MattR

@scoutldr, I can imagine the disappointment. Hang in there.

I think there's a huge fear, all across the BSA, that without eagle the entire program would collapse. It's likely true because that's how it's been run for a very long time. There has been this pinnacle achievement that is front and center and hard to work around. The problem is that the pinnacle has little to do with the aims. But it begs the question of what would it take to run a successful program without a pinnacle achievement? It couldn't depend on parents that have mapped out their kids' lives. It must have a solid program. I think it would still require learning lots of skills, b

Time for a rant. This has nothing to do with how people are arguing about this topic. That part is fine. However, ... Between this thread and the eagle at 12 thread, is there any wonder that scouting does not interest youth? It looks like this program is nothing without recognition. When my son was in soccer the entire recognition for everyone, youth and adults, was at the end of the season, at a barbecue. It lasted maybe 15 minutes. The coach talked about each kid. Some parent thanked all the adults that helped out. Then dessert was served. Done. The program, the reason why kids wanted t

I'm the leader of our annual award show. I signed up to get someone else to do something. To be honest, though, this show doesn't really help units put on a better program so given all the grief happening this year this is honestly a waste of time. There has got to be something better we can do to help units.

Or the number of ornaments caught.

Welcome to the forum, @otakuforlife. Weird time or not, it's good to see new, enthusiastic people here.

Just my 2 cents, but 2 oz fabric seems really thin to sew patches onto. I've never tried this so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

Scouting has been nominated for a Nobel Peace prize. I just googled scouting nobel prize and found a lot. Here's one. //www.scout.org/fr/scouts-nobel-peace-prize-2021-nomination "The World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM), together with the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS), have been nominated for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, recognising the outstanding contributions of Scouting and Guiding that have empowered hundreds of millions of young people to create a lasting culture of peace in their communities for more than a century.

In short? That is the longest title I've ever seen. As for the content I hate to admit it but Machiavellian comes to mind. There's a lot of that going on these days. The irony hurts.

A silver deer looks too much like a silver antelope?

Couple of points: Nobody is ignoring you. I for one am waiting to see what's left. A lot of people agree with you that fundamentally scouting can't go away, camping is fun. This is not the thread to talk about picking up the pieces. It's the thread about the legal gears grinding. That all said, it would be nice to see a young at heart leader that could focus us old codgers into moving past the BSA and dragging it forward. While I have my views I am neither young nor a leader.

What position do you see yourself having in the future? I agree with Barry that the ticket can make all the difference. Unfortunately for me my counselor couldn't care less.

Or maybe this is like buying a car and they're just dickering on a price. Remember, win all you can! Anyway, I wouldn't take it personally. It just is.

Fun pattern. I'm not cool so don't get the quarter reference. How light is it? 35 lbs is on the edge for me. Bear canisters and the gear I get with BSA treks seem to put me over, or in 2019 when we had to bring winter gear for snow.

That would be fun to be part of. I missed the video played after the inauguration of places all across the country. Was this clip in that? I'd like to see that whole thing.

That would be a challenge, especially this year. Kudos to anyone that gets it. I liked that outdoor activity group. Earn all those and you should get a different patch. How about calling it the Outing Award? Or the 3/4 of scouting award. Well, not sure of gardening MB, but the rest are a lot of fun.

Welcome to the forum, @Neckstock. What lads and where are you from?

Not sure where you live, but the los Angeles Meritime Institute (lami) has been our source for tall ship sailing. Our guys really enjoy it. BTW, you rent the boat, and it holds 30. So you do need to find enough people to keep the cost down.

This idea that we're breaking norms or rules by asking for something that will help us out sort of illustrates the problem. If the council's primary focus was on helping units put on a better program then the answer would not be, no, you can't do that. It would be let's figure out how to make this work. @ValleyBoy doesn't want to wait months to get paid back but the council wants to keep records. Okay, settle the accounts at the camporee and write down what was paid for, generate receipts for the accounting system that can be put in the following Monday. If they have enough cash they can finis

Thank you, that's exactly what I'm talking about. I don't want a bank account, I want an accounting system account. I don't want to handle the money, I just want it known that when I submit receipts it's charged against the excess we brought in the camporee before. Not only can we keep costs down for scouts but the council can figure out how the money flows. Okay, I can understand the confusion. They do have an accounting system. And it has just enough resolution to satisfy the IRS. But accounting systems can be used for a lot more than that. The question is why $600/scout/year? My co

A friend of mine is an accountant and did see the books. There is no accounting system set up for my council. There is only one account. Nobody could ask, for example, what is the net on a summer camp? Is it making money or losing money? Each camp should have it's own account, I'd think. So yes, we have repeatedly asked and repeatedly gotten nowhere. One of the council staff is solely funded on volunteer run events bringing in enough extra money to cover this person's salary. So does this mean the "budget" covers salary for all staff? Who knows? But this still evades the issue of value. W

I wasn't wearing my moderator hat. Continue burrowing. I believe the rest of your post contained many shoulds, that aren't happening. No disagreement there.

How is it that a discussion about council budgets went back to a discussion about volunteers? Cost of running a council, and whether there's value for that cost is being related to how good the volunteers are. That tells me that the $600/year should entirely go to helping those volunteers. This is why budgets need to be transparent. And not at a one page view but where all the money is spent. If it turns out that camp infrastructure (dining halls, showers, wifi, etc) is where all the money is going and none of this is helping the volunteers put on camporees, and nobody really cares for the sum

All of the angst is about the cost of running a council and the fact that most of that is covered by donations. It's $600/yr/scout in my council. Add in the fact that we talk about how boring eagle required MBs are, is there really a surprise that parents are questioning the value of scouts? Trust me that I don't enjoy this but this is one of those hard facts that needs to be addressed.

I've never seen an acorn knot. What does it look like? I suppose it's only one loop of an oak tree knot, but I'm not sure.