69RoadRunner

Girl Scouts do not have COs. It's a choice to be organized this way, not a requirement. I don't think most COs understand the risk and liability they take on when agreeing to be a CO. That liability should be 100% with BSA with the exception of actions done by the CO, of course.

I've never liked having Charter Orgs and if BSA hangs them out to dry, many COs not even affected will decide they don't want the liability risk.

Not too many boomers with teen kids. It's mostly us Gen Xers.

It's a long thread, maybe I missed this, but if BSA is upside down on Summit, then it's a liability, not an asset, right? The property can't be sold and proceeds given to plaintiffs if the loan exceeds the sale price. That would be making BSA's creditor lose.

@qwazse we only shut down last year when required. Then we started meeting at 2 different houses outside because the school was closed to us. We camped until Virginia reduced group sizes to 10. Then we continued meetings, but as individual patrols and shorter meetings outside. Once VA opened to groups of 100, we started activities again. First was our mulch fundraiser and now a campout. We had an outdoor Court of Honor without the potluck dinner we do in normal times. Everything is outside where Covid transmission is rare. We're doing our best to keep the program going with

@Eagledad for 3 consecutive years, we had a camping activity scheduled in early June and they had to be canceled every time due to people not signing up. August is the month that high school sports and band have summer stuff going on. Our school year used to start after Labor Day and ran until late June. Now it's just before Labor Day to mid June. We lose our meeting place when school closes. We try to make HA in late June now. Summer Camp is July. Even during the non-summer months I have difficulty getting commitment to multiple weekend activities in the same month. There's us

The good news is, Covid transmission is rare outside and we'll be outside the whole time. We did Northern Tier last summer as well as summer camp at Summit (I only did NT). We have more than half the adult population fully vaccinated. Cases are dropping as are hospitalizations and deaths in this country. There's no such thing as zero risk. We can't live in perpetual lockdown. Just as there are too many people who thought the virus was fake, there are too many people who want us to continue hiding in fear.

I agree. Demographics and also the culture of the troop. If your troop has always done it, the parents and scouts know what to expect and that could be part of why they're in your troop. If you try to make a large cultural change, it could meet resistance. Sometimes that's necessary, but sometimes it's tilting at windmills. We have HA in June and summer camp in July, so August is really our only no activity month. Meetings end in June when school ends (we usually meet at an elementary school in normal times). Do your best to deliver the BSA program to your troop. This Covid ye

We have parents drop off at the camping site, so no carpooling. Everyone tents solo. Masks when they're near each other. We did this last Fall before Virginia had increased restrictions. Keep in mind this is shot 2 for me. The other adult is fully vaccinated. Shot 1 of Moderna for me 4 weeks later does provide good Covid protection. Clearly 2 shots does much better and I'll be happy when I'm fully vaccinated. My son is 17 and gets shot 2 of Pfizer the same week. I was scheduled for J&J on the day they started the pause.

It's not just scouts. I have a very limited number of registered adults who will do campouts and getting 2 to commit for a campout is sometimes a challenge. I'm trying to recruit more. I've let the parents know just as we have turnover in scout leadership, we need turnover to new adults for adult positions. Or the troop fails. We have a campout this month. I have my second Covid shot days before it. If I'm not up to going or the other guy has to cancel, we'll have to cancel the event as nobody else can go.

We have to compete with vacations and other activities. We've found that it's impossible to have a functioning troop in July and August, so we don't meet and only do summer camp and high adventure. Maybe larger troops can have more success, but we range from about 17 to 25 active scouts. Even during the rest of the year, we typically end up having to improvise patrols at camping events. I'm not going to demand scouts make scouts priority number 1. The result would be no troop. So we adapt to reality and make the program the best it can be.

This is NOT a good fundraiser for Cubs. Some of our youngest scouts are not able to carry a bag of mulch. We typically make them the bag counter, ask the owner where to stack the bags, hand out the thank you and they also sweep out the truck each time we return. These bags can double in weight when they're wet. And they are almost always wet. I'm guessing the wet bags weigh 40-50 pounds. Just a guess.

