Outdoors

SOLO http://www.soloschools.com/index.cfm?event=courses.show&ctid=1 Extremely easy to find a course. Very useful. Took one last spring, 2 year certification. There is another one that does WFA courses in New England, I forget their name but a 25 second google search should tell ya.

"Without the scout promise then what is it that they're practicing? It isn't scouting." I find that highly offensive. So what you are saying is Atheists can not be trustworthy. Atheists can not be kind, loyal, helpfull or brave? Atheists can not go camping, hiking, or teach kids orienteering or first aid skills. Atheists posses no leadership qualities and are on par with what, pedophiles? Well yes, that is exactly what BSA says. Which yes, I do find highly offensive. BSA does not have a monopoly on "scouting". BSA does not define "scouting". BSA has a legal trademark on

Wait?! You mean the Earth isn't flat? Shucks, don't tell the Muggles.

Basementdweller, I have no idea what you are trying to get at or if you are trying to pick a fight. So to prevent that, i'm not going to say anything else on this thread after this reply. A question was asked, I gave a response. I also am not sure if you are implying that 12 year olds are not old enough to go backpacking? Some are, some are not. Some 30 year olds couldn't handle it, some can. You can not make a blanket statement and apply some arbitrary age to say who can and cant. The youngest person to complete the AT was only 6. That is a pretty decent backpacking trip, one

Limiting backpacking trips by age is ludicrous. A child of any age can do ANYTHING, all they need is an adult to believe in them. However, if an 11 year old scout has never been on a 2 mile hike in his life, I would never permit him to go on a 50 mile backpacking trip. It is more mental than physical. I know of some 8 year olds that could carry a greater % of their body weight and hike longer and for more days in a row than many 38 year olds. I strongly believe that if a troop has a quality outdoors program they will have opportunities for many hiking trips through the entire ye

While I could not possibly disagree with BSA policy more than I do I do support their right to do whatever they want. Nobody is forced to join. dont like it? Don't join. You will NEVER get BSA National to change, they are stubborn and set in their ways. So quit and join another organization that provides everything BSA does but without the stuff you don't like. We're not welcome here anyway, so why waist the time. You can't have a rational conversation with an irrational person. Unfortunately people often cant agree to disagree when it comes to religion. Just think, if instead of spen

See, this is why I think it is too bad that religion has any part of BSA. Once you bring that many people together (actually it only takes 2 or 3) you are going to get people of all kinds of beliefs who lack the capacity to be civil when discussing religion or politics. That's why I don't allow any religion in my den. We have several atheists and several religious folks. I told them all that I do not believe it is my place and should not be BSA's place to tell you how to teach faith to your kid, or even if you should. Leave it at home in the family. Everyone is in complete agreement

I agree with what people said. But remember BSA does not have a monopoly on Scouting. They are just the largest in the USA. Check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rover_Scout Scouting for adults, Rovering, existed in BSA years ago. And it still does in the B-PSA. If an adult wants to learn the same skills and badges up to 1st class then they can. Then it focuses on other achievements and you get more badges. If recognition of your achievements is important as an adult, check out B-PSA. But you can learn all the same things and achieve the same personal growth as a BSA

awanatech, Thanks for the comment. To others, Agree with the policy or not, that's not the point I was making. Many people refuse to acknowledge that some people A) are ignorant of the issue and B) when they find out they leave over it. That is a fact that cannot be disputed yet people here have made comments that those people must be lieing about why they leave. I do completely agree that most of the people that drop out do so because of a program that did not meet there expectations or conflict with sports. However, there are also many that either just find out about the

"BSA doesn't discriminate, they have membership requirements." OMG are you serious? If that makes you sleep at night I guess. Have you looked up the word discrimination in a dictionary you moron? So when African Americans had to sit in the back of the bus it is because the front of bus had membership requirements for white skinned people only. That wasn't discrimination either I guess as far as you are concerned. I am completely dumbfounded at that comment. (You can ask if the poster is serious without being vulgar in describing "How serious and OMG is plenty)

I have found that quite a few families actually have no idea about the extent of BSA's discriminatory policies. And all of them that I talked to strongly feel those values are wrong to teach to their kids. They also feel that the positives outweigh the negatives because the local unit puts on a good program and there is no other alternative. I am aware of quite a few people have or are planning to leave BSA because of their policies. B-PSA is an option for them.

