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Now, what would be really cool is a 3D print aluminum deposition car with axels printed coming out of the block already aligned, and wheels printed around the axels.

I'm figuring that much of that page was written a year ago. Either that, or someone in marketing just won't let it go. Or, you're right, and we're stuck with double-speak.

Yes. They inserted "family" in every headline leading up to and including the survey period with nary a mention of "girls." This caught the ire of many scouters, myself included, who spend a lot bringing youth up to speak plainly and never bury the lead. In headlines following the survey period (e.g., https://www.scoutingnewsroom.org/press-releases/bsa-expands-programs-welcome-girls-cub-scouts-highest-rank-eagle-scout/ , https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2017/10/11/bsa-welcomes-girls/ , http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/07/opinions/girls-boy-scouts-surbaugh-opinion/index.html) they explicitly run "girls" in the head, and "family" is referenced as one, among many, motivations. This is the only evidence that the survey had any impact on National's words or actions. Of course, they haven't given us a name to apply to these new units/dens. When they do so, they may have us picking terms that obfuscate more than elucidate. (E.g., there's not a Venturer who I've met who did not call themselves Venture Scouts until someone told them otherwise.) I think, @ItsBrian, they will certainly have to do something of the sort when addressing the dens. But, I hope the patch will still be the same "Tiger Cub" regardless of whose pocket it's on.

Even if National has toned down the "family scouting" double-speak, it will take another year for it to wash out of the lexicon. And that will only happen if they promote a precise program names. That's why I've stuck with calling it BSA4G (Boy Scouts of America, for Girls) - and not BSA-Mixed, or B+GSA or FSA or Scouting USA or Pre-Ventureing or anything else that muddies the waters around program that the CSE described. BSA4G also captures the (debatable) notion that the new program offers girls something that they cannot get elsewhere as well as the (also debatable) assurance that traditional units may still retain their flavor as a result of some administrative wall of segregation. I don't expect a reporter to be sharp on details if National remains guarded as well.

For the last couple years before retirement, Every morning before work, my brother went swimming at the YWCA in town. He had transferred and was staying at my house, and their pool was on the bus line. If the ladies were of such service to my brother, I don't mind being of such service to someone's sister/daughter. I wouldn't ask them to drop their "W" and I don't see young women asking this organization to drop its "B."

I wasn't going to ask this, but @NJCubScouter put porgs and Shatner in the same post ... Did anyone else think "Trouble with Tribbles" when Chewy brought them onboard the Falcon?

Well, bless her heart. I hope she achieves her den leader award and a few other knots! If she has been on roster for some time, I suspect the registered her has a Venturer in some crew and she held the position of den chief. Regardless, the CM probably cajoled a parent or two to be in the room holding the DL title but promising that they wouldn't be asked to do any heavy lifting. Then after a while, the Cubmaster or CC felt it was time call a spade a spade, went to their DE with the "If it walks like a duck ..." speech, and they all agreed that she should be recognized for the position she actually did.

or how about this: Boy Which says, "Welcome our old club. We won't keep you out of it by changing the name."

Don't underestimate how much coaches need to train parents in youth sports. I've compared notes with coaches, and they have to deal with their fair share of helicoptering. However, most school leagues have specific sportsmanship training for parents. The thought that parents would need either sportsmanship training or patrol method training that addressed their behavior was unheard of in my day.

I appreciate your optimism. But, as we've seen with this year's insta-palms and trail to first class camping provisions, the national advancement team has a tough time discerning a common understanding of what is equitable when phasing in revised requirements. Maybe paradigm shifts can never be equitable. But, I like hearing from as many sides as possible ... then, when I get handed national's policy, I'll have some sense of how palatable that edict will be. @HelpfulTracks, I think you have that requirement right. At least last year, I remember getting a lecture that included a threat that if your charter lapses, you must suspend unit activities, including advancement. This had to do with getting all PA mandated clearances in and direct-contact leaders trained. There was actually some talk of making sure all of the district's Life scouts in units behind on paperwork could be transferred to "stable" units. It didn't come to that, but we were drawing up the plans B and C. I've always taken the "stay registered" litmus test to be for boys who might not otherwise pay dues or be in good standing. I think it also had to do wih BSA minimizing its liability exposure. It's an open question as to how this would play out with someone who wanted to be registered, but was denied because of decisions by adults. It will be interesting to hear what your scout and venturer in training have to say.

I and my friends never camped (be it church or Boy Scouts, can't speak for Girl Scouts) with our parents. One ASM was the dad of a couple of brothers. The rest were college students. There were times when I was a little jealous of the brothers. The ASM was a rugged coal miner, but gentle and courteous. He would address either of his boys as "honey-bunch" ... Which might be odd to some boy's ears, but in Arab American families, terms of endearment (especially "beloved" and "precious") were common, if not mandatory. So hearing it made me feel at home. Which was a good feeling to have on a frozen ridge while pitching a tent or cooking a meal. In retrospect, I should have invited my dad or oldest brother to join us at camp. I think my SM would have enjoyed my brother's company.

