swilliams

This is our nearest troop. Our Venture Crew (all girl) shares a CO and meeting location, so on the one night a month the crew meets and the scouts are there, we tend to peek our heads in and see what's up. The troop is continuing to have girls sign up, with a reported two additional in March. I think they're over 20 now, but would have to double-check on that. In any case, they sure put 100% effort into the Klondike, with a few of the older scouts training ahead of time, even though the charter wasn't official yet. https://rennamedia.com/new-bsa-troop-280-places-high-in-regional-r

Similar matter here. I had a scout contact me because his MB counselor hasn't been getting back to him. We just found out the MB counselor is sick - terminally ill. The counselor has the blue card, and none of us is comfortable with attempting to get the counselor to return it, given the circumstances. I figured I'd just issue a new blue card to the scout and have him contact a new counselor. I'm sure the scout would rather get the original back, but sometimes things happen, so maybe a good lesson in being flexible? I would hope that the new MB counselor would take the scout's word a

I'm glad you posted this. The bolded is that part that bothered me. To be fair, perhaps it's how the article presented the information.

I should probably say that I didn't peel bark from the standing trees, but took it from downed ones. Unlike pine and some other trees where the bark crumbles as the tree decomposes, these left nice little tubes that were easily separated from the rest of the trunk. Maybe the oils preserve the bark? Which leads me to also wonder whether any species you find where the trunk is decomposing but the bark is relatively intact, would be good fire-starters with similar properties. (My daughter says I'm spending way too much time thinking about bark.)

I'm not sure if I'd use "unfriendly", but totally see what you mean. It's almost like the church leaders are trying to tell non-LDS people what to do with their own troops. Of course, when it concerns church buildings, membership data, etc. it's understandable, but this seems to cross that line a bit, and I'm having a hard time articulating why, exactly, it's bothering me. It's encouraging to see, from those comments in the original link, that there are a number of families who've joined community troops and have found the programs to be engaging for their scouts. It's understandably

Our Crew Advisor has two daughters in Venturing, and has a son who is an Eagle, so he's full of wisdom. In addition to typical scouting things, I picked up the following from him. If you're wanting some coffee in the morning (yes, please) and take it with milk and sugar, yet have none available, you can add a packet of hot chocolate. Makes it both sweet, and more creamy. Doesn't taste the same, but makes the coffee palatable (even enjoyable) for those of us who are too weak to drink it black. I also had a great opportunity this weekend to try out something one of our ASMs had told me

I (electronically) asked my family and friends who have scout-aged kids whether they'd be considering continuing in scouting/BSA, regardless of what the church comes up with in terms of a program. The only two people who replied were my sister and my dad, neither of whom have sons in scouting anymore, lol. If what they said is any indication, there are still some families who want their sons to earn Eagle. Unfortunately, I think a lot of LDS troops looked at scouting ONLY as a path to Eagle, and know for a fact that more than a few troops never followed the patrol method well and did very f

I was thinking the session described wouldn't only be about safety, but also going over the rifle/shotgun and learning about function as well, and maybe a little bit about ammunition, sights, etc. For a lot of these scouts, this will be the first time they'll have ever laid a hand on a gun. Many may not even know how the firearm functions.

Sounds like you're in a very tough spot. As much as I can appreciate the desire to start a linked girls' troop, if the current troop only has seven scouts and is on its last legs, will there be any benefit to having the girls' troop linked? It sounds like there's not really a functioning troop for the boys at all, and while that doesn't automatically mean the girls' troop can't work, it might be tough to get the troop to flourish when the other isn't. Also, only you and your own kids can decide, but think about what they hope to get out of scouting. If the best way to keep your son int

So, I just gave an 'I love it' rep to a post from 2010, lol. We still have three metal mess kits, but I can't remember the last time anything was cooked in them. For me, personally, I cook a fair amount over the fire, but not in the mess kit since it's usually for my family of five. My daughter does take a metal cup along with her plastic mess kit, so she can heat water for hot chocolate over the backpacking stove. Our crew and troop does a lot of cooking in the Dutch oven, but again, not the same. Now I'm going to have to throw this out there as a challenge for some of the older

My daughter's Venture Crew (all girl) is led by three dads who started the crew for their daughters. There are three women on the committee now (we're called 'Associate Advisors' ), but the main leaders are still men.

Ask a few scout shops as well. Sometimes they get old uniforms, and occasionally some of the less sentimental patches are left on.

One of our all-girl Venture crew leaders recently created a new web page. Under the 'Who We Are' tab, these are the first sentences: "Simply put, we are Boy Scouts... who are girls! Why? Well, because we love being outdoors!" None of our girls has any issue being referred to as Boy Scouts. Shame the name couldn't have been left alone.

