MattR

Maybe the way to do it is to tell the parents you have the medicines, how you'd use them, and ask if any parents have a problem with it. Ibuprofen is a blood thinner so there are some people that can't take it.

@Mich08212, now that you bring it up, I won't pardon your language. Let's keep it scout appropriate. Thank you, The moderator team.

@Mich08212, I haven't read all the pages of this thread so please excuse me if I'm missing something. But a fair number of people have brought up the possibility that your son did not really have a BOR because it was past the 90 day limit past his 18th birthday and you haven't responded. I suspect you don't understand the process. If he really did have a BOR he should have gone through the following process. Filled out an eagle application that was signed by his SM at his eagle SM conference. From there it should have been given to the council registrar who would have checked that it is was all valid. From there it would have been given to his district eagle chair who would have been the same person that signed off on his eagle project. Anyway, that person would have been at his EBOR. At the end of his BOR he would have been given his application back with all the signatures of everyone on the BOR. The application would then go back to the registrar who would then send it to national. A few weeks later your son or the SM would receive a certificate and an eagle card (looks like a credit card). That is proof that your son is an eagle. A patch and a medal is not proof. Did any of this happen? I hate to say the issue is not about having an eagle COH, it's whether your son really had an eagle BOR. It might help if you can clarify some of these issues.

Sounds like my son. Very mellow. Was having fun. He was a year or so in and I sat down with him and showed him how easy it was to get things signed off. It was not on his radar. He was finally mature enough. He suddenly got two ranks at one COH. He still didn't get eagle until two months before his 18th birthday. What he enjoyed about scouts was the adventure and friendships. That has stuck with him. His dog has now been up more peaks over 14,000' than I have. I wouldn't tell him what to do. However, you could ask him what he wants to do in scouts and then support him. If he says he wants to advance then talk to him about that. But if he says he wants to go on next year's big adventure and needs to raise money, then help him with that. And if he says he just wants to have fun with his friends then maybe he'd be interested in having his patrol come over to shoot hoops in the driveway and eat ice cream.

The message I got from that article is that soccer numbers are dropping because parents are taking the fun out of it. Select soccer at 6? At 6 my kids met at the park and the coach was no more than the screw ball in chief. It's kind of like watching parents with kids skiing. Good ski instructors realize 6 year olds are as interested in hot chocolate and playing in the snow as actually skiing but the parents want their kids skiing the whole time. Message to scouters would be keep it fun. I just came back from talking to scouts, parents and staff at summer camp and the idea that summer camp could be more than advancement took a lot of effort to get across. They can't even imagine, at least in my council camp, that merit badges don't have to be the primary activities at camp that everything else has to be squeezed around. Troops/patrols don't do conservation projects, hikes, climbing, kayaking, shooting, or anything just for fun because the MB schedule keeps them split up for so much of the day. All of those activities are jammed into the evenings. It's about understanding that play has its own benefits. Anymore the only way for a kid to play is to use electronics. Maybe it's not the kids' fault. Fun with a purpose might also apply to other activities.

Welcome to the forum, @Keithami. Sounds like a mess to me. My view is you need to talk to some people higher up.

I thought that's what an F150 was for. Bu-bump.

@Eagledad and @CalicoPenn I think accountable is the wrong word. Supportive might be better. This program is about youth and we're the ones working with the youth. Support goes two ways. Maybe they should take Wood Badge and review a few things. The first is servant leadership. Another is the idea of a 360 degree review. The final one is the idea of having a clear vision of the program.

I believe all of this. There's one more aspect of this and that's money. I've seen volunteer organizations lose their way when it comes to money. BSA has high expenses so the core of the program is being ignored to solve the money issue. The focus has moved from quality program to high membership. Add in the fact that so many at national are far from the action and that so many parents see scouts as all about eagle and a reasonable solution is to push advancement. So FCFY, lions and tigers, STEM, silos of interest at national, and girls. In the mean time they've forgotten about the heart of the program. When Hillcourt was pulled out of retirement to fix things there were also silos but I suspect the money problem wasn't so bad. It would take some real leadership to fix things now. Servant leadership. Someone that could cut through the sclerosis at national. Does anyone know of someone at national we could invite to join us?

To answer your question, no. I don't know much about the TAY numbers. Are you saying that because there are double the available youth JTE expects the total number of youth participating should double? That's nuts. The best advice I have heard about JTE, from my new DE no less, is work on the program.

Welcome to the forum @Salmonking. Sounds like a great trip. I hope you stick around.

Excellent! You went straight to the best part of scouting. Well, I'm biased. I like the camping.

I tried the sad emoji but I don't want you to read it the wrong way. It's really sad that teachers are being assaulted.

Welcome to the forum, @JohnyWalter. What brings you here?

Thank you for the correction. I looked around and also found that camps can fire cannons, they just have to do it correctly. I'm good with that. It sounds like there's a process for identifying safety issues. Just my guess, but is it identify cases where scouts and adults have been injured, figure out why, and then make suggestions on how to limit them? A question I have is what is the criteria for saying something is unsafe? Cannons exploding is understandable. Someone can die. But what about electric screwdrivers? The worsts thing I can imagine is someone stabs either themself or someone else with the bit of the screwdriver. I've never seen it but a few stitches isn't such a big deal, compared to what one can do with an axe. Now I think we're getting to the bottom of this. After all the time I've spent in scouting maybe I don't understand the program. What does BSA think the program is? My understanding of the program is that it's fun with a purpose. The purpose is learning how to make good decisions by letting the scouts make decisions. Maybe I'm wrong but the only way I see that 12 year olds using electric screwdrivers as not part of the program is by saying the program is limited to advancement. Scouts can use knives and axes because it's needed for advancement and yet they can't use electric screwdrivers because it's not needed for advancement. Is this true? If so then there's a huge disconnect between the volunteers trying to implement this program and those that are deciding what it is. I think the discussion should be about what the program is, from the viewpoint of the BSA. A lot of the things that seem odd to me make a lot more sense if the focus is on advancement. Unfortunately, by shifting away from fun and decision making the program is moving away from what the volunteers see working. One simple example. I had 50 scouts complete their eagle and all but two of them stuck around until they were 18. When asked what kept them around only one of them said advancement. The rest talked about fun with friends and having a purpose in the troop. That's why I think electric screwdrivers and laser tag should be allowed. The potential harm of scouts shooting toy guns at each other or hurting themself with a screwdriver is much less than the potential gain of the scouts deciding for themselves what is fun, and then doing it.