mashmaster

Thanks

My son is in the final steps of paperwork for Eagle rank.  He has been a Cub scout, Troop scout, and is currently a Sea Scout and a Venturer.  He has been lucky to go to Sea Base, Philmont in winter (and Summer this year), and World Jamboree among a ton of other scout activities.  

So I was thinking of donating $1000 in his name for the James E West endowment in our council as something to give back to scouting for others to be able to get similar experiences.  Question is, does this go in his name for the award?  I was thinking that I can complete it and present it to him at his Eagle Court of Honor.  Any thoughts?  And this is in addition to my standard Friends of Scouting contribution, so I am not removing that part of my yearly donation.

I don't think they can do a vaccine mandate.  They could do a mandate that in order to be unmasked you have to be vaccinated but I don't think you are legally allowed to ask that question.  I am not sure how HIPA rules work for this.   So I think you can say this is the rule and people should be respectful to follow it, but you can't enforce it.

I wish they would let cubs have no national fee for the first year.

2 hours ago, seguru said:

These stories infuriate me as we continue to "dumb-down" the requirements and/or have Scouters involved who are too willing to give away "achievements".   There is NO WAY a Cooking MB can be earned in a single day.   MB requirements are to be completed "as written"... which requires multiple meals to be done "at camp" and other multiple meals to be done while "on a trail hike".

Even with "prerequisites" like First Aid done ahead of time, there is no way any Eagle-required badge can be done in a single day.   

First off, Welcome to the forum.

Agreed, although Swimming and First Aid could be be earned in a day.  It would be a full day but could be completed in a day.  I think most Eagle MBs have requirements that would keep them from being able to be completed in a day.  I wouldn't recommend them to be rushed through though.  I recently had scouts go through proper Red Cross training for First Aid, CPR/AED, and Wilderness First Aid.  I wondered to myself how well they would sit through the 16 hour Wilderness course but our 5 scouts did great.  We had a great instructor and the scouts were more mature.  (We are Sea Scouts so they are older than Troop scouts.)

The point I have is they should do the requirements as stated, if they can do them in a day, great.  But they still need to actually do them.

We spread it for $2/bag.  It is a very popular fundraiser here in Texas for our troops, school bands, baseball teams.....  Spreading is the high margin part and the big work part.

21 minutes ago, Owls_are_cool said:

My District's scout numbers in Montana are down by half in the past year....mostly due to cub scout numbers. The BSA should be promoting first time joins or rejoins for free this summer (or something like that).

Agreed make that first year free, do some free or really cheap cub events

5 minutes ago, Eagle1993 said:

I think Venturing may fade away but Sea Scouts will remain fairly stable in or outside BSA.  I see almost no value to them staying in BSA.  When I talk with our local Ship, the leader spent an hour complaining about the BSA and that it provides nothing.   I guess I question why stay in the BSA at that point ... create a stand alone organization without the burden of BSA overhead.  On the BSA side, if they are not going to invest or do anything with Sea Scouts ... then why keep them?  It is definitely concerning based on the comments above that leaders in BSA don't even know they exist.  At that point, it is simply a $50M liability waiting in the wings...

Again, I'm 100% pro Sea Scouts and think its a great program.  I hope my son joins when he is old enough.  The leaders I talked to are great.  I just question if the marriage with BSA is the right fit going forward.

FWIW, this debate is meaningless as BSA is headed in the opposite direction.  I didn't realize it, but they expanded into STEM Scout Labs.

I am not sure what group would be a good fit.  Probably a combination of Coast Guard Auxiliary and US Sailing.  What is missing is the character piece that scouting bring to the table.  

4 minutes ago, fred8033 said:

I wish that was the same for all the programs.     I know materials have been moving that direction, but I'll be glad to see more and more move that direction.

I think it is a good option.  The biggest problem is finding pants that fit our female scouts and leaders.  We need 5.11 and Dickies to figure that part out

The current drop in Venturing and Sea Scouting is directly attributed to the fact that a lot of Crews and Ships stopped doing anything in person last year.  The youth are mainly high school age and done with doing more online stuff.  My son is in a Ship and a Crew.  The Ship has been active sailing since last June and we have held steady on our membership, scouts aged out and we gained a few new scouts.  If we didn't have to modify, I think we could have grown more.  The Crew did online meetings and dropped membership by 50%.  The youth are bored out of their minds for online meetings.

Recovery for those programs will not be easy, a lot of scouts and leadership have left the program.  For Sea Scouts, the partnership with the Coast Guard Auxiliary could be utilized as a benefit.  I wish we could have a tighter relationship with US Sailing.  The future is unclear, but from the number of troops reaching out to me about doing things together for their bored older scout is increasing.  So, maybe that will be Venturing, I feel that it may go to more of a program that is part of troops as a patrol for older scouts.  The hard part will be the co-ed part of it with the troops being single sex programs.  The age group of 14-19 really need something for themselves.  In my experience, very few stick around after High School.

