Uniforms

Noone was move vocal then me concerning the re-develement of the ceremony aspect of the OA.  I just watched the national presentation ( you go Emma) concerning the new Ordeal ceremony.  I admittedly changed my mind.  The national Chief and Vice Chief have a great plan to introduce the new material and I think it looks pretty good.  I am personally excited th participate in this endeavor and put my whole support as this transition moves forward.  Sure I'll miss the AIA aspect and will have fond memories but I encourage all members get on board and support the positive changes.

I get the sentiment of the opt-out idea, but in practice it's not a great idea.  It would be abused. Also... if it's covered in school - it should be that much easier to knock it out for Scouts, and the refresher doesn't hurt to know that "An Eagle definitely covered this topic".  That's my $0.02.

I might add to your comment the concept of true service and community involvement, often integrated with that outdoor element.  It often seems some of the most laudable services revolve around outdoor protection and rejuvenation, along with access improvement.  

HUGELY AGREE ... I almost wish there was a opt-out if we know the scout already had it covered in school.  ...  Wasting scout's time kill the program.   ... Doing a MB on a topic covered in school makes scouting look 2nd rate (and wastes the scout's time).   ... Citz of society was the 5th badge if you count Family Life as Citizenship in the Family.  ... There are just too many class room badges and not enough active badges. 

I really question that statement.   Is it fully true or only true within boundaries?  ... If I read the explicit requirements, I really have little problem with them.  If I read the larger societal discussion of DEI, I begin to have larger issues.   My two big issues are ... #1 the badge was reactionary to a specific place-in-time and the content is redundant with the whole scouting program.  The whole concept of the badge was at the heart of scouting.  We did not need an explicit badge that was a known larger political firestorm.   #2 In my 20 years of troop scouting, the number one criticism scouts had of merit badges was wasted time.  Four citizenship merit badges?  Five if you count Family Life as Citizen in the Family.  Sure scouts didn't have issue with the content, but I'm pretty sure they had problem with their time being wasted.   The lesson learned here is BSA should avoid short-term politics and focus on the long-term goals.  Scouting teaches character and responsibility thru outdoor adventures.  That has never changed and it's hard to argue.  Leave the political stuff (membership, orientation, gender, politics, etc) to our character partners.  Scouting has an outdoor structure to develop youth.  The rest is outside world noise.