Beavah

Yah, I agree @jilash. I reckon this is da real issue @@Bingo is dealin' with. Their troop doesn't like the outcome, and they're disappointed with where the other troop left the lad, and they haven't seen enough of him to be able to work their own scouting magic on the boy. They're caught in da trap where what's really best for the boy, and what's the best example for the rest of the boys in their program, and what's best for Scouting may all be a grey zone on da line of what's allowable in G2A. This is the trap da National Advancement Team has created with the modern G2A. In tryin'

Yah, that's creative, eh? Are yeh really lookin' for a "rule" on this, @@Hedgehog? Good heavens, why? Scoutin' is a kids game, and this is a classic youth leader choice. I bet da use of pirate headscarfs in your troop will be more "uniform" than da use of the uniform. It will bring a sense of identity and teamwork that's exactly what we want to encourage, particularly at camp. It will be fun. It will make your troop stand out for its spirit. Your kids will talk about it for years. I'd let it be. It will be good fun for awhile, and good scouting. I reckon I'd actually joi

Yah, hmmm.... One wonders what happened to the "respect wildlife" part of Leave No Trace, eh? I don't reckon it's necessary for everyone to start shoutin' and wavin' when they happen to come across one of our ursine brethren. Just relax and give the bear some respectful space the way yeh want the bear to relax and give you some respectful space. I'm always amused by da notion of smelly ground monkeys trying to run away from a bear. Bears are fast. Faster than smelly ground-monkey children. Way faster than somewhat overweight ground-monkey adults. Beavah

Yah, @@Chagrined Chair, thanks for comin' back to da forums to post a follow up. So many people just go off and leave us wonderin' what happened. I am glad to hear that the Scoutmaster was removed and added to the Ineligible Volunteer Files, so that he will never be a registered adult leader in the BSA again. On behalf of Scouting, I'm grateful to you and the other CC for having the courage and fortitude to file complaints and see the matter through. Though it's hard, I'd try not to let it trouble you that some of the boys choose to offer nice words for the departed Scoutmaster. Hi

I reckon what @@Bingo is worried about is how the school/church will feel about their scout program if the lad doesn't follow through on the project, like he hasn't followed through on his Scoutin' life the past two years. Failed projects can be good (hard!) lessons for the boys, but they can also be really damaging to the community's view of Scouting. Yah, hmmm... I've always been of the mind that A Scout Learns means that he really learns, eh? Not that he crams for some artificial test. A boy who has really learned how to ride a bike can ride a bike years later, eh?

Hiya @@Bingo, welcome to da Forums, eh! What yeh describe is sadly not that uncommon. Generally speakin', other Scoutmasters don't "pick on" kids, especially not 16 year olds who have been in their troop for years. Odds are that they are just expressin' high expectations for the boy, and he (or his family) is resisting. In the future as a CC, I recommend that yeh drop boys who are not participating actively in your troop from the roster at recharter time. Boys can always opt to come back, but that requires a Scoutmaster conference and approval of a new application, with some expe

Yah, hmmm.... I like the not-a-distraction rule. I reckon that's about where I'm at with it. If yeh use it as a proper tool, bring the tech. If you're texting your girlfriend all night, then no. I personally never bring anything with batteries except my flashlight. Even then I reckon I replace the batteries about every year and a half or so... averagin' at least 50 nights out a year in da Dark North. GPS just annoys an old map-and-compass fellow like myself, and readin' a paper book while sittin' on a stump by da campfire is one of life's pleasures. Still, I try not to be a

Yah, some of us old and feeble remember that revision, eh? I reckon there were lots of scouters beatin' their heads against the local deciduous or conifer tree muttering "correlation does not mean causation". Most boys in Boy Scouting dropped in their first year (still true). Most boys who made First Class stay in scouting through Life/Eagle/Age 18 (less true now, I believe, but very true back then). Solution: If every boy makes First Class in the first year, we'll fix the dropout issue! Fail. As everyone who has ever led a group of lads into the field knows, boys who made FC

