sierracharliescouter

If BSA conducted a truly anonymous poll of their membership, at least 10% would declare themselves atheist, and at least another 10% non-practicing religion. The Declaration of Religious Principles needs to be dropped. BSA knows they can't afford to lose another 20% of their membership. It is "don't ask, don't tell" at this point.

I'm in a very diverse unit, in a somewhat diverse, but still heavily Christian district. I'm Jewish, which is a tiny minority in these parts. In general, our district events are kept truly non-denominational, and we generally guide scouts leading events like Scouts Own to use non-denominational content. They do a good job with that, but every so often a scout or adult will slip in a "in Jesus' name we pray" at the end of what they are saying. I don't take any offense at at that, because I know that is part of how they personally are used to saying prayers. Would I prefer if they didn't sa

I'm personally not a fan of the flap covering the uniform buttons. Seems like an added cost without much purpose.

Bears using hand saws. And someone explain why Lions and Tigers are shown as "map only" when it comes to map and compass. Is there some conspiracy I haven't heard of that makes using a compass dangerous? Also, poor relativistic risk assessment, such as Lions and Tigers allowed to do bouldering, but not other activities with similar or higher risk factors.

Well, I'm still not clear if I need permission to deviate from GTSS, because I still don't know if it is a "guide" or absolute, never to be broken, rules. Given that I have to break some of GTSS just to have scouts actually complete their advancement requirements, I'm stuck in Scout-rules purgatory.

That somehow seems like an inappropriate quote given Scouting's past problems...

@RichardB I hope you aren't taking what is written here as beating up on you personally. I don't think any of us intend it that way. We appreciate having a voice from National participating here. What National needs understand, however, is that the participants in this forum represent a microcosm of what the overall volunteer experience is like in Scouting. Those of us in leadership positions face these same questions from other Scouters, parents, and some of the Scouts when we have to explain the "rules" (or are they guidelines? - yes, there absolutely is a legal difference...). Whe

This is not a "why" explanation, in any meaningful way. "Because it's been this way" is not a rationale. Looking through the references you provided, none appear to provide a rationale for restricting Cub camping to single night.

Three problems with this statement: 1) Never make an definitive assumption that the lawyer got it right. 2) I don't know who BSA is using for their lawyers, but it is always good to keep in mind that the person who graduated last in their class at law school and finally passed the bar exam on their 5th attempt is still allowed to call themselves a "lawyer". 3) Being a BSA volunteer shouldn't require a legal background to understand the rules.

The way insurance policies often work, however, is there would likely need to be a substantive reason why the lack of a fundraising application was reasonably causative to the claim for denial. i.e., if your troop is selling meat sticks from company A, but didn't file a fundraising application, and had a claim related to the event, it would be very difficult to deny a claim if the Council would have otherwise approved the application, and even more difficult to deny if they had other troops that had approved applications for selling the same product in a similar way. The fundamental flaw

We recognize the scouts that age-out without Eagle. We do it in a couple of ways. As mentioned above, we will recognize them at their last outing - often gifting them a water bottle from that location, if available, and recognize them at their last scout meeting before turning 18. For the ones that are interested, we absolutely extend an open invitation for now or in the future to continue with the unit as an adult, including participating in high adventure treks.

It's like asking a lawyer to review a risk management policy. Your chance of getting something less restrictive is less than zero.

There is a position called "Key 3 Delegate". This is someone who can act in lieu of the SM or CC in their absence. I am an ASM for our troop, but was listed officially as a Key 3 Delegate for the troop a couple years ago when our SM was unavailable for a few months. They've kept that designation for me "just in case", and it has been useful a couple times, and takes the stress of the CC and SM to feel like they always need to be available.

We do both, and most of the scouts who do the HA activity also do summer camp. The younger scouts need at least a few of the older scouts to help them along through summer camp.

For the past couple years our council has been on a "YPT every year for everyone" basis for recharter, to eliminate the possibility of someone's YPT expiring while they are still actively registered with a unit.

I'd suggest maybe taking a little step back from the troop meetings, but encourage him to get some fun merit badges done. It's unfortunate that he didn't get any at summer camp. Our troop doesn't allow participation in most first-year or trail-to-first-class programs, because we want advancement to be natural and within the troop. My older son was Mr. Gung-ho scout for his first 4 years, and he even completed a lot of high adventure. Now he is Life but almost burned out, and he finds himself dragging himself across the finish line. My younger son (2 years younger) was not into the progr

I agree with the idea of having them to loan to scouts. On the packs though, a 65L pack is likely not sized properly for a younger scout, and could make their first backpacking experience miserable. You might even consider selling/trading those big packs for smaller ones more likely to be used by younger scouts, or sending a note out to the troop and troop alumni asking if they have smaller packs they would be willing to donate for the troop to loan out.

I would reach out to the school(s) your scouts attend who are close to this scout for resources. This is tough because the parents and scout likely don't want it broadcast what happened, so you need to limit what you say and do to only those scouts who will be in the know on this. Thank you for being there for this family. This really is the hardest stuff, which has unfortunately struck close to home (non-scout friends) recently for a few of our scouts.

Are you sure? Even if there isn't, why not create one? Do you really think none of the BSA alumni from the past 10 years have that ability? Better yet, it should be one should be both a man and a woman. If they exist, YouTube is where you'd find them, and where they should be promoting. It all shouldn't just be about survival, it should be about volunteerism and other traits that follow the Scout Law.

I completely agree with not trying to save struggling units. When I was in Cubs, I convinced the DE to let a couple of neighboring floundering units fold and join our very healthy Pack. That was before COVID. There is no way those small units would have survived COVID. This move preserved the program for at least 20 kids, most of whom bridged to ScoutsBSA and have stuck with it there. It takes at least 5 involved adults to maintain even a very small unit successfully. If those 5 put their energy into an successful bigger unit, it would go a long way to making the program better for the o

Nothing to stop a Pack from making their own custom necker to last the whole program, just like most troops.

For those who don't like this change, keep in mind that Cubs now starts in kindergarten. By the time the boys are in 5th grade, they are *done* with being a cub and ready to move up if the adults have been doing their part in keeping to the program (i.e., they start learning patrol method in 4th grade). This change will definitely benefit our troop. Every year there are one or two friends or non-cub younger siblings who have had to wait until their 11th birthday during the spring of 5th grade to join.

This is not at all a "better them than me" statement, it is just a statement about the raw statistics of CSA in our society. We can't run from reality, but we can work to improve it.

Respectfully, you seem to be demanding a black and white answer to a question that only has shades of gray. It is absolutely horrible what happened to all the victims. But, there is no promise that they would have not been victims had they been engaged in some other activity, with greater or lesser frequency. Or maybe they would not have been victims, but someone else who wasn't abused in the program would have been abused in the absence of their participation in scouts. You are asking the unknowable.

I'd like to know what his photography merit badge counselor thought of him. 😁