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Yes! I shake lots of hands. Then wash before meals, snacks, or going out for my coffee. You all touch the same toilet handle ... just saying. Everyone in my family scratches the same dog, and I've seen that beast roll in some nasty stuff!

As @sentinal suggested a spin-off ... If it were not for President Bush taking seriously the culmination of research at the time on the Spanish flu (https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/infocus/pandemicflu/) we would have been as unprepared as Iran and Italy (or those two cops in Wuhan who thought a Christian doctor was spouting off some apocalyptic fantasy). Everyone who has posted on this theme on this forum has been knowledgeable from the get-go. That's because the educational component of his and Clinton's programs remained in full force. Precious little that you've heard hasn't already been prepared years in advance. Even, my anti-vax associates build their straw-men out of the material made available by funding from past administration. Trust me, some of my smartest friends were plain stupid about this stuff in the 80's. They could program a computer virus like nobody's business, but they had no clue how that applied to them and their snot-nosed family members. Could supply chain have been managed better? Yes. Considering American ingenuity, our ability to re-direct our workforce is constantly undervalued. My nephew has been screaming for days that his company's 3-D printers are ready to make good on any essential parts contract that comes their way. It disturbs me that Son #1's company didn't instantly pivot to cutting and stamping stainless steel N95's (chain mail anyone?), or to producing shipping containers for companies who were waiting for them to float over here from the other side of the Pacific. But, this is also partly because nobody took our annual flu losses seriously. The working assumption was that we could roll along and >50K flu deaths per year would be acceptable. Folks who highlighted the failures of consecutive seasons of unsatisfactory mortality. Readiness stockpiles should have been loud talking points in every gubernatorial race. We all needed masks, maybe more than flu-shots! As always, why bring this stuff up here? Well, in a few months, Lord willing, you'll be around the campfire with your scouts, and this will require a heap of after action review.

Also, fishing season has opened! Check out your state's competitions at https://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/hofnodnj.htm. Reach out to the one nearest you. Contact your local sportsman's clubs. They might have a program for your scouts as well. Speaking of in-house awards, our SPL's were making little loops of parachord to add to epaulets and represent certain achievments. E.g., all knots tied in less than a minute got a particular color. The insignia dorks among us will dutifully inform us that non-standard loops are not uniform, but since you SPL/ASPLs run inspection, you can decide how many points to take off for such things.

The harsh reality is that we won't know (as in a decent data-based recommendation from the CDC "know") what to do in May until the end of this month. We won't know what to do in June until the end of May; July until the end of June, etc ... There will come a time where we will switch from keeping youth from things like camps (or, more specifically, the evening campfire where all three hundred are packed in an amphitheater) to where camps will be a good idea. But when that will be is uncertain. (BTW, I firmly believe that two-week internment camps -- nice ones, but a rose by any other name -- for all international travelers arriving from anywhere to anywhere would have nipped this in the bud at far less expense.) And it is likely to vary from state to state. Camps, HA bases, and units are going to have to be very agile

@BPPatrolonaRoll, welcome to the forums! It takes time to get to know your youth. It sounds like you've realised that your scouts are into an activity that gets them a medal or a patch after a day's work. So ... you need to look for state/national parks that offer such things. Or, call your fire or police department about small awards they may offer. You may have to talk to your SM about budgeting for such things. Your troop can also make totems that would travel from patrol-to-patrol for things like "best uniform", "favorite skit", "first aid champion", etc ...

Just taking plays from the CDC's handbook ... Natural herd immunity is undesirable because of its mortality rates. It's also uncertain. We don't know how it will hold up during round two, or three ... current antibody tests for past Saars-Cov-2 are not accurate enough to let us know about how resilient people are against a second infection. This is all that is available at round one. That will change if the current tests are accurate, then there will be estimates on how long a body will remain 'on the lookout' for new infections of this strain. Artificial herd immunity, if it is proven to not be as lethal as the original disease, is only as reliable as antibody tests. The real problem (which nobody cares much about in livestock) is autoimmune side effects. If they are few, then we can afford to pay for the care for the claims of damage from the vaccine. If they are many, we will be back to relying on natural herd immunity because people will refuse the vaccine.

Actually, if your doc's office is open (and you're asymptomatic and have have been well isolated ...), now is a great time to get a physical. The waiting rooms have never been so well cleaned, and there aren't a lot of other conditions to treat. (E.g., less work/sports injuries, less asthma without manufacturing and with flu season at an end, fewer communicable diseases ...) A friend in Switzerland noticed the same thing. An antibody test will be a game changer. If you had reported symptoms and your office is a testing site, you may get a call to come in for a test. At which point you can ask the doc if he/she can sign your physical paperwork. When a vaccine clears safety and efficacy trials, expect your kid to get a call. It may be required for school admission, and that may include paperwork. A lost of docs will use that time to sell administer physicals. The nation could have just as bad a problem if herd immunity isn't established by fall because camps refused to open and allow a certain amount of background transmission. Camps have the advantage of rigorous contact tracing. If you participated in week #5, we know exactly who else was with you. If you stayed home, you could be transmitting a thousand-fold more untraceable contacts. Frankly, the wisest public policy would be to require all youth to attend a camp for 3 weeks. It would be the best use of a half-trillion dollars the nation could ever spend. (It would have been better if we required it of all incoming travelers in February!) But, that's way beyond anyone's comprehension.

