Eagle94-A1

Sadly in my troop it's still the adults. Although the youth are making progress. The adults will jump in and take over when something goes wrong still. At least they are letting the Scouts do their thing until somehting happens, which is an improvement. They would jump in previously. The new volunteers are still acting like Cub Scout leaders, and that is not helping matters. They do not understand the patrol method, still jump in for their sons, and are focused on the "legality" of advancement and not the spirit of it. We had one Scout get scared and run to dad's shelter this weekend. Sinc

This may help. https://www.scoutstuff.org/media/content/docs/pdfs/6568_103111_BS_UniformInspSheet_R11.pdf

Most definately. With the exception of the Wilderness Survival MBP, everything I've read on survival, including older older BSA publications, states the a sheath knife is preferred in a survival situation. That's why for the district event coming up, sheath knives are encouraged: batoning, feather sticks, etc. Some of the Cubs I've seen with sheath knives include KaBars and Bucks. I know I got my 3 hoodlums Mora Companions.

Yes, a lot of misinformation out there. If BSA banned sheath knives, like one secretary from national stated, then A) why is that not stated in G2SS and B) Why does national sell about 10 different sheath knives now. Also know about council rules being stricter. What I find funny is that the summer camp my council runs does indeed ban sheath knives but A) allows Scouts to make them as part of the older Scout program or Metalworking MB and B) there is no ban on them at the other council camps, including the one the event is at. As for local laws, there is no length restrictions, but cer

Folks, Need your input. What do you think of a Webelos carrying a sheath knife on a Castaway Adventure (wilderness survival) camp out? While the Webelos Handbook says something about pocket knives, there is no mention on sheath knives. In fact the wording is similar to the Boy Scout handbook, which also has no mention of sheath knives. Only things I can find regarding sheath knives and official BSA sources are several Boys'Life magazine articles, Bryan's Blog, Scoutstuff.org 15 sheath knives they now sell, and of course, this from Guide to Safe Scouting. Knives A sharp p

I can see it now, male Scouter self identifying as a female Scouter so that girls can camp. Don't know if that is better or worse than calling Scouting trips 'Family Camping" when ther is no female Scouter able to go. Seriously though, Female leadership would be required if girls are present if we use Venturing YPT as the model. Which scuttlebutt says is in fact the case with new YPT that will be coming out soon. May not necessarily be Moms per se, but definately female leaders will be needed.

Even if you tell parents multiple times, they still will not get it. We held multiple meetings, talked multiple outside of meetings etc, AND SOME PARENTS STILL DO NOT GET IT! ( emphasis) We told parents before their sons joined the troop that advancement is the sons' responsibility. We will help them, but they need to do the work. We went over the process of advancement, and even the purpose of Boy Scout meetings ( instruction and skills) vs. Cub Scout meetings (advancement), and we still have parents upset their son got a partial at summer camp, or never finished a MB after 2 troop meetin

People may have a computer, but still not be able to do IA due to internet connectivity. My pack bought the downloadable version of PACKMASTER software. This is the one you download, and do not need internet to use. We got this version because of the known connectivity issues in the area. Supposedly it interfaces with IA. Every time I attempted to use that feature, after waiting extremely long periods of time, it would kick me off the system with a message stating it was taking too long. It would provide paper copies of the report,and that is what we used. Thankfully I got off dial up when

My gut feeling is that the decisiom has been made and BSA is going through the motions, I've had a council employee tell me the decision will be announced in January, my DE when I talked to him about it was shocked I knew about the January annoucement, and the SE at the town hall meeting said we may hear something "Sometime after January." Then we are getting all this "Family Scouting" "Camp with the Fam" and "Scouting serves the Family" message in various BSA literature, promotioms, and advertising. And lets not forget the new July 2017 applications which have no gender restrictions for

My 5th grade teacher, who was a nun and worked at a summer retreat house. SHe would either lifeguard or backpack, depending upon the need.

I don't think that will happen. Venturing, which is already coed, does not give a parent exemption. Plus what about the girls who do not have a dad going?

Imagine how many boys will drop if they cannot go camping. We had one troop close down because they could not get enough volunteers to camp with the troop. The troop folded and the members went to 2 different troops, or quit completely. Heck my Webelos son didn't go on a pack lock in last night because "It's not camping."

Agree, the units own the problem and need to correct it. And agree sometimes records are illegible, have the wrong names, etc. But when a unit hand delivers computer generated reports to insure that the council is getting the reports to be entered into SCOUTNET, then the problem is on the council, not the unit. Don't get me started on volunteer applications. My wife filled out paperwork to work with the pack as a WDL, 3 times about 4 years ago. She was never registered. She filled it out in June, then again in September, then again December to get on the charter. We thought surely

The challenge with the BSA creating a parallel program for girls 11 (or 10 with AOL , etc) -18 is that we already have volunteers stating they will ignore that policy. While on paper there will be a separate girls only unit, in reality the girls will be integrated into the existing Boy Scout troop. Not only Scouters in my own troop said that, but Scouters at the town hall meeting on the topic stated it. And the Council Key 3 gave the impression that "yes, we know this is going to happen and don't care" from their body language. I admit I'm not an expert in developmental psychology.

