Eagle94-A1

Cancelling is not an option. A) it is camporee, and B) cancelling a camp out for lack of female Scouters is one the concerns of the Scouts and why the CO is forming a separate female troop. If the troop was to cancel 50+% will leave. That has already been stated when we did a poll of the Scouts. Troop traditionally invites all the Webelos, and since she is the only female Webelos in the pack, and I believe the entire district, So they invited her as a courtesy as well as an incentive to get the female troop going.

I hate the new YPT rules. In addition to destroying the Patrol Method, no longer considering 18-20 year olds as responsible adults, having a double standard in which 2 females can take a bunch of boys camping but you MUST have a registered female present if 1 girl is present, the biggest P.I.T.A. is parents do not count towards YPT. I now have to tell a female Webelos she may not be able to attend a camp out, even if a parent shows up and camps with her, because there may be no female Scouters present. I.AM. TICKED. OFF! (screaming in rage) Troop she would be camping with has only one registered female Scouter, and she does not camp any more due to health reasons. The only possible registered female Scouter, is the former Bear DL who stepped down because she does not want to camp. She knew Webelos entailed camping, and stepped down as a result. Looks like I will be doing some begging in the very near future. Maybe a Dutch oven "Death by Chocolate Cake" will do the trick?

What about the Chicago lawsuit which resulted in Career Interest Exploring becoming part of Learning for Life and traditional Exploring becoming Venturing?

I personally think National just opened up a giant can of worms with this decision. I can see the lawsuits being filed if someone doesn't get the extension or if the extension is long enough to their satisfaction.

Looks like Sydney Ireland will be able to get Eagle after all.

Now it is on National's website https://www.scouting.org/resources/guide-to-advancement/eagle-scout-rank/

Nation's Capital posted it as well. https://www.ncacbsa.org/blog/2018/10/03/eagle-scout-extension-in-2019/

LOVE IT!

Sadly I am reading where too many packs are ONLY using the fakes. As for Cubs being kids, I remember that too. I remember being a Wolf and whittling my PWD car because my father refused to help. And while pencil sharpeners were around when I was a kid, I know my way older brothers did bring pocket knives to school to sharpen pencils. And who said I am skipping basics using the real deal? I'm just not using fakes. As for parents, communication is key. First time as a DL, talking to the parents I found out one of the grand dads was a professional woodcarver. Got in touch with him and had him teach the class. WOW it was awesome. I even learned some tricks. Second time, parents had no problem. This last time, I talked to the parents, including last year's DL who did not think a pocket knife is safe, and got them over their worries. Even telling them the Den Chief will be teaching and me assisting, they are fine. Yeah. we used safety circle back in the day. Never heard the term "blood circle" until I moved to NC and was staffing an IOLS course. it IS way cooler, and something they remember. Now on a slight tangent, I would love ideas on teaching whittling chip, heck everything scouting related, to a one handed Cub. One of my Cubs only has one hand, and I have been thinking about how to teach teaching whittling chip to her. So I would love to hear any ideas on teaching a handicap Cub how to use and sharpen a knife.

Thankfully the rule only applies to Whittling Chip, and not Totin Chip. For the moment.

Guess I am an "old school Scouter." I believe using fake knives and plastic knives is wrong and does an injustice to our Cubs. To paraphrase William "Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt for Cub Scout appropriateness, Train 'em. Trust 'em. LET THEM EXPERIMENT! Teach them using pocketknives. And I admit, I screwed up getting wood carving, fixed blade knives for day camp since the requirement specifically state "pocket knife."

Yes, national policy is that cutting corners on the Whittling Chip is now prohibited, but no mention of cutting corners on a Totin Chip being prohibited. Currently troops can decide how to deal with Totin Chip. Don't know why that is, but I assume it's because the PLC, which is comprised of Scouts, should be makign that policy as ooposed to adults on the Cub Scout level. Never heard of it being considerd hazing until the rule came out last year.

I already see packs making exceptions and changing requirements. Biggest one is the Whittling Chip requirements. It specifically states "Pocketknife," not "plastic cutlery knife" not "imitation wooden knife", and not "popsicle sticks." Irks me to no end that I need to redo Whitting Chip with my Webelos since they didn't really earn it and the previous DL thought they were "too dangerous" On a side note, I am also culpable in changing the requirement. I had folks at day camp teaching Whittling Chip with wood carving knives from Paul's Supplies https://pauls-supplies.myshopify.com/collections/knives/products/carving-knife which is technically a fixed blade, not a pocket knife. But at least it was a real knife.

I'm concerned about the future of training. National seems to be pushing for online training as much as possible. A few problems with that is the lack of meeting people, networking, and in some areas technological issues that cause you to say the heck with it and forgo training altogether. I'm reading questions on facebook groups that usually have been covered in classroom training or roundtables. Really scary part is reading some of the answers!😧

Could you provider close up images?

Pre-1980s. That's when they went to a leather hat band

One reason I don't use HEAT. Either denatured alcohol or ethyl alcohol for me.

Agree completely, Scouts deserve trained leaders. And the online courses are a joke for the most part. And those that are serious usually contain out of date material. Best example of that is the new YPT2 that came out in Februaruy. It still has 18 year olds OK as 2nd adult, when that changed in May. Burt Councils should not try to profit from training. You need training rto get program.

