MikeS72

Far too many of us packed in like sardines here in FL to be able to have much personal space 😜. On a more serious note, we are doing our 6th outing since Covid began this weekend. We have had to make adjustments, such as eliminating carpooling for the time being, and wearing masks at outdoor meetings, but the scouts have adapted and we are making it work.

Have you had the opportunity to view the current YPT program? It includes several very prominent experts in the field, and also includes testimony from a number of survivors, both male and female. As several folks have mentioned here, we encourage every parent to create a my.scouting account and take that YPT training. I would like to see national do away the the little abuse pamphlet in the front of new handbooks, and replace the rank requirement pertaining to it with all parents taking YPT training.

Not by an adult, but it is important to remember the fact that not all abuse is adult/scout; there are a fair number of scout/scout cases as well.

Only way to do that is to eliminate the online training and make it mandatory in person. The flaw in that plan is that there is a constant influx of new registrations, which would require in person sessions to be held pretty much on a weekly basis. It is hard enough now to get qualified trainers, asking them to constantly be doing in person YPT would be a deal breaker.

I recall an incident decades ago, where a middle school boy went home and told his father that his P.E. teacher made him go into a closet and take his clothes off. Naturally, the school received a very angry phone call the next day. I was asked by the school administration if I could verify if this had actually happened, as I was present in the locker room at the time. Indeed I could. The actual fact was that this was a student who did not feel like participating that day, so he just happened to 'forget' his uniform. The 'closet' in question was a 10' x 10' room with shelves full of uniforms of all different sizes that were availble to be borrowed by any student who 'forgot' to bring their own that day. They would change in that room, often 2 or 3 each period, and leave some item on the shelf, to insure that they would return the uniform, which would then be washed by the staff. I guess said student forgot to mention any of that to Dad. He also forgot that the policy back then was that if someone was borrowing a uniform, the teacher never went into the room with them, and was never in the locker room without another teacher present to verify that fact. It took all of 3 or 4 minutes for the whole thing to be cleared up, but had we not instituted our own '2 deep' policy it could have ended a good teacher's career. Context wise, this incident took place in the late 1970's.

The lack of speed seems to be new today. I have had no issues reading or posting lately, including yesterday.

Agreed

I got my first dose of the Moderna vaccine last month, with no symptoms other than serious pain in my left arm the next day. Got the second dose a week ago today, and had much milder arm pain last Sunday, but did run about 100.2 most of the day, which was handled with Tylenol. Got up Monday morning feeling fine. Considering that I am working with hundreds of elementary school children every day, most of whom are masked, but a fair number of whom are not, there was no question but that I would get vaccinated as soon as I was able. I have talked with a number of Scouter friends who are in the same upper age range as I am who are online every day trying to get an appointment with no luck. I was fortunate, in that our school district worked with the local health department to get a day set up for any staff over 65 who wanted the vaccine, or I am sure I would still be trying as well.

Serious arm pain the day after dose #1 of the Moderna vaccine last month. I get dose #2 next weekend. Keeping fingers crossed.

In normal times our council also has a deadline for refund requests, after which there are no refunds. These are not normal times, and that policy has been suspended since we were able to return to limited in person activity. If a scout registered for summer camp and got sick the day before, his/her money was refunded. Same with our OA lodge activities. University of Scouting is coming up shortly, and is being offered at no cost this year. Any district events we offer, such as Webelos Woods or camporee are also at no cost, due to the new council activity fee. While I was not thrilled with the idea of a council activity fee, at least here they have taken the money and basically done away with fees for most training (reduced fees for Woodbadge) and for all district events.

The portion of the registration fee that actually goes to the Red Cross is $24. Depending on how the course is set up, some of the balance goes to cost of the student manual (both full size and pocket guide), which is $17. The rest may go to your council if it is a council sponsored course, or to the instructor. When I teach First Aid/CPR/AED for our council, I do not collect anything above the cost of the card.

I like that. Those do not really need to be pricey options though, depending on the instructor. I am a Red Cross instructor for First Aid/CPR/AED and Wilderness First Aid, so I know what instructors pay Red Cross for those certification cards, and would wager that in many cases it is nothing close to what they are charging the student.

In honor of Fred McMurray, one of those knots ought to be a sheepshank.

Don't see anything on it that indicates a particular manufacturer, just that as with previous uniform parts it is made in Bangladesh.

As someone who attended WB back in the day when you had to be invited to attend, I can tell you unequivocally that I know a great many outstanding leaders who are not WB'ers. I also know leaders who wear 2, 3, or in a couple of cases 4 beads who have no idea how to relate to a Scout on their level or to successfully plan and conduct a quality event. Before you posted your concerns about attending and the issues you had on that first day, based on prior posts I saw you a leader who cares about his unit and his Scouts. That opinion has not changed. As for those people denigrating you on Facebook because of your reaction to WB, as @yknot stated, even on Scouting pages Facebook is filled with bullies who hide behind a keyboard a screen to say what they would never have the courage to say to someone face to face. Do not let the opinions of internet trolls influence you. There are two people you have to satisfy and be true to, you and your Scout. Do that, and continue to show the care for the Scouts in your unit that we have all seen in your other posts, and you will be successful, beads or no beads.

