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No pictures (paradoxically, as you will read below). Just memory ... We had a council event when I was a scout where each troop was assigned a booth to present a merit badge. I convinced ours to choose Photography. We made pinhole cameras, took portraits of any scout who stopped by, and developed the film there on the spot. Our darkroom was a cardboard box with armholes for two scouts to open the exposed canisters and transfer the film to a developing canister (which allowed them to pour developer and fixer in the light), then to lay the negatives on photographic paper and expose and develop the positive image. Scouts visiting our booth could stop by an hour later and pick up their B&W photo. It was an ugly looking contraption, but it worked! The SM was pretty proud because he never developed film before (except his Polaroids) so he had to count on us to order materials, fabricate our box, and teach each other how to use it.

Hair spray. Good luck.

Camping is just cruising on very slow moving waves of earth. ⛵ : 🏕️ = ⛺ : 🏝️

It all depends on ... where the lawyers think they will gain traction in the courts. the media optics when abuse happens among girls minded by men in a brand spanking new program vs. among boys minded by women in a very traditional program. The seminar with Wendy Shaw was very telling. BSA counts "favorable" vs. "unfavorable" media references. And (at least as of March) the MSM thermometer was pointing to "happy". (Pardon my paraphrase. Of languages, marketing doublespeak doesn't come naturally to me.) And, she was quick to tell us how much it was on the "happy" scale. (Again, my apologies for not having an exact number. She provided one. I simply did not care to record it. It was my ink being spent taking notes.)

What we call "obvious" reasons can often be cultural. My Italian scout was thoroughly perplexed about the "no purple tent" philosophy. If you grew from cubs with your brother- and sister- scouts sharing the same canvas, then sex-segregation sounds absurd (and even dangerous) at face value. If on the other hand you were brought up (as most of us were) with the sexes being segregated "for their own good," then sex-integration sounds absurd (and even dangerous) at face value.

This is a good example of how a boy can show leadership and not be the best manager of paperwork. Thus, why MB applications are in three parts, why T2F requirements should be signed off by the PL (who is more likely to know the mastered skills of each of scout in the patrol), and why districts/councils generally maintain a copier. In my experience, our nation's youth do some pretty great things ... they just aren't that great at recording it!

I don't know much about it. A friend of mine whose son joined a local chapter because of Boy Scout burn-out told me that the boy really enjoyed it. Another youth explained some of the search and rescue drills he and his sister would go on. In the process they earn ranks that sound a lot like military grades. I gauge the quality of a program by the enthusiasm of the youth in it. This kid was happier than the kid who once bragged to me about being allowed to cruise around town in his dad's Ferrari. But, he was not as on-cloud-nine as most kids who I've met after coming from mission trips. So, it has a good ranking towards the front of the pack in my mind. I think your son will be pleased with the ship you're going to visit. Many local sailing clubs also have youth programs. Are you near any dive shops? Some of them are connected with swift water rescue teams, and those guys play with some awesome "toys." This is really the point of the HA's -- to widen a scout's vision. Hopefully he'll have time to share some experiences with his troop.

Don't sweat the small (or slightly large) stuff. If you duffels will store as a carry on your flight, it will make moving through the airport that much easier. The Seabase staff aren't sitting there with measuring tapes. I got seasick day one as we were mooring over Looe Key Reef. Heat+below+writing+heavy meal the day before+scout didn't close the valve on the head = I'm rushing up to hurl over the rail. Attracted a bunch of yellowtail, then tarpon though. Made for great snorkeling.

If there's an active ship nearby, it may be well worth his time. And @MattR, you would have been right a couple of years ago. For a while, Sea Scouts was put under the Venturing division. Then it move back to being its own thing. No clue why. It is possible to have a venturing crew that boats a lot. (E.g. Canoe Trails.) The differences would be the advancement structure, uniforming, and probably the dedication to maintaining their own vessel(s). He might also consider something completely different like Civil Air Patrol. I've seen a couple of scouts really enjoy moving on to that.