The fact that Packs have basically shut down is the scariest part.  If Packs die, BSA dies all together.  Older units should be reaching out to Packs to help them recruit and run program.  

Exploring is very healthy and most likely will be sold off to some other entity.  They are so profession based, they have different factors.  From what I have heard, that program brings in money.

42 minutes ago, CynicalScouter said:

When even trying to discuss merging Sea Scouts into Venture was part of the Churchill plan, Sea Scouts rallied and saved their program.

I cannot imaging that BSA will touch that hot stove again, at least for awhile. And going after Venture? No, I don't see that happening anytime soon.

That is because the programs are pretty radically different other than the age.

My daughter is getting her masters degree in Public Health.  She has told me the percentage of vacinated people to reach herd immunity is >70%.  So we are looking for a simple majority here.   

The India situation is horrible.  Lots of different factors in play, very little access to vaccinations, health care access, new strain, higher density population...... Prayers go out for them, hopefully we can divert some of our vaccine to them since at least here in Texas the vaccines are plentiful.

3 hours ago, David CO said:

I hear that all the time.  

 

Visitors are allowed to observe our unit activities, but they are not allowed to join in.  

 

We would note any visitors in our troop log.  We would not report it to the visitors' unit.  If their unit requires notification of their visits, we would expect them to do it themselves.  A scout is trustworthy.

 

Your troop and paperwork is much more than any unit I have ever been involved with or even visited.  And that number is a pretty large number.  Also, all those units would let the visiting scout join in the reindeer games.

If I may ask, What type of organization is your charter?

Bring tents and teach them to set them up.  Teach them how to make a campfire.  Teach them something outdoorsy

Our CO is much more hands off than that.  How do you handle a new prospective scout that just shows up that isn't part of your unit?  Would you turn them away?  My guess is that you report that they attended afterwards, but I could be wrong.

It isn't a bad thing, but it isn't necessary as well.  Potentially a scout wants to see and evaluate units separate from the rest of the den for some reason?  I am not saying that is why this happened, but it could happen.

4 hours ago, David CO said:

I don't know of any BSA rules that were violated by the visit, or for his failure to let you know about it.  However, if this were my unit, his actions would have violated several of my Chartered Organization's policies and practices.

 

What policies?  How is it a bad thing to have a scout visit a troop meeting?  

38 minutes ago, MtnFisher said:

Thanks!  My main worry was that there may have been YPT, or Guide To Safe Scouting guidelines that were violated, and that may cause issues or negative impacts for my pack.  If there's nothing preventing visits like this, then I'm fine with it too.

No YPT issues here.  The only issue would be if they were camping and he tented with a scout 2 years older than him.  But at meetings nothing that I can think of.

The only guide to safe scouting issue would be if they did an activity that isn't allowed for his age group, like shooting shotguns for example.  

It all good, welcome to the forum!

Welcome

I guess I am trying to understand what they hope to accomplish with this?  Is it to get TV ads?  From my personal interactions with the non-scouting public, everyone I talk to always seem to have positive feedback on scouting.  I don't think that is what we need to solve.  What we need to get something like this to figure out how to "get the butts in the seats".  What is it that mom and dad need sign their 1st or 2nd grader up for cub scouts?  If they can get TV ads and advertise to those parents, that would be great.  I was hopeful that the TV show would be better.  Sadly, it really wasn't a good show.  

Back to the OP, do what is best for the youth.  That is what is important.

I don't understand why you are disagreeing?  If the current CO no longer is willing or able to charter Scout units, what do you expect them to do?  Finding a CO that is a good fit is important.  We recently switched CO's because 95% of our scouts were no longer within 30 minutes of the location and we needed a place to meet. So when we begun our search, the district commissioner had a couple of Church's that were looking to charter a ship.

The prior CO was a great organization, but they understood why we needed to move.  Location was causing  scouts not being able to attend, now they have the ability to attend.

I have interacted with her and the previous two boatswains.  They are all fine examples of our youth.  The Sea Scout program does a great job nuturing the youth to continue to grow when they hit that stagnant stage of Troop scouting.  That is why I am involved in it, even though it is a small program, it really is a great next step that I think many older scouts would benefit from.

Just now, mashmaster said:

Our scouts paddled the Buffalo River in Arkansas two years ago.  They had a great time.

I should mention it was scout led and planned.  Not guide service needed, they owned the process from beginning to end.  The only adult help planning was helping to contact local troops in the area who lent us the canoes.