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@mds3d, good Unit Commissioners ... for some leaders, that's a contradiction in terms. I bet that's the cases with this SM. He is taking advantage of indecisive leadership on the COR's part. I'm betting a good UC won't even waste the coffee on this one. I have seen this in other venues. But unlike those, the fixed tenure of the youth comes to the fore. If you and your ASMs are "all that", start talking to a new CO ASAP. Let the COR know that he either makes his move next week our you all will make yours. Your DE will be tickled pink about the prospect of starting a new unit. There are a lot of downsides to actually moving. Money will be left behind. So will gear. The new CO might not understand scouting the way your current one does. Five years from now, the boys might want to all merge back together. (Happened with our troop.) But, those are minor things relative to waiting indefinitely for someone to address an urgent problem.

Previous discussion ... https://www.scouter.com/topic/26075-pioneering-catapults-banned/

An Ohio camp or scouter could argue that by bringing an unauthorized device to camp, and more importantly, refusing to secure the device or have authorized leaders secure it for them, the scout is robbing the camp/troop of its wholesome environment. That environment has value. The camp/troop markets it. So, criminal charges could be brought against the scout for theft of property by undermining market value. It cuts both ways ... the temporary securing of a device in exchange for access to camp/unit property ... that's commerce, not theft.

Welcome to the forums. Smoothly? Smooth would have been the COR walking into the troop meeting and saying "Congratulations, Mr. @BlueTrails_Vet, starting today, you are the SM. Mr. Former SM may submit an application for unit scouter reserve. Next best thing, if you ASMs are all that: find a new CO where you can be SM under a COR with some spine. If this is such a big deal to you, take action next week. Stop wasting time. It really is that simple.

And it can be done. I have a colleague whose sole objective is to develop a health literacy program for students in predominately minority schools. It's not just a list of current "best practices", but where to find get sound information and critical reviews. I suggested Son #2 consider a service project with her where he went over basic first aid from the BSHB, and challenge the class to compare it to other sources. He found the concept a little daunting. But it would have been a good fit had he taken it on. It all boils down to how much you, the unit leader, can stand. Boys using devices wrongly will require your immediate attention. Locked up, it's less on you, but they never learn to use them rightly. I am a very strong proponent of caring adults being friends with youth via social media. I believe BSA, motivated by fears of litigation, got it very very wrong. We are their role models for device use -- even if we aren't their paragons of innovation. In our absence, innovative predators will get very close to our kids.

@PeterHopkins, welcome to the forums! I've always found the Insignia Guide to be a much better read if we interpret it as encouraging scouts and scouters to pursue new achievements, rather than discouraging them from wearing a vintage insignia that they may tell an interesting story. So, if this year someone from council issues a vintage knot to recognize some youth, I certainly would not consider the youth to be out of uniform if the knot was neatly sewn over his left pocket. (The IG does define how knots are to be arrayed so as to produce a neat appearance.) In general, I hope that councils do due diligence in explaining to the youth when they are awarding a knot out of their vintage collection, and tell him what equivalent knot (if any) could be purchased from the scout-shop if he/she wanted to stay current.

$4.4K makes our boys who applied to WSJ seem cheap. Hopefully there will be plenty of hub cities to minimize other transportation costs.

Did it when I was a scout. The youth started out as waiters, then moved up until they ran the kitchen. SPL taught me everything I needed to know about flipping pancakes. Didn't do eggs. Only pancakes. SPL did have some buttermilk set aside for any requests for his specialty.

However, if once full, they are mounted to the stern of a tall ship and a scuttle is cut atop one so that a dipper can be used for dispensing, we still may still call it a scuttlebutt. Or at least that's what we call the gossip that starts when everyone gathers for their water ration!

Sketchy places come up fast. Even with an appropriately trained adult, one can easily miss cues. I didn't learn about online water gauges until I was in my 40s! God rest her and comfort her family.

The scout shop carries Primus Classics. That way, you can tell Mrs. E94-A1 that you are going to get a new council patch or pick up awards for the troop. If you accidentally come back with a stove ... well at least it wasn't a new motorcycle. As I mentioned earlier, it is possible to completely disassemble the primus for easy cleaning. You metal-workers can make different shaped pot mountings and reassemble them quite nicely. I haven't done that yet, but one of these days I'll hit the scrap metal pile and come up with some novel configuration. The only downside is that butane is not quite the four season fuel that it claims to be. Well, at least not four WPa seasons which include a fair share of very wet very cold.

... or, as I call it, a scout camp -- i.e., where youth actually learn to do stuff unto perfection.

I have repeatedly told parents if their cub is bored, get him out, participate in something that you all enjoy, and when he's 11 or 12, come visit the troop again. I dare you to try and find that in any leader's manual. We've "recovered" several boys that way. Sometimes for a little while, sometimes longer. One current case was a scout whose older brothers and father are Eagles. All he wanted to do was master board games (which his dad was very good at). His dad always sounded so discouraged that he wasn't interested in scouting. I told that dad to not drag the kid anywhere, go to his basement and paint those creepy figurines with his son until they can't stand it anymore. From time to time I'd get posts of these next-level boards that they were working on. The SM and I had grins a mile wide when this boy, now 12, came in and said his dad wanted to do more camping with him so he was going to give scouts "another try." I told him, "We have been watching your career, with interest." (Yes, he got the Star Wars reference.) After the first trip, he was hooked. The kid loves backpacking. His dad shared a photo of him hunting crawdads and my dog trying to figure out what he's after.

