malraux

yeah, living with an MD, its really clear exactly what's involved with being hipaa compliant, and it is a huge (justifiable) pain in the butt. Even to the point of I'm not sure exactly how a SM could handle issues like carrying medicine for scouts and reminding them to take it.

So what's on the health form currently? Basically, a list of medications you are currently taking, making sure your vaccinations are up to date, allergies, and medical conditions that can affect your ability to participate in the program. I can understand what you want with effectively a doctor's note saying you are clear to participate, but from the side of the person administering the program, you'd want to know about possible problems with seizures even if the person's doctor says that it's well controlled. Sure, it would be great if every unit could have a dedicated physician, but that's just not realistic.

Just the amount of training to get anyone who would have to handle the health forms up to hipaa compliance... And it would have to cover anyone who touches a health form.

They are better in some ways. Camp cards people want to buy, whereas popcorn you're really selling.

I also suspect that what the BSA is doing is limiting what they will insure. Bunch of teenagers without adults isn't a BSA insured activity, but its not like a group of scouts cannot go camping/hiking whatever outside of the insurance domain of the BSA.

I'm a fan of the turks head paracord woggle. Given that my kid would lose one of the metal ones within seconds of getting it, I'm paracord the whole way. Cheap, easy, and holds better.

Yeah, anything like ever telling a story about someone getting hurt on a campout would be a hipaa violation.

I can be more disagreeable if needed… this might be a phrasing issue rather than a fundamental disagreement. I certainly plan on nudging my older cub on which troop to select, because I know which troop in the area runs the best scout led troop. Our pack historically has sent scouts mainly to a different troop, but that troop is on the decline currently. So yeah, I plan to have my thumb on the scale when it comes to picking.

The choice of which troop to cross over into should be the choice of the youth, not the parent (though parents can guide that choice). If your son really wants to go to a different troop, then it isn't your job to change his mind. If the other troop is doing fun things with lots of youth, then it isn't your job to tell him to go with the boring troop.

https://members.scouts.org.uk/supportresources/4618/gender?cat=377,786&moduleID=10 That's from the UK scouting association. Roughly a 3:1 ratio of boys to girls. I don't know that those of us strongly in favor of these changes expect to reach 1:1, generally I expect it to end up at something like 2:1 for a variety of reasons.

Looking back at my own scouting career, I do wonder if this is true. I was in the first crop of tigers (when tigers was 2nd grade). Cubs was much abbreviated compared to now, and the big jump was joining a troop. I think the counter point is that everything has been pushed younger, so if you wait, then sports or academic team or drama will have grabbed all the kids before then.

Am I missing a requirement for first class to get to 20? Because with 15, 5 of which would be summer camp, 5 months of 2 day campouts would do it. Its certainly possible in the first year. That said, I can see the idea that first year scouts might need a bit more growth before being considered for OA, assuming it should mean something.

I'm not sure what defines the pack record book. That might have been supplanted by scout book and other online records. Searching online, it looks like it was previously an official publication, but isn't any longer. So instead, what you need to keep up to date are the scout book records, plus inventory and finance (though finance is mainly the job for the pack treasurer.) If your pack uses scoutbook, then what you'll need to do is get familiar with how it works and be sure that everything is up to date; ie the scouts that are supposed to be there are there, the ones who aren't aren't and that the rank requirements are being handled. Then conduct an inventory of stuff.

I'm pretty sure i still have what I received, but it was a wooden archery arrow, with different bands to mark how many of the adventures at each level I finished. I like that because its pretty cheap, and yet personalized.

Currently, both appear to be council level positions, in that code 58 is a non-unit position. (typically you'll also be the stem coordinator in the unit). At the national level there's only a form for the supernova mentor, not the nova counselor. I don't know why you'd want things specialized to that that degree. If i were filling out that sam houston form, I'd just put cub scout all or something. The whole point of the nova program is that you just need to be kinda sorta interested.