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No age limitations. Son #1 and his buddy went on a backpacking trip with me and his buddy's dad the autumn before they crossed over. In the troop, we simply assign the seasoned scouts a longer route than the younger scouts, and rendezvous in the evening.

I'd agree with everything @Ranman328 and @mrkstvns said if my scouts who broke bad weren't also so neatly uniform. My stance is more nuanced, like @Eagledad's. And, as @TAHAWK notes, BSA's absurd slavery to fashion has hurt, rather than helped, neat uniforms. That said, if one SM lean into uniforming and another is less demanding, I'm fine with both of them. It's a big country. One wonders, however, if GS/USA's coaching parents and girls in opposing their school dress code could also be used to encourage them in opposing their SM's stance on uniforming.

If I had a dollar for every GS who visited our crew complaining about our troop but not making any change .... Not trying to be cynical, I just hope you are able to help these girls develop a program that suits them. Real commitment is real commitment, no matter how you slice it.

The solution? 1) Workbook instruction in plain-text ascii document. 2) Permit scouts to submit their project plan and report in-line with that text, in narrative form as an ascii document, or on their own paper - typed or handwritten, if desired. Media should be irrelevant. If the average scouter can read it, and it's a good plan, it's a good project. Period.

We don't have class B. (We don't even have troop/patrol-specific activity shirts ) At camp around here (Western PA) scouts mostly wear neutral colors. I've found that wildlife don't care what color you're wearing until someone starts shooting at them. There is a tremendous amount of color around here ... flowers, fungi, fruit, sunlight reflected off of brooks and pools, male birds and mammals, rainbows ...

Great spot. A little crowded, but very pleasant. The only thing you need to explain to your boys is that GotG got it's name because one of the first USGS surveyors who saw it said, "This would be a great place for a beer garden!" Make sure your scouts are very careful with litter there. Lots of folks are watching and they are quick to judge. I'm not saying boys shouldn't be attentive everywhere, but this is a really important treasure to the folks in the community, so anything they do to respect that gets attention. A tour of Pikes Peak is a good way to get acclimated to the altitude. Getting tickets on the cog railroad is the best way to avoid the time-consuming drive to and from the top. When I went their with family, we had to wait bumper-to-bumper coming down because of road construction (which is pretty frequent, along with elk crossing, etc ...). Not a big deal if your schedule is open, but we were planning to met-up with friends arriving on a later flight.

No clue. But in the '80's I had a standard-issue poly-cotton red jacket with the same emblem on the left side. Meanwhile, I started seeing guys coming from Philmont with a similar jacket and the Philmont bull on the back.

Older scouts are hankering to fulfill the pinnacle scouting experience of hiking and camping independently with their mates. This internal imperative means: Some of them need to meet with their buddies absent adults. Some of them need you to throw them the keys to the car, the keys to Gramp's cabin, the map to a sweet fishing spot. Some of them need a trusted adult to review a plan for an excursion, and if it's a good one, excecute it on their own. Some of them need to sit with their elders on committee meetings. Once of age for war, some need to be counted as adults for the safety of our youth. Some need a trade that feeds their family. Some need to talk one-on-one with a trusted counselor. Anybody who provides these will attract and retain older youth. Don't provide them, and the majority of older youth wil find them without you.

I just realized that the Western Pennsylvania Orienteering Club is hosting an event at Heritage Scout Reservation on Sunday. Details at http://wpoc.org/heritageflyer.htm I went to a similar event last fall. Acquired the best camp map I ever saw.

With youth, I only bring this up if they ask. Their handbook sufficiently guides them in most things about insignia. Most questions come up they become involved with different units and wind up doing things beyond the local level. My scouts are currently a little anxious about this because the SPL wants to do uniform inspection soon. I try to make it clear that it's up to the judges to be fair, so any non-regular patch placement might cost them a point. But, before ripping patches, they need to look at their opposing patrols and bet on their ability to sharpen up their uniform by other means (e.g., making sure their scouts all have regulation pants, belt, etc ... and their patrol patch). If your patrol hasn't raided the closet to get those mutliple-point items on every scout, that should be your priority.

I had mentioned in another thread that hats are for pins. It sounds like your scout could use a "brag vest". Incorporating We're all proud of our heritage. But, we all need to find ways to share it that don't distract from tasks at hand. @TAHAWK is correct that BSA has made a hash of Uniforming. So, we have to decide, for our scouts, what makes the method a rewarding experience for them, and what makes it worse. Maybe this is an opportunity for your scout to research how Swedish Norwegian scouts wear their uniform.

