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Daughter always had a deck of waterproof cards in her pack. I have a range of mocha pots (and demitasse cups), and choose the one most suited for the number of espresso drinkers and type of trip. Our crew was known for its night time winter hikes. My patrol growing up became all about the chocolate fondue. These are things that kids stumble upon the more they camp together. It will be neat to hear what yours come up with!

It's a big country. As a result, shooting sports training for scouts is strictly optional, albeit very popular. It's a good policy. We aren't obliged to teach our kids firearms use, but if you're in a community who feels that their kids should learn firearm safety and skills, BSA offers a good pathway for it. As for teaching our kids. I did not keep firearms in the house. I did emphasize that before you buy a gun, buy the safe to keep it in. (Which might be a little hypocritical since growing up I kept my .22 in my closet and my ammo in my sock drawer.)

I think this is the cart before the horse, a bit. First, you get a bunch of scouters to come to RT (or whatever venue you can get scouters to go to) and give them enough time to go over the topics of interest to them. In the process, you have them share how they do things, and over multiple meetings get them in the process of speaking frankly about their programs and giving feedback. Ideally, each troop takes turns with their senior youth leading openings and those scouts will be welcome to chime in about what they like or don't like about how their troop approaches the topic of the evening. Now, ideally that bunch will be the bulk of unit leaders, but that's where the hard work is. RT has to earn a reputation for being the place where good scouters go to get an honest appraisal of their actions. And that has to be sold to the scouters not in the room. It has to be so good that prospective parents ask: "How many of your leaders go to roundtable?"

🗣️: Oh, the ignorance of our scouters! 👥: Oh, the tone-deaf branding of our marketers!

The best feedback? Roundtable, camporees, and jamborees. Be honest to other scouters about how you operate and compare notes. Look for the scouts with the biggest smiles on their faces and say, "Take me to your leader."

This week Son #2 and I payed respects to a family whose 20-something didn't come to after a bout of flu. So, @The Latin Scot, it is with no small gratitude to the Almighty to hear of a young man who is battered, but recovering. Regarding the hand-off. It's not the notes and binders that matter. But a teachable spirit on the part of the new DL and being a phone call away on your part. (Of course, letting him/her in on the treasure that is these forums helps too.)

@rehayes welcome to the forums! Generally, extensions are filed when it is clear that the scout is likely to make Eagle. In the past, that has meant a Life scout with maybe a project or merit badge left, but something like boot camp or service in O/A or camp staff get in the way. So, a 17.0 year-old star scout would probably not be welcome to file before the end of the year, but 17.6 year old life scout would. Basically, I would encourage a scout to at least achieve 1st Class (which with determination would take a month or two) then submit an extension. It will be interesting to see how many boys' vs. girls' extensions are turned in.

First, we all have to accept that it is patently immoral to expect 16-17 year olds to want to always hike and camp (and plan and execute service projects, hold meetings, etc ...) with the rest of us. For their personal development, they need to sometimes do these things independently with their mates. To become excellent citizens by the time they enter a ballot booth, they need to explore this great country on their own without the sense that "minders" are herding them towards one persuasion or another. BSA will no longer allow us to use their brand on such independent youth activities. Therefore, to succeed in the world in these days our best youth must necessarily scout the land outside of the life of the troop. They need time to do that. So, be prepared to give them the guidance that you can to help them plan and execute properly. In doing so, note that all of the liability may be on you, not the organization. So, there is real risk for tremendous award. That said, you are an ASM who supposedly likes to do other things besides plop camping. Simply announce to your SPL, "Mr./Mrs. <insert registered adult leader's name here> and I will be doing <insert super activity here> on <insert dates here>. Any 1st class scouts who wish to join us may do so, so long as they camp with the troop 3 of 6 days where we will be conditioning for the activity." Alternatively, if you have older boys who've wanted to do something noble, tell them to form a crew, name the registered adults who they would like to do it with, and you will help them make it so.

