Frank17

To answer your original question, there are no restrictions so long as the project benefits the community and the scout demonstrates leadership in carrying out the project.

We are chartered to a church, and regularly do service projects as a troop for the church to repay them their hospitality. There are generally maintenance or cleaning related, such as grounds cleanups or painting. We also have some scouts who are members of the church who have done their Eagle projects there. So far they have built a new brick walkway, remodeled a sacristy, and built fitness stations along a trail the church has. So no difference in who benefits, only in the scope (and cost) of the project. Generally the Eagle projects were much more involved, involve construction of some sort, and take more than 1 weekend to complete. (These are not requirements in themselves, only what the projects entailed.)

We also have 2 camps at the same reservation, one with a mess hall and one with patrol cooking. We have always selected the patrol cooking:

1. Gives the patrols more time together to work as a team.

2. Gives the patrol leaders time to lead.

3. Allows for special menu options / cooking variations using the food that the mess hall does not.

I think the last one is the most important to the scouts. We have some weird stuff that comes in from our food service (like dry gravy powder) that rarely gets used. We also have coolers on-site to store food safely and that allows us to do things like omelets later in the week once you accumulate lunchmeat, eggs, and peppers/tomatos. Gives the creative patrols a better selection.

I don't blame the scouts either (or leaders or BSA). I blame out litigious happy society and their responses.

This is also a good way to catch a lawsuit.

If you get into an accident while traveling, a lot of people (and insurance companies) tend not to sue if they think the person only has insurance coverage and no other real assets. But if they find out you are traveling / representing the BSA, there are suddenly some deeper pockets (your Troop assets, your chartered organization assets) that they can seek out. Not nice, but I have seen it happen, at least on the business travel side.

It probably depends on how often you meet an have activities.

We meet weekly and have at least one Troop trip per month and encourage one Patrol "trip" per month(it can just be getting together socially & hanging out at someone's house). If the leaders are engaged, and told up front what the expectations are for their positions, usually 6 months is sufficient experience for them. Even if they do not attend all the activities, they know they are responsible for scheduling and training a substitute for that event. As a result, we too switch PORs twice per year, although the scouts have an option to repeat once if they desire.

Call the Pittsburgh scout shop at (412) 642-7695. Adventure base came through here several weeks ago, and they had extra patches for sale in the shop afterwards. May still have some.

Check ebay; there are dozens for sale, most less than $10.

It all seems to be about money: If Philly found the scouts violated their City Charter, what difference does it make if they pay rent or not. The violation of the charter remains. But over the past 80 years, the land has become prime real estate and Philly (like almost all other major cities & states) is looking to plug some financial holes.

We also require any parents / adults coming along on Troop events to be YPT trained, whether they are registered with BSA or not. It only makes sense, and it is probably the trend for the future. Might as well take the extra step now rather than scramble later on.

I have to agree with Crew21_Adv. We are generally not talking about sellers on ebay who are selling off grandpap's scouting collectibles. We are talking about sellers who somehow get their hands on hundreds of complete badge runs, that they sell in complete sets time after time. I know our Scout shop will not sell items this way, so I suspect they are an inside job too. I had problems buying a full set of ranks for a display frame that I also bought from the scout shop at the same time! They wanted proof of every badge earned, not just the highest rank. Fortunately, our Council records were readily available to prove it was a legit sale, but I do not see how they would sell 100+ complete sets to a single person.

As far as the limited edition patches, I am very happy a secondary market exists. As a late comer to patch collecting, ebay has given me a chance to fill some holes on older patches that can no longer be purchased locally, or even traded for.

Way to join the Scouter forums only to hock your products.

Try and participate a while, and give back to scouting, instead of only trying to sell stuff.

Oh, and FYI, almost every other council in the US is selling limited or special edition patches to help fund their scouts' trip to the Jamboree. Just check out ebay. Nothing more or less special about the Piedmont Council's.

A little pricey don't you think?

At $1000 for the #1 set bid, I think I'll pass.

Sister Mary Stigmata: [after chasing Jake and Elwood out of her office with a ruler for using foul language] You are such a disappointing pair. I prayed so hard for you. It saddens and hurts me that the two young men whom I raised to believe in the Ten Commandments have returned to me as two thieves, with filthy mouths and bad attitudes.

[pauses and points at them]

Sister Mary Stigmata: Get out, and don't come back until you've redeemed yourselves.

Elwood: It's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses.

Jake: Hit it.

That's great!

Our Troop's tradition for Eagles seems to be that they generally choose their own church (temple, synagogue, cathedral, etc.) to have their Eagle COH at. I have always appreciated this, since I feel that the reverent portion of the scout law often gets short changed. At the same time, we have never had a scout who worked at or was that attached to Summer Camp, so that he had a bunch of non-Troop buddies there. I think it is great that your son has made so many friends there!

I never saw an Eagle COH at Summer Camp. That would be great!

Unfortunately, our Summer Camp (& the Council's Camp) is about 90 minutes from our Troop's location, so it is pretty far to invite the Troop & relatives & guests to attend.

