perdidochas

I resemble that remark.

Should be registered and titled under the name of the CO.

Sure, but in general, it shouldn't count as camping for Camping Merit Badge or for T-2-1 requirements. Special needs scouts are a different issue.

My oldest enjoyed his post-Eagle time more than his pre-Eagle time. Admittedly, he was the first Eagle in the memory of the Troop that stayed actively involved for more than a few months after getting his Eagle.

The moms in my troop do things like order t-shirts and help with fundraising. Their choice has been to leave the outdoorsy stuff up to the male leadership. So, I disagree totally with the idea that men don't get stuff done.

I agree of clarifiying and improving training. I learned very little in the Boy Scout level training. That said, there were people in the training classes with me that learned a lot, and they needed a lot more. Boring troop meetings are sometimes a consequence of SPLs learning their jobs. There is no recipe that will work for all troops, as each troop has it's own set of peculiar personalities.

Video games and year round sports.

Closed toed shoes is the basic rule for all scouting activities in my Council, even meetings. That said, my boys' troop was a full uniform troop (including socks), and the sandal/BSA green sock look isn't a good one.

Our troop's problem with personal tents has been vandalism and other scouts not being respectful of their troopmate's property. That said, my sons had personal tents and had zero problems. Our troop had a rule that any scout could bring a personal tent. If they were Star Scout and above, they didn't need a tentmate. Below Star they needed a tentmate. This was the existing culture when I started as a leader. Personally, I would have made that a First Class Scout privilege, but wasn't my choice to make.

No reason to not Eagle at 15. Both of my sons did. My oldest had a great time as senior scout after he got his Eagle.

Pretty much any 200M watch is sufficient for Scuba diving. I wouldn't get less than 200m, because of basic ruggedness. Casio makes affordable ones.

GSUSA does take transgendered "girls," which are boys who think they are girls.

It's pretty common in the Educational Technology world. In addition, some expect you to put your highest IT certification as well.

Theoretically, you could finish up in 3 1/2 months or less. Get on those MBs ASAP.

What MBs do you have left? Get to work on them. The light is at the end of the tunnel. If you don't have Personal Fitness or Personal Management, get to work on them immediately.

I think it can definitely prove leadership, but it would have to be pretty well planned to do so. To me the above project is pretty involved and would take leadership, especially due to the requirements for cleanliness, etc.

I'd say the primary type we used when I was with my sons' troop was state parks. I know we stayed at state parks in FL (home state), AL, MS and LA. We also have stayed in a tribal park (campground run by a local Native American tribe), national park (Gulf Islands National seashore), scout camps (several different councils), Naval bases (most military bases have group camping for scouts) and national forest campgrounds. Wish we had private property as an option.

Well, my definition of mess kit is pretty broad. They vary from the old aluminum mess kit, to the plastic mess kit with bowl/plate/cup utensils in a mesh bag, to frisbees and utensils, to plastic origami looking bowls/cups to collapsible silicone bowls/utensils with a cup (my choice), to whatever they want. Reusable water bottles ranges from Nalgenes (which were your words, not mine :-) ), to whatever drink bottle they drank on the way to the campout, to empty gatorade bottles, or smartwater bottles. Nalgenes are the top choice, but that's just because they look cooler than smartwater bottles. My oldest has had his Nalgene for about 6 years now. His goal is to break it, because the scout urban legend is that if you break a Nalgene, they replace it, and they give you a t-shirt.

Between the leaders and the older scouts, we did the same, my oldest being the most varied camper in the troop. I've seen him in cabin tents, in what I call a coffin style backpacking tent, a Japanese pop-up, a tarp on the ground, just the ground, on top of a picnic table, and hammock with or without tarp. Most of the OA boys are that way. Most of our leaders use two-four man tents (some conventional, some backpacking) or sleep on the ground if the weather is dry. I very rarely tent camp, I usually hammock/tarp, and I don't cowboy camp or tarp camp.

I would count hammocks without a tarp as counting as "camping beneath the stars." That said, hammocks with tarps should definitely be considered as at least equal to sleeping in a tent. The process to set up a tarp/hammock is a bit more complex than setting up most tents.

Exactly. There are ES projects that can be done at almost any community organization. To answer the topic of the thread, I've noticed that ES projects are varied in how they come about. I gave an idea to my oldest son--outdoor Stations of the Cross at our Parish. The Parish loved it. My youngest son was asked to build a fire pit on our Parish church grounds for use by the youth group and the Easter vigil fire. The Parish also loved it. Another Scout talked to the Priest, and lucked out in that the Church was having a bat problem, found while they were fixing the roof. He built bat houses to house the bats after they got booted from the Church. Another scout built cat shelters for a feral cat rescue. Another of our scouts determined that his neighborhood had a flooding problem, due to hurricane debris in some drainage ponds. His project was to clean out the drainage ponds.

Well, IMHO, at least in terms of the kitchen, your troop did it better. IMHO, Scout campers should be using mess kits and refillable water bottles, and the scouts should be cooking for themselves.

Training.

Well, as I said, it depends on the individual. It worked to hold my son back, but a friend of his did just fine by staying with his age cohort.

Unless weather doesn't permit, I think having only 6 camping trips a year is a disservice. My boys' old troop did 11 a year. They just skpped December, and that was primarily due to lack of attendance and the holidays.