malraux

That's surprisingly few. In just my pack alone we are closing in on that number. On the larger point, its unfortunate but not surprising. How many employees total did the council have?

The goal of this game is to have the fewest balls on your side of the court by the end of five minutes. Or knock over your opponent’s cones or whatever. Yeah, I’ve got some stuff in still current Cub Scout how to books that likely violates some of this.

I like that. Even more thrifty.

Pita bread can also work well for this.

I've seen some bourbon collectors looking for those. I kinda wish our council had CSP with a whiskey still.

I'm just wondering what the advantage of bylaws would be. I got a box of papers from one of the previous pack leaders. I think theres some papers in there that claim to be bylaws, but I don't think anyone in the pack currently has read them.

I agree that it's a poor Eagle project as described because it does not "give leadership to others in a service project helpful to any religious institution, any school, or your community." It also seems to be difficult to "be approved by the organization benefiting from the effort." I suspect a modification to the plan could have gotten it there. Find an environmental advocacy group in the area and promote an awareness/advocacy project that involved educating the public on the issue and some level of a campaign to get it presented for a vote. That seems to fit, as I understand things.

Scoutbook is nice, and works pretty well. That said, do I really trust the BSA IT infrastructure to not garble something eventually? I'm not even sure I trust major data companies entirely, and that's their main job.

I still have my blue cards from 25 years ago...

Our pack has an ice cream social with the first pack meeting (which happens right after recruitment). We also give out stuff earned over the summer then, work on bobcat stuff, etc.

Does anyone have any advice or experience for running a combination of BALOO and IOLS? Looking around it seems like a fair number of councils/districts are doing it that way but I didn't know if there are any pitfalls with this. My district has trouble getting enough people committed to a BALOO course for it to work and I was wondering about if combining would help us. It seems kinda silly to have two similar outdoor training courses that repeat almost everything.

18 years of being a volunteer is plenty. No shame in stepping back at that point.

The 2018 changes are pretty minimal, mostly being phrasing. Though at this point I'll never remember what the webelos camping adventure is supposed to be called.

Going away might not be the right word, more like consolidated. Instead of a tiger knot, del leader knot, webelos knot, there's a single knot that you can earn devices for. I personally like it, as it would be a bit weird to rack up a row of knots for a few years of den leader. Similarly, the different training knots for different programs have been consolidated as have the unit leader ones.

They are mostly the same, though the new ones incorporate the inclusive language (ie scouts rather than boys) and updated requirements. If it's a budgetary issue, then I wouldn't say its supper important (except the bear as it got the most change). That said, if your unit uses scout book, the new login as den leader option allows you to grab a pdf of the leader's guide. It's not as useful as the physical copy, but it can let you see what has changed. (login as den leader, move/swipe left, click on leader's guide.) https://pigeonpost.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Webelos-Leader-G

No, nothing about being a den chief should involve this.

The rumor was that the BSA was waiting till after WSJ to make the official bankruptcy declaration. Given that WSJ is upon us, I guess we could see the bankruptcy declaration soon.

School buildings have lots of regulations about how the entry and exit points are secured. That would be beyond the scope of an eagle project to change.

I'll be the den leader for 1st year webelos this upcoming year. My goal is to have everyone ready (or at least have the possibility of it) by January of the 2nd year. I don't see any reason to stick around earning lamer versions of merit badges instead of going out and camping.

This is likely coming from online gaming culture, which is incredibly toxic.

Especially with webelos scouts, one could delay crossover and continue to earn electives for quite a while, but that means they are going on to a troop relatively late.

Agreed with @ShootingSports, the thing to do is focus on requirements, at least through 1st class. So look at the different first aid skills and set timelines on those, same with camping skills, cooking skills, etc. The important element is learning the skills, not getting the piece of fabric, so look at the different actual skills.

Others can probably address this better, but there's really two different sets of ranks in a troop. The Scout through First class represent gaining of basic competency in the outdoors and the scouting program. Those can go quickly for someone who already has lots of outdoors experience, or slowly from someone who isn't as competent. Star, Life and Eagle represent gaining leadership experience from positions of responsibility and well roundedness from earning merit badges. That can go quickly if the scout is determined, or more slowly if developing those skills just needs more time.

Is worrying about adults wearing patrol patches or not a good example of adults being a bit to ocd? Kinda seems like it to me.

I’m pretty agnostic on adults wearing a patrol patch. I can see the reasons both for and against. The guide to awards and insignia makes it clear that it’s really for the youth, but wearing an old goat or a rocking chair patch seems to me to honor the idea that the adults, even if they implement a version of the patrol method, are really there for a different purpose. That said absolutely the adults should be in a different group than the youth.