TAHAWK

On 11/22/2019 at 1:08 PM, Thunderbird said:

In my council, I have been told that the Scout turns in their part of the blue cards (or a copy of the blue card, so the original blue cards don't get lost) at the same time as the Eagle Scout rank application.  The dates on the blue cards are checked against the electronic dates that are in ScoutNet.  ScoutNet syncs with Scoutbook, so merit badges that are approved in Scoutbook should be visible to the council in ScoutNet.  If the dates don't match, they can be corrected.

I don't know how a council could really check the names of merit badge counselors on blue cards - especially for MBCs outside of their own council (frequently the case for summer camps).  Also, some of the MBC info. on blue cards can sometimes be a bit hard to read (whose name is this?  LOL).  It might not be an issue unless the parents try to sign blue cards for their Scout when they aren't MBCs (but this is the type of thing that hopefully gets caught at the unit level).

it is hard to check summer camp "Merit Badge Counselors" because most of them, in the camps I have witnessed in operation over a six-state area since 1981 are not Merit Badge Counselors.  They are minors -thus  ineligible to be Merit Badge Counselors - assigned by council employees to conduct Merit Badge sessions and participate in the faking of records.  There will be no record of their registration, because they are not registered as Position Code 42 Merit Badge Counselors, an adult position.   Field sports and waterfront are more likely to have actual Merit Badge Counselors due to liability issues.

2 hours ago, ParkMan said:

I'd be really interested to know why they don't just declare bankruptcy and be done with.  Placing Philmont at risk is an utterly nonsense move.  Very sad.

Bankruptcy leads to sale of assets to pay off creditors.  The "risk" we see is caused by the reckless spending, borrowing, and assumption of liabilities.  BSA needs a reduction in by far its biggest expense - salaries, to be in proportion to youth served.  

11 minutes ago, MattR said:

The aspiration is no yellow snow.

I'll tell the next bear I run into.  😉

BSA: " When ready to leave, properly take down the snow structure."  

PROGRAM FEATURES FOR TROOPS, TEAMS, AND CREWS: Vol 3, A Guide to Program Planning, BSA (2016)

Many useful pages but not a single mention of a "patrol," the context, for Scouting, BSA continues to say in the Scouitmaster Training syllabus, 

23 minutes ago, MattR said:

We ask the scouts to knock down the roofs so nobody gets hurt playing on the snow and it caving in. They get more and more solid so it's difficult to completely knock it down after a day.

And think about it. We walk into an area with 3' of pristine snow and create tracks and caves and tent slots all over the place. There's no way we can leave it the way it was.

"Leave no trace" is an aspiration.  Nothing wrong with aspirations.

4 hours ago, mrkstvns said:

I would hope that most scouts on a winter camping trip would dismantle their snow shelters when breaking camp.  Isn't this SOP for your guys?

Yes. for the reason given, not because it's "waste."  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-xiiK5Y2BU

"If your axe becomes stuck in a log, turn it over and swing the combined axe/log down onto your stump, axehead first to get more penetration.  (Does not work with double bladed axes...) Plan the arc of your swing to end at the top of your stump, not the top of your target log. (You were planning to split the log completely on half, right?)   On really large diameter rounds (24 inches and up) don't start in the middle; split small pies out of the edges and work your way in."

I've done this.  BSA is not in favor these days, although once it taught the wood-first technique.

Our resident atheist , of the non-religious variety, has not been here lately.  He takes care of deriding all religious beliefs with a vengeance.

In the 20s, the new tech was radio, and we had radio-oriented program.  B-P was for program that attracted kids, so the issue should not be doctrinal purity, but "What works?"

"progressive ideas"  

Snow shelters are "human impact" that reduces the experience for others.  Otherwise, Spring solves that problem - stacked up H²O - nicely where there is Spring weather.

In the 1950s and 60s my old troop was thought eccentric for practicing "Pack it in; pack it out." The BSA orthodoxy was "burn bash, and bury."  In the arid southwest, any child could plainly see BBB did't work.  We doubted it worked in New jersey, where the rules were promulgated at the time.  Bags were cotton or waxed paper.

And we used single burner gasoline stoves (WW II surplus "squad stoves"), which also drew scorn from some: "Real Scouts use open fires."  When I got back in in 1981, BSA expressly discouraged "chemical stoves."  As late as 1987, a neighboring council prohibited all "liquid fuel appliances" at its two camp properties. (They are still big on long lists of "NOs.")

Natural sponges allow a "sponge bath" that is very refreshing, even using only water.  They are costly compared to cellulose sponges, but they are Sooooo soft and last (I have three purchased at a Kroger in 1966 - still work fine,)  Rarely,  if it seems needed, I add a couple of drops of detergent, and rinse off with a canteen of water.   😊

I keep looking, but can find no further information.  Our Scout museum has a collection of over 3000 slides.  They are of known background only by happenstance.

2 minutes ago, mrkstvns said:

Stick to your guns, you've got it right!

If the scout does not complete everything with the camp's counselor, then he needs to find another Merit Badge Counselor to complete the requirements.

The only people authorized to sign off on Merit Badge requirements  are those who register with District/Council as a Merit Badge Counselor - position 42 (MBC is not a unit position) and counselors need to be approved for each badge they will counsel. Some badges require specific training --- for example, Rifle Shooting MBCs must have NRA Instructor training, Archer MBCs must have USAArchery instructor training, Scuba MBCs must have PADI instructor training, etc. 

