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Overthink example: Where do you find "native" in he requirement?"... found in your area ..." My aunt, (the oldest living campfire girl) likely saw a very large cat in her garden. We think in her frail state, she identified a migrating cougar. At one time the word would come easily for her. Such beasts are no longer native to northern WV, yet. But it would count toward the list. Although a full set of prints and snagged fur sample would have helped settle the argument. So a scout saw a distinctive kind of tree. Help him find its name, determine where it came from, speculate as to how it got there and how long it's kind will remain. This is what a first class scout does. Or, has wondering at the wide world been written out of advancement?

Welcome! When there is only one patrol in a troop, the SPL can be redundant. But in general the SPL's goal is to support each PL as he does his job. So key questions to ask are: What do you want to do? What do you need to do it? It sounds like you've asked those questions, and you think some of those other people have answers for you, so yes invite them. But, it could be that they have something the entire troop should hear (like a special event or service event or service project), in which case you put them on the troop meeting's agenda. There is are two books: Senior patrol Leader's Handbook, Troop Leadership Training Course. Have you read them?

Invasive species are, by definition, wild. If they were tame, they wouldn't invade. I think a scout being able to identify, say, Japanese knotweed, is ready to plan a service project to clear the marsh of it without destroying the cat tails as well. Use advancement as a springboard, not a benchmark.

I take the wording to be non-scientific because this is not a STEM requirement. I want my PL's to ask leading questions like how the scout could tell one from the other? What signs of the flora or fauna did he observe. What did he think the critter or plant was doing? Did it make sense that some of the items were together (e.g. Why would bear scat be near berry patch?) On our nature walks, I ask scouts to close their eyes and determine what they could identify, (calls, footfalls, feel, smell). I challenge them to use their discoveries to infer what's going on that day. I look for that report from any scout, regardless of rank, so as a matter of course, the scout will meet this requirement. We've observed that walking sticks have become rare in these parts, of late. So if a scout counts that as one of his ten, I would be inclined to accept it. But, if the list only contained insects, I'd ask him to read the requirement closer.

Maybe this one? http://scouter.com/index.php/topic/26740-parents-writing-eagle-references-for-child/?p=407383 I pointed to one of my replies because, although I talk about putting negative things in writing, I've never felt that I've had to.

My Italian scout informed me that rank advancement ends at 14. After that it's service and camping, etc ... You might want to put in for a transfer.

We don't use squirt guns/super-soakers, etc., we only use mobile heat-stroke care delivery devices. Our victims simulate desperately needing core temperature reduction while so delirious they evade rescue.

We're all just one poor beggar telling another where to find food. There is a natural synergy between leadership an management. Doing one often helps develops the other. But, let me harp on PoR's a little more. There are no "lesser" positions in a troop. There are some that count for certain rank advancement, and some that don't. There are some that explicitly demand leadership (hint: look for the word "leader", "guide", or maybe "master") on the patch, and some that demand other skills, not necessarily leadership. Thus our bugler could be a leader, but he could be following the SPL's cues. We won't know until the SPL sleeps in or stays late at cracker barrel. Our historian could be leading, or he could be surrounded by PL's who hand him photos or story lines and requests them to be scrap-booked. Same for the other PoRs ... Flip that around, an SPL/PL could be managing ... posting rosters on time, looking sharp for flag, reading announcements ... but behind him are the scribes, QMs, guides, etc ... pushing the troop along. What this means for the Eagle candidate (especially going back to the OP): if he has a particular project in mind, and the only go-getters the troop are PL's with barely enough time to keep the troop on an even keel, he might rather get his labor force from his band members, sports team, or the guys/gals at the sportsman's club. On the other hand, if he's seen every boy in his troop put heart and soul into their respective PoRs (because the SMs have always expected as much from every PoR), those boys will be his first-choice recruiting pool. Captain's first job: picking a crew.

Some of us have been following this fellow, God bless him. http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2017/04/19/before-cancer-took-him-scout-wrote-a-powerful-poem-reminding-us-to-live-every-day-to-its-fullest/ School Days: A Poem by Evan Macrone Throughout life I have learned That you can’t stay clean on a camping trip Even if you shower every day That you can’t enjoy delectable doughnuts from Dough Or pizza hot out of the oven That you can’t avoid bites by bugs From pesky gnats, ticks, and no-see-ums And you can’t get a thick sanctuary from the weather Just a stuffy, flimsy tent. But you also can’t hike mountain trails Go canoeing, kayaking, small-boat sailing, Tubing, skiing, sightseeing, fishing, Pioneering, swimming, snorkeling, and scuba diving Cook meals for friends Sleep under a night sky full of stars If you are cooped up at home, hunched over, Playing a video game Or at school, Taking an arbitrary test that will uniquely decide your future Of being cooped up in an office till you croak. So go and get out there And maybe live a little Cause God knows, You could get cancer any day Or get caught in a car accident And how many days before that Will you regret?