Could that be because many of those claims are nothing more than a response to lawyers hawking the idea of a big payday? I know for a fact that abuse did occur, and have first hand knowledge from more than 50 years ago. I also cannot believe, based on the few real cases I have first hand knowledge of, that the true numbers are anywhere near what the lawyers want the public to think. We had a discussion at a council leadership event almost a year ago on this topic, and what was likely to come in regards to bankruptcy. We were given the example of someone who filed a claim, but could not recall the name of the council (it hasn't changed in 99 years); they also could not remember the name of the camp the alleged incident took place at (only camp in the council, same name for 70 years); they could not remember the time period or what unit or who abused them, nor could they remember what the abuse was, just that something happened somewhere and at some time, and the council should pay them for it. I would think a lot of that remaining 60% of claims may be similar. We don't know when, where, what, or who, but we deserve money. I have no problem with helping those who really were harmed, and have been unable to recover from what happened to them. I was told by a member of the national executive committee familiar with this issue that national has paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars in the past few years, paying the therapist of the victim's choice, without questioning their claim's validity. Once the lawyers got done with their suits against churches and turned their sights on the BSA, that was no longer considered an acceptable response. As to the lawyers wanting CO information going back countless decades and unit rosters as far back as they may exist, I see that as a case of 'here is a list of troops that used to exist where you once lived, pick one out and then look at the roster and pick a name, preferably of someone who is no longer around to dispute your claim.' Sorry if this went on too long, but there is a reason why statutes of limitation exist, and this is a prime example of why. It is almost useless to try to prove something did or did not happen 50, 60, or 70 years ago; which is exactly what these lawyers count on to help make today's scouts line their pockets.

Interesting. I have to wonder how and why what sounds like a beading ceremony at a CoH would cause someone to pull their scout out of your unit. Was it particularly obnoxious, and if so, how bad could it have been to make someone say they no longer wanted their child to be involved in scouting??? I will agree that many times beading ceremonies can be a little off putting to those who have to sit through them. I have seen several done at roundtables that seemed to go on for ever (mostly due to presenters who assume no one in the room has any idea of the history of scouting and WB and needs a nice long lecture on said history). Unless you have an entire patrol being beaded at the same time, five minutes should be more than enough. I am not sure when some councils decided that elaborate beading ceremonies were necessary, a simple congratulations for completing your ticket should suffice. As one who took the course back when it was that weeklong advanced skills program prior to the changes @Eagledad mentioned in 2000, I can say that we never considered the need for a public beading. My beads and regalia arrived in a plain manila envelope, courtesy of USPS. The closest to a 'beading ceremony' I had was all of about 2 minutes 2 years later when our course director took off my 2 bead thong and put on my third bead, shook my hand, and on we went with course prep. This was 48 years ago, and yes, we did sing Back to Gilwell frequently, but did so the same way we would sing any camp song; there was no dancing around in circles as if we were still first year Cubs.

When you bring up Scoutbook you should see 2 log in options (if you are a Den Leader). Choose Den Leader Experience to plan an organize your den meetings. It will populate the calendar based on the information you give and on the required activities for your den. You can then move them around and put them in the order you choose. You can also add in any electives you want to work on, and drag and drop them to the dates you would prefer. When an activity has been completed it moves into 'history', at which time you can mark attendance and it will automatically give credit to those scouts for what you did that night. Once you add in electives, if you change your mind about one, you can delete it from the schedule, but you cannot delete a required adventure, just move it to a different date. There are a whole host of resources for den leaders to use, and in particular, for new den leaders. If you click on a particular meeting, you can then click on each section of the meeting and get step by step details for that activity. Material lists, directions, etc. As for editing the calendar, I use the regular login for that, and when adding something have the option of adding it for just my den, another den (I am pack admin for Scoutbook) or the whole pack. I can put in advancement at that time as well, but if I do attendance in the den leader experience, it is already done for me. Communication tools are still a part of the regular Scoutbook login as well, and I still use them. An experienced, well organized den leader can function normally without using this feature, but for new den leaders, this is really a good resource to take advantage of. There are some features that need to be added to make it more of a one stop shop, but it is a much needed step in the direction of making life for new and inexperienced den leader better.

Unless Circle Ten is deciding to walk back the council fee, that pricing is right in line with what we will pay here in Central Florida Council. I would hope that other councils will do as ours has, in that when they announced back in January that this fee would be coming, (only thing we were not aware of was the new $25 joining fee, which I think is a mistake by national) they also announced that beginning in 2021 there would no longer be any charge for district level events. Families that have been used to paying $35 per person for Cub Family Camp or district camporee will no longer pay anything for those events. Even if they only attend 2 district events like that each year, they will come out ahead.

Congratulations!

Ninety eight years maintaining our original council borders here, must be doing something right.

The 6th edition is the one I used when I was a new 11 year old scout. I have had and used every version since. I also have several older versions, the oldest originals in my collection being the 1924 handbook for boys and the 1929 handbook for scoutmasters.

Thank you. My thoughts exactly.

I guess that means my younger brother was also a sister when he was one of my niece's GS leaders.🤣

Probably not the smartest decision MTC ever made. I hope it does not come back to bite them in the posterior. I spent all but the first 7.5 months of my time as a youth in scouting in Middle Tennessee Council, and while I have not lived there in almost 50 years, I still look back on those years as among the best of my life.