qwazse

The message of a charitable giving knot IMHO: A scout is thrifty. He manages his finances for that rainy day ... and so that he can return some of his earnings to the people who he sees doing good in the world. But, this knot may also be given to the person who inspired a donor to act. From http://councils.scouting.org/Council440/Donate/James West Award So when you see someone with that knot, ask more about their story. Find out who made the donation in order for them to wear it and why.

For those who are concerned: From https://scoutingmagazine.org/2008/01/know-your-knots/

Welcome to the forums @justbill !

@HelpfulTracks, we don't usually count Learning for Life members - as many of those participants aren't even aware that their school registered them in the BSA. Excluding that (as well as 18+ year-olds in Venturing and Exploring), we see steady declines in the traditional program - going back to the nationalization of the 18th birthday requirement for Eagle.

No plaques for me please. On the other hand if, in my name, you create a $600 campership for scouts or scholarship for scouters' training or even a gas buy-down for parents who transport scouts, I would be truly honored.

Nobody says six consecutive consecutive weeks!

Well, if they've never done any kind of boating on the ocean, there's no comparison. But, yes, every day of every adventure is on water. Some, like Bahama's adventure, involves island exploring, others, like scuba, bring you back to base in the evening. You don't have to be a collegiate swimmer, but you have to be comfortable swimming a couple hundred yards ... in rather deep water ... with heavily-toothed critters scuttling below out of sight.

Except for issues like camperships or waiving dues for specific scouts - which involves some privacy - committee members benefit from the presence of DLs at their meetings. But that starts asking for more than one hour a week from your DL!

You need to search less quickly. There are, quite literally, boatloads of adventures: http://www.bsaseabase.org/Adventures.aspx. That said, mask, fins, and snorkel are integral to most of the adventures ... sort of like hiking boots at Philmont. Even the out-island adventure that you mention involves snorkeling gear. There's also fishing, and if you're lucky, seafood.

Just flew home. Feels good to have one's face hurt by stepping outside. Less deceptive than that sun getting you all cheery only to have you watch your face peel off later.

Honor God and Country Help Others Obey the Scout Law[ Three fingers symbolize those three points. I don't think the thumb holding down the pinky was meant to symbolize anything - it was just a way to draw attention to the other fingers. So, I like option 1.

My issue with the "masculinity" mantra is that, having met scouts from other countries who are no more or no less paragons of their respective sexes, I found men who are no less masculine nor women who are no less feminine than our own citizens. My impression is that boys become masculine with or without the presence of girls in their troop. The cultural influences that foster gender dysphoria (or identity discovery, as a progressive may call it) may overwhelm notions of male or female mystique. This may be especially true in (BSA or GS/USA) troops who value ideals to the near exclusion of the promise of scouting in the outdoors. In contrast, the pioneer spirit of men and women working together to settle in a strange land side-by-side may be what youth need to rekindle the notion that we humans were created uniquely to complement one another. But, that would require any set of boys and girls to be tasked with monthly challenges of hiking and camping independently with their mates.

There are plenty of scouting forums that ban discussion of the 3G's and politics and general. I don't mind that there's a mix of both. I'm trying to get my head around lots of things. Only some days is it the patrol method or scoutcraft. This week I'm dealing with a couple of young relatives (an their dad) who are about done with scouting because the SM vetoes the boys requests to camp every month, freaked out when the one 14 y/o boy wanted to spend the night sleeping out in 30 degree weather (south Floridians) , and avoids back-country like the plague. On top of it, the dad and I got skunked fishing this morning, so we had nothing to distract us from our little worlds of trouble! On weeks like this I don't enjoy hearing that someone like @Eagle94-A1 also has adults who refuse to deliver on the promise of scouting, so it's nice to have a forum that I can look to for a decent current I&P back-and-forth where I can simply up- or down- vote.

Boy Scout: Life Rank, Senior Patrol Leader That says it all, and is enough on the resume` to get you an interview from anyone who admires scouts (and no small number of employers who may despise them). At the interview, they will ask how close you are to getting Eagle and what specific responsibilities you took on as SPL. As an employer, I want to know that you'll call a spade a spade. Trust me, Mrs. Q and I are dealing with an elder care situation where staff didn't have the stones to be forthright with us. Their administrators got an earful, and they are none too please to hear about their staff glossing over an incident that could have been settled with an apology. I'll bet a -1 on this post from you if you don't experience this.

I'm betting it's not what I or anyone else feels, but what skilled litigators have got from negligence cases when plaintiffs were all-male caretakers vs all-female caretakers of the opposite sex.

Or, maybe BSA has been breaking more lofty rules for a few decades, and they are just setting things aright! Player or pawn, she's not the first. She just happens to be present when enough customers are clamoring for recognition based on achievement, not identity.

Wierd, I never experienced anything like this on the iPad.

The one group of youth who I most want to keep are the ones who, for what they save by not registering, go hiking and camping independently with their mates.

We used Google Docs, Calendar, Sites, and Groups. For messaging, the last group of boys used Instagram with limited success. The limit was mostly selfishness on my part because I didn't want to create one more account. Our council VOA advisor is giving GroupMe a trial run. Evidently the regional VOA has been operating with it for some time. If the crew reactivates, I may give this a re-think. Although the more E-hoops I go through, the more I am liking Field Notes (https://fieldnotesbrand.com/products/original-kraft) ... and a cork-board at the CO. (Or, maybe a dead-drop outside it.)

It seems like your advantage is a small community ... at the moment. Basically, you have a patrol of boys and a patrol of girls. My daughter's problem seemed to be that she was the 16th girl in any troop with regular outdoor activities. Thus, venturing. That said, for the other girls in my crew ... We had mostly dual registered (either with a GS/USA or BSA troop) in our crew. Council wide, it tended to be the GS/USA pros who were most vocal about the arrangement. The rank-and-file volunteers made it work with happy faces. In general, I've always known BSA to encourage youth at every level to participate in other service/outdoor organizations as well as their troop/crew -- with the expectation that they bring back what they discovered to the unit.

@cocomax, is your GS/USA troop sticking to the size limit of 15? Or are the bucking that "recommendation"?

@cocomax, as long as you know how to fold a sit-upon, you'll do fine! There's a lotta love out there for GS/USA. I'm making plans to buy me some cookies from the great-nieces next week. But, when a girl wants to camp once a month -- far from outlets and flushies most nights -- she'd better hope there's room for her in the one troop in twenty that will give it a go.

One year sure felt awful busy. I think we had 8 then. I think we're up for another flurry. We have a bunch of life scouts who are about the same age. I'm always glad when we have about 5 times that number who will never get their bird. Those boys add a lot of flavor to the troop.

The SM should know that your husband is picking up a pattern of behavior. There's not much to do about it, but it's always good to see if the older boys widen their circle or narrow it. Boys who widen their circle to other scouts are likely engaging the program. Those who are narrowing their circle may be disengaging and might soon be on the way out.

This is nothing new. In my youth, I was told that arrowmen were not to do a rain dance -- or even a cheap imitation thereof -- because it was mocking a prayer. Other dances that narrated a story we encouraged. Also, certain drums could be replicated, others could not. I have no idea if that was the insistence of a tribe, some advice from an anthropologist (we had a few in our district), or pure hearsay. But making pains so as to honor vs. offend was part of the O/A mystique growing up.