Leaderboard

Very true, adults cannot model the skills because they have no training or experience. And the powers that be think online learning is enough. Bill Hillcourt said it best " SCOUTING IS OUTING!" But I am leery of outside certifications. I remember when LNT Trainer was a Scout POR that required LNT Trainer certification, but most places offering it wanted you to be 18+. And to be honest even going through training is not enough. I went through Aquatics Supervision Paddle Sports training, and am certified to teach paddle board to Scouts. Just because I am certified, doesn't mean I have the knowledge or skills to do it. 2 to 3 hours on a paddle board was not enough time, especially with my balance to master those skills. Give me a canoes or kayak any day. Once upon a time, national allowed a test out of IOLS. You had to demonstrate ALL of the skills, and if you missed one, you had to take the course. That lasted a year or two because some folks were just pencil whipping the training. Which considering the standard of one and done, pencil whipping is the norm from national. Unfortunately pros are judged by the number of units they have, even if they are substandard. So there is a LOT of pressure on them. I tried to focus on quality, not quantity, and my boss gave me hell for it. And trust me pros cannot remove unit leaders. When I was a DE, we had a pack that had extremely poor leadership. I could recruit 30 Scouts for them, and 5 would remain. The #1 complaint was the CM, they needed to be removed. I had a chat with the COR/IH, who was an involved Scouter. But even he was unwilling to remove them because he had no idea who to replace them with. As for unit visits, I can tell you I had one unit I started having a lot, and I mean a lot, of challenges. I was doing my best to help them out by basically serving as their commissioner as we did not have a commissioner corps ( that is another story). My boss chewed me a new one for helping the unit out. I got around that by visiting them as a member of their CO, the service organization that I belong to. Until national wants quality over quantity, we will continue circling the drain.

I'd like to agree but I think this is just standard briefing. The insurers will assert their rights and say that their policies allowed the investigation of every claim, something the Trust did instead, but doesn't bind an insurer. It would be a VERY bold step for a Judge to tell the insurers to pay up, and if they did it would be appealed in minutes. Again, the Trustee has 250 IRO claims she can send to trial and start to inflict pain on the insurers. Awards beyond the IRO amount then go to the "general fund" to serve all claimants. But, repeated losses (Juries tend to side with Survivors), would give the insurers real reason to cut deals.

Writ has been denied by SCOTUS. Additional $1.65 billion sitting in escrow can now go to the Trust. Hopefully the Trustee will have a statement and perhaps Town Hall soon. The appeal by an attorney representing 72 claimants only took 3 1/2 years post confirmation. Enjoy some rare good news.

Something on my newsfeed. https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/soaring-price-youth-sports-50-174913819.html

My old troop had 1 fundraiser a year. Every Scout had a goal to sell x number of plates. Paid for all advancement, weekend campouts (except food, $ varied by patrol) and depending upon the year 50% to 100% of summer camp. Before National skyrocketed the dues, also paid that and Boy's Life. Depending upon where you are at, you can get by cheaply, especially backpacking. One national forest nearby has no fees for backpackers. One state park charges only for parking if you are backpacking. One place we went biking cost us $100 for everyone for the weekend. That was less than $10/person. Key is willingness to explore new places.

It is always best to go to the source: https://www.scouting.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/2026-NCAP-Standards-v2.pdf Standard number SA-001, pages 25 - 29.

This is a lot, a lot of good thought. I am not sure if the program can function this way. In order to master skills the instructors have to know the skills that they are teaching otherwise the youth are set up for failure before things begin. How can adult leaders model the program for the youth leaders and pass on the skills for the older scouts to teach younger scouts when so few adult leaders know the skills. Scouting America knows this is a problem but is moving far too slow (BSA Fishing, NRA Partnership, LNT Partnership, etc ... bringing in outside experts to rejuvenate the skills base). So much of the training is poorly done. The training should be based on a level 1 (online) training with level 2 (in person) practical demonstrations. IOLS and BALOO are garbage. They should literally be several hours of online modules followed up by a simple 12 hour overnight testing experience. Enforcement of training needs to become mandatory; national needs to start dropping people from the rolls after 90 days of not being trained. The commissioner corps is broken; not because of anything the commissioners have done, but for what the professional scouters have failed to do. If a district has a commissioner reporting that a unit has sub standard adult training, sub standard program, etc ... it's the district executives role to step in and start doing unit visits to determine if the commissioner is a moron or if the unit needs to have its charter revoked.

