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Mrs Q wanted me to update my wedding band, which I was loth to do until she found one with Gaelic relief that ran ful circle. It's fun to rotate ... on that one finger!

Not that I'd encourage such a thing now. But I could see my troop showing up at the disciplinary hearing with their knives in their pockets!

I blame @Stosh. It was he who wrote "take care of your boys" on the board for PL training. My SM, not some scouter who served me, did something of the sort.

Welcome, and thanks for all you do for the boys. P.S. - I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at where scouting has persisted, even flourished, around the world. Look up World Organization of Scouting Movements.

TT, don't write off the informal ball-room dancing. It's one skill that many of the continental European scouts who I've met have that we don't. (I think that was more from schooling than their troop, but it sounds like there was a bit of synergy between the two.) Also, talk to your council relation's committee, there may be some opportunities to meet scouts on exchange.

Against abuse by a determined predator? No. Against legal action? Maybe. Against biased criticism in this politically charged environment? Not a chance.

Oddly, that's what nearly every ambitious girl, atheist, (and in the late 90's, newly minted homosexual), and 18+ year-old says. They would like to be recognized for their work. Their claim is that, right now, you are being cheated, because your badge doesn't recognized what you've accomplished. It recognizes what you've accomplished, but only while being of a particular identity. The it's saying, "You did pretty good, for a boy." (Before anyone balks. Check that this isn't what you'd say about a GS/USA Gold awardee.) This isn't merely BSA's fault. GS/USA abandoned the "First Class Scout" award. For all of Mike Saurbaugh's pleasant reminisces about working with the campfire program, he's never highlighted a WoLeHo awardee. NESA never broadened its scope to honor Venturing Silver or Sea Scout Quatermaster awardees. We Eagles are one of a pantheon of folks who worked at leadership development and building their character, but NOBODY in our organization would tell us that. In a sense, these girls are finally putting clothes on the emperor.

???? I lost track of what poke this is referring to. But thanks for assuming friendly!

I admire the young woman, but I am concerned about her drama ... Girls, in green shirts can attend WSJ! There are loopholes for those "venturers in training" who won't be able to officially register until they meet existing age requirements just prior to the start of Jambo.

In other words restore recognition of adults who serve as an ASM or SM and master skills? Bring back the good-old-days when rank was less about identity and more about achievement and membership trajectory was upward? Why do that?

To be clear: "new" and "helicopter" don't go hand-in-hand. The first one is easily fixed. Show them the lanes, maybe partner them with someone who's don it before, let them run in those lanes! The second one is not so easy. Someone has to stand in their way and firmly nudge them back in the lane (i.e., out of the boys lanes). If they are successful, that person will wind up looking back and laughing at himself/herself. If not, no matter how well the boys do, there will be criticism for every little thing that goes wrong.

I get asked to do lots of things. I said yes to scouting (and stopped doing other things) for one simple reason: to work for smiles!

This is probably because you were never brought up as a PL, SPL, JASM, then ASM years before your own spawn took their first breath. As a result you don't have the broad definition of "my kids". My boys, first were given to me at age 13. I'm still keeping an eye on half of those lot! I didn't think of it that way at the time, but a couple of young women were my girls because the leadership development rubbed off on other areas of life. Son #1 and #2 might have been my re-entry back into scouting, and Daughter into venturing, but in the crew/troop/district/council, they really were some other SM/SPL/PL/Chief/Officer's scouts. The boys in my troop (and venturers across the council and area) caught onto this pretty quick, and -- knowing that I wasn't in it just for my kids -- they had my ear when any number of issues (including EBoR's) arose. More than once I've looked up from my Saturday coffee to see some youth coming up the sidewalk with a concern. And if not me, they knew they could call on Mrs. Q. One even knew he could count on Son #2 for some emergency babysitting! This happens to other scout moms and dads (especially those with good coaching skills). They're just sitting by our fire minding their own business and some kid decides to make the trek over and start talking. All of a sudden, they've acquired one more pathetic life form. I have no way to be sure, Wisconson, but my gut tells me you're gonna be one of those adults, maybe as soon as a couple of years from now. That's about when some BSA4G scout -- who at the moment has a renegade status but by then might want to take a crack at this new program -- could be looking for the one adult she can have a straight conversation with about advancement. So, sure, help your boys and their buddies figure out their next move in the life of your troop, but understand that these conversations here are not abstractions for a lot of us. Soon enough, they might not be for you either.

