qwazse

Read the MB application. The 2nd signature on the scout's portion (i.e. the portion that should never leave his possession) is to attest that the scout "... has given me his completed application ..." for the badge. The scout's section of the the blue card is his reciept that The counselor has a record of the boy completing the badge (one that says the SM did talk to the boy before working with the counselor), and The troop has a record (attested to by the SM's second signature) of the boy turning in his paperwork. THERE IS NO LANGUAGE ANYWHERE ON THE BLUE CARD THAT AN SM MAY DENY A BLUE CARD.

No girls in our feeder pack. Not expecting any to sign on as AoL's. Like I said, prepared for anything. Nothing's there. Haven't paid much to other packs in the district. We've never really had crossovers from there.

Prepared isn't quite the word for it. Working for smiles, I'm always prepared for anything. But is our CO prepared to support the launching of a BSA4G unit? That's the wrong question. Are the youth and moms/older sisters with integrity ready to be launched? Occasionally people are asking about it, but nobody is introducing me to those 5 girls and 1 female ASM. If there's no demand, all other questions are moot. I'm not even hearing, "I know this one girl ..." I wrote that up and sent to our CC. He's planning on meeting with the COR and UC, at the district's request, but unless I am misreading the tea leaves, our community has no demand for BSA4G.

@krikkitbot, were you at a session or seminar of NOAC that discussed this?

National Jambo will still set you back a chunk of change. Especially if you also apply and get approved as an ASM or sign up as staff. I give young scouts a very simple strategy: Make yourself useful to your folks to the tune of $100/month. Work on Personal Management MB. Put that cash into savings. Then, by the time an opportunity like this rolls around, you can jump on it. Or, maybe you might pass, but you'll still have a couple of grand for whatever big-ticket item you'd like. If your son isn't really interested in the whole massive convention thing, and just wants to check out SBR, he should consider joining a contingent bound for the summer programs that they have there. For example, I know a some crews' appetite was sated by Venturingfest.

All y'all mighty happy toxophilites?

Stay positive. If your scout really wants to go to the World Jamboree but is too young now, start making a plan to save for South Korea in 2023.

My brother would always ask me to note the locations of any black walnut trees I came across. I made it a point never to tell him.

... Memorize the directions to the next campout ...

@oldbuzzard, asking for a rule violates my rule #1. But it might be necessary. Common sense suggests that the SPL or his Assistant should take sweep. When I guard a canoe trip, I do so from the rear. If a boat drifts behind without their buddy boat, we have words. We train our backpacking scouts to stop at intersections. If a scout has to fall behind (e.g. a boot is broken) a couple of SMs hike with him and the rest of the group has to leave trail signs. There have been occasions that the lead group takes the wrong trail. We don't follow-them, we wait. Or, of we think they'll get to the destination regardless, we leave our own signs in case they decide to backtrack. So many parents don't have patience for this, but to me this is what scouting is really all about.

We made some gains but had some cancel ... Still room for 35 youth in our area.

Thanks for being our guy on the inside. O/A Chiefs tried to be in the vanguard in the nineties by honoring female Explorers. But their advisors at the time closed that loophole. That's when all of the a-program-for-Boy-Scouting claptrap became dogma. I'm glad to hear that attitudes have shifted. But I suspect some of that is due to those who wanted to exclude girls without saying so moving on to other organization. We can only hope the program along with the people in it engages today's girls (and their brothers).

Knowing what you're doing means you'd have certified guards in your company and their training and advice would spare you wasting time with strangers on the internet! If you do have them, and you are just getting a second opinion, well thanks for the conversation. Lot's of packs canoe out to islands for family campouts. They don't go swimming. No big deal. This is not about lawyers. This is about forestalling death.

Makes tons of sense for those of us who've been there! I love reports like this. Hopefully, our experiences helped informed your decisions. Regarding Key West, it's not just "their snowflakes". Some scouters contend with leaders who want time off from mid-week to have a drink (or seven, or ten). Or, we have kids with nascent behavior disorders. Or, we coeds have late teens with budding romances but a lack of discipline when backs are turned. Either way, we realize in the months leading up to the adventure that the short leash principle must apply. A major tourist city with a notorious drug and alcohol problem doesn't help. That said. Since you had such young boys, you may want to try and inspire some of them to save up for the Bahamas sailing adventure in a few years. They'll enjoy the contrast of the Abacos. On the flip side, older scouts clean up a little better. So the smell isn't so bad. But still, I endured the rain and slept topside. I found it was worth the loss of sleep ducking under a tarp until the rain stopped to sleep the remainder of the time above deck.

