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Depends whose doing the asking. If it's a DE or other pro, no. If it's a CO, maybe. If it's 5 girls ... I've launched a crew for as much.

Oh, sorry, took your "trying to think through" as as actually having a problem to solve ... not making up a unecessary excuse. :P I'm not seeing the demand here, either. But I'm thinking through this stuff because our CO has been open to this sort of thing, and life as a crew advisor has involved times of thinning rosters punctuated by kids walking up to my door wanting to go backpacking.

@TMSM, where is it written that you have to have two of every POR? If you get a new patrol of boys, do you all say, "Oops, time to get another SPL, QM, Scribe ..."? When a troop is down to 16 (let alone 5) boys, we make it clear they don't need an SPL/ASPL. Two PLs and their assistants can do the trick. If they plan an activity with another troop, they may choose who will serve as SPL for the event. When I was a scout, the Girl Scouts would check out gear from the QM just like our PLs would. We didn't have them appoint their own QM to get trained before they could borrow our tents. They came back no worse for the wear than if a patrol of our boys used them ('cept for the perfume smell). If you're linked, you share resources ... PoR's are a resource. Tell your boys and girls that you'll support their decisions in how to share them. Why make this hard?

@fred johnson, how dare you suggest we trust boots-on-the-ground to do it right from the get go! FWIW - I would never think a linked troop would need double the SPL, QM, PLC etc... But, you are right. This concept, as they've penned it, sets a high bar for COs who want to involve girls.

You will have to ask the captain. His boat, his rules. Ours would have. But this was a private sail. You could call Seabase, and they may know the answer for the ship and captain you'll be sailing with.

It really depends an the boys you get to teach, your assistants, and any parents who may volunteer to help. Read up on the trail to first class requirements. That will give you some idea.

So, if you don't use standard issue sheets for uniform inspection, have you done a technically correct inspection? As for the unit numerals not being issued by the scoutshop, the IG does not specifically speak against ordering privately designed patches. It only lists the designs available through the scout shop.

Well at least we now can answer @funscout in the negative about it becoming a MB any time soon! I wonder how many of his pistol practicing scouts Eagled in spite of missing out on a pencil-whipping MB that would have speed them on their trail that summer. Ah, the joys of being out back of my Webelos DL's place learning to shoot his 38 special. It's truly a miracle any of us got our AoL.

@oldbuzzard, how many camping nights? How many boys on average participate on the average night? Also, is $400 for 2 weeks the actual fee for the summer camp? Sounds like a really sweet deal!

Maybe if you do a favor for a Massai warrior, he could you give you the hat that he made out of the first lion that he caught.

I started sleeping topside at Seabase 12 years ago, and have been tent-optional ever since! A sheet and fleece blanket, and duffel of clothes for a pillow is all you'll need. You may need to go below during rain, but your gear dries of right quick the next day. I also found rain jacket and pants come in handy for the occasional tropical storms. Hypothermia in the summer tropics is a thing! P.S. - I was in the Bahamas last month, and realized that I could have been 10x more comfortable than I was in the fore cabin had I brought my hammock to sling under the boom. (100x if I could have convinced Mrs. Q to join me!)

Also, our reservation has a Chaplain. Sometimes he's a closer reach for a 12 year old than the CD. That's especially true if the SM marched the troop to vespers.

So, what's the disincentive? Does your roundtable regularly hold uniform inspections? If so, are they using the scout shop's inspection sheet? https://mediafiles.scoutshop.org/m2pdf/50015_Leaders_Unif_InspFNL.pdf Oh, look on page 2 at the pretty partial left pocket diagram with no knots and a rank patch!

After you earn Star, you need 12 months and a whole lot of focus and dedication. Good luck and have fun!

I disagree 100% with @Chris1. In WB, you will not read the SM handbook. You need to do that ASAP. In WB, you will not go over the Guide to Safe Scouting ... also need to do that. Have you taken weather safety and all of the other available online training? Is your 1st aid training up to date. Have you attended your Boy Scout breakout sessions at roundtables? How are you with an axe? The boys will be counting on you to be a good example with sharps. No wood is harmed in WB (paper doesn't count). Get your prerequisites done. They are there for a reason. WB can wait a year (or two, or three).

@Scoutinglife, welcome to the forums! The only other suggestion is to contact your institution head and let him/her know that the leadership is not delivering on the promise of scouting.

