qwazse

How many GPS's do you have? I've set up a geocaching game where each team places cache, logs the coordinates on an index card, along with clues. Then brings the cards back to base. They then pick up the card that another team drops off, finds that cache and swaps tokens, the next team back picks up the next card, etc ... So, basically, you have the teams build the game (in your case, scatter the debris) that they are about to play.

I'm also wondering, how much more of a "fuss" is it really? If your SM is having a busy couple of meetings, so if you try to get him to sign of then, it may take a week or two to get him to go over your En.Vi.Sci. essay or review your Cooking recipe. My SM was the Music MB counselor for the district. He was also the church organist. Furthermore, he wasn't about to derail the scout meeting (and the committee meeting afterword) for the sake of your advancement. That meant that to complete the badge, you had to arrange an appointment with him usually after school or on a Saturday when the troop wasn't camping -- just like any other scout in the district. Same would apply for any other scouter from another troop. When you were at a meeting, you were supposed to be at the meeting, not knocking off requirements. Now, that has had to change a little for the sake of youth protection and post modern nomadic culture. (E.g., some of our adults counsel their MBs during meetings. It maintains two-deep while saving them or parents drive time.) We've found that former SMs who've kept up camping well into retirement years are our best counselors for the outdoor badges. The boys really seem to enjoy what the old-timers have picked up over the years. (Remember, the poor SM is spending most of his time camping with Jr. High kids who design their own program. That's not necessarily the best environment for a repertoire of skills beyond the 8th grade level.) On the other hand, if yours is an SM/CC who was an avid outdoorsman before picking up the patch, let him be a counselor. But part of the unwritten deal is that you all maintain a pool of ASMs/MCs who will take up the slack of bringing up a troop of 1st Class Scouts. Bottom line: if you want to make sure each scout receives quality counseling for each MB they try to earn, somethings got to give.

I would agree with @HashTagScouts that the Venturing's organizers were playing the "have your cake and eat it too" tune. Their intent was clearly to cajole former boy scouts to pick up where they left off in rank advancement. (This, if I understand scouting history correctly, was a play inherited from the Explorer book.) One side-effect, as some troops began to micromanage every aspect of a scout's career, was that this policy could be used to entice dual-registered scouts in a troop to forget accountability to their troop-method SM's. This did not happen in my crew (my venturers kind of got the idea that I'd be the more demanding of skill mastery), but SMs made it quite clear to me that they were afraid it would. Venturers of years past had a pretty clear understanding that they could not earn merit badges if they were never in a troop. However, this caused confusion as well. I had one of my crew try to check out a sailboat at a council camporee only to be told she had to have earned Small Boat Sailing MB. She was an expert member of a sailing club! I happened to be walking by and was able to stick up for her and her Boy Scout buddy. Multiply that by 50K and you have a lot of venturers who were slighted for the lack of one little round medallion or another. However, the fact still remains that no rank (let alone 1st Class) was ever a qualification to earn any merit badge. So, without further clarification, this is one more place where somebody somewhere is going to manage to push applications through. Frankly, I wouldn't like it, but if I had a class of venturers who were obsessed with MB's and wanted to earn them all with no concern for rank advancement, I'd find a way to make it work for them. Then when they were adults, I'd lean on them to register as counselors for whichever one became their career/hobby.

The requirements don't say what kind of unit a youth needs to be in or what kind of rank he/she needs to hold to earn a merit badge.

Guilt has nothing to do with it. Any SM of a new troop with natural teenage leaders with proven 1st class skills wants to those youth to get the training they need. If you believe in NYLT, you don't want your natural leaders languishing for a year. The only alternative would be to borrow a well-trained SPL for a few months to help get their troop up to speed. But, that simple boots-on-the-ground solution creates the very co-ed troop that the policy wonks are trying to avoid. The alternative would be to rush your leaders obtaining 1st Class Rank. That may not be a bad thing, but it's no one-size-fits-all solution.

Sorry for the sending this off the rails. SPL serves as sergeant at arms, and may delegate the duty of emcee to a willing and able scout. That scout may be willing by virtue of a desire to earn Communications MB or some other reason. Aside from nudging scouts to report to the SPL to volunteer their services, we don't meddle much in that process. Our scouts also take active roles in Eagle courts of honor, plus there's a campfire every month that needs an emcee (and we do encourage the SPL to delegate those) so we haven't had a shortage of opportunities. Of course, we're at 30-35 boys, so it is easier to be a little casual about such things.

