Treflienne

Most of the scout rank requirments are "repeat from memory . . .", "explain . . .", "describe . . .", "demonstrate . . .", "show . . .", "tell . . ." All these things could have been memorized/learned/mastered prior to 1 February, and simply demonstrated that day. The three requirements that take more time are #2 (attending one scout meeting) #6 (the YPT pamphlet exercises with a parent, and the cyber chip) and #7 (the scoutmaster conference). These girls could have been planning and learning for over a year since October 2017! They could have persuaded their parents and scoutmaster to go along with the extra effort needed by the adults to schedule in time on 1 February for the adults to listen to this all in a single day. (YPT pamphet and all the scoutmaster conferences.) Remember, these girls have been waiting, and waiting, and waiting, to be able to join the B.S.A. 15 months can feel like a very long time when it is 10% of your lifetime. I certainly know of new female scouts who looked ahead last year at the rank requirments, and starting working on learning skills they would need to know to pass them. Not that my new troop is so organized at the troop @Ranman328 encountered. As I pointed out to my scouts, none of them will be able to earn scout rank until after they select a patrol name, emblem, yell, and flag.

I have tried to set my unit's beascout pin to show an "Alternate Unit Description" by doing the following 1) filling in the text box labelled "Alternate Unit Description" with the desired description, and 2) under "Fields Displayed On Unit Pin", ticking the tickbox labelled "Alternate Unit Description" Yet my alternate unit description is not showing up, even though all my other changes to the pin are showing up. (I have observed an overnight delay in any changes appearing on the beascout website.) Anyone know how to fix this? Or even who to ask for help? Why do I want to change the unit description? Because the council added a prefix number to our troop number, and I want the unit description, that prospective families see, not to display the confusing prefix number.

Thanks, but I saw those before posting my question. They seemed to be about a different shirt: poly/wool with no mention of rayon, and dry-clean-only instead of machine washable.

Me too.

We've been off on a tangent. Back to the orginal topic: anybody have any experience, good or bad, with the poly/rayon/wool shirts, whether long-sleeve or short-sleeve?

Over half our girls are teens and may already be full height. Certainly some are taller than I am.

We plan to encourage rather than require. And peer pressure may help. Why both long-sleeve and short-sleeve? You can wear the long-sleeve year round, rolling up sleeves if needed. Besides it mean not needing to put icky sunscreen lotion all over your arms. I've seen the boys doing this. It looks sloppy.

I want not just the scouters to wear uniforms out-of-doors, I want the scouts to wear them, too! How else will the general public recognize that these girls are now Boy Scouts? (A Class B t-shirt won't quite do it, that might make them look like tag-alongs and sisters of scouts.)

There is a "Troop 1" in my district that still wears the town name instead of the council patch. I suppose it helps to distinguish them from the multitude of other "Troop 1"'s in our district, including in adjacent towns.

Even though they say they are machine washable? Or only if you want to look dressed-for-court-of-honor sharp and not dressed for camping? I've machine-washed a fair amount of dry-clean-only wool, generally sucessfully. Cold water and line dry.

I went to the local scout shop and was rather disappointed at the shirt choices. The new Scouts BSA shirts were not in, and anyway appear (online) only to come in cotton-blend. The polyester microfiber was very soft and drapey and felt (and looked) rather pajama-like. I tend to like nylon hiking shirts, but BSA doesn't seem to make nylon shirts any more. (Maybe I'll find one on ebay some day.) But what about the poly/rayon/wool? (65% polyester, 25% rayon and 10% wool ) For those of you who have it, do you like the shirt? Is this a practical blend for the outdoors? (I know wool is often good, alone, and polyester is generally fine, but I am unfamiliar with the rayon). Is it quick drying? How hot or cool of a shirt is this? Has it stood up well to machine-washing without much coddling? https://www.scoutshop.org/boy-scout-mens-long-sleeve-polyester-wool-shirt-609191.html

If you use Scoutbook for advancement records, do you still use something else for calendar and communications?

Yup. Anything that has been previously translated to or from English, and with which he is already familiar with the English version.

By the way, I'd want to steer clear of having the kid translate something from the bible. Too easy for him to pick a passage that he already has memorized in English.

In line with the "absolutely nonsectarian" part of the Declaration of Religious Principle, the interpreter strip requirments could not mean "from scripture". Besides, the other steps are conversation, translation of a speech, writing a letter. Translating something written rounds this out nicely.

