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How about a different spin on the 24th World Scout Jamboree after-action review? What did we learn that we didn't know before? Here's three for starters: While we tend to select our most seasoned scouters as SM's for Jambo units, other countries tend to select younger scouters. Our Danish neighbors' SMs were the same ages (and some with the same career) as my kids. Their scouts did explain that they also had retirees who were SMs, but at world events, they tended to serve in contingent management. Hills. Well, I tend to take them for granted. But most folks who I talk to never camped in such "rugged" terrain. (I think the Swiss were the only ones who had experienced anything of the sort.) I had to explain, that not every camp is like this, but most of the ones that I attended were. Donated land for scout camps. Our Indian neighbors were tremendously surprised that someone would contribute this much property for the purposes of scouting. It seemed like any property they used was either owned by a government or religious institution. Either personally, or through a scout who attended Jambo, what have your learned?

@Jim2195, welcome to the forums! It sounds like you are doing some pretty awesome things. Be proud of those. Understand that they may get in the way of rank advancement, but at a certain point they will give you an advantage because you will develop study skills that less academic scouts don't have. In your scouting career, focus on being a 1st class scout -- the concept, not the patch. What I mean by that is practice every skill in your handbook as often as you can. Knots: just spend time tying them while you study! It's a form of geometry. Land navigation: you'll find direct application to algebra and trigonometry. Swimming/fitness: keep up the habit of routinely exersizing to relieve some stress. Knife/axe: use them to carve an exercise log (literally, cut notches in a log or staff for each type of exercise you do). Camp and hike. Camp and hike. Camp and hike. One of the biggest lies in scouting is that a scout should achieve 1st class rank one year after joining. This has ruined scouting for lots of boys. Don't let that lie it ruin it for you. Getting that rank is hard. And the fact that you are 15 and still working on it proves that you are serious about mastering those skills and that you don't want any short-cuts. Finally (to the boredom of every senior member of this forum): the best scout I ever knew aged out at 2nd Class rank. What made him the best? He invited me to join his troop. If all you ever do is give someone else the chance to hike and camp with you and your troop, you will have become the 2nd best scout I ever knew. Best of luck on your scouting journey. I'm sure you'll do a fine job!

We have allocated 15 minutes after each meeting for PL's to review the meeting and make plans going forward. The need for those meetings has become less this year. I suspect it varies with the type of youth that you have, the facilities available, and the communication methods used. It seems to me that the old-school methods (bulletin boards, totems, and flags) required fewer meetings to remind folks of who's responsible for what.

@ParkMan, I suspect most of discovery are straightforward documents that could tip the judge's opinion one of many ways, depending on how the opposition synthesizes them to make their case. Others are no doubt interviews with potential customers who were confused about branding. In either case, by delaying discovery, the opposing side has less time time to figure out how each item may support or refute their arguments. From the court's perspective, however, such delays are an undo burden on clients and taxpayers. They judge is sensing that these lawyers are just playing cat-and-mouse, and playing games with the law is not doing one's job.

Well, "fun" in a sleep-depriving sort of way. There's no doubt that people conserved water. After night 1, the shrieks subsided and everyone was braced for the "hit". It sounded like the girls from Kent made a game of it. At least they were the loudest. Of course absent from the field were US girls, whose utterances in my experience best anyone in volume! What was really annoying was the lighting in those houses spilled over onto the back of my tent. That took getting used to. Then, the youth, once they got to know one another would congregate around the lit areas! Their noise didn't anger me nearly as much as their stupidity. I mean, back in my day, if I wanted to stay up all night talking, I would be sure to either whisper, and/or relocate someplace other than 10 yards from my leader's tent. The staff camps had solar water heaters. I'm sure it's all a matter of return on investment. What was really missing from participant camps was convenient and reliable charging stations. It wouldn't surprise me if at the next campsite we see Amazon drones delivering propane fuel cells with 40 port USB chargers to each campsite.

"Ambient temperature" as a friend reminded me when I reported that night #1 at Jambo was pocked with multicultural screams of souls subjecting their hides to such water for the first time. Such is life when you've been assigned a site adjacent a shower house.

