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In other words, EDGE is an insufficient tool for mastering a skill. The student needs a reference. This is what will keep him/her on the long march out of the Dark Ages. Who'd have thunk it? I never thought of this advancement issue to be similar to EDGE. But the parallels are striking. With internet advancement, there's this presumption that the scout always has to be dependent on an adult referees for each step in his progress towards rank. In fact, he/she only has to be dependent on a handful of adults: the one's who wrote the program requirements, and the typesetters and editors who made sure the books were printed correctly. He/she will need an SPL/PL to help with the occasional translation of the written world into practicality, and the SM and committee are really only needed for personal growth conferences -- steps in the advancement process, but not the process itself. There's a list, work down it, advance. The main thing scouts need are cheerleaders telling them that they can do this, if not now, then after they grow just a little through participating in troop/patrol activities. Lets be frank. IA, is a way for BSA to save money by streamlining the ordering of awards. A pleasant side-effect is it helps adults get an overview of which scouts may need us to specially cheer for them. It's also a convenient back-up in case their handbook is lost. But it and the data-plan and required devices are far more costly than pen and paper. So in conclusion ... @sst3rd, as a scouting mentor once told me, you're probably crazy, but you're not wrong.

Thanks for passing on lessons from the school of hard knocks! What would be really nice is if the course coordinator could give you time for an intermediate and advance class. The prerequisite would be having completed the MB. Yes, scouts should be allowed to "re-take" a class where they've already earned the MB. I've had scouts who've done this routinely. Maybe part of the deal would be they serve as your assistants for the basic class. The advanced class would learn to use the advanced tools and maybe work on one project of their choosing. The other thing that would help is to know other leather workers in your council and get them registered as councilors. That way, the scouts who partial on the badge can have a formal way of completing it with someone in their community. With your display items, do you have a card that displays the amount of time and types/cost of materials needed to complete each project? That kind of information would really help a scout get an idea of what he/she might need to take this up as a hobby.

@ArmyScout, ask yourself a simple question: What do I have to offer that would motivate 14-20 year olds in my community to be constantly supervised by myself and one other adult? Is it worth them giving up their jobs, extracurricular activities, and other activities? Could they do just as well hopping in a couple of cars and going off on their own?

Congratulations! And, thanks in advance for all you'll do for the youth in your new position. I think as a UC, your focus is the key-3. Keep your CC, CoR, and SM in the loop. Encourage them to attend roundtables. And, encourage them that they set the tone for their program. Your starting out with continuing parents, so they are coming with visions of how things should work. Most of those are probably good ideas. So, the hard work is telling them that not every good idea can be rolled out at once. FInally, find out if you can tag along with a UC you trust as he/she attends to a unit. I'm sure you'll do a fine job.

I think it boils down to two things: When you don't urgently need shelter, neither does the bear. Hang first. (I use a dry-bag.) If a bear can learn to associate tents with food, you're at the mercy of everyone who camped there before you. Hammocks and backpacking tents do have the advantage low visual profile, but once a tarp is strung up, all bets are off. More importantly, the odds of a tarp holding smells. For you all who drink cocoa or coffee in your tent, turning your tent inside out and taking a hose to it on a sunny day is a good idea. Throwing your hammock in the wash ain't a bad idea either. Of course, if you're like me, your hammoking when the temps plummet below dewpoint after a storm and the winds push all that moister up under my tarp and into that "hanging water trap".!

Not just western territories ... A bear raided a friend's campsite as she and her buddies were setting up in broad daylight for a ladies' weekend in the hills of NC. The critter knew to strike before the food bag got hung! The rest of her weekend continued in a hotel. I guess this bear heard @Jameson76's mantra too!

Suggestion if using this for orienteering: pack the ice cream in dry ice. Include safety gloves for handling it and assign that to your more mature patrol. It might be a while before the scouts find it ... longer before they find the rendezvous. Alternatively, the course could end by the freezer! Note around here that as far as root beer goes 1919 is the scouter beverage of choice, mainly because it's good, but also because we don't find it elsewhere on the eastern seaboard (click here for coverage area). Navigating to the distributor is itself a GPS adventure! Not anywhere near a good 1919? Consider dead drops for all of the ingredients for dry ice rootbeer (this recipie is on my bucket list)!

