Eagle1993

In my summer camp, Lifesaving was tough. Recovering the 10 lb weight in water with 6” of visibility was tough. I was a strong swimmer but took in a fair share of water coming up as our councilor would throw the weight in a different points to make us search (without vision) at the bottom of a muddy lake. Most of the scouts I was with never succeeded.... on second those scouts probably just did it later in a pool.... Outside of that, it was fairly easy if you are a good swimmer.

With this info, my answer would be no. Once a year is enough payback to the CO. The wooded area cleanup would be fair if they could schedule earlier. More than this would burn up scout, parent and leader energy on a non core activity.

@Cubmaster Pete forgot to mention his CO is McDonalds....

We do this for our CO, but it is once per year. I think asking more, especially of a Cub Scout Pack, seems excessive; however, our relationship with our CO is 100% one sided. You can probably find other ways to raise $1000 easier than 12 brat sales and if the check is the only true relationship you have (I.e. it’s not a church where most of the scouts are already members) then I would pass on the sales.

Transparency is key. They should have smply let their current members unit know their strategy. This unit probably knew they were going to add girls before they took action (or at least were open to the idea), so they should have simply told their current members their strategy. Polls aren’t required, but rechartering then suddenly announcing that the unit is adding a girls Troop will cause loss of trust.... that is very difficult to regain.

@Cburkhardt Did you have any support from your council or was this all unit driven? How many all girl Troops exist in DC? Are you advertising 20 months to earn the Eagle Scout rank? From what I have seen locally, there has been limited support from Council and there are a limited number of adult leaders out there (so far) that are not already District or Unit volunteers.

That’s essentially what we did for the exact reasons you listed. Unity of the den was a big one. In addition we were able to patch some areas where our Boy dens didn’t have great den leaders with parents of girls. The final issue was that it made the girls look like this odd group we added to the pack.... as each boy den was a single grade (6 dens) plus a collection of multi aged girls. All packs in my area who I have talked to and added girls have done the same. Our council and district are aware as are all of our parents. No concerns raised.

Depends on how “linked” they are, but I agree. From our recent experience there are not many girl Troops in our area and as girls (typically sisters or daughters of scouters) find out they are starting to apply to the few units. I think “big”numbers are a few years out as it will take cub crossovers to really build numbers. Will be interesting to see how this goes.

Doing your duty to country can certainly include protest. I’m not a fan of the kneeling and I see no real proposals out there in terms of the end game. What does this kid want the city council to do? That said, I could imagine that there are cases where a Scout uniform could be worn while protesting. Perhaps a city who attempts to take over a BSA camp ground through eminent domain. I would have no problem seeing scouts show up to the city council in uniform to protest. There could be a few others, but in general I would think you should not be in uniform unless BSA is part of the issue you are protesting....

https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2017/01/17/scouts-and-presidential-inaugurations-have-a-long-interesting-past/ Perhaps the uniform police can go after all of these Boy Scouts who wore their uniforms at Presidental inaugurations..... (actually, an interesting history, but I would say a good parallel to attending a SOTU). Note I do agree with you about the button & patch.... so perhaps the rest is an agreed to disagree. @RememberSchiff makes a good point. She is a 17 year old kid who is bound to make some mistakes. BSA seems to be holding strong to no exceptions outside the extension process released... I hope and expect they will not make further changes.

SOTU is the President fulfilling his or her duty to Article 2 Section 3 of the US Constitution. It would be like attending a session of Congress or other governmental event. My Cub Scouts were invited by our Mayor to attend the next Village meeting. I believe they can wear their uniforms there (and should be encouraged) even though they were invited by a politician.

That is why I thought Silver Buffalo would work. It doesn’t seem to have those limitations.

Is the State of the Union a political event? I would think this is the same as wearing it to a townhall meeting and different from a rally. Is there a picture of her wearing it to a political rally?

