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@TLK, thanks for lurking no more. I agree that the name change is rushed and not needed at all. All we needed to know was that concerned adults could be permitted to form BSA Packs for girls, Dens for girls, and Troops for girls. Three new programs to supplement existing programs and meet post-modern nomadic parents desires. And an explanation of rules and minimum coverage. New literature, logos, and brands could wait a year or two. However, suits are always made to sound like they are a sure thing. That's nothing that strong legal teams can't pick apart. Problem is, every dime dropped on legal fees is one removed from some boy's or girl's scouting experience.

Just so you know, I've never known a multi tool (other then leatherman's) to last more than a year. Most Swiss Army or scout knives hold up for five. I tend to loose them before they ever break.

Because when I was a kid, I couldn't wait to get a spoonful of crushed condensed tomatoes! Almost as exciting as helping dad open cans of motor oil.

Welcome to the forums! And thanks in advance for all you'll do for the youth. In my day as a scout (late 70's early 80's), service hours were not required for rank advancement. (Just checked my book to confirm my memory.) My sons, boy scouts since the start of this century, could use any service (helping with an Eagle project or otherwise) for rank advancement. Do you have a handbook with the requirements spelled out? Which year?

I understand what you're trying to get at, but as we move into the 11-18 year old range, these nuances of language will mean precious little. I call my scouts, boys, sirs, gentlemen, kind sirs, Mr. ___ and ___, etc .... then remind them that this is a youth led movement, act accordingly. If we call girls girls and expect them to lead just as we expect boys to lead, they will respect us for our effort. If we call them scouts, but expect ourselves to lead, they will not.

My venturers had to endure my sometimes calling them "Sir" when I wasn't paying close attention to who was talking. Your girls will be fine if some stranger on the internet uses "boy" regarding them. The over-arching requirement in Cubs is "Do Your Best." You really want this to be a team activity. Even when I was a scout (in the days of cans with heavier gauge metal), the boys on kitchen patrol took turns at this. It takes a while to get used to it (see my note above about the new-fangled gizmos), and having three watch the other one take his/her turn will keep the less coordinated kid from being discouraged. Plus, teamwork on this little thing will translate into good patrolling in the future. That said, if your other adult is a good coach and a good carver, have him/her ready with a small project for the cub who get's bored of the can. P.S. - Make sure it's cans of something they'd love to eat. P.P.S. - Be ready with the first aid kit.

They don't have to open a can each! Have them take turns doing a few strokes on the same can. On each turn the boy can make a couple more strokes than he did the last time. Honestly, for safety and sanity's sake, you don't want any more cans being opened simultaneously than you have adults to watch the process. Once a group finishes their can, give them another.

The girls want us (be we BSA or GSUSA) ... to guide them in fulfilling a vision of the pinnacle scouting experience: hiking and camping independently with their mates. By any other name, that remains the promise of scouting.

Or, decades ago BSA should have insisted that GSUSA call themselves "Guides" the minute GSUSA abandoned the Golden Eaglet. Or again when GSUSA abandoned the First Class. Or when GSUSA decided to abandon the word "scout" entirely for its National Young Woman of Distinction! There is a reason, in many parts, many girls have a negative attitude towards a program that was built with them in mind. Maybe BSA should have made Eagle Scout rank advancement available to GSUSA members who were willing to hew to the requirements in the BSHB. They didn't. Understandably so. They would have failed for trying. So we are stuck letting "scout", and "scouting" mean two somewhat different things depending if it's preceded by "Boy" or "Girl." That's the real shame. But, BSA has time to defer. And I honestly don't think it would cost all that much. BSA could even let GSUSA keep "scouts" exclusively. Change our name to "US Youth Patrols", it's magazine to "Youth's Life", etc ..., and membership would be no worse. Heck, I'd be fine if next year we were Boy Guides of America (also for Girls), and I was suddenly a Guider in BGAAFG. Patrol me in! I'm working for smiles.

Durn it! You chased him off before I could take him up on his bet about what you all believe regarding fixed blades.

Ask your parents if any of them have a knife with one. It's best the boys learn on devices they can access everyday. Regardless, if it's your own money, it's better to just buy one or two of your own to share for the den meeting than to buy a dozen cheap ones. Tell Cabela's that you're coming with a carton of cans to test their knives on. Not every brand works as cleanly as the knife in the video. I've found Swiss Army and BSA to sell products that pretty much do what they say they will. Some of the new-fangled openers are so confusing ... opening cans is faster with my knife. It took me months to figure out one of those ergonomic ones, then once we all figured it out Mrs. Q decided she hated it. So, she gave it to Daughter for her apartment. I did inherit one without a can-opener. Well, "inherit" wasn't quite the right word for it. Mom got tired of grandpa whittling away his cane.

Well, one good thing about lawsuits, interesting tidbits of history surface: So, BSA didn't abandon "Scouting/USA" out of mere lack of enthusiasm. GS/USA clearly was defending their brand in light of girls joining Explorers and Swedish young women visiting BSA's National Jamborees.