@dkurtenbach, this is a century-old fight. What the lawyers are trying to prevent from discovery is all of they ways each party had tried to impose more-or-less unwritten branding rules on the other for decades.

In an attempt to redeem this discussion, @MarkBrownsky, I would suggest that your SM has two courses of action. First, the bully could be asked to correct whatever he has been doing wrongly. It is often the case that SPLs don't get everything right from the start. They come in with blind spots to their un-scoutlike behavior. Training might help them see what they are missing, but the fact is that most scouts' flaws don't become apparent until they are put into a demanding position of responsibility. The SPL might be asked to apologize for whatever clique he's created that makes another scout feel excluded, and given a chance to work on being more of a friend to all. Second, the bully could be suspended from the troop for a while. This recourse is necessary when the SM has tried to point out how the scout must change, but the scout has not responded positively. The suspension helps give the scout a chance to think if he really wants to live up to the Oath and Law. Also, it helps the troop determine if the problem is one scout, or if some character flaw in the other scouts (including the victim) is also at play. None of this is official policy. It's just what I find to be intuitively the corrective actions available. It's not entirely clear which course of action is appropriate in your context. Needless to say, we'd all like the first strategy to work all of the time, but we would not be having this discussion if that were the case.

@MarkBrownsky

Forestalling death is a moral value. Period. And although I am convinced that a restrictive sexual ethic is the first tier in defending the far corners of the earth from the ravages of disease, epidemiology shows that the second tier has spared as many souls.

We've discussed this before. Open access to AIDS prevention devices at medical facilities for youth gatherings have been part WHO recommendations since 1990. That the most effective HIV defense also curbs pregnancy is incidental. If it's any consolation, the beer tent only had non-alcoholic Heinekin.

Congratulations! Nothing like knowing that your son can command the respect of your peers! The workbook should come back to your son. I can't imagine any council HQ wanting to keep it. Just ask them when he'll get it back.

I think if the bear was over 21, completed YPT, and registered with BSA it would have been okay. But, all signs indicated that we had yearlings approaching camps and trails. So, I had to find a scouter -- or a second bear -- to avoid 1-on-1 contact.

@ianwilkins, follow Bryan's blog. He already made one post ... https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2019/05/31/theme-logo-for-2021-national-jamboree-will-invite-scouts-to-face-the-challenge/ Rollout of registration will be very soon. At least that's the scuttlebutt from my connections. Truth: I am not a big convention fan. There were times in the last two weeks were I selected an out-of-the-way trail just for some quiet and to pick some blackberries or sassafras root ... or track a bear. Most of the time I met someone on the trail who was doing the same thing. Two-deep with a stranger of like mind is a good thing.

There is one checklist: the trail to First Class. Scouts should master each item on it. For example, no scout should ever think that they only need to present their gear to their PL once for rank advancement.This should be routine at each camp-out. Who has what gear, who needs what gear, and how to balance loads is an essential discussion for every hike and camp. Why? Because adults aren't going to be there to bail them out. Oh, wait, I confused BSA with the European and South American girls and boys who explained to me how their patrols work. Sorry ... Jamboree residual.

Ya know what? All you all who did not PM me to at least try a meet-up are also on my list of what could be better at Jambo,

I don't think it's a matter of what is classy or not. It's a matter of looking at SAGNO's, determining if it was good for their nation, then extending an appeal (repeatedly, as every opportunity arises) in terms of what's best for our nation. In the coming decades, if these two organizations keep to their declining membership trajectory, and other splinter organizations keep to their ascending trajectory, we may be pressed to form a federation of independent US scouting movements anyway.

Sorry for my naivete. I keep thinking the fourth point of the scout law actually means something. There's no bad blood between my troop and any GS/USA troop. I formed a crew because two troops wanted to go to Seabase together. Every year, including this one, GS/USA troops join my district in decorating veteran's graves. Last week I talked to a steadily advancing Scouts BSA girl who works hard recruit female leaders for activities, yet she detests the GS/USA - BSA administrative boundaries. Yes, I know this is a "big ask" ... to the point of being fanciful. But, almost half of our fellow youth citizens missed out on the opportunity that WSJ's fellowship and foibles provide. And that's a shame.

