MikeS72

I will have to go back and look in my old handbooks as to the exact Cooking MB requirements at the time, but it was an Eagle required MB when I earned my Eagle in 1971. Looking at the history of Eagle requirements, it has been a required MB since 1914.

This is very much what I think the 'linked' model is supposed to look like. Share a C.O., committee, resources, but operate as two separate and autonomous units. Having the boys and girls troops meeting together, with the girls operating like another patrol is, I am sure, going to happen in some cases, but it is not what is intended.

Interesting appendix. Our council summer camp has a Native American program, Both Atl Atl and blowguns are used as a part of that program.

I wish our kid's were like yours. They chose to get up at 4:30 Saturday morning, to depart summer camp, and on our last backpacking trip they wanted to get up at 5:00. Not sure why on the backpacking one, since the sun does not come up until 7:00!

That all depends; are we talking Kenneth Branaugh, or Gilderoy Lockhart. No to Branaugh, big thumbs up for Lockhart. Just imagine (pun intended) the adventures he would inspire!

I can attest to the 1971 date, as I was registered with both a troop and post at the time, and my younger sister joined the post in 71, just after I aged out of the troop at 18.

If a girl was a member of Girls Scouts, Camp Fire, etc., she could participate in an Explorer Post activity in 1969, but was not a registered member of BSA. In 1971 that changed and they could officially register with an Explorer Post or Sea Scout Ship (Venture Crews did not exist yet). I knew several girls who were Explorers during that time. 'Scouts BSA' was on the uniform for a brief period at that time, but girls were never in Troops.

This is the part of the problem that I would address first, as playing inappropriate media while with Scouts shows a serious lack of judgement on his part. Also, it only takes one Scout to go home and talk about what he may have seen or heard on this leader's phone to cause parents to pull their Scouts, or for someone to file a YPT complaint against the troop leadership.

We are a non neckerchief wearing troop, so the only one I tend to wear is my Wood Badge one, and then only on formal occasions. I will wear an one of my many old neckers from time to time with one of my 60's uniforms, the kid's at CSDC got a kick out of both the uniform and the bicentennial necker that I wore with it this summer.

Based on what I have seen in many of your posts, I am sure that your ceremonial teams are much like mine were, and your regalia is both accurate and representative of your area, and your ceremonies are done properly. I think that one of the biggest reasons that some of these edicts have come down from National is the teams that are not as respectful of NA peoples. One of the Scouting/OA related Facebook pages I am a member of is for Vigil members. Multiple times a week I see photos posted of various ceremonial teams, some of which are very well done, but some do make me cringe. I see the looks on the faces of Cubs when they see a ceremonial team in well done regalia, but I can understand why there are Native Americans who are offended by some of what, unfortunately, represents all of us. Personally, I would like to be able to continue as we always have, but if we are told no more Cub ceremonies using regalia I will stick to that. I will also attempt to get my own chapter to adopt local regalia, rather than dressing like plains Indians in Florida.

I was a part of our chapter ceremonial and dance teams for 6 years, from 1968 - 1974. During most of that time Arrow of Light was not around yet, but even once it was, I do not ever recall our chapter being asked to conduct an AOL crossover ceremony. Back then, all of our regalia was personally owned. However, that did not mean that we could go against National or Lodge policy with it's use. I agree with both @SR540Beaver and @HashTagScouts, that as members of the OA, who should be the best of the best, no chapter should say National has no right to tell me what to do, particularly at a Scouting event.

Been there, done that many a time both as a Scout and a Scouter, but only once below freezing since becoming a Floridian. We will be backpacking this weekend, with daytime temperatures expected at 81 on Saturday.

Interesting article, but I swore after leaving Colorado for Florida 26 years ago that I would never set foot in that awful white stuff again! 😁

There was extensive thread here a few months back about the new policy concerning Arrow of Light ceremonies performed by OA chapters. It included a couple of videos of the approved ceremony. The key here, and it caused a bit of confusion when posted a few months ago, is that the no Native American imagery is in regard to OA chapters performing Arrow of Light ceremonies for Cub Scout Packs. At this point in time, it does not remove the NA aspect for Ordeal, Brotherhood, or Vigil Honor ceremonies, OA call out, etc. Our chapter ceremonial team just performed a Brotherhood ceremony last weekend, and will be conducting our chapter call out at the district Webelos Woods in a couple of weeks. (we have not had a fall camporee in a few years, and the chapter will be supporting Webelos Woods, so that is the logical place for call out, with Ordeal in January)

@MattR bottom of the opening slide showed it as copyright BSA 1978. I have seen many real life versions of that SM over the years, all of whom were sure that they were doing things the right way. It takes a lot of effort to step back and let Scouts make mistakes. I have told them more than a few times when they forget to pack something or don't set up the way I would, if it is not life threatening, I not going to step in and fix it for you; hopefully you will remember next time. I did have a little bit of a flashback when hearing that first little beep, and remembering how often I would have to remind my middle school students to pay attention to the beeps, as that was their signal to advance to the next frame when we showed a filmstrip in class.