qwazse

Really? Churches pay 10 times that per year for youth ministers who may manage to retain 5-10 members from the effort. Ask a nationally focused denominational leader what he/she would pay for a week's access to 30,000 youth? What's changing here, as @@SSScout points out, is BSA is moving from seeing denominational leadership as a service to our scouts to seeing our scouts as a service to denominational leadership. P.S. - sorry for the lack of proofing in my last post. Should have been sleeping!

One of scouts (several Jamborees back) thought very highly of the Faith and Belief Pavillion. His specific example: instead of the Mormons coming to his door -- an intimidating prospect to him -- he could go to then with any questions he had and get friendly and helpful responses on his terms. The boy never joined LDS, but he learned a lot from them, Here's what I suspect: BSA grossly overestimated Jambo attendance projections since the Centennial. I have no data nation wide, but interest among our scouts here is at an all time minimum. If they are now making more conservative projections, then they are bugging accordingly, which means recouping costs wherever they can. The down side: this new payola scheme may not sit well with churches (like mine) who are on the cusp of deciding between chartering Boy Scouts vs. some other program.

Ever see a pre 1850 burial plot? Most dates of death follow soon after dates of birth. Many lost wives and children. So there is something to forestalling death. But sometimes we seem to just be forestalling frivolous litigation.

I have one pack. Currently a Kelly trekker. It's medium size. For extended treks (rare for me), I tie on gear and extra bags. The problem with a larger pack: you are more likely to fill it for no good reason. I strongly recommend asking around to borrow a friend's pack. (Different friends, actually.) Try before you buy.

Call your council advancement chair and put it in. Two days of fighting chance, a family who knows people out there took care of their loved one as best they could, with your wife putting herself at risk. That all means something. I think there is a place on the form for the rescuer's statement, so you will need their approval. Best case for it is to recognize what's important in front of your scouts. (You will also need to make sure they understand the perils of water rescue and how to do it within the limits of their abilities ... but that will be for another day.) The award ceremony at our council coordinated meetings was pretty cool. I got to hear about the actions of several different scouts and scouters.

Nothing wrong with the boys learning to plan and budget 2-person meals. In fact, at this age, boys can be rather picky about what they'll eat. It's a lot easier to decide among 2 vs. among 8. The challenge, since these are young boys, is getting their cooking areas comfortably spaced apart. You want them to work independently, but safely. But you want them to be able to see what each group is cooking. At the end of the day, you could set up one troop desert like a cobbler, or baked apples over the evening campfire. Give the boys a chance to unwind and brag about their exploits. In this process, ask the boys what their moms' favorite recipes are. Over time, they'll get in their head that they can make any campout like a piece of home. By the way, while all this is going on, it can free up some industrious adults to cook up a little shrimp scampi in Alfredo sauce.

You gotta be careful how you sew them, might take a long time working from inside the sleeve.

Okay, 'Skip. Against my better judgement, I think we're close to a cottage-industry solution.: Police box patches. If you can figure out how to get them printed and cut, and your scouts can do a little oragami or whatever so that they have a "pop-out" look and will dangle from a right pocket button, and they can be numbered and signed by the "youth inspector" with your troop #s on it -- maybe Bear Grylls picture on the bottom. I bet you could market them for 10 quid, shipping included. You might want to call the BBC right now before @@ianwilkins beats you to the rights!

What @@Stosh meant to say was, "Thank you for taking the time to get trained. Hopefully this will be one small step in your experience working with scouts and youth in general." The only space on a field uniform for a patch such as this is on the right pocket. A sewn loop for it to hang on the button might work. The space above the right pocket is reserved for a jamboree patch, interpreter's strip(s) and a name tag, http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/34048.pdf. Sounds like this patch was designed to go on a felt vest/jacket or on a backpack. When it comes to judging overkill, look at the leaders whom you respect the most. Dress as they do with just a little variation to suit your character.

Because, really, @@Krampus, Britain is awash in police boxes. I would stick with tradition and have the youth pick a charity. Under the American notion of "a scout pays his own way", if they want to defer the cost of the trip, they may think along the lines of selling merchandise or a service (e.g. bake sale, yard work, a fellowship dinner/breakfast, community theater).

Would be nice to know how the fraud was committed. Stolen check? debit card?

Ruts run deep. The other thing I did was arrange backpacking trips or weekends to the in-lawsd with my kids and their buddies. The boys got a lot of responsibility. Pretty soon others in the troop wanted to hike someplace cool, and I made it clear that we would have to condition for it (less announcement time, more challenges) and the trails could only take ten people at a time max (serious advance commitment, must divide the troop into working sub-units).