If your Life scout argues about it, just point him to BSA's Guide to Advancement. The rule is clear. 

Most "camp counselors" are minors.  As such, they cannot be Registered Merit Badge Counselors and, so, have zero authority to pass any candidate on any Merit Badge requirement, although a minority are actually knowledgeable, some extremely so.  Nevertheless, the Merit Badge Mills "must' grind on to generate income for councils - THE priority.

Because a registered Merit Badge Counselor -- registered for the Merit Badge in question -- must sign the Blue Card certifying that the candidate has completed each requirement for the Merit Badge, then a registered Merit Badge Counselor is absolutely needed for the "partial" to be completed.  Only such a registered merit Badge Counselor may sign a Blue Card.

From my personal experience since 1981, most council Summer camps cheat (e.g., Personal Management from zero in five, fifty-minute sessions).  Some troops cheat.  I  speak only of the rules, not cheating tolerated by councils and BSA or parental expectations of the "Good job!" generation.

Learning that one must actually perform to get the reward is an important life lesson.

Good luck.

Good news.  

On 11/16/2019 at 9:31 PM, dkurtenbach said:

Sounds like that Council Executive has given up.  Of course traditional Scouting still works -- at the unit level, if you have leaders who know what they are doing and an active program, especially an active outdoor program.  Traditional Scouting isn't working nearly as well at organizational levels above the unit because the layers of bureaucracy above the unit level aren't adding much value to unit Scouting and instead are a drag on the movement.

 

Problem is, traditional Scouting, in the sense of the Outdoor Program,  was down-graded before today's typical Scoutmasters were born.  So even those with experience as Scouts experienced a watered-down version.  The typical Scoutmaster lasts less than a year.

Through training, they had a shot at learning what is no longer in the literature - exciting outdoor program and the Patrol Method, our "essential method." 

The time allocated to training unit adults has been sharply reduced over years since the "improved Scouting Program" savaged our youth AND adult membership numbers.  What was an "outdoor weekend" for unit adults (Fri night - Sunday afternoon) is now a single day, and slightly more program material used to get a six-day "week" called "Wood Badge'" - Scoutcraft through First Class (until 1972). 

Leadership at the council level is given to "good Scouters" = $$$$$$$$$$$$, whether they are even interested in leading training or not.

Add council leadership whose "logic" is that less of a thing is the solution for poor quality., and the knowledge is dying out.  If computer stuff was attractive, it might not matter.  The objective is to attract youth.  But Scout computing seems as popular as Scout Soccer - not too.  

This financial maneuver is all over the internet, but BSA says only:  “Earlier this year, the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) renewed and revised certain credit facilities through a process approved by our National Executive Board.” The spokesperson also said, “We will not be providing additional commentary.”

I once lawyered for the Erie-Lackawanna  Rd.  It was in terrible financial condition for a variety of reasons, having filed for bankruptcy protection in 1972.   My employer at the time had been appointed by the Bankruptcy Court to defend litigation of various sorts.  One day in  early 1976, I called the EL offices on business, and no one answered the phone.  I tried other numbers with the same result. I walked over to the EL headquarters offices, and the lights were on but no one was there.  Cups half-filled with cold coffee and last week's newspapers (including copies of the Cleveland Press, itself dead by 1982) gave clues to the timing of the abandonment of the EL's offices.  After that, it existed only as a legal fiction for a few more years - entries  in Bankruptcy records.     Portions were folded into Conrail.  Change is inevitable.  Sometimes change is improvement.  

Another factor is Darwinian - those that can escape do so, leaving those who cannot.  Read  Night Comes to the Cumberlands: A Biography of a Depressed Area.

He was once a "rising star," but came a cropper elsewhere.  We are a last chance posting for ambitions to rise to, or very near, the top.  

The  "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" movie "Deliverance" predates the current constitutional crisis by some decades. 

One might recall how President Carter was ragged on by the Eastern and Western elites of his own party until, in his old age, he became a leading attacker of Bush the Younger.

One would think that if working with certain people is terrifying, you would simply not do it.  

Our Council Executive:

"Traditional Scouting does not work today."

"Scouters are not happy with the quality of our training.  We need to cut back on training."   (Apply that logic to meals at Summer Camp.)

Eliminated FOS ?("Why should we have to ask every year?) in favor of a program where "friends of Scouting" are asked to authorize monthly automatic withdrawals from a bank account - like automatic bill paying for cell phone service.  General fund raising down 1/3 year over year.

Eliminated districts and set up "Service Areas" run by "professionals,"  typically with under two years involvement in Scouting.  Roundtable attendance down 45%, and falling. Ninety minutes of announcements and fund raising does not seem especially attractive.

I do agree that there is absolutely no reason to blame National for all our problems.

5 hours ago, fred8033 said:

I did not know that, but it could be BSA admitted girls but at a lower level (volunteer and paid leaders, but not participants).   I still would argue that there is a reasoning / logic link between the two.

BSA has admitted females as youth members in some programs since 1969 (Exploring, when it was a mainline BSA program for 14-17).

Politicians focus on retaining their "core constituency."  BSA, not so much.