Today is truly a historical day in the BSA Bankruptcy. Almost 59,000 survivors will see a path forward without having a tiny majority being able to throw up roadblocks. The plan itself is not perfect and has many warts but now we can see the end. I still would not vote yes for it, and I believe many who did now have regrets however, many of my fellow survivors would recover nothing for their suffering if the Supreme Court had decided to uphold the Lujan writ. You will see many posts about how little you may ultimately receive (some say less than 10%) but remember they have no crystal ball or insider information. the ultimate percentage amount will depend on the outcome of Houser vs the non-settling carriers. Try hard to not let the Debbie Downers rain on today's good news.

It took me a bit, but I found the part that defines this situation. Your description is not accurate as the gap would be >5 days. The council could define it as a "day camp" or not if the gap is 5 days or more. "Except for day camps as provided below, a camp is an overnight program . In determining the length of a camp, count all nights where any participants (other than staff) are present with substantially the same camp leadership or camp staff, regardless of what the camp is called, unless there is a gap of five or more nights between sessions . Camp includes the following classifications: 1 . Day camps . A day camp is a council-organized program designed for Scouts for two or more days, under council-retained leadership at an approved site with no overnight . The program may operate at age-appropriate Cub Scout, Scouts BSA, Venturer, or Sea Scout level . A council may choose to treat a one-day event (without an overnight) as a day camp."

You hit the nail on the head again. Our unit send some poorly written emails and it drives my wife nuts. But the senders are willing to do the work and they do it pretty well, so you'll never hear me gripe about their communication style. Their efforts have made the Pack's program much stronger, but some people can't get past the amateur emails because they're used to a higher standard at work or through other kids' activities run by a for-profit operator.

A few more suggestions: take responsibility for portions of a family reunion (differentiated from immediate family) assist with a local parks and rec event (doesn't require an ongoing commitment) participate in a school service project (again, doesn't have to be an ongoing commitment) contribute to an online discussion (with parent supervision) write a letter to the editor of the local paper (civic engagement) I hope this Scout is able to earn Eagle, if he desires, but I would think improving his grades should take priority over a merit badge. Not every Scout needs to aim for straight A's, but passing all classes is a fair expectation.

I see now that day camp is at least 2 days now. when NCAP started, that wasn't the case, and a district single day activity, like PWD, had to follow NCAP.

I will also point out: social media posts intended to trigger rise up on feeds. Meanwhile proper discourse like what people may ponder in this moderated forum is not clickable. Even if a decent comment from a seasoned scouter here were to get memeified, it would be framed so terribly that half of us would think their membership should be revoked. When I was advising my coed crew, my most strident opponents provided some excellent program activities for my youth. Words may hurt me, but sticks and stones make for a great cooking fire.

I’m afraid that your expected timeline for change is far too soon. Seven or eight years is far too soon for any of these young women to rescue the lost in an avalanche, explore some unknown frontier, lead her nation through war, secure a peace, or become mom of the year or any of the other feats where, as such an adult, she will look back and say her time on the trail to eagle was the first step toward the rarified height where she now stands. Then and only then will people not have time to complain about the rise of a single scouting program for Americans of both sexes. I have a niece who I believed was presidential material. She balked when I said it years ago. She is now on her school board. I envision in another decade or two half of you will be voting for her, and the other half will be making up partisan excuses not to. (I’m just writing this now to be able to link to it in the future.) But for that to happen, she will have prevail in a sea of nay-sayers. Same for my daughter when she’d play dress-up. I told her to never settle for princess, or even queen. It’s empress or bust. The metaphor still applies now that she is an engineer solving a major corporation’s largest problems. My son’s wives are in similar positions. I sincerely hope one day they have their own firm. But that kind of growth only occurs when those who oppose you manifest for who they are. These “bullies” are doing your scouts a favor. They have something to overcome. It will make them great.

