Liz

Is 2.5 hours away too far to go for a weekend (Friday evening to Sunday) campout, do you think? The adult leaders seem OK with it. I've found a group campground that is level, mostly paved, and has a picnic shelter. But it's not close by.

I work with middle schoolers with "moderate to severe" disabilities in a special ed classroom. We have a few kids in my class that I think would enjoy and benefit from Scouting, but I think they'd benefit the most from *at least* a dedicated patrol, if not a dedicated Troop, with a lot of extra adult support in addition to peer support. Most of these kids are non-verbal or minimally verbal and have significant physical and cognitive challenges. Some are too disabled to benefit from a Scouting program to be honest, but many are not. I wish I could figure out a way to make it happen for them. Unfortunately I'm only one person. The wheels are turning though. If I can find a way to do it...

Help me out here, Scouters! Our Troop is new and the girls are just starting to get their legs under them. They're working on a one-year plan but at the moment we're scrambling to figure out relatively last minute camping options. Here's our situation: * One of the Scouts has a broken leg, very limited mobility right now, and has to keep her cast from getting wet. At all. * We are in Oregon. The odds of it not raining during a campout are not high. * We only have 6 Scouts so excluding even one from a campout is not an option we want to seriously consider. * The only weekend we don't have fundraising commitments for this month is October 18-20 (we help with parking for Oregon Duck home games during the entire football season). * All our in-council camp facilities are booked for our one available weekend. * All the area group campsites that I can find and all the state and federal campgrounds I can find that have yurts or cabins are booked. A group site with a group shelter would give the girl with a broken leg a dry place to hang out, as would a non-tent option suck as a 'dak, yurt, or cabin. But individual campsites at a state park in tents... I dunno. We don't have a lot of equipment yet for creating a decent shelter area other than just the minimum of what we need to do an outdoor kitchen. There is a nearby out-of-council camp that has availability (Butte Creek Scout Ranch in Scotts Mills, OR) and some of their sites have 'daks but I've never been there and I don't know how accessible their sites are and of course nobody's answering the phone on the weekend (totally expected) and during the workweek I am not available to be making phone calls at all. The girls have asked for adult help locating a campground that will include everyone and we're trying but I am not having a ton of luck. We may end up in a local campground so the girl with the broken leg can just join us during the day or something, but she missed our last campout too due to the leg (happened right before our event) so she really doesn't want to miss any of this one. I live in a forest and have a couple of acres. How bad would it be to have the girls camp in my woods for the weekend? We have a fire ring and room for tents. Help me brainstorm a solution here.

We are working on our Troop neckerchief. Our Troop is chartered by the local chapter of the Izaak Walton League of America. Our girls really liked the teardrop logo they use with their Save our Streams conservation program. I asked the marketing person at IWLA and they gave us permission to incorporate it as long as we include the words "Save Our Streams" in the final product. I'm working on having patches made up with the design they approved (in concept) now, which the girls will sew onto their neckerchiefs.

Is there any alternative to Scoutbook for doing this? I'm facing the likelihood of becoming the Advancement Coordinator for our new Troop, but Scoutbook is so badly broken it's unusable. I've gone back to the usscout spreadsheet for my Webelos Scouts because I can't enter any data at all in Scoutbook, either the website or the mobile app. I can't find a similar downloadable spreadsheet for Scouts BSA. Is there one?

We love it, actually! My husband convinced me to get the 10-person one. It's too heavy for hauling very far, so we accepted the provided canvas-on-wood-frame tent at Cub camp this weekend, but we really enjoyed the roominess on a family campout with the Pack.

Fundraising is how they pay their own way. Or is a 12 year old supposed to go out and get a "real" job? Or is Scouting only supposed to be available to Scouts who get a big enough allowance from their parents? Units DO need operating funds. They need money to buy patches, awards, flags, and other Troop assets. It shouldn't be a whole ton of money (depending on your perspective on how much money is a lot of money), but it still isn't free. Are the volunteers supposed to pay for everything out of their own pockets?

I'm in my 40s and I have NEVER, even as a small child, been comfortable with group shower areas. I try not to project my creepy factor onto my kids when they hose off after swimming. They keep their swimsuits on during shower (I honestly want the chlorine rinsed out of their swimsuits as much as I want it rinsed out of their hair) but I find it really creepy that adult naked women will stand in the shower and talk to my kids. I applaud the move to single-stall showers. It doesn't cost that much to put up barriers and shower curtains. Yes, cleaning takes longer, but I bet Scouts will be more than willing to take up the extra cleaning duty as a fair exchange for privacy in the shower.