Not sure what it actually is (plaque, patch, handshake) but the Keystone Trails Association has several awards for PA hikers https://www.kta-hike.org/hiking-awards.html I'd be interested to hear from anyone who's actually tried this.

As with many things about advancement, I would toss this out to PLC and ask what would be the most fun way to do this? Some options: On a given Saturday, I can go to a random coffee shop, E-mail the scouts the name of the place in the morning. They have to navigate to it. I can pack my hammock, rigging, coffee, moka pot, water and stove in my Spanish contingent pack, picnic cloth. Set up in a public park where I might meet friends from the far corners of the earth, group text my location, and give a four-hour window in which scouts may find me there. SPL/PL may do the above on his/her terms. As part of their patrol's hike/camp plan, the scout who needs the requirement can navigate his patrol's driver to camp. As part of the same plan, the scout can navigate the driver to the nearest ice cream stand. Or, expanding on @walk in the woods' idea: I could dead-drop a half-keg of root beer in one location, the tap in another location, ice cream in another location, and have mugs hanging from a tree in yet another location. PLs must have their navigators lead them to the drop zone ... then to rendezvous at some idyllic camp. The locations may or may not be accessible by car depending on the whim of the SPL/ASPL. Or the scout in question may "choose" his own destination, and try to convince a buddy that he should go with him/her there. He/she may choose someplace they've been before, but maybe choose a more interesting route or a novel starting point. If the, buddy, PL, SPL/ASPL, or I do not want to go to some lame destination that the scout chooses out of sheer laziness because he/she already knows how to get there, then we aren't adding to the requirements by demanding he/she think out of the box. We're adding to to the fun. Contrary to popular belief, scouts may add to the fun without fear of adding to the requirements!

I learned your "bragging point" at the Chilean exhibit at World Jamboree this summer! At the opening show, a contingent of scouts from Chile sat behind my troop. They were an awesome group of kids! Just to push you "out of the box," stay open to advising a venturing crew. Your mix of activities would appeal to older scouts. On the flip side, venturing can be a wild ride. But, let's not get bogged down in those details just yet. Enjoy meeting scouters in your counsel, and let us know what they offer you!

Welcome to the forums! And thanks in advance for all that you'll do for the youth. Step one: don't say "I didn’t make make Eagle ..." ever again. Instead, say, "I advanced to ___ rank in my troop." Or, "I aged out as a ___ scout with a smile!" Any scout, upon hearing you say with pride the rank you earned might begin to think of whatever rank they're at with that same level of pride. Advancement is hard. Scouts need to understand and respect that. Step two: It definitely sounds like you'd enjoy being a counselor for a number of the outdoor merit badges (Camping, Hiking, Backpacking, Horsemanship, etc ...). So, complete youth protection training and do whatever your council wants counselors to do to be registered in good standing. Once you are registered, you will need to work to make sure any other certifications (e.g., Introduction to Oudoor Leader Skills) are added to your training record. Step three: You might also contact your council training committee to look into helping train other scoutmasters or crew advisors. Also, being available to take photos for camporees and other district/council events could be a huge plus. Visiting troops to talk about your career could be a fun way to spend evenings. You would begin to do that by visiting roundtables and introducing yourself. Step four: There might be a troop who needs a SM or ASM, but often the schedules and location have to be just right for that to work. Obviously, if you are multilingual, you might want to focus on scouts who don't speak English well. Obviously, this four step plan is just one of many ways things could work for you. As you meet scouters in your vicinity, the later steps will be revised. So, keep an open mind and you will have an enjoyable adult scouting career!

When I was a teen, my brother let me order an aluminum mess-kit from an AmWay catalogue that he got as a years-of-service award at work. It was one of the first kits to roll out with a Teflon-coated pan. Heavy gauge. Still in service. The only thing that I lost from it was the pair of lightweight tongs that was used to lift pots and doubled as pan handles ... small loss in the age of potholders that actually resist heat. It served my patrol, then my family, then my adult leaders, pretty well on most campouts. Because the pans don't have slots/mounts for handles, etc ... they clean up easily. The only thing that I still need to configure for it is a soft spatula that stows easily with the Teflon pan.