There were definitely some things that I would have preferred to show the world instead of big zips: Taking a cue from the WSJ in Sweden: Each subcamp and the fields around the main stage stacked with spars and rope for pioneering. (Our campsites were given split 8' 2x4's -- a total of eight pieces of cut lumber.) The orienteering map as the base map for scouts instead of the minimally detailed map that we were given. Main stage recognition of scouts who "aced" activities each day. (E.g., fastest time on course, best scout spirit at activity x, etc ..) There was plenty of time before each show to announce scouts on the screen. Displays from multiple colleges and universities. (WVU was the only school representing.) A lot of folks are interested in studying here. Some asked me about schools in my neck of the woods. Displays from each state in the US, Canada, and Mexico. More wild plant and animal exhibits. I held the attention of Indonesian girls for 20 minutes as I made their leader Sassafras tea. More presentations from Native American tribes. BSA (and Scouts Canada and Scouts Mexico) literature. An Indonesian scouter asked me about it, and I referred her to scoutstuff.org. There was a lot of interest in how our troops operated. (I had to do a lot of explaining of the how's and why's of sex segregation.) Bending over backwards to be sure GS/USA is invited. We had the potential to reach balanced sex ratios. Guide's from other countries commented on their conspicuous absence. I do hope the US, Mexico, or Canada will have a "next time" in less than 50 years. But, even if SBR is only used for National Jamborees, I think some of these tweaks would make them much better events.

A lot of the foreign contingents that I met were flying out of DC, after touring it for a day or two. Also let's be clear: There was no lack of food. There was lack of food choices thanks to SMs who encouraged/required their scouts to max out on points even if they weren't ever going to eat them. There were "keepsakes" for sale Friday. They might not have been the ones scouts wanted. But they were at every trading post that I passed. I myself grabbed a hammock that was marked down to a reasonable price. Moreover, there was that participant patch and necker. I can't imagine a better keepsake. Finally, if a scout packed light, he/she could take a tent home in his luggage. (I sure hope nobody tried to carry on a bag of tent stakes.)

@mashmaster, props to your son for embracing the suck. Our boys saw some other SM's and how they operated, and thanked for giving them a long leash. But it wasn't automatic. Our SM got reamed out by jamboree management staff over scouts who got "lost" on two spear the occasions. Each time the scout knew where he were going, but misplaced his buddy. After trying to explain that we were being tasked with the impossible. They emphasized that they would return a stray scout to camp HQ -- not our campsite ... Not even our subcamp. And we would have to come retrieve the scout. As it became clear that he was only going to get more flack, the SM responded with, "Yes sir. Thank you sir." I wasn't present ... probably a good thing. He simply came back to camp. Waited until dinner, and told our boys what went on: that we were blindsided by this procedure, and that we would like them to respect the fact that our day (or night) could get derailed if they were found alone walking the roads between subcamps. I could imagine some other SM going all command-control on their scouts. @Setonfan, I am no "grumpy couch-sitter." I have the blisters to prove it. We participants were the ones quickly solving the problems. We told members of foreign contingents how to work around HQ mismanagement. I made it quite clear to every duty officer who stopped for a cup of coffee that the real HQ was not in those white tents on the hill above us. It was on the road between our site and the site of the next US contingent. If you had actually visited our section of subcamp C, there is no way you would describe any problem as being "solved quickly." We had some that took two days to clear up. We bailed the staff out at many turns. And, it was our pleasure to do so. Our boys' enthusiasm for taking care of our neighboring troops when HQ was faltering made the experience. On behalf of our scouts, you're welcome.

I talked to scouts from several nations bearing their countries anxt about access to firearms. On the other hand most scouts were happy to learn how to safely use them for the first time. At campsites, our scouts had many fruitful discussions about them.

Many scouts were aware of the Scouts BSA rollout. USA girls at Jamboree were a big deal to them.

I am wiped out from partying 10 days straight with tens of thousands of the most awesome well-fed youth on the planet. My bottom line: all of the negatives listed above amounted to net good.

From the hammock of our Jambo SM (because all the boys left camp, finally): We need a new word. People who work for scouting are professionals; who do things in free time for youth, volunteers; who do it for cheap, staff; but ... What is a word for people who pay to work (e.g., International Service Team or SMs/ASMs)?