HashTagScouts

Sorry, but you were told incorrect information. NO change has been officially made to the 2017 Guide to Inductions. Details of discussions have been coming out, but not all are firmly accurate. Regalia has only been taken from Cub ceremonies. Other changes that are still being discussed are guidelines on regalia use (must be regionally appropriate), no longer can scouts be shirtless, females may participate as principals (except for AS, which must remain male), etc.

Our Council and District social media is flooded with posts and memes about the handful of girl troops. Every single activity they do (“here’s Troop 123 learning fire starting!”, “here’s Troop 123 learning first aid!”) is noted. Great, they are doing the things THAT EVERY SCOUT WHO HAS COME BEFORE THEM ARE DOING! I’m not discouraging them from doing it, but if the desire was to allow girls into the organization to have the same experience as boys have had for over a 100 years, and that we shouldn’t think girls can’t do it, then stop making it THE focus. They are here, now go and get scoutin

The OA is unique, that both members and non-members vote on who can be eligible to become members. Unfortunately, it isn't perfect, and some kids will vote for who they are buddies with, not necessarily those who best exemplify the Scout Oath and Law. I ask if a representative of the Lodge was present, as I know in some areas units run elections without the Lodge (though that is not supposed to happen). Lodge election representatives are supposed to give a short talk before the election on what the qualities are that an Arrowman should be expected to represent. That doesn't mean it k

Was a representative from your Lodge present and running the election? As far as a Scout getting on the ballot who doesn't want to be elected, it happens. They are not actually part of the OA after election, they need to go through the Ordeal weekend within 1 year of election to be considered members. As far as there being "already OA" members, are they actually truly members? Or, were they elected last year and did not complete Ordeal?

I agree with you that balance and not putting advancement as the most important thing is the ideal scenario. Advancement and uniforms are, sadly, the most visible thing to parents who are not in the program, and often all they fixate on. When the adults begin to bow to that, then it becomes the troops focus, and the outdoor program does indeed become less about adventure, and more of a grind than fun. Advancement on a scouts terms is fine- I don't have a problem with a young teen becoming Eagle, if indeed a) they did the work for themselves the same as a 17 1/2 year old would, b) the

I'm generally more concerned about their field uniform shirt having appropriate patch placement than their sash. I don't know why my brain does it, but I just naturally begin to scan photos on scouting social media pages, Boys Life, Scouter magazine, NESA magazine, etc. and my eye always gets drawn to the person who doesn't have the purple World Crest, and then the person who has 4 patches dangling of the pocket button. I don't like to be the uniform police, but just general following of the insignia guidelines to me fall into the "a Scout is clean" category.

I have no problems with it. Tried jsut now and worked fine.

To me, the requirement is intended to teach that GPS navigation is valuable for certain situations, but is not quite superior to compass/map. Smartphone GPS especially is reliant on satellite and cellular signal triangulation (and in most cases, internet signal to download the map). If you are in a backcountry area with limited to no cellular signal, it can be pretty widely imprecise. A dedicated GPS unit is typically more reliable. This requirement itself is just a basic learning experience, so I wouldn't ask a youth to use the GPS and locate a spot 5 miles away and walk the route.

a better choice of wording to the requirement would be helpful. As first Class scouts aren't going to be typically of driving age, and that the navigation requirements follow a progression from previous ranks, I would say the intent is land-based navigation and plotting course. if you read the first part, I feel the author of this requirement was trying to distinguish from using a car navigation setup: 4b. Demonstrate how to use a handheld GPS unit, GPS app on a smartphone, or other electronic navigation system. Use GPS to find your current location, a destination of your choice, and th

i still asked mine "have you asked the other adults before you came to me". In some situations I would also have to ask "are you asking me as dad or as adult leader?".

Or, state restrictions on who can carry and dispense medications. New Hampshire, for example, requires all summer camps to have medical personnel (RN, NP, PA, MD) on site, and requires that all medications (prescription or OTC) be held in that persons control. Under the law, you can't even keep ibuprofen on your possession or in your troop first aid kit (not to say that doesn't happen...).

