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Yes. If the adults were not in the troop, no reason to report the incident to the boys CC or COR - a SE or Unit Commissioner may be a more appropriate resource. I believe what you are asking is does where they are from excuse the behavior. The answer of course is no.

you're

Maybe we should restrict males from joining the BSA?

Understood but is the new G2SS rules practical? For example, I've taken Scouts to public places that don't have separate restrooms for youth and adults. How should that be handled if one wants to follow the proverbial letter of the law?

For a few years during Scouting for Food, our troop would run the collection agency. All of the Patrols/Troops and Dens/Packs would bring their collections to us and we would load it into a huge 18 wheeler truck. We did this from about 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM. Anyway, as a sign of gratitude someone gave me (the Scoutmaster) about 10 tickets for Lions (NFL) game the next day. I asked who wanted to go and there were 9 boys. So what was I to do - take all nine with no other adults? No other adults wanted to go and tickets weren't cheap. The solution (this was 20 or so years ago before the

At younger ages (say Kindergarten) females have better fine motor skills and can sit still for longer periods of time. Boys fine motor skills catch up quickly but they are more "active" learners. Want to punish a six year old boy? Tell the boy to sit still and quietly for 15 minutes. Go to any High School graduation ceremony of a public school and tell me which gender perform (grades) better? The females by a mile. Now go to a college and do the same thing. The males not only perform as well but often exceed the females in college. Think of how we teach children - cooperation,

Around 2004 our BSA Troop went to the Dorchester International Brotherhood Camporee in Dorchester (London), Canada. It was my first exposure to girls in "Boy Scouts" (Scouts Canada allowed girls in their program long before the BSA). At the time I talked with many of the leaders (Scouters) in Scouts Canada about the pros and cons in allowing girls to join, how they handled having girls in the troops, etc. Overall, the positives greatly outnumbered the negatives but a few things stuck out for me. 1) Many troop had difficulty getting adult women leaders (a requirement for outings with g

Another issue/question: Private online communications (texting, phone calls, chat, IM, etc.) must include another registered leader or parent. So when a Scoutmaster, alone at home, receives a telephone call from the SPL, with his younger PL brother, the Scoutmaster can't take the call? Obviously, these "rules" appear to be written by lawyers and not driven by common sense.

That's hazy to me. "There are careers" - does that imply a paid position? Does that imply a full-time position? Does that imply a paid position for significant period of time? At one time, Boy Scouts could go on overnight camping trips with no adult supervision present (if a patrol outing and approved by the Scoutmaster to make sure it was a well planned out event). That's no longer allowed. Partly due to lowering expectations of our youth and more due to the allowing of female scouts. I'll admit, I haven't been actively involved with Scouting for a decade or more but I always

Slow down everyone. Youth protection rules, per the Guide to Safe Scouting, only apply to Scouting activities. For example, if your 18 year old son is a phenomenal guitar play and wants to to give guitar lessons to a 15 year old - no issue. One on one contact is allowed. If however, your same son wants to be a merit badge counselor for the music merit badge, Guide to Safe Scouting rules apply - no one on one contact with minors (unless it is your own son or daughter). Now I'm not saying it's a good idea to ignore those rules outside of Scouting events but they don't apply outside of s

Let me be very plain - were the adults in question "Scoutmasters" or "Assistant Scoutmasters" and were they Scouters in your son's troop? Assuming they were either SM or ASM and a member of your son's troop, I'd talk with the COR, CC and/or the SM about your concerns one on one if possible.

I'm allowed to censor. Terry is allowed to censor. Twitter is allowed to censor. Facebook is allowed to censor. The USG is not allowed to censor. It's a really simple concept.

FWIW, I don't see anything at all wrong with the shirt. It brings to mind a hike we had at Double H (New Mexico/Backpacking) a couple of decades ago. One of the adult Scouters had on a pair of hot pink shorts (and I mean really short shorts). He wasn't in our trek but our boys couldn't resist teasing me (their Scoutmaster) and insisting I get a pair to match! It was all in good fun and out of earshot of the other group.

