Jameson76

19 minutes ago, mashmaster said:

OK, question on this.   We are camping on a beach in the summer.  Has anyone built a hammock stand by making a pioneering project?  

We have tried several homemade ones, but have not found one portable enough.  We did build one with some tripods, but the Scouts ask (and good question) "We used all this wood that was from these trees, why not just hook up to the trees like we always do?"

There are several commercial ones

Youtube has some really poor made videos.....

10 minutes ago, ianwilkins said:

We went on an international trip a few years back which has passed into unit legend. We spent a couple of nights on a visit to an island and sleeping accomodation was a gym floor. There was about 300 of us. Explorer Scouts from Spain, UK, France, and a few other places, all aged 14-18, male and female, and their leaders. You know those pictures you see when there's a natural disaster and a bunch of people get evacuated to a local school? Yeah, just like that. UK rules are that leaders and young people have separate sleeping areas. That is not, apparently, the spanish way. Fun, looking back at it, but at the time...

Careful....you will end up with a YPT time out imposed upon you

Hammocks is the answer, hammocks.  Now I guess if Scouts groups together in hammock pods and they are more than 2 years apart the YPT zealots may raise an alarm.

While we're at it, don't forget staying on museum ships.  You have Scouts of all ages bunking right beside each other and adults all in the same area.  Horrors

The BSA is undergoing a period of extraordinary change right now. What are your thoughts on the overall direction of the Boy Scouts of America?

When you think about it, the Boy Scouts didn’t change much during the early years of the movement. After World War II, a lot of things changed in America, but Scouting didn’t always adapt to those changes in the nation. When the organization’s growth plateaued and eventually began to decline, it still didn’t adapt. No business or organization can operate that way and watch its numbers continue to decline. That requires you to make some changes.

Very revealing and interesting.  The plateaued growth and decline he speaks of (which was 1973 - 1980) was in fact a direct result of change within the organization, the "Improved Scouting Program".  Really like the way that BSA's own part of that is sort of glossed over and the decline placed into the changes in America bucket.

Those who do not fully understand history are doomed to repeat it......

Honestly I have never heard of the naming of top Scouts for units and councils.  Must be a local thing

3 minutes ago, malraux said:

My beading was a 5 minute thing. It was with kids, but it was as much about talking about bsa history as wb coolaid. No song or dance or fox party. 

Good Lord we had one that went 45 minutes at a meeting.  Worst.Meeting.Ever

6 hours ago, Eagledad said:

Ah, the age of dealing with fear. Everybody excepting your same age tent mate is a suspected bad guy. Not very scout like I guess, but keeps everyone safe.

Not to make light of any real issues, but am I the only one that sees all the hoopla of the molester behind every tree, etc sort of smacks of the communist scares of the 50's?  Were there and are there bad people out there, yes.  Is it to the levels that our media and lawyers would make us feel there is...no.

Follow the reasonable YPT guidelines, do not overthink or you will be scared of your own shadows and question every decision you are making.

6 minutes ago, carebear3895 said:

Guy looks like he doesn't like staying in one place for too long. Also, weird to see someone leave a sweet full-time gig at a National High Adventure base

Dude it was the Summit...nobody likes the Summit apparently

58 minutes ago, TAHAWK said:

The year after he left Cleveland,the council took a 30% membership hit to eliminate fictional membership.

That's never good

How about ( with props to Nancy) Just Say No?

14 hours ago, Eagle94-A1 said:

I see that the FAQs still has the incorrect statement that Dodgeball has never been an approved activity. I wonder how much longer it will take to correct that?

Any idea @RichardB ?

If you can Dodge a wrench you can dodge a ball....

Not to compare the two items, but one of the reasons (and a good one I might add) for allowing girls into Cubs and Scouts was that siblings were tagging along and participating, so might as well make it official.  Let's do the same for dodgeball... if all the units played dodgeball...well everybody is participating, so might as well make it official.

