King Ding Dong

To be more precise the Sports and Academic program is going away and with it the current beltloops. The beads are being replaced with beltloops.

Webelos Adventure: Faith in Action (1) Do requirement 1 or requirement 2. If you choose requirement 2, complete 2a plus two more from 2b–2d. 1. Earn the religious emblem of your faith for Webelos Scouts. 2. Do the following: a. Help plan and participate in an interfaith worship service with your den leader. Show reverence during the service. Doesn't seem like that can be demoted to family. Some denominations will have a major problem with this.

Rick, yes some denominations forbid interfaith activities. My wife was raised CLC Lutheran. She was not allowed to sing certain songs in high school choir because because the church pastor viewed it as worshiping with other faiths. Her younger sister was told to resign from Girl Scouts because they prayed together (25 years ago). This edict was to much for the family to handle and caused them to leave the church.

Pack18alex had a post awhile back I can't find that was very interesting. Something along the lines that Jewish prayer is structured completely different than Christian prayer so that even when Christians try to be non-sectarian it is still very Christian. I hope he can chime in here with more details.

Sure one standard is fine. Prepare for more headlines "BSA Kicks Out Eagle Scout". National sure knows how to make a bad situation worse.

Eagle92, My boss busts my butt, I don't need Cubs to do it as well. My boss pays better.

http://www.scouting.org/filestore/program_update/pdf/Appended%20Requirements.pdf A 1-foot hike??? What on earth is a 1-foot hike?

I understand why they are doing this. As it stands now 5th grader joining the program has a huge mountain to climb to get AOL and crossover with his new friends. The other interesting thing I noticed is AOL requires a total of 7 adventures. If each one requires 2 den meetings and a field trip cross over is going to be pushed back a month or two or more for school based packs that don't work on advancement over the summer.

We have two Ethan's drop out of Scouts this year.

The transition document clearly states these Bears are not going to be able to finish under the old requirements. This is nuts. Well it looks like they could do Readyman 1st year as an elective and have it count for AOL. I am not going to do Citizenship twice.

Source: http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/programupdates.aspx Scout nut, "building a better world" for AOL seems an awful lot like the Citizenship badge they will have to earn for the Webelos Badge this fall. Of course we haven't seen the details on the Webelos 1 requirements so maybe they will have a big citizenship requirement as well. The Welooes/AOL book will be one as it is now however June 1, 2015 they will need to purchase a new book.

So they have to do Citizen again and buy a new book? Nice. That's the way to keep these boys interested in the program. At least they can use three elective badges earned 1st year towards the 3 Adventure Electives. We will see what it looks like when they roll the whole thing out, but I wonder how many DLs revolt and and just use the old requirements.

Seriously. Ethan? Way to pick favorites. How lame. What was wrong with Akela?

Dang it. That liberal lamestreet media isn't doing their job.

Other factors that need to be taken into consideration is when the pack and dens meet. Some dens might might meet right after school and not be a good fit for you given the distance. How active a program the pack has is important, but also look at the leadership, not just the Cunbmaster but also the committee. Is it more than just a couple of den leaders ? A strong involved committee is usually the sign of a good Pack. I will get chided for this but also ask if the Pack has earned the Journey To Excellence Award each year and at what level (bronze, silver, gold). It can be one of many indicators of a good pack.

K-mart has not been a for-profit business for a very long time, BSA is not a for-profit business, it is just a very poorly run business and has been for some time,

Storage of the track can be a real issue for some packs. My old pack just used a hire service and it worked out really well. We got to use a different track every year. I think it was only about $150-200. Lets the "scouts" focus more on building their cars.

My local camp has a hut with a fairly extensive pioneering kit that a unit can rent for $10 for the day. Precut lengths of rope, spars, stakes, stake puller, block and tackles. etc. It seems perfectly reasonable they want you trained on the proper use of this equipment. Especially how to handle and store it so it is not destroyed and ready to go for the next group.

What training do you feel is a waste of time ? Specifically. In the last year I have taken pioneering kit, climbing and cope. Would send my kid out on any of those activities with some yahoo that didn't think he needed training.