Eagle94-A1

This is a National fee increase, and was first mentioned at the May National Annual Meeting. Just be glad your council doesn't charge additional, council specific, fees.

There are a variety of reasons why units do not use SCOUTBOOK. 1. SCOUTBOOK does have a history of dropping data, and incorrect data, so units do not consider reliable. In fact whenever discrepancies have been found between a council's records and the handbook's records, the handbook overrides the online records because that contains the actual, physical, signatures. I have had Scouts up for Eagle being told they are only First Class because of dropped records. I have Scouts whose histories are incorrect with wrong information listed, and in some cases unchangeable. Worst case example was adult training. I spent 18+ months getting my district's training records updated because no one was listed a s trained. within 24 months of me turning in the information to get fixed, all those records disappeared. Thankfully I had the original work on hand ,and only had to collect folks who had done training since the original project. 2. Some areas of the country do not have reliable internet. There are large areas in my council that do not have highspeed internet, and in a few cases internet at all. During the pandemic we had students in parking lots and on benches at school campuses using the schools wifi because they either the internet was too sow, or nonexistant. 3. A handbook is a lot easier to carry camping, and internet service may be spotty where you are at. 4. SCOUTBOOK does not allow youth to sign off on advancement, only adults with authorization can do advancement. This defeats the purpose of Scouting. 5. The most important thing to remember is that (emphasis) THE SCOUT HANDBOOK IS THE OFFICIAL RECORD AS THE SIGNATURES AE IN IT. As I stated in #1 above, whenever there are discrepancies or missing information, the handbook is used to fix the electronic records, not the other way around. I cannot tell you how many times in my 31 years as a Scouter that I have seen electronic advancement records missing or incorrect over the years. This includes records that I had submitted either by hand pre-INTERNET ADVANCEMENT, or records I personally inputted, and were missing.

Great question. I would ask. And if they still do not produce one, use the Order of the Arrow's Where to Go Camping Book as that is a publication of the council. That is what a lot of packs do in my area. My council A) has never produced a list, even when members of the Council's Cub Scout Camping Committee ask for, and was pushing it to be made. A direct quote from a member of the Council's Camping Committee, which we the Cub Committee was under was " Cubs don't need to camp." Also several several of the council's properties failed to meet basic BALOO camping standards, yet they held overnight Cub camping events there anyway.

I think the SEs complained, especially since they may lose money with units not camping at council camps*. I know the councils I have been in charged a flat, weekend fee fro Friday through Sunday. Federal, state and local camps I have been to have charged a per night rate, comparable or cheaper than the council rates for the weekend. So why pay for a full weekend, when you can pay for one nite elsewhere? *I have been told that some councils have only approved council camps for Cubs, basically creating a monopoly on campsites for them. If you are in one of those councils, I would love to hear about it.

@RichardB, any reason for going back to the previous policy?

Posted on a district website. 1

Since the CC is over all committee members, yes he can make that rule. Depending upon how "linked" the troops are, I can see it as an issue. I have seen "linked" troops that are the case only on paper, and can see where confusion lie. Those troops do everything together, and essentially are 1 troop. So I can see the point of no ASMs of either troop serving on BORs because at some point they are interacting with the other troop in an ASM role. Currently the only guidance on BOR members is the following "8.0.0.3 Composition of the Board of Review A board of review must consist of no fewer than three members and no more than six, all of whom must be at least 21 years of age. For further specifications, see “Particulars for Tenderfoot Through Life Ranks,” 8.0.2.0, and “Particulars for the Eagle Scout Rank,” 8.0.3.0. Unit leaders and assistants shall not serve on a board of review for a Scout in their own unit. Parents, guardians, or relatives shall not serve on a board for their child. The candidate or the candidate’s parent(s) or guardian(s), or relative(s) shall have no part in selecting any board of review members." page 52 "8.0.2.0 Particulars for Tenderfoot Through Life Ranks The preceding applies to boards of review for all Scouts BSA ranks (except Scout rank), but there are a few differences for the ranks other than Eagle: 1. The board is made up of three to six unit committee members—no more and no less. In units with fewer than three registered committee members available to serve, it is permissible to use knowledgeable parents (not those of the candidate) or other adults (registered or not) who are at least 21 years of age and who understand Scouting’s aims. Using unregistered adults for boards of review must be the exception, not the rule. Registered committee members familiar with the unit program, who have had a background check, and who are Youth Protection trained are preferred. Scheduling boards of review when and where unit committee members can attend usually alleviates the problem of not having enough committee members for a board." P55 and 8.0.3.0 Particulars for the Eagle Scout Rank The particulars below pertain only to the Eagle Scout rank. 1. Council advancement committees must determine— and make known—method(s) for conducting Eagle Scout boards of review: whether unit committees or the council or district advancement committees administer them, and also how board chairpersons are selected. 2. If conducted at the unit level, at least one district or council representative, who is not affiliated with the unit, must serve as a member. If the unit requests it, more than one may do so. 3. There shall be no fewer than three and no more than six members, all at least 21 years old. They need not be on an advancement committee or registered with the Boy Scouts of America, but they must have an understanding of the rank and the purpose and importance of the review. This holds true for Eagle boards of review held in any unit, whether troop, crew, or ship." page 55

THANK YOU FOR THE LINK! (yeah I'm shouting at ya. I could not find the article) Actually the sister Scouting organization was Camp Fire Girls of America. Many of the same folks who were involved with BSA were also involved them. Here is info. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Fire_(organization) Sadly @qwazse said it best

The Archdiocese of New Orleans had all their parishes drop Scouting back in 2021, during the bankruptcy, as things became known how much the BSA did not tell the COs.

