qwazse

Doublespeak: as in when one promotes "Family Scouting" instead of simply offering the Boy Scout program to girls. Think about it: Why "Scouts BSA" instead of continuing as "Boy Scouts" and adding "BSA for Girls" (or as I still affectionately say, BSA4G) as the new parallel program? Because the collective wants to give the impression that we are more Northern European than Indonesian or Indian (or, now that they have girls in their program, Saudi) in our approach to the sexes. Even though, for the majority of Americans, the thought of sexes mixing so liberally is anathema. Why not BSA and GS/USA going to Jambo (National or World) together? Because Seton and Lowe believed that their respective scouts were learning mutually exclusive skills when we know for a fact that both groups develop youth into fully capable homemakers in short order. Why propagate this vision into the 21st century? Because pro's in both groups know that we parents will need fewer of them if boots on the ground were at liberty to work in lock-step across organizational boundaries when they felt that it suited their communities. Why, in the 30s, stop calling the GS/USA troop leaders captain and merely call them adult leaders -- not (as BP was heard doing in an audio address to leaders of Guides and Scouts) scoutmasters? I suspect it had less to do with any true egalitarian sense and more to do with the profitability of organizational autonomy.

Considering the need for isolation bubbles that folks in some parts feel, would this be a time to switch from age-based dens to dens of nearest neighbors? Regarding JTE ... so you get bronze or lower. What’s the big deal?

All the cool kids have a camp towel (synthetic wannabe tericloth) and shammi type towel. Both require a lot of rinsing and drying to deodorize. But, they do dry quickly.

Brainstorming for future reference ... right now is a good time to snatch up 5 gal bottles from office water coolers. Because of restrictions, many suppliers aren’t taking them back. Careful pioneering, some work with stoppers and hoses, and you should have a camp shower.

Camp Conestoga was a welcome break for our scouts. The aquatics director did me a solid and helped me re-update BSA guard including my CPR cert and a thorough first aide review. I told him it was a little weird seeing the other side of their “little square lake” during swim qualifiers. He actually apologized for landing the black 10 pound weight on the black and marker. I thought it was the most visible weight I had to retrieve in a long time! Their trades program area was a hit with four of our boys. I let the welding instructor know that he was the topic of conversation at many dinners (which the older scouts picked up at the dining hall and brought back to camp). Their handicraft area had stained glass, which if it weren’t for the recertifications, I would have jumped at. I did walk by one day and those grinders were humming! Funny how something that’s not a merit badge could be so popular. The night sky was excellent. The food was good, although in retrospect we probably would have done better to bring our own and worked on patrol cooking. I did miss chatting with SMs in the program hall. I was sad to see it empty. Their was sufficient space for distanced flag ceremonies and campfires. Because sanitizers were used at full strength, staff took responsibility for cleaning shower houses. Yes, I missed sending the scouts off to their day of latrine duty. By day four and no fevers, you could tell the sense of relief.

The robotics theme is not as crazy as it sounds. NASA already has training programs where students learn to operate its exploration vehicles and gather science data. (https://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/stem/student-activities/index.html). In fact, each scout could be assigned to an autonomous vehicle at the lunar reservation and operate it for a year or two. We could solicit scholarships to fun internships for those pesky 18-20 year-olds. We could call them ... Rover scouts!

This is primarily about the pandemic. At the outset of this slow-motion train wreck, my pandemic guy said it would take 18 months to roll out a vaccine — assuming at least one manufacturer gets it right on the 1st try. The only advantage to a 2021 Jamboree from a public health perspective would be if the first batch of winning vaccine (assuming that at least one is effective) could easily be administered at one location. But, barely 2% of scouts and scouters participate, so it’s impact would be minimal. There could be a national event with perhaps a fraction of the scouts (say, 0.1% of membership) allowing for much slower viral transmission. But, that would not be a Jamboree. There could also be a multi-multi-location (e.g. hundreds of camps simultaneously) national event that could involve a record number of scouts. It would hard to imagine how to recreate the intentional connectedness of a single location. But the right corporate sponsors might want to give it a try.

