swilliams

Reviving this old thread because this issue is still ongoing. Not only are things not better, they're worse. I've tried to stay out of it, as I'm not SM. The only reason I was (am) involved at all is because my son is friendly with this group, despite being a year younger, and I was one of two Troop leaders who hiked the 70 miles for Hiking MB with this group. As a result, their parents have involved me, even as I've referred them to the SM. The SM spoke to both sets of parents, and we thought things were being settled. Fast forward to early February. We found out that Scout One fil

We didn't lose any scouts due to Covid, but it absolutely impacted our ability to bring in new scouts. We had one scout drop due to an ongoing fight between two scouts in our Troop (mentioned in another thread, which I might go revive), but another, who had dropped the previous year, decided to sign up again this year in the hopes that we're headed to summer camp. Our Venture Crew numbers are down slightly. We're going on our fifth year, so the girls (all-girl crew) who started the Crew and were super-involved have graduated. Many are away at university, but even those who are remote l

I debated whether to laugh at this, or not. So far, our Council says summer camp is a go. I sure hope so. Getting the units active again will be SO important.

I upvoted this yesterday, but came back to it to add a comment. I agree - mostly. Service can be evaluated as part of Scout Spirit, and could be folded into the SM Conference. At the same time, having specifics laid out helps in a couple ways. Some SMs may not be comfortable telling a scout he doesn’t think they have earned their next rank due to something that would be subjective. What constitutes enough service? It also gives a scout a concrete goal that he/she can plan for. Particularly helpful as they get older and may have a lot of obligations pulling them different directions.

A funny anecdote: we've been buried in snow here in NJ for a while. We still can't meet indoors, so we'd planned on holding our latest COH at an outdoor amphitheater. A few days before the COH, with the area still buried in snow, the SM called on the scouts to come help shovel the snow away from the benches and stage, and clear a couple paths to get into the area. A bunch of scouts showed up and did the clearing. The amphitheater is next to a nature museum, and the director of some of the children's programs there, when she found the area cleared, told our SM that with the area cleared

A national BSA contribution to the Trust that includes a significant portion of national BSA’s unrestricted, non-core assets that are not subject to liens of its secured lender. A loan from the National Boy Scouts of America Foundation to the BSA to provide the BSA with sufficient working capital following emergence from bankruptcy. A contribution of at least $300 million from local councils to the Trust. I'm not sure what I was expecting to see from that statement, but am left struggling for words. No wonder BSA has gotten such a negative reaction, and it isn't just because

Our Troop's Eagle COH's don't actually have much to do with the Troop, other than the scouts are encouraged to attend and the Eagle scouts will ask for participants. It's typically a group of parents who do the organizing and planning, usually once there are three or more Eagle scouts to combine a ceremony for. Without knowing your relationship with the SM, I'll add my two cents on the issue of whether service gets awarded/approved for this by the SM. I'm also our Troop's Advancement Chair, and don't always agree 100% with the SM's decisions as they pertain to advancement. Unless I f

So that sounds like a 'no' to my question. Having followed a couple court cases on other issues (as best I can without any real legal knowledge), I'm aware that court proceedings are never quick. Are there other issues standing in the way of the insurer's motion being denied or granted?

I haven't read through this entire thread. Has the motion in the link been ruled on?

I think many of us have similar questions about the number of claims, but are going to be very cautious about expressing them. The last thing anyone needs is a bunch of current scouters seeming to be shrugging away or minimizing the damage that was done. Yeah, that's what BSA's offer seems to do, but it doesn't mean those of us on the ground shouldn't be more aware.

Our Troop is considering climbing/rappelling along the Shawangunk Mountain range. So far, the only "real" campground we've found is run by the Alpine Club, and the charge is $38 per site (for non-members), with a maximum of 4 people per site. That would put the cost for the camping at a minimum of $190, if we have a typical turnout. While we've paid fees like this in the past for camping, this trip would include a guided climbing lesson, which is already a fairly large expense compared to our usual campouts. Is anyone here familiar with that area? Are there alternate places to camp?

This is what we've been doing. Carpooling is discouraged and our state doesn't want the cooking equipment shared, so it ends up being 'camp with your family in an area where there may be other families with scouts in your Troop'. Not a fan, even though I love camping and have been to a significant number of trips pre-Covid as an adult leader, but... if that's what it is for now, so be it.

