fred johnson

The council has an initiative to serve the larger community and to be a recognized source for teaching leadership. In addition, council properties are marketed both for direct scouting use and for use by schools and other community groups. As altruistic as it is, it is also a recognition that the council needs revenue and the council properties are sitting waiting to be used. Why not open camps to field trips and other youth programs? Especially, if they can pay. http://www.explorebasecamp.org/

Yeah, that's how my sons and his friends do it too. They have done sleep overs where each is to bring $20 or $30 (not sure amount). Then someone puts the money together and they go buy a box of MTG booster cards. The kids build decks with them and it's a weekend competition. You bring home the cards you drafted. So it's not gambling as much as buying new cards to start at an even footing. This is also how the local gaming store runs tournaments. There is a buy-in dollar amount, but the buy-in matches the price of the amount of cards you are using and then keeping. The store profits

You could always bring your swimming stuff and go right to the pool before or after. Then, start a trend. Often unit leaders are less in control than they think.

I pray this was before the BSA GTA 2011 re-write. I fear though I still hear of this happening at times.

Ok. This is different that the inferences I read earlier. I should revoke what I said if this is true. But then again, things change to fix situations. I would not be surprised about retroactively registering a scout if they were not setup right in the system.

Something does not sound right. The Eagle project proposal has always required the district/council approval as a separate distinct approval. It's right after the troop committee chair approval. In addition, councils are not allowed to change the workbook or the process. Now can council's give the power to the troops to sign for council / district? I'd be interested to hear if that's true. It would be a big surprise to me though. As for the process varying district to district, I do grant you that. We have 15+ districts in our council. In one district, there is a board similar t

Jumping the gun was addressed in BSA Advancement News Nov / Dec 2017. Essentially, BSA stood on both sides of the fence. Getting the project is expected, but the project proposal approval is not a rank requirement. As such, scouts can still get the project approved as fulfilling the rank requirement even if the project proposal was ever approved. ... IMHO, BSA means well, but the expectations now are clear as mud. In any event, the project proposal not being signed is not the stopping point. From what I've read, the family wanted to use the scouting program without actually being a

I'm responding in my view ... not representing everyone. Minor issue ... I fear your solution would require a tech admin focusing and solving issues continually. If you have 50 scouts and each has a folder, granting rights, uploading, downloading, who has uploaded what recently, etc. ... I just fear we'd need extensive tech support to keep this running smooth. More significant ... The scouts that need intensive checking of requirements are 10, 11 and 12 years old. They may or may not have a phone, but I'd absolutely not want them to have a laptop at the meeting. Getting them s

When I say walk out... it's usually during a break or done politely. they've only done it a few times now. As for selection, they don't always get to choose. Sometimes it's a direct choice. Other times they are at summer camp or a merit badge fair. In those events, it's a throw of the dice if you are working with a good MBC. I've found too often people organize events to offer multiple merit badges, but then market some badges only to find they lack quality MBCs.

The postings from Wisconsin Momma reminded me of a rule that I accidentally established with my sons and that I'm glad exists now. BACKGROUND: My sons signed up for a Saturday MB program. The two badges they signed up for "could" be interesting if done well. A morning MB. Then pizza. Then an afternoon MB. The guy teaching the morning MB had zero expertise in the topic. Nothing special. He was a college kid who signed up because they needed a warm body as the counselor. He had PowerPoint slides walking the requirements with bulleted text that looked pretty much right from the ha

Oh.... Indian lore was done by a local indian tribe on their reservation at their tribe's museum. Archaeology done by two MBCs - one a park ranger showing his dig site and the other a local college professor (who was very entertaining for the scouts) IMHO ... It's not the badge. It's the setting, the connection with the scout, the overall experience. Some lend to better experiences and some are really hard to create as good experiences.

I like it too, but I'd like to see some overlap options. I say that as scouting is very much about friendships and maturity. Maybe ... 8-11 Bears, Webelos, AOL 10-18 Boy Scouts 16-21 Venturing 18-25 Young adults

BSA should focus on addressing this. This is the most common experience with merit badges. It gives scouts a bad name and it gives MBs a bad name. This needs to be fixed. My sons have had this experience too. MBs that are mostly lecture and little activity. IMHO, it's like the canoe merit badge should be taught mostly while canoeing. Golfing should be mostly taught while holding a golf club and golfing.

