fred8033

No. I meant that exact situation. Scout's should be reaching out to MBCs, not handed to them on a silver plate. It subverts the program. Scouts should be experiencing MB programs in many different environments and styles. At some point, I question the MB program and wonder if troops should fully focus on skills at each rank ... plus nights of camping ... and plus leadership. Maybe every 5 more nights of camping could replace one MB.

Troop MBCs make me question the value of the merit badge program. I'm okay with the troop having some MBCs and such. But when a troop has an inventory of MBCs for key badges, ... imho ... it really hurts the value of the MBC program. The MBC program is about getting the scout out of his comfort zone and learning something new ... AND working with someone new. When the scout mostly works with troop MBCs, the MBC program really changes from an individual scout focus into a troop run program. IMHO, it fully subverts the program.

I hope that's not the future, but I understand the fear.

District camporees are only going away in name only. Camporees will still exist. It's just that council activities team will host camporees. IMHO, this is better because camporees were never well coordinated between districts and some districts did not do them well. IMHO, this is also good as you will ... hopefully ... get better attended camporees and a larger mix of camporees from which to select. Also, this might better leverage council camps. For example, our council has six camps. Three local. Two within reasonable drive. One that is three to four hour drive. Instead of eac

I disagree. Much of the district structure has been broken and broken for a long long time. People expect quality and it's not there. Today, you can one chance. Maybe two. Then, people move on. I often think about why I attend round table. I really do it to see my friends. Beyond that, there is no reason to attend. In fact, I have several reasons to NOT attend. One main reason is it can be a monotonous, re-hashing of the same content. ... Years ago ... 18+ years ago or so ... I did anything I could to avoid going to cub break outs. They were bad. Bad created poor attendance

Post deleted. It was started days ago and is now out-of-sync with the thread.

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It's the first required reference on the Eagle app. Plus, parents spend more time than anyone else with the scout. They often can provide useful insight.

As a parent of four sons, I can very much understand the urge to not write a reference letter ... at times. Sadly, I've seen this too. Often, it's a parent who really wants the kid to earn Eagle and exceed and pursue every goal. It damages the relationship between kid and parent. IMHO, parents are much more happy with their kids when the parent backs off and lets the kid find his own path.

Our patrols have periodically sampled remaining electives to help individuals advance, but it's always been by reviewing the scout handbooks.

I used the cub scout advancement poster-boards multiple times. It worked well ... or as well as the den-leader worked. For troops, advancement is personal. Individual. I would not encourage sharing detailed progress. Advancement is not competitive. ... Leave the detailed progress to the scout and his scout book. ... BUT ... our troop does have an advancement board. During Courts of Honor, scouts move their own name to the next rank as part of receiving their recognition. This is NOT our board, but we have something very sim

Great phrasing. Expect a higher bar, but don't turn the bar into a wall.

I agree that you should not "flex" on the troop committee. This is not a fight worth fighting ... if the troop is running well and your son will be able to advance. I'm writing as it's worth knowing the intent. This is where I have the issue. Who contacts the CC for review? Your scout. When does he contact the CC? As soon as your scout thinks he's ready to contact the CC. In fact, your scout should talk with the CC early and let the CC know the proposal is coming. ... To grease the wheels for smoother approval. I really don't like the "slow to respond". In that ca

Yes and no. The troop committee does have great latitude to decide how. The scout can provide the Eagle Project workbook proposal section to the committee and meet with the committee ... if that's the troop's choice. But the troop can't require additional presentation materials or powerpoint slides. The real challenge is "intent". I often read BSA's advancement news published by the BSA national advancement committee for clarification. https://www.scouting.org/programs/scouts-bsa/advancement-and-awards/advancement/ A consistent narrative exists in BSA's explanatio

This is a non-issue to me. I'm not seeing any significant change. So PTC has family activities. Great! Maybe more scout leaders will get trained. Packs have always had parent/child and often family based activities. Normal Rockwell often painted the family in scouting pictures. ... It's really nothing new. .... The issue is really if this continues into the troop ... or if there is an official BSA change. IMHO, cut BSA some slack. We need to recognize that the current new generation of parents (30 year old parents) and their kids have not been outside (camping, hiking, fis

BSA is very guilty of chasing the next hot-button idea.

Personally, I like the idea that the scout has to present his proposal to the troop committee. It's a nice touch. BUT, it's not officially required and I'm not sure troops can "require" it. It's just a nice tradition some troops do. In our troop, the scout has his proposal and finds any way possible (phone, email, face-to-face) to ask the person to look at his proposal. If there is time immediately available, they do it then-and-there. If not, then it's a scheduled review. District approval in our area is fairly quick with a phone call. I do find it funny when the troop has a l

In our troop, scout budgeting involvement changed depending on the scouts we had and the adult leaders we had. Scouts always worked meal cost. Parents helped as it was their checkbook that paid for the food when their son was shopping. Often, scouts worked all event costs and how to split cost for the event. Scouts always did the annual event and calendar planning. Usually, adults reserved sites and worked the budgets. A few times, scouts got involved in total costs. But not usually. I was always happy if scouts could successfully prepare, setup, run the event / camp out

I've always liked this approach. It gets the committed / involved adults away from the scouts. It gives parents a place to go. It helps recruit parents by showing them opportunities to help. It avoids adding yet another night to the scouting calendar.

This is a picture of one of my favorite scout trips of the year. A three day canoe trip we did every Sep / Oct.

WOW !!!! I remember those videos. For years, we used a VHS set of BSA tapes that taught annual planning. The scouts laughed at how antiquated they were, but they really helped structured a good training session. Not sure why we stopped using them. I think we could not find a VHS player or something one time. That annual planning session was a high point.

If it were my troop .... I'd want the scoutmaster to let the treasurer and committee chair know before major purchases. Not for approval. More to be polite and considerate. Annual planning should setup the budget and expectations. From there, don't nit-pick the SM. He's a volunteer. Tents will last longer than the scouts. As such, I would "guide" the scouts as it will be a long-standing decision ... mainly because you want all the tents to match and have interchangeable parts. We used to use the base Eureka Timberline 4 tent (with vestibule). Never had trouble wit

I've read and learned a lot about scouting. I've never heard of the neighborhood commissioner approach. When did that change? For the last 20 years, I've only seen rather ineffective commissioner corps.

http://www.northernstar.org/units-first Still impressed. Scouting structures have shown their age for a long time and have screamed to be re-engineered.

I'm sad. I always found the Wkik site as the most useful way to find information. It was a great resource.