malraux

Sorry, I don't check this forum as often. There are some wild variations in numbers between councils, with some being up 30% and others down similarly. Not sure if the official numbers will hit 1mil by year end.

I don’t think there’s a required training, though fundamentals of training is the obvious one to get. that said the classroom training for this is to just watch the videos as a group.

Land was much cheaper back when councils got these locations, plus summer camps which are a major element of most councils require dedicated space.

Fair number of cubs didn't recharter, the scouts bsa number is a bit low as well. But of course, march/April is the low point for numbers as its immediately post recharter but before recruitment. The hope should be that the growth in cubs will lead to a growth in troops but that takes time.

Running the current numbers as of right now:

Email notification scared me with the “not” and a flurry of other notifications.

Ask the youth in question if they think they should be able to double dip in this way and to justify it. The right answer being whatever they decide for themselves.

If we can't ensure that all regalia used is good to hi quality in every lodge, I have reservations about making this process a key part of the program.

Also, when you look at a youth’s first few experiences with the oa, it really does show a very specific aspect of the program. The call out and the ordeal happening together really do make it seem like the oa is primarily about lots of mediocre quality cosplay. Making it through all of that to the service and leadership society can be tough.

I also find the merger of scouting honor society and Native American historical society to be a poor fit. I can see why it worked in the past but imo it just doesn’t any more. were I in charge with a magic wand, I’d rework the ceremonies and such around historic scouters (BP, seton, Goodman, green bar bill, etc). We’ve been around long enough to have our own history without having to borrow from someone else.

I personally am ok with either path, even if I preference for one of them. A lot of the current approaches seems to very ad hoc instead of routinized. That might work for past times, but now one council or lodge being inappropriate can show up on YouTube and give the whole organization a black eye (micosay looking at you)

Rumor mongering, but supposedly the purpose of the survey is to decide how to roll out the incoming changes. IE, should the BSA try to work with official tribes to build something appropriate or mostly ditch the themes. But regardless the changes are coming.

There aren't a lot of extra knots, though the den leader knot often applies for cub scouters. Scouters training award is the the other big one that pretty much everyone can get. Wood badge can be gotten by just about anyone. The tenure pins can recognize the long term scouters. A lot of the knots are there for district or council work, for good or ill. For non-uniform wear, there are often local/district awards. We have the buckskin award for service to the unit and basically anyone who gets nominated gets it. You can also make up your own award and give it.

Seems to me, the unit leader and the project beneficiary are the ones who get to make the call, as it's their signatures on the last page. Seems like the bsa standard is that if the project got done, then adequate planning was done. Screwing up planning is a good way to learn the importance of planning for this sort of thing.

And I guess the real thing is who is going to look at this project plan form and why does it matter? The unit leader is the one who says it was done correctly not council/district. National certainly isn’t going to go through and care about this. The EBoR can, but the point of an eagle board is to have a friendly conversation, not an inquisition about why the project plan said it needed 200 screws but instead only used 150. This seems to be needless formalism for something that’ll never even get looked at. it might matter if the proposal were very brief and needed a bunch to get fleshed out but this doesn’t seem like the case here.