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More specifics on security risks here https://atlasvpn.com/blog/discord-privacy-and-security-problems-to-watch-out-for

A modest proposal for a new committee position: 1st Year (or as long as it takes) Parent Deprogrammer Requirements YPT, Troop Committee Challenge, Register Master the following phrases in multiple languages including any local dialects: Attend YPT. Talk about abuse, neglect, and bullying with your child. Know what to expect from us. Yes, your scout is welcome time to do something fun and safe with us for zero credit. When he/she requests it, we will rearrange schedules accordingly. The trail to first class is hard. The skills therein are difficult to master. Use Scoutbook, but love that handbook. Trust, but verify.

Think these forums, but invite-only with oversized emoji. What’s nice is it can handle voice messages and video calls. The dangers are the same as most social media type things.

FWIW, I posed the issue of pen pointers to birders on a trail group and to our ASM who is all about bird conservation. They felt that there was no probability of a stargazing instructor inadvertently misdirecting migratory foul. These are mostly PA and WV birders, and they contend with a lot of light pollution. A laser pen pales in comparison to airplanes, fracking towers and windmills. So, as always, your mileage may vary. It’s a big country.

Have parents sign up. When their sons are 13 they may sign on. I’m learning to use Discord because it was the medium of choice for my WSJ Troop. I have mixed feelings about it.

Do give them an ask. They will have to take BSA’s YPT, regardless of similar other training.

@FirstClass, welcome to the forums! As you can tell, scouters have no stomach for playing identity politics with religious awards. Having made the effort, a scout should proudly wear the awards for each faith he held at the time.

Setting aside that I thought turning Scout into a rank was pointless, now that it is a rank ... We had several AoL crossovers who were still struggling with square knots. That's not to disrespect the program. We had a dozen crossovers, about half of them knew their knots well enough to quickly demonstrate them. I think the pandemic was part of the problem. But, also, it's not in the nature of 10-year-olds to retain those kinds of motor skills. Scouts who are camping every month have greater odds of actually needing those skills. No rubber stamps. It's a good life lesson to know that it's not about the patch. You have to be prepared to actually demonstrate the skills you claim to have.

First pass: A number of Audubon sites were recommending the use of higher powered lasers for dispersal. (Better than shotguns, I guess.) None were discouraging the use of pointers. I can’t find a Leave No Trace guideline regarding lasers of any kind, let alone pointers. Pilots don’t like them, but typically they are referring to higher powered lasers. Not pointers. I can’t find peer reviewed articles on the subject of lasers and migratory bird harm. I suspect that if a dead snot rocket by a stack of rocks could get accepted in the literature, a flock of laser pointer addled migratory birds would as well. You know, it’s okay to make an argument by simply saying, “I don’t like them, nor does the ranger in my favorite park, nor the club I’m in. Maybe others feel the same way.” And in polite conversation, it’s okay to reply, “I’ll give my gal/guy a call and find out what he thinks.” I didn’t like the drones at the 2019 jamboree, and scouts laughed at me as I cringed in terror. Along with the infantrymen on either side of the Dnipro, we are asking who’s laughing now? But, I’m not about to lecture the guy hovering his drone outside a wilderness recreation area who’s just trying to get a decent photo with one.

It's a big country. So check with your location about laser pointers. Myself, I'm not a fan. But ... sticking with reference as one of the fundamental steps in teaching any skill ... bring that star chart. In daylight, use it to show the scouts what they should be able to find once it gets dark. Have a light with a red or green gel (or diffuser for that laser) so you can read the chart without disturbing your eyes once in a field. If it's planets you're looking for, have everyone sit on an east-west line in your observation field facing south. (Which they should be able to do once they've found Polaris!) Or, get them on a tarp with their sleeping bags. Regarding light pollution, challenge them to find signs of human activity on the horizon (or in air/satellite traffic overhead). Being able to identify the nearest town or factory on the horizon could be a life-saver in the future.

The "holy grail" app would be one that converts pictures of a signed and dated requirements into scout book entries.

For reasons other than what you’re thinking. We’re no longer allowed to award bobcat (or any other pin, I presume) while the scout is upside down. Good luck trying to get junior to rotate head-up before his/her birthday!

You just hit on the solution. BSA’s liability (past and future) is a very large fixed cost. Lower membership equals higher cost per member. Increase membership, and costs will lower. However, the training mandates have drastically driven down adult membership. Background checks of MBCs is fairly new. Even asking them to take YPT is a hurdle. If Cub parents would be willing and able counselors, we’d welcome them.

There is a necessary balance between @fred8033 and @5thGenTexan. We need to realize that any MC could have a chilling effect on the direct contact leaders’ creativity and dedication, but also that direct contact leaders do need mentoring and feedback.

I will not hazard the well-being of the youth in my community by stepping back from scouting due to the prejudices of 30-somethings who, having a fraction of my training, make flawed ecological hypotheses. The worst thing that a parent can do is assume that fellow parents will have their child’s best interest at heart.

The leaders contact their DE. Sometimes exceptions can be made.

Agreed. One of your ASM’s should serve as acting SM while the CO (maybe with input from the committee decides who should permanently fill this position. How they make that decision is up to you all. But be sure to call your DC or DE. I’m sure that folks in your district would want to be involved in paying respects and helping your troop.

