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It's good to see this up an running again. So, from last year's Jambowlree. How much of the proceeds went to your scouting program? Any idea how many scouts were supported as a result? I ask for a several reasons: First, you might attract a few more teams if they knew how much of their $8 went to scouting. Second, someone else might want to try this with their favorite sport, and the financials may be a deciding factor. Thirdly, fundraising from scouting activities on this side of the pond draws the attention of our councils, and where we are told the checks should go can get "interesting."

I believe you believe that. However there is no logic in unisex movements per se attracting a more liberal movement. For example, the pro-life movement, NRA, and many other social "conservative" lobbies have benefited from attracting as many women as men. It is entirely possible that, seeing a program that attracts and supports young men and women in practicing duty to God and Country, conservative CO's would be drawn back to the BSA.

What I think worked well for us is that I brought a couple boys (brothers, it turned out) from our troop to the den meeting. After introductions, the dad and I took all the parents to one room and left the scouts to talk to the Webelos. My thinking: no matter how much of a fun guy I am ... those boys are five times more fun to talk to on their bad days. All of those Cubs crossed over to a neighboring troop, but this year we decided to merge. And although the adults are making that difficult, the boys are doing fine. And the older brother who visited that den was just elected SPL. (We're ignoring any concerns about paperwork to be processed or numbers on sleeves.)

The "issue" here, is that some activist women no longer find "home" in an organization that has adopted feminist ideals. (I am referencing feminism here with the utmost respect.) The post-modern popular "ideal" of womanhood for young women with a passion for scouting is much different than the revolutionaries of the last century would have ever predicted. It's more Sacajawea than Sanger.

I knew that I was an Eagle when my project was complete to my satisfaction ... Including a three page workbook of one hand drawing and two typewritten sheets, single-sided triple spaced. Everything that followed was perfunctory.

I up-thumbed so DR's reputation will remain unsullied.

oops. Also posted the same link on the other thread. Sorry for the mess.

Also here http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/23/us/girls-in-california-are-latest-to-seek-to-become-boy-scouts.html

I assist the SM, so my ideas take a back seat. But I try to generate as many opportunities as possible for the boys to be more independent an responsible than they were last month. All this stuff is a "two steps forward, one step back" kind of thing.

Honestly, @@Eagle94-A1, you're doing a fine job. Any knit-picking is for other newbies in the room. Keep in mind that only Life scouts need PoR's. Sometimes it's better to give a bunch of scouts specific projects, and let the offices go to who the boys in the respective patrols decide they want to follow. There's no reason why a boy with Scout rank couldn't be a PL.

I believe so. For reference, below is Mamma's recipe. My siblings just unearthed it ... written in the back cover of the Searchlight Cook Book, labeled "Waffles": The proportions are hers.They differ from other Mediterranean recipies in that there is a lower proportion of sugar -- yielding a product that is more chewy than crunchy. The instructions are mine (from warm memories of working the stove in the basement with Dad while listening to the ball game on the radio). 1 C shortening 2 C sugar 10 eggs 2 t salt 10 t baking powder 5 T vanilla 2 T anise (optional) 10 C flour Combine ingredients in the order listed. Beat dough until smooth. Chill until ready to use. On a stove stop or propane burner. (Confession: I've been too chicken to try this on wood fires.) Heat a well-seasoned iron until water drops vaporize in about 2 seconds. (Don't know if that changes with altitude.) Scoop 1-2 teaspons of dough into a ball. Insert into iron. Squeeze about 10 seconds. Release for another 10 seconds. (The dough should hold the iron sufficiently tight.) Flip iron and heat from the other side. Heat for another 20 seconds. Open iron and drop cookie onto a cooling tray. They are stack-able after about a minute. Adjust the timing to your preferred level of brownness. Or, if you didn't season your iron properly, use a fork to pick out the bits of cookie in all of the grooves! Wipe the iron down with your favorite veggie oil, and sacrifice a few dough balls to lift the grit from the grooves. (Actually, I learned to like those gnarly cookies -- they weren't sequestered to the cookie jars.) I think this gets you about 4-6 dozen. Since there's nobody to listen to a ball game with anymore, I usually just make a half batch, and can knock it out in about an hour.

I neglected to give props to Heritage Reservation's Camp Liberty for it's patrol-cooking program. Each patrol is to send two members to commissary for food pick-up.

Oh, you poor soul. You must have never been to a western PA wedding (or wakes). Get yourself invited to (or crash) a couple of those, gravitate toward the cookie table. There's bound to be at least one Nona, Sitta, or Babcia who will have contributed a few to the medley. Best description: ice-cream cone unrolled.

That's a very good point. If all my friends (while practicing Safe Swim defense) said "come on in, the water's perfect!" I might join them. Here's the deal: youth will find a way. You say "Always two adults." They say "Thanks for the training, me and my buddies are gonna keep the $28 registration fee, buy some provisions, and hike and camp on our own. You say "Unisex". They say "No worries, my buddies (male and female) are going to camp on gampa's back nine that weekend." You say "No purple tents." They say, "No problem. No tents!" You say "Arrowmen: 1st Class Patch. Troop camping nights count only," They say, "Keep your sash, The ladies and I are gonna build this bridge in this camp over here." And frankly, I'm fine with that. I'll teach them the skills, and review their plans if they knock on my door. I don't check membership cards. The boys with the cards can earn bling if they want to and when they've got the skills and the plans, go hiking and camping with their mates -- their real patrol ... not the one defined by their membership restrictions. As far as I can tell. It's not a matter of if the greatest character-building organization this nation has ever known will be co-ed. It's a matter of if BSA will be that organization.

