Tampa Turtle

Yea, I think this is just better marketing of something that was always available and making lemonade out of the lemons of less crews signing up this year (for whatever reason). Given the popularity of National Parks I think they may be exploiting an available market.

IMHO it has gotten two expensive and too complicated to go. We have had plenty of scouts go but more and more they are planning and going on their own adventures (in and out of scouting) for the same or less money.

I read Canadian Broadcast Corporation.

Sorry about that! You are lucky. We have a scout that has a shorter thumb now. Nothing says "fun campout" like looking for a missing piece of digit. And mom was a personal injury lawyer--we were sweating that one out* I was doing microsurgery on a sticky yard gate with a dremel with the tiny wheel of sawing death the other week and my mind wandered and nearly took my thumb off. I no longer use chain saws around my property because I get tired now and that always leads to trouble. I hate getting old. * All she cared about was what thumb was hurt. He played cello and since it was the string hand vs the bow hand she was cool with it.

I keep hearing on the grapevine they have lots and lots of empty slots this year. The Philmont operation seems to depend on a bigger flow of participants than years pass to make the numbers work perhaps?

Welcome! I love Iron Bru*...it's made from girders you know. *not really. May I ask what bit of Scotland? I have been there three times.

Opps forgot the girl!

Could this be it: 2018 Itinerary Selection Update! ALL Itinerary Selection Dates Postponed We have given some thought to the recent events surrounding the release of itinerary information and have decided to move ALL itinerary selection dates to Tuesday, March 27 and Wednesday, March 28. This change is reflected in the Camping Gateway.Please see the Itinerary Selection Times Chartto determine your selection time.

There have been times (for various reasons) I have lost my cool in front of the Scouts or Students. Regardless of the justification I was withdrawing trust and respect at breakneck speed with the youth-hard to earn easy to lose. My point was one could argue all night FTF or on the Forum about the SM vs OA thing....by reporting I'd let Council sort it out...it would be up to what ever policy they would want to have on it. And I could see an argument from the SM side...we have pushed back at times on promoted by other presentations like FOS or WB beading taking over entire meetings. Fair is fair. Sorry work is stressing you out. I have had a similar experience lately.

I would walk away and report the SM to Council.

She-Wolf?

We have it on Trooptrack as a resource and trust our scouts to NOT look at it when they need a MBC.

...yeah... (slowly moving hand toward cudgel)

So Fluckey got under the wire.

When did the Eagle at 18 cut off begin?

I always say hands off the election team and election to my SM's. We had one who overly manipulated the list of who was eligible and the ASPL who was an arrowman stood up to him and called in the OA liaison who backed the boy up. I have overseen a few elections in other Troops. I have been in the room when the votes were counted and did not interfere when one son missed getting in by one vote on his last year of eligibility. But then maybe he should have been more friendly and cheerful? In general popularity or not I think the boys, overall, make pretty good choices. To address the situation @'Lope mentioned pn more than a few occasions I have found out later (since I had two sons in the troop who hung with different groups I eventually got good intel) that a number of scouts we adults thought were " selflessness, unwavering commitment to serve, dependability, and Scout skills" were also martinets, two faced, selfish, or bullies who had us fooled. So I trust the boys and resign myself that a few good guys will get passed over.

Sadly as I was never a scout I never earned a merit badge. I had some fun Emergency training on the job that had instant hurricanes, rioters, chemical spills, crashing airplanes, and terrorists all happening at once! Good times. I tried to bring some of that to the Merit Badge when I did E-Prep. Saw a 1st Aid MB that talked amputations and impalements (with actors) that kept their attention. Best MB I ever sat in on (and I have sat in on plenty) was a couple at Woodruff SR, GA summer camp in 2010 and 2011. One was the Forestry MB in 2010 taught by a young man (former Eagle) who was a monk in his day time job. He was a character and a real 'nature boy'. The other was Bird Study taught by a Venture Scout in 2011. She obviously loved her subject and taught with great enthusiasm and could do all the bird calls. She was funky and simply amazing. (I made it a point to tell them directly and the camp director what terrific jobs they were doing). While I think both instructors did 'tick' off the requirements they got the boys doing as much as possible and made them go out and do stuff in the real world even if it was a bit outside the requirements. Their enthusiasm about their subject and youth really got a response from the boys.

Done over 3 or 3 sessions this can be a really good one.

Fingerprinting. Can do it in 45 minutes.

Cycling does seem to work well as a group as a big part of it is riding the bicycle...no faking that during a class.

It is not the MBC instructor, Academy, or Summer Camp that should be the issue it is the presence or lack thereof quality control. I think the core issue is mass instruction which seems to lead to more problems. Some of the best and the worst MBC instructors have been in the 18-21 age.

Yet we do that in Scouts.

BTW we tried exit interviews too. They were as murky as the work ones. I think a good BOR feedback seems more useful.

I have worked in government at various levels and what happens is if costs go up we have to do the same work with less people like most workers. At some point we do not have enough money to do something we have layoffs and it just doesn't get done. One thing I have seen again and again and again is governments services being stripped away by private companies who charge more for the same service and the public just pays more. It is not unusual for the private efforts to collapse and the government has to take it over again. At the local level we have had the state legislature both demand we provide a service while simultaneously taking away the ability for us to raise any revenue to pay the costs.