fred8033

That's our troop. A few scouts did high adventure. The whole troop did an extra summer week (in addition to summer camp) in one of the national forests / state parks in the 5 or 6 state area. Great experiences. And, it was nice to see our scouts in public with their uniforms.

I really hope Sea Base is not lost. I fear it will be, but it's one of BSA's crown jewels with a very unique opportunity for our scouting youth. Loss of those properties would be extremely painful.

I wish we had a heart emoji here. It's how it should be. A scout is thrifty. We just don't need printed versions every year.

So so true. It's why scouts are in scouts. Being active. Doing things. Making friends.

"Have" versus "should" is the issue and a huge area of confusion. Ask five people then you will get twelve opinons. Units are "owned" by their charter org. Owned means same entity. Same entity means same incorporation ... same EIN. My experience is many COs are reluctant to give their EINs out to the scouting unit. My experience is most units have their own EIN because they go to a bank to open a bank account. Then, a banker sends them to the IRS non-profit registration site and creates a new non-profit entity for them. Most units never file paperwork ... taxes,

Yep. Another primary purpose is to expose the scout to new areas that might interest them. This is defeated with so, so many overlapping with school and rank requirements. Instead, scouts should be able to leverage available experts. Maybe some troops have access to an expert astronomer. Maybe others have access to camp at a dairy farm. QUESTION ... Should we re-think the MBC idea? It's subverted by using registered leaders in your own troop. Maybe, keep existing MBCs, but also let troops / unit committees additionally recognize MBs where a local expert is available, but not

Dead on right. I think your camping statement is right. Most scouts don't appreciate the camping MB because they start in their 3rd or 4th year of camping with the scouts. Most of the topics in the MB SHOULD be done in your first six months as a scout. ... It's like the fifth time I had to re-certify electrostatic discharge training. You roll your eyes having to do it yet again. Imagine that 5th time getting a MB for it. I'd roll my eyes too. Even worse, when schools cover topics they take quarters or whole classes to cover the topic. MB coverage can feel very shallow, choppy and

Distracting tangential comment ... Two of my sons who earned eagle (19 and 24) have both coordinated multiple camping trips for them and their friends. One with his patrol mates. My fourth son has started talking with his friends about camping with his friends. ... My oldest said his friends had no clue.

Swimming and camping are part of being a scout. If you earn First Class, you should effectively have those.

Well said. And, it's a good way to handle things. ... The key is some day in the future, you will be an adult. At some point, you will be setting an example and/or teaching the next generation. Everything we do teaches lessons. ... In this case, you learned several valuable lessons. You developed a skill to handle bad situations. That will be valabule. You also learned those in power can easily abuse their power and ignore rules to fulfill their own goals. The bigger harder lesson is to not repeat wrongs and not to treat others as we have been treated. It's hard, but very important

Yeah ... That's like when you have a new troop. The best way to start the PLC is to let the scouts choose a leader, give an example, mentor and support ... but let the starts start doing their own PLC immediately. Constantly adjust, but get out of the scout's way and let them enjoy their program. 2020 was a hard year, but I have a few good memories. One was my youngest son. Him and his friends were spending hours and hours online together. So a few times, I told him tomorrow you are out of the house ... invite your friends. ... expected masks, six feet apart, etc ... Told him to no

I volunteered for years because I could sit with another adult for hours and hours and play cribbage.

Same can be said for scouts. Scouting is drastically and YPT is drastically different than what it was when most of the abuse happened. Drastically different. Yep. It's habit in our troop when one adult goes to check on things, a second adult tags along. and helicoptering leaders. The simple fact is we don't need to check up on our scouts as much as we think. A favorite example is summer camp. It's okay to walk around camp to see how things are going. I really think it's a bad thing to assign adults to check each merit badge session to see if the scouts

Perhaps you are in a different school district than I am. We have many cameras, but there are way more number of small rooms, nooks, crannies, blind spots where there are no cameras. If an abuser is a coach, they can create opportunities.

That's pretty much our council's approach too. We want the scout to use the latest version, but we also want them to keep moving forward. So if they have a signed off proposal with an old template, we'd say use the latest for the PLAN and REPORT. The key is we don't make them regenerate it for the sake of being current.