MrBob

It's been going on since at least 1989. Since then I went to camp after camp where mere presence at sessions earned "Scoutcraft"  MBs.

 

In 2015, the historic finality of the Merit Badge Counselor's signature on the Blue Card went away with the new provision of the G2A empowering Scoutmasters to deny merit badges if the Scoutmaster determines that the Merit Badge could not have been earned.  So if there is a lack of rigor, we can't just point a finger at merit badge mill summer camps and "Merit Badge universities."   It's a Pogo thing.  We have met the enemy and he is us  or some of us.

Yeah, but action under 7.0.4.7 isn't something that should be done on a whim, or used to interject "additional requirements" into the badge.  Its reserved for situations where a boy claims to have, for example, earned the Camping merit badge, when there's no possible way that boy had enough camping nights.  Not because some adult leader thinks he "knows better" or feels the requirements as written are insufficient to warrant a badge.

Plus, there's a documented appeal process that the Scout can use if he feels the Scoutmaster is being an unreasonable jerk.

All but one of them pulled their kids too.

I'd have charged them for the event anyways.  A "no refunds" policy tends to get people to not pull that kind of stunt.

YMMV, of course, but in my experience, even a tiny hit to the wallet tends to pull people up short and remind them that Scouting isn't something you do unless you can find something else to do.

I have concerns.

 

 

http://wtvr.com/2016/07/11/what-you-need-to-know-about-your-privacy-and-pokemon-go/

Only applied to the iOS version, and only if you used GMail as the authentication point, and as of an hour ago is no longer an issue (its been fixed).

  Urban exploration?  What 10 animals and plants does one hope to identify there?  Where do people come up with these ideas?  A uniform is not required but a smartphone is? 

Its a proper adaptation of LNT guidelines to an urban environment - you want to blend-in with your surroundings so as not to disrupt the native's enjoyment of their habitat.

Nyantic is aware of the gross permissions issue with Google account bonding and is in the process of fixing it.

We had a trip planned this last weekend and I had 7 parents signed up as drivers, In the last 48 hours before the trip, 3 of my drivers cancelled and a fourth simply didn't show up to the departure location. If one of the drivers who was signed up didn't have the opportunity to borrow a mini-van, we would have left Scouts behind in the parking lot.

Just out of curiosity... did any of these drivers who cancelled happen to be the parents of Scouts who showed up to go on the trip?

I'm thinking a single dose lasts 5-20 minute, I know it isn't very long and everyone reacts differently to a measured dose.  A mildly allergic person reacts differently than a severely allergic person.

 

Out in the backwoods, like CPR, it's a Hail Mary effort at best.

Just put up some cardboard-cutout trees and camp in the hospital lobby, I guess.  That'd be safest, right?

We have enough yahoo's out there doing their own thing making life miserable for some dedicated hardworking scouts.  

Seems like quite a few of them post here.

forget it.

A scout is trustworthy. 

Apparently does not apply to Adults.

Warning tech-averse Scouters:  Pokemon GO is a thing.  And it is getting people up to wander around outside.  You've been warned.

Yes... my youngest put around 10 miles on the family dog this weekend, hunting down various 'n sundry critters.

Does anyone remember the time, when all you needed to go camping as fill out the form, and your First Class and above Scouts had First Aid Merit Badge, so you didn't need to worry about having folks with first aid certs?  I do, and I miss it.

Heresy!  How could you possibly survive a night in the scary out-of-doors without at least a paper certificate from a technical college?

Nah.  If yeh just do those requirements yeh have paddled a canoe a total of 100 yards or so.  200 at most.

 

Really learnin' any discipline can't be reduced to a set of enumerated requirements, eh?  Especially not when half of 'em are "discuss" and definitions and such.  It involves developin' skills and when to apply the skills.  It involves learnin' terms, sure, but also how to use the terms.  Yeh have to be able to demonstrate things not just individually, but in combination.  

 

Doin' just the requirements gives yeh static, disconnected "knowledge".   Just like cramming for any test.  Learnin' how to canoe gives yeh practical, dynamic, interconnected knowledge.  It's the difference between memorizing and understandin'; knowin' about vs. being able to do. 

 

Yeh can "pass" da BSA Canoe MB requirements and still be a danger to yourself and others on the water.  Seen it lots of times .That ain't a fault of the requirements necessarily; the requirements aren't a bad test (though all of our requirements become pretty lame if yeh take a really aggressive "no adding" stance).   It's just that doin' or passin' a test ain't the same thing as learning, as any student anywhere can tell yeh. 

 

I reckon that's where I fault da modern G2A.  It's not so bad, except that it so emphasizes regulatory sorts of stuff that most of our adults newer to Scoutin' haven't learned how Advancement Method is really supposed to work to achieve our Aims, eh?

 

Beavah

Its a merit badge, not a Master's degree.  However, perhaps an added "paddle trip" requirement a'la the camping merit badge's "Take a nonmotorized trip on the water of at least four hours or 5 miles."  could be suggested to the national advancement committee.  The last requirement being a "using what you've learned so far, take an overnight canoe trip of at least X miles with your troop or patrol" sort of thing.

Good research.

 

Looking at PD-109 on page 43 of the 430-056.Pdf. public or private outside providers (third parties) must have:

    - with Council, a "written agreement" outlining responsibilities.

    - insurance

    - Camp Staff supervision to insure their safety and YP compliance.

    - demonstrate compliance with YP (YP training short-course?)

