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Our troop coordinates the district in placing flags at a large cemetery. Looks like we'll be working around some storms tonight.

There's nothing like burning through the calories in a morning to solve picky eaters. But the nice thing about Philmont is exchanges. There are locations to drop off what you don't like and pick up something some other crew doesn't like. Plus, it's likely to make trades mid trail. Evidently my venturers despised green beans, but they kept crossing paths with a contingent from Tennessee who couldn't live without them. Those exchanges solved a lot of problems. P.S. - I've never been to this HA base myself, I merely conditioned with my crew for everyone's mutual benefit. My venturers and leaders who did go were pretty thorough with the after-action review. In fact they were half the reason I had a crew. Some went while scouts and came back wanting to return so they could "do it right."

Tall buildings? Stadiums? We have one on Pitt's campus that is very popular for stair racing ... even though we have no shortage of hills. Our South Side neighborhood holds a step treck. It's on a bus route. My brother in Ohio found the one property with a decent ravine and made friends with the farmer. He does multiple reps up and down. Then helps chop wood or gleans peaches. (Note to self: make room in the freezer next month.) Creative preparation is part of the scouting experience.

Don't knock neighborhood hikes! Especially if they include preparing a meal in a local park. It really is # of hikes over length of hikes. When the blisters came in my crew, it was at mile 1. I'm not saying limit town hikes to just a mile. But most of the challenge is getting everyone past that first mile. When a contingent can do that, then the stream crossing skills and other things can proceed with all present. I suspect that your crew will be the least of your ranger's worries.

Never say never. BSA HA bases have the meals packed in advance. Very little forethought required. Seabase: no campfires. Philmont: depends on the weather. World Jamboree's tents are going to be in a crate in a field waiting for us. If a boy chooses his HA's so that meals are ready-packed, his tent is folded, and half his gear is provided, I would feel that he's missing the letter and spirit of the requirements. In a sense the weekend "PLOP" camp-outs around his area may require a whole different set of skills and provide opportunities big-ticket scouting could never offer. It's a funny badge that way. It's not about the numbers, yet it is about the numbers. I would never feel sorry for the 20+ HA guy. He's had lots of fun. He just doesn't earn the merit badge. I've never understood why this is a problem.

Short answer: BSA doesn't offer much in guidelines for a reason: it's a big country. Everything you mentioned is an activity. Certainly helping their fellow scouts do Eagle projects is an activity. Studying in school is not an activity. Going to church is not an activity. But ... Maybe a patrol decides to take a special class at school, or speak at an assembly about scouting, or the troop visits a church and participates in the service in uniform. They may throw on their uniforms and pay respects at the funeral of a departed scouter. Those would be troop/patrol activities. Now, you could split hairs. If the course is over a few weeks (e.g. swimming lessons every Wednesday) does that count as one or multiple activities? My suggestion: ask the scouts what they think. Whatever you do, don't take your cues from strangers on the internet.

@willray, I would not be so dismissive of Bryan's Blog, it is very much intended to be an official mouthpiece of the BSA, and Michael LoVecchio is no slouch. On the flip side, I agree that not everything in those blogs is signed off by every executive and council president. It's goal is to report from trusted sources. But, trusted sources don't know your scouts. And if you're the SM you're tracking so many things, you might be biased one way or the other towards a particular scouts unique experience. But, that's what MB counselors are for. They put some time in with the boys, read the requirements together, asks what they think about a particular log. (I'm a firm believer that a boy should present his own recollection of his camping career, and not depend on a troop database.) After dealing with lots of scouts, a counselor can be objective about these things and invest more time in an enriching discussion. For example, go down the list and ask the scout what he learned at each activity, what was the most challenging, which one he wouldn't ever do again, etc ... And I think that's the point of the requirement ... to have a number of diverse experiences of preparing, implementing, stowing gear, repeat so that the scout has something to draw on.

A patrol is a means to efficiently rove the land, spy it out, and report what's observed. The concept is as old as the book of Exodus, at least. Moses was quite explicit as to the guiding reason for the Israilite's patrol of 12, of which Joshua and Caleb were distinguished members. The guiding reason for youth patrols is to fulfill the pinnacle scouting experience of hiking and camping independently with your mates. The point of multiple patrols is to enhance skill and enjoy the fellowship of reporting to one another and your SM, adult leaders and parents.

