InquisitiveScouter

No. The reason is that your CO must approve all adult leaders. For example, since a CO may exclude unit leaders from serving their unit who do not meet with their own religious or sexual orientation standards, you cannot simply pull a leader from nearby troop. "Registration Requirements The chartered organization representative, or in their absence the executive officer of the chartered organization, must approve the registration of the unit’s adult leaders. Registration includes: Completion of application including criminal background check and mandatory Youth Protection training Volunteer Screening Database check Current Youth Protection training is required for leaders when renewing their registration or at unit charter renewal. Adult program participants must register as adults and follow Youth Protection policies." https://www.scouting.org/health-and-safety/gss/gss01/#a Also, BSA policy (promulgated through their COVID FAQ and not through the G2SS, so good luck enforcing that one local and national councils) forbids inter-unit overnight activities without approval from council. "Q: If my camp is cancelled, can my unit get together with other units and have our own camp? No. Chartering organizations play an important role in the program and activities for their chartered units. Chartering organizations promote well-planned unit program for the units they charter and encourage their units to have active outdoor unit programs. Chartering organizations are not authorized to plan, promote, or deliver programs for units outside of their charter. It is the role of councils to plan long-term or resident camps and the role of councils or districts to plan camporees (short-term camps) and other outings following National Camp Accreditation Program standards. Units with different chartered organizations that wish to hold activities together must have council approval. In addition, some states require such activities to be licensed." https://www.scouting.org/coronavirus/covid-19-faq/ However, I'm of the mindset that if your CO approves (even only verbally through your COR), then you are good to go.

I meant overall for the entire camp...if you jack up the prices 150%, you can expect utilization to fall... (And it's only $17 a head if you have 12...) Our camp did the same thing several years ago...in addition to putting in electric and gas meters on each facility. You pay a rental fee up front, and an electricity and gas usage bill at the end based on the readings (with a little extra tacked on) Now, do you have any idea what it costs to purchase and install power and gas meters on 8 buildings? What do you think the payback time on that cost is? SMH So, instead, most units will go to one of many other Scout camps within a two hour drive to get away from such nonsense, or, they primitive camp at the county park across the river at $1 per person for the weekend.

Exactly...we had two Scouts "team up" to do a local project like this at a place of worship. One did the benches and the other did the raised stage and rostrum. The projects were complementary and were done at separate times. One Scout (the stage and rostrum) won the ESSP of the Year locally... A few observations: 1) Wrong focus: It is not about the project!!! It's about the growth of the young person. Use any and all of these situations for growth and learning how to deal with setbacks and competition. Teach him to look for the win-win instead of the win-lose. See #2. 2) What does the church want?? I guarantee you there is enough work at ANY church camp for fifteen Eagle Scout Service Projects. Have your Scout meet with the Church Session to see what their needs are, and to discuss options and complementary work that could be done with any other projects in the planning. 3) You are right about the "flip side", and very wrong about the front end...please don't make accusations like "steal". as @Jameson76 said, it is "First come, first served." BTW, were you at the track meet where this was potentially discussed? If not, you have zero idea what went down except your Scout's muddled half (or third) of the story...

Watch the utilization rate drop like a stone...

You can call your local Scout store and ask to order a neckerchief, woggle, and beads...cannot do it on line, as they are "restricted" items. Items 2213, 2173, and 2175 https://www.scoutshop.org/catalog/product/view/id/663/s/wood-badge-tartan-neckerchief-2213/ https://www.scoutshop.org/wood-badge-woggle-neckerchief-slide-2173.html https://filestore.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/33066/33066_Training_Awards_WEB.pdf?_gl=1*12ys5s*_ga*MTI0MDc0MzQ4LjE2MzQ3Mjk1NDM.*_ga_20G0JHESG4*MTYzNzM2ODk3My4xMS4wLjE2MzczNjg5NzMuNjA.

