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On 5/9/2019 at 1:04 PM, Eagledad said:

This is an interesting discussion when experienced scouters of 30 years join forums to ask ideas for streamlining their girl program to get Eagle in 2 to 3 years (Eagle Mill?).

Strange times.

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 goal that might not mesh with everyone else's.

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 

On 5/12/2019 at 5:22 AM, Summitdog said:

Does anyone know if once a scout earns a Bronze Medal may they reapply for the Silver Medal after completing another project?

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...

12 minutes ago, le Voyageur said:

Been volunteered to Booshway the Mountain Man program at our Reservation... so,  we got room for one or two more souls on the staff. If interested, google Blue Ridge Mountains Council, and put in an app... thanks

 

 

What's the minimum age?

7 minutes ago, Bronco79 said:

Any information will help.  

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_ee744424-710a-11e9-826b-ff562ee630e9.html 

16 minutes ago, Eagle94-A1 said:

I thought I read somewhere that T-2-1 physical fitness requirements and Personal Fitness requirements cannot be completed at the same time.

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, swam, or biked; how many exercise repetitions you completed; your exercise heart rate; etc.). Repeat the aerobic fitness, muscular strength, and flexibility tests every two weeks and record your results. After the 12th week, repeat the three tests, record your results, and show improvement in each one. For the body composition test, compare and analyze your preprogram and postprogram body composition measurements. Discuss the meaning and benefit of your experience, and describe your long-term plans regarding your personal fitness.

No mention here that a scout must do these independently of T-2-1 fitness requirements.  Given that "no more, no less" is the golden rule for merit badge counselors, I would say that qwazse's suggestion is perfectly valid.

On 5/3/2019 at 1:37 PM, elitts said:

The key thing is that you need to serve two of the meals off the prepared menu, while on a hike or backpacking trip. (my troop also permits a bike ride or canoe trip since they also accomplish the goal of cooking "on the go" meals)

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.  

7 minutes ago, The Latin Scot said:

Webelos SCOUT! 

I'm sorry, it's in my signature so I am obliged to be a pain about it. 

I don't entirely understand this logic. Does your pack meeting attendance vary that much from month to month? Ours is pretty consistent throughout the year, so a boy crossing over in October has as many "witnesses" as a boy who crosses over in May. And with fewer Scouts with to share the limelight, the focus on him is all the greater. Though, this reminds me that it's not about how many people are there as much as who those people are.

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 Webelos colors are removed and boy scouts present them with new neckerchiefs etc.

I imagine this kind of ceremony will be a thing of the past though now that BSA has decided to Lame-ify the OA ceremonial teams...

1 hour ago, Saltface said:

That aptly describes the jamboree towers on scoutpioneering.com. I don't think my scouts would have stuck with it if that's what they were building. 

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" are cool.  Telling scouts they get to build a "tower" and then limiting that tower to the height of a kitchen table is not cool.

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 behind, or he may have missed his chance to sign up for summer camp, etc. Early is better.
• While I see Latin Scot's point about letting scouts move at their own pace, I'll point out that not all of the kids are needing nudges to "catch up".  There are often kids who are "go getters" who finish requirements early, meet age requirements, and are just itchin' to get into the Boy Scout program. There can be advantages to any crossover strategy you might like. Depends on the kid.

22 minutes ago, Saltface said:

That website makes references to making towers over 6' but I don't understand how that is allowed. 

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 (and then show the scouts how to use signaling flags to message each other----but that's another merit badge...)

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 scouts earn Pioneering merit badge.

If you do this as a troop, make it fun and exciting: build a big monkey bridge or really good signal towers. Otherwise, it's just a lame exercise in doing check-off requirements. Build the monkey bridge in the morning and let the scouts have fun with it in the afternoon.  You don't want too many scouts working on one project because it's no fun to stand around and watch others work the ropes --- a single monkey bridge is fine if you have 10 scouts....maybe even 15....but if you have a larger troop, you'll want to do 2 or more monkey bridges in parallel, or a network of signal towers....just give every kid a chance to help build the trestles, platforms, ladders, etc. 

There is a whole website chock full of great info and ideas that can help scouts and scouters with ideas for pioneering projects (including building monkey bridges, camp gadgets etc.).  See: https://scoutpioneering.com/

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 news is that scouts going to Philmont this coming summer can still enjoy 80% of the amazing wilderness they expect.

3 minutes ago, MikeS72 said:

As for ESRI, I am not sure who that is, here in Central Florida we either use Red Cross or ECSI, who are the primary providers authorized by BSA to offer WRFA courses.  BSA will also accept a provider who is certified by the American Camp Association.  The ACA does not show ESRI as an accredited provider.

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?

37 minutes ago, ItsBrian said:

Venmo allows you to hide your transaction to where only you can see it. 

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 getting hit with fines. (Though it might sound like alot, the recent Facebook fines of $5 billion to the US Govt for privacy violations and another $1.6 billion assessed by the EU, Facebook characterizes the fines as "chump change" and security experts don't see the fines as big enough to actually change the illegal behavior of Facebook or other tech giants.)

The more you know, the less you'll trust social media apps...

17 minutes ago, fred8033 said:

I've found some very good comments here.  My sadness is the ideal is hard to achieve and hard to maintain.   Leaders change.  Life happens.  Adults don't always agree.  More importantly, I truly believe the scouting program that I want my son to be part of rarely looks like the ideal troop.  

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 have really mature adult leadership who have been involved with the program for decades. Most troops have less experience, making training all the more important ---- so encourage new parents to the troop to jump in with both feet and do as much training as they can (not just the bare minimums needed to be considered "trained" for a position). 

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

2 minutes ago, Buggie said:

I don't have the link, but there's a scout trek in the Big Bend area of Texas that has a week long adventure riding horses and camping. My son's old troop is attending this year. 

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.