@VolcanoDunker, welcome to the forums. If none of your parents are guard certified, don't touch the water. Scoping out a safe place to swim on an island is not easy. Bring along some young adults who are seasoned guards, and whatever equipment they say you'll need. Pay their way and feed them well. Heed their guidance. Stupid happens fast, especially in large groups. If you want to forestall death, you have to stamp down stupid.

Our SM has a wall clock in a wood box with glass front that he straps to a tree in the middle of camp. Not exactly a mascot, but boys were asking "What time is it?" so often, it was as if they conjured it themselves.

The position is Assisttant SM. If he ain't helping, the SM needs to tell him so. In this case the SM should request the ASM to apologize to each and every scout to whom he flew off the handle, admit that he had a short fuse, and promise he'll try to do better next time. If he doesn't want to assist the SM by doing so, no problem, he can take off the patch. FWIW, I do believe that among men and boys, apologies don't necessarily come in words. Gestures of respect and kindness go a long way. But something has to happen so that these boys know this scouter, at the end of the day, has their back and wants to be less of a bully. And to be double clear, I'm not asking any scouter to eat a different slice of humble pie than one that I've had to chew on from time to time.

@Zebra132, welcome to the forums. It sounds like you had a nepotism problem on top of a YPT violation. Was the YPT violation a unit problem? Or a camp staff problem? In my crew, I was fairly blunt and laid out this policy in both a secular and sacred terms: Sacred: I know each of your religions, abide by them. Secular: FDMA: Fornication dampens morale. Abstain. I guess I was fortunate enough to deal with "non-controversial" youth in that area. When adults don't have your back when it comes to discipline, that definitely is a breaking point.

I have an example where I kind of wish parents got involved. Son #2's best buddy got homesick something terrible. The boys really bent over backwards to help him feel comfortable on multiple occasions. We really needed Dad to come on an overnight or two, or even Mom, but that wasn't happening. (One time Mrs. Q was available to help, the other time the scouts' older brother signed on as ASM.) So, best buddy quit scouting and took up other activities that would not take him far from home. Or, if it did, the buddy's mom would loan Son #2 her car and reserve a hotel for the boys in advance. So, we had either independent overnights or -- once son #2 crossed that 18 y.o. boundary -- one-on-one contact. Good thing real life isn't BSA. But, like Barry says, a troop can only be so flexible before it's no longer delivering a program to the other boys who want to fully engage. At least in our case, it was the scout's decision to move on, and there were no hard feelings.

Why is the homage to NA lore such an important distinctive? I think there are several reasons. Multiculturalism. This may come as a surprise to a few of you, but a vote-swaying cluster of young adults in the USA have an Anglo-centric vision of American culture. They aren't prepared to do the work to form "out of many, one." The NA role-play allows youth to work out this tension. The land. The majority of youth count on someone else to work the land for them. The harvest, famine, animal migration that may have gone on under their feet is lost to them. Reenacting how NA addressed these natural challenges inculcates a notion of taking responsibility to work with one's environment. Meager rations, open sky, hard work, etc .... Those experiences come together as a coherent whole in the NA mystique. Reverence. Although tribal life was immediately practical, the NA mystique is an ongoing dialogue with "the other". Young people benefit from the rough imitation of this dialogue when they go home and reflect on their own journey of faith. Also let's not forget that the US Founding Fathers reckoned with the NA tribes as a matter of course. When role-playing NA -- not just playing "cowboys and Indians" -- youth begin to have a foil against which to gauge the forces of history. It won't be a perfect mirror, but as youth mature, they will be able to decide if what they've learned from their tribes applies to the problems of the day ... or if they will need to look for another metaphor. Now does all this need to start at AoL and Crossover? Maybe. Maybe not. But, the one thing that should be modeled to boys this young is creative role play. So, for Packs and Lodges who think cubs do need this, I wish rather than scripts, the National Chief and advisors would have written guidelines with examples (and possibly comment sections).

