krikkitbot

I didn't go to ceremonies sessions. Interestingly, during the evening show, they brought out the black robes and made a point to emphasize that the ceremonies are not native american ceremonies. They are our traditions. I foresee a change in the near future going back to black robes and doing away with all native american regalia. 

34 minutes ago, qwazse said:

@krikkitbot, were you at a session or seminar of NOAC that discussed this?

No, but there was an email that came out either right before NOAC or during NOAC. I can't remember it was all a blur. You can go to https://oa-bsa.org/resources/inductions and read the new approved ceremonies. The AOL ceremony specifically states that it is never performed in regalia. They say "American Indian costume" but we know better than to call it costume, don't we?

16 hours ago, MattR said:

Glad you went.

Inquiring minds want to know, what was decided on OA and helping with webelo bridging? Can they use their regalia?

Thanks!

No regalia for AOL or Cross over ceremonies. There is only one approved script. It is more like the court of honor in which you light a candle for each rank. 

Sport's Authority gone. 
Gander Mountain went for a walk about.

I've been hearing about retailmaggedon for a while. In the meantime, Amazon is planning to open brick and mortar stores. 

I heard it from the current national chief during a Q&A session that girls will be allowed into the OA. There was no hesitation in his response.  

I was thinking how grateful I am for the ASMs who are stepping up and helping me with the program. I think that they were hesitant to do so under the previous SM, I know I was. 

@HelpfulTracks is correct Here are the requirements.

However, I don't see why he couldn't do the job and advise the Troop Rep without doing so in an official capacity as a regular ASM. 

Related question. Do you place a limit on the number of adults going on each camping trip? 

It's rare to have one's mind changed in social media but it does happen to me frequently in this forum.

1 minute ago, fred johnson said:

Yes.  As much as anyone else.  You might not like his path, but yes he is and he has every right to use the rank name.

 

I guess my question would be, if he shows up 3 years after disappearing and asking for project approval, SM conference and EBOR, do you approve it?

2 minutes ago, blw2 said:

in a big way that depends on what your position in the troop is.

Brand new SM but I was a ASM there for a long time.

Troop has been operating like this for years so some of these families have been around for a while. 

Ok, so how is this scenario? 

1- Be active in your troop^[2] for at least six months as a Life Scout.

4- While a Life Scout, serve actively in your troop^[2] for six months in one or more of the following positions of responsibility:

• Boy Scout troop. Patrol leader, assistant senior patrol leader, senior patrol leader, troop guide, Order of the Arrow troop representative, den chief, scribe, librarian, historian, quartermaster, junior assistant Scoutmaster, chaplain aide, instructor, webmaster, or outdoor ethics guide.^[3]

Scout fast tracks to Life by 13 1/2. Becomes the librarian with minimal responsibilities. at 14 he stops showing up. He is asked to come back and is not interested. At 17.9 he shows up with a stack of blue cards signed by actual MB counselors. He asks to present an Eagle Project to the board and finish his Eagle rank. 

He was active 6 months as a Life Scout. He served for 6 months in a position of leadership. Is he an Eagle scout?

So how do I encourage breaking from this "tradition" without ruffling too many feathers? I think that out of a troop of about 20 boys there are about 3 families who do that. 

Here's where you can split hairs. The Mayor isn't giving the awards unless they are some sort of civic recognition. Either scouting is giving them or the recipients earned them. The Mayor is only presenting them on behalf of the pack.

Seems to me like the old blood might have some sort of personal issues with this mayor. Either way, I think it is wonderful that the scouts get to see and meet someone from THEIR pack who ROSE to the top LEADERSHIP position in your community. If that's not what scouting is about, maybe the old blood are thinking about some other organization. 

It seems to be fairly common in our troop with a handful of scouts especially the first year. I want to change it but I believe that have to make small incremental changes.

After many false starts and looking like I would not be the scoutmaster of my troop I can now announce that starting today I am the new scoutmaster. Time to see if I can do this or if I was just a bad back seat driver. 

Here is my first question of many to come. I will try to be as vague as possible with my questions because I think people in my district and even unit may read this board.

I know that there is a desired distance of 100 yards between adult tents and youth tents. Is that in writing somewhere (G2SS) or is that just a best practice? What do you do about the scouts who will only sleep in their parent's tent? Do you set up 3 areas?

Thanks for the help. 

Problems can also come from 21st century parents. Parents that have been doing everything for the kids and you suddenly have an old fart like me telling them, little Johnny can decide where to go or what to eat on a camping trip. It does not sit well with the more controlling parents. 

I think that building up the feeding pool from cubs to scouts to venturing will help add numbers to all programs. It's easier to enroll them when they are young and retain them as they move along. Think about how many scouts are in your troop who never went through cubs. Same for venturing.

On 2/5/2018 at 11:21 AM, Col. Flagg said:

but rather spend their 14-16 year old years working toward Eagle.

So here goes another stereotype...

I think girls are going to put their nose to the grindstone and get through to Eagle way faster than the average boy. As a general rule girls mature at a younger age than boys. I think we will see a bump in 13-14 year old Eagles and screams from people saying they are taking shortcuts or not ready to Eagle so young. 

22 hours ago, Col. Flagg said:

If only Scoutbook kept decent back-ups themselves. Their current disaster recovery model would not make many troops happy if they had a power outage or data loss. To be a mission-critical app like you suggest, SB would need near real-time back-up that is geographically remote from the primary data source. Otherwise **POOF**.

 

Out of curiosity, where did you get the information about their disaster recovery model. I would think that because of HIPAA and PCI compliance most small service providers would outsource their hosting to companies that have redundancy and meet the security requirements whether they need to meet them or not. 

I know you can't read tone into typed word. My tone is curiosity and not snark

1983? Weren't Cubs wearing beanies back then?

We gave up trying to get a spot a couple of years ago. I have heard about troops that do an annual rotation between all the HA bases and wonder how they manage to get spots year in and year out. 

Being Pedantic, but BP wrote Scouting for Boys and founded the movement in the early 20th century. The Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution in the 18th Century. The 19th Century was 1801-1900.

Without being pedantic   , I think BPs views were ensconced in the 19th century. He was born in 1857, after all.

I think it would be difficult. Like our UK friends have said, we are projecting modern values upon historical figures. It's a dangerous territory to go into. Next thing we know, we will be asking to tear down his statues and change the whole world movement. 

Would he be ok with the Secretary General of the WSOM being a 33 year old Jordanian and the headquarters being in Malaysia? Yeah, I think he would. 

Having a child diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, I can certainly empathize. I have watched him have panic attacks to the point of melting into a puddle of tears. I have also seen him overcome most of it and push through to become quite a community leader. 

I think that recognizing the problem and wanting to overcome it is a great first step. As others have mentioned, talking with a therapist is a great idea. You might even need medication at first. My son did but he eventually weaned himself off of it.

I think the most important thing to do is to keep trying. Thank you for opening up about your challenges to us.