qwazse

One of those Eagle’s flew over the house today while we were out to walk to the shore. Looks like it might be fixing to build a nest. In other news, the ice melted just enough to blow south from Canada and pike up. Grandson #1 looked out from atop the glacial shoreline at the wrack and ruin and shouted “Oh no! Water all gone!”

World Jambo US contingent issued Osprey day packs. My scouts love them, and it seemed that half the scouts from the rest of the world did too and would try to broker trades for them. Me … not so much. The side pockets weren’t deep enough for a standard water bottle. I had to attach a shock chord to keep from losing mine. I eventually traded with a young Spanish staff (after making sure his pack’s side pockets were sufficiently deep). I don’t know the brand, but I have been using it for the past two years with absolutely no regrets.

@denibug72, the best way to increase your comfort level is backpacking every month before your trip. Every scout and scouter needs to be very comfortable with their gear. I keep my backpack at the end of my bed (much to Mrs. Q’s consternation), and I have no clue what’s in it after three months idle.

A bald eagle swooped in on our Lake Erie lawn. The 90 lb dog must have looked worth the challenge until the bird closed in. I was relieved that all parties involved thought better of tangling. I was less concerned about the vet bill and more about the legal ramifications of "finding" a feather in my pets' maw.

That was what the Cub Scout handbook was for me ... an outline of things to do that I had not tried before. I vividly remember: holding open the page about neckties in front of a mirror until I no longer needed a clip-on. learning referee/umpire signals. Although I wasn't athletic, I began to enjoy watching sports more because I could follow the adjudication as well as the action. model boats with rubber band motors. collections -- our DL had us bring what we were collecting to a Den meeting. Plus, the book served Bobcat, Wolf, and Bear, if I recall. The sons' handbooks were a little more structured, but not as navigable.

In terms of preference: it depends on the scout. A scout who finds road biking to be boring will find those extra miles to be sheer torture. A scout who finds rough terrain and close trails to detract from the scenery will think the opposite. My colleague calls this cognitive discounting. It’s not worth the extra X for the perceived effort of Y. So, you learn who values what based on what they’d choose for a given award.

@Eagledad, it’s worse than that … now that adults of the appropriate sex are required for every meeting and activity. No late teen needs or wants that. It is therefore far more easier to venture without a crew than with. (Obviously, some do given the incidence of sexual abuse, substance abuse, and depression by age 18, which is why more demands have been put upon scouters. But, this is not a formula for healthy development.)

Nothing in any proposed YP protocol would prevent the ascent of adult leaders with a lack of compassion toward autistic children. There’s no national registry of people who disregard disabled kids.

Let’s not deceive ourselves … at one time there were maybe 50k venturers with 3 times as many on rolls for the purposes of some club’s insurance purposes. (Worth it when registration fees were less than the cost of a large pizza.) Those youth and their leaders had no intention of engaging the program. When folks like me joined council committees and insisted that the active venturers’ rolls be called up yonder, they weren’t there. P.S. - that doesn’t mean that Venturing wasn’t a wild ride. It is a thoroughly enjoyable program, but the leadership overhead is far more than most adults can support and youth desire.

We have discussed the foibles of young men this age with alcohol. Some of the abuse victims who have been kind enough to share their stories were abused by camp staff. Odds are their ages were 18-20. What’s not clear to me is the relative risk. It used to be that young ASMs outnumbered old ones. So in probability if a fixed percentage of males were serial abusers, in scouting they were more likely to young adults.

Call me a sheep denier. You all are humans. (I am too, but in this context don’t have any decisions to make.) When you are hurt, you make decisions that guide you on the path to healing. Since you are different people with different means of regulating your emotions, you are going to come to different decisions. There are people who are going to profit (material and intangible) by the majority of you making any given decision. That does not make you, whatever your choice, their blind followers. Not in the least.

@yknot and @5thGenTexan, you all are confusing the program with its administration. If scouts aren’t reading the handbook, they are working from a variance of the program. My scouts read the handbook because I teach them that the first step in teaching a scout skill is reference. If they come to me for a sign-off, I ask if they’ve read the pertinent section. If not, I tell them to come back when they have. No doubt this contributes to half of them taking 2-5 years to advance to 1st class. I have contacts with property for camping. Our scouts have not made a plan to go there. We don’t go there. We reserve the same camp (maybe a different location on the camp) until they are bored and ask for something different. This lot loves toying with knots, doing community service, and watercraft on a small flat lake. (I even offered them a Great Lake that’s rarely knows flat. No takers.). I have kept contact with really capable adults who I’ve watched carefully and have grown to trust. Like the SM’s and Advisors before me, I’ve learned to not suffer fools. BSA has not done me any favors by diminishing the roles of 18-20 year olds, but just enough capable parents keep showing up. But, I view the people I have to work with as a problem with administering a program among post-modern nomads. Bottom line: our youth are sticking around until they age out. I see no reason to blame the program.