So... this month, our Pack went to Day Camp the first week in July. Our family was on vacation out of state that week. So my daughter attended Day Camp the 2nd week in July in a neighboring District, without her Pack. Since she did participate in a major Cub Scout activity in July, even though she didn't participate WITH her Pack, who also did participate in the activity, just at a different time, does she qualify for the Summertime Pack Award (she attended the June event and will attend two events in August). This is a relatively big question for me since we anticipate our allotted week at our vacation cabin to ALWAYS interfere with our District's Day Camp dates. I'm actually pondering enrolling my next Cub in a Pack in a neighboring District when she's old enough, just so she will be able to attend Day Camp with her Pack.

Our brand new unit had a fundraising opportunity dropped on it at the last minute. We currently have no operating funds and the Committee members are floating Troop expenses until we can figure it out. So when someone pointed out that we were supposed to submit an application to the Council before doing any fundraising, we all kind of looked at each other, shrugged, and decided it was better in this case to ask forgiveness than to ask permission. Because "It's Tuesday and there's no way we can get the application submitted and approved in time for Friday" was just a reality. We know it's fairly common for units in our area to do fundraising without filling out the "required" paperwork, and we know the Council really wants us to succeed, so hopefully we'll get by with a post-fundraiser application and get told to try not to do that again. If we run into problems with Council being too strict with fundraising I think we might try the CO fundraiser route (out of uniform), if our CO will approve, which I imagine they would as long as it doesn't create some kind of conflict with them; but I don't anticipate that being an issue as long as we are also active in the Council fundraisers which happen twice a year (and thankfully don't include Popcorn). From what I can see, the Council is generally supportive of independent unit fundraising efforts.

I don’t know. Maybe? It seems like I might be more inclined to grant leniency to someone who did not have the advantages of a good family and Scouting to teach right from wrong I guess. But I certainly wouldn’t give it to someone who had every opportunity to learn tight from wrong.

If anything, having gone through all it takes to become an Eagle Scout, he should have known better even moreso than other boys his age. I would be more inclined to hold him MORE accountable, not less.

Do you have a link to the specific Velcro or Velcro-like product you use from Home Depot? All I can find are sticky squares or straps.

We have 3 girls signed up with our new Troop, with one more who says she wants to join but who hasn't turned in her application. All 3 girls we have signed up have parent leaders involved. The 4th probably won't have a parent leader but at least she is an actively involved parent in general judging from mom's willingness to show up at Pack stuff for yer younger daughter. We also have two more families (mine included) with leaders in the Troop who have Webelos rank girls who will be joining in the next 6-18 months. So right now we have twice as many adult leaders with applications turned in as we have Scouts (and more who are just dragging their feet to do YPT). I consider that a GREAT thing and I'm really glad we have it. I don't expect that 2 to 1 ratio to continue as the Troop grows but it makes me feel good about having "room" to accept more youth without being desperate for all their parents to sign up right away. Although we won't be the first Ladies' Troop in our district, the other one keeps to themselves and has zero interest in recruiting. So to be 100% honest I expect at least 90% of the girls in our community who earn their Arrow of Lights in the next year and who make the choice to go to a Troop to be joining our Troop. This is going to be a main focus for our team, to make sure we have lots of outreach and invite those Webelos girls to join us for activities. 3 girls is enough if that's all we have for the next 6-9 months until the Crossover ceremonies begin. I think we'll be able to support at least two patrols by this time next year. Don't worry about low numbers to start. It's hard to get members to join you when you don't have anything to join yet. Build it and invite people to come.

I hadn't thought about double-fold bias tape. That would look sharp! I have noticed that broadcloth is super cheap, and I had looked at piping too. I have both a regular sewing machine and a serger so I could do a serged edge in a contrasting color as well. The girls have a lot of options! I'd like them to at least pick one quickly (even if they change their minds later) so we can have a few made up right away since our CO is making a *big deal* out of the charter signing ceremony and we expect to have photos in their national magazine. I spent last night making paracord woggles for all the adult leaders in our Troop. The girls can make their own if they want something similar. Maybe I'll bring a bunch of paracord lengths to the meeting tonight along with a couple links to YouTube tutorials in case they want to do that.

Our girls are meeting for the first time Monday. They'll be choosing a SPL and talking about uniform details. One of the parents in our troop has an embroidery machine and is willing to help with neckerchiefs. I have sufficient sewing skills to make neckerchiefs for her to embroider. So I'd like to present the girls with several ideas for them to look at to inspire them as they decide what their neckerchiefs they want (assuming they want to use them, which I think they will but I suppose they could decide to do without entirely). I'll also bring photos of some of the "in stock" type neckers they can buy at the Scout Shop. I'd love to see what some of you have done, especially ones that might be incorporating your CO's name on the neckerchief or whatever other interesting ideas are out there.

Because we have to have a troop number on our paperwork to turn in, and the 4 girls haven't met yet. It's just a matter of practicality.

