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First step: call the headquarters of each council around where your grandfather grew up. Explain what you're doing and ask them how far back their archives go. Ask if they have anyone who keeps track of scouting history in their area. Good luck. It will take some gumshoe, but should be lots of fun.

So, no matter how you slice it ... on your 5th decade of blue and gold. Here's to five more!

@@Melgamatic, sounds like you did due diligence bringing up the issue with the adult. To continue his membership in the organization, the venturer will be required to take youth protection once he turns 18. If he is anywhere near his birthday, you may want to ask him to do so. That way, without harping on the specific situation, everyone gets put "on notice." Welcome to boots-on-the-ground reality. We all draw different lines between our personal lives and our scouting lives. And this certainly becomes the case with these older scouts ... many of whom worm their way into our families because we have proven to be trustworthy. Venturing certainly can make this even more complex. Many of these youth have small business (yard work, house sitting, small automotive) that rely on one-on-one contact with adults for most transactions. What becomes hard-and-fast for younger scouts, begins to blur for older ones.

Thanks. New Scientist has a reputation for loading funny depending on the connection. Got the source article: http://jech.bmj.com/content/early/2016/10/05/jech-2016-207898.full.pdf+html(access may vary). Retrospective surveys are fraught with limitations, which the authors list in technical detail. Those aside, probably the greatest challenge is to know if the program of today will work on youth the same way that the program in the seventies seems to have done for these 50-year-olds. I do see the young adults I know deploying their scout skills (if they've gained them) to great effect.

Good point.Generally, in units with a sense of rugged individualism, I've seen UC can be a problematic position, followed by COR.

I would not split hairs over the regulations. The boy is a special case. If the boys in the den have already formed these attachments, don't break them over something like this. Work with the individuals and evaluate the next bridge with the parents when you come to it.

Or, maybe you all we doing a terrible job recruiting the crazies. Sorry, reversing causality is my bread and butter. I haven't been able to load the article, but look forward to reading it. Seriously, though, the last two suicides in our small school district were of boys who were friends with, but not members of, our venturing crew. It left me wondering if I had made an effort, would they have had that one more resource they would have needed to fit back the demons.

Okay, so you discover a youth who should have a skill, but does not. (Honestly, I'm not so bothered about some knot as I would be about say a 1st class scout who is afraid of the water, or can't pick out the log that would be long enough to cross a ravine, but that's just me.) This may be at an SMC or on some other occasion. What do you do? Who do you talk to?

This was for their safety. A three mile course built by the park service before starting the seven mile backpack gave the advisor and his dog a much needed nap. More seriously, they must overcome land navigation deficits before I risk their hides back-country. I've made it quite clear that the principle is long leash. To shoot for mountains, master foothills. I provided options. The alternative was to find a series of caches in the general direction of camp, and after the last one have a "modest bushwhack" over a ridge into the destination valley. Or they could have arranged any alternate route of their choosing. Anything except dawdling along half the distance with boy scouts. Finally, the hike (in its generalities) was chosen by the Crew President.

Our troop has approached UCs with animus. It wasn't a problem with being a council "toady". We like our council. Council/area presidents camp with us, and SEs pay our camps visits. On occasion, our high praise lets some of those pro's move on to be CSE's. (You're welcome.) And, even down to the boys, we love them. If anything, the rest of us are "toadies." But one person rubs the other the wrong way, someone feels pushed around, and sparks fly. So, the commissioner corps has kept it's distance. Thanks to those kerfuffles, I've actually had to work to bring my Crew's newly assigned UC in the loop. It's not ideal. But at least it's improving.

@@417Scouter, I honestly wouldn't take issue if he was doing something in uniform with a bunch of boys. But, this sure does sound a little "staged". If it really bugs you, put in a call to the council headquaters and let your SE know. He/she will probably call the campaign. It amounts to a slap on the wrist. But, if they know their stunt was offended more than it helped, they may change strategy next time. That is, until they're behind in the polls again.

To file away for when each of us are old gentleman or ladies ... To be fair, the policy is quite new. It is a response to the small percentage of older scouts who've attended World Jamborees or who have had spent some time with scouts from around the world. As you can tell in Bryan's blog, it is not without its detractors. In fact, we were discussing uniforming at our last round-table boy scout breakout, and I didn't bring the neckerchief exception up. Until it is the dress code for mid-day activities at summer camp, council service projects, etc ... leaders won't be convinced there is any merit to it.

The best way, IMHO is to have the boys present that 40th charter to your CO at some public function. (Our CO is a church, so Scout Sunday is the date of choice.) A photo opportunity with members of the sponsoring organization and the boys would make for a human interest story in the local paper. As always with Packs, keep it simple make it fun. Do you have a roster from that first charter? Any of those make Eagle? Still in town or able to visit? Scouts would love to hear from those adults. A quick story about their favorite cub scout memory at the pack meeting (or if you have a number of guys, one could visit each den) the month you plan to present the charter would help to get more boys into the presentation.

Next step: buzz. Word has to get out to their friends about what went on (good, bad, and just plain silly).

