shortridge

That's unfortunate. The flyer makes it sound like an alumni event - "re-connect with other adult Eagles," burn a string, etc. The Eagle "class" is only mentioned once. It also has one of the most ham-handed, unprofessional marketing lines I've ever read: Remember the fun you used to have as a Scout? Building towers and monkey bridges, playing in the dirt, getting the younger Scouts to cook your dinner?? ; ) "Playing in the dirt" sounds like what six-year-olds do. And I'm glad to know that teaching younger kids can be boiled down to getting them to cook me dinner. That was clearly written by either someone who was never a Scout, or by someone who doesn't hold a very high opinion of boys.

"There are so few gays that make it to age 13, your suicide point lacks any weight to even suggest taking a risk of accepting gays." It sounds like you're making two points here, but I'd like to make sure I understand them before I respond. >> First: "There are so few gays that make it to age 13." Are you saying that most gay people either change their orientation or kill themselves by age 13? >> Second: "... to even suggest taking a risk of accepting gays." What risk are you talking about? A real risk to Scouts? Or a perceived potential risk to the organization's membership numbers?

>> Drink plain, ordinary water over Gatorade or Powerade any day of the week. Require each Scout to carry a canteen or water bottle everywhere. They should also be hydrating at each program area - make sure this is happening in your walk-arounds. When I worked on staff, my classes didn't start until everyone had guzzled. "Drink until U P clear" gets it in their heads. >> Pre-requisites? Though leaders should note items specific to that camp, it's the Scout's responsibility to look at the requirements and figure out what can probably be done at camp or not. It's also the Scout's responsibility to make sure he can do the badge and has the basic skills to start before signing up. >> If the camp doesn't supply one, bring a bulletin board that can be hung from a tarp, tree or pioneering structure, with plastic draped over to protect from the elements. Bring lots of thumbtacks and stick patrol rosters, duty rosters, emergency information, schedules, event notices, camp map, etc., all up there for everyone to see. >> Duct tape. 'Nuff said.

Some folks have brought up the example of Scouts Canada multiple times as proof that opening up the doors of the BSA will lead to a mass exodus of people storming out. Can anyone point me to reports, studies, analyses, statistics, etc., that show this from the Canadian example?

70 degrees?? Stop bragging, please ...

Some COs would drop the program, to be sure. And some conservative parents would immediately start the American Heritage Boys. But there's a whole group of new GenX and GenY parents out there who have avoided Scouting precisely because it discriminates. They would join in droves if the conservatives lost this battle in the culture wars. A former college classmate has a young son who'd love Cubs. But one of her best friends, a woman whom her son calls aunt, is a lesbian. His mother is on the board of the local GLBT youth organization. They're not among that two percent, but there's no way in heck they'd join Scouting at present. I know lots of folks like that. Their daughters are in GSUSA, but their sons sure aren't in BSA. The bottom line is that there's no way to quantify the pluses and minuses on either side of the argument. Any guesses we make are just that, guesses. A hundred years from now, or even 50 years from now, our kids and grandkids are going to look back at all the fighting over gay marriage, Don't Ask-Don't Tell, and BSA membership, and ask what the heck the big deal was.

Seattle, The Times reported six years ago that the swims to which you refer aren't organized by the city. Instead, groups rent the pool and pay a fee. So the Boy Scouts could do the same thing, rent the pool for an evening and ban girls, if it liked. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002389078_muslimswim.html ("Access to these pools is not free; the groups, like all others that use these facilities, pay a rental fee.")

Or use the patrol name or image, with numbers for each tent within that subset.

Districts have offices? Wow, that's nice.

Sharpie the tent bag, not the tent itself.

If the goal is complete integration, try Campfire USA. If the CO really wants to use the different programs as they were intended to be used, then use Cubs, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.

If you order them through a company, chances are the cost will be prohibitive unless you have several hundred Scouts in your troop. You might consider hooking up with a local metalworker to produce smaller amounts.