@@Ankylus, good questions. 1. Rule #1: don't ask for a rule, it will come back to bite you. In Irving are the last people who I would find qualified to legislate any same-sex couple, thruple, or whoever else who may join us on the trail. 2. I don't know what you mean by "invoking." By virtue of dealing wih venturers and the occasional mom chaperoning with the troop. we follow this rule without dissent. Already, there are plenty of instances where my venturer's (or troop moms) would be just fine in mixed sleeping quarters without putting up a tarp/divider, or having the odd woman out pitch a tent. My other adult leaders have said so. But, the last thing I need is to be pilloried by someone who wasn't even on the particular trip over YPT. BSA provides people of the same sex a rule: they can tent together. Period. Follow it. Done. 3. See point 1 above., and page 1 of G2SS "In situations not specifically covered in this guide, activity planners should evaluate the risk or potential risk of harm, and respond with action plans based on common sense, community standards, the Boy Scout motto, and safety policies and practices commonly prescribed for the activity by experienced providers and practitioners." There in writing is the "use your judgement" directive you were looking for. All this is why I prefer to sleep under open sky.

Congratulations on having such fun scouting you want to keep at it. Wrapping up those partials is a good idea. How that's done is up to your counselor. So, if it is a badge you started last somewhere, the counselor may let you use the requirements that were in effect when you started. If it's been a few years and you only completed a couple of the simplest requirements, the counselor might rather you use the new requirements. So, bottom line: it depends.

Cross the road bed, up hill about 50 ft, dig. The bed itself should have enough rock to filter seepage from thousands of cat holes for centuries. Of course, in some parts getting that far up hill could be a very long walk.

I'm gonna pick on this statement just a bit. This is scouting for boys -- especially this requirement, which was adopted well after BSA mandated the age limit on rank advancement. If the Eagle project was intended to mean "management," the requirement would have said so. If it was intended to be of a larger scale than any other projects the boy has done as a scout, it would have said so. If positions of responsibility were intended to train in "leadership" they would all have the word "leader" on them. I say this, because we routinely expect scouts to plan and implement service projects. The oval on their patch is immaterial. Sometimes the projects they do before Eagle are tougher than their Eagle project (albeit with fewer signatures and reporting requirements and perhaps more for the unit or a camp than for an external beneficiary). So the Eagle project is more like the debutante ball for a seasoned scout. PoR's are simply a way to allocate management responsibilities across the members in the troop. There are jobs that need to be done, boys need to do them. There is a synergy between the two concepts. Some leadership skill is gained while managing ... starting with leading yourself to do your appointed task. Then leading others in contributing to your task, etc ... And every time we lead (or plan, or develop) a project, we pick up some management "nugget" (e.g., task allocation, scheduling, training, after action review, etc ...). But mainly, we learn to lead (form a vision, inspire others, incorporate others, etc ...). That's why when I look at where most leadership opportunities are throughout the advancement method, I find them in the service requirements. And, when I look at where most management opportunities are, I find them in the positions of responsibility. The really fun part, is watching it all come together when the boys work at mastering scout skills. But, IMHO, the First-Class skills are really a yard-stick to help a patrol measure its leadership and management potential.

Hope things work out for them. If they are doing other outdoor things with you all (hint: fishing season is open in most parts), even for a couple of hours, you're absolutely right. Active cubs should not be docked from advancement just because the camp out didn't work for them. That is why Call of the Wild requirement #1 has an option B.

I would love to see a quantum computing MB. Requirement #1, from the set of all words in all MB pamphlets ever written, consider all possible requirements for this badge simultaneously. Requirement #2, using a weighting scheme suggested by your counselor, determine the optimal requirements for this badge. The patch itself would look like all possible patches, until you stop looking at it.

How about somebody posting proof (besides some plackard found in a disorganized scout shop) that this is still currently being considered by the merit badge task force, please?

