Back Pack

Actually our adults have discussed this issue with us. They’ve given the team their views on both sides of the argument and then let us decide what we wanted to do. 25 scouts voted unanimously to keep the regalia and keep doing what we do. The team even contacted our local nation to get their perspective. They had no problem with it. So that’s why I think National is jumping the gun. How many other nations feel as our local one?

I was being argumentative on purpose. There are some that are quick to throw out traditions such as OA for lesser reasons than conserving natural resources. Yet I’ll bet they’d defend their need for campfires if folks came looking to ban their use too. I just find that ironic. What’s the phrase, not in my backyard. 😎 I love fires too. Would not want to ban them but I don’t think big fires for no reason are a good use of resources. I’ll bet many here agree. Sounds like you do.

Yes. I had many friends who got Eagle a few months before 18 but they were always active in the troop and OA. I got mine just before my 18th birthday but I had over 120 nights camping, 500+ service hours, was on an OA ceremony team, nylt and worked at camps and as a ranger. I can honestly say I spent 7 full years in scouting. I didn’t need much help when doing my project because I was old enough to read and understand the process. When asked why I waited so long I told my board that I was savoring my scouting experience. I let me record speak for itself.

And the OA can’t use regalia? 😒

There were 26 scouts in my join class. Over 7 years we had 18 of them earn Eagle but all at different times. In 26 years we’ve had about 120 Eagles.

Us too.

Hard to have fire in some states. More often than not we can’t have them. When we do they are low impact fires. Our unit enjoys fires too but has made a commitment to conservation. Fires are only when necessary. Maybe fires are another tradition that needs to go away.

The decision by lodges does not keep local units from still doing it. So your point is moot. Local units do stuff all the time that could get National in trouble. I’m just glad the adults in my unit allow the youth to make decisions like this. The national youth OA leaders should be making this decision. It’s actually more consistent with the intention and role of Boy Scouts.

I have a friend who works at our council and they said it takes them less than 15 minutes to validate an Eagle application. They current don’t charge. If they did I’m pretty sure we’d stop giving money to them.

There’s no one German culture either. If you look at German regions they are equally as diverse as any other country on the planet. The point I was making is that if you remove the Native American elements from OA you can’t replace with with anything without having the same issue of people being angry at the appropriation of their culture. You’d have to go to something so nondiscript that it would be just boring and a waste. So if anyone is going to side with those who want to stop using regalia to be consistent you have to abandon all regalia. And that’s sad. And it’s sad that adults keep mak

But boys run the lodge just like boys run the troop. So why are adults so involved in what happens. I could say too that if the Indian thing bothers you guys then don’t join. Why do we always have to stop doing fun stuff because new joiners don’t like it. Why join a club where the costumes or practices offend you. That makes no sense. You join things you like not things you don’t and then try to change them. Make your own group and get people to join it. But make no mistake OA is for boys. Adults are part of it like your part of Boy Scouts but it’s not about adults. I can’t wait for someone to

Sabine National Forest is nice. Can camp, canoe and water sports.

Well all I can say is for all the discussion here on the patrol method and allowing boys to lead all I hear are adults making decisions about what impacts this boys program. How about letting the scouts make the decision and the adults live with it. Wouldn’t that be more in line with what you all say you want for boys in scouting? Or is that just talk.

You just saw the difference between boy led and adult led.

You guys are thinking like adults. Remember what it was like to be a boy? OA was special because of the Native American stuff. Take that away and you have yet another service organization but one that wants you to travel hours from home to help. Good luck getting teenagers interested.

It’s part of what makes it interesting. We have to rename OA next. I’m sure just using that symbolism will offend someone. Just having an honor society with any mystique will be like NHS for Scouts. Big deal. NHS is already boring so now we have another boring Scout thing? What many adult keep forgetting is that kids like this stuff. We dress up for Halloween because it’s fun. We liked OA for the mystique and the ceremonies. We were on ceremony teams because they were fun. Now all that goes away and we just meet to do service projects? You’ll have to create something pretty amazing and special

But who are you going to offend? That’s the question. Somebody is going to get offended about something so why bother. Unless you pick a groups that’s not going to complain about the use of their culture.

My point. They got over it and kept their indignation to themselves. My German grandparents are the same way about the appropriation Oktoberfest.

I wonder if Germans get offended at the cultural appropriation that happens every October or the Irish every March. Have yet to hear them complain or the appropriation stop.

Wow I’m glad I finished scouts before the adults took all the fun out of it. Reading this forum I see a ton of stuff my leaders protected us from. I hope they can continue to offer my troop the fun I experienced. But if bsa continues down this path I doubt there will be much left.

I read the guide to safe scouting that was posted. It says family camping is allowed. That might mean any family member could go camping at any time but there’s no further discussion of what it is.

Do you have links for those documents? I’ve been trying to read up on this and all I see is the guide to safe scouting that says sibling participation is restricted to activities that scouts of the same age are allowed to do.

Buzzfeed was founded as a social media story aggregator to track viral social media stuff. It’s like a blog of trending hashtag-like stories. It wasn’t meant to be journalistic until they brought over the guy from Politico. That’s another source of dubious integrity. No one I know trusts any single source. We’ve been taught to read both sides and try to find the truth in the middle. There are no independent news sources anymore.

Well there goes the last bit of fun. We have a unit based ceremony team but everyone has been fully trained just like the lodge teams. We even have a Native American on the team. He’s got no problem with the regalia being worn by anyone because it’s all authentic. If we have to stop doing ceremonies your going to see a lot fewer guys at lodge meetings.

Our troop hated mb sessions during meetings. In fact we had several spls give speeches during elections on how we’d spend more time outside than doing advancement work. These guys won all the time. If you left it to my troop we’d never do advancement work at meetings. Maybe on camp outs but only if it was part of a scheduled activity. The kids are not the ones pushing mb work. It was usually just one or two adults. Usually the parents of kids who wanted their kid to make Eagle fast.