I'm still wearing the ASM patch that I was given in '82. A scout is thrifty! Some of us have judged BSA's design changes to a lot of effort to sell fashion with little to show for it in terms of membership. It seems that once Uniforming explicitly became a method of scouting, there was a new uniform design being rolled out every few years.

Got a hat? Collect your pins there.

We see the same thing with boys. Some do better with the whole patrol in one tent. Some do better at singles. If at all possible, allow your patrol try a different configuration every month. You'll find every class of scouts has a different preference, and it's only through trial and error do they settle on their preferences. While we're talking about safety, however, single-person tents aren't without risks. A scout who doesn't know how to get out of his/her tent in an emergency sometimes needs a buddy to control the panic.

I missed this earlier. I had to deal with this misconception when I started being a crew advisor. These older girls -- especially A and B from your post -- aren't entitled to anything from you but a welcoming, oddly care-free, environment. There is no transaction to be made regarding advancement tips or tricks. When I realized this with my venturing crew, I began to see real personal growth from, and honest-to-goodness friendships with, my venturing females. Turned out it was the same thing that older boys were looking for. As far as advancement: The only thing you owe these young women is potentially 7 scoutmaster conferences, and your committee owes them 6 boards of review. I suspect your real challenge will be keeping your committee agile enough to have these promptly once requirements for a rank are met. They owe you all to live up to the oath and law, be first class scouts (concept, not patch). If they are all that, I bet you and your committee will have four chances by end of summer to review plans and suggest alterations. At those boards of reviews, it will be really important to ask what MBs the scout is interested in. That's where your CC will find out he/she needs to recruit other adults who could qualify to be counselors. That's the other thing you owe them. The contact info for caring adults. I agree about the comments about camping frequency, but I suspect Miss A and Miss B have sufficient connections to BSA camping opportunities outside their troop. Miss C would really benefit from a patrol that takes initiative and schedules a couple of overnights. A and B could help, but the YP regs might get in the way of their doing so.

@Scoutero0 welcome to the forums! I hope that you weren't discouraged about those check-boxes in scholarship applications. Just because an award isn't on the list doesn't mean it's not esteemed as highly. Eagle ranks are awarded in the thousands per month, and there has been an century-long campaign promoting it. That's why it gets its own box. Chances are, the old folks who are fronting the money for the scholarship were or knew of an Eagle scout. I talk to ex-military around town, and they tell me about how they watched the Eagle scouts in basic training excel. For some of these guys and gals they'd have only known First Class girl scouts. But, if a girl writes in her awards and can articulate the impact on her, she'll be on as good or better standing as any boy who checks a box. I was very proud of my venturers who earned a Gold Award. Some of them really got us all mobilized to do some neat bits of good in the world. If they had a chance to join a BSA troop, earn 1st Class, then transfer to my crew and earn Eagle, I don't know as I would have encouraged them to do so if they were active in a good GS/USA troop. My daughter was not at all pleased with the GS/USA troop that she could join, and she was not allowed to join the troop that she liked. She enjoyed our crew and our council's venturing officer's association. I encouraged her to try for the venturing awards, but her mind was on starting college early instead.

I am certain we lose a lot of high-speed low-drag parents and scouters at this section simply because it does not it does not give an explicit nod to the other methods of scouting. Competition between patrols are how scouting skills are honed. The outdoors is where scouting skills apply. Leadership development should revolve around scheduling time for patrols to "show off" their skills. To @Treflienne's question ... I don't teach scouts so much as put them in positions where they need to demonstrate what they should already know. That's because I think scouting is not a learning environment so much as it is an application environment. A lot of our sign-offs go something like this: Scout: "Sir, at the last campout I did requirement x as a part of activity y." Adult: "Did your PL/SPL see you do it?" Scout: "Yes, sir!" Adult: "Then why are you talking to me? Your PL has a pen." Scout goes to PL, who either sign off or talk to the SPL or an ASM about what he saw and if that was enough to qualify for passing the requirement. In other words. Neither I, nor the SM, SPL, PL or TG sit at the end of a finish line checking if a scout completed an orienteering course. A scout tells me what he tried to do, how well he accomplished it, and if he could do better. Now, some things, like aquatics safety are more like an oral exam. But that has nothing to do with rank advancement. A scout just telling me that he set up a safe-swim area is not good enough. That has to do with me feeling confident that the scout will be observant at any activity on the water ... and that he'll be able to spot any missing safety minimum and address it. Still, it's far easier for a scout to talk about a safe swim defense after he has been to an aquatics area.