I hope there is someone to help you, but in general BSA has been ignorant of open standards for databases. Thus we have reason for you to despair. The logical location would be a page linked from the upload page by an info button. But, providing such specifications may be a violation of agreements with software companies that track scout advancements. Developers of such software are welcome to prove us wrong by providing the location of your software's specs for portable files.

I guess these adult codes of conduct are the new trend. For your comparison, here are the ones for other world scouting organizations that I could quickly find: Canada: http://www.scouts.ca/policies/Code-of-Conduct.pdf UK: http://members.scouts.org.uk/supportresources/3099/young-people-first-code-of-good-practice-for-adults-yellow-card Austraila: http://www.nsw.scouts.com.au/images/stories/LSG23_CodeOfConduct_Apr15.pdf South Africa: http://wiki.scouts.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Members-Code-of-Conduct.pdf They all seem to have popped up in the past three years. (Although maybe some of these are revisions of older documents.)

Well, license is, by definition, a grant to exercise certain discretion not generally allowable to all, But, If we are talking about BSA regulations: For tenting arrangements, the bias against unwed opposite-sex tent-mates remains in the G2SS (a document to which Scouter Code of Conduct explicitly refers in #3); however, SCC statement #6 seems unbounded as to time and location. But, the license given indirectly in statement #3 (i.e., by virtue of being allowed to share a tent according to YPT, one would be allowed to stroll to one's spouse to one's tent -- with or without holding hands), seems intended to address gross indiscretions, not PDA; moreover, generalizing from the right of venturing youth to set their unit's boundaries for acceptable PDA, which by majority, applies to non-married social relationships. If my crew had a restrictive PDA policy but also had venturers who were married couples, I would ask the officers to consider if it would be better or worse for moral to carve out exceptions for holy estates. This leads us to conclude this PDA is not the purview of national, and that policies are allowed to vary by unit -- maybe with some guidance from their CO for reasons that may be entirely parochial. Any scouters having a tough time with this, are welcome to come camping with any unit I'm involved with, I'll hold your hand through the entire process.

Like doing more dishes, and paying for cable to enable someone's HGTV addiction?Maybe you should also have scouters remove their wedding rings, because I made it quite clear to my Jr. high kids that the vows and blessings behind them were the sole thing that rightly leads to "other stuff." Affection is not sexual conduct nor vice versa. The Mediterranean in me is patently insulted that you'd think such vile things of me and my buddies. Your troop, your rules. But don't expect some half-baked policy from wonks in Irving to convince me and my unit leaders to join your crusade of paranoia.

Great lengths? Each crew is to set their own PDA policy -- defining what is acceptable in their by-laws. It is certainly not mandated by national. So, following your logic, since venturers are permitted to allow certain forms of PDA -- and even the crews with bans "on the books" tend to grant latitude to engaged/married couples among the ranks, we scouters are permitted to grant that same latitude to married couples. I'm pretty sure that Stosh is not suggesting that in his troop, Mrs Q and I would be asked to behave more discretely than he and his wife. We would hold each other to some reasonable standard and move on. Maybe he'd warn me if this group of scouts were the kind to not let overhear one's spouse's pet name, and that would be it. At the same time, I bet we'd pick up real quick that Flagg's outfit is more discrete, and we'd act accordingly.

Now @@Stosh, don't confuse the poor DL's. They might make den meetings so much fun that each one will be considered an activity, and nobody will know when they actually have meetings!

@@MattR, international parents, when they finally get the courage to send their boys into the woods with us, are the most grateful people I know. I was referred to this forum because I was getting a lot of cross-talk from people who were telling me how to advise my crew, but weren't willing to listen to the youth about how they wanted to run their crew (and their troops for that matter). My council and area Venturing committees were also a great help, but I touched base with them less than once a month, and I really needed to get up to speed faster than that. National's sites (including Scouting magazine) were full of spit-and-polish vignettes, but no nitty-gritty. Well, grit sometimes rubs people the wrong way, but it is mighty helpful stuff when you've got some rough edges to sand off. I'd like to think I'm a smoother advisor from the dialogue here. And, I have passed on the most applicable posts from these forums to scouters and parents who might benefit from them.

This is not an "either or" proposition. Perhaps you have been able to retain youth by brushing them off with "Why ask why?" replies to the hundreds of questions that come up about their world when hiking and camping. I've found that to be a good way to stifle scouts' leadership ability and, with regard to advancement, make them merit-badge-mill dependent.

Stained glass was a hobby for Mrs. Q and I. It would take us a year to put together something like this. This piece was worth every penny.