mashmaster

After so many years, my son is now an Eagle Scout. His project was really amazing IMHO, he built a downhill mountain bike course for the local community. It started as this brush, trees, limestone, and cactus. Now it is a blast for skilled mountain bikers. He raised over $4000 in materials and the project was a ton of hours over 600 if I remember correctly. Here is a video of someone riding it when it was almost complete

Plus Venturing and Sea Scouting. Trust me it is so cool working with the High School + aged kids.

Our crew is looking attending the Summit Experience. Has anyone here attended it with a Venture Crew?

Fair enough about team management vs project management. The tickets of some made me scratch my head, a lot. Anyway, back to scouting.

Wood Badge attitude leaves a very bad taste in my mouth about it. The amount of hype that people talk about it makes me not recommend it to other scouters. It is a class on project management not scouting(I have been a project manager and had all this type of training outside of scouting). I did have fun in the class with my crew when we weren't staring at powerpoint slides. IOLS, OWLS, Sea Badge, and Powderhorn are all better than Woodbadge (The difference is that all those focus on scouting). Maybe it is my council, but the people selected for the course staffing is all political and they bounce around talking about how they are special because they are staffing WB. I was asked once but was too busy working with the youth in the units I am involved with. And the tickets...... don't get me started on the tickets...... Anyway, welcome to the forum! Have the 5 minute max ceremony at a district roundtable or district board meeting since those are where you are involved. You should not be used as propaganda for WB.

Yeah, one reason I am not a fan of advancement per se. So many people focus on Eagle that it becomes the sole goal of scouting. Many "Eagles" are paper thin on the rest of scouting. Advancement is only one method of scouting but it is the most most easily tracked. For example my son who is a BOR away from Eagle took his time, he decided he wanted a big Eagle project that is massive (his choice so we supported him and it came out great), attended World Jambo, 3 of the 4 high adventure bases (Philmont twice), worked with his Troop/Ship/Crew to plan and particpate in three roll you own adventures, attended three other regional high adventure bases, attended NYLT, and held just about all the positions across the PLC or Quarterdeck. But if you ask him about what scouting is about he will tell you that it is fun. He is proud that he will make Eagle but will talk your ear off about World Jamboree or sailing if you let him. I made it all the way to Tenderfoot or Second Class myself, I don't remember. I grew up poor and didn't have money to scout or the support from my parents so that didn't happen. I love scouting and have more knots than I know what to do with. People are surprised that I wasn't an Eagle, I tell them that doesn't matter to me, I am happy to work with and help the kids. Of course I get the option to attend some of the adventures as well 🙂 I let scouts know that in our ship if they want to advance Scouts BSA ranks or Sea Scout ranks I will help them and push them a bit, but if they don't, I am fine with that as well. I'd rather see them smile and attend than be only focused on advancement and grumpy. There choice to what they want. Rank doesn't define them.

I just accept my scouts the way they are and let them be. I try to stay away from all labels, it makes my life go easier. Since we are co-ed, there is a rule about no PDA's that seems to work and qualifies for everyone.

They aren't the same thing. The identity is akin to racial or ethnic identity. Sexual orientation is hetero, gay, bi, ... it can be confusing if you can keep them separate then it makes sense.

Cool

Don't mess with Tetanus and especially Meningitis .

I agree with Qwarzse on this. There are people and comments here that I don't agree with and have issues with so if there is something I don't agree with I will downvote that comment. I don't downvote everything someone say but even if someone where to do that to me, why should I care? This isn't a video game to see how high of a score I can get. I would say from some comments I have seen over the years, I wonder why some people are still in scouting based on their comments but maybe I am completely misinterpreting their comments. I do my best to be open minded as I think the majority of people on this forum do. That is a huge problem on these days, too many think it is my way or the wrong way. Life is shades of grey, not black and white. IMHO

Good questions, probably a professional. Remember that Churches are only one type of organization that can sponsor a unit. VFW's, HOA's, non-profits, or even a business can sponsor a unit. The council would be my last choice because there would be the most amount of paperwork IMHO.

Yes, they are another possible CO. IMHO, it is best to be chartered with the same CO as a Troop which helps with recruitment. Another option that I might try it to get the yacht club to charter us.

Thankfully we already have two churches and a non profit that are interested in chartering us. And I believe the new CO is protected.

Ours just told us they will no longer charter units after this year..... The search begins

My son swares by smartwater water bottles.

That makes sense, and thank you for your time you give to tour and review the campgrounds.

Well I guess we can just get rid of the bathrooms altogether..... I was just at Northern Tier, I will let them know to get rid of their nice new bathrooms for more grumpers.

Let's also remember that many units are tied to another unit of the other gender. By having separate weeks you would effectively preclude many units from being able to get to camp. Being in Texas, it takes a lot of money to move scouts from our home location to another. Regarding the bathrooms, most camps I have gone to in the last five years have been converting to the single stall approach with a sink/toilet/shower all in one locking room. It works for any gender or age. Personally I am a big fan of these because they just work. Scouts are more comfortable using them. I do wish there was a timer on the light switch to move them along....

We rented a van from Sixt rentals . It was cheaper for us.

Frankly they would be shocked at the girls in my ship...... We are 50% female and they have a lot of fun. We also happen to have been recognized as one of the top Ships in the nation for the last 7 years. We wained because of Covid but continued forward. Now that life is starting to look more normal (what is that anyway) we have a big influx in young women and young men that are excited to get out on the water. Below is a picture from tonight where some of our girls decided to see if they can fit five of them on a single sunfish. They succeeded and laughed and laughed about it.

When I was a youth I had the chance to go to Emerald Bay but we didn't have the money for summer camps. I have heard it is amazing. I hope he has a fast recovery.

I am sorry this happened. Try to ignore them. It is hard to see people doing things differently than how you did it. They probably mean well but went about it badly..

IMHO, units should continue a program in the Summer but they should adapt to different types of activities that make sense for the units. For example, our ship during the summer adds Wet Wednesday sailing evenings. An occasional pool party. Things like that keep it fresh

I hear this same thing about Sea Scouts and Venturing. IMHO, if you are worried that another program is "stealing" your scouts then it is obvious the program in the troop needs to change. These are all complimentary programs and can provide many great opportunities to youth that want to be activie in scouting.