Owls_are_cool

Did you start on your service project before it was approved by the district? Has it been approved by the district?

You are right that none of us at the unit level doing most of the work will be given a chance to provide input on this new merit badge (or on even if it is needed). That is the way it is. 2020 was a hard year on the organization with COVID-19 and the constant radio and TV ads looking for people harmed by the BSA to join a lawsuit. While my troop gained 2 scouts last year, it lost 5 of them due to COVID-19 restrictions. (Actually one was lost due to age out.) My troop did okay in weathering the storm. Myself and my co-volunteers put in a lot of work to make this happen. A number of other

In my Troop, the SM and ASMs are not the advancement chair. It has to be someone on the committee. It is their job to order all of the patches, rank awards, etc. They must also arrange for boards of review and have some admin work for court of honors. The advancement chair in my troop is really busy with her job, so I help her (as SM) out as much as I can. I just let her know what I am up to. So assign the advancement chair to someone on the committee and let the ASM help them out if needed. This year I had to step up for the committee, because covid-19 has increased the time commi

Your political movement is free to start its own youth chapters outside of the Boy Scouts and do your own recruitment activities. There are a lot of restrictions on the Boy Scouts in regards to political events and activity. I cannot go door-to-door with my son in our scouting uniforms to campaign for a candidate we like or for legislative initiatives on the ballot. Now the Seattle BLM organization has committed to lobbying their state legislature to increase capital gains taxes to give public school more funding. My personal opinion is that states should give minority parents vouchers,

If the national BSA wanted to make a statement on racism, then why didn't they make a statement along the following lines... "Given the increase in racial tensions in the United States over the past year, the leadership of the national BSA wants to give thousands of Cub Scout and Scout BSA units credit for being positive models in our communities. A Scout is kind. A Scout is helpful. A Scout is Courteous. A Scout is Friendly. Every day scouts of all races, genders, etc join together to do activities in the outdoors and serve the communities they are a part of. We are proud of Scouts and a

My last act in 2020 was to submit our recharter through the internet interface. I have to tie up some paperwork loose ends next week, but the process is almost done. So 2021 is a go for my Troop! I am looking forward to 2021, which could be my last as scoutmaster and one last chance to get the troop to be scout led. With COVID-19 cancelling district events, it will be a chance for scouts to plan their own calendar of events. I have 7 scouts working on their Eagle rank right now (over half of the troop), so the first 6 months of 2021 will be busy with eagle projects and finishing up requir

The new merit badge is not in scoutbook as of 12:20 am MST Jan 1. My council uploaded a MBC list to scoutbook on Mar 24, 2020 and since that time, I could not list anyone in my unit as a MBC. Here is an interesting fact, as unit leader, I can sign off on any merit badge requirement in scoutbook. This is important, since I get a stack of blue cards from Merit Badge University or from summer camp and I have to manually enter that information into Scoutbook. Right now, there is nothing stopping me from signing off on any merit badge requirement, but I only do so for MBs that I am approved fo

I am a big Scoutbook person and would like it to work this way. I will sign up for another merit badge tonight and see how long scoutbook updates. My guess is that a manual upload to scoutbook is needed via the council....or manual entry to scoutnet. Council drops the ball and valid councillors do not appear in scoutbook. Units will do what they have to do for the scouts when councils/national let us down...though i am currently trying to be part of the solution.

@DuctTapeand others, Let's remember the original purpose of merit badges...to expose scouts to various topics that they find interesting. If a scout takes First Aid merit badge, the goal is NOT an official first aid certification, rather to get the scout exposed to the basic concepts. I have first aid certification through the Red Cross for work and that includes being able to demonstrate CPR and how to use an AED. This MB falls short of that, yet there are unit leaders and MBC that add to the requirements of the MB, because the view it as some sort of certification. It is good that

I wish there was a way to punish those responsible for the abuse instead of punishing the program for today's scouts.

I work hard to not expose my scouts to my politics. They occasionally say stuff about politicians that are factually false, but I resist the urge to debate and correct them. I believe keeping my personal politics out of my Troop will make it more inclusive and prime it for growth. I am okay with boys having political debates with each other, but I am quick to shut the debate down when it crosses the line when scouts start attacking each other (as usually happens with political debates). I have parents of scouts that are on both sides of the political divide and they appreciate my neutral

@eagle91-A1 Amen. Last year, my troop did 9 short term campouts in a year for the first time I was scoutmaster (in 3 years). The word does get out in the district that we are a troop that does outdoor stuff, which helps with recruitment. My boys troop is partnering with a girls troop on campouts, because two families have scouts in both troops and the adults serve both troops. I was able to recruit one of these families last fall using the partnership, the fact we have an active outdoor program, and the fact I contacted them once my troop's scout pin sent me a notification. Newsmax had a

In Montana, the outdoor emphasis of Scouts BSA is attracting girls to the program...girls who would not be in any scouting program had Scouts BSA not offered them an opportunity. Second reason for joining Scouts BSA/cub scouts is having a brother in the program. Seems to me that this is sour grapes from the Girl Scouts, but I am not a lawyer or a judge.