The SM should sit down with the parents for a real no-bull heart-to-heart. If they're throwing up their hands, unable to deal with their son's problems, then they need professional help to do so. Scouting is not equipped to deal with chronic drug use. In fact, both parents should perhaps consider stepping back from their Scouting positions to focus 100 percent on their son. He needs them more than the troop needs them. The three of you then sit down with the Scout for a similar no-bull Scoutmaster's conference. Explain to him this is in confidence. Then tell him he has one final chance to shape up or ship out - no sanctimony, no preaching, just lay it on the line. You want him in Scouting, but the drug use has got to stop. You cannot be clean in word, thought and deed, or keep oneself physically strong or morally straight, and smoke weed. If he needs help or wants to talk, you're always here for him, but he can't keep doing what he's been doing. Then let it ride. If the parents don't agree, or if another Scout tells you on the next campout that Johnny is off in the woods puffing away, he's gone.

It's just been formally announced that the SE for Del-Mar-Va has been promoted to Area 6 Director. The official word from the council follows: "As you may have heard, Del-Mar-Va Council Scout Executive, Patrick Sterrett has accepted a promotion with the Boy Scouts of America to serve the National Council as Area 6 Director where he will provide support and leadership to 10 councils including and surround Del-Mar-Va as well as the Transatlantic Council based in Livorno, Italy. Patrick served as our Scout Executive for six and a half years. During his tenure, the council has seen many great accomplishments. Some of those include significant increase in summer camp attendence, growing outreach programs, dynamic 100th anniversary celebrations throughout 2010, growing and balanced operating budgets, several substantial capital gifts and improvements at Rodney and Henson Scout Reservations, continued growth and engagement of fundraising events, and in 2010 the purchase of 85 acres of the former Kesselring Farm in Kent County, Delaware which will be the new home of the Council Service Center, Scout Shop and the summer home for Cub Scout day camp and resident camping programs."

>> Put den leaders in charge of check-in for their Cubs. Making 50+ people wait in a line to see one person creates an unecessary bottleneck. >> Early drop-off is becoming more and more common at other summer camps and day-care programs - it's flexibility for parents who have non-flexible work hours. If your camp starts at 9 a.m. and parents have to be at work at 8:30, it's a non-starter, and they'll go elsewhere. Consider for next year offering pre-care (or "pre-camp") - for a fee. Give two early-rising DLs a discount for their kids for running some gathering activities every day. >> Start the program on time - don't wait for late kids. When the tardy parents arrive, give them a map and tell them *they* have to take their kid to meet their den wherever it is. If that means walking a half-mile through the buggy woods to the archery range, they've got to do it - not you. They'll get the message.

SP - If a company wants to get involved and share its resources, that's GREAT. More power to them! But BSA started going down the corporate customization road in 2005/6 with Composite Materials. There's no real reason that should be a merit badge. The last statistics I saw showed that not a single Scout had earned it by 2007; if there was any sort of interest, anywhere, at least one Scout would have notched it on their belt by that time. The Geocaching requirement that is linked to a specific for-profit company's website also concerns me, as do these requirements here that single out the NOVA television program. Why is BSA promoting specific companies? A new program or badge should be rolled out to meet demand by Scouts - not to promote or puff up a private entity.(This message has been edited by shortridge)

From a practical, financial standpoint, I can see why BSA is excited about these corporate and industry partnerships. But from my point of view, it grates. There are plenty of grassroots volunteers with expertise in science, technology, engineering and math who'd have been more than happy to share their time and knowledge to develop this. Instead, we partner with a corporation that just happens to be run by BSA's national president. It's apparently no longer enough to just donate some of your company's largesse and get public thanks. Now corporations want to write the curriculum and design the programs, too. (See: "Materials, Composite.") I also really doubt that this SUPERNOVA award will be the equivalent of the Hornaday. Sigh.(This message has been edited by shortridge)

Best of luck! Are you a nonprofit organization serving special needs youth that has decided to use the Scouting program?