To be clear- the BSA itself, and more importantly its units- are not covered entities under the law, so there is no necessity to be HIPAA compliant. If you thought of a hospital, not all the employees working within the hospital would be covered entities, but the hospital itself would be. That doesn't mean you would give training to the janitors or the receptionists on data safeguarding practices. That might be what you are looking for. Yes, the BSA could contract someone to put that together, and it would probably be a 20 minute online training. Would you need to require everyone t

Troop had a locking mailbox (similar to the one at the link below) mounted inside the troop trailer. We kept the medical forms in a folder locked inside. Adults knew where to find it, but it was pretty much out of site out of mind and no one really went into it, except the one time a year we collected updated versions. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Indoor-Outdoor-Wall-Mount-Locking-Mailbox/703729362

To your first points about youth skills instructions, I would add units becoming too dependent on summer camps to teach their scouts basic scoutcraft, as well as never actually making that a part of their regular programming- thus not actually requiring their scouts to gain proficiency. I'm encouraged by the number of folks here on this forum that Scouting actually does still exist. In my neck of the woods, far too many units are the car-camping--and-only-when-it-is-dry-and-warm clubs, that happen to wear uniforms (and usually nothing more than the uniform shirt - "$7 for a pair of soc

@Eagle94-A1 exactly correct. They are so disinteresting. My son had asked in the fall why the Chapters were still expected to do these scripts skits. He and another Chapter Chief wanted to write a new, non-NA themed script, and the inductions adviser got huffy that they were even suggesting it. I think my son wants to be VC to just end the Lodge offering the service altogether.

My son did his last one of the season Monday. The pack wanted AoL ceremony only as the kids have already crossed over (we'll put aside that hot mess for this thread). Quite literally was 7 minutes, start to finish (we spent almost an hour driving to get to the ceremony!). Our lodge had used a script that had a narrative of Akela in past years, and that ceremony was about 12-16 minutes long, without the bridging. Length of ceremony itself is not important, but that there is some actual "ceremony" in the ceremony is, and the new AoL script is a rambling mess. I have seen no AoL scout, nor p

Agreed. A lot of over the top assumptions on what is being culturally appropriated. Wearing war paint, doing chants, that could be cultural appropriation (especially if the chant is nothing but actual gibberish, if even the words are truly from a native language). I still maintain that what the OA needs to do is reign in the usage of regalia that is based on anything other than Lenni Lenape- the principals in the ceremonies are LL; not Sioux, not Seminole, not Tacoma, etc. That gives a far greater opportunity to have consistency in application and instruction, so that we don't begin to go

Anyone else find it odd that the spruce Venturing shirts are actually embroidered, but the khaki were glue on letters?I wonder if the new Scouts BSA khaki shirts are actually embroidered.

"Today, your journey in our Pack ends, but your journey in your Troop begins." Cubs are still Scouts, so I would spend less focus on what kind of scout they are, just defer to describing as what type of unit they are/will be in as a compromise.

I can understand the concerns that this statement itself could represent. I wouldn't read it as members of the Church are not allowed to help facilitate it, just that the leadership itself cannot do so. I liken that to a company that is diversifying and selling a division to a rival- the senior leadership is going to keep going with running the day-to-day, and they are going to have a transition team to handle that transaction.

@ParkMan Perhaps there is misunderstanding of how scouting has worked to this point for LDS? For LDS units, scouting is a youth ministry, not just an “activity”. It would be like the Catholic Church directing each parish to charter units, and having those incorporate Catholic religious education into the unit program- thus allowing scouting to fulfill the religious education requirements for our faith. After December, LDS youth (and adults) can continue in scouting, it just no longer fulfills the LDS Church requirement of ministry. It will be just an activity a youth can take part in, aki

I don't really take it as they are being unfriendly to Scouting with intention. I see it as an issue that they want to avoid confusion at the moment amongst the church membership.

Go to the more general. If you have a large wooded area- state or national forest- nearby. Look at the tree species first. A Red oak or shrub oak is definitely different than a white pine, lodgepole pine, etc.; and then a fir tree (any type) is distinctly different than a white pine. You should be able to find 3-4 tree species fairly easily in most parts of the US, and those are the easiest to point out and scouts to remember. Then you can start in on some of the more obvious things like a fern, or even a dandelion. If you are trying to point out the differences in various arborvitae, yo

once they cross over to the troop, they are no longer WEBELOS nor part of the pack. Not sure what you are after?

As a MBC for American Business MB, it is not an exciting badge so hard to get kids to take an interest in it. The requirements were just revised, and it now is an even easier MB to earn. There was a requirement of running a business for 3 months, so hard to get kids interested in the badge, and even harder to get them to want to have to do the 3 month requirement. With that requirement gone, this is like a half day badge at a MB college, so #s will probably go up (and that was probably the point of changing the requirements).