@WisconsinMomma, these girls aren't a product of fiction. I know one SM who's quite proud of the members of his "unofficial troop." I'm suspect there are dozens of such units throughout the country (beyond the one or two that make the papers). We can expect Eagle applications from them by 2020, if not sooner. No telling which one of us will be invited to their board of review. The value to most girls will be what is involved in earning the award, not the award itself. Like your boys, it's as much about the journey as the destination.

That's the other problem about modern requirements. I would wretch every year BSA modified a requirement to stipulate, for example, "Boy Scout camping" or the poppycock EDGE method, or the recruitment requirement, or butting in on the SMC with the "duty to God" specification. Plenty of guys I know are not part of the program because of those organization-serving requirements. If the rules fail to recognize first class scouts as such, then the rules have already cheapened Eagle by making advancement more about identity and less about achievement.

The paperwork was so easy for my Eagle, I didn't need anybody else to navigate some paperwork maze. Application: pen and ink. Project report: 3 pages triple-space typed (as in typewriter), one hand-drawing. Personal statement: one page. Cover: celluloid with decal lettering on the title. Done in half the time involved in the tech hassles Son #1 and Son #2 went through. The best thing about using a typewriter: it never distracted me with instant messages, E-mails, and website notifications.

There's not an admissions officer or military recruiter in the country who doesn't know the worth of GS/USA Gold.

And this is why all you all need to call your district commish in 2019 and sign up to be UC's for your district's new BSA4G troops. Cross-reference the thread on quality control. It's in your hands or not at all. The tough nut to crack will be the girl who has been working amicably as a first class scout (concept not the patch) all along -- leading and serving all the while, albeit unofficially, in a BSA troop. And it will probably be some erstwhile hardliner, who upon meeting such a scout, will be her staunchest advocate. That's why I would prefer the membership requirement for BSA4G be something like "Be a girl born after January 1, 2008." (I.e., these troops start with crossovers who grow into the official program from there.) But, I suppose that poses its own can of worms.

The application is laid out much like https://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/BoyScouts/AdvancementandAwards/eagle.aspx which states, under requirement #7. I think that's also worded like that in the handbook. I guess one could diagram each sentence.

Love the "use only manufacturer's replacement ropes" line. (No pun intended.) Manufacturers often ship hammocks without ropes!

My father-in-law, consummate farmer, always opened any conversation with talk of the weather. Upon becoming a snow-bird he would routinely call us after he heard the PA forecast so he could talk to us about it. One day (when the temperature dropped here b/c some tropical depression was rolling through there) he called and-knowing full-well the temperature thanks to the Weather Channel-asked, "How cold is it up there?" I replied, "Don't know. How windy is it down there?" I forget which Hurricane hit them shortly thereafter.

Y'all stop stealing our football weather! Just, ask, we're more than happy to share. Napping now to see if the Steelers (those still standing) can give the Ravens a warm winter welcome. In related news, Pitt's campus (among other colleges) have become late autumn havens for crows. Sidewalks glisten with new fallen guano ... https://www.utimes.pitt.edu/?p=41440

Naw. The dog would have to be registered with BSA and take the requisite youth protection training! As far as humans, that's not a bad idea if that person is a long-time trusted companion. However, 5thGen's situation is pretty novel to him, so figuring out who to "let in" on this is a challenge. Establishing that one even has an anxiety disorder takes more than just one incident of panic. (It's enough to get an honorable discharge from boot camp, but not enough to determine a long-term treatment plan, a friend of mine learned.) So, I bet he doesn't want to blow this out of proportion. He needs someone who can be around for the worst case if action needs to be discretely taken, but will benefit from being at the course if that experience at roundtable is just a flash in the pan. That said if he had a friend who wasn't a scouter but might be interested in seeing how things work, I certainly can imagine a compassionate course director.would be welcoming (and may have an FOS card to send home with the guest).

Welcome! And thanks in advance for all you'll do for the boys. Got questions? Don't worry. We'll make up answers. Some of them might just work!