John-in-KC

The ultimate trump card ... which may burn his bridges with Boy Scouting, is to file a complaint with your State Child Protective Services Bureau. Trust me, the local Council will be in hyperdrive forthwith.

My take: Unless my IH or COR told me I had not choice but to put him in front of my youth, I would not let him within a country mile of my youth. Show me where what he said was friendly, courteous, or kind.

Join the United States Armed Forces. Problems solved, and they pay you.

Moderator note: Split from the President Trump and Jambo thread. Different topic. So... Was he a Scout? Does his language demonstrate Scout Spirit in his daily life? What would you tell him at a SM Conf/BOR/ mentoring session?

Second call Stay courteous. Don't make ad hominem attacks.

Another missive from National, by way of the Bryan on Scouting blog. Read it here. This takes effect 1 August. This does not change camping nights for Camping MB. There is a parallel discussion of this here

There is a signficant change in Eagle Palm award policy, as of 1 August 2017. Click this to link to see it. It is a significant change in policy. There is a discussion in Advancement Resources, this post is simply to be sure this is visible to all leaders.

Just a moderator note: A Scouter is Courteous.

Thoughts, long after the fact, in case someone else runs up on this: - Property not BSAs always carries a risk of closure at the 11th hour. It may be miniscule, it may be large. Our role as advisors is to stay on top of the news, and have a Plan B. Had the park closed, and had you stayed on it, the rangers could have arrested all of you for federal trespass. - Scouting happens in the outdoors. There's always a chance of wildfire. Again, it may be miniscule, it may be large. At a minimum, have a plan to account for and evacuate all concerned. At a maximum, you'll have to implement it. A negligent death suit would be a budget buster for most Councils, even with insurance. ICS.

Oh, sweet mercy... Do your sons and daughters like the homework sheets they bring home from school? I think not Why in the name of all that's good do you want them to use homework sheets for their merit badges in Scouting? Get off your fourth points of contact, Counselors and mentor the youth.

Just saw this. GSUSA is going to develop their advancement program to offer an IT skills track. Heres the link

Reach out to me with your email through private message or the Moderator Area. I have full Adobe through work, and can add the fields you need.

All, Please remember that Terry Howerton (Scouter-Terry) provides this service free to the Scouting community. We have minimal ads, and we have decades of archives you can search. Also, if you do encounter an outage, we have a Facebook group, which serves mainly for "the other parts of our lives", but also serves as a communication conduit if the site goes offline. WAKWIB, SR-540Eagle, and myself are there regularly. I have dear friends, no longer on Scouter, who I communicate with there in their real lives.

Moderator Note: Thread title edited to better reflect situation.

Good luck. I think National will go the other way. Corporate operation of o units with volunteers under supervision of the professional staff.

Associated Press' article, published in Washington Post That's an 8% hit on the national youth population enrolled in BSA. These are the youth who go to Philmont, Jambo, Sea Base and Boundary Waters. This is not something to brush off. I think COL Flagg has one possible vision of the future, whether we like it or not. I also think it's possible BSA will follow GSUSA in leaving the franchising/licensing model and go to direct membership.

Camp on the far shore of the river, or the far shore of the creek. Multiple problems all solved at one fell swoop.

Moderator's Note: Since this thread is related to the knots themselves, vice the criteria to earn the award, I'm moving the thread to Uniforms.

Paging @@RichardB, @@RichardB... So what is this about the Spartan Race at Bechtel serving alcohol on a BSA property? How do you square that with dicta sent to Councils and to the Chartered Partners? BTW, what about Spartan activities which are clearly, clearly beyond the bounds of safe as defined by G2SS, National Camp Standards, and ACA accreditation procedures?

If this was a mandatory item... Well, this would be the end of Boy Scouting in a chunk of the South. Snow was so rare in my Southern California troop we gave a special award for camping in it.

ADMINISTRATIVE NOTE: Merged two parallel topics on the matter of tour plans possibly going away.

Akela is your mother. Akela is your father. Akela is your aunt Akela is your uncle. Akela is your grandfather. Akela is your grandmother. Akela is your neighbor. Akeal is your teacher. Are you getting it yet? Any adult can be Akela to the child. We're not talking rocket science here, we're talking the basic cub scouting program. I know BSA converted for the Den to do more at Den meetings, but the program isn't that difficult; most parents can do the stuff with their kids needed to sign off an Achievement or an Elective.

They are not provisional. They are actual programs. OA Trail Crew is designed to work with young men who may be seeking careers in conservation service. They're gonna bust their butts for a week, doing things in the back-country for the Ranch. In return, they have the freedom of the Reservation to design their week two trek. If they want, they can go from Phillips to Baldy to the Tooth. It's not for young boys, you have to be at least 16, so we're talking 10th graders and up. http://adventure.oa-bsa.org/oatc.php NAYLE is youth leadership education. I think I preferred the old method, where the emphasis was train the trainer: The Scouts who came were going to teach youth leadership training in their own council; they learned from a team of Scouts who came from councils to teach them. http://www.philmontscoutranch.org/nayle.aspx And yes, the Mountain Trek program continues. Go to PTC, your young man or woman, of Trek age, goes out for a week. http://www.philmontscoutranch.org/~/~/link.aspx?_id=A4DD3FE098E540C4B0A09570FD63BB11&_z=z As far as STEM camps go, I know of no national program. Maybe others do.

Want to start a youth on the path to Cooking MB success? Invite him to a meal at your home. I don't mean, eat dinner. I mean spend a couple hours making dinner from ingredients. One good one I use is kebabs. Shrimp, red, green, and orange bell peppers, onions, spices. I'm not talking L' Ecole Culinaire knife work technique, I'm talking big old one inch squares of veggie. We talk cleanliness and sanitation as I get the cutting station set up and done, along with aspects of nutrition.... proteins, carbs, fats, vitamins, minerals, and what my mom called "roughage" or we call "fiber". He helps a bit as I set up the grill, lay the fire, and get it going. We talk about fire safety on the deck as I build the fire. For dessert, I let him help me cut up strawberries, then I teach him how easy it is to make real whipped cream with my "wand of power" (immersible mixer rod). Then, we eat as a family and clean up. I've done camp foil dinners too. Want the Scout motivated? Drop the homework sheets, get him doing stuff and discussing it with you.

We're dealing with upper elementary and Junior High kids who get enough homework sheets at school. Why in heaven's name would anyone want to make them do another homework sheet???