qwazse

Who wouldn't love another patch? Go for it!

E94's experience parallels the classic my-son-can't-do-more-pull-ups problem that scouters face. Did the scout grab at a pull-up bar EVERY DAY for a month? Did he at least hang there for 30 seconds? In a community of brutal honesty, the answer will be "No" to which the reply will be "That's okay, when he decides to try for 30 days straight, I'm sure he'll get a chin above the bar." In other communities the answer will be obtuse with varying levels of indignation. The reply remains the same. However, my impression viral spread among the home-bound hasn't increased, it's just the number of large gatherings has plummeted, and along with that so have new infections from that source.

Okay social distance warriors ... there's wisdom and there's zealotry. Now I am grateful that we brought Mrs. Q's mom up from FL last year. We were beyond done with long distance elder care, and the pandemic would have put the stress levels through the roof. So, I feel your pain @HashTagScouts. But, here in PA the "secured" nursing homes have been utter nightmares. Given the situation that you described, your dad's best bet is to get out with his buddies, hit the links or at least walk the course. Here's hoping that call never comes. You might be right @Sniktaw. As I mentioned earlier, some camps would be better operated with two week (or maybe even three week) sessions. My oldest Aunt remembered Campfire Girls camps in NY that extended through much of the summer. I wonder if that was part of it ... get any kids who might not have yet been exposed to flu through their first week so that they can enjoy the remaining four or five. Could an HA reconfigure to handle such extended adventures? Maybe. Would today's parents buy in? I doubt it.

The Egyptians really nailed it, didn't they?

Without denying the possibility of intentional obfuscation, there could be a receiver-operator thing going on here. Only a fool would look at any cadre of kids and say they are 100% safe -- as in zero accidents, injuries, or infections will occur every day they are at camp. One might with 100% confidence be able to say that they are safe relative to being at home for that week. That's no consolation to the parent who is 100% confident that their child is 100% safe at home over the same time. The entire framework of Bayesian statistics is built around a proposition that people have a different confidences for a range of values so that: Camp director is 100% confident that campers will be 80% safe, 90% confident that campers will be 85% safe, 20% confident that that they will be 90% safe, 10% confident that they will be 95% safe and 0% confident that they will be more than 99% safe. This is mainly because they've seen thousands of campers, talked to dozens of regulators. It's not because they've seen a slew of campers during a pandemic. Unit leader is 100% confident that campers will be 50% safe, 80% confident that they will be 75% safe, 10% confident that they will be 80% safe, and 0% confident that they will be more than 99% safe. This is mainly because he/she knows that one of those campers is going to pull out a Frisbee or a football, and things will go south fast (especially if the ASM emeritus picks up said toy after all the kids handled it). And he/she has parents that have experienced this from ground level. On the other hand ... It's not because they've seen a slew of kids at home in the summer during a pandemic. These are what we call prior probabilities of a utility function. (It's more complex than that because the root question is "safe from what?", and each calamity comes with a different distribution. But, I've over simplified to make a point.) If you are in a community who believes 20% unsafe is happening at home anyway, then your money is on the camp director. If you're in a community that doesn't even see 2% unsafe happening at home, you're money is on the unit leader. Those decision points, needless to say vary. I have 4 health care workers coming into my house every day (one sleeps here). Two more of us are essential workers with travel papers. Another is running our elder-care errands as needed (i.e., taking our elder to for drives that include a McD's shake and burger). I'm more confident that this bug will find me at home than at camp (which, as I've said, is patrol cooking). I don't expect anyone else to be running the same gambit. But, anyone who wants to pull the 100% confident rhetoric can talk to the hand. (Once I put my gloves on.)

I think that's how Venturing saved me. I was able to discover a few "happy places." BP's water colors "My House in the Woods" also gave an indication of where a scouter should aim. Applying that to advancement, I only advise the parents who ask me directly about how to help their son with a requirement. Doing more than that is a drag on everyone's time.

The best scout I ever knew aged out at 2nd Class. What made him the best? He invited me to join his troop! Get your scouts to be friendly ... that's a greater achievement than any rank.

We have a 14 boys signed up for camp (the week starting on Father's day) and yesterday one parent asked to add their scout to the list.

@Shameed79, welcome to the forums! Here's one that might fit the bill ... Click here to my reply to a discussion on working with post-modern nomads (that's my term that I recommend instead of the m-word or gen-whatever.) A lot of organizations and municipalities need some major help with archiving old materials, etc ... and doing so demands a lot of leadership and communication skills from a a scout. Best of luck in the idea search!

I remembered thinking this 12 years ago with my crew: "These folks now have tech that Star Trek would covet.* But they can't communicate any better than if they had semaphore flags." *I have a flip phone for lots of reasons. One is in hopes that someday I'll have a friend named Scottie.

