JMHawkins

McDonald's doesn't just supply the raw materials for their burgers. They ensure uniformity in their hamburgers by pre-making them at central locations and shipping them frozen to the individual stores where all that's needed is a few final assembly steps. If we want BSA to do the same thing, they'll need to ship us pre-fab Scouts flash-frozen at a scoutfactory on the outskirts of Irving. We keep 'em in a freezer until it's time for another Webelos cross-over, then we unbox a few of 'em, slap 'em on the grill and ask the parents if they want to supersize 'em. A better analogy than McD

While the scouts should be aware of the program......I wouldn't promote it real heavy until they are one merit badge short.... I would promote it a bit in the lead up to the PLC planning session. It might be another way of helping them envision a well-rounded program. Most of the items in there are going to take a while to accomplish - at least a couple of years to get to the 2 x gold needed for the pin.

Quick question on how the gold/silver devices work. For Camping, it's a gold device for every 25 nights of camping beyond the initial 25, and a silver device for every 100. When a scout earns a silver device, is he supposed to replace his 3 gold devices with the silver one? I assume so, but wanted to check here. It would be: 25 nights total = award 50 nights total = 1 gold 75 nights total = 2 gold 100 nights total= 3 gold 125 nights total= 1 silver 150 nights total= 1 silver + 1 gold etc.

When ever I hear of weak Eagle scouts people generally refer too.... In my case, it's: -Lack of self confidence. -Limited independence. -Underdeveloped sense of personal responsibilty.

I assume (perhaps incorrectly) that the pull cart issue is from a scout running themself or someone else over with a scout cart at a council campground or on some other campout while hauling equipment from the parking area? Thus the ban? Dean, one of my philosophical objections to how Richard is doing his job is that we don't know. He won't tell us what happened to prompt these changes. That means we don't have any details of how Scouts got injured (if they even did), and thus no ability to prevent future injuries of the same sort. Richard assumes the injuries will be prevented by his

Kudu However, we hand out Eagle Scout badges to boys who have never walked into the woods with a pack on their backs. I looked up the requirements for this award (National Outdoor Achievement Award): http://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/award/national_outdoor_achievement-2112.asp That trumps Eagle in my book. I get the impression a lot fewer of those are awarded too.

"Prepare a meal plan for a campout. Demonstrate why whatever meal-plan our Patrol will come up with will be unacceptable. Make sure each of the food groups--Pop-tarts, Gummy worms, and Doritos are included." "Using the 2015 approved FDA list of unapproved foods, go through the food you have packed for a campout and remove all items not approved for youth consumption. If anything is left, demonstrate concern for potential food allergies by removing it as well. Explain to your Scoutmaster that no youth under 25 could possibly be trusted with choosing or preparing his own food, so you

If you want to require a higher standard of leadership or morals, well, good luck. It's very difficult to describe a consistent standard for this. You could do something like OA, I guess. Require someone to get a 50% vote of the Scouts in the unit as deserving Eagle. Not that that could ever cause any problems.... For leadership, in another thread I suggested limiting the PORs that qualify for Eagle to the actual leadership positions (PL/APL, SPL/ASPL, TG, JASM). That would be a start. I also think you could require a "vote of confidence" after the term is up from the scouts under his l

Something else about the current G2A's requirement about First Class First Year, Star the next year: What sort of thinking has Star taking as along as the entire T-2-1 batch of material? Unless we adopted a policy of no MBs until First Class, I don't see how a scout who is active and interested enough to really earn FC in one year is going to take an entire extra year to get to Star. Seems this wasn't really thought out.

The real Patrol Leader will have his boys go through the Tenderfoot, Second Class and First Class stages as fast as is consistent with thoroughness. He will have them move along all the time. That natually means that he himself must advance too. Indeed. You may notice a few difference from today. For instance, that ancient advice did not specify a timeframe, but rather "...as fast as is consistent with thoroughness." Contrast that with "First Class, First Year" where the emphasis is on hitting a specific time frame as thoroughly as possible, rather than being thorough as quickly

Just do to sports what we did to Scouting: Break the game down into individual "First Year Skills," and sign them off in a week of summer camp (with no re-testing). These signed off skills (running, kicking, throwing, catching) will never actually be used in a game, but understood as isolated skills. In the place of a game, skills are then "reviewed" while sitting indoors in a Coach Conference, followed by job interview practice called a Board of Review. You forgot to assign the Team Mom to bring snacks and a juice box after the skills review. But yeah, the Journeys wo

The research on FCFY did show that boys who made FC in about a year tended to stick with scouting - but not WHY. ...It is probably not the act of being awarded FC rank that results in greater longevity - it is more likely to be solid programming in a strong troop and maybe the boy's personal interest, that cause a boy to do both (earn FC... Absolutely. Recognizing the mistaken assumptions behind FCFY is a critical step in salvaging the Advancement Method. Plus, another bit of weakening the FCFY emphasis does in troops that take it to heart is it removes the opportunity from the Scout t

I think both the journey and the destination are important, though I prefer qwazes' use of waypoints instead of destiantion. The journey is what our life is, so it is important, but without some waypoints to guide us, it's awfully easy to either just wander aimlessles, or else to get stuck in the rut following a path someone else laid out for you, and who knows where that will go? Even worse might be getting stuck in the ruts following a path some previous generation laid out that doesn't go anywhere any more. We need some goals to help us shape our journey, but everything has to be