@Eagle94-A1 , no joke: the theater we went to had a bartender set up by the concession stand! I think being a museum, they have a liscence for "special events" anywhere in the building ... Including the theatre.

One thing that I did this month, was offer the SPL a guessing game. I put a junk part from an appliance in a box, and the boys had twenty yes/no questions they could ask to guess what was in the box. Once they guessed what appliance the part belonged to, they could open the box and continue guessing what the part actually did. (Fifteen minutes of STEM, check.) The game wasn't the point. The point is, the scouts were to ask questions by patrol. I only let a scout ask a question if he would give his patrol name and the patrol would respond with a yell - which confirmed the patrol had agreed on a question to ask. Don't respond fast enough, the box got passed to the next patrol. That's probably my only patrol method moment for the month. The rest of my time is spent touching base with adults for various paperwork needs or to explain (re-explain) the program to new parents.

Sorry, I got the order of operations muddled. Council reviews the application before arranging the EBoR. We would like to think that in the case of a rogue troop, they'd give National a call before proceeding, but that might not be how it will play out in any given council.

I wrongly called them Girl Scout Mom or Troop Mom because I thought that was their title. I can only guess that I never called them scoutmaster because nobody else called them that. I suspect if I only knew boy scouts, I would have called them girl scout masters. So, what does one do in the position of "master" that they wouldn't as "leader"?

Honestly, I have no idea. But seeing as my positions next year will be troop committee and council venturing committee, I'm trying to get my head around this thing before someone invites me to sit on one young woman's board. According to last night's conversation this doesn't require overthink. In her rogue troop, was a female candidate given a position of responsibility? What did she do in it? What kind of service projects did she do? What project did she plan and implement and demonstrate leadership on? There should be none of this "pretty good, for a girl" or even "admirable, considering the circumstances." We'd be looking for the typical "above and beyond" that we've come to expect in boys who've come up for review. If National approved the application for a EBoR, the question boils down to: were they right to do so? Or, did they miss something? Like you, I am concerned that a scout career in retrospective, without sanctioned reviews at the time, might result in an unreliable review. But, I haven't seen cut-dates and hard deadlines help the reliability of review all that much.

@SSF, don't buy the "insider hype." Maybe they didn't like the turns their characters took, maybe they did. Regardless, Fisher and Hamill were more in their character than themselves. (It's called acting, after all.) I think you'll be pleased with their performances if your sons invite you along. The story line may disappoint, but I don't think the acting or the cinematography will.

I'll rephrase my statement to say that I don't find anything new to be upset about. This film series's religious despondency is nothing new. The SWU has always been devoid of characters who interact with deities on any personal level. Primitives might have gods to placate, or sacrifices to offer. Elites might have a secret element to tap so that they may project their personal power. Nobody in this story has a diety that calls them to account. No angels appear, only ghosts. No Joan of Arc. If there's an anti-religious sentiment, it's against the witchcraft and sorcery that the galaxy of this story seems beholden to. It reminds me of the opening book of Pliny the Elder's Natural History. He critiques how primitive man fashions idols upon which society builds its edifices, then dives on in to presenting Roman knowledge of nature and humanity, ultimately codifying some of the myths articulated by primitives - along with much of the science that in later centuries would be forgotten in the West - but clearly through his personal filters. Thus, his writing becomes a blur of tech, anthropology, and myth not unlike the SWU. It would take his son, Pliny the Younger to actually start dissecting the actual beliefs of the citizens of the empire. But, except for the ravages of Vesuvious, not much of his work is blockbuster material.

Maybe all of those theatre special effects got to me on this track ... I was just thinking about the various BSA and GSUSA leaders and units that I've worked with -- all find people, really. But, they seem to approach things with a different sense of authority. I was wondering how much of that has to do with their titles? Master ... most of us balk at any notion of temporary ownership the boys. We're all about servant leadership. But, there is a sense, in that word, of "possessing traits scouts should emulate." A scoutmaster, is then, a model scout. Someone we should be like, but we're not there yet. Leader ... Is more ambiguous. It's someone we should follow. But, it also has a sense of caretaker. So, you are on a journey with your leader. She gives you a vision, and you implement it together. I've always called GSUSA leaders scout moms or scout dads (yes, I've met one or two) or scout leaders (if they never had been parents) but never scoutmaster. They never disagreed. I've never called a BSA unit leader scout mom or scout dad. I don't think this changed my expectations of any of them. But I wonder if this changed their expectations of themselves.

Saw the film last night. I'm not finding much to be up in arms about. The plot was boiler-plate. I expect the PLO acquaintances I made years ago would relate to these new heroes. I'm constantly reminding my youth that any parallels between "rebel scum" and the US's current sworn enemies is tenuous at best. However, I can imagine that a defeated galactic insurgency would have no choice but to fall back on slow-reacting humanoid troops not really fit for battles in deep space. That's my take on the admiral-dressed-as-ambassador riff. Slick production. The 3D was well used and not overused IMHO. P.S. - I was amused at the use of "dread naught" for a piece of military hardware built for comically absurd offensive abilities but numerous defensive vulnerabilities.

