Saltface

How would you define the word actual?

4B. Help a Scout patrol or a Webelos Scout unit in your area prepare for an actual campout... If you're not creating actual plans that you expect to be fulfilled (fairly sharing the division of labor, making food you're actually interested in eating, etc.), what's the point in creating the roster sheet?

I've been thinking some more about this. Suppose G2SS and all other applicable BSA polices were followed at an event but someone still managed to get hurt. Would BSA defend the SM in a lawsuit (legal fees, pay the settlement, etc.)? Or would the SM be able to ride BSA's coattails for legal defense as National would probably also be named as a defendant?

If you tie a life jacket to a rope and use it as a throw line, is it a throw line or a life jacket? While reading the various articles about the mishap, I encountered a few silly internet comments asking why the boys weren't wearing life jackets while swimming. I thought that's what you were saying.

I wasn't there, but it sounds like they were practicing the BSA swim test. A throw bag and line would have been nice, life jackets don't make much sense.

I've never seen an arrowman wearing regalia corresponding to my local tribes. Here, it's mostly a mishmash of plains and east coast tribes (something my archaeologist COR finds quite amusing). Is this a requirement in other lodges?

He's LDS and would have been a Boy Scout in the 1940s. (The Church adopted Boy Scouts as its official program for young men in 1928.) Whether he earned his Eagle or not, I dunno.

Or significantly older.

Now I think they're just messing with me. Who are all these Scouts so keen on taking selfies?

Bag Balm is for windburn or chapped lips. Gold Bond, Anti Monkey Butt Powder, and Body Glide are all more or less competitors. Bag Balm is also good for healing a moisture chafe.

Aren’t we talking specifically about knives?

My vote is that it's not officially defined. It would be pretty pedantic to force a scout to surrender his knife just because he bridged over.

You're lucky to be a lawyer. For National, I believe these aren't so much mistakes as pitfalls everyone wants to avoid. BSA's membership change is something of a tar baby, tackling one of these points will only make other things worse. They can't address the resistance without hinting at how prevalent it is. The real reason why (decreasing membership) can obviously never be discussed. Saying "because girls want a more challenging outdoor program" draws the ire of GSA and their minions. Let's face it, they're more popular than BSA (probably because of the cookies). Who could champion the change that volunteers respect?

Turns out it's from a unit in Santa Tecla, El Salvador for their 50th anniversary. https://www.facebook.com/689570167822190/photos/a.1016987398413797.1073741839.689570167822190/1016988595080344/?type=3&theater https://www.facebook.com/gruposcout20elsalvador/photos/p.1050170995061372/1050170995061372/?type=1&theater

50 años means 50 years in Spanish. The black figure looks like Don Quixote astride Rocinante, his horse. I'm not quite sure what the black text says. I think I can see "of La Mancha" at the end of it. Don Quijote de la Mancha is the full title of Cervantes' character. Hopefully that helps.

If it shouldn't be damp but is and starting to chafe, Anti Monkey Butt Powder. If it shouldn't be dry but is and starting to chafe, Bag Balm.

Your activity sounds all very well, especially for the younger boys just coming in to Boy Scouts. Our "scavenger hunt" was to find this person (at their program area), that well-known location, or buy this item and take a picture of it.

There are too many replies to respond to individually, so I'll touch on the major themes. 1. There was a feedback form provided with our checkout procedures. I left comments similar to my original post as well as my contact information. If I don't hear from anyone in a week or two, I'll call Council. Our campsite commissioner told me the general consensus on the camp-wide games was that it was "lame". I can't imagine the three previous sessions giving different feedback. 2. The dance was similar to what you would see in a junior high gym except there wasn't anyone awkwardly standing around the edges. The small group of staff (and possibly a few scouts) that wanted to be there were dancing in groups. It wasn't really the kind of music you would dance to with a partner. Everyone else thought it was dumb and left. 3. Do I think this shift was done to accommodate girls in Scouting? I won't says it's causative, but this is the first female program director we've had. If I had to guess which gender would be more excited about the scavenger hunt, I'd say girls.

My troop recently returned from summer camp at one of our local council's camps. We were more than a little disappointed by how the program was run this year. Every morning flag ceremony/announcements included an advertisement for some item on sale (but still way overpriced) at the trading post that day. I tried to rekindle the tradition of a Scoutmaster Minute after the camp flag ceremony. It lasted a single day before being forgotten. The only time we recited the Oath and Law was when the troop in charge of flags that day asked us to. The Friday afternoon Camp-wide Games normally included things like throwing tomahawks, paddling canoes by hand, and shooting rifles. This was replaced by a scavenger hunt to take selfies with various people and items around camp, including "a fidget spinner that you bought at the trading post." (That item really stuck in my craw.) The boys decided to opt out of doing the scavenger hunt and go back to our campsite. Several other troops had the same idea. Friday evening's ice cream social was turned into a dance party. As we walked past it, I couldn't see anyone on the dance floor that wasn't a staff member. (We later heard that one of them got hurt. Expect a new entry on mosh pits in the G2SS in the near future.) The merit badge counselors cut corners on requirements or gave out partials because they didn't want to do certain requirements (they had both the extra time and means to do them). Talking with the MBCs, I got the feeling that laziness was the cause. There was a final COPE challenge scheduled for Friday morning but they cancelled it without giving a reason. Outdoor Skills hadn't checked any of the orienteering courses for missing controls. Handicrafts hadn't bothered to learn how to make square baskets. This was the fourth session of camp. On Saturday morning, one of my older Scouts summed up the week when he said to me, "Boy Scouts is dying, isn't it?" We had been planning on returning to this camp next year but after last week, we're reconsidering. Please tell me this isn't normal at your camps and reservations. Also, if you have recommendations for other camps in the Southwest, please share them.

If I were already doing those things with my troop under a different guise, I wouldn’t let a policy on a piece of paper stop me.

A hot-weather campout would be a place like Lake Pleasant, Lost Dutchman State Park (Flatiron), or Bulldog Canyon. You can sleep cool by wrapping up in a wet sheet on an insulated sleeping pad. I don't know how well it would work with Webelos Scouts. I guess it depends on their maturity/enthusiasm level If you're already going as far as the Grand Canyon, there are plenty of dispersed camping areas still open in Coconino or Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests.

How far are you wanting to drive? Are the adults willing to do a hot-weather campout?

Why? Are they jumping?

...as long as you don’t consider any part of the Old Testament history.

Hey, isn't the purpose of all those knots to say "Don't question me, I know what I'm doing?"