Well, you just pulled the trip line! One of the more prominent scouting fallacies is "1st Class, 1st Year." A few scouts should be able to move along at that pace. And a troop should be able to provide a range of opportunities so it can happen, but most scouts will take two to three years to master the skills needed to advance those first three ranks. Now if a bunch of boys rank up every couple of months, then CoHs every three months would be a great idea. But if they aren't, those CoHs will become a nag.

I'm pretty sure that for a weekend camp-out in non-developed grounds, older teens can stay. Older teens who check in with the ranger and ask if there's any service project to do for a couple of hours might find a chord of cut firewood delivered to their site. Life skills: Son #2 had all manner of fine young women in our kitchen because of he could cook up any variety of breakfasts. He also got his fill of invites to hunting camps.

Hey, as long as "nearby" can be at the other end of an eight mile trail, we're in agreement.

Congratulations to your son! We recognize scouts' achievements verbally usually at the end of a meeting. We award the bling at the next CoH. As you can tell, there is no one-size-fits all. If your troop hasn't stockpiled badges, to make rapid recognition happen, someone has to volunteer to push the paperwork every week, take the trip to the scout shop, and buy the bling. With the rise of internet advancement, that process is a little smoother, but not all of the kinks have been smoothed out. As a scout, I was perfectly content waiting every three months for badges. Within your patrol, it was never a secret what rank you were. Beyond that, nobody cared.

You need to understand how absurd this statement is. Ideally, we would have four patrols. Each would come with a great plan for the same weekend. One to hike North, the other South, the other East, and the other West. How could I or the SM possibly "be there for the chance that something bad could happen?" Not by limiting each plan to no more than 100 yards from the SM's camp chair and coffee. (FWIW, I don't recall my SM ever having a camp chair.) The PM tells me how: Know the skills of each patrol. That shouldn't be too hard. The cloth on their left pocket and merit badge sash should tell that. Review the plans, suggest revisions if necessary. Make sure they have specific contact information if necessary. Back in my day, thatwould be clear knowledge of every farmer's residence and every ranger's station ... plus the location of every pay-phone, and where the dimes are in each scout's emergency kit. Arrange rendezvous points to touch base with the PLs who may need some extra support (i.e. the ones who aren't quite first class scouts -- concept, not patch). Or send a chaperon if you must (e.g. SPL/ASPL/JASM). Fast forward to the age of cell phones ... this whole process should be even more manageable. In fact, SM and I have hiked to our coffee shop while the boys executed their plan knowing that we were just a phone call away. This should be the standard. The need for "minders" in the immediate vicinity should be the exception -- typically employed while a patrol is still getting its bearings. This, to me, is the quintessential definition of a great SM. Empowering boys by getting them qualified to patrol (verb: the action of traversing a district or beat ... for observation ...).

Bonus points: find someone who was in the pack 75 years ago. See if he's in a position to pay a visit.

I'm sorry, Rick, but I know a lot of Jews, Muslims, and Christians who would not see themselves in that language. Not now. Not a century ago. The folks who left for Trail Life made that quite clear.

I have seen that private schools like @David CO's tend to have a synergy between the balance sheets of service organizations versus band/theatre versus sports. Parents bare the brunt of expenses, facilities included, one way or another. So they want to see as many groups getting as much utility out of those facilities. Harsh reality example: when the jr/sr high school installed in a climbing wall on the taxpayer's dime, the differential cost of Venturing was notable. I could see the calculus rolling in the kids' heads: "Why devote time and $ to mastering a skill in my crew when I can go to my school gym and do the same thing?" Never mind that that there is no comparison between a gym used by hundreds and the number of hours of individual training and breadth of experience that a weekend on location a small group can provide, the short term differential was huge. Suddenly, it was the boys in the adjacent district who kept pushing for cope and climbing weekends. Now, if kids at our school had to pay even a nominal fee for "wall time" or fund-raise for more experienced trainer's, we'd see some of that interest swing back to the scouts.

Yeah, I was going to blather on about operating vs. capital costs. But it sounded like we were talking about what a scout or his troop might have to pay form him to get the most out of his membership. Like @Saltface I look for locations where the camp fees are next to none. But, the drive may be some distance. Most scouts aren't going to go to every activity, but all of them are going to need to step it up around the house. The $100 a month figure was to get them to look at things their parents (or an older siblings going off to college or war) do that they could start doing. This actually encourages most parents to put more than just $1200/year into some "scouting account". If parents see their scout really applying what he's learned in the troop to things at home, funding big-ticket scouting seems more like an investment than an expense. BTW, after nearly two decades, Son #1 is returning my tools sharpened! (I'm forgiving the bent riding mower blade, because the next week I did the very same thing!)