HashTagScouts

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).

The implications are big, and real, true direction is what folks are asking for. To say that 4 scouts from a patrol that want to go for a hike in the town park to work on orienteering skills MUST have 2 registered adults that are 21 or over or the activity can't happen, and that is now our standard of what is OK. But, 4 scouts going to Mr. Jonson's house after school to work on Communication MB, where they will be alone with Mr. Johnson, is also OK makes no logical sense.

It is complicated, and by no means a one size fits all. Crews can come and go- all depends on the focus of the group that are in it and finding more that have that same interest set to keep it going. Our crew is mostly 18-19 year olds. They still wanted to be involved in scouting, but didn't have a great deal of interest in being part of the SM group. They still wanted to do rather than watch is how I would phrase it.

Exactly what @ItsBrian said. Many camps actually forbid staff from signing handbooks. They collect lists of the scouts present when activities are done, and give those to the troop at the end of the week. It is up to the troop to "test" the scouts on whether they have mastered that activity.

I think a lot of folks see Venturing as "competition". In reality, it can be that, but it can be a program for your older youth and implemented to run alongside your troop. Older scouts often just do not want to do the same activities they did at 11, 12, 13, etc. Nor do they often want to feel "strapped" to the younger scouts, and restricted to activities that have to involve the younger scouts. There are those things that older scouts get pulled by- jobs, dating, sports- so the time they have to give to scouting is more limited. Venturing can give them that opportunity to have their own

The food bank

Having prospective youth attend meetings and check out the unit, and decide if Scouting is for them, is totally appropriate. One or two meetings would seem sufficient. However, at no time should their parent, at any level of program, drop them off and leave. Frankly, the units are totally putting themselves at risk for that youth. Anything they did at that meeting- vandalizing your meeting space, getting into a fight with another youth, etc.- you are totally on the risk for it. If they had a health issue, and you don't have contact info/consent from the parent, you are at risk for the dec

They may not be overly familiar with what the BSA insurance program is. I would be in touch with your District Executive- they are vested to help get new units chartered, and may be helpful to you in being able to explain the national insurance program, and what the council's insurance program is all about to your church. https://www.scouting.org/health-and-safety/alerts/insurance/

I'm not overly concerned with the current size of the troop- you note that your 5 are about to cross over, and twelve is a decent size to reinvigorate. And, you also note that the Pack has picked up momentum on your watch. Big kudos to you for your hard work there. Not sure where you are located, but in SE MA, 18-24 kids in a pack and 12-20 kids in a troop is about an average size these days. Some good advice by others here. What I would say is that this quote from your post is your main focus right now: "The 2 scouter families (me & another mom/dad, 3 of us) can not physica

From what I have heard, it was another senior staff member that "made the nomination" for the "award", and it was something like what you reference and not intended as a racist slur. The other "award" using the term Nazi was also significant- there are several members of staff that are Jewish, so you can understand that was pretty charged term to use. Choice of words is significant, and that's where I was going with having a greater conversation with our youth- they are generally innocent, and generally are not out to be malicious, but if those who are young adults (and in the case of

Perhaps- unfortunately, each year at the camp my son has staffed, there are staff who get dismissed for various reasons, inappropriate language, vaping seem to be the chief reasons. And from discussions with other scouters, seems to be not just isolated to a couple camps based on their observations. I'd love to be able to say the Oath and Law are universally being followed by all who wear a uniform, but I would also favor any other avenue that reinforces it.