I had never heard of "worksheets" until I came on this board. As for the MBPs ... problems with Wilderness Survival aside, I think they're decent as a baseline for providing introductory information (certainly better than Wikipedia ). But qualified MBCs should NOT be using them as the only source of information. They should be sharing their own expertise and directing Scouts to other sources of information. A counselor who uses the MBP as a bible should not be counseling the badge. I sympathize with Tampa Turtle. I can't count how many Scouts signed up for MB classes I taught at summer camp who hadn't even read the relevant sections in the BSH (knots & lashings, cooking, etc.), let alone gotten a copy of the MBP. And forget actually practicing the stuff they learned after lunch or in the evenings! It was very disheartening. They (and their leaders) expected it all to be taught to them on a silver platter, going from Point Zero to Expert in about six hours of class time. But that's another subject.

Did these offenses just happen recently? Or was he charged with dealing drugs at age 10, 11, 12, 13? The timing may have some bearing on the issue. Also keep in mind that having a "criminal record" does not necessarily mean he was convicted. The charges could have been dropped, he could have gone into a special drug court program that involved rehab and counseling, etc. Maybe this is a Scout who has turned his life around from drugs, and is working to turn it around in other ways through Scouting?

I've never heard of such a thing. But before judgment is passed, a little more information might be helpful. >> Is this an annual event? Monthly? >> The title "Charter Night" suggests that this is something that the CO wants. Have you spoken with the COR about what its goals are for the night? >> Does it replace a regular troop meeting? >> What incentive is there for the boys to attend? If it's such a boring night, what brings them out? If it's just a once-a-year event, *and* it's something the CO wants to happen - a reflection on the past, looking forward to the future, etc. - perhaps it's not worth fighting over. Maybe someone can politely make it clear that speakers are to speak on certain topics - "The Early Days of Camp Winehaha," or "How Troop 1 Built The Town Gazebo" - and have time limits, to guard against back-in-my-day rambling. Or better yet, maybe the old committee members could meet with the troop historian to record oral history interviews, to preserve their memories for posterity. Their tales could be edited down and put into a "Troop 1 Through The Years" video at the next COH.

I think National really screwed the pooch when it put its seal on those DK and other books. It's fine to list suggested resources in our own manuals, as we've done for years. But the Fieldbook and Handbook should really cover all the basics, without confusing the issue between a half-dozen other "BSA" books that necessarily aren't matched to the way we do things. If there's a need for advanced outdoor skills books, we have enough expertise in our own organization to be able to publish our own editions without piggybacking off someone else.

What is "an uneven advancement situation"? Are you concerned some boys may be advancing faster than others of the same rank? Note that a Scout is not competing against another Scout for advancement. It's not a race. Nor is it the troop's duty to make sure that every Scout starts from the same place or that one Scout's actions are "fair" to another Scout. If Scout A is gung-ho and wants to do something and has put time and effort into it, and Scout B doesn't, that's not "uneven" - that's just the way it works. Now, with this particular situation, if multiple Scouts have signed up as den chiefs in one den, and I were the SM, I'd put the kibosh on it. They should be spread out to different dens, if the pack agrees to it.

Leading doesn't mean you have to have people reporting to you. A QM could be a leader by pointing out a shortage of supplies, coordinating Scouts to research replacement items and proposing a fundraiser and budget to pay for them. Plus, from a legalistic rank advancement point of view, the job is a position of responsibility - not leadership.

Rules for summer camp staffers on their time off should be no different than rules for any other worker. You can do whatever you want, but don't do anything stupid. Even police officers, firefighters, paramedics, ambulance drivers and ER doctors, who could be called upon in an emergency, aren't banned from having a drink when they're off-duty. The same should apply to camp staffers who get one night and one 24-hour period off a week (in my experience, from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. on a weeknight, and noon Saturday to noon Sunday). If they want to go have a beer with the guys or have a glass of wine at a romantic dinner with their significant others, that's cool. But don't get so trashed that you can't respond in an emergency. The camp director and program director should schedule nights off so that there are a sufficient number of staffers in camp to deal with emergencies. And those should be balanced, so that all the senior staff isn't off on one night leaving only the junior instructors and CITs on hand. But anyone drinking on camp property should be fired. No ifs, ands or buts.