TAHAWK

No idea. But a lot of training is about achieving national objectives - not program.

During WWII, with only olive drab cloth available, the dark khaki uniform (medium brown-green) was replaced with 100% cotton olive drab. Following 1965, the uniform became lighter OD, frail, cotton-polyester. The "tearaway" uniform. We have trouble obtaining good examples for our museum since they were replaced so rapidly as unsatisfactory and are typically donated with significant damage. Trouser crotches are often torn open. This is when the V-neck shirt went away. The next uniform shirt, before we ceased to have a uniform, is the khaki "Oscar" shirt of cotton-polyester. It is, objectively, an improvement to its immediate predecessor in terms of standing up to use. When uniformity went away, replaced by a brand, we got 100% polyester shirts, 100% cotton shirts, and a variety of pockets and buttons., not to mention a range of BSA brand trousers, trouser-shorts, and shorts - all distinctive from across the room- not "uniform." Long-sleeved versions have always been available

Sweetheart deals have happened in Cleveland. About 2000 acres on a large lake in SE Ohio went for under $200/acre to a company whose management included a former council mid-level employee and close, close friend of the then-SE ( soon to be "retired" for keeping two sets of books). The company was in default for several month's of royalties payments to Council for a couple of gas wells on the property, but what's a little repeated breach of contract between friends?. The plan was to turn the valley part of the property into a landfill. Really inept scammers. The locals went NUTS! The feds went NUTS! (The lake, whose waters ultimately drained into the Muskingum/Ohio/Mississippi, was part of the "Navigable Waterways of the U.S."). The Landfill plan was DOA at the state level and , iirc, was never even presented to the feds to begin the years-long process to obtain approval.

Lake Erie Council is pushing "virtual" merit badges, including Nature, Geology, Soil & Water Conservation, and Wilderness Survival ("virtual fires"?). Leatherwork MB Game Design MB American Heritage MB Electronics MB Scouting Heritage MB Wilderness Survival Robotics MB Mammal Study MB Public Health MB Moviemaking MB Disabilities Awareness MB Public Health MB Citizenship in the World MB Nature MB Coin Collecting MB Photography MB Reptile & Amphibian Study MB Genealogy MB Energy MB American Business Chemistry Safety Merit Badge Wilderness Survival MB Digital Technology MB American Labor MB Soil & Water Conservation MB Fingerprinting MB

1/6 OF ALL SMART PHONES WERE FOUND IN A 2011 "STUDY" TO BE CONTAMINATED WITH FECAL MATTER.. PERHAPS KEY BOARDS ARE BETTER.

Very up-to-date code: "Scouting U" Glad someone got something right. Sadly, as I have noted, our SE thinks training is a bad idea becasue poorly-done training is not popular with the customers. His dichotomy is: poor training vs. eliminating training as much as possible He very much favors everything on line becasue it is "more efficient."

"But if they would rather sit at home and play video games, that's up to the parents." What they would rather do is largely up to them. I have seen parents' efforts to coerce their children into Scouting. The kids typically figure out how to escape. E.g.: "Dad, I would really, really rather go on the campout this weekend, but if I don't study more for my test in AP algebra that's coming on Monday, I cannot do better than a 'C.' "

Who decided who would be in this "patrol"? The "Patrol Leader" was elected by the "patrol" members? How does this "patrol" plan its unique patrol activities? How do the wishes of this "patrol's" member find its way into troop program?

"Earning merit badges should be Scout initiated, Scout researched, and Scout learned. It should be hands-on and interactive, and should not be modeled after a typical school classroom setting. Instead, it is meant to be an active program so enticing to Scouts that they will want to take responsibility for their own full participation." BSA, Guide to Advancement at §7.0.3.0 "There must be attention to each individual’s projects and fulfillment of all requirements. We must know that every Scout—actually and personally—completed them. If, for example, a requirement uses words like “show,” “demonstrate,” or “discuss,” then every Scout must do that. It is unacceptable to award badges on the basis of sitting in classrooms watching demonstrations, or remaining silent during discussions. . . . Counselors agree to sign off only requirements that Scouts have actually and personally completed." Id. at § 7.0.3.2 Filling in an unofficial worksheet is not, of course, discussing. It may be showing or demonstrating if done by the Scout rather than done by someone else or merely copied down. I have had xeroxed "work sheets" submitted with the expectation that they would be accepted.

"I thought 'Feedback is a gift.'" Compare to: "Every gift is appreciated."

The candidates are individually tested on each requirement?

Good time to do the budget/spending tracking and calendar work for Personal Management.

AN OBSERVATION ABOUT THE CONSENSUS WORST SCOUTMASTER OF THE PERIOD IN THIS: "He thinks he can teach fire-building inside a building."

How to build a fire pitch a tent, cook over an open fire, use woods tools, take a nature walk - indoors. Truly an awful "idea" - to insult the concept of an idea. 💣

As I came across this tread researching a different issue, I wish to make an observation that does not, I think, conflict with any observation made or opinion expresesed, but may be important. A Scout neither passes nor fails a Scoutmaster's Conference - he has one. The Scoutmaster or his designee decides if a Scout has passed a given Requirements. It has been our understanding for decades in our little corner of the World, that appeal from the denial of a rank, other than Eagle, which has its own detailed process, is to the District Advancement Committee, if you are fortunate enough to have districts. Most such issues were resolved with out a formal hearing by counseling the adults responsible. God knows what happens now that our SE staged his putsch and replaced our districts with employee-run committees.

Not all students have access to the Internet. TV says 2/3 of Cleveland Public Schools students do not. Not all of Virginia is affluent by any standard.

Hopefully there would be answers - acceptably correct answers. Hopefully he would know what questions to ask: "... I am learning you have to blow up a self inflating mattress and store it with the valve open. What other important information has been withheld??? " Can we supply handouts?

In Winter when tenting well-below freezing, place the tops of your boots between the sleeping bag and the insulating mattress so they don't freeze solid. A sacrificial sheet or light fleece blanket over your sleeping bag in cold weather causes the condensation to be less absorbed by the sleeping bag. Moisture in your sleeping bag may freeze when you have abandoned the bag to ambient temperatures, unless your Winters are sunny and dry (Ours are grey and damp, except, occasionally, when below 0º F) and reduces the insulating value of the bag

Your capital suggestion? One supposes he could go on asking questions here, there, and elsewhere. Jolly good!

Find a competent IOLS course in your part of the World and take it.

Polyester batting-insulated sleeping bags gradually lose loft (insulation value) if stored compressed. The greater the compression, the faster the loss of loft. Some polyester batting resists such abuse better , but all yield in the end. Some makers advertise otherwise. Some believe the Earth to be flat.

Blowing up a "self-inflating" mattress is an old trick, but you need to store it with the valve open to allow some of the resulting moisture to evaporate to try to avoid mildew inside. Storing it open also greatly improves inflation in the "field."

blunder

This is especially the issue when the troops are run like one big Cub den.

My "home" council offered Baloo credit for taking a slightly modified IOLS for at least fifteen years. The modification consists of adding thee sessions to cover Baloo topics otherwise not covered, or covered well enough, in OLS. The troop scouters usually voluntarily took those sessions too. This credit for training did not mean that Baloo was not offered as well. Under our latest SE, training has been greatly deemphasized, forcing Scouters to obtain basic and "other" training in neighboring councils. Those council's training teams are very welcoming of more "business." Those councils are also doing better in all the metrics so loved by BSA as well as doing better in offering Scouting to youth.