I'm opposed because the program will need to be changed to incorporate girls in Scouting, and that takes away from the boys. Whatever you think about the various studies on whether single gender or coed education and programs are better for youth or not, the BSA's program is geared for them. A parallel program already exists, GSUSA, and from what I keep hearing it sucks. I think GSUSA needs to change how they do things to attract the girls who want to be in Boy Scouts. But let's face reality. The decision has already been made. If it was not made already, then why is BSA going on a ma

BSA does not have a national coed Cub Scout and Boy Scout program, YET (emphasis, Gut feeling is the decision is made and waiting for people to get use to the idea with all the family scouting oriented articles and camp promotions that has been coming out of late i.e. Scouting Magazine, newest Scouting promo video, ad nauseum. But scuttlebutt is that there are some districts/councils piloting coed Cub Scouts. I t would be interesting to here from those areas, if that is the case. Personally I do know of 1 family that will either leave the pack and do Lone Cub Scouts, or suck it up for

With all due respect, up until circa 1995 or 96, Varsity was in fact sports oriented. From 1982 or 83 until 1989, the only way for a Varsity Scout to earn the "Varsity Letter" needed for the Denali Award was to earn one of the Varsity Pins, which were all sports oriented;baseball, basketball, etc. In 1989, Venture crews replaced the Leadership Corps for older Boy Scouts. The Varsity letter became the "Varsity/Venture Letter," or "Venture/Varsity Letter" depending upon which book you read (I've seen it as both in BSA literature), and new high adventure oriented pins were created for Ventu

No the council did not mention it's mandatory, or strongly encouraged it. If it was mandatory, or strongly encouraged, The Scout Exec would have told me when I mentioned how records were not being recorded. Problem where we are at is some folks are out in the boonies. High speed internet is not available in some areas. And the internet companies are no help either. Remember that FCC ruling saying a government utility service could provide internet service outside their city limits, and SCOTUS later stated the FCC ruling violated law? That was one of the cities in my council trying to expan

Am I the only one who has a council that has major issues with advancement records? Back when I was working with a pack, I would be the one turning in ARs and buying advancement because I worked about 10 minutes from a neighboring council's office. After my council sent a duplicate order of awards, I would write "DO NOT SEND AWARDS" (sic) and 1/2 the time they would send a second batch. BUT THE AWARDS WOULD NOT BE RECORDED IN THE COUNCIL'S RECORDS (emphasis) I remember hand delivering records to my council's office. Buy the awards. but once I got access to Internet Advancement, I d

Has anyone else got an email from Scoutstuff.org about 'Camping with the Fam," or seen their Family Camping Events promo on the homepage? Grant you most of the gear they are pushing has the Cub Scout logo, but they are pushing family big time. I think the decision has been made. On a different note, I may start backing away from the troop. There is a wilderness survival camp out and we have one family saying they will attend. If the Cub was a Webelos, i'd be cool since it's A) Meeting Castaway requirements, and B) It's recruiting. But the little brother is a Tiger, and ran around inter

EXACTLY! The Scouts know who do the jobs and who don't better than the adults do. Me personally, I wish the troop my boys are in would allow reelections. After 6 months, they have to step down and either A) run for a different position or B) wait until the next election to get back in.

With all due respect Latin Scot, multiple BSA sources say units, specifically the SM, Skipper, Coach or Adviser, can indeed limit who the Scout or Venturer has as a MBC by designating a specific counselor for them to use. From http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/BoyScouts/GuideforMeritBadgeCounselors/MBCounselorGuide.aspx "A Scout first expresses an interest in a particular merit badge by letting his unit leader know. To get him started, the leader gives him a signed Application for Merit Badge (blue card) along with the name and contact information for a district/council approved mer

No, you can NOT go wrong with bacon and chocolate. My "secret ingredient" is only in my current neck of the woods. Back home it was a staple: Tony Chachere's seasoning salt. We used it for everything. Another one, when I can get it, is coffee with chicory. Heat up some evaporated milk and make some Cafe au Lait.

What state was this in? Again local laws may mandate an age.

Every chapter and lodge is different. And things are cyclical. Sometimes a chapter is on top of the world. And other times, it's the last priority. Currently the OA chapter in my district is on the downswing. The really motivated youth aged out and/or went to college. The advisors that were the glue tot he leadership either got burned out, moved, had kids age out, or in my case, had kids in Cub Scouts. Now the chapter is a shadow of itself, and folks have no interest, including my son.