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Perhaps....but perhaps not so strange. If we embrace the idea of "Servant leadership", then that experienced scouter is doing exactly what he should be doing --- enabling scouts to achieve their goals. While we might not normally encourage a youth to zip through the scouting program in a mere 2 years, I think we can understand why a girl who has been locked out of the program until now will want the chance to achieve the same goals as boys. If she has the ambition and motivation to do it for herself, then I will be happy to help her just as I'd be happy to help any boy who has a go

The Blue Ridge Mountain Council has an amazing council guide to earning the Hornaday awards. In it, they say... "Scouts who do not meet the stringent requirements of the Silver Medal may be awarded the Bronze Medal. These Scouts may not re-apply for the Silver Medal using any of the same projects for which the Bronze Medal was granted." If they're right, then yes, your scout could re-apply with another project. Do you know which of the 4 initial projects was deemed not quite "up to snuff"??? See: https://www.glaacbsa.org/files/23421/BRMC-Hornaday-Guide-8-18-pdf

My understanding is that no, once the bronze is awarded a scout cannot then reapply after doing another project....but I could very well be wrong about that (and I kind of hope I am, because it seems rather harsh.

Interesting post. If the numbers are right, and 15,000 girls joined about 2,000 troops, and if it's still the case that troops aren't truly co-ed, then that works out to having an awful lot of very small troops with an average 7.5 scouts each...

What's the minimum age?

If you can't find the info on their web site, and you're not getting responses in Forums, you might want to contact Philmont directly: Phone: 575-376-2281 Email: camping@philmontscoutranch.org

I'm glad that most of y'all see it as a positive thing that a troop can consistently get their scouts to Eagle. I agree completely with Fred --- the Eagle rank really is not all that hard if you stick to it, apply yourself, and have the support of a good, active troop. I suspect that most troops that consistently have large numbers of scouts reaching Eagle are seeing that result because they have a solid program and active support of their adults.

Over the years, I've heard many troops referred to (pejoratively) as "Eagle Factories". Is it necessarily a bad thing to have a troop consistently help its scouts reach Eagle? Is there a specific point at which a troop goes from one having a strong program to an "Eagle Factory"? Saw this article about a troop that seems to be shooting for 12+ eagles per year....not sure if that's a good thing to be cheered, or a cause for concern... https://www.mdjonline.com/neighbor_newspapers/northside_sandy_springs/community/buckhead-boy-scout-troop-has-eagle-scouts/article_ee744

I don't think so. I just read the requirements out of the current merit badge pamphlet. It says.... 7. Outline a comprehensive 12-week physical fitness program using the results of your fitness tests. Be sure your program incorporates the endurance, intensity, and warm-up guidelines discussed in the Personal Fitness merit badge pamphlet. Before beginning your exercises, have the program approved by your counselor and parents. 8. Complete the physical fitness program you outlined in requirement 7. Keep a log of your fitness program activity (how long you exercised; how far you ran,

I do agree that a bike trip or canoe trip might be just as applicable, but it's not something that is up to a troop. Scouts are tested and signed off by the Merit Badge Counselor. If the MBC does not approve of the trip, then the scout doesn't get signed off. Troops are not within their rights to set policies for merit badge requirements.

We probably have different ideas about how the crossover is done. Most of the packs around here do not do crossover as part of a regular pack meeting, or even as an activity during Blue & Gold. Instead, the crossover (or bridging ceremony) is done as an independent event. The pack sets a time for their AoL Webelos SCOUTS to crossover and invites the local OA lodge ceremonial team to conduct the ceremony and welcoming teams from local troops to come. It's kind of a 2-part event: 1) the OA team recognizes the AoL recipients, 2) the scouts ceremonially cross a bridge at which time their

I know. A challenge is exciting and represents an accomplishment. Making something too easy is just a worthless timewaster. That's why it bothers me so much when I hear about National simplifying merit badges and making them increasingly trivial --- they take the "merit" out of the badge creating yet another worthless "participation award". Merit badges should offer significant challenges that let scouts actually experience an activity/domain. For Pioneering, a really cool monkey bridge (or series of interlocked bridges) and towers that are high enough to actually be called "towers

Just a couple more thoughts.... The group crossover ceremony is better from a "recognition" perspective. A boy is going to feel more special when there's 40 people witnessing his accomplishment than when there's 5. A crossover early in the year (January) gives the boy a better "leg up" in Boy Scouts. By crossing over halfway through 5th grade, he's got 5-6 months to earn some rank cred before summer camp. (Also, some troops that have strong in-house First Class programs have some activities fairly early in the year).On the other hand, the kid who crosses over in May might feel left

