RememberSchiff

@Mrjeff welcome to scouter.com

@EdCornflake welcome to scouter.com

Why not? IMHO, layers is layers whether a hike, whitewater rafting, or swim. Be prepared.

@EagleForever welcome to scouter.com

Perhaps physically strong in an older scout is more about recognizing one's growing short-comings while still delivering a quality program. Sometimes you damn the pain and press on, other times you recruit a more able-bodied scouter. My $0.02

@DadandGareth welcome to scouter.com

@DewittQ welcome to scouter.com

Family Scouting started as Family Camping and that has been around here for some time. Family Camping was a holdover from Cub Scouts or a way to fit scouting and family in what vacation time was available or maybe the troop was just an adult-run outing club. So on a "family campout", the PL tells scout to do one thing, parents another. Patrol activity is this, family activity is that.... Family trumps patrol/troop. If our troop outing is opened to families, both my son and I withdraw. and we are crystal about the reason. My $0.02

Are your scouts double-checking expiration dates of food donations?

IMHO, every course should have stated purposes, a targeted audience, published outline and responses to student and unit feedback. My $0.02

As per @Sentinel947 request, the pages of Wood Badge discussion was split into its own topic here. Discussions wandering off topic is what happens when a moderator is distracted by Netflix DareDevil Season 3. - RS

Yes we are better staffed for Sunday check-in whether that is due to staff planning, state regulation, or camp accreditation I don't know. Well if a scout/scouter has a fever , open wound, fracture,...or a doctor's note, I can't see the argument. Back in the day when polio vaccine came out, Public Health Mb was a recommended merit badge for Eagle Scouts. Be prepared. Another $0.02

Ditto, Worcester,MA https://www.telegram.com/news/20181016/worcester-excluding-unvaccinated-students-from-school In Massachusetts, "students need to receive the DTaP/Tdap (for diphtheria, tetanus, and whooping cough), MMR (for measles, mumps and rubella), polio, Hepatitis B, and chickenpox vaccines". But then there are home-schoolers, exclusions for medical and religious reasons... First, I think we need to get back to providing proof of current vaccination - either a certified vaccination record and/or antibody test (proof the vaccine worked). Long ago as an EMT, I was vaccinated for Hep B by my town for free. Guess they got a deal on expired vaccine as a couple years later, I was required to submit an antibody test for grad school. Surprise, no Hep B antibodies. More recently, I contracted Whooping Cough (pertussis). Impossible, I had been vaccinated as that decade earlier antibody test confirmed. But that was then, I needed a booster. Thankfully I was vaccinated for measles, mumps, and chicken pox the old school way - got them as a Cub Scout. Den meetings were our vaccination parties. Second the camp nurse check-in, IMO this stop has been more about checking the paperwork and collecting meds and less checking the camper's current health for admission. How are you feeling? I'm okay. Shouldn't everyone have their temp and neck glands checked? Third a complete refund if a scout/scouter is sick. Come back and enjoy camp when your are well. My $0.02

Ah I feel younger, thanks.

NRA firearms instructor certification appears to be the only one the BSA recognizes. Too bad. https://www.scouting.org/outdoor-programs/shooting-sports/ I don't see a problem with added materials from other programs.

