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Hate to say it, but that's why PSR never made it up to the top of my list. On the other hand, now that the National Scouting Museum relocated there ....

Pages are three years old, and 8 years old, respectively. I'm suspecting that over the years, BSA has adapted to Community grants and UW's targeted giving. What they might not get from one, they may get from another. But, where UW does not co-up with BSA, they lose donors who are looking for that organization's name on the UW list. It's like a tech stock fund that doesn't have holdings in someone's pet tech companies. That someone will likely look for another portfolio entirely rather than investing in the fund and buying their pet stock on the side. I think there are also structural shifts: our UW campaign piggy-backed on our payroll system. Now that that's all electronic, folks don't engage the UW as much. (They do engage more, I think, in the corporate day-of-caring opportunities.) But, what that means, I think, is that the in-flow of "general givers" decreases.

'Skip, after all these years of imported comedy, "bloody minded" still doesn't translate well crossing the pond - (blame Zombie movies), but we get it from the context. I think @Sentinel947 nailed the issue. There is something to be said about being old enough to not worry about dying young anymore. We all see how teachers and coaches and school board members are treated by parents. When I was in my 20's I was more comfortable being yelled at by angry zealots than putting up with parental disrespect. (Zealots made better coffee.) A lot of us aren't up for being under that microscope -- even if parents confine their criticism to the weekends and evenings that you are doing scouting. Folks need encouragement that that kind of scrutiny is worth the hassle. So, my advice to a 20-something ASM is: in every class of new parents, look for the one most likely to buy-in to your vision of a scout leader. This does mean half of the time you are effectively training adults. At campfires, get them immersed in the history of where the troop came from. At breakfast, talk about where you and your SM think it should go. Every year, one more adult. In five years, you have your very own front line behind which you can quarterback, handing off or passing the ball to scouts with impunity. The adults who currently buy-in to your vision become your coaching staff, and you all have more than a team. You have a dynasty. (Can you tell my town is morning the loss of one of the greatest franchise owners in NFL history?) Obviously, as Flagg points out, if you and your fellow scouters aren't assembling that cluster of parents, find a new unit to serve before you face scouting burn-out.

Not clear is if targeted giving is on the increase, or if folks who normally give to UW's general fund gave less, or the campaigns for new donors did not meet expectation. Either way, a sinking tide grounds all boats.

@@SSScout, in words: But, Doesn't anybody look at pictures of anything but kittens anymore? You can get the datasets, and some videos here: https://dash.berkeley.edu/stash/dataset/doi:10.6078/D15K5K. But, for all that is right and holy, don't have your STEM award oriented scouts go over this pre-collected data to settle any arguments. Use it to inspire them to build their own knot testing stand (possibly from re-purposed trailer parts and stationary bikes). Or maybe two stands designed to test scout knots. Each patrol ties a designated knot on the other's human-powered shaker, then on the start signal, see whose knot can survive the machinations of the other patrol.

First things first: it's never a problem if a cub does not earn a badge. Period. But the park conservation project is definitely an outdoor activity, as would be any hike in a park, picnic, ball game in a field, etc ...

The darn shame of it all is that evil has no age restrictions.

Western PA here, and the attitude is much Ohio. Based on posts on this blog, I think it is nation-wide. If I were you @@Sentinel947, I would take 'Skip up on his offer. In fact, @@Cambridgeskip, any chance you lot will take gaffers? On day my crew is bound to replace me.

For those scouts for whom "Because, the bad day, when winds exceed 50mph ..." just isn't enough ... http://rspa.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/473/2200/20160770 My apologies to anyone who can't bring up the article in all of its glory. In summary:

FYI the article is about the 1st GS/USA jamboree at BSR. Girl scouts have been having jamborees elsewhere for quite some time. Our most active GS mom in our community went to one in her youth. What hasn't happened, I think, is a trickle-down from Jamboree participants to troops. And this may have to do with age-based structure. Boy scout comes home and tells 7 grades of youth in one troop about what he did at Jambo. Girl Scout comes home and talks about it to her troop, and maybe her sister's, so only a couple of grades of youth share in her recollections.

Welcome to the forums! I don't think you want to focus on target time (unless someone in your crew has a disability) for program. The SM who has conditioned our boys for hikes, focused on being up and packed before sunrise. His crews would muster at 4:30am, break camp, move out, have breakfast a mile or two along the trail. That sounds extreme, but summer in the Rockies, if you're gunning for a peak, you want to be there before noon and heading down before afternoon storms roll in. Obviously, if summits aren't in your hike plan, you can adjust. But that;s the point isn't it? You want to be ready for program at any time every day. Get up, move, figure your speed, then over breakfast figure when you'll reach stations, stop for naps, etc ... Besides, it's a wonder when a troop full of younger boys arrives at their site, puttering all day to get set up, then the Philmont crew come in from their 10 mile shakedown hike, set up camp, have time for dinner, skits, cards, and the occasional scoutmaster conferences -- the usual older scout jamboree -- then the next morning the young scouts crawl out of bed to see the crew's campsite vacated. It's like they were visited by elves!