The more I think about it ... it's not the badge. It's the successful connection with the scout and making it meaningful. But I do very much like the badges that the scout can't get elsewhere. Too many of our "required" badges have major overlap with school. IMHO, I'd like to see SMs have the option to switch badges for the scout if he and the scout agree the badge doesn't have much meaning for the scout. IMHO, I'd much rather have the scout earn meaningful badges. Example - Most 17 year old high school seniors find all the citizenship badges extremely simple and automatic badg

I have very fond memories of very very interactive merit badges. I don't really have a favorite badge as much as deep gratitude to MBCs who made badges interesting. Photography - Scouts running around taking pictures and putting together a presentation. Chess - Big chess camp wide chess tournament. Metal work - Scouts bent, spot welded and powder coat painted their own tool boxes. Archery - Scouts made and shot their own arrows. Horsemanship - Scouts spent a week at camp taking care of the horses. Crime Prevention - Scouts toured the local FBI headquarter

I was trying to state that parents and families enter the program and then over time the program changes on them. Some enter for the fellowship and to take their young kids out somewhere. But then camping begins to be emphasized in a few years. Well at that point, many parents have grown accustomed to scouting as a GO SEE IT activity and they did not sign up for the new objective of camping. Or the scouts go CAR CAMPING and the program grows to high adventure. Some families will be viewing it as something they did not sign up for. Or the program grows to BOYS LEADING, some families did n

It's probably why baseball and other programs may be able to successfully recruit younger. Same with Violin programs. The program does not change year to year. It just gets more challenging. Bigger bats and violins. The five year old program very much resembles what the 17 year old program will be, just at a much lower level. The scouting program changes drastically from Lions & Tigers until Eagle scout. Parent involvement changes. Whole types of challenge changes. Types of activities change. It's just a much much different program. Lions & Tigers is a baby sitting pro

This is a real concern. The membership numbers have been bad for a long time, but locally the numbers are getting very bad. Bad to the point that 75% or more of the units are on the bring of collapsing. The numbers are bad. I just never expected this years numbers to be as bad as they are. All the recent program changes seem to address the continual loss. IMHO, BSA has done some good and bad things. Girls in scouting ... I think this is a good change. Not only does it open up BSA to many more youth, it also brings BSA into the modern era. Unless it is a physical issue (foo

This is a life lesson situation. As a person of good conscious, you will make decisions to preserve your reputation. I say this as you not only want to be a good person, but you want to be perceived as a good person. It will recur during your life with situations that are fine and situations that might be close to the line. Parents as MBC is fine. Parents often expect more of their own scouts than generic leaders. I know with my own sons they "EARNED" their badge and it was often a whole summer project. For their Eagle projects, my influence probably grew their project 200%.

Sounds very close to our troop. Hand built web --> SOAR --> Google docs --> Facebook (public marketing) ... My key is parents want accurate info. So SOAR and Facebook are for the parents. Scouts communicate to scouts and we've just given up control to let them choose how to communicate. Some call each other. Lots of them have a massive group text. Others email. From what I've seen, as long as it stays "appropriate", I'm going to stay out of their communication paths.

I view troop web sites and Facebook existing to keep parents happy. If it's not there, parents complain. But if it is there, they may or may not use it. It's just an expectation of doing business these days. I don't view any of the troop online presence being for the scouts. They text each other and use other methods. And to be honest, I like that. I want my scouts to be working with other scouts face-to-face and using pencil and paper and putting the paper in their scoutbook. Let the adults update the troop web site for adult use (communication and calendaring).

Our scouts that attended previously would help run the games and support the SPL. And they still enjoyed the games. But I agree, it can waste a Saturday if already taken once.

I applaud your adding supplemental youth POR training. How adding an hour for adult leaders on how they can facilitate BSA ISLT in their troops and how to use the BSA materials? I've seen lots of adult leader training but so so many miss the basics such as training our leaders to do ISLT. https://www.scouting.org/training/youth/ "When my sons started in boy scouts", our scoutmaster ran ISLT at least once a year. It was a Saturday morning and some of the afternoon. The SPL ran it. The SM had coached the SPL in advance. I remember it well because it was segme

Every one of my sons had trouble with the swimming MB, but ya know it was really a parent issue in the end. The first son struggled, but got by after a year or so. I kept wondering ... how will this kid get past this obstacle? The next son somehow was signed off by other scouts and passed his swimming requirements. Not really sure how it happened. I heard about it a month later at COH. ... I was not sure whether I should step in and cause him embarrassment as he was just awarded advancement. My last two sons spent over a year learning to swim with 2 or 3 trips each w

Wouldn't your parents count? Reasonableness. With any requirement, we need to think about thresholds and did you fulfill the expectation of the requirement. It's like the scout looking to fulfill the camping MB requirement who puts up and sleeps inside a tent inside an air conditioned building. Yes, he put up a tent and slept in it. But he defeated the whole purpose of the requirement. A reasonable person would say no. Likewise, I'd argue a reasonable person would say you did not meet the expectation of the requirement if you only led your parents. I'd argue further that only lea