We often get asked about that. We make enough with delivery that we haven't done that as well. In fact, we were making too much and sometimes had to take delivery into Sunday. By too much, I mean you risk your non-profit status if you pull in too much. So we did a better job limiting the amount we will sell based on the size of the troop. However, our troop trailer is over 20 years old and we probably should save up for a replacement. Losing our fundraiser last year really hurt that effort. We literally held out until about 10 days before delivery last year, then the restrictions mad

Oh absolutely it does. I HATED selling popcorn in Cub Scouts. I felt guilty selling something that was so absurdly overpriced and didn't yield a great deal for the pack. Our mulch is $4.25/bag for 10-29 bags. It's $3.75/bag for 30+ bags. That's the delivered price. We stack it where you want it. Sometimes that's 20 bags along the side of the driveway and another 30 in the backyard. That's a bargain for the customer. When I joined this troop, this fundraiser blew me away. It's taken years of developing it. Typically, in February we deliver flyers to surrounding neighborhoods.

Many troops canoe in BWCAW with private outfitters rather than Northern Tier. We did NT last summer with BSA and had a great time, but you have options there. @MattR did you use a guide company in the Wind River Range or plan it all on your own? I'd love to do that.

We're doing the out island adventure this summer with 2 crews. For that adventure, do the sister crews camp together and sort of operate as 1 large crew? We have just 4 adults for the 2 crews and I'm not sure we could have a last minute replacement if someone got ill. Would the 3 adults be able to cover for the 2 crews in that case? I think our 4 adults will be fully vaccinated by then, but of course other things could happen as well.

So glad we could do our mulch fundraiser this year, although my back might have a different opinion. (Not me in the forklift).

Well, electrical tape, but... I found a file with the frankenstrat pattern and used image editing software to expand it to the proper dimensions. I sent it to them and they printed it on Dyneema.

When I reference another adult to scouts, I try to use Mr./Mrs./Miss. I'm not perfect at this, but most of the time this is what I do. When speaking to adults, we're peers and I use first names and expect others to use my first name. If someone insists on me, a 50 year old adult, using their title, I see it as them putting themselves above me and I will not comply. The exception is a professional setting when seeing a medical doctor.

This explains the 1971 D quarter. https://www.axetremecreations.com/product/evh-frankenstrat-1971-quarter-replica-van-halen-replica-guitar/ It should be around 30 ounces. My personal gear is light and compact. My baseweight (without bear canister) is around 11 pounds. It's a framed pack, so it should handle anything I throw at it. Philgear and Philfood bulk was a greater issue than weight when we went in 2018.

They have to be humanely executed? Cohorts means a group of people that are always together and do not intermingle with other groups. It reduces spread of Covid to just the cohorts if someone is positive. I really don't see much change here. You need to follow your state/local restrictions for the most part.

I custom ordered this 46L Curve from LiteAF back in October, shortly after EVH passed. Yesterday they finished it and posted pics on Instagram. The really cool kids will get why they put a 1971 quarter on it. I'm going to hopefully use it in September to do the Yosemite High Route and God willing, with my troop in 2022 at Philmont. I had to find the EVH Frankenstrat pattern online and then enlarge it to the right size for the custom printing.

Thanks! I'll likely be the only one in our crews using a hammock, although it's possible someone will bring one for lounging. At Northern Tier, it was my first real camping with a hammock. I was going to use last Spring to use it, but of course everything shut down. So, for NT, I took an inflatable sleeping pad in case I had to join the other adult in his tent. Fortunately, it all worked out. So, I'll go prepared with a sleeping pad in case hammocking won't work.

We're doing Sea Base this year. In 2017, we did one of the large sailboats. This year we're doing the Out Island Adventure. In 2017, it rained every single night. Sleeping on deck wasn't possible and sleeping down below was hot and stinky. I plan on taking my hammock and tarp to Munson. It's a Warbonnet Eldorado with a bug net. I also have a Warbonnet Thunderfly tarp. I used this setup (with underquilt) at Northern Tier last summer Obviously the underquilt and top quilt aren't needed at Sea Base. The tarp is. If anyone has taken a hammock to Munson, what stakes did you use for t

Cool stuff, but it's not really several weeks to go 80 miles at Philmont. Yikes on the 50 pound pack. Good for him! That's quite a year.