MikeS72

Hey now! I wore that beret proudly in the early 70's, and am planning on wearing it (along with my '72 retro uniform) to Roundtable tomorrow night. I also have, and wear with it, one of the 60's garrison hats. Only time I wore the campaign hat was on Woodbadge staff in '74.

If we are thinking of the same infographic, as I recall, it was sent to Councils and shared on Commissioner pages as early as last April.

Has anyone registered a parent under the Unit Scouter Reserve (91u) designation? We have a parent with our Pack who shows on our roster in my.scouting.org as Unit Scouter Reserve. No one in the Pack has any idea why, and my thought is someone at the Council applied that position code, probably due to the application not being checked before submission. I know that the Unit Scouter Reserve is supposed to be for those who want to register, but are not registered for a specific position, and they are required the same background check and YPT requirement as anyone else. I have not been able to find anything yet on the BSA website to say what the registration fee is, or if indeed there is a fee. Thanks in advance to anyone who has dealt with this in their unit.

It was made abundantly clear at the school nights I attended as a Unit Commissioner that they were signing up to be Cub Scouts, and a part of BSA. We had one school night where we were in the school cafeteria and the GSUSA folks were in the Media Center at the same time. We were instructed to make sure that we asked every parent coming in with a girl if they were there to join Cub Scouts or Girl Scouts. If they replied Girl Scouts, they were sent across the hall to the Media Center. No poaching, no confused parents.

Probably the majority of packs use a school year calendar. Our pack does, as do all the surrounding packs. They have 3 or 4 pack wide activities during the summer, in addition to CSDC, (bowling, movie night, etc.) but no den meetings or pack meeting. I am not aware of any troop in my area that does not use the calendar year. While we do have Scouts who miss things during the summer due to family vacations, we have a full slate all summer long, including week long summer camps both in and out of state.

I concur. On a side note, perhaps I will break out the old 70's 'Scout BSA' uniform for Roundtable this month; and yes, it will include my much maligned red beret!

With the pack, show and sell proceeds are divided by the number of Scouts in attendance and credited toward individual prizes. We also waive dues if they reach a preset sales figure, usually $600. Those sales also go toward what it takes to be able to pie a leader. With the troop, the Scout has 35% of their individual sales credited to their Scout account, which can go a long way toward paying for summer camp. Troop show and sell proceeds go into the troop treasury, and helps with paying for awards during the year.

Boxwell Reservation - Middle Tennessee Council, both as a camper and staff Salmen Scout Reservation for Wood Badge staff Broad Creek - Baltimore Area Council Camp La-No-Che - Central Florida Council Woodruff Scout Reservation - Atlanta Area Council

During our annual Commissioner Conference in Central Florida Council it was mentioned that we had the highest both the highest overall recruiting numbers, and the most girls joining in the country. I can't say how school visits went in other areas, but in our district, there was a particular emphasis put on this being the first time that girls have the opportunity to join Cub Scouts. Most of our school night sign ups had pretty close to half of the sign ups be girls. We picked up 11 in my pack, and we were not even close to the top pack.

You may have read that on one of the Scoutbook forums, but that, like these forums, often represent the poster's opinions or belief system, not official policy. It may not be a good idea for a spouse to be part of 2 deep, just as it may not be good idea to have spouse in key 3 positions, but I have never seen anything in writing from BSA forbidding it.

One came with the new red JacShirt I bought last winter.

Regardless of age, no one should do Wood Badge because someone else thinks they should. I took the course at 18, although it was a much different animal (pun intended) 46 years ago. As for SM specific and IOLS, if you want to be officially position trained, those are required. If JTE is important to your troop, having leaders position trained is important as well. As @Sentinel947 said, you may find yourself helping others who do not have your experience during IOLS. I came back into the program after a hiatus when my nephew was in Cubs, and moved into the troop with him. IOLS was not around during my last stint, and as an ASM I took the course last spring. While there was nothing presented that I was not already very familiar with, there were a lot of new leaders in the course, so I spent a fair amount of time helping them with knots, lashings, map & compass, etc.

As @HashTagScouts posted, WRFA is only required at one of the national high adventure bases, where you must have at least one certified person (2 for Philmont treks). As a WRFA instructor, I can attest to how in depth the training can be. I recommend that every unit that does any kind of multi-day backpacking, canoeing, kayaking, etc. have someone who has taken the course.

In Central Florida we do not have tiered pricing so to speak, but there are a few things that can lower the cost, although not by a whole lot. If you have a sibling attending camp, you get a $20 discount, if you attend more than one week of summer camp you get a $20 discount (this second week discount applies even if the second week is at a different camp). There are also Council scholarships, which can cover up to 50% of the $320 weekly fee.

https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2016/04/29/can-volunteer-serve-multiple-volunteer-roles/ Looks like I was a little slow in posting this link, but it doesn't hurt to be repeated. We both do not want to over burden anyone, and also want to see as many parents step up as needed.

