swilliams

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 learning are too busy and didn't renew. It's great they have the option to stay in until age 21, but the reality is that they don't. We have a decent number of sophmores, and a handful of freshmen, but not in the same numbers as the original group who helped get this Crew off the ground. One thing we've started doing - and by 'we' I mean both Troops in our town (same CO), as well as the girls' Troop and the Crew (same CO in a different town) - is to utilize social media more. We're making more of an effort to take pictures to post on community forums and to write articles for local news. We'll see if it helps at all this year.

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. Side note: Our Troop gives bronze, silver, and gold challenge coins for service. Many of our scouts earn the bronze level, 50 hours, by the time they age out. They don’t do it for the coins, but it’s a nice recognition. Silver is 75; gold is 100.

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, the museum could resume outdoor classes that had been halted because the area was inaccessible. So... after the fact, he gave two hours of not-so-easy-to-get conservation hours to the scouts that showed. Taught a lesson to a couple who needed the conservation hours, but couldn't be bothered to show up for what they thought was non-service for our own Troop. 🤣

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 of the dollar amount. I can't write persuasively to save my life, so should probably keep my mouth shut, but this comes across as something slapped together by the same people who write the captions for those cheesy office posters about 'Teamwork!' or the like. As someone whose entire family is involved in scouts, the quoted part above makes me more than a little upset. I realize BSA wants to preserve assets so it can continue offering scouting, but (to use a phrase from my kids) Duuuude... National will contribute its "non-core assets", and will get a loan, but then will ask councils to give up their core assets? As much as my kids are (were?) looking forward to going to Philmont, they are much more concerned that our council's wilderness camp will no longer be an option. They're already devastated that it was closed last summer due to Covid. They love that mosquito-infested, bear-prowling, loon-calling, scout-cooking place.

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 felt like it was something egregious, I wouldn't bring it up formally at a Committee before talking it out with the SM. If you already have and it sounds like that might be the case, rather than fight the awarding of service hours (which, btw, would not be given by our Troop in this case), try approaching the issue of what types of service should be counted going forward. I would say something like, 'Can we have a quick talk/meeting to discuss service projects going forward? It would be good to have clear-cut guidelines, both for me and for the scouts. I don't want to send contradictory messages if a scout asks for his progress record or what he still needs for his next rank in terms of service hours.' Then it's not about this one event.

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? The nearest council-owned camp isn't all that close (Tri-Mountain Council). I put a call in to them anyway, and am waiting to hear back as to whether they are allowing group camping, but haven't heard back yet.

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.