Me, personally? No problems. But PA would require child abuse clearances and an FBI criminal background check. (Not sure if WV and NY state has similar regs for leaders coming from there.) All that on top of BSA's youth protection and background check (which is part of you registration fee). Plus, you'd have to get up to speed with the in-person training. We're being charged $2500 on a payment plan. I'm missing out on a lot of camping (the troop is at summer camp this week) to save up dimes and time. There is scholarship money available for youth, staff, and young ASMs (26 and younger). As soon as one of our scouts realized this was a World Jambo, he came to his mom with a draft plan for all of the new chores/jobs he'd take on to cover the cost.

I'll be an ASM. Could use one more leader in my contingent. Northeast Region Area 4 had 49 open youth slots. Make that 48 ... no, 47 ... thanks to two boys from my troop getting the green light from their parents. If each of the leaders of do as well recruiting, all slots will be full right quick.

Kinda like telling the Caliphate to give grace for a Muslim's 5th wife on account of the exceptionalism of the religions founder. The best thing about the Mediterranean temperament: men who have proper natural affection for one another, just like St. Paul said they should.

Two ideas: A pattern of varying width brass rings on the lid and handle (e.g. wide-narrow-wide, narrow-wide-wide, etc ...). Relatively easy to implement, but will wear/break off eventually. Weld matching symbols on the lid and pot. Harder, but there may be a patch for it.

If you are mad at someone in your crew, the furthest you can get away from them is 41' without docking or swimming! I've had youth turn down the adventure for precisely that reason. It was a mental challenge that they had no interest in overcoming.

I think "revolved" is a more appropriate term. Not sure how far 'prior' you're talking about, but the record indicates that Abram in his sojourn across the fertile crescent encountered cultural and religious constructs quite similar to ours. The entire point of Moses' Genesis is to present the panoply of ethnic groups his people could yoke themselves to -- in contrast to the nation they should become, which is really first presented in Exodus. Our kids' middle school had a project to present a great human invention. Every year I suggested to them that there one invention that universally sets humans of all stripes apart: clothes. How we dress is an unspoken declaration of how we will act (and allow ourselves to be acted upon) within our culture. No other invention has such universal symbolism. (Money comes in at a distant second.)

I'm seeing a much different impact on these post-modern nomadic boys. More than ever before, they have unfettered access to the opposite sex - virtually. These warpped icons of womanhood - usually delivered electronically - are toxic to the male psyche. Also their female friends "virtualize" themselves and distribute their preferred "side" to social media and personal messages that arrive at all hours. (Pro parent tip: park all cell phones at charging stations at the end of the hall opposite bedrooms. Kids can make do with a bedside clock.) With smaller households, more youth are growing up without a peer of the opposite sex in their home. As a side-effect, some elevate their virtual icons to role models that they desire to emulate, identify with, transition into! How can we free our boys from these toxic virtual icons? I've seen forced marches in bear country with actual peers of the opposite sex, routinely applied, do a world of good.

Take a deep breath. Hope it turns up. He may have to write a new one and chase down those signatures again.

I vividly remember a handbook (Webelos? BSHB?) that showed how to make and use stencils. Show them how to use a roller and silk-screen ink. Overwrite the illegible numbers in a different color. Walk away. If your committee gives you trouble, I think you can get bar-coded ribbon or even RFID tags and sew them to the "do not remove" warnings on each piece of cloth. If these are fiberglass poles, you could even hide certain tags in the poles. If it's a problem for the adults, have them occupy their time finding an adult-scale solution. Otherwise, any of the above boy-scale solutions is good. Our troop solves this by having scouts bring their own tents. We have loaners (discount purchases or hand-me-downs) for new scouts. The QM stocks tarp and rope for any older scouts who forget. (Some older scouts only bring tarp, on occasion they remember their rope!)