 

Perhaps "written agreement" mentions background checks and Health forms.  If not, then I think third parties have the better deal over parent volunteers. Just show up, instruct, go home no paperwork required.

PD-109 applies to "service providers", not volunteer "helping hands".  F.ex, the 3 college-age guys you rented the rock climbing wall from, who bring it on-site and manage moving the boys through it.

At our local Cub camp, Mom and Dad volunteers are required to have YP (and to get that online you have to register online with BSA), CORI (background check for our state), and BSA health forms. Your camp may be different. Sure a parent without those could visit our camp but not work with other scouts. The lack of camp ID badge would make that clear.

 

My point, whatever those requirements are to allow volunteers direct contact with kids, they should be the same for ALL volunteers having direct contact. If not, what is the point?

430-056.pdf - National Camp Accreditation Program, 2014  http://www.scouting.org/filestore/outdoor%20program/pdf/430-056.pdf

SQ-401 - Staff Qualification and Training Standards

Standard:

A. All camp staff are registered members of the Boy Scouts of America. All other camp personnel either are registered members of the Boy Scouts of America or meet alternative criteria pursuant to Standard PD-109.

Interpretation:

• Camp staff includes all personnel, paid or volunteer, retained by the council or camp management, who interact with camp participants. Camp staff includes employees, CITs, and continuing volunteers (e.g., camp commissioners, volunteers asked by the camp management to assist program on an ongoing basis).

• Camp personnel includes all other personnel, retained by the council or camp management or by contractors working at the camp, who do not typically interact with camp participants as part of their assigned duties. Examples might include kitchen staff, commissary or warehouse staff, or ranger staff without program responsibilities.

• Camp staff and camp personnel do not include (1) third parties who come on-site to offer a program to camp participants, are accompanied by camp staff while present, and do not remain on-site overnight; and (2) parents and volunteers in day camps and family camps who assist in program while staff are present and provide supervision. In any camp, an unsupervised volunteer must meet the requirements for camp staff.

Your council may apply stricter requirements, and your State's laws obviously come into play.  However, National doesn't consider one-time 3rd parties to be "camp staff".

 

Now, let's turn the discussion to something really important:  pie.    Apple or pecan?   What goes better with your first cup of coffee?

oooh.... still-warm pecan, plz.

 Are corporate groups which volunteer to help with scout program activities required to have YP, background checks, health forms, and join BSA just like the Mom and Dad volunteers?

 

Since when are "mom and dad volunteers" required to have YP, background checks, and join BSA in order to "help" ?  That's never been required, so long as 2-deep/no 1-on-1 is observed.

Are you telling me that when we had the local fire department come spend the entire day at Day Camp two years ago, we were supposed to run FBI background checks on all the firefighters first?  Hogwash.

But when your company does volunteer work in someone else's house, so to speak, do you hand out your corporate paraphernalia to the beneficiaries without asking permission? And when you get back to your office, do you post pictures of your volunteer work on Facebook, to call attention to your good works?

 

Maybe you do. I'm just asking.

Yes, on both accounts.  Sometimes there's press involved, depending on the magnitude of the project.  If its three people fartin' around picking up trash in a park, they'll just be wearing company t-shirts.  If its multiple weeks of planning for an event involving hundreds, or even thousands, of participants, you bet your sweet Aunt May there's gonna be a presser and local news involved, and custom-logo'd swag handed out.

Corporations don't do anything purely out of altruistic intent.  Volunteerism is good PR.

There you go.  

If the restauranteurs had only worn the camp uniform,  there would have been no problem.  

 

Were they there as extra Camp staff, or as Hooter  people?  

They were there as corporate volunteers.  No different than when the company I work for does volunteer work.

I thought he was referring to the attitude of certain PARENTS who believe that their son is a "special snowflake"

"It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is. If the--if he--if 'is' means is and never has been, that is not--that is one thing. If it means there is none, that was a completely true statement..."

Shh Back Pack, if someone from National reads this I suspect your good idea may suddenly become yet another requirement in the Eagle project workbook.

 

(I just realized this thread is in Issue and Politics, I am moving it to Open Discussion. I suppose it could also go in Advancement but I think it is of more general interest than that.)

Worse, the Scout will have to perform an "Environmental Impact Assessment" and a "Sustainability Analysis" prior to getting the project approved.

Could not do SMC at camp because all the blue cards were not registered at council.  

I would not have held-up an SMC just because some paper-pusher didn't push a piece of paper.  The merit badge is earned once the MBC signs it, not once the Council decides to do data entry.

I wonder if I could get the local Hells Angels chapter together to do an Automotive Maintenance merit badge clinic...

Under the new program requirements, he can (a) do them in order, (b) skip straight to AOL, or © work on them simultaneously, with the caveat that "properly" he should get the last requirement for Webelos signed off BEFORE the last requirement for AOL (since, by the book, he cannot earn Webelos *after* earning AOL).

His choice on which of the three he wants to do.

Regarding your 2nd question, the most straightforward way of doing this is to put him in the 2nd year webelos den and have him "officially" work on AOL with the den, and do the Webelos badge stuff on his own time.

  I've just been pointing out that the Hooters brand could quite easily be considered inconsistent with an organization whose brand is outdoor skills, character development, and moral and ethical decision making.

 

 

The same could be said of just about EVERY corporate sponsor in the US.  Do you want us to "ban" everyone except REI, Gander Mountain, and Cabelas from volunteering?