Here's the crux of the misconception: that across the country American boys want/need to always hike and camp independently, without exception, from American girls. It's easy to think that way when you are only raising boys, are raising kids in a community (like mine) where sex segregation seems to be working well for most youth, or where there is an alternative coed program (like Campfire USA) that has really taken root along with BSA and GS/USA in close quarters. But, when you see boys opting out of scouting because their family camp is at the ready and their girlfriends and sisters can spend a weekend there, or when you see postmodern nomadic parents spread so thin that they can't possibly provide parallel opportunities for opposite sex children, or when you see boys who really do receive leadership in the form of sincere friendship from a female venturer ... you begin to think about the thousands of boys who aren't engaging in scouting because the other sibling or best friend happens to be female and has no access to a strong scouting program. I disagree with @Eagledad on the certainty of an "every troop will be co-ed" prognostication. Given what I've seen among venturers, I think we are more likely to have a Czech model where couple of troops in a district will be co-ed, and a couple will be of one sex or the other. They'll get together occasionally to compare notes and have fun, but when they go home, they'll reflect and be very happy with their configuration. This will be because, well, it's a big country, and sex integration will garner the most smiles in one part, and sex segregation will garner the most smiles in another part. But this: I have been hearing more reports of troops with unchecked discipline problems -- to the point that other scouts quit. I've heard it from Girl Scout moms as well. The bottom line: scouters and scouts who hold each other to their codes of conduct will be capable of delivering on the promise of scouting ... to the point that boys in co-ed (rose-by-any-other-name) troops will have that "safe space" everyone is talking about. Meanwhile those in unisex troops that seem to take bad behavior for granted will find themselves intimidated by the arrogance and cruelty of the undisciplined boys.

Not too worried if the American scouts miss out. Most can get range time at home. For those Brits, on the other hand, this might be their only chance to shoot something besides air rifles.

Was there what seemed to be a suffix after the name? In some townships growing up, addresses just had: RFD stands for rural free delivery. The # would be a postal route. If we were driving to our friends' house for the first time, we'd look up in the phone book which roads were on which route, and follow that route until we saw box or signpost with our friends' family name. Sometimes we'd be at their grandma's or their cousins' house, and they'd tell us how much further in which direction to go from there. Yes, the poster workers knew exactly who lived where on all of the routes.

This is national double-speak. No troops who wanted co-ed programs would sign their girls up for Scouts BSA if some hawk maid them completely separate, so this is a compromise. On paper troops can be separate, but most boots on the ground will be able to translate that into configurations that would work for them.

Never let council pros yank your chain. If he/she cannot produce those half dozen girls for you, tell them you have no problems and intend to keep it that way.

Regarding grits, oatmeal, cream-of-wheat .... for it to be a legit backpacking breakfast, add a dollop of peanut butter for the requisite protein infusion.

I'm a pre-1989 scouter, and my kid's troop stretches way back. But it's not just a matter of being stuck in tradition. We tried awarding patches the week after BoR, and the boys weren't impressed. It's not like the patches made it onto their shirts the following week. CoH's aren't just about getting patches. The SM recaps the past quarter for parents. Usually, in my troop growing up, each patrol was expected to provide a volunteer who would report on the highlights of one of the camp-outs. The SPL is master of ceremony just like a regular troop meeting.

@EagleonFire, if you're still active, let us know how your campfire kids are doing!

Moderators, when you get a moment, please move this from I&P to Council Relations.

I guess our troop never built up that backlog. Therefore, our immediate recognition was an "attaboy" at our troop closing. (Most BoR's are completed during troop meetings.) Then, we would disperse patches at the next CoH. We never used advancement pins. I don't think I've seen one in all our area. (Northeast Region Area 4 scouters, correct me if you have or know of a unit who issues pins.) As far as cost, we factor in the average cost of advancement into the youth dues.

So, it took a while for someone to find a quote that we could actually hang a hat on ... Thanks @HashTagScouts. The YPT incident reporting form uses language that is far broader than I have ever read in the g2ss itself. Taken to extremes, "inappropriate behavior by a scout" would indeed imply if the scout so much as blasphemed once, it should be reported. But a more straightforward reading is if a troop has a discipline issue that might motivate them to suspend a scout for a few months , they should file a report ... Something I have never done or insisted upon. The language of the YPT report statement is new to me, so I may have to rethink things. But, for now, how inappropriate does your scouts behavior have to be before you get your council involved?

Speaking of those, a few boys in my Jambo troop told me their sisters are starting a troop for girls. They sounded largely positive about it.

The best idea is the one the youth think of! Definitely give the 3'x3' necker a go!

They should complete the unit fundraiser application. That way it's out of your hands and the responsibility of the pros.

Buy the crest, stitch it to the neckerchief, learn the friendship knot ... then to make a woggle or carve a slide ... have fun until those unifoms come in. In doing so, you will help a stranger make it to Jamboree 170 days from now, bring their leader to my campsite, and give him/her the best cup of coffee this nation has to offer.

Not directly. I was focusing on the BSA's history at the time. Rothschild was the author. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3346224?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

@Treflienne, the application of "Guides" to the British UK girls movement was at the insistence of Baden Powell. Juliet Gordon Lowe would not change "Girl Scouts" to suit.

All I'm looking for is documentation to that effect. The G2SS tells me the unit may revoke membership. That's all. Honestly, if the G2SS said notify anybody, I would have followed up with our key three to make sure it was done.

I am not trying to be obstinate. When I counseled our troop regarding our wayward youth, as did others before me, we worked through G2SS: We read that to mean that the unit may revoke a youth's membership. I can't find any wording to indicate that the district or council needs to be involved in that revocation ... let alone suspension -- which I think is slightly different. (Thus why I thought it was lame to drop the kid from the charter.) I'm not saying it's a bad idea to give your unit commissioner a call when these things happen. I'm just saying I can't find a written policy requiring it. If you have something in writing that I'm not seeing. Do share.