awanatech

Even if the Council or National want to cancel their activities, they do not control unit activities. That would fall more to the CO. If they did control the units in that way, I bet it wouldn't matter if it were just the adults delivering mulch. It would still be a unit activity.

I just want to make sure that I understand... in one post, you mentioned that you flex your YPT muscle and would not hesitate to report someone for violating YPT. But then admit that you have slipped up and violated YPT at least twice. How would it have played out if someone else had seen you and decided to flex their YPT muscle and report you for these violations? I'm not saying that abuse is not real, nor am I trying to minimize it. However, I know that the consequences for a false accusation can be very real & long lasting. And yes, I also understand that the effects of abuse are r

Once that accusation has been made, the accused is generally considered to be guilty and will be treated as such. Whether there is any merit to the accusation or not. It may be determined that there is not enough evidence to warrant any criminal action, but the accused will always be branded as such. I have a close friend who was a high school teacher. A female student made a false accusation about him that cost him his career and almost his family. The student later acknowledged that she made up the whole story. There were no repercussions for her and his life was ruined. Many still fe

You're right, it doesn't. National already is making it hard enough to try and keep volunteers engaged. It is frustrating though to see that many Councils make it even harder for the unit volunteers to do the work of Scouting that they so enjoy. We are generally working a full time job & trying to fulfill regular family obligations along with trying to keep up with the ever changing requirements to keep volunteering. I'm also the one trying to keep other leaders up to date on their 2 year renewal for YPT, along with other training updates. Then to throw in running interference between Na

How is it that BSA can emphasize that neither local Councils, units, leaders nor anyone else can add requirements, take away requirements, nor in any other way modify the requirements that the youth are to meet in order to advance, yet all of these Councils are able to require YPT annually when BSA has established it to be valid for 2 years? Isn't that changing the requirements for our adult leaders beyond what BSA has put in place?

We've bought these for our sons also. They hold up really well and it is nice that they are convertible like the BSA pants.

As Comm. Chair for a Pack & Troop for 11 years, I always did the recharter myself. I have a new CC now who will be doing it this year.

Don't forget the $60 Unit Recharter fee to national also. But I can definitely see this coming soon.

While $60 a year is not a deal breaker for me, and I'm glad that they at least kept the adult fees where they did, I feel like if they hear too much feedback that this increase is such a bargain, they'll figure they haven't reached the max dollar amount that they can charge. Then I'd worry more for what next year's increase will be.

With all of the District, Council & National emails that I get, I have not gotten one about this. I'm not on FB, or any other traditional social media, so if that's where it's advertised, I won't see it. We had our Troop meeting tonight and nothing was mentioned at all about it.

I have not received it, at least not yet.

I am just about at that point now. I'm not sure about rechartering myself for next year.

In #14, it mentions activities where participants shoot/ throw objects AT each other. In frisbee, baseball, etc, you're not throwing the object AT another player. You are throwing the object TO them. The goal is not to hit them with the object, but rather for them to catch the object. There is a difference in throwing something AT someone instead of TO someone. And yes, according to GTSS & YPT, if you are a registered leader, you'd have to cancel the sleep over if a 2nd registered leader is not present. Then consider the implications if your 8th grade son is in a Troop.

That's good to hear. I was Committee Chair for the Pack for several years. My oldest son crossed over four years before my youngest. I stayed as Pack CC until he crossed over. It took the Troop leaders to realize that I was serious about staying primarily with my youngest until he crossed over. Our meeting nights were the same, so I would go on outings and knew the Scouts pretty well. But many of the parents didn't know me until I finally crossed over.

Thank you for that update. That's great news that it sounds like you and him have found a Troop home that works for him. I have told many families over the years that each Troop has a distinct personality and many times a particular Troop may not be a good fit for some Scouts. I'm glad you didn't give up on Scouting, but rather found a Troop that he fits into.

We continue to use Troopmaster for this. We've tried Scoutbook since it became available for free to all units. However, we just couldn't get past the learning curve to make it work for us. We couldn't even get the Scout's data to open in the system properly. After talking to others who have used it for a while, we realized that it wasn't just us, and it wasn't just a learning curve. Many Scouters around here wish they could go back to Troopmaster, but the new price of Scoutbook (free) has locked it in for many units over the competitors.

That wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing.

Knowing how much work can go into an Eagle project, I'm sure that this was very discouraging. However, we must keep in mind that the project belongs to the beneficiary. While we always hope that it will provide a long lasting legacy to the Scout who completed it, the needs of the beneficiaries change over time. I have a relative who has a really hard time with this concept as well. This relative will give a gift, but will get quite upset if the recipient does not keep and use the gift. Once that gift is given, it belongs to the recipient/ beneficiary to keep, regift, or otherwise dispose

Every once in a while we may see a Troop or 2 who will build a gateway, but around here it is not the norm. I have seen some pretty cool ones, but they are usually built by the Scoutmasters while the Scouts are in MB sessions. It's not as cool when you realize that they were built by the SM and the Scouts may not have had much input into them. It is much better when the Scouts take it upon themselves to do it.

I give the Scouts a copy of their MB schedule, that they had picked out & signed up for. We also post the MB schedule, Camp Daily Schedule & a camp map on our Troop bulletin board. I do recommend that they look at their schedule to make sure they know where their MBs are, and if they don't know, that they should ask (SPL) so show them before the classes begin. Other than their MB schedule, we don't directly give them any kind of packet or map.

Congratulations Brian!!

Our District had a lady who used to do a lot of embroidery and sewing. She made the ones around here that I knew of, but she isn't doing much sewing anymore. I think she would take old shirt material and make it into a name patch. That way it matched the thread & font of the BSA fabric/ stitching.

Congrats on getting trained and getting involved. Many units are having a hard time getting new parents to step up and get involved at any level, let alone get trained and have a uniform, too.

The uniform looks great and ready to go. Over the years, I have only seen a small handful with sewn name patches, but they looked sharp. Most around here don't even have a name badge, but the ones that do are pretty much all magnetic backed bars.

BSA also has policies in place about the mixing of males & females in Dens, Packs & Troops, but many here have no problem talking about how they work around those policies, often with an under the table "wink, wink" from the DE, SE or other BSA representatives. So BSA policies have become like employee handbooks. Basically, these are the rules. But some of them we let you break, some of them we don't. You won't know which ones are ok to break until we want to enforce them, even if another Council is ok not to enforce them. Then, we may terminate you (revoke your membership), or we