MattR

I've never seen an acorn knot. What does it look like? I suppose it's only one loop of an oak tree knot, but I'm not sure.

Most scouts I talk with don't get much out of the MB program as it currently exists. Anything that actually helps them learn a skill is appreciated by the scouts. Anything covered in school is considered a waste of time. Cit badges are all a bust. Shooting, climbing and watercraft badges are great. Camping is surprisingly neutral. They like pioneering if they get the chance to make something fun. First aid is appreciated, but they don't believe they'll ever need it. So, most of the eagle required badges are just hoops they need to jump through. But this is about a specific mb. I think it could be made interesting, but not with the mindset that's driving the entire program. This might be part of why scouting is losing the interest of youth. The one thing that is pushed is Eagle, and it's largely based on merit badges, which most scouts don't even care for. Time for the new-vision people.

Sorry to hear that, @packsaddle.

I said it was a start. I've had patrols complete this and it does a great job of encouraging them to do their own thing. But, given that this is really just wishful thinking, I'm good with lots of ideas.

Another set of metrics is the national honor patrol award. Bronze could be all patrols score against it. Gold could be all patrols achieve it. Silver is somewhere in between. Or maybe each patrol needs their own JTE. I think we talked about this many moons ago. Anyway, not perfect but not a bad place to start and someone has been thinking about this.

Oh sorry, I removed it before I pasted it into the editor. You have to think like a cheap editor. Honestly, having it reported and me fixing it is also fine.

I just removed the https://

@InquisitiveScouter, I replaced your video with a link, to keep in line with the rules. If you'd like to put in more description of important points that you saw in the 2 hr video I can help you put them in. As for the other reported post I saw, I think you're all doing better but let's remember, this isn't in the politics sub forum. As for letting the scouts do their thing, I must admit that my absolute best memories as a scout and as an adult is from scouts doing the right thing on their own without any adults around, other than the adults reminding the scouts they owned the situation, so don't screw up. The trust had to be there, on both sides. The 30 & 2 scenario, given the right scouts, the right training and trust, I could certainly see. But if you were to select 30 random scouts from my troop as SM, likely not. But I gave 8 scouts and no adults permission to do some things on their own. I just don't know how you write a simple rule that explains this. I think it came from several years of watching scouts and just knowing who I could trust and who I couldn't, along with the fact that irrespective of the number of adults I was ultimately responsible for up to 70 scouts. There were plenty of adults that didn't want that responsibility, either.

I can split the thread but it will require locking it since there are multiple pages of 2vs30. Do we still want to talk about Advancement chair? I'm not even sure what one does, as we've never had one.

Welcome to the forum, @sunshinescout. I was a scoutmaster and there were times when I made scout's lives a bit uncomfortable, but I did talk to them about it and it nearly always worked out. Since you work well with your scoutmaster I'd suggest you talk to him about your concerns. I suspect he's seen this before and can help you out. If he says things are going well, they probably are. Good luck!

Welcome to the forum, @UKScouterInCA.

I have another idea for a MB. Rather than try and solve our differences, let's embrace them. Forget the name for now. All of the requirements will be participating in a debate about the various problems in our communities, improving schools, drug additions, police, jobs, homelessness, all the big issues. It will require multiple scouts to do this at a time. As a group they will decide what the debate subjects are. They will need to understand both sides of each subject as they won't know which side they will have to debate until they do the debate. At the end of the debate, if they were prepared, they get the MB signed off. So, absolutely no describe, discuss and explain. It would include a competition. Scouts would be forced to understand both sides. How about Debate and Ethics? I think we just need to figure out how to get an I in there.

I'd rather see real plc meetings, including the screwing around and the sm giving the spl a hand signal to his watch. Can't they just bleep out names or ask them to use stage names? I also like the idea of staging meetings that go wrong. I did a training session like that where each scout was given a role to play, over eager, helpful, complainer, etc. The scouts really enjoyed it. They also asked to be the negative scout, if there was one. That's an easy one to have fun with.

