. Sometimes, there's more to be learned from failing than from succeeding.

I'm going to start this thread in a way that a lot of threads here seem to start: "I may be overreacting, but...." Over the weekend my district ran as Webelos to Scouts recruitment event - basically an expo for all of the troops and Webelos dens in the district to share some activities with the ultimate goal of increasing the numbers of Webelos transitioning into Scouts. The event lasted for a couple hours on a Saturday, and included a pseudo-campfire program ("pseudo" because there wasn't actually a campfire, as the event was in a local school gym). Each troop and den was invited to pe

Our troop has never really recruited in schools, but have taken a more informal approach. At any public event we participate in we have a couple large posters will some candid action shots of our troop's activities, and some simple "marketing slogans." We also have developed some simple pamphlets we hand out to anyone showing any interest. We actually have two pamphlets, one geared towards youth and one geared towards their parents. The youth pamphlet is heavy on pictures of our adventures, and descriptions of our most interesting activities. The parent pamphlet focuses on more of the "lo

In my area Scouting for Food efforts are headed by individual units, and don't really have much support at the district or council level, unfortunately. Here's a few things that I remember from when I was more directly involved: - We had gotten a large number of plastic grocery bags donated, and then stapled a 1/2 sheet of paper to each bag that described what Scouting for Food was, and gave instructions to donate. We would then canvas our neighborhoods and hang the plastic bags from door handles. This way, when it was time to pickup the food, it was easy to see if a house had made a d

Mr. Boyce - The specific chemical that triggers an anaphylactic reaction will differ from individual to individual (and allergy to allergy). In peanuts, its often a protein called "Ara h 2". In fact, there has been some research over the past couple years to develop peanut products that don't have these types of proteins, thus reducing their likelihood for triggering a severe allergic reaction. Scoutfish, I believe that exact wording was: "First off, your first indication of a severe allergic reaction may be the victim passing out. You won't be able ask the victim anything. I'd even v

E61, You are correct that an anaphylactic reaction may come on within seconds, rather than minutes, in some severely allergic individuals (though an onset of several minutes to hours is more common). However, the context of that quote of mine involved a situation in which Scouts are out hiking without adult supervision, so in that particular example seconds vs. minutes really isn't a huge distinction. Your claim that in the majority of cases the first symptom of an anaphylactic reaction will be the victim "passing out" is surprising to me. It definitely is contradictory to my own experi

It sounds like most so far think that the only alternative to the current CO system is a setup where the council owns each unit. But, what about a situation where each unit is essentially chartered to a "Friends of Troop XXX" type group. Or, in other words, the unit "owns" itself. In such a setup, I wouldn't think that the unit's relationship to the council would change drastically. However, the unit would no longer be in a position of having to march to two drummers. It's mission and priority would only be to carry out a quality BSA program, without needing to worry about its place in th

It seems like a topic of conversation that comes up a lot here involves the concept of the "Chartered Organization." This has gotten me to thinking: is the current CO system really the best possible system for all parties involved (namely the unit, the council, the CO, the greater community, and the unit membership)? It seems like a large portion of today's units have a very "hands off" CO, that provides minimal support, beyond signing the necessary papers and maybe providing meeting space. In fact, some units seem to prefer having a CO that doesn't really participate in the regular unit op

Irsap - Its great that your son is benefiting so much from Scouting, and that he is developing more independence and confidence. But, don't let that be a reason for you to resign as an adult leader from the troop. As a volunteer Scouter, your job is to help support the unit as a whole, not just one Scout. And, just from what you've posted here, it sounds like you have a good grasp on when to provide direct support and coaching for the youth, and when to step back and let them do their own thing - that's a key skill as an adult Scouter. If you're concerned about the dynamic between you and

E61 - Ideally, it wouldn't be necessary for a 12-18 year old to make a call and administer an EpiPen. It should be that the scout having the reaction that decides to use the EpiPen, with additional trained scouts familiar with its operation to assist him in using it. Assistance might be as simple as saying "Where's your EpiPen? Can you reach it?" to a Scout beginning to have a reaction, or may involve helping the scout get the safety caps off, or positioning it steady and in the right place. You're right, a 12 year old shouldn't be deciding when its time to use Epinephrine on another scout

I generally agree with everyone's suggestions, especially about synchronising the BSA's requirements with current Red Cross standards. I'm not sure I'd go so far as to bring the First Aid MB to the same standard as a Wilderness First Aid course, but I would definitely support requiring some advanced first aid training as a prerequisite for approving certain types of tour permits for back country or high adventure trips. I'm a little skeptical about including Nitro tabs. If the patient is having a certain type of MI, or has already has a low blood pressure, the nitro could be fatal, and

I can see both sides of the argument. In one sense, I strongly believe that all units to strive to implement the entire program as defined by the BSA. I'm not saying this just "because its the rules," but rather because I've seen the BSA program work, and believe it works better than most alternatives. Furthermore, as an Eagle Scout myself, I'd like to think that my Eagle badge is roughly equal in value to anyone else's Eagle badge. I think that the Eagle award in its entirety is diminished when the requirements differ from troop to troop. I am just as skeptical of "Eagle Mills" as I am o

Shortridge: in my opinion, the BSA would need to dramatically increase the emphasis on "BSI" throughout its first aid material in order to come into line with the "conventional wisdom" of today's health care and emergency services industries. Mentioning blood bourne pathogens only in the context of severe bleeding control is not adequate. The importance of BSI should be discussed whenever providing first aid involves making physical contact with another person, regardless of whether or not that person has any apparent bleeding. Pathogens can be transmitted in blood, saliva, mucous, emesis (

As I've mentioned before on this forum, my day job is working on an ambulance as a paramedic. As such, I have a bit of an interest in the first aid requirements for each of the Scouting ranks, as well as the first aid MB. I think that in general the current requirements are very good, and have certainly improved in recent revisions. However, there are a couple items I'd like to see added, or emphasized: #1, and most important to me, would be to add/emphasize the priority of personal safety when rendering first aid. In other words, don't become a victim yourself. For example, if someo

Absolutely agree with Beavah here (which is something that doesn't happen very often). In my opinion, if you have a Scout in your unit whose allergies require him to carry an EpiPen, then EVERY Scout in your unit should receive some instruction on how to use it. It is not necessary to have any formal medical training or certifications to learn how to appropriately use an EpiPen - the procedure can generally be taught in less than 30 minutes of explanation, demonstration and practice with a training device. It is easy enough for all adults, and probably all Boy Scout aged kids, to understand