swilliams

At our round table last night, two units said they are not going. That not only were the scouts less-than-thrilled with the proposed program, but that they didn’t think they could get dedicated adults to go. (By dedicated, they meant assigned to a pod for the entire week.) A couple leaders questioned why we still aren’t allowed by council to have in-person meetings when the governor has OK’d gathering of 25.

We’re all (scouts, SM, ASMs, and committee) supposed to come up with ideas. We’re ‘meeting’ tomorrow night to put the ideas forward.

There is a very large parking lot adjacent to one of the schools. I’ll check, but I’d think that if you’re not on the roads, it would be okay. It sounds like fun. Something that’s been sorely missing lately. Maybe even make a chariot pulled by a bicycle or something similar.

As of this moment, our council is still not allowing any in-person scouting, despite the NJ governor giving the okay for meetings of up to 25 people, as long as masks are worn and distancing takes place. So... this means that unless something changes very soon, we will be having our end-of-school-year COH online. I'm so Covid'ed out that I think maybe we should cancel the whole thing. My 'Cheerful' is gone. The best I can muster might be a lackluster persistence. In any case, I'll still try to come up with at least one or two ideas for presenting our Troop's scouts with their two r

That would bring council/national fees to $96. Our troop has always set fees at $100 (and did so last year, even with the increase). There's no way we get by only getting $4 from scouts for the year. That doesn't even cover the cost of the handbook (Troop provided), let alone the class B shirt and neckerchief we give new scouts, rank patches and MB patches, etc.

This was shown at our council's Town Hall meeting tonight. It wasn't clear to me, but I think our council will also charge a $12 insurance fee and an $18 activity fee. Or maybe those fees are part of the $66?

Just watched a town hall with PPC. Winnebago is NOT a go at this point. State hasn't okayed overnight camps. I was surprised. Our Troop presented the option as though it were definitely happening.

I'm going to be a little argumentative here. While I agree with what you wrote, it has been my experience - through the scouts in our troop - that this is easier said than done. We have been having major issues with getting MB counselors hooked up with scouts. Far higher numbers of counselors than usual are completely unresponsive to scout inquiries. For example, a Gardening MB counselor said he was doing a call with a group of scouts this past weekend, yet never emailed our two scouts who were interested with information regarding time or manner of call. When the scouts were given the n

Scoutmaster suggested contacting our District MB Dean, which I did. Not only did he say “I can’t help you”, he said he doubts anything acceptable, as far as Sustainability goes, can be done in an online class. Great. More worrisome in terms of MBs in general, is that he said our council is “vigorously debating” whether to sign off on any requirements for their upcoming online MB offerings. What the heck? Call me crazy, but why would a teenager sit through an online class (debate whether that’s a correct term, or not, but to kids it is) if there’s nothing accomplished from it: if they st

We are now two months since my son did an online merit badge class. He was never given credit for the last day of work, and other than a confirmation email (with the missing day four work) we still haven’t received any formal record showing his partials. The last email I got was over a week ago. Each week, the emails have been saying ‘we’ll get it taken care of next week’, but now we don’t even get that. Email requests/questions get an automated response, and the phones go to voicemail. We’ve been trying to be patient, but I’m frustrated beyond reason. He’s done the 30 day portion -

We’re PPC as well. SO disappointed about Sabattis. We signed up for Winnebago instead, though we may change our minds, given the ‘no waterfront’ issue. If they can’t swim, I doubt they’ll be allowed to use the shooting range, zip lines, or other shared equipment. At least they can still camp with their friends. My husband and I have offered our place in PA for a troop camping trip, but there’s not anything more to do out here than at Winnebago with no activities. We have a Copperhead sailboat, but only two people at a time can use it, and we’re 20 minutes from the reservoir. Maybe

Slightly off topic here. My son did a Sustainability workshop (mentioned in another thread), and another of our scouts did a Citizenship session, with Central Florida. Neither scout has received “paperwork” yet, and these classes were from end of March into first of April. Not only that, but my son wasn’t given credit for his submission on the last day. The link to report errors didn’t work, and we’ve been unable to reach anyone at the council. Because the MB counselor asked the scouts to use a web link and fill out a form, instead of filling in the worksheet, scanning, and submit

I am very excited by the formation of this group. There’s a big ‘however’ in there, though. As of right now - more than three months after the February 8th announcement - the ‘Leader Resources’ portion of the website still has “lorem ipsum dolor” text. (For anyone unfamiliar with graphics, this is a block of Latin text you get when you add a box for text to a page. This means that there has been no development to the page since it was created.) I'm hopeful that they will be able to gather steam, but if you’re waiting on religious emblems, it looks like it could be a while. I

If our summer camp closes, we won't be doing anything as a troop. 🙁 Most of our families feel that if it's not safe enough for traditional summer camp, then it's not safe for our scouts to get together in any capacity.