Two places: on the right pocket of the tan shirt, or on the back of the merit badge sash.

I'm inclined to agree with @desertrat77. When you grow up seeing the serious backpackers leaving for the deep woods, it makes you curious. On the cusp of qualifying to lead a patrol there yourself. Not sure how much they'll be the future of the BSA. They're just as likely to tackle those (and other) hills five years from now independently with their mates. The BSA-required adult leaders will be left behind. Not being trusted to ASM young ones, they'll wind up as young adults serving other youth programs. A minority will come back to the BSA at age 21. Most will be doing good for this country and the world under other banners.

We've found that the adults have to identify their available weekends. The scouts usually pick familiar locations, and we try to add one or two novel ones for them to consider. In general they are open to one in four of our suggestions. We're pretty flexible. If scouts come up with something mid term, we'll try to add it to the calendar, maybe swapping out something they weren't that enthused about.

We've all been talked into using foil for lots of campfire cooking. It's all fine and good if you gather your scrap foil, wash it, throw it in your forge, and roll it into sheets again. But most of us don't have time for that sort of thing. I've found there's plenty of situations where it (or any other utensil) is unnecessary as long as you can maintain a sizeable bed of coals. This is best done by separating the upwind and downwind side of the fire with a large log. The downwind side is for burning wood to make more coals, which you dig out under the log to bring over the upwind side. Things cook slower, but better. Corn on the cob. Do not shell! Rinse the husks lightly, and set the ears in coals to roast for about 1/2 hour. Rotate as needed. (P.S., if the fire is on a sand dune or beach, insert ears under the fire. The hot sand will speed cooking. Potatoes. Get a smaller brand and bury in coals. Three inch potatoes will cook in 1/2 hour. Dry-Rub roast beef. Lay on the coals, pull another 1/2 inch layer on top. Slice meat from edge to center as it cooks. Pastry dough. Store-bought? Bury tube in coals. The paper wrapping will burn away, and as it blackens, you can rotate it. Inside is yum! The alternative (especially useful for dough from scratch) is to wrap around a stick. But getting the thickness of dough correct and suspending it close above the coals is a bit tricky. Apples ... yes the thicker varieties will cook while buried half way in coals. Core them and and spices and a little water to the middle while they roast. Yes, every now and then a husk or one of your vittles will come alight, but that's half the fun!

Don't over-think. Did more scouts join than quit since you started? Give yourself full credit. If you're wrong, your UC can amend it.

You're not kidding. I mean, I have a perverse heart-warming feeling when ride by the midget football camp in the park on the North Side of town. A fair bit of my time in both Sunday school and scouts is talking kids through their growing lack of interest in whatever sport they were involved in since they were little. Their friends as much as their family are pressuring to keep up with the soccer/baseball/football team (or, sometimes band), but they are realizing they are just not enjoying it -- even if they a pretty good at it. They've gotten bored with the game, and playing it under lights in a stadium of cheering strangers is not gonna change that. Sometimes the conflict can be quite serious. Athletes who are "into the game" can become bullies. They and their victims sometimes need to step away from the game to realize that they can find beauty "on the outside." This also happens in scouting. But not as often, and not as extreme. I think because there are more niches in the program that a scout can fill.

Some contingents did revise their departures. However, I don't know if all of those were flying. Or if the buses were involved. Had they not revised their plans, if they were flying, they would not have had plans delayed because of storms at hubs. A "modern" airport does not have loads of contingency plans. It is based on a few very large hubs through which all traffic must flow. When the weather is fine, millions of extra travelers flow through smoothly. Ground two hubs, and the nation has to sit tight, be it Jambo, sport championships, or everyone's grandmother making holiday dinner hither and yon. Not knowing the weather months in advance, there is no computing to get around this. In fact, knowing the weather months in advance won't help much, because just because you know hubs will be grounded on, say, August 4th, doesn't mean we have the gate slots at the other airports (e.g. Indianapolis, Cleaveland, Pittsburgh, Grand Rapids, Charleston ....) whose infrastructure has been effectively capped over the past decades. Were airports based on a more distributed system (like we all experienced in the 70's), more ad hoc routes could be formed. But then, we would have been taxed out the eyeballs to make it so. So you don't think scouts should ever experience what most Americans experience every several flights? Maybe it's their turn to fix things. Teach our scouts to elect officials who will build up the heartland so that we have an array of many large airports with extra capacity across the continent. For Jambo, we should start with Charleston, Morgantown, and Lexington. Or (brace yourselves) push for fewer 5 lane highways, and more high speed rail lines.