Welcome to the forum, @Scouted2000, and good question. It could help knowing what we're arguing about.

I just spent too much time watching that. I've stated before and I'll repeat it now. Summarize the videos. Did you even watch all of this? This is not about BLM in the least, or even Seattle's CHOP zone. It's about mental health. But I did like the interview of the scout that got hooked on oxycontin and nearly died, so I guess that's why it's related to scouting? Or maybe it's that the US is a third world country, with how it treats the poor/those with mental health problems.

Welcome to the forum, @deafeaglescout. That's really fascinating history. Thank you for sharing. It would be great for you to give back to scouting in whatever way you can. That applies to all of us on this forum so this is a great place for you to be.

I noticed that @RememberSchiff keeps adding something along the lines of "just my $.02” at the end of his posts. I'm starting to wonder if he's expecting payment. Think about it. He has some 5800 posts. At 2 cents per post that's over $100. But maybe he's expecting the 2 cents from each person that reads a post? That is a whole lot of wisdom. Especially if he can collect. But, is it legal? What say yee? Let's have some fun with this. It's been a rough year and we should start the new year happy. The legalese 😁: keep it friendly, images are permitted, any punishment vetted on anyone will be carried out in jest just as soon as we all meet at a real campfire.

I think it's nice that they can all be seen.

Yep. Kind of like breaking up the phone company. If it helps the youth then I'm for it. Besides, the term scout is bigger than either of the 2 organizations. And I'm not talking about Israeli Scouts or Polish Scouts, both of which reside in the US and nobody seems too bothered by. Let Trail Life call themselves a scouting organization, because they are. Same for BPSA. Who doesn't think the S stands for Scout? There has to be a legal principal that if it walks like a scout, talks like a scout and eats like a scout, then it's a scout.

Speaking of monopoly, or rather charters, isn't it time to remove all the charters and end all of these issues about the rights to a word, scouts, that predates both the bsa and gsusa? It seems to me that everyone else in the world treats the term scouts as generic and hence no copyrights. Anyway, how many problems have occured because the bsa and gsusa thought they had a monopoly and didn't need to listen to their customers? Maybe adding some competition might just help the people the charter should be helping, the youth.

Done. Merry Christmas.

Since this topic is is about new ways to fund units, I'd say make a change to this rule about tips for service. The only difference between tips and a fixed price for service is when the price is negotiated. My troop picks up Christmas trees and recycles them. They ask for a donation. Some give $5 and some give $20. I see no issue with this. Further, it encourages the idea of council supporting units rather than the other way.

Welcome to the forum, @CharlieZ. It looks like the image has been fixed.

I can see how you're not happy with it. Yesterday there was a lot of really good discussion on this thread about how this MB wasn't going to work. I wake up this morning and there is suddenly a lot more posts that are starting to get heated. I'd rather see the good discussion. If there are points that the video makes that you want to bring up, go for it. This country is tearing itself apart because most people can't talk about anything without jumping into personal insults. As for this MB, I don't like it because A) it's just school work and B) there are people here that are very much against it, so it won't work anyway. At the same time, a good friend of mine is black and there's some truth to a lot of what the black community is talking about. I don't think this MB will help but at the same time just saying follow the scout oath and law won't suffice either. I'm not sure what the answer is. But when a video comes along with the title along the lines of "what the left won't accept" I know it's not going to help move things forward. Again, take the time to write up the points in your words, understanding that both sides are reading it, and I'd really interested in reading it.

No, censorship would be deleting the posts, locking the thread, and banning those that participated. Go ahead and discuss as much as you want. The reason we put in that rule was that it was too easy for people to create a bunch of content that reflected their anger about something without thinking about all of the content they've posted. That's where threads tend to go bad. What we want is for people to spend the time to pick their words carefully. That's not censorship. That's asking for civil discourse among people that disagree with each other.