Just an idea

9 hours ago, Eagle94-A1 said:

I see that the FAQs still has the incorrect statement that Dodgeball has never been an approved activity. I wonder how much longer it will take to correct that?

Any idea @RichardB ?

When Dodgeball is outlawed only Outlaws will play dodgeball

They can have my dodgeball when they pry it from my cold dead hands

Dodgeball..it's not about hunting

We have several Grants in our troop, they go on outings, one is working on his Eagle project, great kid....not sure this is helpful to your question

On a serious note agree with @robert12 - your money is your money, do the best program you can for YOUR unit

9 minutes ago, qwazse said:

@Jameson76, I think the OP was given the applicant's portion.

There should be two separate signatures; Unit Leader and MB counselor.  Assuming OP is indicating the same name is the MB counselor

So - just to clarify, OP noted 

On 1/22/2020 at 8:14 AM, swilliams said:

  Last night at our troop meeting, a Life scout handed me a stack of completed blue cards.  I sat down this morning to get them entered, and after recording two of them, realized that they all (9 of them) had been signed by someone with the same last name as the scout, on the same day.  In one case, the original subject of the blue card had been crossed out

There would need to be 4 signatures on a blue card

1. Unit leader on the front part: Application for Merit Badge
2. MB Counselor on the part signing off the MB (backside of the Application part)
3. MB Counselor on the Applicant record
4. Unit leader on the application record

What part of the Blue Card did the (possible) relative sign that is causing concern?  Agree that an MB counselor for 9 merit badges may raise an eyebrow

As a aside, in our unit family does not serve as an MB counselor for their Scouts unless it is a troop wide session offered to multiple Scouts.  For our SM son we had other leaders sign as Unit Leader when he started an MB.

8 hours ago, TAHAWK said:

Not Ohio!    😵

Never valid in OH, not sure why that is....

We used Ace bandages, triangle bandages, some splints, things like that.  Did not need gauze, band aids etc.

Your course and mileage may vary by location, warranty not valid in CA, OH, and HI

26 minutes ago, walk in the woods said:

I don't believe the 72 hours is cumulative over the scouting year, rather, it's per event.

Correct.  The most often confused statement in YPT and the one so many Scouters feel they know, but it's not what they think

From the BSA - FAQ on YPT - https://filestore.scouting.org/filestore/email/campaign/Youth-Protection-FAQ_03-07-2018.pdf

Effective June 1, 2018, adults accompanying a Scouting unit who are present at the activity for 72 total hours or more must be registered as a leader, including completion of a criminal background check and Youth Protection Training. The 72 hours need not be consecutive

Note that they are referring to THE activity, not ALL activities.  If they come to summer camp driving up Sunday, leaving Tuesday morning (48 hours), then come up Thursday night and plan to stay until Saturday for the drive home, the 72 hours would apply.

Now - don't get me started on how Scouters may not understand the difference between 2 Deep Leadership and No One on One contact.

On 1/18/2020 at 5:05 PM, PACAN said:

@carebear3895  the communication flow or lack there of has always amazed me. The fact the professionals do not (or claim to not know) about things before the volunteers is amazing.  The last fiasco on the rate increase where the councils feigned ignorance was ridiculous.   I was told that all the SEs have a weekly conference call with national and they didn't know anything until the press released it is either incompetence or dishonest.    

Or if this is how national runs the organization, Mr. mosby has lots of work to do.

JMHO.

I am in a large council and there are several "marketing" folks, a Deputy SE, etc etc.  As with you I am amazed at the lack of ACTUAL communications as opposed to the FLUFF and or FEEL GOOD communications.  Sure they send out MB colleges, Scout days at the sports, etc etc, but real news, you might need.... nope.  Over the last several months I have asked questions of our council about various things and actions taken by National that I have seen on other sources (that interwebs is amazing, no real secrets), and then I get confirmation or there is a message to Scouters.

Many times I get the feeling that the attitude is "We will tell you what we feel you need to know when we feel you need to know...if you in fact are deemed worthy to know".  Now that may have worked 20 years ago, but now you need to be out in front of issues and communications.  Trying to control the narrative of your small fiefdom that is part of the much larger empire does not work.

