mrjohns2

Some other post asked how national could lose $3 million on a Jamboree. Pretty easy. Misjudge how much to charge or go over budget. If you misestimated by $50/participant and went over budget by $50/participant, that is a cool $3 million with 30,000 Scouts. Very easy to do.

We just called around and found a high school pool with open swim. We asked them if we could use a lane. They said no problem. Each Scout had to lay $2.50 to get in. We asked everyone to ask friends who were lifeguards to administer the test. We found one who could do it. It worked very well. This is a small troop of only 10 Scouts. The pool is now open again after being closed for the virus. We will do this again. We also politely asked if we could do our rescue requirements if we didn’t get in the way. They had no problem. It took a bit of work. Nothing fancy, but it worked better than 20 laps in a backyard pool.

I agree. I keep thinking about to Green Bar Bill and his troop 1 at Schiff. He had to stay grounded and to experiment with different ideas. That was perfect. I assume many of the top leaders are not in units. I know the design director of Boys' Life has Scouting age kids, but how many on the National Board have been on a campout with a normal unit or a den meeting with a den in the last 10 years?

Actually the ones with elastic were from the mid/late 1990’s. The ones from the ‘80s didn’t have the elastic bands on waste/hips.

Cubs -one hat, one neckerchief, one belt, and one slide from lion to Webelos. Only need to replace if it no longer fits. -I have heard they are already getting rid of the tiger socks (did you know there was such a thing?) and tiger/bear/Webelos belt buckle replacements Scouts -Totin chip and firemn’ chit and cyber chip patches -those dumb mini sashes. Oh, wait, those are already not official. -make good hiking socks that are official. I have tried the Therlos. Not good. Venturing -green uniforms, special pants, special socks. Use either standard BSA uniform or Dickies like Sea Scouts or the option to have your own crew’s.

The fact that these use existing decent quality shirts/pants is such a neat “innovation”.

Talk about protecting sacred cows! These guys are really digging in.

Like many said, this isn’t much of a vision or plan. Getting distracted by Rovers is pretty dumb. They seem to be cutting out some distractions, but to think a distraction like Rovers will help the core program, they are mistaken. Get rid of the garbage and the focus of national on a small set of out of touch volunteers is a big part of the problem. Doubling down on excellent execution of the current program is the answer. Any org structure or flanking program that distracts from Cubs and Scouts BSA is a mistake.

No, not at all like joe Venturing was supposed to be. Right now if a district or council wanted to do a 6 week stem program (and be coved by insurance), there is nothing to fit the current model.

What are you talking about "agency"? Also, it has been clearly shown it wasn't a policy. You may have been subjected to an age limit, it wasn't part of the program on a national basis.

Yes, it can be argued and has. You said we should go back to an age limit. There wasn't a policy of an age limit for the organization. You may have been subjected to one, but it isn't something the "organization should go back to" because it didn't exist. That is the argument.

Man, your assumptions are very general in what liberals think. I consider myself very liberal, and that is not at all what I think.

NRA medals are still offered at camp. Our girl troop LOVED earning them last summer. The Scouts are looking to move up one level this summer. Religious awards still are ONLY offered by local religious communities. This hasn’t changed for at least 30 years. Neither of these have changed. Are they being done differently in your unit?

This is key to the issues across the BSA. This is an issue for both low, medium, and high income families. The amount of time that everyone works is high. Programs for low income kids (Boys and Girls Club), the kids either walk there or it is in their school. For high income kids, the parents just drop their kids off at baseball or hockey. For Scouts, 10-50% of the parents are needed to make the unit work well. Without those parents, it has no chance of working. If there aren't a few superstars among the parents that can help, the unit will struggle and fade. Few to no other activities for families work this way.

What era do you know for sure had an age requirement? I couldn’t find anything on it, so can you give a hint? Like “I was inducted in 1952 and you had to be 14”. I know for sure 1989 and onwards there was no age requirement.

Yes, but Mr. Jeff said you had to be 14. Was that a requirement? If so, when?

This is up to the unit. No one from national or even a district can make this happen. They can try, but they can’t force it. As a side note, I wonder how few days and nights camping a unit can have and still get a hold JTE. I know our troop will still be gold even with missing 4 months of camping this year. I don’t know if a unit should Be listed as “gold” with summer camp and 7 campouts.

What year was that? When I was inducted, 31 years ago, there was no age requirement. Only first class, camping nights, and the tighter voting requirements (were at most 50-66% of those eligible could get in).

I agree 100%.

I don't know if that is fully true. "Scouting is a game with a purpose." So, you have the first part, it is a game, but isn't all about having fun. If was all about having fun, there would be many things done very differently.

I see this allowing councils to do a program that isn't a national program or pilot program. So, for example, let's say STEM Scouts stops. If a council wanted to do Engineering Scouts, right now, there is no mechanism for that to happen. It is innovation and program from national or nothing. This would be a mechanism to allow that to happen.

I have no doubt that is what they want. They have also said that we shouldn’t have girls at all. What they want, and what trade mark law will require the BSA to do are very different.

I would be surprised by that. I think when they said re-branding them meant "what does the BSA it's programs mean to the world", not "renaming". That is just speculation on my part. I assume the Girl Scout lawsuit will end up being nothing other than "don't ever call them girl scouts", but then again, speculation.

The plan I have with our unit this year is to invite the AOL year Webelos on all of our campouts but the Polar Bears and PLC planning weekend. That will be 5 campouts (of the 8 months) for the Webelos to really see what the camping is like. We have 10 Scouts in our troop and there will be 3 Webelos AOL girls this year. My ASM and I are both BALOO trained and the 3 girls are very independent. I hope they see that Scouting is patrol cooking and camping. This move might be our ticket to 2 patrols come March.

I was very active in OA from ‘89 to ‘94. For a few years I did over 20 elections in my chapter each year. I’m back now as Scoutmaster of a girl troop. #1 I was surprised when told about elections happening, I asked when the election team would visit my troop. The advisor laughed that there is no election team. It was up to us to find a buddy troop to swap doing elections with. All of this planning and communication came from adults. #2 I had to read the requirements 10x to make sure I understood it right that everyone eligible could be elected in the same year. I then read of membership issues on a national level. How could there be membership “issues” if 2x Scouts can now be elected from when I was in?