Eamonn said: "There are times and places for adults to learn about Scouts and Scouting, trying to teach a herd of parents about Scouting when the Scouts are at camp is not the time or the place. I never have and never will be in favor of having too many adults around at camp."

I would second this. We are camping this week at Scout Camp. We have 48 scouts & 7 adults (4 of adults are SMs, other 3 are non-registered parents. Because of our size, we are in 2 different camps at he facility: we have all of one and part of another. The other camp we are sharing (about 10 of our boys are there, with 2 of the adults) has 8 scouts & 10 adults! Talk about micromanaged! The camp looks great (clean, organized, all the accessories) but it also looks like a military run camp, with the adults handling everything to their scouting ideal. Our camp is more chaotic, granted, but it passed the Camp inspection with a score of 98% (missing a no fire in tent sign in one of the parent tents) and the boys did all the setup. I'll stick with our camp.

I would second (or third) what resqman said.

Of all the training required for CM, SM, or committee positions, only the health & safety related stuff expires (just like red cross classes). That is because BSA / council believes that is so important (and it is), that you should have had your classes recently so as to know how to respond in an emergency.

We just instituted YPT in our Troop for all parents who go along on Troop campouts, regardless of whether they were registered or not. Anticipating some complaints, I redid all my online training one afternoon (YPT, SSD, SA, COS, HW, TS). It took me a grand total of about 2 1/2 hours to complete. For training that expires every 2 years, that is a little over 1 hour per year spend in updating your training. Not a very big committment, for something that may one day save a life or a lawsuit.

This is generally a local council decision, and not mandated by National (as far as I know). National mandates that YPT expires every 2 years; in our council, we also have to renew risk zone and weather hazards. For high adventure trips, the hiking safely, SSD, and safety afloat must also be current within the past 2 years, along with current CPR & WFA training. Some councils are more proactive on their training; it has been that way for us for at least the past 5 years.

It is up to the SM, but it should count.

The MB wants the scouts to get experience doing carpentry; it does not specify who it should be done for. If it can serve double duty by helping a community organization, so much the better.

I would tend to agree with ghermanno: as long as the Eagle project is well thought out and has a good chance of succeess, no project is too large.

Case in point: Onle of my Troop's scouts planned to raise funds and build a house for Habitat for Humanity and a Hurricane Katrina victim. He raised $80,000 by fundraising from his church and a targeted donation campaign and took a crew of 16 down to New Orleans for 10 days over Spring break to build most of the house. Ths is still the largest project I have ever seen by a factor of 10X, and he pulled it off because he had planned, was dedicated, and VERY enthusiastic. Reminds us of how great out youth can be at times.

I find these uniform threads interesting. Most of out scouts are also involved in other activities. Would they be allowed to:

1. March in the high school band in their jeans?

2. Play football with a sweatshirt instead of a jersey?

3. Run track without wearing track sweats or shorts?

4. Act in the school play without a costume?

For all these types of activities, we accept uniform wear and necessary and mandatory. But when we talk about scouts, the issues of cost, resemblance to military uniforms, and wearability all come to the front.

Our troop only requires a partial BSA uniform (shirt, neckerchief/bolo, belt) and nice pants, socks, and shoes (non-BSA OK) only at COHs and BORs. It has worked well for us, although you must be careful to apply the rule evenly with no exceptions. It is also clearly stated in our Troop guidebook what is expected. This tends to squash a lot of arguments, since the parents are usually embaressed they have never read the book since their son joined.

As most of the knots relate to achievements as an adult and a leader, I would be against this type of knot. The square knots (actually adult leader recognition knots) were created to recognize adult contributions to scouting, and not relive past accomplishments as a youth. I do know scouting allows Eagle, AOL, and youth religious emblem knots, but I believe the focus should remain on adult service and accomplishments.

I had a similar experience with one of our new scout parents. When she complained about not being informed about troop events, I told her we use email to communicate to our 70+ scouts and parents. She told me should could not get email at her workplace as she was a government employee and that verizon internet did not work at her house. SHE REQUESTED I CALL HER AFTER EVERY MEETING TO UPDATE HER ON THE TROOP EVENTS COMING UP. After I swallowed my impulse to tell her to get more lithium in her diet, I gave her the following options:

1. Get email to work at her house or go to the public library to get her email

2. Attend the weekly meetings as a parent observer and take notes

3. Rely on her 11 year old to take noted for her (not recommended)

Since then, she has been attending every meeting and taking notes, although constantly making additional requests of our commmitte memebers to make things more convenient for her. I have told them to treat her like every other parent and make no special allowances - seems to be working as she has backed down on her special requests.

The punchline is that the scout is a clear anomaly: much more self sufficient and patient than his own parent. He is a great kid. If I only had to teach the scouts the scout oath and law, my life would be much simpler.

Since responders only commented on the course, and did not provide any info about taking the course on-line, can I assume everyone takes this course as a regular, real person class?