@StrykerJW, welcome to the forums. It sounds very egalitarian. But the analysis of your selection of terms omits one thing: How much do you think changing brand will increase market share? Also, you state that youth should elect their chief/chieftess/high/prime/grand guide/priest/prophet/poobah/anything-but-SM from available candidates, as if this doesn’t happen already. In the normal course of affairs, SM’s are brought up (pulled down?) from the ranks of a troop’s SMs. Kids don’t suffer fools for ASMs (they barely put up with me, but that’s because they are willing to overlook the ruination from years of being a crew advisor). Boards of review give committees very good ideas of who has helped youth the most. In my experience, youth also will talk loudly about inept adults. The ground truth is that there is rarely one person at the helm of scoutmastering a troop. Last week, neither our SM nor two former SMS nor the SM from a neighboring troop were available. I was dying to take a week off and one dad of a crossover was available to join me. So the two of us were the bottom of the barrel for these boys. Basically, the economy elected us. I have a hard time imagining that operating under your rubric would improve any of this.

As camp counselors have asked my scouts for a note from their SM confirming that the did x,y, or z prerequisite, I have developed the following template: To whom it my concern, —— is a scout. A scout is trustworthy. Therefore, you may take ——‘s retelling of exploits pertinent to requirements for the badge that you are counseling as fact. My signature is most assuredly superfluous. Sincerly, qwazse

Two first-years were mapping out their moon stations the other evening. I’ll let them know that their plans might be of use sooner than they think! Sorting out camping nights is going to be a bear!

Writing from Camp Conestoga in Westmorland Council, PA in the company of pandemic refugees from states north and south, all the while exposing those viruses to UV rays and soap. TBH, I’m not one to walk around with a fathom stick social distance warrioring. But, I think they are sufficiently cautious. They boys have masks at the ready when needed. No complaints. My only assistant is a crossover’s dad who was a scout, an all-around great guy, and a tremendous help. Lots of paychecks: last night a couple of 1st years stayed at camp to do space-ex “campsite paperwork”, and got way into the weeds with me about all things interplanetary. Today, fillets of caught fish are frying. GTG. I just saw our lunch crew on the way to pick up from the dining hall.

I okay with agreeably disagreeable. I'm hoping most folks post things with which I might not agree. I sincerely hope few of those are things I could downvote without explanation. "membership stability". What's been more stable? The membership of a council with an obtuse name, or the members of a community? Yes, our rust-belt towns have had a lot of churn, but they are still on the map. Just talked to a young man in line outside the DMV who, like my daughter, is moving back home. Neither of them are moving back to scouting. (I'm working on it, it's a tough sell. Gotta smooth out that MB counselor registration process.) "financial stability" You want councils to have money? Well civic groups want to know where their money's going. They see a scout doing a good turn, they see their nearest big town named on his shoulder, they have their answer -- in red and white (or green and tan).

It's funny how management consultant types harp on mission and vision, but never want it to have teeth ... No, unless they have, as a default, a city-state identification (okay, Transatlantic Council gets a pass) in standard-issue, I don't think a council has met the minimum standard for it's existence. (No offense, Laurel Highlands, New Birth of Freedom or Michigan Crossroads. But all your names do is sweep under the rug how much clusters of community organizations have pulled their support out from under BSA.) The name of an established location speaks a lot about vision. Areas that resent their scouts and scouters wearing a rival city on their sleeve might give a care about everything else it takes to from a council from troops nearer-and-dearer to their town of choice. That's my opinion. I don't expect it to be popular.

@CynicalScouter, this builds on the patrol method philosophy: "... a patrol is a group of friends ..." instead of an administrative unit of a troop. The minimum requirement of a council should be a group of civic organizations in and around a city/town enthused about scouting in their region. If a council is not that, it will merely be an administrative unit of BSA, and from a consumer perspective, nobody will care. Which means that a couple councils a year will fail to meet standards based on your so-called "LOT more important things". The "patch" example came from my council's Jambo patch, which depicted the French and Indian war ... censors removed the native's weapons from their hands. Turning the set into what one of my scouts decried as "least traded patch, ever." The point is, if council uses imagery, to use honest historically accurate imagery of local persons/events. If they can't settle on that, revert to the default. Do, I expect this to be in the minimum standards? Obviously not. But I expect all other minimum standards to miss their mark so long as it isn't.