Smoke and mirrors! Untangling this: The registration fee increase is news to me. But it looks like per continuing scouts: $33 registration $24 held by council then billed to national. $125 council dues (who are we trying to fool here?) $1-$8 rechatering fee depending on the size of the unit ($40 divided by # of scouts). $2 unit accident insurance. (I'm just projecting costs here.) So that's $185 per renewing scout per year. Half of summer camp. Perhaps scouts should quit in December and join in January to dodge the fee.

Just had this discussion with some scouts in my Jambo troop. One had experienced such nit-picking at NAOC. I gave him a suggested a frank, but respectful, reply. (If any you Uniform Police hear something that sounds like it came from a stranger on the internet, drop me a line. I'll let you know if it was my suggestion.) I think BSA botched it by declaring nonstandard the use of belts sash racks for convenient storage and display of extra regalia. If it had allowed it, then boys would be more likely to keep both sashes at the ready, only wearing one or the other over the shoulder as needed. P.S. - the belt sash rack this would also resolve the crowded MB problem. If a scout wanted to display them all, there would be a specific way to wear the extra sash.

Rules of order just serve as a means to make space for everyone to listen to everyone else. Experience with them is good thing. I've had friend from church whose first exposure was as an adult at a congregational meeting. Being a programmer/engineer he was amazed at the recursive logic built into human interactions. I pointed out that most folks want computers to imitate our nobler traits. That said, I've seen masters of those rules use them to justify any disdain they had for leadership and authority. So, while it might be good to encourage scouts to use rules of order at a PLC, you want them to use different listening skills within their patrol. And, you want to discourage them from being indignant if rules of order aren't used properly at other meetings (e.g., O/A Chapters or Venturing Officers Associations).

Rules of order are next-level. Your PLC should be proud for even trying to use them. I wouldn't ask for a recount based on technically. If some PL's felt left out, they could move for a vote of no confidence in the SPL. But, it is probably better to just wait until the next election cycle and see if candidates bring up these changes as justification for election/reelection.

Certainly when I was a scout, the SMs and ASMs were nowhere to be found on my BoRs. My dad was on the committee, and they would be held after the troop meetings. The SM would go upstairs to give his report, and any boys waited downstairs, he would come back down and then the boys "went up" for their BoRs, one at a time.

I would not put into by-laws anything about advancement except that you all will comply with BSA's Guide to Advancement and maximize the opportunities for youth leaders to sign off on requirements under the direction of the Scoutmaster. You could add that any counselor failing to teach the entire content of an MB's requirements and review each scouts completion of those requirements on an individual basis will be black-listed from the troop and never again recommended to counsel any other scouts in the troop, district, or counsel. Don't worry about the 'semblance of evil when what matters is evil personified.

Son #2 asked me to be his Eagle Project advisor. Aside from that, I didn't sign-off with Sons and Daughter because -- although I knew that I was best at many of the requirements -- I fondly go through my old book from time to time, and cherish those PL signatures. I wanted them to have that same sense of a panoply of leaders that I had as a scout. So, my thinking: If someone else is the better expert, send your son to him. If he is almost as good, but you think you think that person deserves a significant role in your son's life, send your son to him. If your son knows your the best at that requirement, and asks you to help him with it, dive in. As other's said, you wont regret it.

A friend's daughter created her LP as a "do something club" that was entirely service oriented. It lasted until her peers started worrying about college, and she got a job as a barista to save up for books, etc ... On one slow day at the shop after she had served my iced-coffee, we caught up on her plans for the future, and her reflections on high school. She said, "I really wish we had done more exciting stuff, like backpacking." Before my drink started to boil in my hand, she said that she knew that I was always "there" for her. I guess what LPs can gain from a troop is inspiration to commit to a panoply of adventure.