Fixed that for you 😜

"Coffee is gone" 😈👿😡

OK, understood...a few clarifications, maybe? It is "Minimize campfire impacts" not "Minimize campfires"...LNT does not discourage campfires, but promotes building in established fire rings, using dead and downed wood, letting your fire burn to complete ash, and only building it the size you need, etc. Respect Wildlife...spot on...especially the MB's...rank requirements have been changed to say pictures are an acceptable method of "collection"...I'd recommend all ranks and MB's align to pictures, and collections only with permission of land managers (geology, forestry, etc., where a picture may not convey the best education) For mammals, insects, birds, reptiles, and for plants, pictures should be fine. I am especially amazed that National Camp School Ecology Section graduates still have Critter Crawls at Summer Camp where Scouts are encourage to scour the woods for wildlife to have a race or some such... Jamborees? Meh...as long as they concentrate the impact (at Summit), I'll remain ambivalent. I'd advocate for a smaller size group... Concur with your assessment that MB's and ranks need to align, not so much with LNT, but with a greater mindset of stewardship...this also includes TREAD Lightly for applicable MB's My biggest pet peeve is councils logging their Scout camps. Our properties could be crown jewel conservation examples, but nearly every camp I have been to over the last decade has had a large swath timbered (for cash, of course) with major impact to local wildlife and soil and water resources. Every Scout camp timber operation I've seen would be better described as "Devastation for Currency." In our last four summers (four different camps), we've had an environmental planner who works for the state with us, and he has really opened my eyes to the extensive damage councils are doing...

You said a mouthful!! But, burnt pancakes aren't a failure! You just learned a new way you shouldn't make them 😜

You can safely ignore down votes 😜 And I did not say we would create a non-profit scouting outfit...we would create a non-profit to support a unit for scouting... You can see plenty of these "booster" clubs in existence already... Like these... https://friendsoftroop368.wildapricot.org/ https://www.causeiq.com/organizations/friends-of-troop-78,233028430/ https://www.for284.org/ And, if BSA goes Ch 7, we'll keep right on scouting...

Yes and no. Yes, I am in favor of a Ch 7 for BSA. I believe we are to the point where we need a little "creative destruction." I also believe a Scouting Phoenix will rise from the ashes... No, the non-profit would exist to support only one local unit. That unit could be a Scouts BSA unit if there is no Ch 7, or it could be could be a unit in some unnamed Phoenix organization. BSA does not equal Scouting. I mentally separate the two...one is a corporation, the other is an fun activity (when done rightly). An analogy...if the US Tennis Association (a non-profit corporation) went Ch 7, people would still play tennis....same idea.

Bingo!

Hawks and owls are a sign of a healthy ecosystem...lots of food for them, or they wouldn't hang around. Mice, voles, snakes (in warm weather)...and, if you have skunks, then Great Horned Owls! Skunks are one of their favorite foods.

Nope...interweb-thingy images

You cannot register as a MB Counselor (for free) and then multiple to a unit. You must pay the adult registration fee. Then you can multiple all you want... And yes, our council (at least a few years ago when I posed the question) interprets that as registered in the unit. (for unit events) The council has oversight for HA contingents and Jamborees, so they can vet those leaders...

A few examples, please?

This is the model we will follow when we create our own non-profit for local youth to pursue scouting activities

Barry, Make sure you put out some water for them, too. Recommend a heated bird bath to keep the water from freezing. Here is an example of one like ours. https://www.amazon.com/BIRD-WISH-Year-Round-Thermostat-Installation/dp/B09B8TZV7J/ref=asc_df_B09B8TZV7J/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=532627731005&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=8025039049157922163&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1023640&hvtargid=pla-1435659849501&th=1 You will have to fill it every morning, because of all the other visitors you will get during the night. We have captured video of opossums, deer, foxes, raccoons, mice, and voles in winter getting water here. Trying to get images of two elusive creatures drinking...a skunk (somewhere in the neighborhood and quite uncommon here) and a great horned owl (or any owl for that matter). Although, reading suggests the owls love the sound of running water...can't afford to rig that up yet 😜 (for freezing temps)

So here's one for you...can registered MB counselors attend unit events in excess of 72 hours? For example, if your unit wants to do a 5-day backpacking trip for Backpacking MB, can you invite the counselor along for the trip?? Even though they are registered members of the BSA, and have had their background checks...the answer is "No", as they are not registered leaders in the unit. That is the key point...anyone over 72 hours must be registered with that unit. Or, to put a finer point on it, they must have a registration approved by a Chartering Org... OK, so, what if you get your CO's approval to bring the MB counselor with you...could you bypass the payment requirement, as long as they are a registered BSA member? I'd say absolutely "Yes!" The spirit of the rule rather than the letter... And how does that jibe with the new model of having the council charter units?

Love the story...it is behind a subscriber wall for me...here is the cached page: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:yiUQAFZVfN0J:https://www.nhregister.com/news/article/Ever-a-Scout-North-Branford-man-celebrates-16630350.php+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us However, the cardinal and the YBSS look nothing alike (male or female) 😜 I think he was mixing up YBSS with downy and hairy woodpeckers.

