Jameson76

On the guardian question, I am not a lawyer (though I did watch 12 Angry Men the other night) the only definition seems to imply someone who is legally responsible for someone who is unable to mange their affairs. Agree that if the wizards in Dallas had put the word "legal" in front of guardian, would be much clearer. I know for webelos visitation we have had older brothers, grandparents, etc accompany visiting Web II scouts. If another parent brings 2 Web's for a visit (their son and another Web) we typically will request that the young ones have their own tent. To get back on topic,

Agree it is sort of vague as to whether this would / should be counted in the 15 nights. As with many things in Boy Scouts, you as the SM will need to use your best judgement to ensure the requirements are met and you are not adding or subtracting to/from them. Yes you have some latitude. Approved - that would seem to imply that the camping event and/or outing would need to be reviewed prior to the event with the Troop leadership. Typically the monthly troop outings would be assume to be approved, can be a grey area for a cub outing with siblings under the auspices = with the hel

Be reminded if you do call and your are a leader, to make sure it is a conference call with another registered and YPT trained leader so as to be compliant with current GTSS. Also subnote A, if the middle range kid is in fact a youth who is currently identifying as female gender and you as a leader do not currently identify as female gender you will need to include a registered and YPT trained leader who does currently identify as female gender Gotta be safe......

The camp is East of Atlanta (proper) about 40 miles. Bert Adams has been Atlanta Area Council property since around 1960 (+/-). There was a storm front moving through, not all that surprising for mid-summer in Georgia. My recollection is there was not a long term warning about severe weather threats, just thunderstorms. There were some microbursts that hit the area. Those are very random and literally will knock a couple of trees down and 20' away not damage. Woodruff (the AAC mountain camp) was hit by a severe line on a Saturday afternoon in late June, so no campers on property, an

Also this is the really really important quote from the article: BSA’s debt load has ballooned in recent years to help fund the Summit’s development. In 2012, the organization issued $175 million in bonds due 2022, and increased its revolving line of credit by $25 million. Yes the insurance issues and settlements can be tough, but the ego project of Summit is the real issue

Shocked face

We had two Scouts who did their projects on the same day at a community organization. The org was having a work day and wanted to get everything done on the same day. It was logistically easier for them. As was previously noted each Scout owned their project, they were separate and coordinated their own efforts. One thing was one project was ahead of schedule and had extra labor so they wandered over and helped with moving some items for project 2. Basic labor sharing SM should not be inserting himself into the process

An interesting question on how to grow Scouting. One item BSA does not seem to effectively do is benchmarking. Not that JTE foolishness or Quality Unit intrigue. But really get into what is the unit that maintains membership, has many service hours, has outings every month, works to use the patrol method actually doing and how are they in fact doing this? (and no it's not Woodbadge trained leaders). This would be more than one visit and the actual challenge is what makes a good unit. One unit may be 100 Scouts and another unit 2 miles down the road may be 25 Scouts. Both may be succ

Agree on Scoutbook. I am the Life to Eagle coordinator for our troop. We have 10 - 12 Eagles per year. The individual report is great. Helps to see if the Scout has in fact turned in all the merit badge blue cards. Also the dates are very useful. I send them the link to the fillable PDF Eagle app and advise them to pull their report from Scoutbook. For keeping up with the Scouts I have a basic Excel sheet that I sort by birthday and rank. Also there are milestones like project approved, merit badges, have they reached out to me to review the process, SM conference, etc. If they a

There ares notes in the Guide to Advancement. Lots of note on timeliness From section 9.0.1.5 Submit to Council Service Center "There is no requirement that the application must be completed or submitted before the 18th birthday. Councils do not have the authority to reject applications submitted on of after that date"

At Philmont check-in a few years back, my BP was higher than they liked. Hung around the medical place, drank water, etc. One of the medical folks came in, I asked what's the end game here. They advised that ultimately the decision to head for the trail was my decision. I told them "and we're done here". Had a great trek. 80 plus miles, Baldy and Tooth, etc etc I have not take WB but knowing some of the leaders in our council and from photos, pretty sure NOT a HA and not a physically stressing activity.

Well...you can't have your CEO out and about with the great unwashed.

