TMSM

No, its has always been segments to get to the Medal. So nothing has changed but the availability of the medal.

The patches are there but not the medal.

My college roommate was nicknamed 9 Finger Louie. In high school him and his buddy were goofing around - while he threw up a stick his buddy would try to cut it in half mid air with loppers. No need to tell the end of the story and a reminder that no tool with a blade is idiot proof.

We still play dodgeball, the PLC meets by themselves and patrols have meetings outside of the troop meetings. We also play laser tag a for our Christmas meeting.

I suggest using Program Features with new scouts troops to provide a framework. The PLC can learn the skills be fore the meeting and they can be the ones to teach the troop. This takes more time but allows for a more scout led troop, SM should learn the skills on his own and be ready to help if needed.

As someone who advocates for the rights of boys I have to say that not going co-ed is the right thing to do. I have polled many of my SM peers and they feel the same, that is a place (and possibly the last place) where all boys have their own space. We have a very strong GSA community and so we see very lttle interest from girls. I know most of my peers here would step down if they had to deal with co-ed and those challenges and are here to make a difference if a boys life not work with girls. There are many other places here that cater to girls (girls that code, GSA, Girls sports, etc..) so thats where we focus when it comes to girls. We have lots of coed activities and I mean mostly so boys and girls mix all of the time. What they dont get to do is just hang with boys and most of my scouts joined our troop to do just that. I liked the fact that Ventture crews were Coed and this was a place for it. However if you look at the numbers girls in thos crews were dropping dramatically. I see that my Council is more focused on getting girls than boys. If they spent 1/2 the effort they are on getting girls they could increase boys by ten fold (my opinion). This is a great book to better understand how boys are under served - https://www.amazon.com/Boy-Crisis-Boys-Struggling-About/dp/1948836130/ref=sr_1_1?crid=ZH3CE81ZWNHY&dchild=1&keywords=the+boy+crisis+warren+farrell&qid=1615914287&sprefix=the+boy+crisis%2Caps%2C166&sr=8-1

My son actually brought this Nationall Outdoor Award Meda idea to me (SM) and said this is what his goal was. He worked with our Awards Chair to help him understand what each segment was and encouraged other scouts to go for as many segements as possible. As an older, 16, scout it gave him a reason to go to summer camp and to look outside for training. Many of the requirements come from earning a MB and then participating in those activities but the other parts were hard for him to complete. WFA - 16 hour training was hard to schedule aroung sports and troop activities. LNT train the trainer was really hard to fine during COVID. Our council dropped these classes 4 years ago and other opportunities were either too far to drive or were cancelled. He did finally get this all completed and on hiw own. Our CoH is in 2 weeks he will be awarded the NOA medal so I am both a proud dad and SM. Some of his stats: Miles hiked - 600 Nights camped - 151 Hours of Aquatics - 106 Conservation Hours - 62 High Adventures - 5 This is a great award and should be promoted more to get scouts to do what scouts do. I am trying to find out how many scouts have earned this medal - any ideas how to find this number?

The New York Time has a better explanation of what happened to Ota Benga. Wikipedia tends to see things with todays lens and not what it was like 100 years ago. Ota Benga was free to wander the zoo as he pleased. Sometimes he helped the animal keepers with their jobs. In fact, Hornaday described the African as being “employed” by the zoo, though there is no record he was ever paid. He spent a lot of time at the Monkey House, caring for Mr. Verner’s one surviving chimp and bonding as well with an orangutan named Dohong. Contrary to common belief, Ota Benga was not simply placed in a cage that second weekend in September and put on display. As Dr. Bradford and Mr. Blume point out, the process was far subtler. Since he was already spending much time inside the Monkey House, where he was free to come and go, it was but a small step to encourage him to hang his hammock in an empty cage and start spending even more time there. It was but another small step to give him his bow and arrows, set up a target and encourage him to start shooting. This was the scene that zoogoers found at the Monkey House on the first day of the Ota Benga “exhibit.” The next day, word was out. The headline in The New York Times read: “Bushman Shares a Cage With Bronx Park Apes.” Thousands went to the zoo that day to see the new attraction, to watch him carry on so amusingly, often arm in arm, with Dohong the orangutan.

Our troop increased 10% in the last 6 months but we expect to only get half the number of Webelos we usually get. Packs are way down for now but without the ability to meet that is expected. The pandemic will be over soon enough and every needs to have a plan on how to regain those lost boys who have missed out on joining scouts.

Actually diversity and inclusion have been proven to not be effective with many global studies disproving this theory. I think the reason is that that these terms are too high level and allow someone to play with the meaning of diversity. Its easy to point to a specific use case where it does or does not work.

Thanks I am trying to help the CC recruit but he is more focused on me checking out and is looking for a new SM. My argument is that the CC should build a strong committee first then look for an SM. I have assured everyone that I will stick around until they can find the right SM(or tell me I am done)but I do expect growth in the committee. I am also currently growing my ASM team from 2 to 4 and most are good at letting the scouts run the troop. We have about 80% active rate in our troop so the scouts are happy, they can lead themselves etc. Our treasurer ages out in 3 months, no outdoor chair, no service project chair, no fundraiser chair. no recruiting chair. We have parents sit in the committee meeting and just observe but do not volunteer for anything.

I am currently at 1 and 3. The District person is obviously not doing their job. Troops should work hard to keep good SMs and a strong committe is key. SM who wants a strong program gets trapped if things gp wrong. Parents always blame me when things go wrong, always. CC needs to step up and take ownership for lack of volunteers this should not be the SMs role. Batshit crazy parents are persuaded to change to a different troop by the SM in our troop because CC has no backbone.

We had a succession plan when I was awarded the Unit leader of Merit Award but that was 4 years ago and my replacements son quit scouts and all of my ASMs are CubMasters. My CC has given me a hard time here and there over the last 6 years regarding me getting the scouts to do the right thing at the right time (I am not their den leader) so it looks like we may swap positions and have him learn the hard way how hard it is to be SM at times. If you were going to sell someone the reason to become SM what would your pitch be?

We open and close as a troop and then breakout into patrols for skills training. We then do inter patrol competitions using these skills. Then we close as a troop.

We take a $100 non-refundable down payment to get on the list and then 2 months later ask for $400 more. Once they have paid $500 they rarely change their mind and can sell their spot to others if needed.