perdidochas

Wow. Now, I do understand banning axes outside of the ax yard, but other than that, I think those leaders need to go to IOLS to learn the safe way to teach the Scouts those things. As a parent, if that were the case, I would have yanked my boys out of that Troop in an instant, and would have found a real Scout Troop.

I agree with you totally. They shouldn't be hooking up/lighting stoves and lanterns, until they can do it safely, and they should learn that on their first campout. My sons' troop pretty much did that.

To me, it's parallel troops which is the primary unit of organization. The rest is just fluff.

Well, if you can swim, swimming is much easier. If you can't, it's almost impossible (well, very hard). That said, I just think we need to get rid of half of the paper pushing MBs. Anything else is good.

I do agree that a rite of passage would be a good idea for Eagles. Maybe plan a 50 mile trek (or unpowered movement voyage), that involves at least two nights under a tent. I would also change Camping MB to require 50 nights of camping, but allow adirondack (three sided shelter), and non-Scout related camping as part of those nights. I agree with the one Citizenship MB. I would also combine Personal Management and Family Life into "Personal and Family Management." I would also keep Enviro Science (and kill Sustainability, which is an expansion of the worst parts of enviro science), but add more outdoor activity to it. I agree with Wilderness Survival addition. Maybe with the Swimming or Hiking or Cycling, make it a "pick 2." I would also put Nature MB back as an Eagle required badge. (with maybe an option for Wildlife Management). I don't mind having two parallel Scout organizations for 11-17 year olds, but coed Troops probably isn't a good idea. Almost no boy will be SPL in a coed Troop. Teenaged girls are much more political and organized, and they will take over Troop leadership, just like, for the most part, they've taken over student government associations in schools.

I don't think the youth of today have that much higher expectations than we had (in my case 40 years ago when I was a scout). I do think the current crop of Scout leaders has been trained to be less adventurous. We have the GTSS, which is pretty stringent at times. That said, based on talking to one of my sister-in-laws who is a GSA leader, BSA has almost no risk aversion. They are more cautious than we are.

I pretty much agree. We need a better balance between risk and adventure. Some of the BSA rules are just patheticly overcautious, and while I understand where they are coming from, they make us look too risk averse almost to the point of cowardice. For example, when I was a Tiger Cub Den Leader, we had a family camp at a local military recreation area. One of the Tiger Dads brought his canoe. As the Tiger DL, I was the one who had to tell him the Tigers couldn't go out on it. The water was flat, and was shallow for quite a ways. The breeze was onshore. There was no logical reason that any Cub with a parent (or adult who had canoed before) couldn't go out on a quick 5 minute trip with their Cub that day. The boy ended up dropping out before crossover to Wolf. SImilarly, our rules about paintball are almost irrational. Not to mention most of the things that Qwayze mentioned (except skinny dipping)

As others have said, it depends on the adults. If it was 8 Perdidochas's it would be fine. I would let the boys do what they have to do, and let the SPL do his thing. My job is driving and safety. The SPL needs to do most of the work.

One leader, the hurt scout and an additional scout go for help. In the case of three leaders, I'd send two leaders and the injured scout back (possibly another scout as well). More than likely, we'd all go back, though.

Packs should have two different types of adult meetings--committee meetings for the committee, and leadership meetings for the den leaders. Committee meetings are monthly, leadership meetings--at least two in the summer, preparing for the fall, and maybe 1 a quarter after that.

Almost everything in YPT doesn't really accomplish anything useful. Its just a CYA for the folks doing things correctly. That and situation #4 can be remedied by the phone company.

Since the average age of Eagle is 17, I don't think there are many 12 or 13 year old Eagles.

Well, to be slightly sexist, I think women Den Leaders will have more problem with Scout led than do male Den Leaders.

IMHO, it's a CO decision.

A teacher is not the CO. If you were talking the COR, principal or pastor, I would agree. I wouldn't agree that the teacher has any authority over the BSA unit. Makes no sense, and it sounds dangerous to me, in terms of YPT.

Then why do you say the teacher from the CO's school has authority to tell the Scouts in a troop what to do, outside of school? It's a similar thing. A teacher at the CO's school has no authority over the BSA units. Yes, the Pastor and the COR have that ability, but not simply a school teacher.

They need to go through training. CMs, DLs, etc. shouldn't be on the Committee. It's a check and balance thing. And, yes, parents are eligible to come to any meeting.

I totally disagree, unless it's during school time. If I'm working with my Scout troop at 7 at night, I'm not doing what the teacher says blindly. If it makes sense (and it's in his classroom), I will do it. Otherwise not necessarily. Again, if it's something like clean up the room, sure we'll do it. If its something like, don't sharpen the knife that way, do it this way, and his way is wrong, of course not. Similarly, if I were a volunteer coach, and I had a busy-body teacher come up and try to instruct my players during practice I would do the same thing. I don't know if the teacher has the relevant knowledge and training in order to safely instruct my scouts (or lacrosse players). I'm not going to risk that.

IMHO, it depends on the situation. If a teacher from the COs school with no formal relationship to the Troop told my Scouts they needed to wash the dishes and do it this way. I would respectfully ask them to leave the Scout's alone. If the teacher told them to make sure that the classroom is left as clean as when the Scouts came in, I would tell the SPL to make sure that happened. I don't feel every member of the school staff to be the CO. SImilarly, if it were a CCD class, and a teacher from the school (not associated with CCD), told the kids to do something, I would step in. IMHO, that would be an easy way for YPT violations to occur. That said, I am a parishioner in the CO that owns the Scout Unit.

Unless the teacher has a position in Scouting, IMHO, he has no say in what happens at a Scout meeting, even if he is part of the CO.

I pretty much agree this should be a troop issue, not a national issue.

I'd be ok with the $200 card being cut. However, that would raise unit dues quite a bit. The relevance of a physical action like cutting corners is that people are physical beings. Why even give out a card if physical things are not important? I could agree with a practice of marking the card, but the point of cutting the corner is so that all adults involved know that something happened. When I was an ASM, I might not know everythign that happened at the last campout. If I were to find a boy misusing a knife, I could instantly know if he had done a knife infraction before. I still don't see what the big deal is. I think we have adults being snowflakes on the issue. This is not hazing. It may not be a practice you don't agree with, but it comes nowhere close to the definition of hazing. The legal definition of hazing in my home state, Florida (as found in stophazing.org): https://www.stophazing.org/florida/ I can see how you could outlaw cutting corners as a practice based on other issues. but hazing it is not.

Cutting a corner is a warning. I've never cut a corner (boys were careful with knives in my presence), but if I did. I would cut it as part of a conversation on what particular knife safety rule they had broken. It's just a visual way for the Scouts to remember, and a way for a leader to instantly find out if the Scout had been unsafe with a knive/axe/saw before. Why are you so against the idea of cutting a $.19 card as a warning?

I have one that is meant for cleaning out the tubes for a hydration pack. It's a long-handled testtube brush.

Why would you have the election cycle at 4 months? Life and Eagle require 6 months in a position. If it was a Scout decision, it's fine, but if it's an adult decision, it's just wrong. Do you mean that this election was held only 3 months after the prior position holders came into office?