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I'd wager that @ParkMan's instructors were deeply moved by their Wood Badge experience (which included lengthy dress-up skits, Win-All-You-Can pranks, and moving recognition dinners). We scouters need to understand that it is a huge and moving thing for a six-year-old to have a grown adult give him a badge in front of peers of scouts and their siblings. Therefore, one ceremony is fitting when a bunch of buddies achieve the same challenge together in due season, but a different ceremony is fitting when a single scout or a bunch of buddies meet the same goal out of season. A good instructor will tell you this. And, he'll demonstrate both kinds of ceremonies. -- except the upside-down Bobcat. It's a roundtable-gone-wrong when grown-ups try to flip each other upside down.

This story was on my mind as a storm bore down on the wooded valley we were camping in one evening this fall. It didn't help that what was left of a three-year-old blowdown hung on the opposite sides of a wider portion of the valley. To lose a scout would be soul-shattering.

Make a big fuss? Yes! Fuss similarly? No! Even if it's the same number of Bobcats awarded at both meetings ... It's perfectly fine if, in October, @Cubmaster Pete does a face-painting ceremony and in January, for example, simply has all of the October-cats come up and give the new Bobcats' cub scout scout handshakes and salutes. Then, maybe when prepping for next October ask those January (and later)-cats if they want to help paint faces since they missed getting painted last year. Indeed, these boys are all deserving of recognition. And by using different ceremonies you focus on what the recognition is. It's The badge!!!!! We scouters often get lost in our little traditions. In this case the Bobcat badge is what recognizes some pretty ambitious memorization work on the part of a young scout. No ceremony recognizes it. (Proof: try painting faces without giving the badges see how happy these scouts would be!) What you may do around awarding the badge is nice, but superfluous. In the scouterverse, patches are the best thing ever. Really and truly the gratification of holding a well-earned patch is second only to using your skills to forestall death. So, a little face-paint may break up the monotony of doling out badges, but if it needs to be done every time for each awardee no matter what else needs to be done then it becomes the monotony! How do we know that? Well, this topic wouldn't exist if it were so much fun that no scouter could resist doing it for every awards ceremony! Another example, at CoH's, I like to shake the hand of each scout who advances and give him a personal word of encouragement. But, say all the boys rack up copious bling one term, and a parent/sibling decides to fresh-bake cookies downstairs -- the smell of which motivates us to hustle things along and forgo pleasantries ... Are those boys any less recognized by myself or the rest of the troop because I didn't get a word in with them? By no means! They've got their rank and we all know it! Trust me, that 1st class scout will be called on to anchor a ridge line with a timber hitch whether I shook his hand or not! One final example in two words: Wood badge. I won't expound because many of you are still recovering from that trauma ... So break the monotony, give recognition diversely!

Fortunately ours melted a hole in the Al d/o (swapped with one of our Fe models at summer camp, we figure) before the cobbler was added. Otherwise it might have gone on a "long walk" that very night!

This is where I part ways. Kids are different. The do different things and come in at different times. Therefore they deserve different forms of recognition. It's called prepared for life: Son #1 completed his degree in December; therefore his ceremony was a relatively intimate suit-and-tie dinner. Daughter completed hers in May, therefore it was a grand departmental cap-and-gown affair. Same degree, same size university different time of year. Why should you deny Cubs the privilege of being recognized in a seasonally appropriate fashion? Think of it in the opposite direction. One could argue that if you don't have a pin-specific ceremony in January, you shouldn't have one in October. In fact, no ceremonies ever. Don't bridge AoL, don't swap neckers from bears to wolves, quick handshakes and applause. Everybody equal and all's fair.

Parents will complain if you let meetings run long. Speak to the boys (any girls?) directly and let them know that their ceremony is a little less fancy than the one you all did in October, but their achievement is just as significant and that you are very proud of them.

This sounds simple minded but ... Voice. Talking is a vital skill that the boys will need to get a leg up in their careers. Lodge reps not in the room? Phone them. Poor attendance? Call the house phone and leave a message that they were missed. Call the SM of the lodge reps who do attend and let them know how you appreciate their scouts' participation. Text/Email no more. Hand-written post cards are wonderful things.

You're he one responsible for balancing time. You may be looking at your next pack meeting agenda and realize you can do a little more than just have the DL dole out the pins and shake hands, but you don't have time for a full-blown ceremony. You're allowed to improvise and perform the most meaningful parts of the regular routine. BTW we work with Eagle Scouts to do this for their ceremonies.some ask for big affairs, others want hardly any recognition at all.

I have used the same mess kit for 40 years. Shortly after I said "never again" to my last meal of franks and beans, my brother ordered me a kit from an Amway catalogue his work gave him. It had two pots, two plates, a Teflon pan and grippers as a multi-handle. Add to that a tin cup that I "appropriated" from gear my oldest brother left at the house, and an egg poacher that mom was about to throw out, and I've been golden ever since. The pans were a heavier gague than most aluminum kits, so I could jury rig a Dutch oven or a double broiler with the thing. For the family, we have a patrol mess kit, a cast iron skillet, and a ditch oven.