We might be different. Maybe I'm on the wrong side of the tracks, but I have enough acquaintances who lost jobs and their freedom to know that this is more than just people worrying about their social standing. Some folks have a firm belief that "If I just do my own thing for my own kids, I won't do hard time." How valid is that belief? I don't know. I do know that guys who were just someone's uncle, parent, or spouse get jail time. But I don't think you make a recruit by telling someone that staying out of scouting is no safer than signing on.

Flagg, your new avatar is not visible in posts. It is coming up as a "photo" button. Clicking on it takes me to your profile, where I can actually see the image. Changing themes hasn't helped.

Paycheck!

Broken leg: accident/liability insurance kicks in. There's no insurance for accusations of criminal conduct. Stigma is the least of worries.

I'm assuming you mean contacting other Packs. If that's where his heart's at, take them up on it. As a practical matter, den chiefs often have scheduling conflicts with den and pack meetings. More packs to choose from = more dens meeting = greater odds of a den meeting on the best night for the scout.

None handy. Last year our Area Director said it was quite large. If I see him in a couple weeks, I'll ask if it leveled off, and if he can give me a percentage figure of the net effect.

Rather than derailing the TG topic again with tangents about with couples from the 99%-ers of life-long biological complements, I'm reviving this thread for the sake of @EagleonFire and others who brought up those "frisky" married couples who may chaperon our youth from time to time. Besides item #6 on this year's newly-introduced code of conduct, are any new experiences, suggestions, or resolutions? Also some related topics with a youth focus: http://scouter.com/index.php/topic/23806-venture-crew-relationship-question/?p=23797 http://scouter.com/index.php/topic/4137-pda/?p=4136

@@ianwilkins, what you've described is basically the BSA policy. We can go on about back-country depth charts. etc ..., but the general policy is the same. @@MattR, just because you don't value your 5 minutes, doesn't mean that you shouldn't disrespect someone who does! You could say the same thing each of the other 3 forms that Pennsylvanian's must complete. Well then that's 20 minutes. Plus, mandatory training. State mandated paperwork for anyone serving with youth in any capacity has quadrupled in PA, and we've had a corresponding plummet of adult leaders from our rosters. Don't need comments on a blog to know that's a new reality. The "time" excuse should usually be translated into "sorry, scouting is not a priority." Folks get offended being called out that way, but I far prefer friends who will admit that, instead of scouting, they'd rather work that double shift to have a more expensive house or bigger vacation or cover the increased costs of fuel, etc ... or simply would rather occupy their time with another hobby.

Well, I hope what he learned at Powderhorn can be used to up his troop's game. (Although a more active troop won't prevent those last-minute Eagles you mentioned.) But, the adults need to be willing to let him give it a go. Here's hoping.

Maybe here's where the smoke and mirrors come in. The WB class is already chock full of leaders. Months before someone looked at each participant and somehow decided "I trust you to lead our youth." (Except for my co-advisor who handed me the adult application and said, "You only need to do this on paper so our girls can do Seabase." But that's another story.) There's really not much higher leadership in scouting. At least that's what the pro's -- the ones who actually make a career of this thing -- are always telling us. So, anybody thinking they are going to add much to such people's leadership skills has another thing coming. They will lead, and men, women, boys and girls will follow. At best, folks like that (myself included) can only benefit from managing their leadership better. Maybe they can get sold a "We all can win" vision that they poo pooed before. Maybe they can learn to wait patiently as youth go through team-building stages. Maybe they have a few more folks who they can trust to call when they're stuck with a scouter's chestnut and folks in their unit aren't helping. Perhaps when more wood was harmed in the process of WB completion, folks didn't notice what's going on. But now the whole notion of manipulating-what-you're-already-doing because we-think-there's-something-you-may-be-lacking ... well, that's what the course -- especially the game -- boils down to. Once those kind of cards are on the table, a large minority of folks aren't gonna want to pick them up. This is especially true of already strong leaders who've had it up to the eyeballs with management training.

If the boy is smart enough to provide dinner at the midpoint (assuming a reputation for cooking up some serious meals), I bet the project time gets cut by more than half .

Mea culpa, I'll go staple this over Exodus 20 right now ... Plus, I'll have copies taped to every married couple's tent who is kind enough to chaperon my crew. And here I thought suggesting they camp 100' yards away -- with a warning that I've been known to applaud command performances -- would have been sufficient.

FWIW, in the units that I'm in, adults pay for their own application out of their own dues.

JG, have a great time staffing. Use what you've learned here to help students navigate around pitfalls. Respect the "two weekends away" cost to their units. Help build tickets that actually offset that.