@Devotedautismadhdmom, nothing worth doing is easy. Hang in there. You can assert that you didn't have a committee meeting as soon as the committee was dismissed. If you and the COR won't sign his application he's not CM (or DL or any other adult leader in your unit). Period. The only way that changes, is if the CO wants a different COR and CC. Obviously that will be the case if you leave. It is human nature to make up facts. So, when this CM says people are leaving, pull out your roster and ask, "Name them, please."

Fertility halves, but population doubles. Immigration brings new youth. Number of children keeps on climbing. No matter how you slice it, BSA lost market share.

I agree with @gblotter. Telling boys about surveys in which they likely did not participate is useless ... especially when the surveys did not address the name of the organization that hopefully they will one day lead. I've experienced this first first hand with scouts and unit numbers as troops merged. Quick summary: the older scouts felt left behind when a vote went against using the number of the older troop. There was resentment. Then a year later, when the new CO wanted to charge rent, the CC decided to charter under the old CO and old #. So, the next round of crossovers kept that #. I made it clear repeatedly, that nobody had to pull off numbers of their uniform. No other troop was using either #. So, we have two numbers that can hang on sleeves and pass uniform inspection. Earn respect through cheerful service. You'll be fine. Unfortunately, for our older scouts, the back-and-forth was too much. Most left scouting at life rank. Boys are sentimental. Can we blame them? We taught them to love tradition.

This ... Indeed, the culture has shifted around us. Some of the new requirements are effectively legalese for the sake of hair-splitting parents. Others are because parents have unwittingly opened the door to strangers via new media. With some justification for victims rights, lawyers have assaulted free-range kid culture. Cheap labor abroad and the low costs of imports have created a new normal where uniforms seem too expensive to wear for rough service. Also, while you were "out," Eagle has been oversold. And, I think as a new SM, this is the place will you can make the largest gains. Add value to being a first class scout - the concept, not the patch. Talk it up. It should be a really big deal. It should mean that scout can be trusted to take his/her buddies hiking and camping independently with their mates. For some boys it should take five years to earn, because it is that hard for them to focus and master the material. Then, when you see that those scouts have signed off another scout's requirements, you won't have to waste time testing because, well, trustworthy ... Those 1st class scouts take it seriously. For your scouts who went camping with their brothers' pack, let them know you want to count night O/A nights where boys acted like first class scouts (regardless of if they earned the patch yet). Ask them point blank, "Did you represent our troop well? Were you in uniform? If those cubs could vote for you based on that weekend your were with them, would they?"

With regard to camping nights for O/A, not much has changed since the 90s. Several stipulations that existed solely to exclude girls have been lifted. But, the quandary about boys who volunteer to camp with a pack would still be there. With regard to rank advancement, several requirements have been added. When you earned Eagle, Cooking wasn't required, you didn't have to explain pedagogy to anyone, and workbooks weren't nearly the leviathan contracts that they are today. What did change? More adults are advancement experts, and fewer boys are joining just for reasons other than advancement.

@Monkeytamer, all the best to your clutch of Eagles! I would be remiss if I didn't encourage you to tell them that theirs still work to be done. There a Palms -- not just insta-palms -- to be earned, Hornaday Awards, Patrol leaders to train, camps to staff, adventures to be had, etc ... There's nothing greater than a bunch of fellas modelling scouting to the rest of the troop without fretting over advancement. The rest of their terms should be awesome.

@Summitdog, I was hoping you were asking because you were a soon to be counselor hoping to get it right, and not another victim of some wannabe counselor who didn't ask any of us how to set boundaries on his session. Boys like yours are especially why we want patrol based and individual based counseling. When I was a scout, Environmental Science took a couple of hours of counselor time. I loved the sciences, but as a kid I had no patience for books. I watched nature shows and went out in the woods looking for the things they presented. We had woods and streams and lived on a hillside so erosion experiments were second nature. So, by the time I took the badge at camp, I sat down with the counselor and told him everything I knew no worksheet involved. He then told me that instead of coming to class, go find a spot in the woods for an hour or two and note everything that I saw and heard. (This was before buddy system, and it amazed me the critters that drifted by when it was just me.) I came back the next day, watched a few demos, did some service projects, and shook the counselors hand at the end of the week. Little if any paper was wasted in the process. And that is the one life skill that I got out of that badge ... going out and sitting and listening. I hope your son finds a counselor and buddies who will help him do just that.

