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I'm not sure council is going to get into this. So save yourself the phone call. You could call the chartered org rep. Did the boys know they weren't allowed to have cell phones? I mean before you toss around trustworthy, you need to check that the boys were obedient. The two kinda go hand in hand. Would I have done things differently than your SM? Before two years ago yes. Since then, I'm not so sure. One scout breaking bad has probably ruined it for the rest.

Oh, if it's fraying (or frayed once) at the seems don't take it on a week-long adventure.

Perspective: you are fretting over a 2.97 pound reduction in pack-weight a $120 cost, which means: $20.20 per pound reduction in pack weight, but you don't even know if you could strap that extra 3 pounds of whatever you want to the bottom of the new pack. IMHO, the penalty for over-packing is huge. Airflow is nice, but not a show stopper. I only switched packs when the wicking liner (Goretex, I think) crumbled. (Note to self: I need to scavenge that old pack. I could use the cotter pins and lock rings for my kayak.)

Then God's pretty handy. If we provide Him the scouts, He'll put them where they need to be.

@CarlosD welcome back from your first time as "the guy!" 1. Don't beat yourself up about this. Trust me, it could be worse. Thank the parents for keeping you in the loop about it. And, yes, let the camp director and your district executive know. Sometimes when a scout does something like this, it is exactly as the scout described. But sometimes, it might have involved more scouts either purposely or by accident. The only way you'll know is to ask broader questions. And the only way you can do that across all the other troops who've been to camp is to let them know. If yours is the only report, it will get filed and be just one more statistic. But if there's a second one like it from the same week they might catch on to it and avert a larger problem. 2. We had a different situation, but same indirect reporting. So ... in addition to addressing the primary issue, we committed some time at a subsequent meeting having a scoutmaster conference with each scout. It basically went, "We just wanted to let you know, that you guys can trust us. You can let us know if something isn't going right. And if we need to deal with it, we won't make a big scene and single you or your buddies out." That got us some constructive feedback ... especially from some scouts who thought their buddy was going to let us know about the situation. Those scouts learned about communication gaps, and the others seemed to be a bit more responsive in keeping us in the loop.

I do think one can get certain biases from sitting on just a couple of Eagle BoRs where the particular candidates were stellar in particular areas. You really have to be in a lot of them to get an idea of the diversity that we see in Eagle scouts. We respect them all. Well ... maybe not the scout thinks it's part of his his duty to mock the religious obligations of others. But, we usually address those long before they come up for rank advancement.

Welcome @CarrieScouter. Congratulations on your son's advancement. You have it right. How does your son fulfill his duty to God? Has he met your expectations? What does he do on his own? You don't have to spend a lot of time on this. Just a couple of scentences about how he's applying the religion that you handed down to him. Of course, a deeper question for yourself and none of us here is why your family doesn't go to church? Has your duty to God changed? Did you have a revelation that St. Paul was mistaken about "forsake not the assembling of yourselves together?" Have your fellow worshippers turned out to be no good? Scouting gives us opportunities to reflect on our lives as parents. This is one of those opportunities.

VOA's and lodges should have been working in lock-step all along. There's no telling where the chips will fall with this.

Foccacia is my bread of choice for panini. It's already well-oiled, flavorful, and packs easily. I'm definitely trying the rock method the next opportunity I have.

SBR's commissary model is probably the ideal. Scouts order thier ingredients and amounts and pick them up at the commissary ... old time general store fashion. I thought I would get to sample the full effect of that at World Jamboree, but the choices are all warm-and-serve type foods.

You'll really know it's working when IRL somebody says, "Hey, you sound just like that @RainShine from the Scouter Forums." Welcome!

It's a little more complicated than ownership. In exchange for space for meetings and storing supplies, the unit proudly represents its CO as it delivers the promise of scouting to youth in the community. If the unit folds, the materials it has acquired are retained by the CO for the purposes of starting another scout unit in the future. Without good communication about each other's plans, aspirations, and limitations,I honestly can't see how a charter agreement could be fulfilled.