The American equivalent of the Duke of Edinburgh is the Congressional Award. I know a few troops that use it as part of their program. The D of E has permutations in other Commonwealth countries. Happily, most of the rest of the world is not as anal about having adults hovering over teens 24/7/365. Adult-free travel is more normative, even adult-free international travel. Beavah

Yah, hmmm.... @@F-P... Holy Smoke! An entire school curriculum book, replete with Learning Objectives and lesson plans. I reckon that's the most amazin' effort to turn scouts into school that I've ever seen. @, welcome! Congrats on takin' on the fun task of a new startup troop. From a few previous posts, I take it yeh just crossed over with you son's webelos den and the den is the core of the new troop? Let me take a step back and ask what you're hopin' to accomplish for the lads through scouting? And what kind of boys do yeh currently have (and do you expect to get

Yah, hiya @@Im5kidsmom . Welcome to da forums. The age-appropriate guidance is just guidance, eh? It's hard to help yeh out without knowin' where you are and what your kids are like. Farm kids? I reckon they've grown up around tools and can handle most of 'em. Pampered city kids? Might be dangerous with a hammer. If yeh find the adults in a troop are havin' arguments like this, I think yeh have to get 'em to stop focusing on the BSA guidebooks and arguments over wording, and focus instead on the boys. If the adults are reasonably experienced in tool use, they can tell pretty e

Yah, hmmm... Why is that sad, @@Stosh? I'm delighted when other organizations are out doin' good things with kids. Just the same way I hope they'd be delighted to see scouts out doin' great things! We can't reach all kids and neither can they, but hopefully if enough good people and good programs are out there, every boy and girl will be reached by something fun that helps 'em learn and grow, and by someone who really cares. B

Yah, sure, we need emergency contact information and relevant health history. I'm not convinced it helps EMS or ER staff that much, because their protocols are to take a history themselves, eh? Most folks comin' into an ER don't have forms stapled to their jackets, and yeh have to set treatment and intake protocols for da norm, eh? For kids, they're goin' to call family fairly early on. In what circumstances do yeh imagine the form will substantively affect treatment and outcome? Yah, sure, we've got a whole mess of us adults who are growin' old and feeble, and some young lads

Yah, hmmm.... Not all troops. I can point to some that don't seem to have any difficulty. Da necessary ingredient seems to be an active PLC and genuine responsibility and leadership for the older scouts. Often, but not always, accompanied by an older scouts "high adventure" type program of some sort. The real key seems to be real responsibility. IMO mixed-age patrols have a slight advantage here, because then the PLC becomes the home of responsible older scouts, rather than a weird mix of capable boys and newbie PLs. Your point about the "age problem" for public schools as part

Any doc or EMS provider is goin' to recognize and respond to da signs of anaphylaxis without waiting for a med form, eh? I wasn't really talkin' about da part B medical history, though. I was talkin' about the physician exam. If the parents provide us with allergies, medications, and chronic conditions on a simplified part B, what do we get from da physician that really is of any value? Not sure we really get anything of value from da adult physicals for that matter. Seems like da whole process could be reduced to a quick list of allergies, medications, and current conditions.

@@shaner, I think yeh have it right, it's a combination of things. Good communication and reasonable availability on the part of the troop Paperwork Maven, parent responsibility, and scout responsibility to pester his parents . The scout responsibility I reckon changes with the age of the scout. Best yeh can do is the best you can do to make the process as easy as yeh can for as many families as yeh can. Yah, I reckon we all have, eh? I confess a furry long-toothed critter might even have done that once, just because his AME was out of town. @@fred johnson raises a good p

Yah, hmmm.... I'm confused about what da question is again. As @@fred johnson suggests, there are at least two different questions out there. More, in fact. I guess I'm goin' to respond to this invitation: I want to discuss. in the context of Scouting, whether it's a good idea to exclude youth on the basis that they are not adherents to a particular faith. I'm goin' to flip it around and ask "A good idea for whom?" A good idea for the Chartered Partner? I have no idea. Depends on what they're tryin' to accomplish and who they're serving. If they're Catholics and th