I do believe that the current approach allows for local areas to find what works for them. And in my area, its looking like it may go the way of @qwazse's Czech model. In my single-high-school single-middle-school school district the N Boy Scout troops concluded that, due to numbers, it made sense only to have one Scouts BSA girls troop. This troop is now linked to one of the Boy Scout troops, leaving N-1 strictly-boy-only troops. As far as the linked pair of troops: the boy troop and the girl troop have different troop numbers. They meet at the same time in the same building, but the girls have a separate classroom reserved for them. The plan starting out is joint opening ceremonies, some joint meetings, some separate meetings. Likely more separation as the girls troop gains in experience and size. Who has what they want? Boys who want an all-boy troop and all-boy environment and the BSA program have several troops to choose from. Boys and/or families who want the BSA program and the convenience of simultaneous meetings and don't mind some coed mixing. Girls who want the BSA program and don't mind some coed mixing. Girls who want a strictly all-girl troop and don't mind the GSUSA program. (There is one of these troops in the school district, also.) Who in my school district doesn't have what they want? Girls who want a strictly all-girl never-boys-around troop and want the BSA program (but I have not met any locally) Boys who want the GSUSA program (who might hypothetically exist, but I have never met one) I hope it will work out as happily in other areas.

What change happened in 1989?

How often do you hold a court of honor for the troop? Is it a big deal, with families invited, and taking a whole troop meeting? Is it a smaller affair, simply part of the opening or closing ceremony of a regular troop meeting? If your troop has scouts wait till the COH to get their rank patches, how long of a wait is that? a month? six months?

That's different than in our area. For our troop, the push definitely came from a couple of girls in particular, who recruited friends to participate and parents to volunteer. Then the local Boy Scout troops and Cub Scout packs stepped up to help, inquiring of their families whether they knew any of any more interested girls. Finally the girls worked out which Boy Scout troop to link with -- deciding between several very appealing offers. In another nearby town, the push came from some high school girls who wanted a chance to do eagle. In this context, our council has seemed supportive but not pushy.

If I remember right, you are talking about a new girls' troop? Are you linked to an existing boys' troop? Are they willing to let you use and resupply their "stock" of patches (to spare you the cost of extra pins) at least as you are getting started?

Hi @Ranman328 I bolded some things you said. You may have meant "disciplinary regarding the revocation of a Membership". But that qualifiying phrase did not appear in your prior post, in which you said "you must notify District and Council of any disciplinary actions taken by the troop to a scout." I suspect it may have been an accidental omission, but it has been causing some confusion.

I think we should view this as having been temporarily helpful for the sake of getting the new girls troops started. You cannot start a troop unless you find five girls. The general public already knows that Boys Scouts is a good program for boys. They just needed the opportunity to realize it was for their girls too. (In our new troop, less than a quarter of the new female scouts have a brother already in Boy Scouts. So that was a bunch of new families.)

Hi @Jameson76 Try to remember that "A scout is cheerful". And I really think that there is a more positive view that can be taken that what is coming across in what you said: Looking at this a different way: People think that the last 109 years of the Boy Scouts was terrific. They are excited that girls will now have this same opportunity. Looking at this a different way: We want to both keep the name of the organization "Boy Scouts of America" and also make the new female scouts feel like they belong. And anyway, even though we cannot call the girls who are Scouts "girl Scouts" we can still call the boys who are Scouts "boy Scouts" or "boy scouts" which sound exactly like "Boy Scouts".

Typo there. You mean GSUSA. And I think you also mean "The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts"

@malraux, @qwazse , @MattR, @The Latin Scot , Thanks for the neckerchief idea. It seems like a very good idea. If the girls were going to be wearing the same neckerchief as the boys troop to which they are linked, then I think I would do that. However, at least some of the girls think that they should pick their own custom neckerchief (a large, square neckerchief). And they have not yet had a chance to design that yet. (First official meeting next week after they officially become scouts tomorrow!) I think that I will give them the World Crest, and also their new Scouts BSA handbooks. (Assuming the handbooks arrive in time. They are not in yet at the local council store, but I have them on order from the national scout shop.) Hopefully it will not be long till the local scout shop gets the shirts and the girls can go and try them out for size. I really appreciate your feedback. It is really helpful for me to be able to sound y'all out on some of my possibly crazy ideas.