Smarter? As in "Boy Scout Troop for Girls"? In the US, branding is never petty. Real membership (and, therefore, money) is at stake. Heretofore, GSUSA could easily market itself to its target audience as a separate-but-equivalent organization directed toward its non-target audience. In that environment, units and councils having joint boy-scout and girl-scout activities could be encouraged. It was a great way to recruit those boys' sisters! By BSA changing its brand (unnecessarily, IMHO) and claiming that its linchpin program now provides a separate-but-equivalent program for the same target audience that GS/USA wants to monopolize, it has reinforced the misconception that there is this "over-arching" organization called "scouts".

'Skip lost for words? Thanks, GS/USA legal, you just stole our Brit's wind!

The most efficient way to Eagle rank (be ye a ten year old tenderfoot or 17 year old life): Do the work! Epitomize the oath and law!

I'd opt for @SSScout's option #2. I agree with @Eagle94-A1 that we want the WDL's signature in the book. But, I'd also call ahead to the SM of the troop they want their son to join. Maybe ask if he's going to your next roundtable and so you can touch base about this in person. If he's gun-ho about having the kid, see what you can do about moving things along. (Maybe he can loan a Troop Guide to play den chief and tutor this kid so he's solid on his AoL requirements.) If he's really concerned about accepting a scout too young and too early (maybe because the troop is doing something fairly rugged January and February) you can convey to the parents that it's not just your wish, but the SM's too, that you all tow the line.

National news, pshaw! They blow everything out of proportion by using military terms. All those politicians just asking folks for votes ... they called it campaigning as if they were some kind of Roman legion.

I don't think we need to be more obtuse. Nor do we need to throw down any gauntlets, but if we did .... Best Scouts of America (Abbreviation: BSA)

Welcome, and thanks in advance for all you'll do for our youth!

Under the Good Book maxim "Make peace with your enemy while he is far off ..." BSA should settle, but not in any way that undermines GS/USA's brand. There is nothing to be gained in misleading potential parents into thinking our "Scouts BSA" is somehow ignoring sex differences. "Family scouting" is anathema to, well, a lot of us. There is something to being plain spoken. "Boy Scouts - for Girls" makes it clear that we are taking a program that was built for boys, but being asked for by thousands of American girls. It's also an admission on so many levels that we're kind of winging it hoping that separate-but-equal will garner smiles. The lawyers can then go apply for jobs at the House of Representatives.

It's a pity nobody here was suggesting a name to National that would avoid wrong impressions.

Pinewood derby. Blocks, markers, stickers. Race! 'Nuff said. If you're really cleaver, you will stick that Q-R code, contact info, and meeting times to the bottom of the blocks!

Well, this is one problem about when rank advancement was denied to anyone over age 18 in the late sixties. Those ovals were seen as strictly kids awards. And, as the thinking evolved, what one learns as a kid isn't necessarily what one needs as an adult. Personally, I wish every ASM would have to earn 1st class rank, at least. Then, any specific adult training would indeed be material that probably wasn't taught to them as a scout. Heck, I would get rid of the age 18 deadline for eagle. What do I care if my SM tries to earn Eagle? An exercise in humility for sure, but the mere fact that he would be trying to do so would show our scouts how important the award is. That's not the world we have. Folks don't want to ditch the traditions we've built in the past 50 years. And along with those traditions is the assumption that new adult leaders can only learn through special classes just for adults, and somehow those classes will help adults get up to speed faster and retain more than the simple-minded pedagogy of an earlier time. The best you can do is not fall for it. Be judicious about your training. Choose things that will round out your current skill-set. Prioritize those and let your co-leaders know what those priorities are. If there's something required that you think you know well, ask your district training coordinator if you can help teach the course and in the process get credit for taking it. That should keep you busy for a couple or three years. By then, Woodbadge might sound appealing.

Make's sense. Among my social media friends of friends, its the new-to-scouting parents who are asking question about which to choose. When I have an opportunity to reply, I suggest that question #1 should be "Are the leaders kind?" Now, in my "seasoned scouter" rubric, kindness also includes a willingness to pack in 3 miles on the trail to camp in the cold with your scouts. And that could be the limiting factor in putting together units here up north. We need to get moms and older sisters used to a certain "weather envelope" before we're really ready to offer girls the same program we offer boys. That doesn't make BSA4G impossible, it just tilts the odds against it ... because leaders of girls' dens will have a good sense that it's gonna have to be them in that snow for Klondike in a couple of years.

I never thought to call it that either. That's the concern parents voiced when I was starting a crew. It could be where you lived. I was basically "stuck" with the same circle of girls in school, extracurricular, and church. And, yes, when it was time to go camping, getting away from them (and a few of the guys I always saw) as a real plus. For my sons, those circles were non-overlapping. Then came the telecom revolution and the rise of post-modern nomadic life.