Yes you guys are right, wasn't in a good mood I think when I posted that and I sound a bit crazy now that I read it. Sorry. We can all call ourselves crazy once and a while can't we? NJ, that list is in fact all merit badges. I grabbed the list and just read down it and typed in the names of the outdoorsy ones. And you are correct, by participating a boy will not gain 100% of the requirements for the badge. But they will get 100% of the knowledge and skills. The rest is paperwork and perhaps a "formal" test/demonstration. But still, it is the knowledge learned that is importan

I find it truly amazing that every time I make a post on these forums that implies that a Boy Scouts should get outdoors to camp, hike, canoe, fish and just simply be outdoors people here immediately jump all over me. These should be part of a monthly program (not all of these every month, but every month should including an outing that includes one or several of these activities) (first aid skills should be practiced on a regular basis): backpacking, camping, canoeing and/or kayaking, cooking, first aid (actually every outing should have at least one WFA certified person), fishing and

If a unit has a proper yearly program in place consisting of a true outdoor program then many MBs will be EARNED by the boys just by participating in the troop's events. Some MBs will require the classroom lecture format unfortunately. But in my opinion, scouts should be all about kids DOING things not sitting there in class, they get to do that already in school. And lastly, to touch upon my 1st point again, I prefer to focus on the program (activities during meetings & outings) and the skills and lessons learned on the journey and not on ranks, badges, and rewards as those w

Today I just bought my 8 year old son a small fixed blade knife. I will always keep it and if he wants to use it he has to come and ask and get it from me and use it safely under my constant supervision. But just imagine if he accidentally brought it to school (which would also require me to forget to take it back from him), they would have the school locked down, SWAT brought in, and CNN news crews there and he would be expelled and I'd be thrown in jail for child endangerment and have both kids taken away. Heck, he can't even bring it to scout camp so we'll have to get a folder for scouts

If it were up to me, ban 'em. I don't even own a cell phone, and hope I never do. So I guess I am a bit biased. And perhaps a little anti-social. Personally it is my goal to live and recreate in places where there is no cell coverage at all. Those places are becoming fewer and fewer.

Don't want to hijack that other thread but... You're right, and this happened in 1991 and the scout in question was me. Short story, finished everything prior to 18, sent paperwork to council as they did eagle bor, council lost paperwork, sent paperwork in 2nd time, council lost it, hand delivered paperwork ON my 18th birthday, council lost it a 3rd time and told me I was SOL since I turned 18. Told me they didn't believe me that I ever did the project. SM did not get involved. Parents drove down to council HQ and had to force a meeting with council exec who was of no help and provide

Hmmm, how about council refusing an Eagle BOR after losing the paperwork 3 times, then refusing to give any sort of reasonable explanation as to their decision, then accusing the scout of lieing and never even doing the service project (despite article in paper and scouts and SM and town mgr, and lots of other people willing to say it was done) and then dragging their feet refusing BOR requests or any written reason and basically being a$holes until the scout turns 18 and then telling the scout he is SOL and tough luck. sorry, didn't mean to hijack the thread - just an old bitter wound

It is too bad you are getting no support from the pack. Particularly at the leaders meeting, w/o a den representative there the communication between den and pack will break down. But you can not control what the Pack leaders do. You can control what your den does and I do think the success comes mainly at the den level and not the pack level since most things are done by den and not pack. Let me share my experiences as a Tiger den leader last year (2010-2011). First I do have a scouting background although the Tiger program did not exist when I was in. I did have a bit of an advantag

Scoutfish, I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about? "WEll wouldn't that be awesome!" Actually, it would be. "Then you could officially say that my troop would only go "real" camping once a year as it is 448 mi, 7 hours 30 mins to those high peaks, and streams where the scouts will have to purify that water before drinking it." Huh? There is all types of camping. Centerfield is "sleeping in a tent outside" which qualifies for the MB. It is absolutely not backcounty camping. It absolutely requires zero scout craft skills to do. One of those council cam

Just another example of how the outdoor aspect of scouting now is a complete joke. Sure, there are individual units that do things right but it is up to the volunteer leaders to get the boys outdoors. Neither the program nor council nor national seem to care - if they would, requirements would be tougher and training would include more than classroom touchy feely nonsense. (like forcing the leaders out on a multi day back country adventure - BSA training should never ever ever be indoors if you ask me - even if it is raining - but thats a topic for another whole conversation) Strictly s