I'm so glad you asked this, as it gives an opportunity for me to brag about our troop 3 years after its merger. We've moved back to our original CO which, be it ever so humble, allows the troop multiple rooms and the entire grounds without reservation (or, more importantly, the threat of charging us rent). Less than 20% of the meeting time is in the main room, with adults. Scouts may also excuse themselves from their patrol for a conference with an SM or a counselor, but generally they are meeting with their patrol or involved in a wide game or a service project with the SPL or QM. Adults are not in those rooms. Likewise, if they decide to meet during the week at someone's house or a coffee shop, the parents or their barista may or may not be registered. We encourage this. In the field, we're getting there. We try to encourage patrols to camp at some distance. When they want (or we want them) to take a hike, we ask them to bring us a plan and show they will be properly supplied. They go off on their own, and check in or meet us at appointed rendevous. It may consume 80% of their waking hours unsupervised by anyone except themselves. If I'm lucky, the SM and I will find the more masterful scouts at the last rendevous point with the fire to coals and supper on! At least, that's the objective. Adults aren't welcome. When they are in the mix, I find that patrols don't check in or return dreadfully late. Adults often countermand a scout's good sense. It really takes a Herculean effort to train most adults to be passive observers. So, for safety's sake, we encourage scouts to plan for a pinnacle scouting experience of hiking and camping independently with their mates. Then, we try to give them opportunities where that independence actually happens. I want these guys to know that I'm there for them -- even when they later pile their friend's in a car and go hike in backcountry. Young adults who call me about this stuff to plan, and then stop by for after action review (possibly after Sunday dinner) is my paycheck. But, for BSA to have a stake in this, it has to start with youth self-supervision at as many meetings and as many activities as the SM/Advisor deem possible with any particular patrol or any particular crew.

@robhixkg, thanks for taking the BS out of BSA! Broadly speaking, use these things as opportunities to milk the most out of the advancement method: For your next weekend campout, challenge the boys to use the menus and rosters that they prepared at summer camp. In after action review, ask them what went well, what didn't go so well, and what they'd do differently. Later, in an SM minute, tell them that you weren't trying to make sure they did the requirement. You were helping them excersize the same disciplines they will need to propose, plan, and execute an Eagle project, or any other project. Then ask them of the badges they earned at camp, what would they like to do as a troop for a future camping weekend. For camping nights, pass out blank pieces of paper, as scouts to write down the locations of every campout that they went on since crossing over. Some scouts might already have this in a diary in a handbook. Give those ones a piece of candy, then challenge them to draw or write a favorite memory. The ones who completed camping should be able rattle off summer camp and 7-14 other weekends or 3-day trips. (Remind them that this isn't school and you're not checking spelling and their artwork won't be graded.) They should have some pretty good stories to tell. Ask if they want to do any of those campouts again. Later, tell them that this excersize was not just about checking advancement, but about taking a moment to reflect on your scouting experience. Reflection is a life-skill that can help you throu tough times. Don't just make advancement about bean-counting. Make it about something bigger than the requirements or those round pieces of cloth.

@RichardB, tell the many boys in WPa, who meet regularly in the absence of adults to hike, camp, pick up litter, ... whatever good and noble thing ... that they need to join the BSA so that they can have the requisite adults in tow. I'm living a paradox. As soon as boys are able and equipped, they're camping without me (or any other trained adult) to guide them. Sure, I'm no longer liable, but they also no longer have any sense of accountability to someone like me for making a good plan and executing it well. They can skip shakedowns, leave naive parents vague hike plans, carry equipment that they haven't trained with, dispense with safe swim defense if they come upon a watering hole, and not train up to the challenges they face. I suspect my neck of the woods is not unusual. "Outside the larger troop context." Implies adults kept at a distance. Its very hard to reconcile that vision with the current G2SS.

Anyone opposed to BSA for girls is not going to be moved by the window dressing that a video provides. The personal observations of the SM and I (who come off as fairly traditional) has blunted the opposition of a few. What works most often is girls looking sharp enjoying the program.

Thought experiment by way of example: A recent grad in our district had founded a "Do Something Club" into a service fraternity for young women. Strip away your arrowmen's homage to native tribes, then tell me what do you have that's any different than what they have? Lot's of groups claim to offer brotherhood. Many are cheerful. And, many others tout service. A few package that quite nicely. Why should a youth bother with O/A if they can't get a deeper understanding about what we admire the most from the native American mystique?