I tried that with the last pack - not taking over, but splitting the den, as we had 14 Webelos. Was told 'no'. Long story. Suffice to say it didn't work out I had kind of forgotten this, to be honest. I guess because I'm mainly involved with the older kids in Boy Scouts now, it didn't register. Getting old and slow.

I realize the OP posted this in September, but I'm chiming in now to share what I've found in the last couple days If you look at my post history, you'll see we've had some difficulties in pack structure and leadership, and our den meetings at our local pack had deteriorated. Much more to the story, but it's a tl:dr. We switched packs at the end of the school year. With our new pack, we did all kinds of summer events, and my son was having a great time, but we didn't meet his den leader until very end of the summer. That was the first warning bell. So... fast-forward, and we've only

Trefoil Ranch in Utah, for a week with the Girl Scouts. I hated it, though I'm sure that was through no fault of the camp. I had no friends in Girl Scouts, so I'm not sure why my parents sent me, other than maybe to get me out of their hair, lol. The vast majority of my camping experience was with my family. Dad is an outdoorsman, so we camped a LOT. Most vivid memories are him hiding our Easter baskets up in some scrub oak one year, and having the back of our (the kids) tent collapse on us due to a heavy snow, while dad slept soundly in the truck/camper.

Had to trophy your post for this comment. Our schools have a FaceBook page for each grade. For the last week, every post from the parents has been about a particular assignment that there is no way the kids can complete on their own. Some of the comments are hysterical, but the underlying issue is not.

My boys are still on the young side, 12 and 10, so I've not brought this up. It's too tempting to stick my head in the sand, rather than try to wade into the murk that is the current #metoo. It's sad to think that it's no longer enough to talk to them about treating girls with respect, but to have to add in precautions about making sure they can't be accused of inappropriate behavior. As for my daughters, one was groped in the hallway of middle school - early 2000's, plenty of witnesses. She immediately went to the school director, told him what had happened and pointed out the boy, wh

I wish I had a picture to share. I worked in a local scout shop, and a grown man brought in his old merit badge sash. One of the merit badges had fallen off. He wanted me to sew it back on, but "make it look like the rest of them - like they way I did it when I was 16, using my mom's old machine". It was one of the most heartwarming things I've ever seen; with black, uneven stitching showing all around the insides of the badges.

This pretty much sums up where we are, too. Our CO is okay with it, and they charter a few different packs/troops, but we've seen very little interest. My daughter (13) joined an all-girl Venture crew and is happy as a clam. It was started in 2016 by a couple dads who wanted something for their daughters. They decided to keep it all girl, with the thought that the boys already had two troop in towns to choose from. The crew now has girls from at least seven of the surrounding towns - mine is one of them. I think for those who are early to get started, there's a better chance that

What a tragedy. I feel for this troop and its leadership. My younger son's Cub pack just had an overnight trip to the Absecon Lighthouse in NJ. One of the things the lighthouse keeper told us was that the rescue crew when the lighthouse was first built had a saying, "You have to go out, but you don't have to come back", which the Coast Guard still uses. Apparently more of these brave men lost their lives practicing rescues than they did while performing actual rescues. Yes, dangerous. A tragedy happened, now we only hope that lessons will be taken from it.

That's such a difficult situation. I was all ready to step up as CC when our current said she was stepping down. Then she didn't, and the pack is really limping along without strong leadership from either her or the Cubmaster. I tried to find various ways to help, but there's some kind of weird power struggle going on, and the two of them aren't open to any suggestions. One of our best den leaders offered to be Assistant Cubmaster, and was told 'no'. A little while later, that position was taken off the list of open positions, but no one can (or will) say who filled it. In the end, we sw

This is a big reason for my hope that troops can actually be kept separate. Even when things are equal, it's human nature to see inequality. My husband was laid off last fall, and through the role reversal of him being home with the kids while I'm working over 40 hours a week, we've gotten a pretty good laugh at ourselves and our perceptions of how hard (or not) the other was working. My very first reaction on hearing the news about adding girls was excitement, but that has been tempered quite a bit in the time since. Initial excitement was because I'd seen what a great program scoutin

We've only been part of our crew for three months now, but here's what I'd like to see, plus something you could suggest for your crews. Advertise, advertise, advertise. Very few families have ever heard of Venturing. When I talked to the mothers of my daughter's two best friends about signing their kids up, they had no idea what Venturing is, and were surprised to find out that the BSA has been running a co-ed program for years. With all the conversation about allowing girls into the Cub and Boy Scouts, this is a great opportunity to let folks know that this isn't the first time girls