Hi @Kudu, thanks for coming back to stir the pot! I've meet a few such lone patrols (LP). Thanks to a relative's cabin or farm and a generally free-and-open city and state park system, Western PA is rife with youth going hiking and camping independently with their mates. The recently instituted requirements for, and legalistic definitions of, adult supervision, make BSA a very hard sell for an LP. But, absent those here's my observation: The Pro's of of a (LP) joining a troop: Metrics: the LP may now have an objective rating of their performance through competition and sharing of reports. Ethics: the LP may now acquire a common set of ideals with which to challenge themselves and other patrols. Association: the LP may now access their community's most dedicated adults and get constructive feedback on any plans and designs. Materials: the LP now has access to more/better materials through bulk purchases and shared maintenance. Fellowship: members of LP can feel isolated. It may turn out that their LP stinks -- or he/she stinks in the opinion of that patrol. In a troop, the observant LP member can request transfer to another patrol. The Con's: Abdication of Real leadership. In an LP, if you don't serve your mates well, they'll invest their time elsewhere -- there's an immediate cost to failing to lead. Joining a troop provides the temptation to pass on real leadership. The former LP may bank on the troop to take up slack, and repeatedly drawing on those reserves will leave the LP with nothing of distinction. Clumsiness. Free-range patrols drive their parents nuts because they make plans quickly as soon as they see openings in schedules. Troops demand that patrols stop and think about their next move. The other patrols might have expectations. At the very least the LP will have to seriously consider meeting those expectations. More often, that is not a question of "if", but "how." Infrastructure burden. All LP members can quickly agree to use one media platform. E.g., they may meet at a particular park bench every morning. To offset clumsiness, a troop needs to maintain a more permanent presence, and the LP must now contribute to that maintenance by providing QMs, TGs, JASMs, Scribes, Librarians, Buglers, etc ...

Scout #1. Tell her to not think of it as "telling" so much as asking firmly. In fact here's an approach that I found worked for some scouts: For scout stuff, get into the habit of addressing each member of your patrol formally, with titles. E.g. Mister/Miss Surname. Each "command" begins with "Please" and ends with "Thank You". E.g., "Please get the fire started while Miss is getting our supplies. Thank you." In other words, she needs a culturally appropriate language that frees her from worrying about things like pushing her friends around. Make clear that you expect to see her demonstrate progress immediately, and emphasis your confidence that he can succeed if he tries. Scout #2. You must arrange a brief conference with him. Tell him that you observed particularly unhealthy behavior. A scout is helpful. Ask him if he wants to be a scout? Ask if he treats his parents this way. (I bet on some levels, he does.) Chances are he'll Tell him that if he wants to continue to be a scout, he'll to be helpful to his patrol ... both the one assigned by the troop, and the one assigned by the Almighty (i.e., his family). Make clear that you expect to see him demonstrate progress immediately, and emphasis your confidence that he can succeed if he tries. We'll worry about what happens to those scouts if they don't improve in short order.

On my small-troop experience, whoever did the work held the position, patches were superfluous. But how this wound up was a couple of older scouts would stay after and we asked them how things are going and what we should do next. IMHO, focus your attention on the PL+APL if they are showing up, and if other scouts are joining them and it's making everyone productive, keep it going. In the process you will identify who might be the better QM vs Scribe vs Librarian, etc ... There is no point in formally convening a PLC until the troop has three patrols who need to coordinate. Then, PL/APL from each patrol and the SPL/ASPL are your PLC -- effectively or "leadership patrol." Again, I don't go checking patches to see who is sitting there. If a scout's doing work, he has a say. In this context, how the weekly after-meeting goes is that some weeks it's obvious that what the plan for the next week will be so SPL says, "See you next week." Other weeks we have to hash out a number of details or follow-up on a bunch of activities, so the meeting is about a half hour. In that case, the SPL will let the leaders know that he'll need more of their time that week.

We were talking about a particular scout wearing a life patch. And speculating weather time scouting in Canada prior to enrolling in Scouts BSA would be a pretext for doing so. The answer: not until May 2020. Perhaps a smidge earlier if one thinks councils should honor fitness logs done overseas. However all of those logs would have been contingent on being Scouts BSA eligible, which no female scout was. On this the G2A and currently announced polices are unambiguous. The grey area would only exist for female scouts overseas beginning this February. And if a female scout dropped in my crew last week, and based on discussions with her SM, she was first class in concept -- if not the patch, I would lean on my district advancement chair very heavily to accord her that rank so she could start advancement to Star forthwith. But, the last line of GTA 5.0.4.0 is unambiguous that she would have to start her participation count, not on Feb 1, but as of last week. Therefore, I would have to find her a troop and risk loosing her to that set of girls because, if she is indeed a first class scout, the opportunity to mentor these newbies might just be too good to let pass. Bottom line: not officially active stateside = not advancing.

