Liz

This is a great discussion! My take on the MAGA hat and the Hope t-shirts is that neither one should ever be combined with a Scout uniform. That is at least against the spirit, if not the letter (maybe that too) of the uniform guidelines combined with the general guidelines that Uniformed Scouts should not participate in political/partisan activities. As long as it was not causing disruption in the unit, I would probably not say anything about either if the kids were wearing such things as part of a non-uniformed, non-public activity such as a backpacking trip. If it were causing di

I am reminded of a concept that's been going around Facebook for a few years: "Don't tell her she's bossy, tell her she has leadership skills." I found that some of my most problematic Scouts have also been some of the best PLs and SPLs in the troop. Problematic not just in terms of being bossy, but I'm talking about kids who were busy setting fires (not in safe fire pits or with things that should be burning at all) whenever it wasn't their turn to be in leadership. Some of the most pleasant and compliant and studious Scouts had the hardest time getting things to run smoothly without ex

The Scout shop is mailing me some patches to sew over the missing letters. This seems like it's definitely the easiest solution and doesn't require replacing the whole shirt or sacrificing another perfectly good shirt for the fabric. I actually have a friend with an embroidery machine who would have made the patches for me if they were no longer available, but I'm glad they are available. Due to the placement of the new logo on the new style uniforms, I don't see replacing the old logo with the new one as feasible, unless there is some way to get all the red residue from the old l

The online store has the new style short sleeve Ladies (XS-XL) and Women’s (1X-3X) available now in the Women’s section. The Girls’ section only has youth sizes. Long sleeve is still old style and I expect that’s until they run through the inventory.

Would that be through scoutstuff.org?

I actually bought these shirts off eBay knowing full well that they would have this problem... at a deep discount. It would not be honest and trustworthy for me to take it for exchange. The whole reason I own the shirt is because I was trying to be thrifty. I do have a couple of spare adult uniform shirts I could take the embroidered patch off of and sew onto these shirts. That was my original plan. I just hate to sacrifice perfectly good uniform shirts that someone else might want, if there's another good solution.

What's your favorite solution for this? I'd love to replace with the new BSA logo embroidered on the shirt or something, although I can also pull the embroidered patch off an unused uniform and sew that over. But that leaves me with an unused uniform that can't really be re-gifted to another Scout or Scouter, so it's not my favorite solution. Just looking for some ideas. I'm sure I'm not the only one with a couple of shirts that look like this. In case it matters, this is the shirt I'm planning to graduate my daughter to when she crosses over to Webelos in a few months.

Our district (maybe even our whole council) doesn't even bother with Popcorn sales. The district fundraiser consists of Camp Cards in the spring and chocolate and meat sticks in the Fall. My daughter sells the camp cards door to door and she loves it. Last year I didn't think she was ready developmentally for booth sales, but I think she's ready to try it this year. Veering a little off topic: For chocolate and meat sticks, this fall she put on her uniform, made some signs to tape to an old baby stroller frame, and we went downtown to sell snacks to all the Pokemon Go players on tw

I think that's an important point, FireStone. Arrows, especially, are a pretty much universal image. Most cultures throughout history have used some kind of arrow. There is a great deal of symbolism in the arrow, as well as a number of mythological references that can be pulled from that use that imagery.

This may actually work in your favor. Perhaps the CM will listen to the CC if concerns are brought to him in friendship. A few principles to consider applying in your approach: 1) There are no "bad kids." There are kids whose behavior is a reaction to some problem, whether that's environmental or biological or whatever. But kids' behavior is a reflection of how they are feeling. 2) This is a problem looking for a solution. Not a complaint. Approach this from the angle of "What can I/we do to help?" All the adults in the unit should be invested in helping every child succeed. Y

I haven't asked my two adult kids who were in OA during their Scouting years what they think, and never having been a member of the OA I'm not sure I'm entitled to an opinion, but I have one nonetheless. I admit I feel a little sad and nostalgic about removing the NA elements from the Cub Scout ceremonies. I really enjoyed them when each of my kids earned their AOLs (which by the way was separate from crossover which was done by the troops they were joining). But at the same time, I think it was time. The culture is changing, like it or not, and there's too much baggage with this.

I'm her DL so no concerns there. I've been doing Scouting a long time - this isn't my first rodeo - and with my son's troop years ago his DL used to regularly make slides and give them to the kids as gifts/prizes at various events. These have been some great suggestions! I'll go over them with her and see what she decides. I can't believe we just threw out a whole bunch of old charging cables that had worn out. In a variety of vibrant colors, too. *sigh* - I knew in my gut they had to be good for something and I just couldn't think of what...

