Gone

Meet our unit's security system provider...

They are the same thing. Myscouting.org was the old interface. my.scouting.org is the new interface. Same tools. Same data. Same functionalities with a few more added. Why BSA would change the interface AND change the whole location of the of service (going from myscouting to my.scouting) is pretty silly. It causes the exact branding nightmare that @@NJCubScouter is pointing out. Imagine what they will do with ScoutBook.

In the cloud, it's pennies. It's all ball bearings nowadays. C'mon guys. It's not like we're talking Fetzer valves and Quaker State.

So fat Scouts cannot be Eagle? How do we define "personal fitness"? If a kid can't make it up a mountain but another can, we pass the more personally fit scout? Used to be back in the day you could not make Eagle without the Swimming MB, which meant you had to know how to swim. I think we are coming at the same answer from two different directions. Goal of BSA, as they state in their mission statement, is "to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Law". Physically strong? Sure, but does not mean you have to Hulk Hogan. Help other people at all times? To me that means you know how to render first aid, among other skills. Our parents agree with this approach. They'd rather have their kids actually LEARN and KNOW the core skills of scouting AND live by the Oath and Law. By doing this our scouts have deep character, outstanding citizenship and are physically fit. Same result...but our guys won't die in the Grand Canyon on a day hike.

It is a widely accepted practice in IT NEVER to use production (real) data when you test anything. For the Game Design MB we go over how to stage data, back it up and use it properly. Why a company as large as BSA would not know to do that is beyond me.

We had ours done that way too. BRIGHT blaze hunting orange with our unit numbers. Can't hide that thing if you wanted to.

That's a fair assessment. Look at the roll out of my.scoutiing.org. All it is is an interface update to existing data on the back end. That's it. Somehow in developing, testing and deploying that they lost thousands of records. How? BSA will not say. My contact tells me they tested with production data (a big no no in IT) and someone deleted the records when done. Mine was one of them. I now have NONE of my 12 years of training in my my.scouting or myscouting accounts anymore. *POOF* Bye bye. My.scouting.org is so clunky and so 2002-2006 technology. I fear you assessment above is more than spot on.

The purpose is clear: That our unit's scouts retain the core scouting skills that are part of the core of scouting. Take hiking. I would not want one of my scouts to make the mistake this Eagle Scout made which cost him is life. Proper planning and the Ten Essentials and this kid would be alive today. Why is it we expect kids to remember English grammar, mathematics, science, etc. they learned in third grade, but we don't expect them to remember cooking, orienteering, first aid, swimming/water safety, etc., they learned at 11 or 13 or 15? People die daily from failing to do simple things; things we train scouts to know, learn, teach and retain. I don't think it is a stretch to expect scouts to retain these core skills. Forgot basketry? Radio MB? Stamp collecting? Fine. Forgot first aid? Eprep? Swimming? Lifesaving? Then we are passing kids that may end up being a danger to themselves and others.

I've been on slow boat to China. If you avoid Beaumont you are in good shape though.

Mulch (x2), pancake breakfast (x1) for the CO, Xmas greens (x1). Maybe a car wash if more funds are needed. We have a one-time equipment fee of $75. The fund raisers go for summer camp, high adventure and any other special funds needed to make up the budget for the next year (we plan a year in advance, high adventure 24-36 months in advance).

They are moving the data under myscouting.org to my.scouting.org. Problem is they've lost a few thousand records in the process. And they want your unit data? Not me.

Sure it would. BSA doesn't want to count family events that are obviously not meeting the requirements. Visiting the Grand Canyon and dad says let's go hiking does not count. Son and dad hiking the AT would count. For me the litmus test is whether it was planned and executed according to the requirements. It's preferred it be done on scout events, but not required.

@@pargolf44067 we have scholarships for scouts BUT they have to participate in service projects AND fund raising to get support. There's no free lunch.

Jambo is $2800. The local council "package" was that high for world jambo. Can't roll your own trip.

Scout accounts are not illegal if there's no private benefit. Balances can be necessary if you are successful in fund raising. If your unit has a budget which covers operations for the year plus the "rainy day fund", I don't see the issue with having a balance.

M91A2 or M4A1. But you need your spotter for the first one.

We have two in our unit. They love young kids. Have a few starter questions and then the ball should get rolling. He could show them some of the things they do "the SEAL way" like push ups, etc. Most of these guys are dads too, so they know how to work with young kids. Favorite piece of gear? LOL....I know the answers my guys would give.

Not the new ones. We've found very little changes. We continue to use the old ones.

Not for $17,000. Better way to use my money.

Bravo, well said!!!

@@NJCubScouter we will get notified in December that they're official starting January 1, 2016. You know how BSA likes to give us as much advanced notice as possible.

Even if you had succeeded you'd end up with a host of kids being dropped off by a bunch of smiling and nodding parents. For units to survive they need scouts AND parents. Side note: I've lived all over the world and learned several languages...always enough to be very active in my adopted community. Sometimes only 1-2 years in country, sometimes more. If you can't speak enough of the language to understand scouting then the program is best without them. Scouting is hard enough without the leaders have to add interpreter to their repertoire.

Exactly. I suspect BSA wants to avoid giving credit for the 10 mile hike dad says the family has to go on when they hit Big Bend NP and then have that count towards an MB.

I mis-spoke. We are most certainly going for our money back. As Mike Meyer's Scottish character might have said, "Well, if it's not Scottish it's crap!" Well, this certainly was not Scottish.

Does not work in our area. Cousin lives in Dallas and he reports it not being worth their time either. It was hard to staff...it was as if the guys did not want to be seen in their uniforms in school. They have no problem doing it out of school, but seems the stigma of being a "scout nerd" was too much to get them to staff it. The guys that did go were trying to act more cool than trying to recruit. These are our same guys who can recruit the heck out of any situation. In school it was as if passing through those doors was like that episode in Star Trek where Kirk found himself in the parallel universe with Evil Spock -- they became two different set of people.