The planning book is where all my scouts start in the process.

Racism violates the scout law...friendly, courteous, kind, so today's scouts and leaders do have a pathway to follow outside this new merit badge. I have only been exposed to scouting for less than a decade, so I would be curious how troops/packs racially integrated earlier than 1970. One thing I do know is we need to give the current generation of scouts credit for: they are more accepting of other races, religions, etc than any generation before them.

In general, the leadership of the Chartering Organization (CO) through the Chartered Organization Representative (COR) of the troop decides whether or not a chair remains. If the Committee Chair is good friends with the CO leadership, then there is not much you can do. I would bring up your concerns to the COR to feel them out. If the COR refuses to address the issue, then the best thing to do is find another troop. If this is the only troop in the area, then consider starting a new troop with parents pushed out of the troop. There is also the lone scout program. I was removed (mutany) as

The latest iteration of the scout handbook does have several ways for scouts to indirectly measure the height of the objects and width of streams with the use of their own pacing measurements. As I observed my scouts on their course, I asked them how wide is the stream at this point and later on, I asked to determine the height of a tree on their path. I think this minimally meets the requirement, but those developing courses can certainly add these measurements to the next distance/direction instruction.

Thanks for this excellent thread. I have been a scoutmaster for 2 1/2 years and I think it is time to transition to a new scoutmaster. I think this year is my son's last year in scouting, so it is time for my troop to find a new scoutmaster. I have been filling voids in my son's pack and then his troop for the past 6 years. It took me awhile to get what scouting is about (I was never a scout in my youth) and it took being a scoutmaster before I truly understood the aims of scouting. It was a hard 2 1/2 years as scoutmaster as I was asked to do the job after the previous scoutmaster unexp

I believe that YPT protects me as a volunteer, because it teaches me how to avoid contact with scouts that could result in a lawsuit, frivolous or not. Never be alone with a scout, two deep leadership, etc. It is a pain in the butt to follow all these rules, but that is better than shutting scouting down. Someone at the unit committee level has to manage training and this task has fallen on me as Scoutmaster the past two years. It becomes a nightmare, when Online YPT Training does not record completions and does not reflect completions in my.scouting.org leader reports. How many wasted h

@yknot you providing insight here is useful to me. I hope you keep contributing. With covid-19 restrictions and the BSA's bankruptcy filing, I have been rethinking how my unit should do scouting. My district and council, in the past, provided effective programing that my troop can partake in. Camporees, merit badge universities, Klondike, etc. But with the 25 person gathering limits, difficulty securing facilities for events, and the expensive cleaning/masking regulations, my district can no longer deliver programming that helps units. Maybe this is a blessing in disguise? Maybe it i

Scouts providing meals for campouts is quite important, so I see the value of cooking advancement requirements and cooking merit badge. Interesting how the cooking merit badge was off, on, off, and on of the requirement list. Something similar happened to the required swimming merit badge. I suspect that changes to required merit badges should be a harder process to promote stability.

Fascinating to see the evolution.

Anyone able to provide me a list of required merit badges for Eagle Rank in 1950? I am just curious how much these requirements have changed over the past 70 years. I am concerned that scouting is becoming more like school and will push children to not join the program (and not stay when they get fully exposed to the program). Generally, I am more inclusive than my parents and my scout aged children are more inclusive than me. That trend will continue. To create a new merit badge for this is overkill. Just add an item in Citizenship in the Community. It is my understanding that this

I asked my DE about this and they seem to think that troops can do short term campouts together without these new regs as long as the district and council is not involved. We are actually doing this with another troop next weekend, but we will have enough adult leadership available for each troop. This is something we are trying out, because we have (or will have) two families with siblings in each of the two troops. While we are at the same campground, we will still be at separate campsites. We are planning to do some activities together. So it would be overkill to add these requirements to t

I found myself in a similar situation as scoutmaster, where certain committee members wanted a scout expelled and I was not on board with it. One of their sons was the root cause of behavior issues, but they were blaming it on the scout they wanted expelled. They got enough committee members together to remove me as scoutmaster. However, adult positions in a Troop serve with the COR's blessing. So the COR and committee chair went to bat for me, removed the two parents behind the coup attempt, and I was reinstated as scoutmaster. So the route you should take depends on where your CO