qwazse

Some scouts are essential and trained. They just haven't put 2-and-2 together to realize that they could score a MB. That's what counseling does. Also, restaurants in college ghost towns are shuttered. Take-out just won't fly. Otherwise, your point is well-taken. But, you are right about Bird Study. That should definitely be at the top of the list. We have a counselor in our troop. I'm gonna drop him a line.

Counter-prediction (which you all would have placed in the realm of sci- fi- last year): BSA and various councils cut a deal with the US to maintain their properties for use in time of pandemics as internment camps. Compared to the $Trillions to execute state-wide shelter-in-place, the cost of maintaining a container of medical supplies and modular housing (in addition to the cabins at most camps) would be trivial. Being nearest (yet sufficiently far from) our WV's (and the nation's) capital, SBR and all buildings on it become "available for emergency service" by the national guard in exchange for payment of any outstanding liens. In effect we become the inverse of AP Hill. Instead of a military base occasionally on loan to scouts, it becomes a scout base occasionally on loan to the military.

I concur about visiting a facility. If the badge wanted to accept virtual tours, requirement 5 could have been worded like requirement 7 (which allows website work). That said, right now would be a very good time to visit a food handling facility. If the scout's family member run's a restaurant, there is nothing else going on. He/she's the least risk to everyone, and the family member might need someone to help check the freezers etc ...

IMHO, we are thinking about this wrongly. It seems to me that we need our trained, registered, MC's and SM's who have developed conferencing abilities (and we have a lot of them) to be prepared to host meetings of scouts with themselves, or scouts with other adults (be they SM's, MBC's, MC's, district representatives, etc ...). This could be via phone, the internet that Al Gore and I built, or ham radio. Basically, we need to get back our "1 hour a week". The goal should not be doing only the MBs that you can complete during confinement. Rather, the goal should be learning what you and your team-mates are doing, and coming along side them to make their effort truly epic. This may mean you start a badge and hit a road block. No worries, that's what partials are for. Then you conference with your patrol, and line up a weekend or two to do the "do" requirements that imply some necessary social proximity. Who knows? If you guys push those confined minds to think "out of the box," one of you might have some patrol welding the manifold for a motorboat during a water skiing weekend!

16+ year-olds may donate blood. This is really important, because this demographic has not traveled abroad, and fewer of them will have disqualifications. But, blood drives would necessarily take longer to keep donors isolated. Coordinating a campaign with your local blood bank to do this safely could be a challenging, yet rewarding, service project.

Laughing out loud ... Son #2 just got hired to build and test a mobile wastewater treatment prototype! The plant could literally visit them. (If the client would let the scouts on the property.) That is, once the shipping container it was built to fit in starts its journey across the Pacific. I remember a town hike as a scout to the wastewater treatment plant. It's a pretty good show. Obviously some requirements will have to be delayed for any MB. I could try to make distance-counseling work. But, I'd really be concerned about some bean-counter busting on scouts' chops if my paperwork would be delayed. It's one thing to mess with your own scouts, but scouts from a different region? Besides, it's the personal, local connections that make this whole thing worthwhile. I could (on better days) arrange a bunch of scouts to meet online with our county director of public health ... she's a very good presenter ... but, that doesn't do the scouts much good if the person they really should get to know is their local public health officer. This is really important because, aside from this pandemic, teens face different health crises depending on where they live.

Not an MB, but I did 4th+5th grade Sunday School class via Google Hangouts, arranged with parents' assistance it. The only problem was that I stubbed my toe in a game of "fetch." It was fun. We'd call out an object, and everyone would have to run off camera, find it, and return with it to show. I'll repeat it next week. I'm putting my hat in the ring for Public Health MB. (How I'll get the paperwork to HQ is another issue.) My buddy consults for the CDC, his whole job is online (with the occasional visit to Atlanta). He's swamped at the moment. Just like our mutual Korean friend was a few weeks ago. It's been like having friends with an extra season ticket to a slow motion train wreck. When the dust settles, I'm dragging him to a meeting and giving the scouts a sense of what it was like from the inside.

Still ads for beyond-blue spectral irradiation (which BTW, although the bane of bacteria and eucharyotes, are nowhere near as good as the usual solvents at deactivating the pathogen du jour). So, for fun, let's all join @SSScout in trying to tilt the ad meters ... (note that my attempt at avoiding popular search terms). Cherokee on a long walk, Iroquois dugouts, Seneca long-houses ....

Our boards are convened at the unit's CO. The district rep sets the tone. I would say they are serious, but friendly.

@PACAN Eagle BoR's in some parts are comprised entirely of district reps. (Scouters in our district prefer a mix of unit committee and reps.)

