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I guess you could say that some other scouting association that does not have an incorporated unit overseas is excluded; however, GS and many other associations that are here in the US also are incorporated overseas. As I understand it, if the scouting organization is on this list it counts: https://directory.scout.org/contacts

Sou Sounds like you need to find a way to replace him.

Are other groups (including rec leagues) allowed to recruit in the schools at all?

I don't see anything wrong with not advancing if the a scout does not want to advance; I would say that you should sit down and talk with each one of these "not wanting to advance" scouts to make sure they understand the program and the point of advancement. A buddy of mine "accidentally" made 2nd class, he was never interested in advancement, just MB, camping, and camp cooking. His SM just noticed over time that he had completed so much rank advancement by accident by just being out with his patrol and at camp with his troop. Same guy cranked through his undergrad in 2 years and jumped to grad school at 19. Mysteries of the universe unfold.

I'm a little late to this party; however, I was recently asked to find the official answer by my COR for a scouter who is a Girl Scout Gold awardee. A locally produced knot is not authorized from what I can tell; councils can make local awards, but it has to be documented and vetted, I understand it to be a process. More directly to the gold award recognition aspect of this, the Guide to Awards and Insignia is very clear that awards from other scouting associations are authorized for wear above the left breast pocket (page 9). There are exceptions for non scouting organizations (religious awards, etc ... ) and they are also worn above the left breast pocket.

Scout B, the ASPL is the functional SPL in the absence of the SPL at all unit functions under the auspices of the BSA. This is all handled in the Troop Leader Guides, the SPL handbook, the PL handbook, etc ... Your question makes me think that there is something else going on here.

Sounds like you should volunteer on the district committee. Also reach out to the director of camping services; those people always need volunteers to come out and run MB sessions, provide 2 deep leadership at ranges, etc ...

The program is changing, I think it's going to get streamlined and I think we're going back to our roots. The first mission of the BSA is to train scouts in scoutcraft, maybe we're getting back to that.

Oh boy, you're in a bind because lax uniform standards have become "the standard" in your unit. One thing to differentiate is that units/leaders cannot force "Scouts" to have a uniform; however, there is no such rule for adult leaders, as a matter of fact the Troop Leader Guidebooks state that part of the position description for adult leaders is that they wear the uniform, and wear it correctly. If the issues are financial, work with people, find some "experienced" uniforms on sale and hook some people up. Remind people what the real standard is. What I find is that most people will have a uniform top, get people to that point and then iterate up towards the ideal from there. Keep in mind that for unit numbers and position patches, if a person has only 1 uniform they are supposed to wear the position patch and unit numbers of their "primary role" and their epaulets are supposed to match the position patch. The best I advice I think I can give you is to make sure your uniform is full, and worn correctly, and be the standard. When someone asks, make a point to explain that you are following the standard.

A lot of great responses. @RookieScouter, your Scoutmaster is incorrect. The scouts are responsible for communicating through their "chain of command"; however, at the same time the Scoutmaster Corps should communicate with the committee, and the Scoutmaster Corps should communicate with the parents. Sometimes it's at the same time, sometimes it's separate. There is an entire chapter of the Troop Leaders Guide Vol1, it literally states that trusting scouts to communicate with their parents is desired but very risky and other communication channels have to happen to make things work.

Some councils are really going big with their fees which I think is the bigger problem; especially the councils that have found a way around the council cap at nationals level. Overall the program is rather cheap compared to other programs for youth; however, if council fees get too high I think they will kill FOS.

Basically anytime the patrol name is called out is when the patrol yell should be used. For example: when the SPL calls on a PL he should also tack on the patrol name ; and then the patrol would yell whatever they're yell is. It would be an esprits de corps moment that also could just be fellowship/horsing around. Think a scenario like the following: SPL: "PL John Smith from the Rocket Patrol is going to lead todays rank advancement and teach the square knot." Rocket Patrol: "To the moon!" When the esprit de corps gets built up in the troop you will have some slightly rude moments as the patrol will start to immediately yell their yell when someone says the patrol name. You have to build the culture to include those cues. Also helps if every patrol has a patrol yell as it will become a competition as to who can yell it the loudest.

Enforce the Parent Partner Rule for Lions and Tigers; you will find your replacement in one or two of those parent partners. Cut everything that someone "tacked" on to a role and recruit people to do just the job description of a position from the cub scout leader guide; don't let "the way we always did it" or "historically" restrict your packs function and form. Encourage round table and leader training for everyone. Use leader awards, they are there for a reason, and people do appreciate them.

