MattR

Welcome to the forum, @RicRosenkranz.

We did as well, but not nearly as high a percentage in the troop as that of the regular population. Scouts sells fantastically well to some people that know what it's about. For those that are unsure, all that added time and cost seems like a real barrier. If the BSA could crack that nut I think the national charter would carry a lot more weight. Rather than parents being so involved a mix of college aged kids and retirees could cover things. It could give some people on this forum something to do.

I disagree, to a point. This program requires parent participation, evenings and weekends, money and gear. For single parent families, those with multiple gig jobs, and those not making much money, this program is a hard sell.

Not all adults. I always insisted there be a big block of time for scouts to figure out their own amusement. Some would explore. Some would work on advancement. Some would play cards or just talk. Most of them really enjoyed that time. I never made it to Philmont but a common comment was that it's a constant push. Get up and get going so you can get to the next event in time. It's a great way to encourage teamwork but not my idea of how to enjoy nature. I'm sure it would have been fun, don't get me wrong, but I do enjoy the tranquility after playing hard.

What a perfect fundraiser for boys. Catch rats. Kill them, with fire no less. Get paid.

My troop is doing outdoor activities. Bike rides, rocket launch, just anything that sounds fun and takes lots of room. No meetings in buildings but they are doing Discord meetings.

I remember in Junior High, when we learned how to write checks, that the teacher said you could write a check on anything, and assuming the bank trusted you, would pay it. We thought that was cool. Never thought it happened, though.

I watched the video. Good stories. I was a scout in the Transatlantic Council so it brought back a few memories. Something that would be good to hear about would be about the Kurdish culture.

Kind of like how this one is? Unfortunately, I haven't used bills or coins since covid started. Neither the hardware stores nor grocery stores are too keen on them. Ahh, to go someplace that uses cash .... Some day.

What are coins? I mean, credit cards are starting to become obsolete. My wife would go nuts if I started a collection. I already have many collections - old tools, old cameras, old calculators and the biggest: old junk.

I'm not a popcorn fanatic and I only ever get kernels so I can pop it myself. I do know that after letting half a bag sit in my cupboard for a few years it doesn't pop so great. But what does pop is good. All the other stuff is no fun or too sweet. That all said, if you can sell more of one variety over another, I think that's what I'd push for. If you feel bad about the money not going to council then just figure out what their cut would have been and make a donation. Which approach would bring in more money for your unit?

It does sound like a fair amount of overlap. The BSA has always been interested in the intersection of science and outdoors. I like science so I'm good with it. However, the Hornaday award was always an odd duck. The lowest level was do a conservation based eagle project and the highest was do four of them. It just competed with eagle too much. So I'm curious about this one.

Speaking of whining, let's remember that nobody has actually proposed changing the scoutmaster title to something else. This thread was started based on some real estate person saying the term master bedroom should not be used. So maybe a hand full of people put up an idea about how to sell houses and this forum produces nine pages of commentary. It might not be whining but maybe making mountains out of mole hills.

Yes it does. But it really helps when people like you try to make it better. Thank you for helping me keep my glass half full. Some day you will have that campfire.

It may depend where you're at. We once went to a county campground and nothing could be tied to trees. The reason was it was a high use area and, just like staying on trail, they didn't want wear and tear on the trees from every camper tying up dish nets.

That's nonsense. We have competitions all the time. One on one, whether a single scout, patrol or troop were always the highlight of every campout and camporee I went on or organized. From axe competitions to tug-o-war, fire building to relay races through the woods, home made sleds to lashed travois, scouts have a lot of fun competing. I suppose fencing could be fun with good leadership but I could see a lot of mangled equipment, so this is a non starter for me.

Maybe you could dig into that a bit. Representative of what? Do they have an organization? An address? Is there a way to ask them a question? A contact page? A FAQ? Is there leadership, ways to solve problems, voting, a way to come to consensus, make decisions, anything that is more than just a hashtag and a vague description of what they want? The answer to all of this is no. As best I can tell they have a website and a wiki page. The website is very vague and the wiki references web pages that no longer exist on the website. At one point in time the website had a list of 13 guiding principles but that web page no longer exists so any ideas of what BLM stands for has to be gleaned from other pages on the website. There are currently 16 chapters in the US and 3 in Canada. In order to become a chapter all you have to do is fill out a form and then someone, from somewhere, will get back to you, probably just to make sure you're for real. There are no other requirements. So, again, what is this representative representing? With no framework all that's left is what ever anyone wants it to be. It's just an inkblot. The person that said go ahead and pillage and plunder wants it to be a mechanism of revenge. All the people that dislike the term BLM wants it to be evil, so they pick and choose what to respond to. All the people that like the term want it to be a source of good. Since it can be anything to anyone, it's really nothing. Certainly it's nothing to criticize and use to make an argument about. There's a great article by David Brooks about how radicals bring important problems to light but aren't able to solve them. That requires more pragmatism. So maybe the "BLM representative" that you dislike so much is the radical bringing important problems to light. It's time to move on to someone more important to pay attention to that is more pragmatic.

I've only read the introduction so far. My first impression is that, for the majority of issues, nothing has changed, at all. It's the same arguments about program, council, national, parents that "Molly coddle" their kids, "the good ol days" when kids were self reliant, struggle with incorporating minority immigrants and more. 1920 and 2020 look surprisingly similar. It might have some good insights into how to move forward with less national resources as they had little. Only warning: this is a real thesis and not a scouter U thesis.

Another way of looking at @skeptic's point: If you're sure the BSA is going to fold then why are you still here?

I have a story for you. I met some guy and he had Hebrew tattooed on his arm. I thought that was really odd because anyone that knows Hebrew likely does not have any tattoos. So I thought this could be an interesting person to talk to and I asked him what the meaning was of that tattoo. He said "I don't know, it just looked cool." There was absolutely no offense taken. Besides, it did look cool. And yet, I can just see someone asking a rabbi for a cool looking word for a tattoo and the rabbi saying sure! And handing him Hebrew for putz. Assuming someone is using a different culture in a respectful manner I think a simple rule is ask someone if it's okay. So ask a local tribe if the regalia is accurate and respectful. If so, great. If not, odds are they would be willing to help. I don't know of any minorities that wouldn't want more people to learn what is important to them. The article of this thread is not representative of what most people think so I wouldn't get too excited about it.

Nope. It only melted the ice less than 2" at the hottest point of the fire. Water and ice are good insulators. The next morning everything had burned down to the water level and stopped. We built a platform of logs that we stacked everything on top of. We had scouts working all day collecting logs in several feet of snow. That was a great camp fire.

Welcome to the forum! We bought a tire mount but I'm not sure there was much discussion about it.

I hate to keep piling on, but it seems that scouts don't love doing merit badges. They might feel like they've gotten a step closer to eagle, but it isn't fun. We never do merit badges on high adventure trips and those trips are the best fun. Rafting on a river is fun. Making a snow shelter and sleeping in it is fun. BBQ in the snow using a big metal trash can is fun. Making a rope bridge is fun. Camping without tents is fun. Making a fire on a frozen lake from a pile of wood stacked 8 feet high is fun. I admit, coming up with fun stuff is hard, mainly because it has to be different. One merit badge I'd like to see is developing one's imagination. Start with old Boy's Life issues and scour them for ideas, mix in some more, beat them down, build them back up, stir them around, repeat until something good comes out, work on the details, ensure they're safe, cheep and practical, propose them, go for it and then figure out what would make them better next time. Get all scouts in on this and then they'd be ready for life after scouts.

Sure would be nice to learn from what they were up against and what they did. Publish it under case studies.

No. Just sounds like you've been locked inside too long.