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MikeS72

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Everything posted by MikeS72

  1. While our district consistently has in excess of 100 people at every roundtable, it is only one of many ways we have tried to get the word out. Emails to every registered leader, district facebook page, face to face contact at unit meetings, texts, etc. I have sent more emails and had more direct contact about this with leaders from multiple units than I would like to count. I am sending on last reminder this afternoon via text. As @Saltface stated above, could depend on your council's interpretation. We have been told consistently that people will be dropped, from MBC's on up the lin
  2. Same here. We have all been told at every roundtable and every commissioner meeting that those who expire at midnight on Sunday will have their memberships revoked. While that may seem extreme to many, completing YPT is not at all difficult, and if all that result in not getting it done is to say 'your YPT has expired, but continue with your unit as if everything is fine for the next three months', there is really no incentive to get it done. It would also make me wonder a bit, if they are willing to ignore this requirement for eight months, what other things are they ignoring.
  3. Should not have been a part of the plan. In my district, it was explained to everyone that it was up to each CO to determine if they would accept girls, and if so, would it be an all girl pack or a co-ed pack with separate dens. The caveat however, was that if a pack was not accepting girls, there would be representatives from a pack that would accept them at the school night program. I am not aware if that actually happened, as we have had large numbers of new scouts so far, both boys and girls. in fact, of that 32,000 girl number mentioned recently, the last numbers I heard here in C
  4. I can understand the frustration some folks are having, depending on how their District or Council has approached the whole YPT thing. I know that we started discussing this is our monthly Commissioner meetings back in February, when the new YPT was first available. I took it right away, and while there were network issues, I was able to complete it within a few days. I have been reminding leaders in my units for the past 8 months that Sunday's deadline was coming. I have spoken to people face to face, sent e-mails, texts, we have made numerous announcements at every Roundtable sta
  5. Two tan ASM shirts One tan Den Leader shirt One tan Commissioner shirt One green 60's ASM complete uniform One green 60's Den Leader complete uniform
  6. I guess that depends on where you are located. In my local scout shop we have all of the new neckerchiefs, from the yellow Lion right on up the line. Any of our newer scouts who have just purchased uniforms have the new colors. I am in the Central Florida Council, which seems to be smashing recruiting numbers. Last numbers I saw were almost 2 weeks ago. At that time we had over 3,000 new cubs in a month, and just over 1,000 were girls.
  7. What we have been told as Commissioners is that anyone who has not updated to the new version of YPT by 10/1/18 will have their registration terminated. In order to recharter they would then have to fill out a new adult application and submit it, along with a current YPT certificate. I have been reminding people in my units, and have seen a lot of waiting until the last minute. In my own pack and troop we are seeing the same, although we are down to only one in the pack. I am pretty sure that we have several in the troop who will end up lapsing. When that happens, we will see if they
  8. That is a little odd, as I just got one of the newer certificates from a parent to add to their adult application, and it shows the expiration date along with the date taken, in the bottom right half of the blue border. Out of curiosity, I pulled a copy of mine from my.scouting.org and it is exactly the same, showing an expiration date of 2/7/2020.
  9. Being a part of the Central Florida Council, I can attest to the fact that pack school nights are going very well. In my district, we are at the halfway point in school night presentations, and have registered 264 new scouts. At our pack's school night, we registered 26 new cubs, 10 of whom are girls.
  10. If that parent has registered they would be background checked. That may or may not be the case, depending on the unit. My personal opinion is that if you volunteer in any capacity, the unit should request that you register and undergo the background check. Not everyone or every unit feels the same.
  11. Exactly why skipping this particular requirement can have unintended and deadly consequences. I took longer than expected to reach First Class, precisely because when younger we did not live near enough to a pool to learn to swim. If it had not been a BSA requirement, I would never have bothered to learn; however, it was, and while it took a while, I did learn. I also earned my Eagle when there were not alternates to swimming or lifesaving merit badges. While I have never had to perform a water rescue, I firmly believe every Scout should know what to do in and around water.
  12. With any luck you could find information at National Council. They do maintain a database of Eagle Scouts, although some records were lost in a fire a number of years ago. Worth a try though.