Someone replying to Bryan's blog did me the favor of quoting that section in full, and the last paragraph says: Which means the bottom line of GTA 5.0.4.0, provides a is multi-pronged denial of any form of high speed low drag. It explicitly says for any scout coming from overseas (be she a citizen of the US or Canada or elsewhere), the following requirements must be be completed in a BSA unit: Active participation: That includes the T2FC activity and outdoor ethics requirements which stipulate since joining Scouts BSA, which for young women was not possible until Feb 1. Position of responsibility: for Eagle, that's at least 16 months in office after earning 1st class. Unit Leader Conference: all six must be done after completing the previous rank while working on the next. Scout Spirit: Why scout spirit on foreign soil doesn't count is a mystery to me. My best guess is that such enthusiasm should be recognized by an award from that country. And to give two awards for the same activity seems like double-dipping to some. Service project: Again the closest I can think is that service projects under the auspices of other WOSM organizations should be recognized by that organization and not BSA. In other words, even if you've acquired the skills overseas, a scout must do the time in a BSA unit to receive a BSA award.

There's three hard facts that adults need to accept in transitions like this. "My patch, my rules." Is the level of respect that everyone should accord the one person who steps up to take point. This actually applies to coaches as well. "By the book." Is often what SM's throw back. I focus on the BS Handbook. I also pick campsites that are a couple of miles in from the parking area. That tends to thin the herd of helicopters. "I'll believe it when I see it." is the attitude most adults who are willing to help your program actually have. When they see one or two little successes they begin to buy in. Sometimes to the point where they actually think it was their idea. So pick your battles. If I were you, on the adult side I would invest in talking things through with your CC and COR at a campfire someplace, and stay as quiet as possible in committee meetings. Let the CC and COR do the talking for you. On the youth side, choose your favorite of any of the above suggestions and work it with your youth leadership. The list that I laid out? That's what I gave to our new SM, verbally. We're going forward with the first an last items. Just that little bit, and the difference is night and day. Even though there's a long way to go, there's the sense that we're getting there.

@Eagle1993, firstly congratulations! And thanks for stepping up for our youth. Start simple: Respect your SPL Make sure he has a leaders manual Let him know your expectations, they should include that he Has fun with his buddies Is a friend to younger scouts Shares plans and personal schedules with the ASPL Communicates, communicates communicates Respect his time: As you learn more about this scout, you can add or adjust expectations. Get in the habit of doing this every election cycle. At your troop's opening, expect scouts to line up by patrols. SPL takes roll call, by patrol. Each PL reports "All present", or "All or accounted for," or "# present or acounted for, # absent" Then, the SPL asks each PL to account for each absent but accounted for member. The PL with the least unaccounted absences gets the pick of next week's duties. Some duties that each patrol may request to be assigned for each meeting: Pre-opening activity/game Color-guard Clean-Up Song/Skit Program There may be others. For example with that large of a troop, should scouts be directing parking? Assemble PLC regularly We actually opted for 10-15 minutes after the troop meeting closes. Train the SPL to ask "What went well? Not so well? What should we do differently?" Ask if they need any help from the adults? Stay positive. If a patrol stands out for doing something we, thank that PL. Don't worry about higher level stuff like patrol corners, uniforms, positions of responsibility, camp set-up, patrol outings, etc ... until you hear from adults and see the youth perform. I'm suggesting that you start at meetings because that's where everyone is watching every week. How meetings run sets the tone for how every camp and activity will run, even if you haven't told anyone how you expect every camp and activity to run.

This is national's fix : no female Eagle until October 31st of next year: Miss Ireland could still be the 1st female Eagle, all that is needed is for all other females in Scouts BSA to withhold submitting their application until November 1, 2020.