DuctTape

Do the boys (eg. PLs) also "have the authority" to tear up another scout's totin chip card? I ask for discussion purposes for the rest of the readers.

Short, Simple, Effective. When it comes to training, only choose 2. In the attempt to "get everyone trained", the councils have chosen the first 2, subsequently sacrificing the 3rd.

I think kelty might have hip belts and shoulder straps which would fit as well. Could be a neat project for a patrol to make some too if they were so inclined.

When I was growing up my parents said that their responsibility was to provide a roof over my head, clothing on my back, and food on the plate. Since they were paying for it all, they made the choices on where we live, what we wore and what food we had at dinner. If we wanted extra or something different they were willing to pay for half. So if we came up with 50% of the money for something, they would cover the rest. Doing odd jobs around the neighborhood was the quickest way to earn a buck, but hard work so the dollar meant something which then translated into me caring for the item I purchased. Birthdays and holidays we received gifts, but looking back I took better care of the items I saved my own money for.

It doesn't need to be 100% to be done. No need to sacrfice the good in search of the perfect. If the boys are leading (financially) for 80%, that is good albeit not perfect. Using your accounts which the parents fund, each patrol member could go to the treasurer and withdraw the cash needed (as determined by the patrol) for the campout then give tbat cash to the grubmaster. Then proceed as ken described. In fact this is exactly what I am trying to encourage in my troop since they operate in a manner which is closer to 0%, so any step in the finance-boy-led direction is better.

I disagree that the money aspect is jyst static in the background. It is an integral part of the program. One could make the argument that meal planning is just a distraction and a bother... and they learn nutrition in school, etc...just have the adults plan it. The entirety of the campout, from the idea to execution including finance should and could be part of the the program. The patrol method, leadership and character are promoted by including the financial piece just as any other part. I try to anchor my thoughts to the maxim, don't do for the scouts what they can do for themselves.

Unfortunately the finance piece of scouting seems to have been taken over almost completely by adults. It is a shame as the financing of campouts, camporees, etc... is an awesome experience for scouts to learn. This is a battle I have been trying to fight at my own troop. The adults are extremely reluctant to allow to boys to do anything with money, except collect 25cents for dues by patrol each week. Often it seems the adults are more of a work in progress than the boys.

This is an application of Attribution theory. It isn't new by any means, but seems to have been forgotten in the last 20-30 years. The basics can be summed up by how one internalizes the answer to the question, "to what do I attribute my success"? Thus the issue isn't praise vs no praise, but instead how one praises, and what the child is praised for. Praise for effort when successful over time helps a child attribute their own effort as a driver for their success (contrast with praise success for "being smart" which over time a child will learn to attribute success /failure as a result of their own being). Of course all of this is a small subset of human development and many other factors play an integral role. Such is true of all science, we look at subsets to gain a better understanding of how they integrate into the whole. I think I need a beer now.

That is my point. The meaning is important, but we still expect the recitation as an affirmation of the ideals. Putting it into practice is then where the rubber meets the road. We don't just say, "well living the scout law is what's important so memorizing the 12 points is a waste if time".

I agree with stosh. Too much pomp and circumstance for "cross over".

And Stosh, replace the outdoor code with the scout law in your anecdote.

Of course living the outdoor code is more important than simple recitation. The same is true for the oath and law. Scouts should be demonstrating those virtues on site as well. To dismiss the outdoor code and claim only doing it onsite is also justification for eliminating the oath and law. The purpose of faithful recitation of these codes is a constant reaffirmation of the ideals, they are not the end of the journey but the map by which a scout follows.

As with all things in scouting, EDGE is a basic skill of teaching. It is not the end-all-be-all, it is just the beginning.

My point was not to explain all aspects or causes of intersex, but simply to point out that this isn't some new idea and in some cases (albeit rare) we do understand the genetic component as it relates chromosomally. In future we will likely learn more about specific gene sequences which trigger other gender expressions. I stand by my comment that this is not some dangerous idea, it is an acknowledgement of reality.

Not a dangerous idea. It is an acknowledgement of the fact that gender/sex are not as binary as some might want to believe. It has been known for quite some time that some children are born with variations in characteristics which do not fit the binary paradigm. These manifest in both genotype and phenotype variations in not just humans, but other animals as well.

Perhaps someday we will be fortunate enough to share a campfire.

The ASM, TG, or Instructor should be flexible to the needs of the patrol, not implement their own agenda. Their job is to help, not hinder nor force.

When one looks at the "book" regarding the labels on the patrols, it also includes rank, age etc... It is ridiculous. Apparently a NSP is made up of only 11 year olds. Regular patrols are made up of first class and above. The venture patrol has no ages or ranks. Where does a new 12 year old scout go? (He askes rhetorically). Get rid of the labels and attempts to categorize, it muddies the waters. In my youth scouting experience, when I joined, I was chosen by a patrol. The PL was a few years older than me, and I always looked up to him. Patrol makeups changed over the years as others came/left, but there was never a set time when patrols were "organized" it was organic. As an aside, at my Eagle COH, I asked my first PL (who was now in college) to give me the Eagle Charge.

And before that, there were just patrols. The boys make up their own gang without influence from adults whether those adults are SMs or the new handbook writer in Tx.

Our boys do it as part of the closing, they use the scout sign.

I tie it a couple of ways, it depends if the main loop is around my waist, or in my hand. Most who are proficient in knots settle on just a few which they use most of the time. Some knots have more specific uses than others, while some are general use. Like most skills in scouting, the required knots provide an overview of the basic general forms of various types. Of all the knots, the bowline is my most used, followed by a slippery taughtline hitch and then the constrictor hitch (cousin of the clove hitch). A few others I also use regularly, but those are the top 3.

No barcode on this patrol flag or badge. Very cool that multiple patrols came up with a similar idea drawing from their current realities. I wonder how many generic patrols there were those years. Probably quite a few. I also recall a psychedilic firs; taken from the band of the same name. And another patrol called the bionic toads.

One I thought was quite clever back in the 80's was the "generic patrol". This was before grocery stores had their store brands, there were white boxes with black lettering that said, "macaroni" or whatever. The patrol used a blank white patch.

I recall one of purposes of a BOR, back when it was members of the community was to help the boy also learn how to interview well so that this practice would prepare them for job interviews. Instead of thinking of this as "retesting" or "provide documentation", it is the chance for the boy to learn to sell himself based on what he has done and learned. If he isn't prepared for the interview, he won't get the job. BOR's should, as the boy progreeses through the ranks, expect more from the boy. If not, then we are back to checking boxes. None of the requirements should ever be just checking boxes, imo.

There was no "big question" in my area as a scout. And there isn't one now. Must be a regional myth. The one myth I recall was the secret requirement in Wilderness Survival that you had to eat a deer turd to get the merit badge.