As far as #9 goes, what if (to make an extreme example) the Aryan Nation wants to sponsor a Troop? There's a good reason that some policies are not "choose your own adventure." I never said BSA would accept anyone as a CO, I just said it would defend the membership policies of the organizations it does accept. I'm pretty sure that would be a requirement of any sort of Local Choice policy. Dean Don't know about Mike Rowe as Chief Scout, but a marketing campaign featuring well known and respected celebs and other public figures that were / are scouters would go a LONG way to c

Bobwhite89: I do like your theory of uniforms costs. I do wonder if it would really make a different in getting everyone uniformed. It might, but really, that bullet point is about something else. It's about BSA National being clear about what it is. BSA has a mission - to deliver a certain program to youth in America. But how should they do that? They could deliver that program as a business - the way that Apple delivers iPhones to customers for example. Nothing wrong with that, many for-profit businesses have done a great deal of good while engaged in business. Or, BSA

Yeah, everyone here liked RichardB up until the wheelbarrow/wagon age limit notice, and all RichardB did was explain it, he did not say he authored it, or was the person from on high who demanded it to be created.. Yet all of a sudden, everyone now is ready to lynch him.. I am not happy with that at all. I should perhaps clairify my comment about RichardB. From his discussion on the new policies, as well as his discussions about some of the existing G2SS material, I've gotten the impression that his philosophy about saftey is one that I believe is counterproductive. I'm not blaming him

Well, I'm not sure it's always the G2A that causes the confusion. In the case of the Camping MB 9a discussion, I think it's the way the requirements are written. In that case, it appears someone attempted to clarify the requirement by adding some additional language about long-term camping, but it just confused people because it was written to clarify the process instead of the goals. Based on the explaination from Bryan on Scouting, it looks like the goal is to ensure the scout has been on a variety of camping trips, perhaps in order to give him time to learn from pervious trips and apply

Da thing of it is, that's not necessarily the program. A SM conference is just a talk, and yeh have to participate not pass. Really the only review mechanism is the BOR. So it's quite possible that in a different program the SM can be a friend and mentor at a conference, and a BOR can say "no, not yet" with the SM's full agreement. Yep, which is why I was careful to say "If the SM thinks the scout is ready for advancement..." The BOR really should know what the SM thinks of the scout's preparation. Of course, if everything is signed off in the book, but the adult leadership doesn

I mentioned that mom wouldn't be that happy with the boys.......I know the wife won't be with me if I go camping that day....... They seem stead fast in their choice........ Suggestions to help guide them from making this choice or do you have a troop policy against holiday camping??? Well, in order to go on the campout, the scouts need two things: 1) permission from their families, and 2) a couple of appropriate adults who are available to go with them that weekend. After the PLC plans the year, the adults should sit down to see if they can schedule adequate c

I would never leave such a decision to the scout. That is like asking him "Do you want to piss off Mr A or Mr. B.?" This may be the first time, but it certainly won't be the last time, he finds himself in such a position. Life is like that. If you're any sort of a responsible citizen, let alone a leader, you will find yourself occasionally forced to make a choice between two essentially incompatible positions, with people on either side being dissapointed, angry, perhaps even "pissed off" if you choose the other side. Making the choice for him so he doesn't have to "piss off" Mr A or

On the occasion of BSA getting a new CSE, I thought Id take the opportunity to think about what changes I would make if I were King of the BSA. Figured Id put it here since its all speculation and at least one bullet point will probably devolve to an I&P thread anyway: In no particular order: 1. I would thank RichardB for his service, but inform him that his philosophy on safety was not in line with mine and that we would be hiring a replacement. I would then hire a new Chief Liability Officer who would be tasked with a ground-up rewrite of the G2SS. His or her mission would

If you have to focus your energy on one and only one program, then it's Troop no question. Cub Scouts is fun, nice, good for the kids, but there are other places where they can find those things at that age. A functional troop however is one of the very few opportunities for teenage boys to find the challenges and experiences they need to develop into good men. Perhaps a feeder pack is important for the long-term health of a Troop, perhaps not. But either way, for your sons, the Troop is important and you should focus on that if it needs your help (whether it's an existing troop or a

This is a great personal development opportunity for the scout. I'd sit down with him, explain the two camps (hey, where's Beavah?) and let him know there are many people who think that the paperwork is the most important thing, and until the bureaucracy at National is finished processing it and sends it back, those folks would think it's wrong for him to wear the rank or call himself an Eagle Scout. I'd also tell him there is another camp that thinks the work he has already done, which was validated by his EBOR, is the most important thing and those folks believe he is entitled to wear the

The most important thing is for the adult leadership in the Troop to be on the same page about expectations. That should be the goal of the adult organization in the Troop. The CC/COR need to consider that - getting everyone one the same page - a top priority. The members of the BOR should not - under any circumstances - use the BOR as a means of arguing with the SM about something. If the SM thinks the scout is ready for advancement, it should be rare as hens' teeth for the BOR to say no. But it should also be rare as hen's teeth for the SM to say a scout is ready that the members

I think my test for identifying the first group is pretty good, eh? They quote "don't add to the requirements" more often than any other advancement guidance (and always without the "subtract" clause) I think a perfect example of this was the recent canoeing MB discussion where some commenters mentioned adding to the requirements before even addressing the question of safety. Im not saying those folks dont care about the safety of scouts or that they would be neglectful of appropriate safety measures. But it is illustrative of the camp that not adding to the requirements gets a higher p