My biggest concern with sharing a website between 2 units is the confusion that may occur when parents do not take the time to differentiate between the boy troop and girl troop information. I can also be confusing to people who are just looking for information before choosing a troop who do not realize that they are showing up with their son on the girl troop meeting night. Free web services abound; I would opt for keeping them separate.

I see a lot of Scouters with Velcro, personally, I am not a big fan. Many only use Velcro for the position patch, and thus are wearing unit numbers with a Commissioner or District Committee patch, or have the Commissioner Arrowhead Honor on a uniform with unit designation. I have also been known to re-sew knots or other patches multiple times because they were just a tiny bit of kilter. Imagine then what it does when I see a Velcro patch that is crooked or sideways (or on occasion on the wrong sleeve altogether). I have 2 troop uniforms, 2 for the pack, and one as a Commissioner. I also have (although I wear them on rare occasions) retro 60's uniforms for both troop and pack. Having spent all but my first few months in Scouting in troops on military bases, I am pretty particular about how my uniform looks, and in 54 years cannot ever remember wearing the shirt with anything but uniform pants, belt and socks. I no longer worry much about the Scouts themselves wearing a uniform shirt with non uniform pants or shorts, as I know how expensive it can be to fully outfit someone who will, in many cases, outgrow those pants very quickly.

The Cub Promise was replaced, and Cubs began using the Scout Oath and Law on June 1, 1015, so just about 3.5 years ago. I agree that it is tough for the younger Cubs to learn, but not really much more difficult than learning the Pledge, and they do that in school every day. In addition to being an ASM, I am a Lion Den Leader, and my kindergarten age Lions are working on following along with me for the oath and law at every meeting. I do expect it to take them most of the year to get it down, especially since Lions do not typically meet every week. They do all know the pledge, and take turns leading the den in the pledge. They do not know all 12 points of the law in order yet, but they can all tell me which one is the most important to them, and why. I also agree that telling Scouts that it will take them all the way to 18 to be able to earn Eagle is wrong. As @NJCubScouter already stated, if you wait too long, you run the risk of missing that all important 18th birthday deadline. I remember my Eagle BOR in 1971. Back then they were District BOR's, and there was another person waiting outside the room with me, both of us a little nervous about what the BOR would be like. I remember it well, and thought at the time it was an amazing coincidence that we were both having our Eagle Board, were both named Mike, and would both be turning 18 on the same day, 26 days later.

I was not sure at 64 if I could still carry a pack when we had our first backpacking trip (20 miles) after my great nephew crossed over from Webelos. I bought him an adjustable Deuter internal frame pack, and bought myself a Deuter Air Contact Lite 50 + 10 internal frame pack, that is the most comfortable I have ever owned. I loaded them up at REI and we walked the store for about 1 1/2 hours before buying.

That is one of the things I like about REI. They will measure you, and based on measurements, weight, and what type of backpack need you have; they will fit one to you. You can then load it with the weight you will likely be carrying and wear it for a while.

101st or 82nd?

Thankfully, PowerPoint did not exist when I went to Wood Badge (kinda cause personal computers did not exist yet either) and there were a lot of outdoor skills in the course. We were in a primitive section of the council camp for a full week, and any comforts we had in our patrol site we had because we made them. As for the lengthy beading ceremonies we see at occasional Roundtables, they did not exist either. When I completed my ticket, I met with my mentor who gave me the beads, woggle, neckerchief, and certificate. I still have an old black & white photo of the very brief (only about 1 minute) presentation by that same mentor a year later of my third bead.

The people at REI tend to be very helpful and knowledgeable. REI carries a number of really good internal frame backpacks that are fully adjustable, and can grow with your child. I bought one last spring for my nephew's first Boy Scout backpacking trip, that after adjustments will last him for years. As for sleeping bags, a lot of that would depend on where you are located. We have 2, a summer weight bag that is very light and compact, and one that is rated to 10 degrees for those rare cold Jan/Feb nights here in FL. (coldest night in it this year was 27)

To be certified for Cub BB & Archery you take a BSA course, in which the instructor must be either NRA or National Camp School certified.

Over my 49 years as an Arrowman, I have seen all of the 'infractions' discussed here many, many times. I will admit that I do winch when seeing someone wear the sash incorrectly, but over the years i have learned to let it go. I will, if one of my Scouts wears the sash to a troop rather than OA function, remind him that we only wear it when representing OA. At an OA event, I will only mention sash wear to a fellow Arrowman if it is something like a new member wearing it over the left shoulder, and even then, quietly and as an aside. As several folks here, I also have more than one sash, although only one is still worn. One of the problems with being around so long is that the sash I received at my Vigil ceremony 46 years ago no longer goes all the way around me. However, if it was still properly sized, I would have no problem wearing it, stains and all.