Sadly BSA no longer allows homemade stoves, despite them being in the Cub Scout Leader How-To Book once upon a time. And although I made 2 stoves almost identical to the Batchstovez, that one came out super nice and can tell it was machined instead of handmade. And thanks for the info on your burn.

If the training cost $35, yes I would. However, it is more like MJ Scouter said. Last time I did IOLS training, all council did was A) collect Money and Applications and B) post the flyer on the website. Even then they did not turn over the applications like I requested until the day of the event. Also they posted the flyer AFTER the sign up deadline. I got more advertising posting it on Facebook than the council. Everything I used on the course, I had to get donated or provide, and then get reinbursed: copies for hand outs, supplies, etc. Council didn't provide any real benefits.

I hear you about old gear and weight. I broke down and got a new pack because it was lighter and more comfortable. But I love my A.L.I.C.E. and still keep her. My A.L.I.C.E. as a lot of miles on her, and a lot of memories. As for times, definitely takes longer than my Whisperlight, and the pocket rockets other use. But you done have the "Jet Engine" noise of those stoves. I'm still playing with with the system and tweaking it. Going from memory, I can boil 1L of water faster than the 22 oz BCR pot in my Batchstovez. It's something like 8- 9 minutes with the Imusa pot versus 9-11 minutes with the BCR. I've been using 2 onces of fuel, but am going to try 1.5 onces as I have fuel left over. And with the Batchstovez, you got to burn the fuel all the way. What I found really helps is a reflective coozie. I made it out of scrap window shade, but I am told the REFECTIX is awesome for it. Normally heat escapes pretty fast, and the water cools down before it is finished rehydrating the food fully. Last trip I was on I put my cook bag in the coozie, and then had to help someone out. Came back 20-30 minutes later, and the food was still piping hot.

Don't know about the Solo Stove or Evernew. I have a Trangia Alcohol Stove, which is very similar to the Solo and Evernew stoves. I've had no issues with it except 1: weight. But I am slowly turning into a "Gram Weenie" .Trangia's are solidly constructed, but they are heavier than other stoves out there. Once nice feature is the simmer ring and screw top lid. You can put out the fire with the simmer ring, let it cool down so it, then use the screw top lid to keep the fuel not used stored for next use. I don't believe the Solo has the screw top lid. As for the Evernew, it definitely doesn't. And the price tag is out of my league. But it is titanium. Currently I am using a Batchstovez 2.0 with Cold Weather Wrap in the Ultralite kit. I replaced the bottle in the kit with a 8 once Nalgene bottle ( don't use imitators they will leak) and I carry a 1 once Nalgene for measuring and putting in my sleeping bag for priming. I use the BCR pot in the kit as my coffee cup with the Snow Peak Hot lips. You can boil water in it, but I found that using an Imusa mug heats up faster on the stove. I am only an apprentice when it comes to alcohol stoves. Look up Shug on Youtube and you will find dozens of videos on alcohol stove and other gear. Here is his STOVE WORLD video.

When I was training chair, the SE wanted the course as cheap as possible. For Specific training and the like, charge for snacks and paperwork only, nothing else. For those training courses that required a budget, i.e. BALOO, IOLS, etc, then he asked us to budget 10% over what we anticipated, just in case. If we went into the 10% fine, if we didn't, then the council kept it, and usually it helped offset a training that went over budget. He also waived the camp usage fees for those trainings so that it would be as cheap as possible for volunteers to get trained. I've been on both ends of the spectrum. One course was not well attended and I ended up over budget. Another course I ran ended up significantly under budget. We had more people take the class than anticipated, and ended up with a nice surplus. Now the pro I mentioned in another thread, not only wants 10% miscellaneous but another 15% added to all training courses. Doesn't matter if it is a Specific Leader Training course, or WB, all courses must have a surplus. Very hard to justify paying $15 for a course you can take online for free.

Yes some DEs will. As for toxic professional culture, THAT IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT! (emphasis) As for forcing girls into packs, yep it is happening.Currently we have 5 packs in my district. 1 is LDS, so they are automatically all boy and cannot be pressured. out of the 4 remaining, only 1 has stated they will accept girls. The pack my son is with is still trying to meet with the CO about whether to accept girls or not. CO has questions, and the pack cannot honestly answer. The pack's leaders know what BSA is stating what will happening, but know it is not practical at this time and it seems as if the majority of packs are going full blown coed with mexed gender dens, which is somehting the CO is against. But the DE said that pack will be accepting girls. Only thing saving us is that the schools will nto let us in at night to do the actual signing ups unless we pay money per nigh, per school As for causing volunteers to hate you, we have one pro who tend to treat volunteers like human waste. One of the reason i stepped away from council stuff was him and the way he treated volunteers when under pressure. Tried to threaten me with legal action over some application I turned in and the office lost. sadly the attitude rolls downhill. The DE started that attitude. Between the both of them several long time volunteers have quit, or resigned their position.

One thing that concerns me is the level of "expereinced" Scouters, especially at the Cub level. I am helping with Webelos 1s at the moment because their 'expereinced" den leader doesn't like to camp, and would not do Webelos since they need to camp to advance. On thing that blew my mind was that they "earned " Whittling Chip last year, but neither one of them is allowed to haev a pocket knife. Assigned Whittling Chip to my Den Chief to teach in 2 weeks. Another thing that concerns me, they have not gone on a single camping trip in the 3 years they have been in the packs.