We're scouters. We get paid in smiles. 'nuff said. Like the smiles on the boys who were elected as PLs at last night's CoH.

You never overlapped with @@Kudu I took a paraphrase from his personal judgement: - A patrol leader's primary responsibility is to qualify to take his boys hiking and camping. - A patrol's job is to go hiking and camping as an independent unit led by their PL. A bit paltry, but the main reason I like that two-liner is that it's directive and paints a crisp picture. In addition: I take Webster's definition of patrol and work with that a little. Sometimes, because a lot of my youth are of Judeo-Christian background, I throw in a metaphor like "spy out the land" (hearkening back to the patriarchs Joshua and Caleb). For details, I send folks to the boy's handbook. If everyone in the room has SM's handbooks, you can use those.

Arab American in the room here ... There's a dish called kibbee made of cracked wheat and ground meat (traditionally lamb, beef will do, but if you've caught a deer well with grinding a pound for this recipe). Spices/fillings include garlic, onions, pine nuts or cashews, and peppermint. It cooks up quite nicely in a foil pack or in a shallow D/O. Also stuffed grape leaves are pretty awesome if picked in the spring! Lots of recipies for that too. Oh, and then there's the pizzelle iron. I have a short-handled one that fits in my camp-box. On the bucket list: learning to grind spices (wild anise, etc ...) on the trail.

I was pleasantly surprised by our RT. We had SPLs come out and describe thier troops to pack leaders. The boys who made it really represented their units well, and some of them contributed to subsequent brainstorming for topics for future RT's. But, it would have definitely been awesome to have an SPL bring his PLs and say, "These are my homies, they take care of our boys!" Then he would recognize the most unique feature of each patrol.

Actually, for orienteering, I found the white boards quite handy! However, a one-hour course where folks had not read up on the material is completely unrealistic -- be it indoors or out. Now, if all the other courses were outdoors or in isolated shelters, 10-15 minutes apart and unmarked with just coordinates and a top-map ... well, we wouldn't need the orienteering lecture, would we?

One of my favorite "less-than-a-minute minutes" that you are welcome to share: What rank do you boys want to be by the time you age out of our troop? I know we'd like all of you to be first class scouts. Some of you aspire to Star, Life, Eagle, and maybe a few palms. We'd love to support you in that. But most importantly we'd like you to be the best scout that a fella ever knew. I've been around, and met a quite a few scouts, but only one qualifies as best. His name is Jeff, he aged out at Second Class. He was a troop treasurer and patrol leader. He had a knack for finding arrowheads ... and picking hidden monuments to hike to. But, none of that made him best, it just made him interesting. Before all that ... one day Jeff invited me to join his troop. I could have wasted a lot of time not scouting if it weren't for him. And for that I'm forever grateful. That's what makes him the best scout I ever knew. Maybe one day you too will qualify as the best scout a fella ever knew.

I was talking about perceptions. But, in fact, what youth had a hand in the policy that units should be sex-segregated across the nation -- no matter what youth in any particular hollow thought about it? Really, have you polled every troop in the nation to determine what the youth wanted for their particular community? My general perception is that most boys and girls are fine with sex-segregation until they see the other sex doing something that they'd enjoy, or until they go to world jamboree, or are visited by scouts from another nation, or until they are a lodge chief and learn about a young woman who is a first-class scout ... absent the patch ... and to the adults in the room, the patch becomes their paper tiger.

I loaned my sewing kit on several occasions to scouts who wanted to wear their Eagle patch while some activity long before their court of honor. (Note to self: need to restock white/silver thread.) Otherwise, I would never have a scout remove his Life insignia. The silver birdie warrants an oval behind it if it's on a field uniform!

I think this is a really good plan. UoS is also the best way to "throw down the gauntlet" to other troops to step up their game. The down-side is you might be stuck with the same length for each course so you might want to re-balance the load. Talk to the course coordinators early and often about that. I also suspect that folks might only attend some courses in your track, so take some from your "100 best" and insert into the other courses (e.g. "5 Best Hikes" in backpacking, "5 Best Places for a Trail Breakfast" in cooking, etc ... sort of a Boys' Choice Award). Definitely have your boys teach the courses while adults assist with props and audio visuals. It's a serious time commitment for your boys, so figure out an appropriate award. (Ideally this could include a campout that weekend in the vicinity of the course -- perhaps really close to where the dutch oven course is ) Be prepared for a "next step", Some of your boys/adults may be asked to visit a troop or patrol to help them lay out a solid 1-2 year plan that gets them where they want to be.

Their trademark and logo still includes "YMCA" so as not to be confused with "YWCA". Re-branding rarely improves membership. As @@NJCubScouter noted, for a decade and a half starting in 1972, this organization's logo used "Scouting/USA". Didn't go very well. Of course, the re-branding was linked to a number of changes that didn't appeal to folks. But the logo-shift certainly didn't help. In the near term "Boys" in the name carries a lot of credibility. It marks the things that a youth who would commit to this sort of thing in his/her formative years is looking for. I've talked to attendees of several world jamborees (starting years ago with my buddy who had gone to national jambo with me a year or two earlier). Some BSA members were more positively enthused than others about the co-ed contingents. None of them were patently offended by them. Scouts from other countries seem to see our sex-segregation as one more bastion of adult micro-management.