There are three issues at play. The first is how many scouts can meet with a merit badge counselor at once? For many meetings the, ideal would be two. This is because for many badges (e.g., 1st aid, lifesaving) the scout needs a buddy with/on whom to demonstrate skills. more than two, and there might be too many interruptions to teach the class well. even if the material could be taught 1-on-1 ... Anything is more fun with a friend. Even if the scout has no interest in earning the badge, he can learn something from observing. The second scout may have an idea that the counselor and scout haven't thought considered. For some meetings for some requirements, however, it's better to have a patrol of scouts. For example, a counselor might set up a fishing day where scouts can work on requirements over a 4-6 hour period. In that time, scouts can be fishing when they aren't checking in with the counselor to demonstrating a skill. Accompanying adults can help set up lunch or keep the counselor's coffee mug full. A classroom situation is largely discouraged because nobody really knows the maximum number before quality of learning degrades. It depends on the scouts and the counselor. The second is how many other adults need to be present before BSA winds up in more legal trouble? The answer is one other adult to make two in the room/field. Either all youth present have brought their parents, or one other registered 21+ year old is present. If even one scout is female, one adult must be 21+ year old registered female. If all scouts are male, none of the registered adults/parents need to be male. BSA has assured the public that it is going to these lengths to safeguard our youth. The third is how many other adults need to be present to keep scouts free of abuse? The answer is we don't know. We do know that an average predator will be deterred by multiple youth sticking together. An above-average predator will be deterred by another adult. Somebody thinks that an above-average predator of girls will be deterred by another female adult. We also know that exceptional predators will at times collaborate. Nobody knows how many exceptional predators exist. Nor do they know how many adults may be willing or manipulated collaborators with them. Nor do we know how often such vile persons can find an accomplice/dupe under the auspices of the BSA. We can only hope it is less often than when scouts were permitted to meet with their counselor one-on-one.

@Rrehak, welcome to the forums!

If the kid is trustworthy, helpful, ..., clean, and reverent he/she is likely a just scout! P.S. - My exchange student a couple years ago was completely baffled by (among many things) the term "scouter". She replied indignantly, "Once a scout, always a scout!" Lesson in failed branding: Numerous scouts (adults and youth) have balked at the term Venturers. Daughter complained that something grated about the "er-er" sound on the end of that word. I have come to agree with them. I would have rather them be called Venture Scouts, then I could be a Venturemaster!

We were shown an investiture ceremony for Boy Scouts and Venturing at Wood Badge. Never used it. But materials are out there. @Oldscout448, lets get your memory dump down here on bits and bytes, please.

@goldnloks, welcome to the forum. There's a lot to say for home grown. But watch out for pitfalls. I'll give you a case study ... Because a bunch of folks at church thought it cool if everyone could keep pace with the same devotional last year, a couple of Sunday School teachers of the classes for adults started daily podcasts of a bible reading, commentary, and devotionals. It first it was just two guys, then their kids, then a bunch of us, producing 15 minutes of recording a day covering a public-domain translation of Genesis to Revelation. It wound up with 10,000 subscribers. Small, by internet standards, but fifty-fold more than our membership. Folks just like hearing someone like them, rough edges and all, reading something they care about to them. (Those interested can look up the YouCanReadTheBible website.) But Spanish is the second most popular language in our congregation. We have some great folks who would gladly read for us. Problem is, the most popular translation of the Bible is privately owned, and they won't readily give a license to reproduce it on any media, including voice recordings! And most Spanish speakers -- at least among our members -- would only want to listen to recordings in that version. What was simple became impossible. I wouldn't be surprised if BSA has a similar lock on their license. So although I bet your troop would be honored to read and record pamphlets for your sons, and they would do a bang-up job making a digital audio library. Broadcasting them widely so they'd be available for any scout who actually needs them will bump up against license restrictions. If it were me, all BSA materials would be strictly black-and-white covers with minimal typesetting until they were recorded in audio by the nearest available scout.

