MikeS72

What happened to the pronouncement last year that councils could establish an activity fee, but at no more than the amount of the national registration fee?? Or is that $180 the total cost of registration, activity fee, and troop dues for your individual unit?

While our council has not put anything out, and likely will not until after the vote, I have alerted my unit leadership, so we can plan now for how to cover the additional cost.

Which makes absolutely no sense at all. I have to provide a new copy of YPT every time I send in a adult app OR even to add a MB to my list that I counsel. This despite the fact that as an ADC, I can pull a YPT report for every unit in my district, and know within seconds if anyone in that unit has expired. I know that a council registrar has that ability for every unit in the council.

The only Eagle related phrase I dislike more than 'getting Eagle" is when people refer to it as they 'Eagled Out". I would hope that many (most really) Eagle Scouts who have not yet reached their 18th might choose to stay in their units and give back to those younger scouts who will benefit from their experience guidance. I even winch at the phrase 'he aged out'. He (or she, soon) may transition from scout to adult; nothing in the program says you reach your a 18th birthday and are suddenly 'out' of scouting.

Amen. As a scout going to summer camp in the mid to late 60's, pretty much everything you did was outdoor related with the exception of the handicraft area. Pioneering, cooking, camping, water sports, shooting sports. No one went to summer camp to sit in class and talk any of the citizenships. Two years ago I volunteered to be the MB counselor for 6 scouts who signed up for Chess MB. I could not fathom why anyone would come to camp to do chess! (although it did get me 2 hours each afternoon in the most air conditioned room in the camp - June heat and humidity in FL - that air sure fe

Hey now! Some of our cubbies are taller than me!😅

I registered as an ASM for the first time in 1971. Just a simple adult registration, did not specify position (other than the fact that 18 I could not be a SM) In today's world, I had to fill out one adult app (with YPT certificate attached) as a Unit Commissioner, another as a Den Leader, another as a MB counselor, again as an ASM, and once more as ADC for roundtable. I would have had to do another to change designation in the pack from DL to committee member, but I made that change when doing online recharter, which is the only time the change can be made without another paper form.

OA has been around almost as long as the BSA has. I would agree that there are problems with maintaining the type of active membership that it once had, but that is a solvable problem. I the 51 year mark as an Arrowman on the first of this month. For those of us who have been members that long, we know that it was not a given that you were elected upon reaching First Class and having the required days and nights of camping. OA was an honor camper organization, and it was much tougher to get into than it is today. While there have always been those who never participated in a chapter

I read an article the other day in which one of the plaintiff's lawyers was discussing council assets. His basic premise was that if every council does not turn over an accounting of all their holdings, they will file multiple suits against every council in a state which will allow them to do so. Some have already started to file against councils this week. They see $$$ and they think they see blood in the water. While I feel for those people who were genuinely harmed, I wonder if any of them realize that when all is said and done, they will receive a miniscule portion of any settlemen

The beret and Dracula have one thing in common - neither will ever die!😁

Had a campaign hat back in the day as well. Wore it along with the dark green Leadership Corps shirt on Woodbadge staff back in 1974. Had to borrow the shirt from a 14 year old scout, who was a bit bigger than me at the time.

Still have it!

If that is the criteria that councils use to determine whether they will open summer camps, most if not all will drop out in column one: "Will the youth program or camp limit attendance to children and staff who live in the local area".

Our council (Central Florida) has stated multiple times that all fees will be refunded for weeks cancelled by the council (still have a target date of July 5 for camp to open), or if families choose to cancel themselves. I can only imagine the fallout in any council that chooses to cancel summer programs at any level, and then attempts to keep people's money. We normally have a group attend our local camp in June, and a group go somewhere out of state in early July. Our June week has been cancelled, and will result in refunds. As of today, our out of state week is still on, though

A quick search gave the correct spelling as Yves St. Laurent. Didn't need to search the fact that it was Oscar De La Renta who did the 1980 redesign. While many fellow old timers complain about the redesign, and in particular the epaulets, I liked them, as I was constantly having to adjust my sash at OA events. That is probably an unintended benefit, but one I welcomed. While my troop does not wear the neckerchief, I do have quite a few, going back well over 50 year. I do still occasionally wear them when in one of my 60's/70's uniforms. Still have my very first one, from '64, althou

As both a First Aid MBC, and a long time Red Cross instructor, I frequently tell scouts that I consider FA to be the most important MB they will ever earn. While many badges will lead to lifelong hobbies and interests, FA has the potential at any time to save a life.

They are on ebay all the time. Here is someone selling a pair of size 12. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Official-Boy-Scout-Youth-BSA-Pants-Size-12-Waist-26/233571522101?hash=item3661f29635:g:BbUAAOSwmj5ed97G

There is a procedure for certain waivers, which may end up being used this year as with all the covid related cancellations our council safety weekend, which is where we would provide first aid training, shooting sports certifications for CSDC, etc. went by the wayside. We are hoping to be able to get another one in before summer, but who knows what will happen as we go forward.

We have a number of students at the school I work at who had neither internet access or a device to use should access become available. Our local cable company announced that they would provide free wifi for the duration of the school year, to any home with school age students who did not already have internet access. The district also directed schools to sign out (hopefully to be returned in working order) laptops to those students who did not have computers in the home. The district also had several business donate money to provide wifi hotspots to students who needed them, as there a

We used Zoom for a troop meeting. Also used Zoom for a council meeting and again for Roundtable. There are a number of articles discussing early issues with Zoom, and what they have done to mitigate the problems. One thing is putting everyone in a waiting room, and the host has to approve them. If you see a name you do not know, do not let them in. Generating random meeting ID and using a password is also a good idea. I would also recommend disabling screen sharing from scouts, as they may tend to get carried away popping 'memes' onscreen during the meeting. If you have a large grou

Our council camp, along with several out of council camps we attend, have a SM meeting on Friday night. That meeting is where we get the health forms returned, and have the opportunity to check on which MB's our scouts have completed and which ones they earn partials for. If I have a scout who shows a partial, I check with the counselors who are present to see what they did not complete. In one instance, the troop printout showed a scout with a partial for Rifle, which I questioned, just to be sure that he had actually done all of the 'explain/show' portions of the class. When they looked

Parents already have that choice. ScoutsBSA is not a co-ed program, troops are either all boy or all girl. No charter organization that sponsored a troop before the introduction of all girl troops last year had to jump in and also sponsor a new girl troop. I have been involved in scouting as a youth and adult for more than 55 years, and have no problem with giving a girls troop the same opportunities as boys have had for the last 110 years.

At some point I believe that we will have co-ed scouting here as well. At this time we are not co-ed at the troop level. Everything I have seen regarding linked troops suggests that BSA understood the challenge of getting completely separate leadership and committees for both units. This was a reasonable compromise that allowed a CO to get a girl troop up and running. In my area, we have three troops within a 3 mile area, one of which meets less than a mile away from us. I would be open to joint activities between our troops, but would never expect the SPL of one of those units to be

Not hard at all. Personal Management is not exactly an exciting, get out there in the wild and do it, kind of MB. At the same time, I have 2 scouts who started Archery MB at summer camp 2 years ago, and did everything except make a bowstring. As a troop, they selected archery as one of their themes this spring, and we will make bowstrings at a troop meeting, thus completing the MB for those two.

This will be a learning experience for them, and surprisingly enough was their own idea, both to reset the patrols and the method they came up with.