Oldscout448

A hawk is a bird and it's feeding at the bird feeder. Seems appropriate.

Purrfect! Where can I get one?

which sadly, is what a lot of really great scouters have actually done. It is also worth repeating that among the older scouts a lot of the best backpackers, canoeists, shooters, etc. end up quitting as well. Because they view a lot of the GSS rules as overly restrictive at best, completely idiotic at worst.

Just trying to figure out how to split kindling with loppers...

Send 'em over! Anything but radial arm saws.

Having spent over four decades in woodshops I've seen worse. But pictures like this still make me cringe, just imagining what's underneath.

Assumption on your part Sir

Apologies if this comes across as snarky, but I would expect engineers to report on Engineering, accountants on financial situations, what are the aforementioned racially and sexually defined affinity groups supposed to report on?

Sounds like an organization that my mother, sisters, wife and daughter belonged to once upon a time. Squirrel Gouts? Something like that anyway.

Maybe it did build inclusion and acceptance at the chiefs council. I wasn't there so I can't say yea or nay. But if it did it would be utterly unique in my experience. Every time I've witnessed people separated into exclusionary groups, at work, at church, at scouts, it always seems to create a rift or deepen a pre-existing one. "Welcome to attend"? Well they were scouts so it's possible I guess. Certainly wouldn't fit the pattern of the last few years.

I think you're on the mark here. The boys, save one, are not willing to step up. They're just starting to figure out how this boy/ girl relationship thing works. They don't want to be embarrassed in front of their peers. A fate worse than death when you're 12. So they play it safe. Act cool. Don't put yourself in a situation that might become awkward. Head down and mouth shut is the order of the day. When the ladies aren't around; totally different story.

Ouch!

I guess we must live in different worlds. I've been watching the girls take charge of our mixed troop for the last year and a half.. Or maybe the boys have just abdicated. Yes, I know that mixed troops are still verboten. So on paper we have two troops. In reality...

Take an elf forged blade and a large can of bug spray

On behalf of all have given of their time and treasure in decades past, thank you for keeping the vision alive in these very difficult times.

I just received a somewhat desperate request for help from a neighboring chapter in my lodge. Chapters actually. It seems that three of them have teamed up to hold a joint Ordeal but can only find enough ceremonialists for 6 of the 12 speaking parts. Now assuming no one is performing multiple roles, that is only two per chapter! And here I thought we were horribly low at 5. Half our preCovid numbers. I am wondering if this decline is widespread or just a local thing? How are the numbers in your neck of the woods?

To sort of quote Rodney King " Can't we all just go camping?"

One of my pet peeves belonging to such a huge lodge is that 95% of all service is done at a chapter or area level and there is never any recognition for the scouts who pour hundreds of hours per year into the Order while juggling work, college, and the occasional girlfriend. So a Founders Award which is specifically for lodge service and leadership isn't going to happen. There is the Servant Leader award of course which can be awarded for service anywhere. But it is always voted upon by a committee at the lodge level and given our size it's unlikely that anyone on said committee has ever met anyone in our chapter except the chapter chief. It's not impossible I suppose but I can't remember anyone in the last 20 years ever getting one. I'm not claiming that the lodge is somehow prejudiced it's only natural that you would vote for the people you have personally seen working their tails off.

You can wear both if you wish. There is no change in the ribbon at the Brotherhood level, however there is a tiny red triangle device that can be worn by those of the vigil honor. Few seem to bother. Occasionally you may see a ribbon that is red with a gold arrow rather than the usual red and white with a silver arrow. This is indicative that the wearer has been honored with the Founders Award.

I stand corrected. Every 3 to 7 years there is a revamping of districts and boundaries. Guess I need to keep closer track. And I agree that it's a huge ungainly beast sometimes.

#1 is correct! Washington DC, central Maryland, and northern Virginia.

There was once a cubscout who was the only one to bridge into our troop that year. Alex was small for his age and not exactly the athletic type, and he had obviously not spent any time in the woods. Paul his patrol leader kept an eye on him at every campout. When we got to our summer camp the first thing we did was to get tested for our swimming ability. The first step was to jump off the dock into the murky lake and swim out to the floating platform. The older scouts, yelling encouragement and challenges to each other, jumped in and swam off. Alex just stayed on the dock looking down at the water. " Not great at swimming?" asked Paul who was the only other still on the dock. "No" said Alex still looking down. "Well, why don't you take the swimming merit badge class? Even if you don't pass the final test you could still learn a lot." Alex just shook his head and started to walk away. "Wait a minute Alex, I need to take the class and I'd like to have some company. How about we take it together?" So every morning that week Paul and Alex spent an hour in the class, and every afternoon they spent at least that long practicing together. To everyone's surprise Alex passed the test and earned his first merit badge. Honestly I think Alex was more surprised than anyone else. It seemed to make quite the difference in his demeanor. He had faced his fears and beaten them. At the Court of Honor when they were both presented with their badges, the SPL noticed that Paul already had a swimming MB on his sash. Afterwards he and the ASPL cornered Paul in the parking lot. " Paul, I'm hoping you didn't lie here, but didn't you tell Alex that you needed to earn the swimming badge?" "Nope, Paul replied with a grin, " I said I needed to take the class. And I did." With that he walked off. "So did he actually earn the swimming badge since he already had one? " asked the ASPL. " I'm not sure about the merit badge" replied the SPL " but he absolutely earned his Patrol Leader patch!

Our lodge has 26 chapters at last count. For the lodge chief to work directly with that many chapter chiefs proved to be difficult indeed. So we grouped three or four chapters that touched each other geographically into areas. Each with its own Chief and Advisor. Precovid I believe we had 6, now we have consolidated to 4 due to membership drop. Hope this helps.

I have only one experience with starting up a troop. It had a supportive CO, enthusiastic scouters, enough equipment, and parents who thought their boys would benefit from Scouting. What it didn't have was many boys who were enthusiastic about Scouting. Their parents, mostly church going single moms, made them join up. Also the boys had lived all their lives in the city. Camping in the woods wasn't an adventure to them, it was scary and strange. There was also a pretty serious 'hood dynamic " He can't be in our patrol 'cause he lives on the other side of 4th Street! ". To sum up the scouts have to want to be there. Otherwise you're just trying to nail jello to the wall

Ok, scout skills. Or to call them by other names Woodcraft/ Survivor skills. There are many many on line vids on these subjects rigging a tarp, fire in the rain, emergency shelter building, lashing a table and chair, making an survival bow and arrow, or a fishing pole, and on and on.Corporal's corner and Survival Lilly are good starting places. Grab an old scout field book. The brown or dark green ones. DONT force feed the scouts! It has to be something they want to learn. Make it a fun and challenging game. We once set up two compass courses of equal distance with a gallon of cider and a bag of snacks at the end. Gave to two PLs their respective list of bearings and distances at 2:45pm and told them to start at 3:00pm sharp. The next campout it was a fire building contest. The winning patrol got a cobbler for dessert, and a large carved match to hang on their patrol flag. Next time it might be a tiny frying pan for planning and cooking the best dinner. This type of incentive works wonders with the younger scouts. As they age however surgery desserts and bling because less important and it becomes more a matter of pride in their abilities. A confidence that they are prepared for " any old thing" as B.P. once said. It's an adage in backpacking that knowledge weighs nothing. So the more knowledge and abilities you have the less you have to carry.