Eagle94-A1

For a VERY brief period, I want to say it was 2014-16, a test out option was allowed by national. One of my friends was district training chair, and his eventual successor was one of those who did it. One of the reasons why I used staff that needed ITOLS, but I personally knew had the knowledge, skills, and abilities already and could teach the course. Plus ever since the training records S.N.A.F.U. in 2007/08 I was told to ALWAYS list instructors as students as well.

Last time I taught ITOLS, I had 3 adult staffers who needed ITOLS to be "Trained." First individual needing "training" was an Eagle Scout who worked summer camp as a youth, including First Year CamperProgram, combat medic in Iraq, and went to Philmont once. Next up was another Eagle Scout summer camp staffer who went to Philmont twice. Last but not least, the third adult staffer was another Eagle Scout summer camp staffer who went to ' 89 NSJ, was combat vet, AND was a WB 3 beader. I go them to teach in their specialty skills. Thankfully the Scouters appreciated the course and had fun, even the two who I would have put on staff if I had known them in advance. Have you seen the ITOLS Syllabus? The one I was was absolutely horrible with a lot of information from older courses and books completely missing. I had to supplement info with photocopies from my old fieldbook and other BSA publications. And the current course is worse. They took out the section on first aid. BUT the part that really TICKS me off is the "one and done" mentality it promotes. As the adults do certain skills, you are suppose to give them 'rank" cut outs.

Just realized who the source for the price increases was on FB. Hesbach is a SE, so i wouls say it is reliable.

Still have issues with both today, even with technology. Back then I remember having to tell the Philmont Training Center Faculty member in my district that according to the council's records, he was untrained. That was not a fun experience. 18 years ago when National told councils to clean up their training records, it was a nightmare. In my council, anyone who had training done over a year prior was "untrained." One of the issues was that BSA decided only to list only the most current Training courses titles. None of the older course titles were listed.And some of our Scouters took training in the 1960s. To deal with the situation, The council pro's told us to use the dates for the original training, but put in the title and codes for the current training. That worked for about 2-3 years. Then National realized they screwed up by not including the older training, any added the older courses, as well as time lines for the courses. That deleted all the work that was done with the older courses as they were beyond the date ranges of the current courses. Thankfully I kept paper and digital copies of all my work, and just had to resubmit. However the council and some training chairs did not keep those records, and they had to redo all the work again.

I lost a bunch of my Scouting memorabilia that I had at my mom's house when it flooded during Katrina. Ebay has been my friend. I was able to get some of the more meaningful stuff back.

Feedback is a gift. Commentary to improve services should not be considered "hate." But it does gets frustrating when you provide feedback, especially feedback you have been specifically asked for, and that feedback gets ignored. Best example is Instapalms. 94% of those polled were either Against (18%) or Strongly Against (76%), yet they did it anyway. IT issues have been around since before SCOUTNET 2000 that came out in 1998. Experts in the field have offered solutions and were turned down.

Are you youth or an adult? If you are an adult, you can go through the district to get into the OA. If a youth, the Troop will need to hold an elections and vote you into the OA as a candidate.

During covid we also did a few zoom meetings, but as soon as we were able to meet outside, we did. While we did not camp as much as we usually do, 9 weekends a year plus summer camp, we switched to day trips for a bit, and then when able to camp, we did some camping within a 1 hour drive. Summer camp was touch and go for a bit, but the local camp did open up and we did our own 5 day camp.

Yes it is going around. We have a troop that CO is kicking them out end of May. They have not recharted, but are still meeting while trying to find a new home.

Yes, the insurers did put in motions to investigate claims which was denied because the judge stated the trust would handle the distribution of funds and deal with the fraud then. There is a post in one of the threads on this topic about several potential fraud cases including: The mother of one claimant who stated her son was lying because he was never involved in Scouting. The phone center operator who was told to make up info on claims if they were unable to get it from the caller. The person named as a perpetrator who was living in another state in college when alleged abuse happened, The prisoner who has a history of filing false class action lawsuits filing in this one.

Thank you. I hope ever individual who committed fraud to get a quick payout gets hit with fines. Their false accusations not only hurt the BSA, but also and more importantly hurt actual victims.