What I have learned is that you cannot gauge the health of a council based on camping or resident camp participation. Think of it along the lines of population clustering phallacy. There are times when populations are clustered together which makes people think the observed population is robust and healthy; however, when that population redistributes back to its normal range it becomes obvious that the population is few. This isn't exactly accurate. There are ways to avoid NCAP governance by limiting the window of "joint function" for lack of a better way to explain it. It's a insurance gray area. It is the #1 reason why will never staff for a district/council/national event ever again; I am sick of the gray areas formulated by some 22 year old district executive that thinks he's smarter than the world putting my home and retirement at risk.

I agree with so much of what you are saying. They have forgotten the Scout Laws points of being courteous, kind, and friendly. Maybe they think the blasting of scouts on social media is "brave." But the honest fact is that there are still many who refuse to accept change. They are almost always adults and think that the old way was the best way. You also see it in conversations about Cit in Society, that the undefined evils of "DEI" have changed the program and is no longer worthwhile. I totally disagree with that assessment. My son earned Eagle Scout in a combined unit. We never had issues with the scouts in a mixed gender troop. Any issue we had with by parents with preconceived ideas, none of which ever proved true. I was in the Navy before female were on ships and then afterward. I heard all the same reasons why it was going to bring the Navy down. It did not, and some of the finest sailors and leaders I know are female. A mixed troop (family troop - not a big fan of that title, but can live with it) is right for out troop and our community. No one is denied the opportunity to learn all the great lessons that scouting provides because of their sex.

What parts do you feel do not work well any longer? I totally see this. Here's a good story to illustrate. One of the doctors my kids were seeing was very supportive of scouting. I asked her why she didn't have her kids in scouting. She replied that her husband was an eagle, a veteran, and an accomplished outdoorsman and they simply couldn't handle how poorly every unit in their area functioned so decided to just focus on family camping. I have noticed that the more competent people who have management experience or operational coordination experience struggle the most with scouting. Also key 3 often are selected based on random attributes and not how Scouting America recommends (skills and ability based selection); it becomes impossible to intellectually or emotionally handle dealing with incompetent people who can't handle coordinating enough car space for a weekend campout let alone the far more complex issues that arise within scouting.

UPDATE: A helpful Scout shop volunteer on the other side of the country saw a post I'd made on a Facebook Scouting group and let me know that they'd found a medal while doing shop inventory. I got it in the mail yesterday! All hail the Laurel Highlands Council volunteers for their help. If anyone else is looking for a medal, I heard from one or two other council shops that might still have one in stock. Let me know if you need info. Thanks, everyone, for your help and ideas!

Your idea isn't new; the BSA has made these kinds of promises since the creation of the program. I do agree that at this age, cost isn't as much of an issue as the cub program, but a results-based program is very subjective. And most of the time the adults go the easy route of Eagle for their results-based program. However, youth at this age aren't advancement-driven. I found that most Eagle-driven programs lose 70% of their scouts by age 15 because advancement gets boring. Adventure-driven programs thrive because they are fun in the outdoors, and because independence in the patrol method drives more maturity in their growth. Go look at units where scouts age out, and you will find they are more scout-run with adventure. Also, adventure-driven programs typically have a high number of Eagles because the scouts are in the program a long time and earn the Eagle requirements by simply participating. Barry

Putting on my Membership Chairman hat. Almost 95% of scouts in troops come from the Cubs. If the youth aren't recruited in Cubs, the troops will have to recruit from other sources. When National added additional requirements to the Tiger program in 2000 (increasing meetings to every week, an adult required for each scout), many units were unable to meet the new demands, and the Tiger numbers dropped significantly. That drop became obvious in 2005 when the troop membership suddenly dropped. If you don't get the Cubs, you don't get the crossovers. Barry

Seeing advancement become the sole purpose of scouting, then watching it get watered down to one and done and finally watching people in scouts wonder why parents don't put their kids in scouts anymore.

Professional scouters that have clearly set goals that focus on raising money (for what nobody knows) rather than focusing on actually growing the program A National Organization that continues to believe the infrastructure needs to be reflective of the 70's (almost 5 million) rather than today (less than 1 million). Get rid of councils and overhead.

I could write a book of pet peeves...

Newly Retired U.S. Judge Lynn Will Mediate Huge Boy Scouts Insurance Dispute - The Texas Lawbook it's going to take YEARS. This is a time value of money proposition for the insurers. Delay is in their interest because they make money on the assets they hold. Assigning a mediator sounds nice but they'll never mediate an agreement that would be painful for the insurers and good news for Survivors.