Neither do I. When I read the Guide to Safe Scouting, I see where it says that monkey bridges and towers should be limited to 6 feet in height. I interpret that to mean that the tower floor or the bottom rope of a bridge should be no more than 6 feet high ---- otherwise you're building on the ground and doing nothing. Building a 20 foot tower sounds like a blast, not to mention being a great exercise of pioneering,skills, but I wouldn't do it as an official scout activity because I don't see how it complies with the G2SS,. Instead, you could build multiple el-lame-o short towers (

Looking for ideas for campout themes/activities? A pioneering campout might work for you....it doesn't need to be particularly expensive to carry out and it could be done on almost any property, so wouldn't require long Friday night drives. (But it does require planning, making sure you have the right type of logs and ropes, and making sure there are people who know how to tie and use knots and lashings to teach the other scouts.) Pioneering can help younger scouts finish their First Class requirements to demonstrate lashings and to build a useful camp gadget, and it can help older scout

The 2018 wild fires are history now, and we've all heard that Philmont will be re-routing some of the old favorite trail routes to avoid the burnt areas, but a few of y'all might be curious as to what kind of efforts are underway to restore fire-damaged backcountry. The following article provides and interesting perspective: https://www.mdjonline.com/boy-scout-ranch-focuses-on-wildfire-recovery-as-season-nears/article_2d9f7f13-aa0d-5a25-8920-f80e9e7e551b.html I was curious as to just how much of the Philmont property was damaged: according to the article, it's about 20%....so the good ne

Whoops!! You are right! I had the acronym wrong....thanks for the correction. I'm still confused as to what the relative benefits of each organization might be or which kind of training I might want to take: Red Cross? Am.Heart Assoc.? ECSI? ACA? Do any of those offer substantially better content than others or a higher bar to get their certification? Is Red Cross still the "gold standard"???

A scout in Pennsylvania recently earned his Silver Hornaday medal --- arguably the most prestigious award in scouting (and one of the hardest to earn). Huge kudos to him for his outstanding accomplishment!! Story: https://www.heraldstandard.com/new_today/ohiopyle-youth-awarded-prestigious-boy-scout-conservation-medal/article_3f299f96-6a93-11e9-9b44-f76f8f01ad1d.html

If you're looking for good Scoutmaster Minutes and aren't already aware of the ScoutmasterCG web site, you might want to investigate Clarke Green's collection of Scoutmaster Minutes. He has some timeless advice that can serve as invaluable resource for scoutmasters new and old. Here's the link to the Scoutmaster Minutes: https://scoutmastercg.com/tag/scoutmasters-minutes/

The first few times I went through training in standard First Aid / CPR, the course was taught by the local Red Cross chapter and we got a card with the Red Cross logo. Last year I was looking to renew my certification and noticed that our local council had some courses that were identified as ESRI. (Same for Wilderness First Aid). Are the ESRI courses somehow different from Red Cross? Why would one be preferred over the other?

Not completely true. Venmo does indeed give you the illusion that you are controlling your own privacy settings, but those can be overridden if the other party to the transaction has policies set differently. Similar problems have been plaguing users of Facebook and other social media sites: they provide interface elements that let you think you are controlling how your data are shared, but in reality, app developers can (and do) get around them. This is part of the reason why Facebook, Google, PayPal and others have been facing so many investigations recently and have even started

Quite right. Like many things in life, the knowledge and abilities to be an effective scouter are gleaned over time. Unfortunately, many troops find that they have a treadmill of leaders with newcomers coming in, being gung ho for a year or two, and then rotating away as their son gets a little older and more attracted to sports, high school activities, or other diversions. The adult scouters disappear (or become less involved) just as their wisdom and insight to the scouting program are getting to a level where they could really embrace the scouting program. Some troops are lucky to

A dad in Oregon staged a break-in of his own house so he could steal $700 that his daughter had earned selling Girl Scout cookies. Here's more on the story: https://www.idahostatesman.com/news/nation-world/national/article228658719.html

Really?!?! That sounds very interesting to me because I love the rugged, open terrain of Big Bend and would love to take a crew out there for a horse trek. I can't seem to find info about this via a simple Google search, so if you do come across any contact info or a link to info, I would definitely be very interested. Thanks for the idea!

I also like doing training that is outside the BSA program. Many of the workshops and training I do elsewhere are invaluable. REI does fun workshops that are almost always hands-on and conducted outdoors. They also tend to have content focused on your own local region, so very useful for scout leaders. I also build up my skills in first aid and emergency preparedness by occasionally doing classes through the local Red Cross chapter. None of that is required by BSA, but it just helps me become more skilled. competent, and confident in the outdoors.