It's the same in our Council. All the girl troops are 4 digits starting with a 4. We will only be using 3 digits on our uniform though, mainly because we couldn't really think of any meaningful numbers that were 4 digits beginning with 4. I think just from what I've seen all the packs in our council start with 0, boy troops 1, and venturing crews 2. I will make a wild guess that either sea scouts or explorers start with a 3. But only the venturing crews actually use all 4 digits on their uniforms.

Yup. District patches are not authorized by National except as temporary patches. That doesn't mean that all Councils follow this rule. Some use a District patch as a routine and expected part of every uniform, in spite of National's uniform policy. My Council uses a 2nd Council patch on the right front pocket, around which participation segments are attached. That's not in line with the National uniform policy either. IMO, if that kind of patch is going to be used at all, it makes more sense to be a District patch, as a Council patch there is redundant with the Shoulder patch. My heart wouldn't break if nothing were used there at all (and I don't have one on my uniform but everyone else does...) but when you ever whisper that it's not how the uniform is supposed to look people act like you're trying to kill Scouting...

I thought she was also a Venturer? I would think it would be the "while living abroad" clause that would be the concern here. Was she actually residing in Canada?

Oh yeah, another "no" vote on a Webelos 3 type group. Get the girls involved FROM THE START with the planning. This is super important. Adults can take care of the boring stuff like charter paperwork, but the Scouts need to be presented with their books and then "Ok, figure out how you're going to accomplish this and what you want to do first. We'll be over here in the corner to answer questions. Let us know when you have a plan and if there's a problem with the plan you create we'll help you work through it." I'm doing my homework to see which camps in the region still have space for the summer and what the cost will be (I think our local council camps are full) but that's only going to come out if the girls say "we think we want to attend a Council camp." I want to anticipate questions and have some answers ready because we're so short on time for the summer; but I still don't want to take the wheel.

We just had our initial adult meeting for a Ladies Troop last week! We already had the CO paperwork signed, but there wouldn't have been any reason NOT to meet before the paperwork was signed. We just didn't, other than informal chats during Pack meetings or at Roundtable. We selected a CC. Everyone else signed up as either a MBC or a Committee Member with future roles to decide later. I am "acting" Secretary; my husband is COR so I wasn't willing to be CC unless nobody else would step up. So we came into the meeting with a COR and a SM; CC was the only thing left that had to be decided right then. We figured we'd get the Troop moving, kind of get a feel for our talents and how we work together, and then assign formal committee roles later. We agreed on a Troop number. Since we are the only unit chartered by our CO, we had to think of one from scratch. We agreed on a time and day of the week for meetings. We will temporarily be meeting at the Scout office as our CO's property is a rifle range and not suitable for meeting. We discussed how to deal with initial dues since we don't yet have a bank account or a treasurer. We gathered adult and youth applications (we have 3 youth so far and hopefully 1 more by the time we turn in; our Council will allow 3 to start although 5+ is obviously preferred; our SM has a 2nd year Webelos Scout who can be Scout #5 in about 6 months even in the unlikely even that we can't recruit any more before then). We talked about camping for this summer but didn't make any decisions; the youth will need to decide whether to attend a summer camp (having had no opportunity to fundraise) or whether to plan a Troop campout toward the end of Summer where we will work on Trail to First Class stuff. We discussed and agreed to join Scouts for Equality and have our Troop listed on their website. We met at a park. I handed a youth application to a 12 year old girl at the park, with my phone number on it and told her to talk it over with her parents and have them call me if they want to sign up. Haven't heard from anybody yet, but I'm crossing fingers. She was having fun playing with the daughters of the adult leaders so maybe? I'm shameless.

Possibly a District patch if your Council uses them (Yay, a uniform debate about District patches!) Other than that, it looks good. You'll gradually acquire a few more patches if you stay busy.

So that's 13 or 14 states out of 50 where it's illegal? If that's the case, then yeah, it's legal in most states. Not taking a position on the other argument, which is whether it's advisable... If you're in a state where you are doing it legally, then the BSA can't have you arrested for violating BSA policy on the matter; they CAN, however, revoke your membership, if they want to. Maybe that's a risk worth taking in certain situations, maybe it isn't. Not going to articulate an opinion on that one.

I don't want to go into too much detail on "why" since this involves a Scouter other than myself, but we have a parent/volunteer in our unit who is a former Scout but does not know whether he was ever awarded Eagle or not. Please no commentary on "how could he not know" - this is a unique situation and I'm not going to get into that part as it isn't my story to tell. My question is, how likely is it that the council he grew up in kept records good enough to be able to find out that information? I'm going to estimate this Scouter is about 40 years old by now, so we probably are looking at late 80s or early 90s. Who do you call or write to and what do you ask for? It's not all that important; I'm sure leaving the question on his adult application blank isn't going to cause any major problems; but if he's an Eagle Scout he might as well have the knot on his uniform.