InquisitiveScouter

Talk with your Council Training Committee Chair, or your Staff Advisor for Training (a paid professional with that additional duty) It depends on your background. I'll elaborate if you wish. Plus, IOLS is a fairly trainer-intensive program. It takes several instructors and a course director with support managing things to get through the syllabus well. Train-the-Trainer (Fundamentals) D70 Trainer's EDGE H96 ...are two courses your council may wish you to take to designate you as a Trainer.

It's a play on corporate sponsorship. The Bad News Bears were a misfit baseball team that had no uniforms. Probably like a few Troops you might know... the coach took any sponsor he could get to pay for uniforms. It's a joke on the thread 😜

No, you are not the only one.

I have been to camps where the policy is that Scouts must be within sight of adults at all times. How ludicrous! And ignored... It is a balance depending on activity, age, and skill level. And you will never get it 100% right. Will you take risks, or will you eliminate all risk? If you take appropriate risks, Scouts will experience responsibility and personal growth. If you eliminate all risk, you will have a Cub Scout-level program. I have taken too much risk in some instances (with near misses), and not enough in others (with too much "parenting"). Sometimes, I nearly hit th

There is a difference... when you completed your Masters, you did so through an accredited program. When you learned your statistics, and did your ANOVA (Analysis of Variance, for inquiring minds...), did EDGE... your professor explained and demonstrated (hopefully), then guided you through a problem set. Finally, you were enabled (or evaluated, which I think would be a better use of the letter 😜 ) through a test, and on a final exam. You showed a level of proficiency, at the time. I still have to open my Scout Handbook to review and refresh skills. If you needed to do an ANOVA, you'

This, and even then, we are giving the advancement away. Many Scouts are not earning, they are just attending and getting a badge. I see this in several units, and definitely at Summer Camp. Whenever our Scouts are challenged in a badge program at camp, and actually complete the requirements as stated, I go out of my way to thank that instructor/counselor (not the same thing... a 16 year old is NOT a merit badge counselor) for their program. I wish there was a better way for "quality control" or standardization/evaluation of these things...

Yes, Chapter 7 (liquidation) is still a real possibility, IMO.

It is a legit option... not doing advancement, that is. But not doing KP when it is his turn on the Duty Roster? No way! That is the price of admission. (You didn't say, but I am assuming your Patrols have duty rosters.) We have had Scouts who have not wished to work on advancement, and we are fine with that. Just had one turn 18 last December. Great kid, always there, friendly, but no interest in working on rank. (I did cajole him over the years to at least earn First Class. That should be the measure of all Scouts. IMO, because it is skills based.) But, if his Patrol, o

We let all new Scouts and families know that Scoutbook is our primary means of communication, and that through email. Some parents do not wish for their Scouts to have email accounts yet. That is their prerogative. The primary means of communication is still Scoutbook. Whether by an email "push" of information, or a family or Scout "pulling" information from Scoutbook directly (the Scout logging on to parents' account if the Scout has no email) All other means of communication are "supplemental", whether verbal (as at meetings), by texts or phone calls, or word of mouth. Abo

Also, you ought to work to drive identity to the Patrol level. This is the heart of Scouting. A Troop is not made up of Patrols... Patrols come together to form a Troop. Please work to shift to that paradigm. Your Troop identity comes in the form of Troop numerals and a Troop neckerchief (optional) selected and approved by the PLC. That said, if our CO were to ask the same question, we would be happy to comply, but tell them it will cost them the "start-up" fees. Everyone who has already purchased, say, a neckerchief, is vested in that identity, and if the CO wants to change

I do wish we could fully put all responsibilities for stuff like this on our Scouts, and get the great results we are looking for. But that is not reality. I always say, "You have to remember who we are dealing with." We use Scoutbook for communication by email. Whenever a Scoutbook email goes out to Scouts, all parents are automatically cc'ed. Best wishes as you pursue the goal of purely "Scout-led"

Actually, it is not. An SM conference can occur at any point during the journey to the rank. This is a common misconception, because it is always listed last, just before the BOR requirement. From the G2A. para 4.2.3.5: The unit leader (Scoutmaster) conference, regardless of the rank or program, is conducted according to the guidelines in the Troop Leader Guidebook (volume 1). Note that a Scout must participate or take part in one; it is not a “test.” Requirements do not say the Scout must “pass” a conference. While it makes sense to hold one after other requirements for a rank are

A local Troop was doing this, as well as re-testing at BOR's. Because their BOR's were so intensive, the Troop was taking months to schedule a BOR when a Scout requested one. I had a parent from that Troop ask me about this... I was shocked at their report of the situation, and told them this was not appropriate, and that they should point out exactly what @T2Eagle cited above. I also told them that if their Troop leadership was unresponsive, they were welcome to join us. I followed up with a phone call to that unit's Commissioner, and to the District Advancement Chair. Don't know

I vote to bring back public hanging.

James, would you mind sharing a bit of detail as to why your Eagle Candidate's appeal was necessary? Also, I do not believe National has the agility to anything "quickly" these days, as they may be fully focused on gearing up for the National Meeting at the end of this month. https://scoutingwire.org/save-the-date-for-scouting-forward-2023-bsa-national-annual-meeting/

Did the council courtesy copy you (and/or Eagle Candidate) on the forwarding of the appeal? That is, do you know that National, in fact, received it??

BSA and GSUSA make it that important here, because it is about MONEY! BSA has badgered other organizations who wanted to call themselves "Scouts", by threatening legal action for calling themselves that. Again, those moral and ethical decisions... Baden Powell Scouting Association (now Outdoor Service Guides due to "cancel culture") and Trail Life... Looks like SpiralScouts is ignoring them 😜

https://www.forbes.com/sites/georgebradt/2017/12/01/why-focusing-on-your-core-is-almost-always-the-right-choice/?sh=4b2e451e21b5 Especially #2

Fair enough... but that isn't the case around here. Scouting is really struggling in these parts, with many issues at cause. If they were really an "independently formed non-profit organization", why don't they just focus on those money-making programs and just ditch all that cumbersome Scouting and "moral and ethical" stuff??

Whoa, Trigger! You know not of what you speak. I put in well over 40 hours a week as a volunteer in our Scouting community. And I am that "squeaky wheel," not just "venting" here. You ought to ask a little more before casting those aspersions...

Because in the Scouting programs, we are still using the Aims of Scouting, which include instilling ideals of the Scout Oath and Law. The STEM program of Scouting is one of the hooks we use to provide youth a program, while we work through the Aims to provide a "moral and ethical" context.

Thanks, but isn't that "mission creep"?? What you describe seems to go outside the stated mission of the BSA: "The mission of the Boy Scouts of America is to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Law."

Would you elaborate, please? To what services "outside of Scouts", what kinds of "significant programs", and what "non-Scout programs" are you referring?

I think the were referring to Learning for Life and ScoutReach programs, if they are still going??