There are also those of us who have been infected already, and are waiting to see what observation and studies say about extended immunity, and who want to see if any longer-term effects start to show up. At this point, having already had Covid, I have no intention of getting the vaccine. That may change; it may not. For full disclosure, I have a relative who was vaccine-injured. This doesn't mean my family and I are anti-vaxx, or deniers, or any other delightful names we've been called. My children are all vaccinated with the exception of not having been given the rotavirus or HPV va

This is slightly off-topic, but when I looked over the requirements for this award, I was expecting to see Environmental Science or Sustainability listed, rather than Public Health. Has public health always been under the purview of the EPA?

One of our committee members forwarded this to our group today, and I've forwarded it to our scouts. There is something I found odd, though. It's the EPA - the Environmental Protection Agency - yet as I scrolled through the list of MBs I kept expecting to see Environmental Science or Sustainability in there. To me, that makes more sense than Public Health, even as I can see why we would want scouts to be taking that particular MB right now.

As a kid, I was always reluctant to address an adult by their first name. It just seemed wrong, somehow. So I found myself not addressing them at all, or finding awkward ways of getting their attention if I had to say something. In our new community, there is a strong preference for calling adults Mr, Ms, or Mrs. It felt weird to be addressed as Mrs. W at first, but it didn't take long to realize how normal it was for the kids to do so, and to see that it was easy for them. It was nice to see how readily they approach you when there is a somewhat defined way of addressing adults. As

Agree, but there are a couple exceptions for us that come to mind. One of our merit badge counselors is an Army Colonel, though retired. I would not refer to him as Mr. _____, only Col. _____ The other is our Scoutmaster. Once in a while I slip up and say Mr. T, but usually try to address him, when talking to scouts as Scoutmaster T.

My husband and I offered our place in PA to host a Troop summer camp, but it was voted down by our Committee. They were concerned about the ability to contain the virus. Objections included the difficulty of sanitizing equipment, transportation (no carpooling), tenting arrangements, whether the scouts needed to and/or were able to quarantine, etc. I was sad, to say the least. We had a spot set up for making outdoor showers and were going to contribute a portable water heater, I had found a local place that would have donated lumber for picnic benches, had spoken to a local place that b

We've not been as active as my sons would have liked. We're meeting outdoors for an hour, once a week, but trips have been non-existent outside of one October trip out to PA. I wish we could do more, but the real issue for my boys right now is summer camp. My older one outgrew his scout shirt, and as we were taking patches off to transfer them to the new shirt, he suddenly realized that he was going to be missing his 'full circle'. There's a round Sabattis Camp patch in the middle, with rockers for each year surrounding it. Due to the camp closure las summer, he'll be missing 2020, a

The fight happened outside of scouting. Online gaming. Ugh. One accused the other of cheating, and it was all downhill afterward, allegedly with a bunch of name-calling and 'your mother' comments thrown in as well. That seems pretty typical and straight-up to me (being one of eight kids in my family and having four of my own, lol). My worry is that this has morphed into bullying in the scout world. Hope the SM gets back to one of us soon.

Here to pick your brains while I wait for our Scoutmaster to be available. I did a quick search, but (surprisingly, or not) there are a LOT of topics that contain the words 'scout' and 'conflict'. I was encouraging one of our scouts to go on our camping trip coming up this weekend. He's an older scout (age 15, joined about 18 months ago) who is still not First Class. He wants to advance, so this would finally have given him some of the opportunities we've been missing during Covid times to complete some camping-related requirements. He had one excuse after the next, and it came to lig

What a strange image, right? Who came up with this idea during the plague? Someone sadistic, I’m sure. “Let’s scare the plague out of the patient.” 😂 These went over so well that I have to buy more fabric and do another batch, and the SM said he “sees a t-shirt in our future”.

Wasn’t quite sure where to put this, but wanted to share something I made to celebrate our first in-person Troop meeting since the first of March. Plague Doctor neckerchief. 😆

I'll add that a lot of the EU members have also opened borders with neighboring countries as well (beginning May 15th), and the numbers of new daily cases in the EU is still trending downward. We have twelve scouts who didn't sign up for Philmont this year, as they are 13 and newly-turned 14 year olds. Now that this year is canceled, the troop is giving the same scouts who were signed up for this year first dibs at going next year. (If we have a slot - there are 14 crews wanting 11 spots in our council.) Now these younger scouts will have two years to wait before they can go. With the

Kind of confused... if the parents wouldn't bring their kids out, how are they okay with sending them to camp? The virus isn't going to disappear in four more weeks. Anyway, I'm still not convinced overnight camps are going to be open. Murphy seems to be very hesitant to open things up. I had hoped he'd have addressed outdoor pools by now. I think half our parents, at a minimum, are ready to let their kids get together. Recently, six scouts in our troop just happened to be doing their 15 mile hike in the same location at the same time. (Something tells me they might coincidentally f