Eagle94-A1

Biggest problem in my neck of the woods is that no one wants to deal with council. Folks are burnt out or frustrated. We had two bright-eyed new volunteers assume a district level position, and within 12 months resigned. They were overworked. We have had pros overrule volunteers on events, i.e. multibooking a location, not ordering enough supplies, or not even ordering supplies at all. We have had volunteers try to do camp improvements for events, and told "NO." Then the site is not ready. We had volunteers removed from their position when they question the pros, i.e Why did council take $40K earmarked for the OA to do camp improvements for Conclave and put it in the general fund as a FOS donation. And we had volunteers yelled and screamed at by pros. And when folks do ask for help from council, they are told no.

Correct. Even though Scoutmaster Fundamentals never expires, it is no longer considered a code for "Trained Status." I forgot as a Key Three I can add the missing training. So I added the date of the last time I taught the Scoutmaster Specific class. Problem fixed. 1. Understatement. IOLS has left out a lot of info in older HBs and FBs. Last time I taught IOLS, the syllabus left out so much information, that I had handouts on additional information from older HBs and FBs. And the last syllabus I looked at took out even more information! I do not know who is creating training content, but they need to look at Green Bar Bill's work. 2. I too question the usefulness. 1:30 total for SM Training! When I did SMF, the Troop Meeting section, which is now 10 minutes long, Was an 90+ Minutes as it simulated an actual troop meeting with Pre Opening, Opening, Instruction, Patrol Meeting, Inter-patrol Competition, and Closing. IMHO, it is more about process than preparing for adventure. Which is a mistake. Scouts want adventure.

Registrar was of little help. Said they could not find my training sheets from when I taught. And they wanted proof i actually taught the course. And my copy of training records is MIA. I believe oldest transferred them to storage when he built my current computer.. @skeptic, remind me of a friend who is a longtime Scouter. His records went MIA, and he not only taught courses at the council level, but was also PTC faculty.

For those who need a TEMPORARY fix. It ain't perfect, but it may do. Forgot to add, under "to" FULL NAME AS ON APPLICATION ( in big font) (skip 2 lines) Troop 123 ( in small font)

Well I'm "UNTRAINED" again. Even though Scoutmaster Fundamentals has "No expiration date." This despite the fact I taught the SM Specific class multiple times when I was district Training Chair. To the folks who came up with the idea of getting rid of SMF, I will quote one of my districts long serving volunteers, "I've forgotten more about Scouting than you ever learned, and I still know more than you do."

A temporary solution I have done is take an image of the certificate I found online, and edited it. Not perfect, but works until the real certificates come in.,

Going from memory here, so bear with me. One of the reasons for better quality control is that there are a lot fewer professionals, so there is no pressure to increase membership numbers. As a result volunteers are empowered more to do things. If a group of volunteers want to clean up camp to prepare for an event, they contact the camp warden (ranger) and Bob's your uncle, you can do it. I know of councils where you have to go through the council office and SE in order to have a work day, and they may even deny it! Another thing is that their standards when I was there had not changed. "One and Done" was not a thing. Emphasis on advancement, and Queen's Scout was not existent, compared to the pressure in the US. I have had folks tell me HA is a was a of time because there is little to no advancement involved. Instead their focus was on skills and adventure. Finally, they held their Scouts to higher expectations/standards. It was not uncommon for their Scouts and Ventures to go on a week long expedition without any adult supervision as part of the DoE Award program. Even today they do "Remote Supervision" as defined as: "Remote [Supervision] ‑ Where the Supervisor remains out of sight and hearing of the team and allows them to get on with the expedition without any intervention ‑ The Supervisor will have a good idea of roughly where the team are and how they are progressing ‑ This is the norm for the majority of practice expeditions and all qualifying expeditions. It allows the Supervisor to: ◦ Periodically observe the team without intervening ◦ Allow the team to make mistakes and to recover from them without outside intervention ◦ Support the team by remaining remote yet in the expedition area and able to intervene if absolutely necessary or if requested."

That is true. I remember when they attempted to change the old YP rules, which allowed 18-20 year olds to be considered as a 2nd adult, to the current policy of only 21 year olds count. National made the policy effective March 1, 2018, but there was so much push back from local councils, and the HA bases, where units already planned for their 2nd adult to be 18-20, and they wanted their money back if they had to cancel. National pushed the implementation date to September 1, 2018.

To quote Han Solo, and many others, " I got a bad feeling about this." BSA never does things rapidly. And BSA has never shut down all shooting sports activities at one time due to an accident. Even with the Hawaii death, they did not shut down all activities. I agree with @Jameson76

My advice is to take your time, feel out the other Scouts and adults, before suggesting change. Get to know folks, their strengths and weaknesses, before you trying to change anything. And be polite and courteous when making suggestions. And most importantly, listen to their responses. As a Scout, and later as an ASM, I hated, emphasize HATED, when new adults just joined the troop and tried to change things. Worst case was a bunch of adults who transferred from Cub Scouts, and wanted a continuation of Cubs. No amount of explanations, discussions, meetings, or even training would change their minds. The COR had to intervene to fix the matter. But it was too late for one family that transferred out. Once you get to know them, if you can get the older Scouts behind your ideas, and a few other adults, you can try your ideas.

Varies. If we have new folks 5 miles/day. Last year, everyone had done the AT trip previous, so it was about 7 miles day one and 3 miles day 2 It was more of a new gear shakedown than anything.

Units plan their own canoe trips. 25 year ago, a local company gave a VERY generous donation to a CO for bunch of canoes and a trailer. HOWEVER, the caveat was that the CO had to share the canoes with any unit in the district. So canoes, trailer paddles, PFDs, etc are covered.

Where are you canoeing? Tar River, Neuse River, French Broad Where are you skiing? Water skiing is good at any lake or sound. Jordan Lake, Pamlico Sound, Where are you finding a good klondike derby? What's that. What does your unit plan for any higher adventure first class and up scouts if some of these are too extreme for new scouts (not BSA HA, just more intense than state parks and light hikes, such as backpacking/climbing/rafting) backpacking= Grayson Highlands, and the AT. with prep trips at Uhwarrie and other places with backpacking. And we take everyone who has done a prep trip in the past, so if a new Scout want to try backpacking, they can do a prep trip and go (We had one do the prep trip, said he needed to get in shape and missed the first trek. He got in shape and did it the next year. Whitewater= National Whitewater Center ( Scouts had more fun there than on an actual float) Nantahala Outdoor Center has been our go to for actual floats.

Thank you for the words of encouragement. Much needed. Weekend was a camp out, and he needed a lot of help from adults and others. Plus he has a hard time listening to his PL and APL. I overheard dad telling him he only needs to listen to the adults. I kept telling him ask his PL for those things the PL could handle. Since I lent him some gear, when it came to it, I answered. Other Scouts are surprised he is Life. One commented, "he's like a Tenderfoot when it comes to camping" I do see some promise. Going to chat with family when I can and get support to let him do things for himself. They do everything for him. Found out Dad bought the food for the patrol this past weekend.