Mods, If this is the wrong thread to ask the questions, please move it to the correct thread. @ThenNow, what were the stated penalties? If not stated, what are they and do they also apply to the lawyers as well? If money is involved with the penalty, can that money go towards survivors?

Overall everyone had fun but one troop, and that was on me. When I get stessed, i say stupud jokes. One of my jokes was putting the 2 "antisocial" troops together because both want to be away from others. That one SM did not appreciate the joke and was mad. He expressed his displeasure all weekend. Ironic thing is my troop is the other "antisocial" troop. Did a standard cook off with guest judges. That worked well for the units. The judges however almost went into diabetic shock with all the sweets. Events events went well and everyone had fun.

Don't I know it. We pulled campers from the outpost area who were doing Wilderness Survival overniter into DH one time. Got interesting when 2 campers went MIA. Good news was they snuck back to their camp after everyone went to sleep, were safe, and were found.

Where's @RichardB at?

(sarcasm on) What's NOVA, SUPERNOVA, and STEM SCOUTS? (sarcasm off) I have not had any Cubs or Scouts ever ask about NOVA and SUPERNOVA Awards. They are busy having fun and working on advancement. As for STEM Scouts, have not met any on real life. I do know about STEM Scout who made the cover of Time, but that is about it.

Don't I know it. I am a former professional. One of the points I was told to use to try and start new units was that BSA's insurance would cover COs. I only found out that was incorrect when this lawsuit happened. As posted elsewhere, get the promises in writing. Since units are legal extensions of COs, legally COs own them. CO's can add safety measures that their organization or insurance requires. For example, some COs require Scouters to go through their own version of YPT in addition to the BSAs. Some COs have implemented changes to the definition of "youth supervision" to mean direct, line of site (don't get me started on that one). Some COs now require preapproval of activities if conducted outside of the established room. A lot of this is for liability issues. And, I have seen this first hand too many times, COs can say no more Scouts. My troop growing up was asked to leave when a new CO, who hated Scouts for whatever reason, took over. Another CO, despite telling them they own the unit, have final say in selecting leaders, are protected by BSA's insurance, etc, did away with their pack because of the then upcoming Dale vs. BSA SCOTUS case. A third CO is getting rid of their units, because they see Scouting as a liability since the protections they were promised appear to be limited.

My understanding is that a bunch are on hold due to the lawsuit, and bunch are waiting on a decision from the bankruptcy before they go after COs. Which is one reason BSA has been trying to protect COs. Not before 1976 according to legal documents in the lawsuit. AND the BSA's insurance kicks in after the CO's insurance is finished paying out. Hence why many CO's are dropping scouting units altogether, or are taking more control over the Scouting units. To me that explains the situation with your CO. They just found out how much much BSA'S promises are really worth, and they are on the hook if anything happens.

My council is selling off 2 camps and some other properties folks have given over the years. One camp we are keeping is in a trust and we just use it. The main camp which cannot have Cub Scout boating activities since it is on a river, they plan on either building a closure in the river (like that will get approved), or they will dig a pond large enough for boats. Mergers are coming and more camps will be closing.

Well, National reassured Charter Organizations that they have the CO's back, and look how that is turning out.

Maybe for the professionals, but I am not so sure about the volunteers. I am waiting for that to come up on Facebook.

More so.

Sounds like one Scouter I know. His Idea of "packing light" is having everything in the back of the truck. Usually he has a trailer of cooking supplies. On a positive note, you won't starve and the food is excellent.

My concerns are the following. 1. Service. I am already not getting the help I need from my current council. I have not had a dedicated ( i.e. only responsible for 1 district) DE in over 10 years except for a brief 4 month period when my district and 2 others merged together. What will the service be like when districts will be a lot larger. 2. Camps. I have been told that under the Churchill plan, there will be one Scout camp covering about 160 mile radius. Some that means for some units, especially Cub Scout units from those councils that only approve Cub Camping at their campgrounds, will have longer drives. It may kill Cub camping. 3. Loss of Volunteer Support. Trust me, losing longtime, experienced, and dedicated volunteers sucks big time because they create major leadership vacuums. That is my district at the moment. I hope my concerns are wrong, but "I got a bad feeling about this."

And so it begins.