She has unofficially been part of a Troop in Manhattan for several years. The leaders have signed off on her MB and leadership positions in the Troop. If she was an official member she would be at Life Rank and she wears the patch. I agree she should not be given the Eagle Scout (she needs to start over and the BSA response is spot on) but I would support the BSA in awarding her the Silver Buffalo award. She was a strong and vocal advocate for adding girls to the program and while I think others reasons caused BSA to change their policy, she was the most visible reason behind it. Therefore, given in part to her work, tens of thousands of girls have this new opportunity. “The Silver Buffalo Award is the national-leveldistinguished service award of the Boy Scouts of America. It is presented for noteworthy and extraordinary service to youth on a national basis, either as part of, or independent of the Scouting program. The award is made by the National Court of Honor and the recipient need not be a registered member of the BSA.” https://www.scouting.org/awards/awards-central/silver-buffalo/silver-buffalo-recipients/

https://patch.com/new-york/southampton/teen-who-fought-join-boy-scouts-attends-state-union A spokesperson for the BSA responded: "Given her unique circumstances and experiences, we have communicated directly with Sydney and her family about her specific path to Eagle, recognizing her accomplishments to date. For more than 100 years, the pinnacle of the Scouting experience for some has been achieving the highest rank of Eagle Scout. To honor the rigor of the path and dedication required to become an Eagle Scout, it's imperative that they follow the same steps as Eagle Scouts before them, and future Eagle Scouts who will come after them. "Our goal is to create a level playing field and ensure that all youth just joining Scouting will have the opportunity to achieve their dream and earn the rank of Eagle Scout. In keeping with this philosophy, all requirements must be completed while the individual is a registered member of Scouts BSA, or after achieving the first class rank in Scouts BSA," the BSA spokesperson said. The BSA gave an analogy: "If you regularly sit in on classes at Columbia University, but aren't matriculated in the school, after auditing a full course load and after the traditional four year college experience, you unfortunately still are not eligible for a Columbia diploma if you were not officially enrolled.

Here is a whole odd thread about children and jacket zipping. Perhaps we need a subforum. 😀

I’m sure these stories will pass soon enough and then future stories will once again focus on lawsuits, bankruptcies with a few positive highlights of Eagle Scout projects and Scouting for Food. It is sad that the day to day wins of Troops and Patrols helping to guide scouts down the path of following the Scout Law and Oath while developing leadership skills is rarely if ever shown. I’ve see countless stories of how Football coaches help teach leadership. Too many youth and parents are simply unaware of what Scouts truly offers.

https://patch.com/new-york/southampton/boy-scouts-changes-name-allows-girls-teen-still-not-eagle-scout I’m not sure she will use this extension. They are pressuring BSA to count work she already did.

A couple of people posted in FB that National’s changed the above policy... As you can see in the text, the extension was going to be up to a maximum of 24 months. If you go to the linked file, they changed it to 22 months. They also changed when to file the extension.

It’s your lack of training and experience that makes you feel patronized....😬

Those examples looked like unit examples (for the most part) vs council. My question is what is the impact/damages to GSUSA if 20 packs out of 3000+ who added girls had some Trademark issues on a few flyers. I’m sure there are some damages, but I can’t imagine it would be much more than the legal fees they are paying for the lawsuit. I think the big question is can BSA use the term Scouts BSA (with the BSA qualifier). I have a hard time believing the BSA cannot use the term “Scouts BSA”... but I’m not a lawyer. If this is like any lawsuit I have been close to, I expect it to be resolved some time in 2022.

Boy Scouts say Girl Scouts’ lawsuit is built on arguments thinner than a thin mint https://www.marketwatch.com/story/boy-scouts-say-girl-scouts-lawsuit-is-built-on-arguments-thinner-than-a-thin-mint-2019-01-25 “Court papers say Girl Scouts can’t show one customer was led astray”

This seems to align with the 1 hour long video where a patent and trademark attorney essentially say GSUSA lawsuit is weak outside the specific cases of usage of the term “Girl Scouts”.

BSA filed paperwork Jan 23 requesting lawsuit to be dismissed. I haven’t seen the actual document yet. https://theblast.com/boy-scouts-girl-scouts-trademark-lawsuit-response/

Even shorter.... Her: “I heard you left the Troop because of me, is that true?” You: “Yes” The letter was great, but probably better for the SM and CC vs a parent; however, I think I remember you already talked with them and they have responded. For her, you can simply say the Troop was not aligned with the primary mission of Boy Scouts, even after attempting to change it, so you sought out a Troop that was. I am concerned that there are many others like her (both men and women) joining scouting....