I spent one morning on Mt. Jack with an Indonesian contingent (mostly female) making sassafras tea for their leader. They dressed sharply -- even for what I think was their activity dress. Uniform hijabs for the muslim girls. I was talking to the contingent leaders, and they were interested in purchasing BSA literature (which, sadly the trading post had none of). I think neat dress is a priority for most of them. It's one thing that the scouts can control. One leader who I talked to had lived through the tsunami and now has concerns about seemingly perpetual martial law and subsequent corruption. Another leader was at a University teaching psychology and is trying to figure out the rise in boyfriend/spousal abuse of academic women (the thinking/hope being that educated women would be less vulnerable).

Happy to have bused. There was a little chatter from parents as their sons were delayed a day. But ... Our hub system means that stormy weather in the heartland grounds flights along the coast. It's basically the new normal for frequent air travelers. I figure as a family, we've missed one in five flights. In general Charlotte's expansion of the past decade was at the expense of large corporate tax breaks that could have otherwise been used for better infrastructure, including larger check-in terminals at CLT. TSA and flexibility are not known to go together. This is just life in Post-Modern America. Lower taxes. Live free. Do without service. Accept delays. These scouts will be voting in four years or less. It will be interesting to see how their experience influences their choice in candidates.

List be damned. I believe ASM is the most appropriate position for an 18+ year old working on Eagle. Being a young ASM is sort of scouting's finishing school. It's really the last step in leadership development before going off to college, war, or to earn your fortune. Sure joining a Crew could be an option, if they'd elect you to a position. In my crew, positions were not gimme's. You had to be worthy of your peer's approval. The method in Venturing is not "leadership development" but "leadership", so I took that to mean "don't try, do." If the crew had doubts about your dedication, you weren't getting elected. Obviously, I'm coming from a perspective where I think any adult Advisor, SM, Co-Advisor, or ASM should have to earn First Class, and if they desire to go on to earn Eagle, they should be permitted to do so. So, my answer is based on my intuition and not based on some pronouncement from BSA. However, I do believe that ASM is the natural next step for such a scout. Knowing that they can talk to you adult-to-adult is really important for them and for your community. So, giving them the patch that says they can do that is a great way to "raise the bar" for that relationship. Caveat: as always, my position continues to be only give positions to those who will do the work. If the candidate is only going to be nominally ASM, they don't deserve to advance in rank. But I also recognize my young ASMs if they contribute to the life of the troop on the few weekends or evenings that they have free from college or military. Those hours explaining to scouts what life is now like for them is invaluable.

@greenreddew, welcome and thanks for all you do for the youth!

I think campaigning for legislation is not an Eagle project because there is no named beneficiary. However, legislation is often a step in the process. For example, Son #1 had to attend several borough meetings and meetings with town planners to get approval to release funds from a state grant for materials to do his project. In this scout's case I think a suitable project would be mobilizing the community to change recycling patterns. Legislating plastic handling would be the first step. Educating and enabling community members would be the next step, followed by an evaluation period and report back to the legislating body. This could benefit a town or county in any number of ways ... not the least of which would be the hours of manpower saved in mobilizing enforcement. But, when we lay out all of the steps like that, it begins to sound like a series of projects on the way to a Hornaday award.

Not even one. Say a 1st class scout has attended several events where he as earned a patch and is very proud of those first three rank ovals and each temporary insignia. Get him a sash and have him stitch each insignia on the back side. That way, he'll have a sash just like his buddies at the next court of honor. Then he'll be ready to sew on his first (or first ten) MBs the evening that they are awarded. I am trying to nudge the boys in my troop into doing the same thing.