Well, statistically, be it in terms of accidents, abuse, ignorance, or perpetual health disparities, the kids are most "at risk" from you, your spouse, your siblings, and each other on a per-hour-of-contact basis. By sending kids to school and scouts, music and sports, I am expecting some of those intrinsic risks to be mitigated. In slightly different terms, a century ago, that's the conversation the superintendent of schools had with my grandfather ... I think he'd be pleased with the results. It's like vaccines. Artificially Inducing herd immunity has intrinsic risks for which our nation compensates human victims. (A friend has someone in his household experienced the side effects - and the claim for compensation -- first hand.) I would never ask my fellow citizens to participate in it ... if it weren't for the dead and maimed harvested by naturally induced herd immunity. The jury is still out about how much two-deep engenders the accountability required to prevent abuse. Either 1) there were a few incidents where BSA felt that a general guideline was necessary or 2) risk managers sat in a room and took guesses at how harmful new tech could be (either to individual members or the organization as a whole). My bet is #2 is close to the real story.

One source of burn-out is asking adults to do a scout's job ... I have no idea why we think telling a parent how a scout can do a requirement helps the scout in any way. There's a handbook. Read it. Do what it says. That's all I said ... once. (in another thread, I posted the contents.) From there it's the SPL/PL's responsibility to show leadership. If they don't, come summer camp (as ASM) I'll be asking them why some of their patrol members aren't even Tenderfoot yet. (I'll do it politely, because we leaders are guests of the patrols for dinner. I'm not doing anything to mess with that gravy train!) The pandemic will not be an excuse. Lack of internet will not be excuse. Heck, if the phones get cut off, that will not be an excuse. And by all that is right and holy, parents not getting an E-mail will not be an excuse. Either they are Tenderfoot scouts or they are not. If they are, good. Time to plan for the next rank. If they are not, time to tell them (not their parents) to get cracking. If some MC whines about us losing JTE points (which, by the way, none have for the past 8 years), I will say that's proof of a great SM. Our troop? The boys evidently finally asked the SM to hold a zoom meeting to discuss O/A. We'll have one tonight. Will we have another one? i dunno, that's between the SM and the PLC. I sent one blurb out that camp will be rough if the patrols aren't getting in shape. It's now up to the boys to figure it out.

Mrs Q and I binge watched it last weekend. Cute show.

The persistent banner ads for Boy Scout compensation fund are getting old. Any way the forum can charge them double and send them to troubled camps?

@RichardB some of the points on the "Safety Moment" are more intuitive than others. Say, for example, avoiding recording. That is very hard not to do! I have had parents who review all of their kids' texts. I am certain we no have such parents who record every online session. Lacking incident reports, it's hard to tell which suggestions are reactions to actual abuse and which ones are defensive out of fear of hypothetical litigation.

Success in spite of drawing the short straw of a 1st ASM @ WSJ! His was the last ECoH I attended before lock-down.

On it. Well, except for the vax tat. Nowadays kids are all about stickers ... https://www.pittwire.pitt.edu/news/covid-19-vaccine-candidate-shows-promise-first-peer-reviewed-research Some who see a bevy of patients might be selected to give it a go. If you're interested and in the area, you've probably already seen announcements, but just in case ... https://www.upmc.com/coronavirus/vaccine

So, scouters, if your PL got with his buddies and, with parents approval, did this hike, would you sign them off on the 5 mile land navigation requirement?

Online has yet to be delivered uniformly across districts around here. Pittsburgh public is having an especially rough time.

@Treflienne, that scout of yours is in it for more than just rank, so brag about her to your troop, your district, and your council. Send her a patch, or maybe a backwards necker face mask from your collection! As far as rank requirements go, none of us should meddle in the machinations of you and your PLC. Read the requirements (and in this case, I'd stick with the ones in the Handbook) discuss with your PL and SPL if they think it would be fair for them to sign off on her work, and proceed accordingly. It's not a thing to leave to strangers on the internet, be it National's advancement committee or us. But since you asked ... My bottom line: conceptually, is she a second class scout? If she fell in with one of my patrols -- or my crew -- could I expect her to have the skills and demeanor commensurate with her rank? Or, would her provisional PL/officer come grumbling to me that this kid barely has tenderfoot skills?

I can't speak for the other camps, but Redwing avoided recent closures because it was so popular among GS around here. My venturers loved the place.

@Jeff1974, I definitely relate to the "old folks at home" experience. Mrs Q's mom is at our house. Plus my grandson is just around the corner on home isolation due to major surgery last month. We are grateful for every day we can keep the two of them out of the hospital, and we are resolved to keep it that way. My TC knows that'll be a deciding factor in my availability going forward. At the same time, a couple of scouts (before all of this happened) asked me to restart our crew. So, I'm asking myself: is this the right time to get online and throw down the gauntlet with these boys to start a recruitment plan?

If you leave your boots outside your tent (even in a vestibule) put them sole side up. It's easier to shake out scorpions than snow.

Oh, the trading opportunities one would have next year with a certified NYC COOVID-19 response necker!

Excellent question. Obviously a lot of fossils are found because someone moved the rock that was covering them! File under all things in moderation?