  13. As I am sure you know, your commissioner has things a tad bit confused. At least at this time, no one should be 'adding girls to their troop'. Those COs who choose to take in girls must do so by chartering a separate all girls troop. As several others have stated, I do not see a big rush of girls joining at the troop level. Once we get a few years in, and have girls crossing over from packs, I am sure that will change. I am leaving the house shortly for a district school night presenter training, and should have an idea how things will look in our district, based on how many packs
  14. Based on the picture you attached, this is more likely a 70's shirt. While I no longer have my very first uniform, (from 1964) I do know that it was a much heavier material than the one shown. The 60's shirt I first wore also had a wide pleat in the middle of the pockets which made it real fun when sewing on patches. You do not seem to have gotten uniform pants along with the shirts. If you had, the 60's pants had the button down flaps with red piping. We do see a few camp staff wearing the 70's uniforms here, with a pretty fair number wearing the older 80's pants/shorts with
  15. I have my Life patch (1970) on a vest. It was indeed just a heart, no OD rectangle or square like the other rank patches of the era. Much tougher to hand sew and keep it straight.
  16. The Scouts BSA shirt was a 70's shirt. (did not stay in circulation very long) I have one hanging in my closet.
  17. I have read through this entire thread, and waited for a little more information before hazarding a guess as to what the problem here may have been. Your comment that his 18th birthday was June 9th means that unless a specific request for an EBOR past September 9th was filed, that would be the most likely reason for any denial. That denial would not be for an ECOH, but of the Eagle application itself. You have stated that the SM gave him a plastic bag with his Eagle medal and patch. Did he also receive an actual, legitimate, Eagle certificate from BSA? As was stated earlier by @Eagle9
  18. It is very much the camp staff's problem, particularly when they were presented with a copy of the court order. As to enforcing that court order, if need be, it is enforced by local law enforcement. While that may sound like a drastic step to take, it is far less drastic than the father arriving to find his son gone, and never seeing him again. It is not unusual in this day and age to deal with these situation every new school year, and yes I have had to tell a parent that the court order the school has does not allow us to release a child. Not the most pleasant conversation to h
  19. As an educator, I have made all of my staff aware that in our state we may not deny any parent access to their child, unless we have a copy of a court order restricting said access. In such a case, knowingly ignoring that court order could not only jeopardize the safety of the child, it can (and likely will) jeopardize that individual's job. Not against your requests, they violated a court order by allowing access. As @shortridge stated above, you need to contact your Council, to ensure something like this does not happen again.
  20. Hand sewing needles do not do well with those heavy plastic backing either. I broke countless needles trying to get them through the backing, which is one reason I bought the sewing machine. I use a clear filament thread, so you do not see any stitching, and you can adjust the size of the stitch so it is easy to remove if and when needed.
  21. We did our first of 2 summer camps three weeks ago. Seven out of the twelve boys who attended are new to the troop since February, and participated in the camp's Trailblazer program. They spent a good portion of the 'instructional day' working on Second Class & First Class requirements. They also had time in the middle of the day for merit badges, most of them earned 2 for the week. I say most of them, as this camp is, thankfully, a stickler for completions being actually earned. A couple of the younger boys, along with some of the older ones, came back with incompletes that they
  22. Goo Gone will do a pretty fair job, although you may need repeat applications and some scrubbing with a soft brush (toothbrush works well). You could also give Goof Off a try. It is a similar product, but worked pretty well for me, after finding that our Scout Shop used a spray on adhesive before sewing on the council patch, and the international patch. I had to move that dreaded little purple guy to sew on knots, and found the residue. Not a happy camper! I discourage parents from ever using Badge Magic, even to the point of offering to run the patches on my sewing machine.
  23. I had the same situation when I got back involved in my great-nephew's pack. I had been inactive for a number of years, and was accepted into the lodge after providing the date I went through my ordeal, and of course, paying dues. In many instances, there has to some element of trust; particularly if you do not have old membership cards for verification. In my case, it was a little easier, as while I did not have the 50 year old membership card, I did have my Vigil Honor certificate to use as verification.
  24. Should I mention how much I enjoy 'winter camping' here in Florida? Coldest I have run into here with Scouts was a 27 degree night on an OA weekend. (did see plenty of cold in Colorado, however)
  25. I find that many Scouts also struggle just to get a properly built fire lit. We were at summer camp last week, and after multiple failed attempts, I showed them a correctly built fire, which lit on the first try. As I laid the first bit of kindling, one of them remarked 'Look, he's doing it the way they showed us in Vanguard (second class skills)'. He sounded surprised that what they had been taught earlier in the week actually worked. p.s., I agree with your assessment of state fire bans. Here in FL it is often hard to find a campsite that will allow open fires.
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