Liz

Well, we've visited both potential packs. Both my daughter and I really prefer the pack that is closer to our home. She feels much more comfortable there. The other pack, she didn't want to be there, she wanted to go home, and she didn't want to go back. Why? I'm not sure. I felt it wasn't as organized as I would have liked but I didn't have the visceral "I don't like it here" reaction that she did. But the one in our neighborhood seems like a super fun, super inviting sort of a group, with a decent amount of structure and discipline while still room for kids to be kids, as well as a great mee

I suppose if I lived in an area where I knew there were lines that were decommissioned, and I knew where those crossings were in my own neighborhood, and they were appropriately marked as hiking trails, it might be a little different for those specific crossings; but I still wouldn't assume any OTHER crossing was completely out of service. Most active railroad crossings at least have a sign. That sign ALWAYS means there is a chance of a train. Even if it's rare.

Not me. All railroads are assumed to be active. I stop every time. I cross at one of these unregulated crossings on my way to and from work every morning. There's a sign, but no lights or crossing arm. I come to a complete and total dead stop and look both ways TWICE before proceeding. I do occasionally see people blow through it and it freaks me out every time. I've only ever seen a train go down those tracks once. But once is enough. Plus, since I happen to be a railfan, I know that trains pass that way several times a day; just not usually during my commute times. I spent months

This is hardly a scientific poll or anything, but the only LDS person I've talked to who had bad things to say about the BSA was spouting off about how much she disagreed with my daughter being in Cub Scouts and "THIS is why the Church has decided to discontinue its relationship with Boy Scouts." She wasn't particularly in favor of allowing gay or trans members either, but that wasn't her big issue. It was just simply not OK to allow girls to do something she felt was reserved for boys. It didn't matter to her that the Church had every possibility of continuing to only offer the program to boy

At cub scout camp this year they had the First Aid station right next to the fire making station. I happened to know that they had an open packet of burn gel sitting on the table because someone earlier had needed it. They showed it to the kids as they were talking about burn first aid. After my daughter finished up her first aid session, we went over to try our hand at making a fire on a sand table. We were only allowed one match, and mine broke, and since it's been a long time since I've used a regular match I have forgotten how easy it is to burn one's self on it and without thinking

https://www.scoutshop.org/cub-scout-youth-patch-vest-red-600540.html - They're official again now, but they were on hiatus for several years.

When my older kids were Cub Scouts in 2001-2007ish, they weren't even available to purchase and were no longer considered "official" Scouting wear. Most of the kids in our dens used a "brag blanket." I know they have made a little bit of a comeback and are now available for purchase at the Scout Shop, but I don't know anybody who actually has one.

I don't think I've ever seen a Scout with a red brag vest in real life.

That's how it's done in my current Council and in the Council I was in before. At least in the previous council the round patch placed on the right pocket was a District patch which you could argue had some value by itself (the segments being a different matter). But in my council it's just a 2nd council patch, which is, if nothing else, redundant. If you buy a shirt with patches pre-sewn at the local Council office, they even include this extra council patch. I don't like it. I grudgingly complied with it on my daughter's blue uniform, but now that she's in tan, nope. My older kids did it

I don't have any objection to teaching things to 4th graders, but only a tiny percentage of 5th to 8th graders are in cub scouts. And I'm not sure I'd go into details about addiction that young, mainly because I don't think kids that age have enough frame of reference to understand and therefore pay attention and retain the information. "Drugs, bad; don't take any drugs your doctor doesn't prescribe specifically for you" is a good lesson at any age.

Den leaders? Are they actually targeting this to cub scouts? The article says 5th through 8th grade. With dens. 🤷‍♀️ I hate how sloppy journalism is.

There are only two troops for girls in our city, and the other one is "closed" to new members, so unless the one girl in this nearby Webelos den happens to be the daughter of the Chair of the "other" Troop (which would be unfortunate, but that's a long, other story) it's safe to say she'll be joining our Troop if she joins any Troop at all. We had our meeting tonight and I think I've pretty much made up my mind to go with our neighborhood Pack, for several reasons. As a bonus, our Troop Scoutmaster who was at the meeting pointed out that it would give us a good opportunity to make anothe

I’m not crazy worried about how the Pack is set up in terms of separate dens as long as she isn’t excluded from hanging out with the boy den if it’s just her or maybe one other girl. The closest pack to our house only has one other girl in Webelos but right now it’s just her and one boy working on Webelos rank so whatever. If we do that, we probably won’t be able to stick with the other kids she is currently Scouting with because they all live on the other side of town. We can join a Pack on that side of town and all stay together, but that leaves us with switching packs again onc

