Jameson76

These quotes (if accurate) fill me with confidence "What will we recommend?" Surbaugh wrote. "Frankly, I'm not sure." "And, don’t even get me started on all the abuse I get from those who don’t like any of this because it’s not fully co-ed," Surbaugh wrote. "Any miscellaneous garbage that comes out of this office will 'face the wrath of the dark side of the force,''' he wrote. Also...the "family" things rears it's ugly head again gave an option for members to choose a "family troop" that would contain both all-boy patrols and all-girl patrols. This pretty much sums it up... However, Surbaugh's email suggests that the board is still unclear about the "philosophy and program design" for welcoming older girls in Boy Scouts troops. Train is rolling down the tracks, the conductor has no idea where it will stop or how it got in this set of track, no idea where the stations are, and sadly no idea where the passengers are hoping to go

Likely it would look sort of like this

Hey - my book has the same pages!!!

We rotate through a few of the Eagle required with some specific classes outside the meetings every couple of years. Cit in the Community, Personal Management, Family Life. Scouts do most of the work outside the class. Class is really a time to check on how they are are doing, what needs to be done. Each MB has some specific instruction needed. Just coming to the classes will not earn the MB. They have to do and present the work, do the time period tracking etc. As noted if scouts are active there are multiple opportunities for advancement.

Now I can hang out in the troop's office at the church for all eternity...that will be great

Come on now, having those bank robbers and other miscreants around the campfire will up the bar on conversation. "So Mr Smith, how easy was it to evade the FBI?"

We play that game but call it the trash can game. Use a 50 gallon trash can and the scouts drag each other to "touch" the can. Touch being you drag each other to violently interact with the trash can. Great times.

Absolutely spot on. We are going down the fortress of solitude path. There are two packs at the CO. One is (was??) embracing the addition of girls into the pack, but not sure how that will be done. One is not. We are not 100% sure about the annual Webelos visitation in the fall, not sure if there will be any girls. Key is we will set the bar that yes they can visit, but they cannot join this particular troop. As the large troop in the area we are planning to continue business as usual. If the CO wants to sponsor and start a BS4G troop, enjoy. Our position at this time is that would in fact be a separate unit. There was a Venture crew at the CO and the advisor wanted to dual register all of our older scouts to keep the charter. Our feedback was that's great, but that will be the scouts decision, and you will need some program for them. As they had no members, it was a tough sell. Same will be if there is a BS4G unit. If they need leaders, they will need to recruit leaders, get trained, and enjoy their scouting journey. No paper leaders

Honestly it will become a movement of many types of units. (talking the 11 and older crowd, lord knows what cubs will evolve to). The family based units will rise and fall, take a lot of care, and will not be scouts as we (well some of us) know it. There will also be the BS4G units, these will be new, maybe some experienced scouters, they may be "sister" troops to existing units and these will quietly become co-ed units. Then there will be the traditional Boy Scout troops. Those of us running these and providing Boy Scouts the outdoor program, patrol method, and leadership experiences will continue on. We will be there, doing monthly outings, weekly meetings, Greenbars and scouts doing the planning. Already some of these units do not participate in district events, shun the council camporees. We will take a wait and see what happens attitude for week long summer camps as that develops. If you want to find us, come out to the woods. The scouts will be camped in one area, the few leaders a good bit away. No families, siblings, or pets. Vehicles parked a good well out of sight. Hopefully the troop will be one step above Lord of the Flies running a program that at it's core is designed to fail, so the scouts can learn from that experience.

But, as the day is not over, one can never tell with BSA National. They do seem to sort of do what they want. In this case maybe, just maybe, they will do a survey, then based on the unpublished results of the survey (questions and/or answers) make a proclamation that all the work done prior to being officially allowed in the scouts can in fact be counted so as to clear the road. This will be done because XX% of those surveyed, even though they are not in the program, feel that a program such as the Boy Scouts of America (NOTE - Current name and subject to change based on survey results) should allow exceptions for the heretofore excluded class known as girls. Also they might join a group that undertook such an action While sounding far fetched right now, check back in 12 months

Maybe we are just waaay old school, but I can (and have seen) how what you describe can happen. We are not that kind of troop. We do have to engage drivers. While we there is reimbursement, in the last 10 years nobody has asked for it. Note we have 30 - 40 scouts attend outings, so 8 - 10 cars each trip. Usually mostly leaders but a few spare ones for transport. Mostly we recommend deducting the mileage. We do have moms drive and some non camping dads. Clear emphasis is to get them unloaded and back on their way asap. That being said we typically can camp within 2 hours or less of drive from CO parking lot. There are the longer summer camps and (upcoming) winter trips Expectation is all vehicles out of camp area for the weekend. Even if only 50 yards in a parking area, get the cars out of camp. Only exception is the vehicle with the trailer. No dogs / beer / siblings / etc. If we leaders can setup where they cannot see the scouts, que beuno. We were doing a wide game one campout. The scouts were maybe 1/3 mile way down the road, clearly out of site and sound. We packed up on Sunday morning and then debated should we just leave as the ride back would be quieter. We conceded to go get the troop. Drove around the bend, camp was down, gear was lined up, and scouts were out policing up the field of play. Love it when a plan comes together.

