FireStone

I'm constantly fighting this battle within my Pack. It's exhausting for everyone when we're on a tight schedule in camp. And it's totally unnecessary, especially at the Pack level. I think the idea is that we camp just a few times per year, so we have to make the most of each trip. But it seriously burns people out, I think the kids included. They want time to just run around in the woods, play a game, hang out in camp. That's a quality experience in itself. To this day one of my Webelos son's favorite memories of scouting so far is a trip a couple of years ago and "log battle" in camp, 2

Is that checklist a list of required protocols for all meetings and/or activities? I'm not super comfortable doing medical screenings before each Den meeting. I'm not a healthcare professional and some of the criteria are open to interpretation. A cough can be a lot of things. A headache could exclude me from activities pretty often. If a parent attend a Den meeting and says they have a headache, am I supposed to ask them to leave?

My Webelos will wear the blues and the tan uniform will be optional next year. Come at me, uniform police.

Seems specific to Board of Review, but what about other situations where video conferencing could be used now that we're not able to meet in-person? Regular meetings, Patrol Meetings, SMCs, Cub Scout meetings, etc? Are the guidelines the same? Parents must be present at the beginning and end, no recording, etc...?

I was thinking about doing video Den Meetings a while back, and now it seems like even more of a useful option to have. I've used free services like https://whereby.com for work, and I think it could work for doing a virtual den meeting (with a small group). Obviously some YPT issues come into play in a virtual setting. I'm not even sure if video conferencing services are allowed with scouts, need to research the YPT implications. But off the top of my head, if we used a service like this I was going to ask that a parent/guardian be present and visible on camera with their scout for any

We're also in NJ, nothing cancelled yet but I think we'll know more about what the schools are planning by early next week, and then we'll probably follow their lead. I think it would be weird if schools closed but we were still trying to get kids together for group scout activities. A lot of local schools are doing half-day or full-day closures on Friday for teacher training on virtual learning.

If that is the true intent, the slides aren't the problem, the neckerchief itself is. We need to go back to square neckers folded in half, and at a large enough size to actually be usable as a first-aid tool or other device. The knot really has very little to do with the utility of the neckerchief.

I love this. Glad this seems to be gaining more traction. Slides are awful, especially the metal ones the BSA sells.

I haven't seen it in the G2A, just keep hearing that Scoutbook is the official record in various places, like this Bryan on Scouting post: https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2017/12/21/scoutbook-lite-to-replace-bsas-internet-advancement-platform-in-early-2018/

I didn't mean which one is more practical, which I agree the printed book is more reliable for out in the woods. But my understanding is that the handbook is no longer the "official" record of scout advancement, Scoutbook is. Aside from the challenges of a digital record-keeping solution, and that the handbook is still a required resource along with the uniform, the line we've been getting at least here in our Council is that Scoutbook is the official record.

Is it? I've been under the impression that Scoutbook is now the official document/record.

Think about where we were a month ago with this thing. In one month, so much has changed. So thinking about where we'll be with it in July and August is impossible.

A lot of folks (myself included) were voicing concern about PR before the Chapter 11 filing. Now it just seems like it's too little too late. The BSA had the chance to respond strongly and convincingly to the accusations of continued abuse, continued failure to better protect scouts, and continued lack of vetting of leaders. All of which is absolutely false, but the BSA dropped the ball when given the chance to respond. Front-page news articles made these kinds of false accusations and the BSA offered up weak, canned responses. They could have (and should have) responded with the stuff they ha

I think the logic is that this should have happened long ago, so if this process results in the BSA losing everything than it was just delayed, in essence taking something away from today's scouts and scouters that should have been gone long ago if these lawsuits had occurred back when they should have. I think that if we see another dues increase, it will be really hard for anyone to believe that it's not going to be used for lawsuit settlements. Whether that is true or not, it doesn't matter. The optics of this situation have always been the most challenging and potentially harmful p

Scouting already works in the US without the BSA. It's the Baden-Powell Service Association. All volunteer-run, no "National", other than a national Quartermaster for manufacturing and distributing badges and books, no Council, no District, just the local units and a handful of folks who oversea things regionally. Who are also volunteers. The units have to do a lot more on their own without the National resources, but they do it and they deliver a scouting program to their youth. Scouting exists around the world mostly outside of the confines of the BSA. It certainly could (and does) cont