Yah, I think a lot of unit and even district volunteers don't really understand da relationships sometimes. They think of da BSA like it's one big hierarchy, where folks in the units report to the district, and on up the chain. They don't grok da CO thing. Some of our partners (LDS, Catholics, Methodists, and other large partners) definitely do understand the relationship and use it well; other smaller partners (PTAs come to mind) really don't. I expect a CO like @@David CO 's school would be swift and sure in removin' the offending cubmaster. Where it gets weird is when yeh have Par

Yah, hmmm... I'm not sure why you're worryin' this to death, @@TAHAWK? @DavidCO has said that he's the AD and COR for Catholic school, if I'm rememberin' right. His troop is an extracurricular activity of da school. As COR he's got the authority to set da CO's rules for their Scouting program, but he's make it clear that this is comin' from above... meaning the IH and da school youth ministry team. The rule is that no school extracurricular service projects are to conflict with da confirmation service time. That applies to da scout troop, da band, the National Honor Society, e

Yah, in da words of Ronald Reagan, "there you go again!". I know I'm not at all knowledgeable about da Catholic Church. A confusin' morass as far as I'm concerned! Much easier to go by personal conscience and faith alone, eh? But even I recognize that a set of decontextualized quotes isn't the same thing as bein' knowledgeable in an area. It takes effort and study to do that, eh? The parish priest and da professional Catholic school principal and school chaplain and da folks who are trained and selected to teach in their confirmation program and their COR are goin' to be far b

Yah, hmmm... I'm not takin' anything personally, mate. I'm just givin' yeh feedback. Of course now you're speakin' for da NCCS and USCCB as well as for da BSA, eh? As their spokesman I'm sure yeh must be right. One wonders if yeh ever get time to sleep. @@David CO and some other Catholics on da list can speak to it better than me, but as far as I know Catholic confirmation programs are one year things. More to the point, I'm not aware of any Scouting programs that are designed to be evangelical in da way you describe. LDS might be closest, but not really. Churches offer Scoutin

Yah, hmmm.... I was settlin' in with my bag of popcorn but then I completely lost da plot of this particular train wreck. @@Stosh, I think what you're missin' is that (as I understand it) Catholic confirmation programs are one-year programs, eh? And by one year, what they mean is one academic year that sort of gets goin' by October and ends in da spring whenever they are able to schedule confirmation. So I expect what @@David CO is talkin' about is a restriction for 4-6 months out of a scout's 7+ years. Da age 13-18 (really 13-dead) is the range in time when yeh are eligible to sta

Yah, can't say I'm fond of da Scout Spirit shown by goin' after one member of da forums on multiple threads, eh? In answer to da general question, I think overall that explicit membership restrictions are fairly rare. What's a lot more common is a unit bein' very up front about their character (LDS, Catholic, evangelical, etc.) and folks choosin' to accept that sort of environment as being appropriate (or not) for their kids. So yah, I think most LDS wards will accept non-LDS kids (don't know how they handle payment...), but most non-LDS folks don't want their sons in da LDS Young Men

Yah, hi @@aehptown. Welcome to da forums. I'm sorry for your situation, and I'm sorry for the behavior of your ex. I hope through Scouting that we help teach boys to be better than that when they become men. I can't speak to what or who is making choices for your pack. By and large, the folks in Scouting are just other parents and volunteers, eh? They don't have experience with this sort of thing, they just want to help kids learn to start a campfire and cook a hotdog. They muddle through awkwardly and cautiously, and sometimes foolhardedly. Likely the only folks who are apt

Yah, @@Stosh, da problem is that slippery slopes go both ways, eh? There's been an awful lot of wrongdoing by people who were just obeying orders or just followin' da law. Or to borrow your analogy, there are poison jellybeans that kill people as a result of followin' da law as much as da other way. Perhaps more, because law and social norms are a force multiplier. One fellow bein' a crook does a lot less damage than a society embracin' a bad law. To my way of thinkin' da important thing for kids to understand is that Law is a human creation, eh? It suffers from human foibles and fa