He is an NYC lawyer, I feel you have answered your question

Well...except for Daddy Ireland Her father, corporate attorney Gary Ireland, slammed the BSA for this. “It is outrageous and embarrassing that the Scouts will ban local young women from participating, particularly as we are the host country,” he said. “Scouts need to be a certain age and rank to attend a Jamboree. With the Boy Scouts allowing girls into the program very soon, it is unclear why they continue to refuse admission to Sydney.” As has been noted there are a myriad or ways for her to attend the World Jamboree. But that is just the straw man argument

It is an interesting document. I have worked with it with son who earned Eagle (my word that was an adventure in and of itself) and with numerous scouts in the troop. Yes it is repetitive, but it is really several forms, rolled into 1. - What are you thinking about doing? - What is your plan for doing that? - What did you do? Could it be a simpler format, possibly. At a high level it does give some consistency to presentation so each Eagle candidate is not reinventing the wheel. Even in it's current state the scout can be brief or be wordy. Working with 1 scout he was hung up on writing up what he did, yet there were a lot of pictures from the project. In the end he had 5 or 6 pages of pictures with captions, worked for him. Another scout literally did a 500 word theme about the project with few photos. There are some clear formats for the signatures and who does need to sign the approval and project plan, so that is mapped out.

In theory they would go into the Den of the gender that they self identify as. (not sure I got all my pronouns correct, but it is what it is). To your pandora's box reference, one would assume if a biological female self identified as a male, they could join a current troop right now. No doubt that is currently happening somewhere even as we discuss this

It is in fact a brave new world. You know, not to threadjack here, I do find it interesting that for the most part youth under the age of 16 cannot vote, get credit, drive by themselves, fly unattended, join the military, get married, decide on most medical procedures, own guns, enter into contracts, in some places wander about by themselves, decide if they want to go to school, or do a myriad of things that those 18 and over can freely do. The reasons usually given center on maturity, responsibility, experience, knowledge, etc. However, if a 10 year old determines they do not want to be their biological sex, but are really "something else", hey no issue, you go right ahead and enjoy this potentially life changing impacting decision.

Well....when you spend heewge sums of cash on the giant white elephant know as Summit, eventually the poor decisions will come back to haunt you. Literally the National BSA has mortgaged it's future on SBR. Not sure what tea leaves were read that there was massive unfulfilled desire for justifying the development. Curious what attendance figures would be needed to even break even on the debt service. The real amount spent was likely north of $500MM to $750MM (that's cash american). Also there is a large bond payment of hundreds of millions looming out there in the next several years. Couple that with steep rises in liability insurance, untold minions on the BSA National (not to be confused with the local councils) payroll and it is a recipe for disaster. To say the 2016 annual report looked like a disaster is an understatement. You really had to read all the way to the details to get the full story. But hey, there are girls entering the program, so bingo, new revenue stream and everything will work out...no need to address the real issues.

I too wondered. Run a quick word search on the book...change He to They and let's move on. That being said, maybe there are more tweaks to put in so as to embrace the new "Family" emphasis. I can see the shocked faces, but maybe our CSE and crowd have not fully disclosed all the coming changes

Vice President for Family Scouting - Those oranges are not slicing themselves and the participation ranks will not award themselves...somebody has to take the lead The emphasis on "Family" which appears to be the new buzzword for success (articles in Scouting magazine and Boys Life) is what will no doubt cause much confusion and derision in the next 24 months. There is no real definition on what it means and if you question what it means one may be accused of not living up to the Scout Oath and Law

Family Pack Model??? Oh BOY. I cannot wait for the rollout of the Family Troop Model...

Hard to tell, angle is not good. Also blinded by glare from the rows and rows of knots he is wearing, the Silver Beaver award and the Woodbadge beads

We have used a couple, typically have a few around. We are 100 +/- so there is the bench strength. Got some active scouts, they may be responsible and good leaders but did not want to be SPL, we put them in the JASM position to sort of be a backstop to the SPL. Good to have extra set of eyes and assist the SPL and various PL's. Sometimes if leaders see something, working through a JASM to the SPL is more subtle.

Don't worry...the new families coming into scouting will LOVE the Sustainability MB. Really dovetails into so many agendas Side note, under the Stuff section, they mention a DVD, wonder how many scouts will need to have a history lesson in what exactly a DVD is

We have several park units along a river in our area, the coyotes seem to really like the environment. Little coyote condos abound. I see them occasionally wandering about just out being coyotes. You can sometimes hear them howl (yapping??) in the woods. These are not the thin western coyotes, these guys seem to be the large cat fed ones. I see the "missing" Fluffy posters and sadly realize that the cat out and about who is missing, likely not coming back. Several of our guys have written about coyotes for Mammal study MB.

I have many friends in scouting that have definitely "drunk the kool aid" of WB. To them, God Bless them, it is the end all be all for scout leaders. Critters, totems, walking sticks, coffee mugs, council strips etc etc. Never mind your years of actual experience working in a unit, to really be a Scout leader need to be WB trained and then do district and council stuff, the troop work is soooo last year. If I run in to them with my troop I always take the time to have some of my scouts come over, I introduce them to some actual scouts, remind them that at the end of the day, this is why we are involved as adult leaders...an actual scout at an actual outdoor function, doing actual scouting stuff. Often sarcasm and cutting edge humor is lost on the WB nation. Could be my cracks about the pink hankies and kilts.....