False choice...both are true 😜 I agree with you, and you are a lone lunatic raving in the wilderness 🤪😝😲 Brilliant

They do... https://www.scoutshop.org/patrol-leader-handbook-647788.html https://www.scoutshop.org/sr-patrol-leader-handbook-647789.html We provide them to our PLs, APLs, SPL, and ASPLs. But, they mostly go unread and unpracticed. As for adults, most don't get or won't read the SHB...

When I took the LNT Master Educator Course, I posed this idea to the one of BSA's lead guys for LNT (name withheld). Simply this...if BSA really wants to run a golden thread of the "ideal" of environmental stewardship throughout the program, then they need to make one simple change to say we should use the Scout sign when repeating the Outdoor Code. Give it as much weight as the Oath and Law... Currently, my SHB says "Give the Scout sign each time you say the Scout Oath and Scout Law." Not a thing about the Outdoor Code in that section, yet the OC is a promise we make..."As an American, I will do my best to ..." Learning and explaining it are also incorporated into the rank requirements, which are good steps. I have visited several units that do not recite the OC, and some who do but reflexively lower their Scout sign before repeating it.

@qwazse, no! If I took a cheap shot (your cheap shot description of my comment), it was at the reporter who cherry-picked things from the study to drive an agenda (bias) of pushing the narrative of "human-caused climate change" up front, but then later in the report equivocates and relates what the researches actually said... "The researchers’ data showed links among temperature trends, precipitation trends and body sizes. Now, the question is: What, precisely, is happening and why? It’s not clear whether the species’ genetics are evolving to adapt to a new climate. “Evolution could happen on this time scale,” said a co-author of the study, Phil Stouffer, a professor at the Louisiana State University School of Renewable Natural Resources. “It’s a really important question to understand.” It’s also unclear what benefit the birds get from the changes to their bodies." If you read the study (I did, after you accused me of a cheap shot) you'll see the researchers do get around to being intellectually honest in some of their findings... "Because the time trend for mass—but not for wing and especially not for mass:wing—mostly faded after controlling for seasonal temperature, it is possible that lower bird mass is a plastic response to changing climate whereas lower mass:wing and longer wings are an adaptive compensation with a yet unresolved mechanism. {emphasis added} Here is a link to the actual study...https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abk1743 (also provided above by @RememberSchiff) As to your causal modeling comment, here are a few other variables which the study does not address: 1) Changes in resource availability (i.e., food sources) which drive birds to fly farther in search of scarcer sustenance for themselves and their offspring. Although the researchers found birds changed across most foraging guilds (foraging guilds relates to adult food sources)...ornithologists estimate 96 % of birds feed live insects to their young. So...did the loss of rainforest habitat, agriculture, pesticides, smoke, dust, etc. change the availability of insect food sources for young so that all foraging guilds had to fly farther to get food to rear their young, and body sizes changed to accommodate this? The study doesn't address this plausibility. 2) Another possibility: the birds were going to change anyway, irrespective of precipitation or temperature changes. The data goes back four decades and shows a trend toward smaller size. Since we don't have data for the past millennium or so (pick your time period), we cannot say whether all the bird species changes were already trending, and those trends were just continuing. 3) Did observed rapid changes in the earth's magnetic field affect the birds' navigational abilities, so that they have to fly more or less than previous decades? https://ssec.si.edu/stemvisions-blog/how-do-birds-navigate https://earthsky.org/earth/earths-magnetic-field-change-faster-thought/ The study doesn't address that... Are those credible enough for you?? If not, I can cite more...without pursuing a PhD in Ornithology.

I believe the biggest issue is lack of adult leaders with the time needed to create and nurture a robust unit program. At each unit, I would start a separate 501c3, similar to "Troop XX Booster Club", and that corporation would hire a full time unit leader called "Scoutmaster'. Each member has a fee and/or fundraising goal to support this. Then, I would hire someone ( like a retired veteran) who is already financially independent (or nearly so) so they wouldn't have to rely on their unit salary to live, but that salary would cover ALL costs associated with their unit functions. Limit unit size based on how many adults the corporation could hire (that's a whole other discussion), so that the paid positions' span of control for mentoring and managing is workable. Drive the actual cost of Scouting to the unit level. There are other groups that do this all the time...churches for example, hiring a pastor. And some councils (at least in the past) have paid unit leaders to work in units in underserved areas.