@curious_scouter, my only advice: don’t suffer fools. Training should be commensurate with the needs. For example, I don’t care how good my counselors are at shooting sports, their of no use to my scouts on land navigation challenges unless I know that they keep sharp in that skill. Regarding mentoring youth … like you said, I need adults who can take a step back. For example, I am a very good cook, as are a couple of other dads. But if the boys are doing their own meals, we make our own adult cooking area. If we aren’t cooking and will be guests of a patrol, we sit apart waiting for them to invite us to table. Although I’m a good cook, I’m willing to eat a serving of burnt grilled cheese sandwich from the hand of a youth. If my committee does one thing for us SM’s, they create an space for the adults to be comfortable at a distance from the boys.

I love it when my committee members camp with us!

I might also add: check with the scout. Every now and then you come across one who doesn’t want to be on the ballot. I personally think SM approval includes identifying candidates and letting them know that they may be up for election.

WV weather: note that many of us in lowlands go to places like Glenn Jean to cool off in the summer. A good summer rains every day and blazing sun every day. Enjoy the blackberries before the bears do!

Extrapolating membership results nationwide from one enthusiastic scoutmaster’s troop is even less predictive of the nation’s circumstances. I was once that enthusiastic crew advisor, but I realized that irrational exuberance does nothing to prepare one for the future. Ignoring the experience of other scout associations around the world is the height of arrogance. That’s okay. We’re American and need to maintain that exceptionalist swagger. But one needs to own the at-home facts in evidence. This forum holds posts from scouters who’ve lost interest in BSA once it proposed BSA4G. I’ve been at a dinner table of an 11 year old who resented the loss of a program that he thought would be exclusively for his own sex. I’ve sat fireside with a very articulate scout (now Eagle) who resented the presence of girl troops at camp. It is absurd to think that the accrual of girls and their leaders in Scouts BSA was unrelated to the attrition of boys and their leaders at the same time in the same program. If I’m wrong, if BSA boys vs. girl trends were coincidental, and if the USA is exceptional, then we can be rest easy and be presently surprised by 4% annual membership increases in both sexes going forward. I’d like to be pleasantly surprised.

Quite right. Scouting movements were banned in many Eastern Block European countries, so they had no where to go but up as the few available adults waited for their youth to mature into competent leaders. Those programs were notably anti-fascist and over time their use of neckerchiefs began to be understood in opposition to (in contrast to allied with) red brigades. So, in contrast to Scouts CA, they had a trajectory of increasing growth that harmonized with prevailing political sentiment. Scouts UK had to do a lot of hard work. In the 90’s, a large part of its new enrollment were girls, meaning that until about 2000, it kept loosing boys. But, those girls became leaders quickly and encouraged their male mates to contribute as well. The administration of Scouts UK began skewing younger and they did not let up on recruiting new, young leaders. However it was only a few years ago that it restored its male membership to 1991 levels. Thus, my basis for a 25 year cycle to adapt. And this is where BSA faces a huge risk. It has some seasoned female scouters capable of training new leaders, but if we hew to our current cultural practice of waiting for leaders to become parents to start leading local youth movements … Well, folks are having kids later in life. Most girls in your troop won’t be Cub moms for at least another 17 year's. Most scout moms now may see themselves as GS moms, but they don’t see themselves as capable scoutmasters. Something in American society will have to change so our young women can look at their boyfriends and say, “Hey! Let’s start a Scouts BSA troop.” No change, and we can expect continued decades of decline. Someone/something intervenes, and we may see gains in girls begin to offset losses in boys in this decade, and then recoup market share of boys in the next decade.

Based on my review of census of European scout associations (posted elsewhere, too lazy to find links now): Scout associations tend to have a decline in total membership for about a decade after admitting girls to their membership. Gains in female youth are more than offset by losses in male youth. Some associations then begin to increase membership slowly. Based on anecdotes, growth in membership is due to a lack of trainable volunteers to lead the program, which in turn is a result from the dip in scouting alumni from the previous decade of decline. A decade later, male membership begins to increase — sometimes with continuing increases in female membership, sometimes not. As the leadership slowly increases from the new ranks of scouting alumni, so does market share of male youth. Thus, it seems to take roughly 25 years to recover the losses of male youth that seem to consistently occur after scout associations incorporate both sexes. There is no reason to think that BSA will be any different. So, even if BSA4G continues to progress, we can expect membership declines well into the middle of this decade. And, we will continue to have less than desired market share of boys until 2035, at the earliest. Facilities and other internal policies will not change this. This is purely a function of the organization’s available and willing leadership after such a major resetting of target demographics.

I'm not so sure why this is terrible. If you can't produce a program that girls enjoy and a CO loves to host, why should council bother? Meanwhile, there are a lot of young (and young at heart) men who've benefited from that 60+ year-old troop. Some of them probably call their council to see what can be done to keep it from dissolving. The bitter truth: it now rests squarely on the young women who've benefited from the program to promote it. If they conclude that they would have been better off with 100% of their time spent in GS/USA, their BSA4G troop will rightfully lose its foothold in the community.