If I were to guess, the former CM is now Charter Organization Rep (COR). That's why his signature matters. He probably wanted to be sure that the new CM had his ducks in a row, because at the end of the year, if he's not trained the charter gets kicked back from BSA national. Keeping leaders trained has been increasingly challenging, and some councils are more demanding that this happens than others. If I were you, I would line up fun things for your den. Look for help from each of the parents, not just your co-leader. Ask each one to take on "leading" the special activity. Boys invest quickly in any friends they make. Leverage that investment. Pack events then become a side show.

Yesterday Son #1 and I were helping each other on our respective houses. In my yard we need to cut a rope, Having left our knives at his house, I went and grabbed my hatchet from the garage. He said, "Is that thing even sharp?" I said, "Since you guys have stopped putting it away with dents in it, yeah." Before he could walk to the back door for a kitchen knife ... THWACK ... Rope split, and old 4x4 with one more small nick. Pity we don't have matches that I could have struck off the ax head. I would have cut and fused with the same tool.

I've seen the same kind of incompetence in ASMs and the occasional SM. I find, however, that folks are less upset about a youth who needs correction vs. an adult who needs correction. So saddle your lead youth with sign-off responsibility, uniform inspection, etc... When they screw up, you'll have to put up with less jaw-jerking from your adult leaders.

Welcome to the forum, and thanks for your service to the boys. Here's the test: are your boys smiling? The trick to cub scouts: Most of the boys activity is in the den. If the den is proceeding smoothly, that's 3/4 of the program. Cub scouts really isn't about camping. I spent a lot of time helping other parents my sons' ages get up to speed with camping. We had a great time. On the other hand, other parents helped get my kids up to speed in other areas (stock car racing, trucking, search and rescue). We had a great time. Sounds like you're gonna have to listen closely to your pack leadership. If they keep brushing you off, you may want to look elsewhere. If the boys are still smiling, you might rather put up with their shenanigans. I'm sorry if what I'm saying is not validating your desire to move on. I'm not calling you flat-out petty either. Just remember: smiles are your paycheck. Some folks would say that opinion of mine is kinda petty too. But, it's carried me through a bunch of crap-throwing over so-and-so's "incompetence."

First: Shelter? Build your own for the night! Assign each patrol, one tarp, 5 stakes, 15 feet of twine. My most vivid Klondike derby event: Kim's game. The JASM was explaining the rules ("This is a test of your powers of observation ...") and another ASM was helping him maintain their site. Anyway, the clock started we divided up the box in quadrants and took to memorizing every item in the box. Blanket was covered, 30 seconds, and we started writing furiously. I think we had a minute to remember all the contents of the box. Times up. JASM says: "Okay. So, for 10 nuggets, all or nothing, what was it that Mr. __ asked me for while I was giving you instructions?"

I take the GTA to mean that adult and youth divide up responsibilities. The PL signs off on most skills mastered. The ASM/SM sign off Service, Nights Camping, SMC's and BoR's. SM, obviously, signs blue cards. Any logs are on the scouts' honor. We don't sign off every row. Just when they've completed a milestone for the next rank. The SM adjusts that boundary depending on the maturity of the PLs. When we merged, the new SM had just gone through a round of immature PL's who were signing off their buddies without actually seeing them perform the skill, so he had an "only adults" rule. I promptly commenced talking us back from that ledge. They seem to be back at the usual mix.

The Aussies definitely do it right! But that opinion was not new ... My SM would not give us anything less than what today would be called a "mini-rogain". Anything more straightforward was just "calibration" to him. That attitude seems to have sunk in more than once. My SPL's son was on camp staff a couple years ago, and one evening I had a moment to chat with the young man about his scouting career. He said Dad was SM for a while, and it generally worked out pretty well ... "but, we sure did a lot of orienteering." When I first started with the local orienteering club just a few years ago, the whole notion of advancing to controls in numerical order was new to me. That's where I met Europeans who grew up doing this stuff, and they basically had the equivalent of our cross-country teams which revolved around orienteering.

Just pull up to my neighbor's apt. and honk. Worked until Mrs. Q got sick of it and called the narcs. When I'm far enough into the wilderness that I find bear scat, I start to feel safe again.

Or, as the scoutmaster of my youth called it: a compass course.

Well ... we are all in this together. The only real Id is your word, "I know first aid." And obviously, that can be faked just as well as laminated pieces of paper, (or a neckerchief, to answer 'schiff's question). Unfortunately, BSA has not marketed "first class scout" as well as it has it more rare achievements, so there is no scouting credential that folks outside of the organization would recognize at face value as qualifying the scout to administer any form of first aid. Boys have been trained not just in first aid, but in youth protection. I'm sure that rattling around in their head is some fear of a stranger taking advantage of someone in a vulnerable situation. If a responder is acting sensibly, and everyone communicates to make sure all of the necessary tasks are being administered (securing the scene, contacting personnel, continuing assessment, preventing blood loss, treating for shock, immobilizing, etc ...), you have success.

Thumbs again! Somebody +1 Stosh for me.