When I worked at Scout Shop and commented on the higher expense for the Cyber Chip patch, I was told it's because BSA contracted with an outside company for the entire Cyber Chip program. So I'm sure you're right about them having zero insight into scouting.

And... the teaching of the sheet bend knot didn't happen tonight. I'll admit defeat. I'll still be here when any of these boys decide it's time to move forward.

Along the lines of what everyone has posted, I generally don't do anything for the troop other than keep our electronic records and arrange BORs. Our Venture crew doesn't do advancement at all, though there are two girls who are working on it themselves. I'd say Venturing is a happy place for me, too. (I'm not sure our Crew Advisor feels the same way at all times. 😁) Is anyone else finding that with the shutdown your scouts aren't leading the troop the way they used to? Maybe that's why I keep feeling the need to throw ideas out there. On the topic of the orienteering course, I'

Thank you. I agree. We’re nowhere near FIrst Class, First Year. I was just thinking maybe Second Class in a year and a half would be nice. 😁

Funny how sometimes vital stuff gets left out of my posts!! I'm not so good at communicating myself much of the time. I'm committee, and advancement chair (for the troop, anyway). Our Scoutmaster was appointed to head the Covid-19 testing site at Kean University, so he's working six days a week, 12-14 hour days, and has turned things over to everyone else right now. Only one or two of our experienced ASM's is still active - the others have scouts who have either made Eagle and/or are finalizing their projects - and of those two, one is in pharmaceutical research. So, yeah. Th

I'm fighting the dreaded 'scouting burnout' right now. From the very beginning of our shutdown, I've been trying to find ways to keep scouts engaged in an actual way, not a virtual way. Never before have things felt so difficult. It's like talking to the wind. Initial ideas were shot down. My husband (who is now an ASM!) thinks it's because I was too far ahead of the curve: that no one quite realized just how long we were going to be without regular meetings. Ok, perhaps. Other ideas were either ignored, or in the case of one committee member, given a thousand reasons why we couldn'

I say let it go. It's frustrating, and I feel like it 'cheapens' the badge in a small way for those who do it correctly . My own sons have seen similar, but I've told them (and have to continually tell myself), that it's part of what we run into all throughout life. How many of us have had coworkers who cut corners and don't pull their own weight? And sometimes they get away with it forever - other times they get caught. Still, that's on them. Your son will be learning, and the other boys won't. The older he gets, the better he'll appreciate the skills he will have gained.

While I share your sentiment to some degree (it would be nice to know if we're going, or not), if they had to decide right now, they would decide 'no'. The longer they're able to postpone the decision, the greater the chances of summer camp being a 'go'. Those increased chance might be very, very slight, but I don't think any group would be comfortable saying yes to group gatherings right now. Heck, I can't even get my first-year scouts and their parent to come to the local middle school and do the orienteering course I set up. I posted a YouTube video of my own kids showing them how

We did an online MB course through Central Florida Council. They ended up with around 900 scouts doing the Sustainability badge. My son wasn't given credit for the last day's work (some of requirement 3, and 4, 5, and 6). There was a link to report errors, but when you click on it, it says "This survey is closed". It's been a mess, and he hated doing it. Boring, boring. I won't ever encourage him to do another online badge again. He would have been better off doing this on his own with Zoom meetings and a local counselor. Hopefully your council will have better results.

Thanks. That's what I figured.

We have property in a very rural, relatively poor area of PA. Even they are doing online learning, for the most part. They have paper packets that are handed out at the beginning of the week for the kids who don't have internet, but I have no clue how they're handling the instruction part. I'll have to ask my friends out there. We didn't go out there when this all started because only internet available to us is through satellite dish, or phone lines. DSL wasn't going to be able to handle three kids using Zoom and a mother-in-law who can't seem to understand the directions to NOT use the