an_old_DC

The matter is not exactly settled just because the IH writes a letter to council. The ex-Scouter will retain his permissions in my.scouting.org until well after the registrar removes him from the roster. I have seen it take as long as 45 days after the registrar removed somebody from the unit roster for them to actually be removed in my.scouting.oeg. Those permissions, of course, depend on their position with the unit. I am not sure about scoutbook permissions. Secondly, because of how BSA manages unit rosters, that person will still be listed on the roster at recharter time next year. Just cross them out at that time.

Are chartered orgs liable for abuse cases that took place in their unit? They appointed the leaders and sponsored the unit. This makes me nervous as I am the COR for three units.

Anybody know if chartered orgs are being named in lawsuits as well? I would imagine so but do not know.

@Protoclete are you the District Chair? If so, first things first, you need to have a chat with your council's second in command. Not the SE because they will point you to the number 2. You are looking for somebody with a title like "Director of Field Services." Apologies to @carebear3895, but do not even bother with a District Exec because this is way above their paygrade and if they have not been in their position for long they will not even understand what you are talking about. To answer your overarching question, No, you as a volunteer cannot enter information. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly to your questions, the data you have questions about comes from ScoutNET, the system used by BSA. That is what populates the JTE dials. To your question about who, exactly, is on your district committee: do you have a copy of the district roster? Not one you or another volunteer created, but one actually generated by your council's registrar. That will show you who is physically registered as a district committee member. When you write: it sounds as If what you see in my.scouting.org does not mirror what is in ScoutNET. If so, that is even more reason to speak with your Director of Field Services. Hope this all helps. edited to add: By the way, it is common for ScoutNET and my.scouting.org to be out of sync...and the Council Registrar will need to work on that to reconcile the two.

Our council had a string of DEs quit because they didn't want to camp at district camporees and such. Council no longer requires DEs to camp at their district events. They may show up for a couple hours on a Saturday but that's it.

Same story here, with one noticeable difference. No matter when a DE quits, our council will leave the role vacant for the rest of that calendar year so they can use the funds budgeted for that person's salary elsewhere and continue to meet yearend financial numbers without going over budget. The problem is that when a DE quits in March, for example, a district wont have a DE until next January.

The wide-mouth Nalgene or Gatorade bottle is called a “Scoutmaster’s Friend.” Gatorade bottles are good because you can throw them away when the trip is over. If you plan to reuse the bottle, make sure it is somehow marked so it is never confused with a water bottle. I use an older white poly Nalgene. i have been on winter campouts where the contents of that bottle froze overnight. Oh, and another tip: if you have an old, ripped closed-cell sleeping pad, you can cut it into strips, and tape the strips around water bottles and propane bottles to keep the contents warm. Other scraps also make a good kneeling pad when the ground is cold, and or wet.

IIRC, back in my time as a youth, only one Scout was eligible from each troop each year. Failure was a distinct possibility--usually from breaking a vow of silence three times...often as a result of being tricked by a Principal or adult such as a Chapter Advisor or Lodge Advisor (summer camp director) who knew the candidate.

Very similar experience for me except we often had Leadership Corps outings which were usually an all day canoe trip, 10 or 20 mile hike somewhere, a one-off fundraiser so we could then pay for some other outing of some kind, etc. Our long-time SM was a Marine Corps vet and an Eagle Scout, and our chief ASM was a long-time Scouter who had been on WB staff a couple times. They knew woodcraft and Scout-skills forwards and backwards. Scouting has changed a lot since then and I often wonder if they would have put up with the bureaucracy of Scouting today. They probably would have while their sons were active but I doubt they would have continued another 10+ years. I would pay a lot of money to see the withering look either would have given a helicopter/bulldozer parent of today who tried to campaign for their son

@logistician24 you are already in over your head or you would not be asking faceless strangers on a web forum for advice, right? At the end of the day, this is a unit issue —and will be a unit decision—however you obviously need some guidance. If you don’t know your unit Commissioner, contact your district commissioner. If you don’t know them, contact your Council Commissioner. One of them most likely has been through this before and can offer guidance. (I have been through similar situations as District Commissioner). Anyway, you, this Commissioner, the SM and absolutely the COR need to meet. Leave parents out of this. If you do contact your District Executive (paid professional), they will refer you to a Commissioner. That person can update the DE and possibly Scout Executive after they meet with the unit. Finally, as others pointed out, the SM may have input but the final decision is yours—working in lockstep with the COR

Sydney is trying to make this all about her...as opposed to helping all girls. Check out both her twitter and change.org petition. Make no mistake: she wants to be the first girl Eagle Scout and she wants it now. As her dad often says, paraphrased, being an Eagle Scout opens lots of doors so you can get into better colleges and get a good job

Been there too. After two trips about the distance you mention to the dining hall/camp HQ through pouring rain, thunder and lightning with 45 Scouts and a couple of AsMs, it was about 1:30 am. The camp director called all of the SMs together and said the storm cells were moving so fast and it was taking so long for all of the troops to reach shelter that trying to reach shelter was too risky. He told us that next time we heard the lightning siren we were to stay in our campsites and shelter in place....at least that way everybody wouldn’t be bunched up on the trail

Why would you propose adding something to troop bylaws that is in direct contradiction to the Guide to Advancement?