I'd wager that @ParkMan's instructors were deeply moved by their Wood Badge experience (which included lengthy dress-up skits, Win-All-You-Can pranks, and moving recognition dinners). We scouters need to understand that it is a huge and moving thing for a six-year-old to have a grown adult give him a badge in front of peers of scouts and their siblings. Therefore, one ceremony is fitting when a bunch of buddies achieve the same challenge together in due season, but a different ceremony is fitting when a single scout or a bunch of buddies meet the same goal out of season. A good instructor will tell you this. And, he'll demonstrate both kinds of ceremonies. -- except the upside-down Bobcat. It's a roundtable-gone-wrong when grown-ups try to flip each other upside down.

This story was on my mind as a storm bore down on the wooded valley we were camping in one evening this fall. It didn't help that what was left of a three-year-old blowdown hung on the opposite sides of a wider portion of the valley. To lose a scout would be soul-shattering.

Make a big fuss? Yes! Fuss similarly? No! Even if it's the same number of Bobcats awarded at both meetings ... It's perfectly fine if, in October, @Cubmaster Pete does a face-painting ceremony and in January, for example, simply has all of the October-cats come up and give the new Bobcats' cub scout scout handshakes and salutes. Then, maybe when prepping for next October ask those January (and later)-cats if they want to help paint faces since they missed getting painted last year. Indeed, these boys are all deserving of recognition. And by using different ceremonies you focus on what the recognition is. It's The badge!!!!! We scouters often get lost in our little traditions. In this case the Bobcat badge is what recognizes some pretty ambitious memorization work on the part of a young scout. No ceremony recognizes it. (Proof: try painting faces without giving the badges see how happy these scouts would be!) What you may do around awarding the badge is nice, but superfluous. In the scouterverse, patches are the best thing ever. Really and truly the gratification of holding a well-earned patch is second only to using your skills to forestall death. So, a little face-paint may break up the monotony of doling out badges, but if it needs to be done every time for each awardee no matter what else needs to be done then it becomes the monotony! How do we know that? Well, this topic wouldn't exist if it were so much fun that no scouter could resist doing it for every awards ceremony! Another example, at CoH's, I like to shake the hand of each scout who advances and give him a personal word of encouragement. But, say all the boys rack up copious bling one term, and a parent/sibling decides to fresh-bake cookies downstairs -- the smell of which motivates us to hustle things along and forgo pleasantries ... Are those boys any less recognized by myself or the rest of the troop because I didn't get a word in with them? By no means! They've got their rank and we all know it! Trust me, that 1st class scout will be called on to anchor a ridge line with a timber hitch whether I shook his hand or not! One final example in two words: Wood badge. I won't expound because many of you are still recovering from that trauma ... So break the monotony, give recognition diversely!

Fortunately ours melted a hole in the Al d/o (swapped with one of our Fe models at summer camp, we figure) before the cobbler was added. Otherwise it might have gone on a "long walk" that very night!

This is where I part ways. Kids are different. The do different things and come in at different times. Therefore they deserve different forms of recognition. It's called prepared for life: Son #1 completed his degree in December; therefore his ceremony was a relatively intimate suit-and-tie dinner. Daughter completed hers in May, therefore it was a grand departmental cap-and-gown affair. Same degree, same size university different time of year. Why should you deny Cubs the privilege of being recognized in a seasonally appropriate fashion? Think of it in the opposite direction. One could argue that if you don't have a pin-specific ceremony in January, you shouldn't have one in October. In fact, no ceremonies ever. Don't bridge AoL, don't swap neckers from bears to wolves, quick handshakes and applause. Everybody equal and all's fair.