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@@Sentinel947, you know full well that Americans care little about denominational lines. If there is an RA chapter next door and a fine young man such as yourself is leading it, and an otherwise loyal Catholic feels like BSA's concession is anti-Catholic, those Sothern Baptists start looking downright Orthodox! Of course @@DenLeader2 is dumping on BSA. You commented in the other thread that Trail Life's increases aren't commensurate with BSA's decreases. Well, here's a cub-aged program to also divert scouts.

Wiped out?

Since he opens with a sweeping generalization "For its first 100 years “morally straight†meant to the BSA that homosexuals could not be members ..." to combine the early periods where the ban may have been implicit vs. the past three decades when it was explicit, it's hard to tell which of his other arguments are painted with too broad a brush. I do not believe that he is trying to set up Trail Life as a safe haven for a CO looking for a program with restrictive recruiting practices. TL has the same exposure as the BSA in New York. When it is large enough to own its camps and hire staff, the D/A will come knocking. I do believe that the local option will be challenged as soon as some CO forces a leader's dismissal or denies membership on any grounds other than religious or criminal.

Welcome, and I hope things turn around for your pack. But, I would suggest listening to your husband! Scouting is a great fellowship when young parents pitch in and help each other's kids grow. When leaders are too burnt out to enjoy one another's company ... not so much.

Yes. Step back into the one job each of you do the best, and let the chips fall where they may. There is a trade-off. You will have to gush over any parent who steps into the gap. If they need to do things differently for whatever reasons, support them. (I have not been beneath offering flowers and chocolates every month.)

Since our troop does not push 1st Class first year, most of the boys have accumulated camping nights once they meet rank requirements. It's possible that your son's friends did too. But I would find it frustrating if there were campouts that I could have attended but nobody invited me. I think it's a fair for your boy to ask, "how can I go camping as much as <insert buddies name>?" Your son should have been involved in electing the boys from your troop. He might have missed that meeting. It's at election time that all of the boys' eligibility requirements are reviewed. He probably was at the ceremony where the boys were "called out" at camp. It sounds like the boys went on their ordeal that same night, did their day of service in silence the next day and were awarded their regalia. That's how they organized things when my son#1 was called out. When son#2 was called out, the ordeal was held in the fall so as not to disrupt the boys' camp program. The nice thing about a fall ordeal is that boys from different camp sessions are gathered.

Love Mike's stuff! But, I'm not so interested in seeing it in the insignia guide. The necker-wearing suggestions should be part of the Boy Scout Handbook. That is the first set of instructions that boys and their parents read.

If a boy wanted to cook for us during a troop meeting, we'd allow him. Right now the troop is one patrol, and all the boys fit in the church kitchen. Planning menus and preparing meals should be part of the routine for every troop or patrol who camps monthly. There are plenty of other ways to complete the badge outside of summer camp.

Yes, it's a family decision, and in one sense, anything goes. In another, think about what the boy might rather do. He might want to recognize units on both coasts, but not enjoy the monotony of a 2nd CoH. If that's the case, encourage him to have the CoH on one coast, and a "reception" on the other. The latter may be in the form of a favorite activity, like a shooting sports day, ending in a campfire.

@@SSScout, Although he caught flack from a lot of folks on this forum for his pronouncements as chief scout executive, Bob Mazzuca did right by us volunteers when he was SE of Greater Pittsburgh council. The letters to employers was a nice gesture.

I strongly discourage scouts from taking an MB if they haven't done the pre-reqs. If they didn't make an effort before camp, what's gonna ensure they do it afterward? That said, I have no problem with scouts accumulating partials. Even if they never convert any of them into a little round patch, at least they learned something! Besides in any other organizations camp, the kid wouldn't even get a pretty blue piece of paper for what they did during the week.

I don't search for topics via forum categories, so it's no difference to me. One personal side benefit of reading about how scouting is implemented in different settings, including LDS, is you are able to hold a knowledgeable discussion with people you meet day-to-day in real life (you know, the one where you don't need batteries to experience it ). I was talking about scouting to a Mormon acquaintance the other day, and he was impressed that I understood the outline of their Young Men's program.

@@CalicoPenn brings up a very important point. Counseling is not testing. This is nothing new. I don't recall doing a single push-up in front of my personal fitness MBC. Nor did I open my wallet to show the exact change for my personal finance MBC to audit. There is this thing called scout's honor. Unless a boy has betrayed that, we should have reason to believe in it. I think the best strategy is to find a third MBC to go over everything your son did for the remaining requirement, determine what, if anything remains to be done, and approve or make a solid plan for completion.