So, this is where it starts to sound perverse. What we are being asked to do will not stop junior from getting the virus. It will delay it. The long bet is that in areas first hit, where half of the population has been infected (not half tested positive, there's a difference) herd immunity will become more efficient at slowing the disease than social distancing. At that point governments need to let off the brakes, and bet (yes, bet, welcome to the highest stakes game on the planet) that hospitals will have ramped up enough to handle the new cases -- including pediatric cases -- as they appear through the summer. Then, when (not if) wave two roams the earth next year, those yet to be infected will have a hard time finding Saars-Cov-2 for their cells to suck up and replicate ... hard enough that, by the time a vaccine rolls out after wave two and hopefully before wave three, there will be a safe vaccine to help us artificially inflate herd immunity to something along the lines of what we have now against measles. If we get a vaccine before wave two, it will be a human achievement the equivalent of a manned landing on Mercury. Until then, the world will have to count on kids, sooner or later, going outside, playing, and spreading germs at a rate that we all can can tolerate. Exactly when is in the hands of some friends whose jobs I'm not particularly envying. ... You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em ...

Pediatricians who've shut down their regular practice, will be ready to get on with making a living treating a high volume of patients ... annual physicals being a profitable exersize that could make up for lost revenue. I foresee a lot of extended hours for sports physicals, etc ..

Asked and answered, from a much simpler time:

I hate when people question scouts' motives ... almost as much as I hate when scouters announce that a project "counts for service hours." I swear, nobody who likes those shenanigans should let me run this organization. I would strike all service hour requirements from every rank ... immediately after eliminating the ageist policy on rank advancement, requiring ASMs and SMs to earn 1st class from their SPL/JASMs, and re-instituting Bird Study as required for Eagle. Most all scouts have fulfilled the hours need for their next rank 10x over, most all scouts want to do something for their community, and most any project is going to take twice as long as what any scout needs for his/her next rank. Nothing personal @InquisitiveScouter, you just tapped a pet peeve!

The crux of the matter is not the walk in the woods ... which I advocate for any family at this time. It's the cars needed to get there and the relatively tight parking areas (and all those door handles) ... which I wouldn't advocate. If those woods are just a walk from everyone's house, then you aren't carrying your carriers, and a service project is manageable. Honestly, litter is accumulating around people's homes. How about scouts picking that up? That nurse or doctor whose working doubles? That neighbor whose laid off? A home-cooked meal on their doorstep would go a long way! And, let's remind ourselves that, even in this pandemic, it's a big country. There is no one-size-fits-all.

The scout and his patrol could make a rolling schedule of campouts. Say you missed two weekends so far, he schedules two weekends next month. And two weekends the following month or the month after summer camp.

Friends, not only am I going to shake hands with my Mediterranean cousins who live through this ... we will kiss, first right cheek then left. (As opposed to some of my Eastern European left-then-right cousins ... that always ends up a little messy.) The one habit that I hope my scouts do maintain: hand washing. Our nails have never been so clean.

Well, a lot of troops don't take the Librarian position of responsibility seriously. And that's a shame, because the first step in teaching a scout skill is reference. News to me about the .pdf. If you make a purchase, look into the fine print on the copyright for us. If that pdf is transferable between scouts, librarians could take advantage of it to fulfill their positions this month.

@DLikens, welcome to the forums! And sorry about the scouting digital echo chamber. BSA was late to the digital game, so others went through a lot of hoops to provide what it didn't. Also, your troop library should have collected used merit badge pamphlets, and there should be a way for your troop librarian to dead-drop the desired pamphlet. If you already subscribe to Kindle, you can purchase some pamphlets. https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2014/09/03/merit-badge-pamphlets-leader-guides-fieldbook-now-kindle/ I don't recommend it because there is no way to transfer ownership of the pamphlet to another scout once yours is finished with it.

I was thinking about that for my orienteering club. Instead of punching in. Take a selfie of yourself with the control.

Hey, my friend in Nigeria had her 1st baby. He's a prince alright. Still got a get a gift out to the happy parents.

And there it is ... an ad for "Shop Filter face mask."

Daughter and I saw a guy with a prodigious beard wearing a coffee filter. At least an N95 isn't going to waste.

Thanks guys! The little guy is on the mend.

The reason is not "exact", it's a bit fuzzy and boils down to answering your question with a question: What does a scout learn by asking for some extra cash outright that he/she wouldn't learn by providing goods or services (e.g., a brunch, a wreath, a dead tree collection) for a nominal fee?

Firstly, Saars-Cov-2 is in no way on par with any predator. It is merely a chain letter in an envelope that cells --of our species in particular and maybe one or two others in general -- find very desirable to grab, open, copy, and disseminate. Secondly, my "home range" includes: the homes and scout-houses of SMs who insist that I visit someday, be they in Denmark, Sweden, India, Indonesia or elsewhere. a hospital ... the walls of which I may not cross ... In which Son #1's Son #1 is recovering from a necessarily invasive surgery to correct a fetal heart defect. Unlike mere beasts, I understand the necessity of withdrawing to a territory for some time, but like creatures -- from box turtles to mountain lions -- I could no more stay from walking the block outside that hospital any more than they could stay from crossing a busy road.

The insignia dorks shudder at the thought!