Wait, someone here quoted the official word from National, let's see where did I read it ... Oh, here: This is not a Jamboree patch. Putting it over your right pocket is non-standard. Nobody has produced documentation to the contrary. When I mentioned the '-1 point', I should have referenced the uniform inspection sheet. I assumed you would know that source. So, from official documentation, you have your answer, and you have the maximum penalty for disregarding it. Plus no small dose of personal opinion on the matter! Sorry if that you are left with unofficial "bloggers" to have to decide for the whole movement. The whole movement is volunteer run. Personally, I'm happy with a guide to what I should do. I don't need an insignia czar earning six-figures compiling a list of what I shouldn't do. That's Mrs. Q.'s job.

@Alesandroppo, welcome to the forums! The nice thing about scouter.com is that a lot of very different opinions can be shared by real scout leaders. (They are real, I've met a couple of them and have their patches to prove it! But, then again, I'm a stranger on the internet.) Sometimes we hear from scouts, too. Are there any scouts in your community?

Let's assume we have two scouts who in two or three years did the following ... Mr. Tortise: attends summer camp and seven two-night camps with his troop for a total of 20 nights. Gets camping MB, plus an O/A sash. Mr. Hare: attends no summer camp and ten two-night camps with his troop for a total of 20 nights. Gets camping MB. Who has had the better experience? Answer: Mr. Inculcated-with-a-vision-of-the-pinnacle-scouting-experience-of-hiking-and-camping-independently-with-your-mates: who may or may not have partially attended summer camp (let's say he got homesick by night 3), went camping with his troop for three weekends, with his patrol once or twice, with his youth group for four days each summer, with his family for a weekend or two, with a few friends on gramps' back nine while cleaning his cabin one weekend, with a girlfriend or two some weekends, etc ...

@69RoadRunner, I was thinking that we should extend it through December for any scout who turned 18 during this national emergency and was willing to serve as an ASM. That would not only help ambitious scouts who were about to knock out their next rank, it would motivate scouts who maybe had given up on advancement a chance to try for that next award (be it 2nd class or their next Palm). MB work is, by definition, independent ... at most in small groups no greater than 10. What's novel is the virtual meetings with MBCs. The really tough part: getting two adults to support a patrol activity. Then, leading that activity or leading the troop remotely.

Our troop hosted a motor-boating weekend last summer, and the host parents got certified as counselors and did nearly everything to make sure things went smoothly. The parents were so generous that I gave them a stern lecture that next time the boys can plan and purchase their own meals, pitch in for refueling the boat, and generally spoil them rotten by keeping house for them during their stay. I think nearly all of the boys attending earned the badge.

Have them call the bottled water companies. My office's delivery guy says they swamped with new orders!

Most definitely file for an extension! Most parks do not want large group gatherings, and that would include a number of scouts working on a project together. I would be happy if National extended the age deadline for all scouts who turned 18 this month if they are willing to serve as ASMs -- not just for eagle, but Life and Star as well. There are a number of Scouts with time on their hands, and there are a lot of service projects that will be piling up.

Well, a camp director who does make a stink might be justification for choosing a different camp. In general, I encourage troops to give the director of a camp they've never been to a call. It's usually always worth the effort.

@RichardHall, welcome to the forums! So, I hope your inquiry to national wasn't based on a decades old thread! Did you have a scout who came up against some deadlines, and this really mattered?

Sounds like your issue will be with the camp. Call the camp director and let him/her know that your troop has home-made activity shirts. Ask if there are any guidelines. Frankly, if they are not for sale, nobody should be bothered.

Resurrecting this discussion. So, Bryan's article has discussed the "how to" for BoR's. And, I'm sure there are some favorite services not mentioned. But also @FireStone raised the question of how to make it work for other scout/scouter meetings? More importantly, can anyone move us from "how to" to "how to make it fun?"

Hey! We have a thread for that! It's in venturing, but maybe we should move it someplace else because we've learned a few things in the past four years. In the next couple months we'll learn a few more. I'll reply to resurrect it.

It's the hardest thing to do, but we never want to write for last year's troublesome parents. I suspect this year's parents will be emotionally impacted by this state of emergency. Unless we in this country defy the odds, many parents will have lost (if not nearly lost) an elderly relative. Another reason to keep it simple.

You already know how this worked in preventing "egregious offenders" before, so you know what to expect in the future (plus some other curve ball yet to be seen). Letters like these only get you so far. But if you're asking for revisions, I suggest one: Write less. (And now I will proceed to waste your time by writing more ) Look at every sentence. Scratch anything that excuses your behavior or tries to empathize with a parent's misbehavior. Don't waste time justifying your actions. This is your troop's culture, it needs no excuse. For example, your last point, I would rephrase: "Parents, new or returning, are expected to attend any adult training that the camp makes available." you have about 50% deadwood or more in those instructions. Get rid of it, and you'll do just as well.

We must be in different demographics. I've only been getting business and investment ads. I was wondering when the buxom models selling custom tshirt printing would appear. Pages here are loading more slowly. If it continues, no problem. There are other forums.