I thought they were boys from the same troop! This is different. I mean, if the beneficiary said to do the project on day x without saying that two other troops would also be doing theirs on this day, how would anyone know? One backhanded solution: call the other boys' scoutmasters and see if one of them will let your son transfer to their troop so he can do his project. It will set you back a dollar and some paperwork, and your son might not get along with the boys in the other troop -- but if push comes to shove ...

I feel the SM is missing a great opportunity here. He could walk (ride?) around the grounds checking in on different projects, observing which scouts have the best plan for lunch, etc ... and free up time for lots of other activity. Ask your district advancement chair to have a word with your SM about this.

With all due respect to your concerns, @fred8033 there is no greater insult to a culture than listening to the voices that dare you to never honor them. The quotes you put around local nations implies that somehow the lodge really wasn't in touch with tribal leaders. Or that tribal chiefs waffle in their beliefs. Or that when a tribe confers membership to erstwhile arrowmen, they do so lightly. This wrongly resurrects the "Indian giver" stereotype. When a tribes endorses support, they don't do so lightly. And, when they withdraw support, it is rarely based on populist whims, but rather a specific violation of trust. Should lodges interact with NA leaders? Yes. What proof do you have that they don't? Football team names are a red herring. There is a difference between making money off someone's history and legends, and inspiring greatness through honoring someone's history and legend.

Have you browsed https://troopleader.org/? It has a hodge-podge of materials that may fit. One of thier many links will take you here https://www.scouting.org/health-and-safety/forms/. One of the .pdf links is to a permission slip. For a while, BSA had a tour permit .pdf. Although it no longer is in use, I thought it would have been a great tool for patrol leaders.

Scanned your troop book, but didn't have time to look at the video. Excellent work. I would suggest under activities, you add two forms: Permission slip. If you are using BSA's form, just include the link. Hike/camp plan of where, when, how (e.g. transportation, which adult leaders will be present/driving, who reviewed and approved the plan). This could be another page on your campout planner form, or it could be a separate page that the PLC or a patrol might use, for example, to get their event on the calendar. FWIW, not every SPL will be good with software like this. As long as your prepared to help a scout manage the same material using pencil and paper, you'll be fine. (Instead of documents, the scribe uploads pictures of his paperwork.)

In prep for 2019, I call dibs on the first post of the new year in this forum!

Not true. The logistics of tracking and maintaining registries is unwieldy. Even in the best possible circumstance, although the probability of any given unit having an offender pass screening through is extremely low, the probability that one of the thousands of units out there will somewhere is extremely high. Compound that with the possibility that someone who is exonerated may still be in a registry for some time, and you have a real mess. It's a litigant's dream. The more a large organization invests in a comprehensive procedure, the more likely it will fail at least once regularly. The larger the organization, the more likely the pay-out. In PA, volunteers have to renew their clearances every five years. A lot can happen in five years.

I think this post belongs under Council Relations or Wood Badge and Adult Leader Training. These bungles are more common than we would like to think. The paperwork often doesn't keep up with the person. That means that sometimes, someone somewhere is going to fall (creep?) through the cracks. Leaders aren't trained in how to communicate with parents. And parents aren't trained in how to deal with folks who appear on these lists. For my part (and this is from seeing a couple of young adult leaders close to home face accusations), I'd invite someone like that over to Sunday dinner and have him/her explain what happened in their own terms in front of my kids. Better the snake you know ...

Mash, enjoy. Not gonna lie. The first freeze of the year is hard on this old frame, so brace yourself, and don't be afraid to cry "uncle" if anything doesn't feel right. But, once you adapt, it's sheer beauty! (Well, the burn scar will be sad.) When I get my official WSJ troop #, I'll PM you.

Welcome, and thanks in advance for all you'll do for those girls! Regarding hammocks: the family that sways together, stays together (depending on available trees).

It's not just you. It's broke. I think they are trying too hard. This interface could be one that spits out plain text and a map. But developers have fallen for this hand-held look and feel.

My associate advisor made my crew!

I agree this is mostly semantics. Since time-out-of-mind, in English, the singular was used to refer to the body of ordinances and the plural to refer to the collections of ordinances within the body. (E.g., Jewish religious law is made up of 613 laws. The one English word serves for the two Hebrew words that distinguish the sum from the parts.) But, it's also a reminder that scout commits to duty to God and country and obedience to the scout law. helping others, and maintaining one's self prepared. B-P has in mind an integral being of certain character. Not someone with a dozen (or more) responsibilities. God and country hold those long lists.

I'm with @skeptic: one law (as referenced in the Oath) with 12 points.

Why not a stove that sits on top of the canister? I understand that jet-boils have a small radius. But a a burner with a 4" diameter on a canister seems about as stable as one with all of those fold-out legs (which I've seen fail at some inconvenient times). Even with those pocket rockets, three choice rocks or tent pegs around the canister/burner give the added stability for larger pots. I just favor as small a footprint as possible to minimize tripping hazards.

Don't ignore the phrase "if participating in a high adventure activity ..." WB is not a HA activity. Have you actually talked to your specialist about participating in weekend courses like WB? Do you monitor your own BP? Regarding troop leadership, they may mean well. But, they need to go pound sand. If you're a good leader, they aren't going to let you slip away over your apprehension about attending a course.