More background: this lot has not experienced an Eagle mill troop. They had a parent who endured icicle eyes from his wife when he said "Make rank or not, it's not my problem. Mine an your SM's job is to make sure you return from each challenge safely. Make a good plan, get support. No plan, no action." They knew "helicopter" and "tiger" parents, but not by those names. Their kids didn't last long in our units, unless they eventually chose the hikes where dad couldn't keep up. My sons spent 3 to 5 times the required period between ranks - always in some position of responsibility, and certainly gave 10-fold the minimum in service hours. Daughter and eventually daughter-in-law pitched in where they were welcome. They mentored dozens of scouts and venturers. The minimums are trivial to them. More importantly: they had boundary issues that would drive the officious batty. Skills were exchanged with scouts and non-scouts alike, and their "real" patrol extended beyond the unit roster. So, you and I and folks on this forum definitely have dealt with high-speed low-drag proponents to the point that we sometimes feel like the odd man out at roundtable. These Eagles have not -- thus their perspective that the meat of the rank is in the mastery of skills and self. The question then becomes, how many former scouts are like that? Have we become victims of our own success so much that these young adults are representative of a people who value recognition citizens based on substance over form? It's about the journey? Well we can't from this side of the Internet know if the journey of a girl who has spent 4 years in a rogue troop gave her skills in and developed leadership better than the boy who worked a two year checklist. Isn't that reason enough to grant an EBoR?

So, I put this to the four twenty-somethings at dinner, seeing as we were dashing out to wait a half hour in line for good seats at the theater, and for the price of feeding them I wanted their opinions for the blogosphere. Two were Eagles, two were never given the chance due to their identity. However, those two didn't peruse awards or recognition in the youth clubs in which they were involved. The following is not my opinion, but reflects what these young adults settled on rather quickly: The consensus: a girl, having mastered skills commensurate with rank advancement and developed leadership, should be granted an EBoR. Her time served and leadership skills developed in a rogue troop should count toward rank advancement. The most recent Eagle was strident that scouters should not make this about time requirements because in doing so, they demean the rank. Earning Eagle was about attaining skills, not marking time. Everyone else supported his assertion. That this might open the floodgates for appeals for Eagle rank retrospectively was immaterial. They had no problem with BSA reconsidering past appeals. Mrs. Q brought up the possibility of law suits, but I reminded them that this is a private organization and the SCOTUS has upheld BSA's rights on these matters. However, the court of public opinion had influenced which rights BSA would excersize in recent years. Note that none of my young adults are currently volunteers or professionals in scouting. These simply have been surrounded by Eagle Scouts for the duration of time in this family. They are likely to volunteer/contribute in the future, and unlikely to join this forum. That's why I figured their opinions might provide insights. Make of it what you will.

@eagle1993 - I'm a guy who votes for candidates by spreading out the campaign fliers on the table and seeing which one has the fewest colors, on the cheapest paper, with least pictures, and most complete scentences ... So I'm not wowed by all this brochure gibberish. I'm not looking for a lot of organization either. Son #1 and I wound up being the only ones taking the nature trail on our time slot. It was a complete waste of camp resources ... one staff for us while rest were being swarmed by the hundreds of other Cubs in camp. But, that young lady was passionate about biology. She was also the first person to introduce me to Venturing (because I naively asked her how she liked Explorers). The other dog-and-pony shows were fine, but the one-on-one encounters determined which camps our kids would regularly return to. I am very attentive to safety - especially in aquatics. If the guards aren't authoritative, they hear from me. Staff don't have to be polished. They just have to be quick to learn and adapt. As for GS/USA camps, five great ones were closed and sold off in our area. A brochure on the last one standing is oh-so-much lipstick on a pig the former leaders who I know. I certainly hope that in other areas there is real substance behind the glossy pictures.

No worries @RememberSchiff and @NJCubScouter, I'm back home where you can see the bitter cold icy ground along with scrap from someone who skidded into the phone pole outside the house! We scheduled our return to Pittsburgh according to this simple quiz: would folks in Erie county be upset if they saw you on the road without your plow/winch/track vehicle/front loader, etc... Yes? Stay home until they stop cussing about the fools out in weather like this. No? Load up the car and make for the lamppost on the southern edge of this Narnia. Likewise @Cambridgeskip, from my time in England decades ago, I've come up with this simple home improvement quiz: Are you British? ... No? Check your R-values against recommendations for your latitude, and having met those, consider a hot tub. Yes? Crikey! Pull the thatch out of the walls and spend some quid on real insulation and triple pane windows! Life made simple by strangers on the Internet!

Holed up with all the kids on Lake Erie ... catching deeper snow in two days than PA has in any other similar period of weather records. Left my snowshoes in Pittsburgh, so I raided the garage for scrap and fashioned a pair out of plywood. You're never too sure how well they work as they sink through two and a half feet of powder. Was about halfway on my route through the woods when FLOP! Well, the good news is that I learned that there was another two feet of snow below the shoes to sink in ... or try to swim up from, depending on your perspective. As my head came up from under the drift, I remembered that my high-tech kit also came with walking poles. Designing from memory, especially one like mine, has its drawbacks. So, I plodded carefully for the remainder of my trek, and stayed fireside since.