swilliams

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 vaccines. But we're cautious, and tend to base decisions on likely effects of both illness and vaccine, efficacy, and other related issues. At this point, it's moot for my kids, as they are 16, 14 and almost 13 (a few more days). But I would like to kindly suggest those out there, as passionate as you may be, to please temper the urge to call those who choose NOT to take the vaccine 'deniers' or 'anti-vaxxers'.

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 a coach, though, the commissioner for track and cross-country introduced us as Coach First-Name. Then THAT seemed odd to me, lol. It seems fine with the kids, though. I've even had them call out to me in the grocery store. So whatever is preferred, it seems like it's good for the kids if whatever it is, is consistent for all.

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 boards horses and gives summer lessons about having scouts... Oh well. I think it was also early enough in the timeline that we (as a Troop and committee) didn't have a real sense of urgency or a clear enough idea of just how long these restrictions were going to last. If our summer camps don't open this year, I'm going to push very, very hard to make the Troop camp work this year. One key 'no' voter has a son who will be aging out in the next two months, and I will be surprised if he sticks around afterward - seems to already have one foot out the door.

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, and will only have five of six rockers unless he goes back as an adult. Anyway, he doesn't care too much about the patches, outside of the cool factor of having the circle complete, but he DOES care enormously about camp. He's already pessimistic about the prospects, sad about how few trips we've taken and will occasionally say "scouting is dead".

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 light (after I got a text from his mom) that he'd gotten into a fight with another scout. Details that might be pertinent. It wasn't a physical fight. I haven't had a chance to speak to the Scoutmaster. The boy's mom emailed the SM and myself this morning, but he has not answered the email yet. The scout doesn't want to come to tonight's meeting, either. I did NOT bring this up with either scout or the other boy's parents: this is just a what-would-you-do question. I only have one side of the story, but am being told the other boy has been ostracizing/bullying the first about various things such as his 2nd Class rank.

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 loss of cash flow from this year, the bankruptcy and the litigation, I'm feeling pessimistic about their chances to ever experience Philmont.

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 find themselves in the same location for their 20 mile.) Then a seventh scout found out about it and has asked my son if our 'family' might be doing a shorter hike at some point in the next week. His 'family' might just happen to be doing the same thing. 🤣 This sounds very alien/Star Trek-y, lol.

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 rank advancements and four merit badges (sad, sad). Interested in hearing what others are doing/have done. Also, we have one scout who has reached the amazing feat of over 300 hours of service in his time as a scout. Any cool ideas for that? Our troop wants to get him a plaque, which is nice, but also kind of lackluster, imho. Whatever we do for him, I want to make sure it will fit in a pillowcase. When he was SPL, he instituted the practice of giving 'awards' at the end of the Troop meetings, and having scouts pick something from a pillowcase of stuff (little things like a foam airplane, a mini soccer ball, water balloons, etc.) Of course, this became known as "J***'s sack'. Cue the inappropriate but very funny scout comments. In his honor, I think we MUST present whatever it is in a sack.

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 number of the second counselor in our district (we only have two), the scout reported that the phone rang continuously without ever going to voicemail. Anyway, that's slightly of off the main meat of the online course issue not being accepted. Our council (through the Scoutmaster, so not first-hand) has indicated that it won't accept partials from outside councils/online courses for completion at their summer camp. At the same time, they are planning on hosting their own online courses. Given this from Guide to Advancement, how does that square? As to the very last part, if that guideline is followed - and this is what it looks like you are saying above - it would negate summer camp sessions, merit badge fairs, jamborees, and any sessions our council is hosting. Definitely needs clarification and seems somewhat contradictory. "The unit leader and Scout should come to agreement as to who the counselor will be. Lacking agreement, the Scout must be allowed to work with the counselor of his or her choice, so long as the counselor is registered and has been approved by the council advancement committee." "It is acceptable for a counselor registered in one council to approve merit badges for Scouts in another. This is an important consideration, especially in areas where counselors are scarce, when Scouts are away from home and want to continue advancing, or when merit badge experiences include web-based components provided by someone in another council." "Large group and web-based instruction, while perhaps efficient, do not measure up in terms of the desired outcomes with regard to learning and positive adult association."

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 still have to meet with someone else for the requirements to be signed? Feeling very fed up with this whole Covid situation. I wouldn't be surprised if we come out of this with half the number of scouts we had prior.

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 - that was done last month - but he hasn’t tried to contact a local counselor because we were waiting on the partials from Central Florida. What do we do? He doesn’t even have a record of his work, other than two drawings, because they asked the scouts to use a link to a form to submit their work.

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 take turns fishing, kayaking, and sailing? We haven’t herd yet whether the community pool out here will open. The season usually would have started today. Them there’s the issue of responsibility/liability. I don’t know.