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Thanks for the details. It's good to know more about the fella behind Jambowlree..

Real convergence of a girls' organization and boys' organization will look something like the alliance between AHG and TL http://www.americanheritagegirls.org/media/filer_public/6f/0d/6f0d726c-54e9-4287-a085-5560f3358a72/ahg-tlusa_moma.pdf Will American Trail Heritage Life be the first all-ages coed scouting option available to more than 1000 chartering organizations the US?

@@Eagledad, the topic is about the BEST weather! It's just every now and then winds kick up to make us feel that hair-on-the-back-of-your-neck feeling that you Okies seem to know so well.

Bro, winter night hikes are the best! I forgot to mention the one in 3 feet of snow because it was with my crew on a ski weekend and they were in cabins. But all the video games and pool tables and pizza and social time were getting boring, so we set out for a tour of the grounds. It's awesome when a place where you've summer camped turns into a completely different world!

'bout 10 inches of snow -10F no worries. We had a nearby farm we were welcome to call on if needed. Nice valley out of the wind. Perfect weekend. Tents. We did have one boy who needed "thawed out" in the SM's truck. But he perked up right quick and was good for the rest of the weekend. Lowest windchill? Don't know. The weather station on Dolly Sods broke that morning clocking 80mph as a front stalled over the Chesapeak. But that snow was being blown in our faces was probably hurtling across that plateau at 100mph. (Think sand-blasting ice-cold and you get the feeling.) Since then, my line: "Mr. SPL, what be the weather today?" "<Sun, Rain, Snow> with winds under fifty, Sir." "Aye, then it's a good day!" Helpful hint: Laurel thickets make good wind breaks. Just remember they often cluster near cliffs!

Firstly, for most boys, earning MBs is fun. So you want to always give them a chance to pick up one or two in a week. But ... after a few years they start gravitating to things they like best. I've had scouts "re-take" small boat sailing, year after year, sometimes in both afternoon and morning sessions. They might master the ropes course/climbing wall. Master shooting sports. Or, go shooting with a younger scout until he qualifies for his MB. Fish. Whitewater. Caving. Backpacking treks. Wrap a duct tape baseball, grab a stick, and convert the parade field into a field of dreams. Pilfer twine from scoutcraft and lash a giant hamster cage. Lash a lakeside bunk and sleep out under the stars multiple nights. Convert a tarp named Bruce to a boat named Kaitlyn. (Mine isn't always the classiest bunch.) Assist the medic, camp QM, or other staff. And yes, checking out canoes all day to go to an outpost is a possibility.

@@TheGreyArea, as you can see, scouters try to be flexible when it comes to sign-offs, we try to assign it to boy leaders, and sometimes use adults as a fall back, but the buck stops at: Does the boy have the skills? People don't always appreciate that with this provisional camping stuff, it takes a good deal of communication. Now, the shortest loop is with the boy and his home PL. If he comes back tying knots, inviting his buddies over to cook a meal, lashing catapults, etc ... and mom complains that his pack is now sitting at the ready at the foot of the kid's bed ... the PL will be talking about it, and the boy's permanent SM can be confident in those signatures. If the home troop is not that cohesive, the SM may have to make a few phone calls. It is necessarily a learning experience for all parties involved.

Which boys is he trying to "get to do things"? All he should be worryng about is getting the PL's to communicate their agenda and divide responsibilities. He then should publicly thank the PL's who own up their tasks. Now sometimes older boys elect a younger SPL out of "no confidence" in whoever was their age. Sometimes they do this to get out of work. Regardless, it's on them to help this kid be the most successful SPL he can be. That means modelling utmost respect to him in front of the other boys. Just a little bit of that goes a long way. Oh, take it from the tall guy. Height is no excuse for disrespect.

We have mixed race troops. But, they are still predominately white. I think this largely reflects the desgregation in our region, which is slow. The college ministry I attended effectively practiced apartheid even while Desmund Tutu was across the street petitioning for non-violent support for change in his country. That has changed, but slowly. Many blacks still struggle to feel welcome in previously white institutions. Others are diving in and contributing ... to the benefit of us all.

To address your last question, no standards. But when things get that bad, we have committee members help us evaluate the situation. They may talk to the boy. We use the camp director as a resource. Once the director helped me figure out to evaluate and handle the situation. Never had to send a boy home. But I have had a boy go home because he felt he would not handle things well after the situation.

I have mixed feelings. Technically, I always want to see a PL's signature in nearly all but the last two reqs for Tenderfoot 2nd Class and 1st Class. But then, I want that to be a PL/SPL I recognize. So I can understand why an SM might take that responsibility for a provisional camper. It sounds like you don't know this SM very well, and the boy garnered a lot of signatures. I'd either 1. Give the guy a call. 2. Ask the scout to review the skills he mastered with his PL, and get the PL's opinion.

The iNtel chip set bit our stats center. It's amazing how a 1 per million error rate can infiltrate so many analyses when they involve at least that many floating point ops for each . One of our guys in frustration put an Insel Intide sticker on our sys ops' door. Fortunately we had a legacy VAX/VMS to fall back on until new cores were sent. If your son agrees with the reasoning, that's fine. Just saying that sometimes a double-check is in order ... especially if it was only one scouter who made the comment without confirmation from the CC and SM.

Kids' reports from camp. If you or your leaders have access to social media posts from scouts and venturers (including camp staff) ... clip and repost them anonymously. A resume from your lodge chief and VOA president would nice ... Those kind of things remind leaders about who's important. I think a knot-of-the month might be popular. The "latest and greatest" for the first aid kit might be handy. Or wildneress first aid tips. Excersizes to perpare for high adventure might go over well.

No personal experience, but ... I have had several scouts attend there (a few, repeatedly, including a troop who wants to merge with ours) and have a great time. Some of those also attended Heritage Reservation, so here are some 2nd hand contrasts/comparisons: Aquatics facilties are small-ish. Food service is dining hall (patrols send waiters). I've not heard any complaints about quality or quantity. Staff are very enthusiastic. Buckeye council seems to bring them up over a number of years. MB program is pretty standard. The boys seem to know what they were supposed to have been taught. They do not participate in O/A, rather they have a tradition called Pipestone. It is designed to encourage scouts to return every year having advanced one rank. It's not clear to me from the boys who've done both if they prefer one over the other. Leaders have told me they try to stick by the first-years because the ceremony is held after dark and can be intimidating. Family night was Thursday (at least this year, I wanted to visit, but life intervened). I assume that the other areas compare well with Heritage Reservation since they didn't mention them.

Here's a thought. More than half of the requirements are pencil-whipping hoop-jumping. (Do service hours, participate, positions, etc ...) why do you think the "skills" requirements are any different?

By the way, it doesn't hurt to check out the math on that half-birthday. Also, if it was only the BoR requirement delayed for some adult reason (e.g. only held after the moon is in it's 1st quarter) some CCs will backdate the paperwork. Regardless your boy has class (and a nice set of chops after five years in band). Help him live up to his word.

GSUSA still has a huge sway in these parts. I don't see them going anywhere,@@Scouter99. As long as there are malls and makeup... I prefer it when my crew is balanced girls vs. boys (it's mostly boys at the moment). As a parent I would have preferred "one stop" shopping. I think a more productive change would be to allow SMs and ASMs to earn Eagle ... and require them to earn First Class. That would, among other things, open the way for adult females to experience the rank advancement process and maybe give girls a greater "me too" kind of feeling.

@@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.