Oh. If your boys are trying a club course, they usually have events at multiple levels. The 1st Class requirement is roughly the level of a standard white course. Challenge your scouts who've proven to be experienced navigators to move up to yellow, orange, then red/brown courses, in that order. I've seen some scouts make a full afternoon at a club event by completing a couple of courses at various levels. I don't move quickly, and I have Sunday obligations that often get in the way of me getting to the starting time right when it opens. It took me until my late 40s to free up the time to join a club and complete a red course. (It took a few times failing to complete the course as well.)

Disk-golf courses are a genius idea! In general: Do limit the physical obstacles until the scouts are comfortable working their compass. review 2nd class requirement 3.a. before every orienteering challenge. teach scouts to talk with one another and check each other's measurements. go over any controls that the scouts mess keep score. Don't think that one orienteering challenge is enough let scouts get discouraged if they can't finish a course the first day they try one. pass scouts if they can't find at least 80% of markers.

Rock climbers look for those "little rock outcroppings" (usually any bright feature more than two pixels) for potentially new runs to rappel from. Always field test the course first. Preferably have someone who didn't set it up run it. A 10 foot cliff might not show up on a map with 20 foot contours, and even if it does, your boys might not notice. You might need to mark an obstacle like that on the map. Standard markings for control descriptions may be found here: https://orienteering.sport/iof/resources/control-descriptions/

I'll be interested to read Dr. Warren's peer-reviewed article. It will be some time before that's published, and I hope it's not delayed by court proceedings.

Then don't send your scouts there. Threaten to resign your position if anybody on the committee promotes that MBU. Put it in writing. Copy your district commissioners and executives, your scout executives, and the course director. If you have a scout who does not seem to have grasped the MB material that he should have, follow the procedure listed in the Guide to Advancement 7.0.4.7. The problem isn't bogus MBUs. The problem is not enough scouters pushing back against them.

Even more peculiar about Fingerprinting ... As a scout, our troop did a town hike and stopped at the state police barracks. Among other things, we got finger-printed. The officer who taught us how to do that lived four doors down from me. I played with his kids. I never earned the badge.

Absolutely you and a co-leader may set up a course at any sizeable local park. Walk your park, find some nice spots to hang a flag about a square foot large (those cheap litter pick-up vests are perfect) visible from 100 feet from at least three directions. Mark them on your GPS. Plot them on a map. Set up the course in the morning, take it down in the afternoon. An easy free solution to mapping is caltopo.com. I use it regularly. You could literally map it. Use it to set up your course. Save it as a .pdf. Send it to your boys and tell them "Go!" My scouts hate me. But you may also ... Call those clubs and see if they have someone who would volunteer to set up a course for your troop. (In exchange for your best dutch-oven meal, of course.) Or (better) schedule one of their events at a location near you. Contact the ranger at your favorite scout camp. They often have several courses built into the camp. Contact your nearest state park. An orienteering club might built one or more permanent courses there. If not, the ranger might know where the nearest one is. Ask at your district roundtable if anyone has a scout working on Orienteering MB who would like to set up a course for your troop.

Welcome to the forums! To the first question: it depends. To the second question: it depends. No MBU is identical to another. If the objective of self-reliance is undermined, you are correct. If the event helps scouts be more self-reliant you are on base. The justification for an MBU is simple: it introduces a scout to someone deemed most qualified to counsel that badge. Take, for example, motorboating. You might have a dad in your troop who takes his boat out once a month, or you might have a retired grandparent who built or tested racing hulls, or you might have the captain of the coast guard. When I attended our district's MB Pow-Wow as a scout, I got to meet the counselor of a badge I was interested in, do cool stuff, got his contact info, then follow-up with him at a later date to complete the badge. Partial completions on the day of the event were the norm. There are some things that are done much better in groups. For example an officer of the court might want to demonstrate a jury trial. Well, he/she could talk to the scouts and show video, or he/she can get twelve scouts to sit in the juror's box, listen to arguments, elect a foreman and deliberate. It's all in the details. And if your MBU is not attending to the details, then send your scouts elsewhere.