Let's be clear: there is nothing stopping any scout from making 1st Class in about 3 months. But ... FCFY is not about an individual scout's timeline. It's the adult-oriented philosophy that looks at the time minimums in the reqs, and concludes that no boy should waste more than a year of his scouting career mastering 1st class skills. With it comes other fallacies. FCFY troops won't want a Tenderfoot to be a PL, because those responsibilities will only distract from his progress toward rank while "some other scout needs the PoR." Scouts who picks an MB to earn on day 1 are discouraged instead of referred to a counselor who is skilled with young scouts. Troop backpacking trips have to give way to outings that crossover Johnny can participate in with plenty of older boys to mind him. Swim testing gets done in a pool even though boys usually swim in lakes. A 50% control rate on a one mile orienteering course counts as "complete."

Given that you have the facuilities your patrols really only need two registered adult leaders located centrally, for you to be able to follow this to the letter, I think. But think about it. If a PL decides to get together with his buddies and, by the way, draw up a hike/camp plan, is anyone going to stop them?

Let's pull the reigns in on the runaway horse ... Woaaah, we can ill-afford to dismiss volunteers because they don't accept a cultural paradigm. What's more important? To be called gender dysphoric yet accepted, or to have PC terms used about you and treated with disdain behind your back? I'm sorry, but in my troop/crew cards get put on the table. Sometimes challenging is a form of support. Most of you all do is force scouts to face harsh realities and use that to build a youth's character. The bottom line: until you meet one of these kids, you really can only deal with it in the abstract. And frankly, in the abstract is a lousy way to try to deal with it. Because the way your boys would deal with a girl (according to chromosomes) in this situation is completely different than anything you can imagine in your head. Trying to tell somebody there's a pre-built way to handle it and they gotta step in line or step out, well, it just doesn't help.

@Hedgehog, I was dying to ask, but you just answered! Happy Father's Day. Glad to see you're enjoying a wild ride.

Do you have a location (building, park) where they adults can sit centrally, but the patrols can meet in individual rooms/pavillions.

Excerpt from a recent reminisce with my siblings: "... when I was in high school, my neighbor (the best scout I ever knew - who aged out Second class rank) overheard an argument at the local sporting goods store over the location of the Board Tree tunnel. He asked our scoutmaster, who told him to find a buddy, and he'd take us to explore each entrance. So my buddy gave me a call, and the following Saturday we went over to the SM's house, studied his USGS maps (which showed it went under the state line) and drove off southwest. We found the PA entrance, but didn't dare the tunnel, which was flooded in parts. So we followed the old telegraph lines overland, which made for a rugged but rewarding climb to the WV side. It was an astounding fall day. I vividly remember walking down the road back to the car and reaching out to see if I was merely in front of a painted canvas. (I wasn't. It was real.) Before heading back home, our SM asked if we wanted to see the comer of the state. Of course we said yes, so we pulled over by a field, traipsed across some farmland into a stand of trees (maples and sassafras, I think), and found a cornerstone in the shape of an obelisk with WV carved on two adjacent sides, WV|PA on one side, and PA|WV on the last side. There was a smaller stone some yards off, which we assumed was the previous marker, but we couldn't make out any markings, as it was badly weathered. ..."

Not speaking for @The Latin Scot, but based on my experience as a crew advisor, girls and uniforming is gonna be rough. American female cultural icons put tremendous pressure on young women to "sex everything up". I'm not referring to permissive behavior (although that sometimes applies), but to emphasizing "woman in a man's world" in every aspect of dress. They don't see it that way. And they take offense at the suggestion. But I've seen it play out with many young women -- having to convince them that yes, it is better to wear their uniform as if they are one of the boys and not some anime figure. I've also seen it play out with some young men, but not as frequently, and not for the same reasons. There's are reason why GS/USA stepped away from a head-toe uniform. @an_old_DC, I think you would be pleasantly surprised by the gun-ho attitude of girls who want the BSA program. My female venturers were my best recruiters of adult leaders. When told to do stuff, they actually listened to me ... even my own daughter. (Except the part about "venturers" instead of "venture scouts" she thought that was patently stupid, and had to hear it from somebody else.)