The key to WS, is resourcefulness with dual-use items. Flares may be a fun draw, maybe they make good fire starters. But... Can the spent tube be used to rig a trap? Can you cook with them? Do they make good mineral supplements to the ants that have raided your last pack of raisins?

For the sake of marketing and civic pride, a council should return towards being plain-spoken: 1. Be named after the most populous city (as recognized by the US census) within its bounds. The default patch would be the city, state strip in the standard issue colors/font of unit numbers. 2. Decorative patch may incorporate either: That city & state's seal, A map of the region, or An image of at least one great leader, brandishing weapon(s). (Yes, the pen or pulpit could be a weapon. Yes, the leader may be from a minority.) That means my hometown becomes Pittsburgh, PA council, BSA -- even though they are far outside that bubble. If they don't like it, they can call on their local civic organizations to build the capital to support an independent council in their locality.

No better way to make sure a nature center gets graffiti than sharing nature cam footage on the web. The latter service project will spawn the former!

Yeah, when I'm at Heritage, I'm too busy helping in scout activities to waste time with a Scouter Service Patch. With that 1 hour paper-chase to report 10 hours of service, I could put in 11 hours of service.

How about everybody Kelly green? Except for Sea Scouts ... they're too cool in their blue-as-cub-scouts shirts! Truth, @Eagledad, I am kinda "poking the bear." I don't know how much cost saving there is having a different color for those tiny cub uniforms that, like you say, is a thing of pride to grow out of. But, there's not a lot of pride involved in "growing" from tan to green, and in fact I've witnessed some downright arrogance that we could do without. I mean, I am proud to have been a crew advisor because of the positive impact that it made on how I work with youth (Cubs, Scouts, of Venturers). But, I have seen a lot of other adults and older youth arrive at the same place through different channels (e.g., O/A, camp staff, etc ...). So, it's only a partial jest about putting everyone ('cept Sea Scouts) in green.

I am saying this as someone who loves his Kelly green shirt, but in all honesty ... From the minute they rolled out the tan ODL shirts with epaulets, I always wondered why the Explorers didn't just use those with green shoulderloops. Furthermore, there should be half- and quarter- loops for folks who serve in multiple programs. One shirt to rule them all ...

You brought back fond memories of a town hike that included the troop visiting at the Sheriff's office and a tour of county lock-up which included saying hello to the prisoners, one of whom gave us the "Kids, stay in school," speech. That wasn't a requirement for any merit badge. The SM explained that it's just what we do. At the time, I took "we" to mean scouts. But, I think he meant staunch Presbyterians, because the youth group also paid visits to the jail and the juvenile detention center. It's true about our nation's record incarceration rates and long sentencing. But, we also all carry guns and knives. Let one of us out too soon, and bad things happen that make the papers.

I"m sure some places would like a little extra help cleaning graffiti.

There is something for adults to visit every program area (and take a nap in camp). But nothing specific to SMs. I'm usually too busy to bother with that.

@Double Eagle makes a good point. If your pool is 25 feet, knocking the 2C req 5b at home is a good idea. More important, however, is making sure your non-swimmers know line rescues. They'll be the ones out of the water and more likely to notice a tired swimmer if you train them to be observant. They need to know how to tie off a line, and they need the practice throwing buoys. They seriously need to understand limitations (theirs and other friends and families) because odds are, on that dark day, they will be in a position to act the quickest.

Here's what I did just now ... Login and click the pancake menu for quick navigation. Click on My Dashboard. My Dashboard shows my account, and under that my unit is listed right-justified. I click on that. It shows links to my adults and youth rosters, then Troop Reports, MB Counselor List, Print Blue Cards, and an announcement from my council that they updated the MB List. I click on MB Counselor List. It brings up a bunch of filters. At the bottom in red is "search". Click that and the list is generated. FWIW, nobody in my troop is on that list. I guess that's one more Email request I have to follow up.