YPT issues are shared with the Scout Executive and all reports should be held in confidence. However, maybe I'm old fashioned but I would not characterize this incident as a youth protection issue. Was the Scoutmaster wrong in his behavior? Quite possibly. When you state your son was bullied by "two Scoutmasters" - did you mean the Scoutmaster from two different troops (quite possibly none of which belongs to your son's troop)? Or more probably, by two Scouters that were either the SM and/or an ASM of your son's troop? If that was the case (all parties were members of the same troop), I

Around 15 or so years ago, our Boy Scout Troop attended the Dorchester International Brotherhood Camporee in Ontario, Canada. At the time of course, the BSA youth was all male but Scouts Canada was co-ed. When we attended I had some interesting conversations with Scouts Canada adult leaders about what they thought the plusses and minuses of "going co-ed" were for them. About the only negative they sited was the difficulty in finding female Scouters to attend camping trips. An intended benefit I saw from the boys in my troop were that the younger Scouts (not yet really interested in

The best way to get involved is to talk to the Committee Chair and ask what areas the troop may need assistance from wrt a Scouter. If the response is "we're covered", well that could be a possible red flag. If the response is "we need help in the xyz area", determine if that is something you want to get involved in. What you don't want to do is go in being demonstrative about a bunch of changes needed (even if they are) right from the get go. IMHO, as a Scouter, do you want to work with the Committee behind the scenes or do you want to work with the youth in concert with the

I believe this was in reference to a certain mustachioed former German leader's party.

Lions? That's a blast from the past.

Summary of comments Troopmaster ≡ Scoutmaster (correct term). The Scoutmaster is in charge of Advancement in the troop. FYI, Troopmaster is a software program. Merit Badge Counselors are not allowed to have one-on-one contact with Scouts (unless they are the legal guardian of that Scout) therefore the "at least two Scouts" rule which you may have conflated with "two merit badges." One does not need two adults to counsel merit badges. There does need to be two-deep leadership for outings. So if an outing is used to meet a merit badge requirement, two-deep leadership is req

A few decades ago the "Issues & Politics" thread was created for the specific purpose to house many of the controversial areas of Scouting. Therefore, as a moderator, it was my belief to be slightly more tolerant of behavior that I thought was questionable - that is, something I may take an issue with in "Advancement" would get more of a pass in "Issues & Politics." But just like I tried to discuss in a Scout like manner on this forum why I thought the decision to ban avowed homosexuals was incorrect before the policy was changed (we could debate if it really ever was an offici

Scouting events shouldn't be used to promote gear. I've taught certain Scout courses, to adults mostly, where we bring samples of what we own and give "pros" and "cons" to certain equipment but we don't have a vested monetary interest in what others will decide to buy. I'm not aware of any vendors at scouting events that I've attended other than those having a general store at summer camp and vending machines with logos. We don't want to go "Mar-a-Lago" like or "Bedmister" like and mix scouting with for personal profit motive in our actions. We already have enough of that in our coun

Who may sit on a BoR (for a troop)? A board of three and no more than six troop committee members, all of whom must be at least 21 years of age. Unit leaders (Scoutmasters for a troop) and assistants shall not serve on a board of review for a Scout in their own unit. Parents, guardians, or relatives shall not serve on a board for their son. The candidate or his parent(s) or guardian(s) shall have no part in selecting any board of review members. For an EBoR (Eagle Board of Review), the Council may make additional rules - via their advancement committee. At the troop level, at least on

Keep in mind the folks that say you can't "retest" are sometimes misleading. If a Scout rank has a requirement to tie a clove hitch, a BoR can and probably should ask the Scout to tie a clove hitch. That's perfectly allowable. The key is why? They should do it not to test the Scout, he has already demonstrated proficiency to his "leader" if the requirement has been signed off. The purpose is to test the Scoutmaster, who is in charge of the advancement program within the troop and see if he (or she) is doing a good job. Heck, I don't remember if I can still tie a clove hitch knot anymor

Folks, go back and see what the responsibilities are of the BoR members. One is to make sure all of the requirements are met. How do they do that? They look to see if the requirements are properly signed off. If the Scoutmaster has signed off on requirement 5 (While a Life Scout, plan, develop, and give leadership to others in a service project helpful to any religious institution, any school, or your community.), then by definition the requirement has been met. Also, before a Life Scout begins his project ... Your Scoutmaster, troop Advancement Chairman, and a representative of your Di

"We" don't show leadership. The Eagle candidate should show leadership. If the Scoutmaster signed off on his requirements - to the Scoutmaster your son has shown leadership in his POR (Position of Responsibility) and has give leadership to others in a service project according to his Scoutmaster. You may suggest to your son to confer with the BOR and Scoutmaster and see why there appears to be a disagreement on his "leadership." I've seen issues when a Troop Committee has issues with a Scoutmaster and Scouts get caught in the middle. I have no idea if your son's case falls into t