The positional authority is that willful violation of the GTSS means the BSA umbrella policy does not cover you in the event of an incident.

The number of issues you have pointed out at one event are clear indicators that the problem is the other leadership and not you. It does indeed sound like your troop is not functioning within the guidelines of the program. I think you should raise the same issues you noted here with your COR, and then have a subsequent meeting with the COR and the SM; it's not you vs the SM, it's not you or the SM goes, it's you or the totality of non scout like behavior have to go.

A lot of them are faltering because they built out a huge annual process that requires dozens of volunteers is premised on a community need that no longer exists and then expect future generations to continue those processes even when they have no modern relevance. I am in many fraternal organizations and the hardest question any organization can answer to a millennial is "What value does your program provide to the community?" Scouting is different as the value to the community is easy to answer.

In some cases councils are snatching up district events and turning them into council events, blowing them up in the process.

So how it works is that any "camp" even day camps need an NCAP certified Camp Director and an NCAP certified Program Director, a CPR/First Aid certified Health Officer, and ratios of staff to scouts and toilets to scouts. You will have to prepare a camp NCAP standards book, and that book and your camp will be inspected by an NCAP inspection team sometime during the camp. Additionally anytime units not chartered by the same CO do things together it has to be authorized by your council. If you decide to move forward with a twilight camp I suggest you just come up with a theme, plan your activities around that theme, and then at the end figure out which advancement items are met during the camp. That advancements list will have to get cleared through your council advancement committee.

Mostly true; some awards are obscure, I have one that seems to be very rare and my registrar does not know how to enter it into my record; the registrar acknowledges that I have it, that my physical paperwork is correct; however, the registrar has no idea how to enter it into the system now that scoutnet is gone.

At the pack level the interface is designed for leaders (specific to their authority), parents (Lion through Bear), and committee members (again specific to their authority). At the troop level the interface of scoutbook is designed for scouts and parents to key enter things as completed/ready for unit review. If your scout is missing in scoutbook it might mean that their registration was synced to a different account and you will have to get the pack advancement chair or scoutmaster to give you the proper ids to have council fix the problem. At a pack level it is very common for bad leaders to skip key entry. My unit recently had 3 scouts transfer in where the previous units failed to key enter anything into scoutbook and also failed to turn in any advancement reports to council. Our units advancement chair had to work with the parents and council to fix everything and get everything entered into scoutbook which included some leaps of faith. Every scout deserves trained leaders; I say that includes scouters learning how to use scoutbook.

This is a great change. First of all why would anyone potentially want someone who is not position trained as a SM/ASM/or other outdoor leader at a campout? Secondly we need to recognize that many of the victims involved in the lawsuit have told their side of the assaults and that includes assault from a non-scouter at a scouting event. If we look at this objectively without money in the picture this is a great change to enhance scout safety. Something to chew on while thinking about this topic. Last year my unit had a parent volunteer fail a background check; not surprisingly that parents scout did not recharter with our unit. I ask myself if that parent is now tagging along on campouts with their scout at some other unit, and because of how the background check and blacklisting works(or not works depending on your opinion), that new unit is unaware of the background check failure? Is there a potential pedo trying to sneak along on a units campouts? This new rule stops that, period; this new rule is a good thing.

Finding the correct pack/troop den/patrol is critical. Never let a bad experience with 1 bad den leader/assistant scout master/scout master push your scouts out of the program. There are lots of good units out there that want the scouts who will not tolerate substandard practices.

Doing the online training is easy. You can cut it up into roughly 15min chunks and get it done in your downtime in 3 weeks(ish). SMs have a different problem; as I understand the policy a ScoutMaster must have IOLS to hold the position in a trained status; I've heard various things over the years from councils not rechartering units with untrained SMs, I have even heard that the BSA umbrella policy doesn't cover units with SMs that do not have IOLS.

Scouts have to want to join your troop; you cannot force them or play politics to get them to join your troop. If all of the AOLs from your associated pack went elsewhere 2 years in a row that is a red flag that there is a problem in your troop and the scouts/scout families view moving to a new CO as the most appropriate course of action. When is the last time your troop leadership conducted a SWOT analysis?

It really depends on where you are but you could probably get a tour for any US Citizens at a consulate or embassy without much difficulty.