Precisely the issue I've had with this all along, and that the BSA has (until now) been pretty terrible at reassuring parents that things are not at all like they were 30+ years ago. The lawsuits should be heard, settlements made, compensation paid out. But when all is said and done, will there be a chance for the organization to continue? To survive? Unless the BSA can get ahead of the optics problem, the answer to that is probably "no". It's unfortunate. While I believe all victims should be heard and compensated, I also very selfishly look at it from the perspective of a parent who has

The BSA instagram account is a case study in uniform policing gone wild. The BSA posts a photo and the majority of the comments seem to be about badge placement, tucked in shirts, sashes, and various other pieces of the uniform that are identified as incorrectly placed, out of place, or otherwise lacking in some way. An Eagle Scout was recently harshly criticized for having a Star rank patch on his uniform. How about congratulating the new Eagle instead of criticizing his uniform? My Pack has some uniform police among the leadership, and it's infuriating. They're the same folks who show u

Wonder how many of us would fail it. Likewise, how many of us would fail a written driver's test if we had to take it today. When you're about to take one of these tests, that's when you are studying the material and have the ability to pass it. The goal is to retain some of the information, not all of it, and to just have a good general understanding of the subject. I really don't believe it's any indicator of current civic aptitude if a lot of people couldn't pass the test. It's a very specific test, with a lot of information that people past school age really aren't being regularl

A local scouter recently told me that "stolen valor" exists in scouting, he knows a leader in our district who wears knots he did not earn. I'm still kind of shocked that this happens in scouting, but I guess that's why we have restricted items.

This pretty much gets to the heart of the matter. Simple steps, verify the MBC, and act accordingly. My guess is that you're not going to be able to verify this MBC, though, not for all 9 badges. How many counselors cover at least 9 badges? And it would be extremely coincidental that this scout just happened to hit up the counselor for the exact 9 badges that he/she covers. I'm not even faulting the scout here, this was probably all done on some poor advice from the "counselor", a parent, etc. Someone saying, "Hey, I can sign those for you, no problem," and the scout just figures it'

Well if that's the case, you really can't accept the cards. Even if the culture of the troop has been to operate fairly loosely with this kind of thing before, even this has to be too much. 9 MBs, 6 required for Eagle, all signed on the same date by a guy who isn't a MB counselor at all, let alone a counselor for one or any of the particular badges in question, is that right? And I'm only saying that about the troop culture with any confidence that it's accurate because the sheer number of badges we're talking about has me inclined to think that the only way a scout would even attempt to

There are 2 questions I always ask when I hear about a troop struggling with membership numbers, and neither one of them has anything to do with Eagle Scouts. I ask, "What kind of marketing and promotion does the troop do?", and "How is the troop's relationship with the local Cub Scout Packs?" There are 3 troops in my area close enough for the scouts from my Pack to consider when they cross over, and each troop has 50-70 scouts. We have very close relationships with those troops, we get Den Chiefs from them, we go to their events when invited, they attend out meeting and activities,

I haven't read to scouts at a meeting or anything, but I've suggested books to scouts and parents that are scouting-related. Some favorites of my scout are The Last Badge by George McClements, and the entire Bear Grylls Adventure series, in which each book puts a fictional character in a survival situation with Bear and applies what they learned while getting through that situation with something that the character is struggling with in their personal life. They're really fantastic.

We're kind of in a weird place in this organization when it comes to obedience. In some ways we're sort of military-adjacent when it comes to rules and procedures. If a leader tells you to do something, you do it. In the military, the logic is that orders are followed without question so that the unit runs smoothly and without hesitation in potentially life and death situations. And in the BSA we include "obedient" right in the law. But we're not the military, and we pride ourselves on being a youth organization that develops leadership abilities, making kids into solid leaders and critic

I don't think I'll trust any numbers for 6 or 7 years. Between all of the variables, the new girls programs, LDS, etc., it's just too volatile a situation to really read anything in to any numbers.