When I was Scoutmaster I signed off on rank requirements and SM conferences for all three of my sons. Whenever somebody questioned whether I should do that or not, I said "find me somebody in our troop who knows more about Scouting, the patrol method and Scout skills than I do and I will be happy to have my sons meet with them." There wasn't anybody. My older son told me one of his friends once said that he is lucky to have his dad be the SM because its easy. My son replied "Yeah, well you don't have a SM conference in the car after every meeting or campout asking how things went, what went well, and how things that went bad could be fixed." All three sons also grew up with me taking them in the backyard to start a fire with a magnifying glass, "helping" me fix a cut rope by whipping or fusing the end, etc. That said, the SM before me usually had his son meet with me and wouldn't sign his son's handbook. He was new to Scouting though and also realized his limitations.

You are forgetting the part about how she did not have to travel to Canada to do "Scout stuff." That was all happening while she was an unofficial part of a Manhattan troop with leaders who encouraged her participation. That Manhattan troop is where she claimed to have been PL, done service projects, unofficially earned MBs and rank., etc.

what in my post was a personal attack on a minor? Sincerely, I am confused. Nevertheless, IMO, by appearing on Good Morning America or wherever, writing op-ed articles that ran in major newspapers, having her pic taken with Nancy Pelosi, etc., and in trying to make a name for herself by "calling for change," she forfeit any sense of anonominity .

This whole Scouts Canada thing is an attempt to exploit a loophole: trying to join BSA, and now Scouts BSA as a former "youth from another country." This isn't about doing "Scout-y" things because if it were, she could have joining Venturing. In all of their orchestrated press conferences, TV appearances, guest editorials, etc. first dad Gary and then Sydney beat the Eagle Scout drum. Dad Gary repeatedly said words to the effect that "Eagle Scout is something you put on your resume. It gets you into good colleges and gets you good jobs." These people are the Kardashians of Scouting--they never met a camera they didn't like if it gets them attention. And yes, being rich provides you with the means to do things like routinely travel 500 miles to Canada so daughter can participate in Scouts Canada.

Please. You have been a moderator a very long time and monitor these threads—particularly the Ireland threads. You know her Scoutmaster, Advancement Chair and CC from her Boy Scouts of America troop routinely submitted advancement paperwork to their NY council—knowing full well it would be rejected but doing so anyway. Then the troop presented her with all of the awards and paperwork anyway. That’s why she claims she is an “unofficial Life Scout.” Her troop claims she has done all the work but won’t be recognized by her council or national.

You must not be a rich lawyer constantly searching for and then shamelessly exploiting loopholes. And if I recall correctly, wasn’t there something about the whole Ireland family claiming dual residency and the father buying a house in Canada so Sydney could be a Canada Scout in the summer or something?

@Mom2Scout the adults making the decisions clearly do not understand how linked troops are supposed to work, and what’s worse, they fail to realize that it isn’t their troop-it’s the boys’ troop. This type of decision should not be forced upon the boys. Does the COR realize what is happening and how the SM and CC plan to organize the troops? If not, can you speak with the COR? if the COR is ok with this or encourages it, I would have my son and as many friends want to go with him, find a new troop to join. Edited to add: Before somebody lights me up over this post, Yes, I know the CO “owns” the troop. I am a COR, among many other roles. Our troop may be chartered by our church, but I expect the PLC to “run” the troop...with a little oversight by the SM and his ASM corps.

Yes, that is correct. Male members of our crew routinely earned merit badges. One young man in particular earned a number of merit badges and he was not First Class. Anyway, MB blue cards were given out by me as unit leader, signed by me as unit leader, submitted by the Crew's Advancement Chair, etc. it was all through the crew. As far as I can tell, "qualifying Venturer" simply means they have paid their dues, are on the unit roster, and have appropriate Crew Leader signatures. as an aside, no female members of the crew were ever interested in the MB itself, they simply shot guns, hiked, canoed and so on. For that matter, I would say most of the male members were not interested in MB either. But for those who were interested, we offered the opportunity.

Completely ageee with @qwazse on this. Over the years I have had a number of Venturers, iirc only males, earn MBs unrelated to rank advancement. It was usually Rifle, Shotgun and Climbing, and occasionally Hiking MB. These MB were all processed by the Crew Advancement Committee. this is a huge gray area. I suspect it isn’t widely examined because most Venturers don’t care about advancement.

Everything about Sydney is a clear violation of standards. A female in a Boy Scout Troop? Earning rank? Going on outings? Holding positions of authority? as for @fred johnson‘s concern that Sydney was misled, she, her publicity-seeking father and female Scoutmaster [who always knew that the rank advancements she submitted for Sydney to their council would be denied but kept submitting them anyway] all have always known this is wrong. That’s why Sydney calls herself “an unofficial Life Scout.”

Well it hasn't happened yet. I was at a Council event last night and said something about "Boy Scouts" and somebody snottily said "You mean Scouts BSA." So I replied "No, I mean Boy Scouts. On February 1, this will be Scouts BSA, but right now this is still Boy Scouts." They weren't happy about it but admitted it is premature to call the program Scouts BSA.

@Bside call your council’s Scout Executive. This is a significant issue and the ASM and CC should not address this alone. The chartering organization rep needs to know about this too.