Historical Note: Heritage Scout Reservation started out with patrol cooking at both camps Freedom and Liberty, but the demand for dining hall options was so great that the Freedom dining hall was built. The advantage of the latter is the scouts dine with staff and get to know them. There's more time for songs, skits, and (oh, mercy) announcements.

Borrowed a ladder last weekend. Anchored it to the quad with one rope and two clove hitches. Worked better and faster than ratchet straps. Now if only I can figure out the knot that would get the quad's winch to spool out as well as it spools in!

It would be nice to have a follow-up story on how many palms he has now. I wonder if he regrets not postponing rank advancement so that he could load up on instapalms.

When you spin off a different troop, do everyone a favor and meet on a different night from you current unit. There is nothing more frustrating to members of a community when they see that they have a choice of location, but meeting times are the same.

Our troop got in this funk. It's hard to shake. In this case, it sounds like there are too many adults in the room for the PLC. Your best bet, if you attend events, is some form of positive reinforcement. If you have a patrol-specific prize like specialty chocolate for the patrol wins some challenge (loudest yell, win at Kim's game, fastest to tie all knots) you might encourage more patrol-specific behavior.

This is what happens when Webelos learn the patrol method!

Sounds like the scout's doing it right ... I admire any scout who shuns insta-palms, recruits, and helps a DL manage his/her den.

I haven't had to pull a lot of them, but yeah I got one pretty early on that way. I've also used a knife to lift the abdomen, pinch it with my thumb, then pull. BTW, you don't have to worry about the head being left behind. From http://mentalfloss.com/article/548756/myths-about-ticks-debunked Me too. That's why I stay away from political rallies. Oh, but ticks? I'm not too bothered about touching them as much as I am about them touching me. The tick keys seem to be cost effective. Has anyone tried a needle threader? Anyone jury rig a tick key from other camping items? Or, has anyone found a dual purpose for those keys? Let's face it, if it can do double duty, it's more likely to find its way into a pack.

Sorry, Trail Life, USA.

Better than tweezers: thumb and forefinger. Squeeze, pull. You know when you've got the whole critter -- you can almost feel its pincers releasing, and you'll never over squeeze because your digits are optimized for picking all sorts of things. For the $ save, you can buy some stranger on the internet his coffee when he passes through your town!

I agree with @fred8033, that sometimes folks read the wrong thing into their titles. Any CC/SM who sees themselves as "gatekeeper" also needs to be very aware of the competition. Using different words, TL/USA is positioning itself as able to deliver on the promise of scouting to boys in ways that they claim BSA can't. My relatives are having a grand old time because they hear more "yes" from their TL/USA adults than they did from their former SM. I suspect some of that will change as the organization grows, and lawyers see the cash value of that target.

Further example: Scouts want to do an aquatic activity. SM says, "Review Safe Swim Defense, tell me what you have and what you will need." SPL/PL reports "We have youth with guard certifications and Fox 40 whistles, Med forms on 30 of 36 scouts, swim checks from summer camp on the 24 who attended. We need adult supervision, floats, and some way to track buddies." CC makes calls to (or better yet, provides phone #s of) adults with a solid track record of supervising scout aquatics, resources for safety equipment, and any roundtable/Powderhorn notes he/she may have accumulated regarding supporting activities like the one the SPL suggested. Together, SPL/PL, SM and CC set up a timeline for when and by what means the scouts can fulfill this particular vision of the pinnacle scouting experience of hiking and camping independently with their mates. So PL, SPL, SM, and CC don't have final approval authority they way most people think of it. They have an obligation to say "Yes, but safely."

Note on naturals: pay close attention for allergies. Small amounts can be serious antagonists for some people. Petroleum deriviatives are less likely to cause problems *if dosed correctly*. Whatever you use, practice first where there's a lake or shower to jump in (safely, of course) if there's a reaction. Obviously, at home is the best place to try this stuff out. You might not get a good idea of the critters it will repel, but you'll learn if your skin can stand the stuff.