FireStone

We glue the axles in my son's cars. There are all kinds of theories on why not to glue, being able to make adjustments to axles on race day, etc. But that's generally not practical for most packs and how they operate races. Our pack doesn't allow the kids or parents to even get their hands on the car on race day. Cars are checked in days before and that's it. Next time they see their car, it's on the track. So when a scout turns in a car, you want to be sure nothing moves. Once the axles are in, we just put a little bit of glue in the axle slot to keep things from moving. Krazy Glue works well, and it would really take a hammer to move the axles once it dries. I'd recommend that if you want a solution that pretty much guarantees that the axles won't be accidentally pushed in. It's unusual that some cars only race once or twice in your pack. On a 4-lane track the general strategy is to get each car in each lane at least once, so minimum 4 runs per car. That eliminates the differences in lane speed factor (there's almost always a "faster" lane on the track, or a bad lane). Without working software I'm sure it would be harder to track all of those races, and I'm guessing that's why fewer runs were done, but that's kind of a failure on the part of the pack, too. Ideally tracks and software should be tested (and preferably fully set up and ready to go) before race day.

I think more camps than most folks realize have a ton of these kinds of activities available, and more. Unfortunately in the earlier years of scouting, the focus is so sharply on merit badges that few scouts even realize there is other stuff to do at camp. I've seen older scouts go to camp and do 1 easy merit badge the whole week, spending the bulk of their time in other activities and having a blast. I think my favorite week of camp I did as a kid was the last one, when I was done with my Eagle reqs and only did Metalwork. Spent the rest of the time running around camp, mountain biking, climbing, the camp had a "gateway contest" (which troop had the best entrance to their site) and we went nuts on that. Built a monkey bridge over the entrance and did a bunch of stuff I'm sure wouldn't be allowed today. But it was an awesome week. I think the default response when kids and parents ask "what can they do at summer camp" is to hand them a merit badge schedule. I kind of wish we could require each scout to do at least one thing each week that they don't get a badge for. But I'm sure some parents would protest. Honestly camps are part of the problem, too. They market it to get more kids to go, and they get parents to write those checks by touting the tangible benefits of camp. "Do 6 months worth of scout work in a week!" that sort of stuff.

I'm still waiting on Skateboarding Merit Badge. I've been tempted to submit a proposal but surely they've already gotten plenty of requests for this one by now. It's always been interesting to me that it's a key marketing feature of any Summit promotions, and yet there's no badge for it. Maybe now with it becoming an Olympic sport, the BSA will finally make it available as a merit badge.

The video games and movies thing drives me nuts every time the gun debate comes up. Do our politicians really not realize that these same video games and movies get shipped around the world, including to countries with little gun violence? There are countries that are far bigger consumers of video games than the US. So where are all of the school shootings in those countries?

I think we all have a pretty clear idea of what "school shooting" means in this country today. So if someone says there was a "school shooting" and you come to find that a guy shot himself in a school parking lot when no children were present, or it was a gun fired in a parking lot at a college basketball game after class hours, that seems dishonest to me. I get that they disclose their parameters to define "school shooting", but it doesn't matter if their definition is contrary to what the vast majority of Americans think of when someone says "school shooting."

I'm sure it happens. But I'd venture a guess that crime related to marijuana is probably lower than crime related to other drugs, and certainly to crime related to guns.

Potheads? Very few I'd imagine.

Because you don't often hear about someone being stoned to death, at least not in the marijuana sense of the word "stoned". How many people have killed other people with a joint?

I flew to the Dominican Republic sitting near a bathroom that was broken (and unable to contain the smell of itself as a result of whatever was broken). It was 100% about the destination then.

I think a lot of scouts do. Some summer camps have a "Dan Beard Program" or some other-named first-year scout program to work on a ton of T-2-1 requirements. I did it as a kid and if memory serves, that week-long program knocked out about half of the reqs for each rank. Off-topic: I also remember you got a sign-off sheet with initials by each requirement, and in the handbook they just put "DB" for "Dan Beard". You had to refer to the sign-off sheet to see the actual initials. Another scout in my troop tried to add a few extra "DB"s in his book for requirements that weren't actually done in the program. He finally got caught in the Eagle paperwork, yet somehow he still got Eagle. I never figured out how he was allowed to pass.

Is there good timing for bringing a gun to school?

Good point. It would be nice to see marketing that is dual-purpose and shows boys and girls together, but logistically that kind of goes against what is actually being proposed in the program.

https://www.scouter.com/topic/29792-sunday-morning-segment-on-the-bsa/

It's too soon for this stuff, especially Tiger through Bear. I'd rather the boys were off playing in the woods than working in the kitchen area.

I think we're way off topic at this point, but on the subject of advancement... It kind of seems like no matter what pace a kid takes, it will bother someone. Go too fast and you're missing out on the journey. Go too slow and earn eagle in the 11th hour before turning 18 and they didn't take it seriously, didn't plan ahead, procrastinated, etc., etc., etc. My feeling is if this is supposed to be about the journey, let it be a journey that fits each scout. No two journeys end up being the same. The kids have their list of requirements, but even within that there is a lot of choice and different angles of approach. We want them to become leaders but we don't want then to lead on their own advancement trail? If we're going to say this is still a youth-led program, we should let up on the criticism of how they approach their own advancement. If the benefits of the program are so heavily dependent on time spent in the program, then we should have a requirement on the books that puts more time between ranks. Unless/until that happens, the boys should decide their own pace, whatever works for them, even if that means fast-tracking.

Kinda creepy. I mean, I know I carry a phone around that is a giant tracking and data-capture device, but that's a communication device, we know it connects to things. Having my boots talking to the Bean mothership is on a different level.

Looks like those girls are not models, but actual scouts. Which is cool. I'm not against using models in advertising and marketing, but for something like Scouting, I think it's preferrable to show real scouts. Even if they are real scouts doing staged activities.