Back in 2004/2005 The Boy Scouts have a long history of membership imbroglios. In the mid-1970s, a large council in Chicago was caught boosting minority enrollment figures. During the 1990s, councils in Los Angeles, Vicksburg, Miss., and Jacksonville, Fla., were tangled in ghost-unit controversies. In the past few months, as the Alabama case has grown from suspicions to a publicly acknowledged investigation, a civil rights leader in Atlanta has accused local Boy Scout leaders of falsifying minority enrollment figures to get more grant money. U.S. Postal Service investigators and a federal grand jury in Dallas have looked into allegations as recently as 2003 that a large Boy Scout council manipulated membership numbers. ... An independent investigation of the Atlanta area Boy Scouts found that the organization inflated its number of black Boy Scouts by nearly 5,000 in a program for inner-city youth -- including 200 Scout units that did not exist. The audit found that former Scouts too old to participate remained on the membership lists and that boys who had only attended informational meetings about the program were signed up as entire units, Sims said. "There were kids signed up who were not provided a real Scouting program," said Jesse Spikes, a lawyer who participated in the audit. In one example, an official changed the birth date of 87 Cub Scouts so they would still be young enough to participate. In another case, an official continued to report membership of a church Boy Scout unit although the church had burned down three years earlier. Because the Atlanta council pays the $20 unit charter fee and the $10 individual membership fees of Scouts in the inner-city program, auditors estimated more than $256,000 from the council's general fund -- which includes donations -- were wrongly diverted to the national Boy Scout organization because of the inflated membership numbers. Joe Beasley, regional director of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, said in October that the 13-county Boy Scouts council was reporting twice as many black participants as were actively involved. Those membership numbers are used to help determine United Way funding. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45573-2005Jan28.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/31/AR2005053101285.html Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. - George Santayana

Our patrols have found that the food prices and selection is better at Market Basket, a New England supermarket chain. I think the only product cheaper at WalMart was Clif bars. A good lesson about saving time (convenience) and money. Pick one. My $0.02

Hi @Tired_Eagle_Feathers welcome to scouter.com

A 16 year scout climbing with a friend when a rock handhold gave way causing his fall. The friend was nearby and attempted to help but was also injured. The two teenaged boys had fallen in the remote area of Middle Rosary Lake in Northern Klamath County while on a camping trip with their Boy Scout Troop from Corvallis, Oregon https://www.klamathfallsnews.org/news/one-dead-one-injured-in-scout-camping-trip

The BSA has defined Family scouting as serving families. "Bringing the family together to experience Scouting was one of the key reasons the BSA chose to expand its programs to welcome girls." IMHO, many here are concerned with this change of focus in this new program. Family camping , minimizing patrol method, YP changes are by-products. My $0.02 for quote https://scoutingwire.org/how-cub-scouting-is-bringing-this-whole-family-together/

https://www.scouting.org/familyscouting/

So am I being over-charged or am I more of an annoyance ? I'll look into the former. It may be an added Scouting magazine or an autographed Surbaugh photo, though I have seen neither.

What I have heard from the adults in my unit... 1. There is no need for this change . A second adult or more has been more than sufficient for safety and program. What is wrong with just being a helpful parent? Why the added hassle? 2. There is no interest in paying an additional $45/year either by parent or by our unit. A scout is thrifty and the rest of us are paycheck to paycheck. 3. Another commitment is being asked of the already over-committed. It is not just one-hour online class, one $45 payment, one background check , one hour a week. They prefer the flexibility to participate as they can and if pushed they will not participate. Why turn away the help? 4. Privacy and redundancy concerns about registering and background check. Our professional parents do not understand this at all. A parent who is a RN/paramedic doesn't see the need register to serve as First Aid MBC. Where is the respect for licensed, vetted professionals? 5. If troop is boy-led, why do we suddenly need so many more adult leaders? Do we need 1 adult leader for every 4 scouts or 2 adult leaders for each scout? Our unit has 10 (no make that 9) trained, registered adult leaders for 19 scouts and with this new policy, we need more adult leaders to hold activities? More objections as they come...

Well yes they do, at least in our unit, to provide the now required second YP trained, registered leader for all scout activities. Observing my unit, this change is being viewed as more for money than anything else. Our program was working well without it. We have many qualified, involved adults who provide "strength in numbers", they are just not registered for their own reasons. Maybe it is the stick and not the carrot approach being used? In order to understand the pushback, you need to listen to adults and possibly re-evaluate. Another $0.02

It's the new paradym that parents have to be trained, registered leaders to help - follow along a hike, participate in a service project, staff a popcorn table that is not being accepted. There is no argument about requiring adult leaders to be registered and trained.