Chisos

We provided cooking gear (patrol box with pots/pans/etc), stoves, and general camp gear such as lanterns, charcoal, etc. Scouts provide their own tents, backpacks, etc.

Like others have said it's hard to narrow it down to one...but a few would be: (a) The whole crew singing Garth Brooks' "Friends in Low Places" as we hiked into base camp over via the Tooth of Time at Philmont (a bunch of Texas boys, go figure!); (b) At Sea Base, anchored up off Key West, grilling steaks and fresh fish on the boat, and (c) Our wickedly awesome OA Brotherhood Ceremony team.

Well, Indy *was* a Boy Scout!

You'll have a great time! Looking forward to your post-trip report afterwards (to make us all jealous...) I'm starting to drum up some interest in my unit for a 2020 Sea Base trip. We'll see...

Our lodge has several cub-dads there were OA as youth and have reactivated. So, for sure not out of the ordinary.

I'd guess you could register with a unit in some capacity in the "north", which would put you in that council/lodge. I don't think that would require you to drop your current troop membership. However, if memory serves, you can only be in on OA lodge at a time. So you wouldn't be able to register with the lodge your current troop is associated with.

Sounds like a "Pack Set" of these items might be a good idea...

My apologies. I do tend to come up with quite a few half-baked ideas! 🤔 I guess what I was getting at, is that I see hiking or cycling MB's as more significant accomplishments...planning and doing the 20 mile hike or 50 mile ride, especially. But yes, for a scout who's not comfortable with swimming, that MB will be just as much of an accomplishment.

I've never quite got the Swimming/Hiking/Cycling choice. Swimming just seems so much easier than either of the other two...maybe require swimming for everyone, then a choice of Cycling, Hiking, or (Lifesaving + Mile Swim).

Exactly. When paintball is perfectly fine for the church youth group but banned by the Boy Scouts, we have a problem.

I think it's a variety of things. Top of the list is top-down risk avoidance, which results in some policies that provide the basis of the "scouts are going soft" narrative. I'm thinking of things like rules against water balloons, wheelbarrows during service projects, Lazer tag, etc. Every time there's another "you can't do that anymore" we take a hit. You can be safe and be adventurous and challenging at the same time. You just have to accept some level of risk. Perhaps a good start would be to accept the same level of risk as a high school football team.

It's not that being safe is a problem. The problem is that, any program that promises adventure is going to have have some associated risk. And, given the current state of risk management is now devolved into complete risk avoidance, you wind up with the "watered down" program that is not as popular/marketable/whatever you want to call it. So, rather then building independence, you wind up promoting hand-holding. BSA's not there yet, but I can see how the public perception is that we're headed in that direction.

https://www.nccs-bsa.org/index.php/national-css-administration/bylaws Voting members of the NCCS are appointed by diocese, by their various bishops. An episcopal liaison (currently Bishop Guglielmone of Charleston, SC) is appointed by the USCCB.

I"m not sure why a unit would have contact with NCCS; contact would typically be with your local diocesan Scouting committee (whose chair and chaplain are appointed by, or at least recognized by, your local bishop). NCCS administers the various Catholic religious emblems at the national level, but again, those are processed via the local committee or chaplain.

Oh, and the one adult that just crossed over...sounds like they're well meaning, but I'd try to get a different adult to go to the new scout program. I'm assuming he's the previous Webelos den leader? Have him take SM specific and/or IOLS or something like that.

Like others said it's not the numbers it's what they're doing. If they're registered, trained, stay out of the way, etc., I don't think it's a problem (unless you pay the adults registration fees, and you've got more than you need). Get any new/unknown/helicopters signed up for adult training so they'll be occupied with something.

Dawn and a little water, soak the stain in that for a few hours or overnight then wash. Lather, rinse, repeat. As others have said, DO NOT DRY IN THE DRYER until you are sure the stain's all gone; that will set it and you'll never get it out.

Yeah, I thought about the 3-month possibility...that would (in addition to the physical fitness) require a troop/patrol activity (other than a meeting) almost every week for the three months. Reading your last sentence...I'm hoping there aren't units who are planning to "count" pre-Feb 1 work for advancement. You've got to be registered to complete advancement, right? (rhetorical question...) I'm just afraid the race to be "FIRST!" will result in someone missing the journey...

I think that timeline's possible (though crazy!). 6 months to get to 1st Class, 4 to Star, 6 to Life, and 6 to Eagle. That's the 22 months. That's doable, but they'd have to fit the 10 non-meeting Troop/Patrol activities in, in 6 months.

My experience is similar to that of @Eagle94-A1. Our Pack is staying boys only as is our troop. Even with all the media hype we've had very little interest from parents interested in getting their girls into the BSA program. For now if we get any requests I'll probably refer them to other units in our district that are doing to Family/Linked setup; and those parents who want boys in an all-boy unit can refer to us. I hope when the dust settles there will be variety of different arrangements so that families can pick what's best for them (coed, linked, all-boy, etc.).

I've been thinking of using the "Unit Scouter Reserve" (91U) position for folks like this. Does anyone actually use it?

This is what made me think the instructors didn't know what they were talking about. I mean, don't take water on a hike? Seriously? I could (maybe) understand a suggestion to carry a *reasonable* amount (i.e, don't tell a Tiger to carry 3 gallons of water for a one mile hike) but other than that... Sounds like the trainers were told "just go teach this" without any preparation or anything.

Maybe the instructors just didn't know what they were talking about?

Yeah, I guess the comparison of college students being treated like cub scouts is pretty accurate. It's sad that a University feels the need to treat adults as if they are elementary school students.

Unfortunately, modern "risk management" seems to have morphed into "risk elimination," which results in program elimination or banning of certain activities, given that for any event risk can't (by definition) be zero. (As an aside, I was the safety officer of my University's Scuba Club back in the day. We never, to my knowledge, had a serious diving-related injury.)