You know, there's a module on my.scouting on uniforms and it has a section specifically on neckerchiefs. If I recall correctly from taking the module recently, pretty much it says all the different ways to wear the neckerchief (including collar folded in, if desired) are acceptable as long as everyone in the unit does it the same way.

My daughter has lost her Bear slide. Any ideas of homemade slides she could make to replace it? I don't want to buy her another one - we're getting pretty close to Webelos. She is pretty crafty. I welcome a variety of suggestions with a range of skill levels, but prefer something that doesn't involve power tools just because I'd like her to make it herself. Then again, if it's a great suggestion that involves power tools we can probably still make it happen. Surely mine isn't the only cub who has lost a slide by this point in the Scouting year.

The dad may have some other ideas too if he understands that a female leader is a requirement to allow her to meet with the other Bears. Perhaps he has a sister or other female family member who would be willing to do this. The leader doesn't have to have any particular qualities other than passing the background check, taking (and adhering to) YPT, and showing up. Anything she actually does to assist the den other than as a chaperone would just be icing on the cake here.

I don't have anywhere near the wisdom or experience of the people who have already replied on this thread (and I think you've had some GREAT advice) - but I do have a couple of thoughts. Give me a moment to tell you where we are and what we're doing, and then I have a few ideas for you as well. We have moved to a different Council entirely since my older kids were Scout age (my first two kids are adults now). So we started over entirely last year when my then 7 year old daughter joined a Wolf den. We signed up with what at the time was the only Family Pack in the area and it didn't work o

What I was told today, which was a bit through the grapevine, was that the church was "not prepared" to take on additional liability coverage. My fear is that the insurance agent, in an effort to bring in more premiums, frightened the person who called into thinking a BSA unit is a huge liability requiring a large increase in insurance coverage. I've left a message to the person who actually spoke with the insurance representative, as she wasn't at church this morning to talk to directly. Hopefully she'll get back to me. Our pastor, who is not a decision maker in this matter but who has

I tried to explain it to them when we first met. And provided them information in writing. But I think the insurance person has a vested interest in selling them more insurance. And they are going to believe them more than they believe me. I will definitely reach out to my DE and try to put them in touch directly.

How many COs carry extra insurance for their chartered BSA units? I and some other Scouters have been trying to find a CO to charter a new Scouts BSA troop. We approached the church my family attends and got a favorable response but I just found out today that the church’s insurance company said they can’t do it without buying additional insurance to cover the Troop. I thought the insurance provided by BSA with the membership dues should be sufficient. Has anybody else run into this issue? How do you deal with it? What if the Troop used money raised by dues or fundraising to pay this ext

Well, the requirements say they have to put a finish on one of their projects... and not all the kids did that with their raingutter regatta boats which they've already finished and moved on from. It's not a big deal for my daughter, who has also made a little catapult which she can apply a finish to, but most of the other kids are going to need to put some kind of finish on their bird houses to meet the requirements. Or maybe I can steer them to bird feeders instead.

What kind of finish do you prefer to provide for woodworking projects? And why? What has worked for you in the past for kids this age and what didn’t work so well? The kids have said they’d like to do bird houses or bird feeders. I was thinking pure tung oil but my husband thought a latex paint would be better.

I see what you mean. I think in our Pack we have an overwhelming majority of Christian leadership, even though among the youth membership there's a great deal of diversity. That makes me more likely to err on the side of leadership being careful to be non-sectarian in their approach and encouraging the boys and girls to express their own faith traditions and be respectful of each others'. This dynamic may be different in different groups.

I think that's entirely different when the Scouts are offering their own prayers. I would encourage them to do it in their own way. I was assuming this was talking about adult leaders facilitating a group prayer.

As a Christian, I completely agree with this. "In Your Name" or "In His Name" are common ways Christians end prayers and it means exactly the same thing as "In Jesus' Name." IMO, it is a Christian prayer ending. If anybody else ever uses it, I have never run across it. It is specifically a reference to part of the New Testament aka Christian Bible and as far as I know definitely doesn't fit with the non-sectarian aim of a group Scouting prayer. In our Pack we have Christians, Jews, and a "reverent agnostic" for lack of a better way to describe it. I would shy away from using phrases coin

Found this shirt for sale with that patch included while browsing eBay today... https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Boy-Scout-Long-Sleeve-Shirt-597-W-Badges-And-Patches/273521151499?hash=item3faf218e0b:g:SDkAAOSw7VtbxQlG:sc:USPSFirstClass!97405!US!-1