Deflection? I'm not the one passing the buck on to the BSA. The program is there to work. And scouters need to work it. Three steps: Scouts read the handbook. They decide what to do. Adults provide adequate qualified supervision. That third step has necessarily become harder as the specifications for "adequate" and "qualified" expanded. Nevertheless, the program is designed to vary greatly across the country. It is has a core curriculum around which electives can be built in a myriad of ways. And it was designed to be built by local talent, not national policy wonks. Invariably, when someone has asked/demanded National to weigh in (usually because they didn't like how someone in some other troop was performing, sometimes because there was a measurable risk to scouts getting hurt or acres of wilderness burning away) it has discouraged membership. Anybody who thinks that for a hundred bucks per kid per year gets them national professional supervision has never looked at a church youth program budget.

I am weary of these imprecise arguments. Exactly how many troops nationwide do this? I can say with certainty that a lot of troops don’t have any advancement timetable for their scouts. The program is precisely what you asked for: Core: master first class skills when you may. Elective: 130+ MBs at your convenience. Or consider other awards. Have fun ASAP. Keep physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight in order to help others always — thereby fulfilling duty to God and country, and upholding your honor. This is the program. Any deviation from it — including FCFY, cold weather camping, adults inspecting uniforms with rulers and calipers, snake handling — is local adaptation not in the handbook. Then verbosity of advancement requirements has indeed gotten worse. The addition of “silent” MBs (e.g., pedagogy, a.k.a. the poppycock EDGE method) has not helped. But, to be fair, so has America’s penchant for paperwork. Still, the fact stands: no scout has to check off any requirement until good and ready.

You’ve got it wrong. The “common core” is First Class Rank. Then one could branch out and pursue Eagle, STEM, or some other award. That’s the program we already have. In none of that, is cold weather camping required.

See what the merit badge pamphlet ( not just the requirements, but he content in the body of the book) says. Beyond that, trust your intuition. Like you, I’d consider it to be road biking.

This is a limitation of nationally administered online YPT. My first training was from a council president who outlined recently filed accusations of abuse -- especially at the camp where we were receiving training. I am a strong proponent of incident reporting ... not in terms of numbers, but in terms of rates. A small council with one incident over the past ten years may well be more "risky" than a large council with ten incidents in the past year. On the other hand, that kind of information can backfire. Low incidence in an LC may lead its members to be complacent. That could enable a safe haven for a predator.

A troop in our district did. This was more than a decade ago, sI don’t think I have the materials online. But is was cost effective and they seemed to enjoy some challenging hikes above the tree line.

Just to be clear about risks: rest stops have higher airborne transmission than airports, and consequently truckers are at higher risk of Covid or flu than flight attendants. But being tall, I already have several knocks against modern flying. I can respect that masks may be the greater discomfort for some. If we’re talking about conditioning, I wouldn’t spend more time traveling than I would hiking. If we’re talking about touring, give yourself margin to enjoy a half day before and after the hike. Also, mid-week, many places are much less crowded.

I find coordinating with a friend to be the most challenging part. I had one friend who wanted me to hike with him, but we had a terrible time syncing vaccination schedules. His one week free turned out to be our troop’s summer camp. There are a lot of people who prefer solo hiking. They also don’t complain much about dragging themselves out of the wilderness with busted ribs, twisted ankles etc … The nice thing about the AT is that it’s popular. For some folks, that’s the worst thing about it.

So, what my brother (who is a hiking guide for YMCA of the Rockies and has one or another accumulation of injuries) did was find a county conservation park near his otherwise flat and featureless town, made friends with a farmer’s adjacent property, and commits to hiking the grounds (which includes a couple of nice ravines) at least three times a week. Your step #1 sounds about the same. For #2, look up some good trail guides at the library. Also, there AT clubs and groups online. They do some really good work, and can help pick suitable sections and let you I. On meet-ups . #3 … get a buddy. Preferably a family member or two who will start this journey with you.

To be fair. These have the common themes of “What’s the rule, really?”, “How to enforce?”, and “Does it make kids safer vs. unintended consequences?”, and of course, “Who pays when things spin sideways?”

One time I missed the sons’ summer camp to earn a couple grand instead. Hated every minute of it.

"Just and fair" depends on the estimation of your LC board members -- many of whom probably have earned 10 times that in a year, donated that and more to your LC, have seen the SE perform under difficult circumstances, have probably performed a national search and were not satisfied with the performance of other SE's whose pay was less. Regarding the governor of your state, for that position, he/she probably: didn't have to relocate from out-of-state, has amassed wealth, so accepting smaller salary for public service for a few years is of little risk, has a publicly funded residence at your state capital, has secured his job for at least one term. Please don't shoot the messenger. I've met a few of the board members -- attended one meeting with the venturing youth -- and have some idea of how they think. For good or ill, they do not use the same rubric that you or I would.

@Armymutt, take the BS out of the BSA. If they’ve done the job get them the award. Why does it matter? A uniform can get a little gaudy. But, it can pay off if a new parent comes on and you can say, “Look for the scouters with the knot, they’ve been there and done that and should be more than willing to lend a hand.”