To Play Devil's Advocate, the "confusion" that GSUSA says occurred, would not have happened if BSA would have won their lawsuit in the 1920s. If memory serves, BSA wanted the GSUSA to call themselves the Girl Guides of the USA. James West stated that GSUSA was using the reputation of the BSA to build their organization.

One immediately comes to mind, the other was a practice since discontinued. The one immediately coming to mind is a public event especially one with GSUSA members will be present. Their national organization has issued specific guidelines to not allow GSUSA uniform items on BSA uniforms, and vice versa. And because it was happening GSUSA sued the BSA over the matter. I do not want them in trouble, nor another lawsuit. Back in the day, Wood Badge and Brownsea 22, the NYLT of it's day, had very specific uniform guidelines. Onlye the council strip, either 1 or 22 depending upon the course, and patrol patch were allowed on the uniform. No awards, temporary insignia, position patches, ranks, etc allowed. But as I have stated, it has been discontinued.

Repeat after me: HI, My Name is Fred8033, it's been 18 hours since I had anything to do with Scouting, and I am a Scouting Addict. 🤣

Mixed emotions on MBs at meetings. One one hand, I do not think they should be done all the time and the primary focus of all meetings. Scouting is not suppose to be school. You will lose Scouts. On the other hand, if the troop's activity for the month has a MB, and some prep work needs to be done AND the prep work is MB related, I do not see a problem. Best example I can give of this is Canoeing MB. We had a canoe trip planned, and the meeting before it were prep work i.e. part of a canoe, paddle etc, packing for water trips, strokes, etc. we even moved the meeting to a nearby lake to practice on the water before the trip. But in rare cases will an entire MB be completed at the meetings.

Possibly. How often does BSA give out information like that? How often has someone asked for information from the professionals, and they delayed, or wouldn't give the info out? How many times have professionals ignored and lied to volunteers? How many times have professionals not given out info that could directly affect a CO. And if coverage was there, then why are major COs like the UMC being asked to contribute to the claims? And I can tell you the higher level pros lie to the lower lever pros from experience. Blaming the bankruptcy may be the polite way of saying why they do not want to be involved. And even clean slates sometimes have stains on them. Tell me BSA's insurance will not go up, even with a clean slate? Those may very well be some of the additional reasons. But many COs, not just the various Catholic diocese, are no longer chartering BSA units, i.e. UMC Church, Elks, Baptists, etc, because of the bankruptcy. As we well know, a lot of information, some of which were hidden from volunteers, came out in the bankruptcy.

Depends upon where you are at IMHO. Scouting is NOT flourishing in my neck of the woods.

I cannot blame them. BSA has lied to COs for a very long time about the recharter fees also covering the CO. Sadly we learned the truth in the court case.

ghIq maHeghnIS! PS Hopefully I got the Klingon correct.

From Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_Scout_Memorial Cannot find the info doing a quick search, it may be on the hiking trail brochure we did in DC, but I read that the artist wanted a Neoclassical look on par with some other statues in DC.

The full article goes on about the Valkrie look the artist was going for. Wings definitely need to go. Change the torch to a lantern. As for the sash, I had to notice it with a closeup to notice it. It looks like scalemail armor to me.

I agree with @AwakeEnergyScouter. I would have skipped mythology and classicalism altogether, see BSA Memorial in DC for the reason. I think having representatives of ladies in the last past and present, 1940s Den Mother, 1972 Sea Scout and Explorer, 1989 Female ASM, 1998 Venturer, and today's female Scouts would have been better.

@OaklandAndy, Which is why no groups are allowed to recruit, meet, etc at the schools. 4-H, GSUSA, etc also do not have access.

No one is allowed. Pros won't even talk to the school system.

THAT IS THE BIGGEST UNDERSTATEMENT EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ( Yes i am shouting so I can get the attention of any pros here.) My council has been unable to recruit in the public schools for 9 years now. My county went from 8 packs to 2 packs. <u old pack went from 60+ to less than 20. As for troops, we had 8 troops with the average of 28 Scouts. We are down to 5 troops with an average of 9 scouts per troop.

Some major donors, think Fortune 500 companies, were being threatened with boycotts. Government agencies with Explorer Posts were targeted with lawsuits for violating the separation between church and state. Which is why career oriented Exploring went under Learning for Life, and more traditional outdoor Exploring became Venturing. Folks targeted the Dept.of Defense or Dept. of the Army (sorry do not remember which) for allowing the BSA to use Fort A.P. Hill, now called Fort Walker, for jamborees.

At least you are in the Eagle database. One of my long time Scouters, whom I have seen his original certificate, medal, and photos, is not listed.