10 hours ago, Navybone said:

I cannot fathom a reason that a MBC would not want to council a female scout.  At least so long as the MBC is meeting all the Youth Protection requirements.   

I would have possibly thought the same thing, what possibly could the issue be??  That is until I had a conversation with some of our council professionals about the leader requirement for girl troops, had to have a female.  I felt that was gender biased as no requirement for a male leader for boy troops.  Why can't two dads of girls BSA members be the leaders?

So the professionals go into a dissertation about statistics, and adult male incidents with females, etc etc.  My initial feedback was "well they should be following YPT so what would the issue be?". Then some doublespeak on optics and stats, and historical cases studies yada yada.  Then I said so "Basically you (The BSA) do not trust male leaders", more double speak, etc.

Not saying I agree or disagree with what they said / believe - but after that exchange...not sure what to think but would err on the side of caution.

The 2 man tent weighs in at 2 lbs, wonder if you can use any trekking poles or do you have to use the ones with the fancy handles?

2 hours ago, mrkstvns said:

I'd have to be a pretty big dirtbag if I said "No" to any scout who asked for my help...

That's pretty harsh.  There are a myriad of reasons you may only work within your unit.  Scheduling of time, ease of communications, streamlined follow-up just to name a few.  I might work with some other Scouts, but it does not always work to the schedule.

I did get contacted by a Scout from another unit, told him we could meet on Monday night prior to my units meeting at our CO.  Due to traffic etc he could not.  He could meet me on the weekend, but then, as I did not know him and the time was offset, there is the 2 deep leader and YPT issue, plus I had things other than Scouting to do, so I had to decline.

Am I a "dirtbag" because of that?

1 hour ago, Cburkhardt said:

Jameson:  The numbers came from the monthly distribution of membership reports to national volunteers.  Those particular numbers were month end November compared to previous year month end November.  Until month end December, we have the unique opportunity to see the effect of girl membership before the significant LDS drop of January.

Thanks - 

With month to month the real indicator will be January 2019 numbers (after recharters) versus January 2020 numbers (after recharter, registration increase, press on abuse claims, and LDS departure)

23 minutes ago, 69RoadRunner said:

Two crews.  Our ASM checked 2 boxes for the same adventure on the same date.  Ran through the personal info and payment.  Then he got the email confirming the 2 crews.

There is not lottery like Philmont.  This is like buying concert tickets on Ticketmaster.  If you get through the process, you have your date/adventure.

Is there a secondary market like Stub Hub that I can profit from?  I will sign up for ALL the adventures, then dole them out at higher fees...all the money will be MINE!!!

2 hours ago, 69RoadRunner said:

We got 2 slots for our preferred date for Out Island Adventure.  Two of us were trying this morning and their web site couldn't handle the traffic.  We'd get so far, then Internal Server Error.  After about 10-15 minutes, the other guy got through and registered.

For anyone who comes across this post, here is how registration works.

1. it's like buying concert tickets. Keep clicking the link starting just before 9.  You're competing against other troops at the same time. if you can, get multiple people trying, but be on the phone with each other.  Everyone keep trying until 1 person gets ALL the way through registration.  Obviously everyone else stop so you're not paying for a slot you don't need.

2. Next page is just info about registration.

3. Next page, you pick your adventure from a drop down.

4. Next page has a list of dates with check boxes. If there are multiple slots for the same date available, check a box for each crew you want to take.

5. Next page is where you fill out your info (name, council, district BSA ID, etc.) and continue on to deposit payment of $250 per crew.

Signed on about 11:00 am (EST) and it was no errors or waiting.  Guess the tide (Seabase joke there) of inquiries had passed.

We signed up for 2 Out Island crews in late May, that has worked for us over the last 12 - 14 years.  New for this year was the deposit right now, past years I recall we have 30 days or so to send in money.  They did take CC, so not an issue

Got a prompt e-mail confirmation, now to sign up Scouts for the adventure