@ianwilkins There are a lot of American flags flown in this country. In some parts every household has one, and every light pole on every main street shopping district may be decorated with one, then there are the ones mounted on pickup trucks, motorcycles, golf carts ... Generally, when flags start to get frayed, folks in the community know to give them to scouts and their leaders. It's an odd year when we don't have hundreds to retire.

We defer to the SM. For a while we had an SM who tried to lock things down. Sure enough, after the SM's son loaned the boy a phone to call Mom, he definitely wanted to go home. But the kid's family situation was making things worse. The trouble started at family night when Dad planted the seed. The next, and current, SM was more easy going. Sure boys would phone home. But when they did we could work with parents more effectively. The kept the boys talking to us, and made sure that the line was "see you at the end of the week." The new SM is all about Scoutbook, so I don't think the phones will be stashed any time soon.

Odd question. My parents never had first class skills. A couple of my brothers did, but they were off starting families/careers. I learned my skills from: The handbook My PL and SPL The SM Camp Staff A WAC vet who ran the county pool as if our lives depended on knowing how to swim. So, I don't expect parents to be able to teach my scouts 1st class skills. I have no idea why anyone would.

Ditto @SSScout. When my HS band switched to a short sleeve summer uniform, all I noticed was that there were fewer pockets with stashes of change. I had to actually think about bringing $$ for the concession. That said, I don't own uniform pants. I wear standard issue canvas shorts ... even to a snowy Scout Sunday. (Someone has to remind everyone that summer camp is fast approaching.)

Coleman produced a really nice 6-man that we relied on for years. It even had a doggie door - a.k.a., a toy cache so the kids could get their specials without tracking through the tent.

I find bamboo to be harder to carve.

I've been using the same aluminum canteen for 45 years, just sayin'. The only downside is I haven't resided at the address that I engraved on it for some 30 years. If I lose the thing, I might have to take a drive there, introduce myself, and have them keep a lookout and find it a good home. The clear bottle for drink mix is a good idea too.

@5thGenTexan. personality questions aside, these questions are constant in scouting. I've always been asking myself, "What am I best at?" Or, more importantly, "What do I enjoy doing so much that a few flawed personalities won't dissuade me?" So, for me, I would have loved to do nothing more than help rally venturing in my district and council. But, I realized that, with our troop merger, we had SMs and boys who needed a good bit of care to move them from Committtee-managed to PLC-managed. Neither the district/council nor our troop were completely devoid of abrasive personalities. But at the troop level, there was no doubt that my SM and I and our troop's other ASMs knew how to mentor boys. Parents could disagree with us for a litany of reasons (e.g., the SM for the past few years never wore a uniform), but they couldn't disagree with smiles on the boy's faces. So, I'm on the sidelines of my council venturing committee. The net effect was that I got assigned to a World Scout Jamboree troop -- as opposed to a crew. Oh well! I still get 36 youth to work with, and they'll let me wear my green suit when it suits me. Back home, this month a first-year can now tie a taut-line hitch. Paycheck! Sounds like your after the same thing. Let someone who doesn't want to deal with a den be a CM.

Just a general point: I go with what the scout records in his log, regardless of if it is in troopmaster. This does mean that a scout may have an event as one of his ten that his buddy who also participated does not. If a scout asks for a calendar of events, that's fine, otherwise adults should not be auto-filling requirements. I find that mindfulness is an important tool for the scout to have.

The trained patch is intended to acknowledge that the scout/scouter is trained for his/her position (e.g. IOLS for SM/ASMs, ILST for PL/SPL, ILSC for crew officers), a few years ago NYLT was given it's own strip to acknowledge that a youth is trained to deliver the scouting program to his/her unit. It's actually kind of wimpy compared to the old JLT patch. Training is not a rank, either you have it, or you don't. Change position, remove your trained strip until you complete training for your new position. http://www.scoutinsignia.com/trained.htm NAYLE is not the highest, just a highly unique level. A youth can also participate in Kodiak, Powderhorn, WFA, and LNT. (https://www.scouting.org/programs/venturing/training/advanced-youth-training/). The norm with advanced leadership training is to not wear it on one's sleeve. For those recognitions, we have the right pocket, the backs of MB sashes, and brag vests -- or we have special neckerchiefs, beads and woggles.

I don't think any of us here designed the program, so you won't find a satisfying reason here. I suspect someone asked a focus group of youth what they'd like in terms of insignia, and they thought the temporary patch was good enough. If they had a NAYLE shoulder patch, then they'd have to swap it in. It's such a hassle tearing off those little patches just to put on new ones. This isn't GS/USA. You're not supposed to plaster yourself in patches for every scouting experience that you have. Pick your favorite for the field uniform, save the rest for a brag vest. I actually had a venturer told me that's why she liked the program.

Around here, it's split even. Ours was general interest. If you like three-ring circuses, it's kinda fun. However, when a group can do anything, they have to spend a lot more time deciding what to do. That can be stressful for youth. If you know that you're about one thing, year-in and year-out, there will be a set number of events and sub-goals that dictate the schedule. Things go smoother, but some youth might feel that they are stuck in a rut.