Most Boy Scouts do not even realize they have a membership card/number. That is until they start filling out the Eagle application

Rather than Woodbadge, lead a second summer camp or a longer term summer experience for the troop

You just know that their version of all of this is that the TROOP would not make a reasonable accommodation for their son who had a life threatening allergy. The TROOP was insensitive to his needs. The parents graciously offered to attend the outing so as to relieve the burden of this from the TROOP leadership. The pleas from the parents fell on deaf ears and everything was fine up until this point. They are not a welcoming TROOP This stuff will write itself

They have published the 2019 Treks - Seems that the middle of the ranch will not be used. Sort of expected this was going to be the case. Either south country or north country. No hiking bear canyon or crossing US 64 https://www.philmontscoutranch.org/2019-itineraries-and-guidebook-to-adventure-released/?fbclid=IwAR0EAgyPzzB6nDK20QvbLg0oKnVvtunDAxmeqtRc7Y7JcUfHk17wOn8rhE8

Option B As Gerry Bertier's so eloquently stated in Remember the Titans - "Sometimes, you just gotta cut a man loose”

We have Scouts (youth) who are Life or Eagle sign off on the Tfoot / Second Class / First Class requirements. I guess if we had Life Scouts in the troop that also had a son in the troop we would evaluate if they could sign off, though not likely we will put it in the rotation of things to talk about. For merit badges scouts find leaders other than their parents to cover that. We are a large unit so most merit badges (especially Eagle required) have 3 to 4 MBC they can call on. For our unit no parents can be on their son's BOR. Same for SM conferences, no parents does those for their s

We try to recognize key leaders each year as they are being active with the troop. For summer activities we have made mugs (large / regular / travel) and metal coozies over the years. In August we have an adult leaders "meeting" and review the summer. We have about 25 - 30 leaders there from various summer camps, HA, and support functions At Christmas we try to get a small gift for the SM / ASM's / Outdoor For others they sort of, to paraphrase Dugout Doug McArthur..."Old leaders never die, they simply fade away" (Note that he swiped that from and old English folk song)

We were pleased that they acknowledged there is an issue coming over the horizon. They made clear the separation of National to Local council. They specifically called out the properties (Woodruff and Bert Adams) and the VSC (literally in the shadow of the new Braves ballpark) would not be affected. AAC is clearly in the latter part of this question...do you raise money to have scouting OR do you have scouting to raise money. Note that the message is addressed to Parents, Volunteers, and Donors. No mention of the actual scouts who we are providing program to.

Interesting message from the Atlanta Area Council today..... Parents, Volunteers and Donors: The purpose of this communication is to help you understand the position of the Atlanta Area Council, BSA and how it relates to National BSA's story in the recent Wall Street Journal article. Below are some fast facts we would like to share with you: We operate as a financially separate not-for-profit organization and our Council receives no funding from the National organization. The Atlanta Area Council is a 501(c)(3) entity incorporated in Georgia. Our Camps, Vol

Yes. It is a cash drain. If you read the notes (buried I might add) in the annual report the true picture of the issue comes to light. There are forward thinking statements about "upcoming fund raising" and "anticipated donations". Also there is a balloon payment north of $125 million on the bonds in 2021 I believe. Assume they would refinance that for more interest and kick that can down the road. Bottom line Summit is sort of a microcosm of what is wrong with "corporate" scouting. Some group within National (volunteers and pros) decided THIS is what was needed. This giant EGO

Well that is an interesting question. IMHO it goes back many many years and continues with inept management. The program at it's core is solid, the overhead execution is tone deaf and not aware of what is actually happening in the trenches. Early 70's - Social tinkering and the introduction of ISP (Improved Scouting Program) that gutted the core outdoor program, in 8 years 40% of Scouts left 70's and 80's - National Leadership handles abuse cases very poorly, and continues to handle them poorly 90's - Some focus away from the outdoor programs and focus STEM and non traditio

Curious if anyone has had any direct comments or feedback from their local councils? I wonder is the local councils were in the loop before the CSE e-mail or did it just roll into the inboxes at the office like it did ours? Not sure if the councils will try to do some damage control or hunker down.

I thought (think??) the Councils and Nationals money and finances are separate to a degree. For example National cannot make councils pony up cash to pay for Summit-a-palooza and all those costs. Just as National will likely not bail out a council for bad finance decisions and spending. There is overlap for pensions and the membership dues