This week our pack's CO informed us that they would not be renewing our charter. I'm not sure why, but perhaps the fact that we only have 4 cubs, one of whom is just weeks away from earning her AOL, has a lot to do with it. I'm sure for the oldest girl she will just transition to the Troop a little earlier than planned. That leaves my 4th grader and one other, and one 3rd grader to find a new home. I'm not sure exactly what I'm looking for here other than commiseration maybe. We switched to this pack less than a year ago after dealing with irreconcilable differences in our pr

I'm in the "It is what it is" camp. I recognize this could be a real challenge for some families. But I also don't expect Scouting to be a free handout. My child needs to fundraise her way through it. BSA has to stay in business somehow. In leaner times in my life, I'd pay the fee and it might mean my child didn't get to attend summer camp next year.

I suppose that's one way of looking at it. Another is to ask whether MBCs should be expected to pay for their own background checks in order to volunteer their time to help kids out. Maybe it's appropriate for the kids to fundraise the cost of screening and then having these mentors available.

At any rate, just to put it in perspective... $60 per year is still less than the new Disney+ Streaming service. Just sayin'. Personally, I still think it's a bargain. My daughter fundraises to cover the Pack expenses of participation. I buy her uniforms used. Summer camp is the only major expense, it's optional, and she is able to fundraise enough to cover that, too. I am lucky that our local council costs are covered by council fundraising - which again we participate in enthusiastically. If they want to start charging $12 a year at some point I still think that's not unre

I don't think they've ever been no charge, but many units pay for MB membership fees out of their Troop budget.

At my older kids' Troop, they lit 12 candles as they explained each point of the Scout Law, and then a 3-tiered candle for the Scout Oath. I always thought that was kinda cool but I don't know what the girls will think of it. We might not be able to do candles in the school where we usually meet, but we can schedule the COH for one of the times we are meeting at an alternate location (sometimes the school isn't available and we meet at the park or in a conference room at the Council office). We only have 6 Scouts so far, although we are gearing up to at least triple our size with t

It's going to be time soon to start planning our Troop's first Court of Honor. Our girls are all young, inexperienced Scouts. I'm not sure any of them has ever attended a Court of Honor. Maybe one probably has because she has a brother in Scouts BSA. Typically, the CoH would be planned by the youth like all the other stuff, right? I've seen enough different ones in my "time" in Scouting that I have an idea of how I expect it to look and could totally do it, but I assume I shouldn't be doing that. So I'm looking for resources to offer to the girls so they can maybe have some va

🤷‍♀️ I've heard of this several times from several different avenues (email from both National and Council, seen it shared several times on Facebook, etc.). I don't know yet whether my daughter (4th grade) will wear her uniform to school tomorrow. It's a decision she needs to make for herself. She initially said she would. She's prone to changing her mind though. I made sure the girls in our Troop knew about it. Don't have any idea whether they are going to participate or not. I'm not pushing the issue. I guess we'll see what happens.

We don't live in an area that has a strong cultural support of Scouts. There are individuals who will pay/buy anything of course; but as a rule we wouldn't have a chance of having a single Scout selling $1,000 worth of popcorn. We definitely have that opportunity with the candy and meat sticks we sell instead. I lived in a different Council when my older kids were in Scouts. In particular, we lived in an area that had a stronger support of Scouting than the general area the Council covered. We participated in popcorn sales but didn't earn enough to make a dent in our yearly fundraising g

I love your website! Is this a template that's available for purchase or did someone donate their time and talents to create it just for your Troop? We are looking at getting our website up and running shortly and man, if we don't have to re-invent the wheel, it would make me happy!

While true (at least in terms of REPORTED sex offenders), why does this not mean that we need to have male and female leaders on ALL outings, regardless of the gender of the youth involved? All or nearly all of the lawsuits against the BSA for previous failures to protect youth from sexual predators is from abuse against male youth. Why do they deserve less protection than female youth? Is there any particular evidence that girls are in more danger than boys from sexual predators? We do know male victims report less often than females, but not necessarily that they are victimized less.

That's just heartbreaking to me. I understand where you're coming from entirely. But IMO, we need to practice two-deep leadership and other YPT rules like the law, because that will stop the few rotten apples from doing damage, and from there practice "A Scout is Trustworthy." Yes, I'd allow my daughter to attend events without female leaders present, as long as I had faith that YPT was consistently followed in the unit. I don't worry about unit leaders preying on my daughter partly because I know they are never ever alone with her.