I agree. Get the patrols working as independently as possible.

It will be interesting to see how the 2019 world jamboree will shape opinions on co-Ed units.

Welcome! Always good to hear the next generation of scouters coming along.

Do you have land? Offer it for patrol camping. Provide an adult site 100+ yards from where the youth will camp.

The SM is the bottom line. And we've gone back and forth between First-class-and-up being permitted (after being briefed on how to test and sign off), to just PL's, SPL's, and instructors. Star Life and Eagle used to be all MB's and marking time. So the boy just tracked what he did and asked for an SMC whenever. It's gotten a little complex with the hidden pedagogy and service-project MB's. There's a lot more to sign off nowadays. And, our boys usually get an adult to do it.

Let's make a distinction between the pro- who volunteers (no problem with that, happens all the time) and the pompous windbag who volunteers (big problems with that -- especially the guy in the mirror, happens more than anyone would like). There's nothing wrong with CO and CC choosing a pro- to run their unit. It may actually be good, because the pro- might not have as much time to spare so the boys will have to step into the gap. But lack of free time and a demanding work schedule is also a disadvantage. Boys won't have as much access to the pro- as they would a retiree, or a fella with steady hours. Of course a pompous windbag comes with all of the problems you mentioned and is best trained by serving under an SM who will reign him/her in for a few years. But for a CO and CC, it might be "any ship in a storm." Troops often have personalities, and some should get the SM they deserve.

Just to blow your mind a little: why not? Say the PL has a busted gamb and can't complete swimming reqs until a couple months. He can still observe and cheer on his mates at a properly supervised aquatics area, then put his pen to their books while they are drying off. Say he's still nervous about land navigation, but lines up a hike with a buddy who says he's ready as navigator and an instructor as backup and he tags along. After his buddy identifies the ideal logs on this side of the ravine to trim and cross to the other side, why shouldn't he sign off? Make the rules simple: PL's can sign off on ST2F rank advancement, period. He doesn't have to be first to rank up to lead his boys in ranking up!

I like correcting adults for their own good. I love helping youth discover real joy and beauty. I'd like to think that @@SSF's Life scout prefers the latter. Preaching to the choir, Stosh. If this were only about being a real patrol, most definitely boys will ditch BSA, find a camp, and bring their buddies, sisters, and girlfriends. Seen it dozens of times. Handed off keys to the van more than once. But, this is also about throwing down the "scout spirit" gauntlet. What gives the scout the best opportunity to show he's got what it takes to wear that patch with the pretty red heart? Challenging a couple of key adults to enable sanctioned action in a very timely fashion seems to be the most rewarding move.

Welcome!

Agreed that there is room for pessimism.But in situations like this I ask myself which would be more enjoyable: - go crying foul to a district exec or advancement chair? - go running to a new troop? - go camping and hiking (maybe fishing, with opening day for trout fast approaching)? I prioritize by doing the most fun thing first.

I spent my youth rolling down hills occasionally "finding" rocks. Always regretted that my kids grew up on property that was probably the flattest in town. National has reasons, we think little of their reasoning. Whatever. I myself never thought of sticking a patrol or den in a sphere of polyurethane for entertainment (theirs or mine). But we've been teaching boys to think out of the box, they have time to kill, and find this stuff, and "Oh golly, there's the wall of the box!" We are experiencing this scenario where boys are drawn towards tech activities and we've accomdated them. For example, when I was a kid, scouts went winter camping and clubs went skiing. Now that's reversed. Some parents don't Trust their school's ski club to properly chaperon their kids. They ask scouts to go skiing. It was the wierdest thing for me when Son #1 learned to ski with his troop. (Weirder still when I learned as an advisor with my crew.) Suddenly national is rattling off rules about head buckets. When will it end? It won't. The problem is that pronouncements from National lose their credibility when they opine "this isn't safe" when the subtext is primarily "this isn't worth it."

So, running this up the chain is possible. Another possibility is for your boy to prove that "scout spirit" by planning a campout with his patrol. Surely, his boys can hustle a plan together in a day or two, and if these adults are all about their "scout spirit", there oughta be two among them who can chaperon for the weekend. You think the SM's bluffing? What better way to call it than by arranging some fun hiking and camping independently with your mates!

I guess they are preparing the boy to be nominated for SCOTUS ... We wish you son all the best as he respectfully asks his committee chair to adhere to BSA policy.