perdidochas

I can see not using it in the sales pitch. That said, most non-Scout people I talk to kind of assume it as part of Scouting (just like camping).

I don't see how you can run a Troop without forming moral character. I can see how uniforms could be optional, but moral character?

Just to be clear, you do understand that youth are allowed to be homosexuals in the scouts, don't you? (yes, we don't allow adult homosexuals)

My scouts have encountered hostile adults that chewed them out for the new policy about homosexual scouts, when doing popcorn sales in front of grocery stores. That said, when wearing my Scouter uniform out and about, I pretty much get good comments.

If we had a Life Scout who refused a POR or didn't have one by choice, I'm not sure he would become an Eagle for a while. I do grant there can be reasons for not having a POR--such as a Life Scout in a high school band passing on a POR during marching season.

Adult quartermasters? What kind of craziness is that? Now, we have a committee member who's the equipment chair, but his job is to help the Scout who is Quartermaster. Is this guy trained? If he's not, training would be the first requirement. The other question is what do the COR and CC think of this guy?

The only concern to me about the attendance above is the low number of crossovers. having roughly 2/3 attendance isnt' bad.

The above, IMHO, doesn't fit with what I've read in the actual Common Core Standards. http://www.corestandards.org/read-the-standards/

While I don't doubt that the above is claimed to be Common Core, it is not a common core requirement. From my observation, a lot of crap is being foisted on school kids with the label "Common Core." The standards are reasonable. http://www.corestandards.org/read-the-standards/ Here are the 9-10 grade standards for reading in Social Studies. http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RH/9-10/

It would take more than a year of weekly 1.5 hr meetings to knock out all the Eagle required badges during meetings. That said, I think it would be a really strange program. We mainly concentrate on T-2-1 requirements. IMHO, they are the basic skills that all the scouts need to know well.

Neither. The Catholic Diocese here requires a $50 background check every five years. We still have Catholic parish sponsored Boy Scout Troops, Cub Scout Packs and Venture crews.

We've done requirements for merit badges for meetings--for example, we did the personal fitness "tests" but for the boys to finish the requirements, they have to discuss them with the counselors.

Preaching to the choir on that.

Skills instruction.....

We do a combination. I allow photos (if obviously taken by scout), but a lot of time we'll do walk thrus. Our COR has several acres, and has enough different plants/trees to easily do First Class #6. My youngest son has taken to teaching the younger scouts about the trees on the property.

Yes, he was the naturalist on board the Beagle, the ship he took to the Galapagos. He made observations on all sorts of things from birds to barnacles to worms.

That's pretty much what we do. I think, though that Troopwebhost has the option to do a report on expiration date of medical form (if the data is put on it). Every month or so we send out emails to the folks with expired medical forms.

Packsaddle, The importance of the form for the leaders, IMHO, is so they can read over them so they know about the allergies and medical conditions of the boys. That way I know if John Doe starts swelling up, that it might have been due to the Reeses cup he ate.......

I still don't get the making assumptions bit. My post was based on an either/or thing. I never assumed it was either a scout or a scouter. I said what I thought about either situation. My first hypothetical was that the invite was from a scout that was a friend of the scout. As I said, there was nothing wrong with a scout asking another scout. The second hypothetical is that it was from a scouter. I don't need any more information to know that I would watch the situation. I wouldn't voice it to anyone, but I would be on the lookout. The only way to keep Scouting safe for boys is to be alert for things that seem suspicious. If a Scouter came up to my son and asked him to join their troop, it would set off warnings. Children (and all scouts are children) only have a single innocence. I'm a scout leader to help the Scouts, and part of helping the scouts is to watch out for them. Part of this is involved with having taken youth protection beyond the scouting one. Our local Catholic diocese (I'm a member of the Catholic parish that sponsors our troop) requires us to take an additional two online classes on youth protection. They are much more oriented towards how to recognize predators than the BSA course which is primarily CYA.

Yellow flag means caution in my mind. I stand by it.

Thank you for seeing my point. As I said, it's a yellow flag, which means something to keep an eye out for, not a red flag, which is something I would report. I'm glad to read though, that it was probably a friend in the other troop.

I can't imagine BSA without camping as the centerpiece. That said, we've done STEM activities on campouts.