Heritage Reservation dropped Cooking from its MB program because it could not be completed given its food service arrangements. When the reservation director discussed this and other program changes with the SMs none of us had any objection. Neither the dining hall nor the patrol cooking camps allow for boys to create their own menus, order the ingredients at commissary and cook for their patrols. There is certainly enough property to have the boys arrange for a trail hike -- a backpacking trek on the Laurel Highlands Trail is available to older scouts. But, it would take a very flexible food service program to allow for youth to plan their own menus. And, the reservation is not there yet. I doubt that many many camps are. However, assuming that one day camp commissaries change their business model, @@Hedgehog has the right idea. The challenge will be to implement this in camp where a few boys working on Cooking have the time they need to do their work, while the boys who are not can do their program. Perhaps if all patrols at camp were required to develop their menus from the list of ingredients available at commissary, it would be feasible to reintroduce Cooking MB during summer camp.

A favorite memory was coming home with the bowstring I made at camp and fitting it to an old bow my brother had discarded. I hope you have a chance to provide your scout the opportunity his camp denied him.

Haven't seen that feature in years.

Welcome to my world 'skip. (Western PA, The Midwest of the east.)But this is no mere hyperbole for the sake argument, the dread of same-sex predation is palpable among scout parents here. On the other hand, the notion that I might expose attractive youth to an admiring opposite sex coadvisor (or ASM) is rarely considered, or if it is, goes unmentioned until I'm actually teaching Youth Protection. The working presumption is that homosexuals lack the restraint that is supposedly innate in heterosexuals.

Mind=blown. Got a picture?

@@EmberMike, maybe a topic for a different thread, but what is it about BPSA that would make a scouter want to leave it just because some other organization moves toward more permissive membership, yet still less permissive than BPSA?

Oh yeah, spank those adult led gremlins ... But, read my post again. For your convenience I've highlighted anything that mentions adult administration ... Hint: nothing's highlighted. Who has an increased administrative burden? TROOPS If things are working correctly, who runs them? BOYS So, come January instead of, say, destinations/skills/menus/costs/insertion/extraction/projects/helping little old ladies across the street (yes that's still a thing)/hiking and camping independently with your mates ...what do BOYS get to track more of? Horse Proccessed Hay. And who thought this would be a good idea? No BOY I EVER KNEW!

@@fred johnson, so if calamity hits your neighborhood while all of your adults are off at University of Scouting somewhere, will your youth know where to go to be of service to emergency responders? Camp drills are important. The question is, do they translate into what folks need out of us the other 50 weeks of the year? We need to encourage boys to "mix it up." This might eventually mean teaming up with scouts from other troops in the district. Or other service-oriented local groups. Thinking outside the box is what really adds value to preparedness requirements.

I haven't had much luck with that at the venturing level. The youth who you would like to influence will just drop out of the program. The most success I've had is to make very clear that a youth will only be welcome to the "next teir" adventure if he/she demonstrates discipline at their current level. For example, my fire-bugs know exactly why I'm not planning a hike out west with them. They know exactly what I expect to see (or more precisely, not see) from them before we move forward.

This is what comes of sending kids off to World Jamborees ... and that Cit in the World elective to talk to a scout from another country about his/her program. I'm pretty sure this is to expressly stifle the parochial American "wear it right or not at all" attitude, which has its place for some things, but not others. I hope a decent paragraph about neckers without field uniforms makes its way into the handbooks.

Sounds like a lot of work for the kids. I approve!

Our camp had an actual search-and-rescue last year. Troops had to move in an orderly fashion to their respective safe staging stations, and one camp had to initiate a mile-wide line search. So, yes there's a little overlap. But, when I think of "troop mobilization"; however, I think: how do you get your troop together and ready to serve in any reasonable capacity? Often times this involves discussion with a professional, such as yourself, who recalls the last couple events and has an idea of where volunteers are needed the most. You probably don't want 3 dozen boys cluttering your hallways! You probably do want 3 dozen boys gathered in a safe staging area in an orderly fashion, with one representative to contact you to let them know they're available for assignment. The assignment could be go to the local Salvation Army and serve lunch. Or, go to a food-bank and load supplies. Or set up cots at a staging area for displaced residents. Then tidy up afterword. Providing a nearby area for campfire (and possibly an overnight) after the drill is done would be nice. There the boys could evaluate how well they did. For such an excersize, you don't need a lot of your personell participating in the drill. (Although I'm sure the boys would appreciate whatever "bells and whistles" you could add!) So, if your boys were to do both requirements on a weekend, I'd have the troop mobilization part be one step. The search and rescue part be a different step -- probably after they evaluate their mobilization excersize. This gives them a chance to improve on what might not have worked well during that initial mobilization.