scoutldr

BSA Lifeguard Certification Program Retiring After careful consideration and evaluation, Scouting America will transition away from the BSA Lifeguard certification program effective December 31, 2024. Moving forward, we believe that partnering with well-established certifying agencies such as the American Red Cross, YMCA, StarGuard Elite, and Ellis & Associates will still allow us to offer local councils access to top-tier lifeguard training. Individuals currently certified as BSA Lifeguards may continue to use their certification until it reaches its expiration date. Individuals who are certified as BSA Lifeguard Instructors will receive additional information on how to potentially transition to an American Red Cross Lifeguard Instructor. If you would like to learn more about this transition in person, consider registering for the upcoming 2024 National Aquatics Conference https://www.scouting.org/.../2024-national-aquatics.../ (Posted by Mike Walton on FB Page US Scouting Service Project

I just took a gander at our Council website and we have 53 Executive Board members! PLUS "advisory" members and "honorary" members. Is this the norm for a 500 level Council? I have some experience with Board Governance and was a Board member of a national professional board. Everything I know says this is far too many to be effective and unnecessary. Or, is this just a "resume entry" for large donors?

The Coast Guard and state laws refer to them as "Personal Water Craft" or PWC.

"Jet Ski" is a registered trademark of Kawasaki, not SeaDoo (a Bombardier company). Could be a cause for dismissal for a sloppy mistake.

I retired after a 40 year career in Occupational Safety and Health. The past few years of mask mandates from the "experts" have been a joke. A respirator (mask), unless it's NIOSH approved and tested, properly sized and fitted (with NO facial hair) is useless. There is NO respirator designed for children or those with very small features. They are designed to fit most working adults. The attempts at "protection" using cloth gaiters, plastic face shields, surgical masks, dust masks, etc, were not only useless, but imparted a false sense of security especially when worn with beards.. In a fire situation, the environment is considered "immediately dangerous to life and health" (IDLH) and NO negative pressure respirator is acceptable protection. While an N95 may filter out large particulate matter, it does nothing for the carcinogenic gases, vapors and lack of oxygen present around fires. My best advice for those in fire country...stay home.

Pencil whipping the requirements for Quality District.

To be clear a Commissioner's job is with the District and reports to the District Commissioner. They have NO authority in a unit for any reason. But we all knew that.

I'm with ya, Brother.

The requirement is: "Become familiar with your patrol name, emblem, flag, and yell. Explain how these items create patrol spirit." If no one knows where it is, I would discuss with my Patrol Leader and Senior Patrol Leader. Your patrol should create one if one does not exist. Good Luck and Happy Scouting!

As a retired Occupational Safety and Health professional, I think the biggest factor is not global warming, but the lack of acclimatization of people, especially the youth. People who routinely work and play outdoors develop a physiological tolerance to heat, and not much of that happens anymore. Most of us arrive at Camp having just emerged from cool environments of home, office, cars, etc. Back in the 1900s when my kids were young scouts, we had a house rule that the AC didn't get turned on in the house, until we returned from Summer Camp. Up until camp, usually the week after 4th of July, we had the windows open and worked and played outside as much as possible to get "acclimated" to the heat. I worked in a shipyard, so had to be out on the ships and shops, not soaking up the AC in the office. I remember one week when the temp topped 100 every day and the low at night was around 90, with 80-90% humidity...in coastal Virginia. We survived by maximizing pool time and eating lightly and hydrating. No AC in the dining hall, only in the trading post and Admin building. Good times.

I have read that most bites occur as a result of trying to capture, kill or relocate a snake. Just give them their space and they will be on their way.

I love Mike Rowe. This echos everything I believe about the BSA and I was that young Scout, too.

"Normalizing" is not always a good thing.

And just like McD, they are pricing themselves out of the market. Last I heard, the only qualification to join GSUSA was to just say you're a girl. Have they now dropped all pretense?

What a surprise (not). We conspiracy theorists knew this was the plan all along. Now that the objecting religious sponsors are out of the way, time to make the move.

When my financial advisor found out I was a scout leader and taking other people's kids in my car and out camping, he recommended I carry umbrella liability insurance. I have done so for 30 years now. It is very reasonable in cost. You can be perfectly innocent and not at fault, but if you get sued or accused, it can cost you everything to defend yourself. Such is today's litigious society that feels if my kid gets hurt, SOMEONE has to pay, no matter the reason.

This was the BSA version I am familiar with.

I was a Cubmaster during that period and am not familiar with this. Looks like a local Unit-specific thing, not official BSA.

We are in a high military concentration area. While the Scouts were gathering on the parking lot for our weekly meeting one summer evening, a young man stopped in, saying he was a Eagle Scout in the Navy and wanted to get back to Scouting. Seemed nice enough. I tried contacting his home Council (Caddo) SE and never got a response to verify his creds. I had given him an app and explained that he couldn't participate until the background checks were done and he had council approval. Never saw him after that. I will always wonder if we dodged a bullet, or did we miss an opportunity.

As stated above, your District is where the physical address of the CO is located. We had a situation where we got a new CO, which was physically in a different city and district, by about 100 feet. The SE made an exception for us, since the IH lived within our old district.

And which part of the Scout Oath and Law makes it OK to make up your own rules when you don't like the ones you agreed to follow when you signed your membership application?

Such is the culture we find ourselves in. "Either you agree with me, or you will be neutralized and canceled." There is no longer room for civil discourse. I attribute it to the way those younger than us have been raised...never having been told "no" and rewarded for anything they do, noteworthy or not. Temper tantrums worked growing up...why not continue into adulthood?

Just remove the BSA strip from old shirts and sew them on this one. Legal and cheap. The shirt itself is not "trademarkable" since it is simply a khaki shirt with epaulettes.

I know at least one member who is on the National Staff. IF they are smart, they would be regular lurkers here, and heed what we have to say. For some of us, our Scouting experience goes back to the early 60s.

Er muss mein Hut sein.