Wondering

My scout was looking for the Silver Supernova bar just a few months ago and I was told that the Supernova bars are being discontinued when I called the National Scout Shop. They were out of the Silver bar and told me to call the New England Base Camp Scout Shop because they might have it. They did. Give them a call.

Thank you so much for your quick answers and guidance, I am truly grateful to the experts here on this forum!

I am wondering... What happens when a merit badge counselor (who didn't have to pay registration fees) wants to become an ASM as well? MBC is a district/council position so how does that work if the MBC is a parent in a troop--would this MBC have to then pay fees to be dual-registered as an ASM for the troop? Can this MBC serve as a Troop Committee Member and vote? How about a currently registered ASM signing on to also become a MBC so that he/she no longer has to pay registration fees at recharter? Can that be done? Am I right to assume that adults who register for free as MBCs will not show up on the troop roster on Scoutbook?

Wondering if anyone has seen this... Came across this "California Sex Abuse Lawyers" website which lists the names and BSA IV files of "notable abusers in the California Boy Scouts" and "full list of California Boy Scouts Ineligible Volunteers." You can view the actual BSA IV files: https://californiasexabuselawyers.com/boy-scout-files/?utm_campaign=1670720370&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=390952897119&utm_term= boy scouts abuse&adgroupid=82868823089&gclid=CjwKCAjwzaSLBhBJEiwAJSRokpzV8Rqj6FK5zk2MXO_gdlE_-a2YC-oEl7zVgiPWnFWLLq4UdnbgShoC1UMQAvD_BwE

Article from the L.A. Times today: Boy Scouts payout disputed (pagesuite.com) Note 4th paragraph 😉

TCC letter recommending voting to reject plan on tccbsa.com http://www.pszjlaw.com/assets/htmldocuments/BSA TCC letter re plan.pdf

An article from The Conversation today: Sexual abuse survivors are voting on the Boy Scouts bankruptcy settlement: 5 questions answered https://theconversation.com/sexual-abuse-survivors-are-voting-on-the-boy-scouts-bankruptcy-settlement-5-questions-answered-168337

From https://www.scoutingnewsroom.org/youth-protection/100-years-of-enhancing-efforts-to-protect-youth/ 100 Years of Youth Protection January 31, 2014 Recognizing that youth protection requires sustained vigilance, the BSA continues to be on the forefront of developing youth protection policies to strengthen and enhance efforts to protect youth through clear policies, training of adult volunteers, and effective screening of volunteers. Following are the steps Scouting has taken throughout the past 100 years in an effort to create a safe environment for its youth: 1910 The Boy Scouts of America incorporates on February 8. 1911 The BSA institutes character reference checks for Scoutmasters. 1913 The BSA begins long-standing collaboration with parents and chartered organizations in selecting Scout leaders. The BSA requires Scoutmasters and Scouts to register in order to participate in Scouting programs. Mid-1920s The BSA begins cross-referencing all adult volunteers against a list of “ineligible volunteers” maintained at its national headquarters. This practice of identifying individuals deemed by the BSA as not having the moral, emotional, or character values for membership in the BSA is later discussed in William D. Murray’s 1937 book titled The History of the Boy Scouts of America. 1929 The BSA expands adult registration to include every male adult involved in Scouting. 1935 Theodore Roosevelt Jr. states that leadership is a sacred trust and discusses the existence and use of the confidential list of ineligible volunteers to protect youth. 1972 The BSA begins developing standards for leadership as a guideline for screening adult leaders. 1981 Scoutingmagazine runs an advertisement from the National Committee on the Prevention of Child Abuse. (Additional advertisements appear in 1983 and 1984.) 1985 Scouting magazine presents the BSA’s position on “Child Abuse and Scouting.” Scouting magazine provides information regarding a governmental publication titled “Child Sexual Abuse Prevention—Tips to Parents.” 1986 Boys’ Life magazine, with a circulation of 1.2 million youth and unit leaders, publishes “Wrong Kind of Touching.” Scouting magazine publishes “Child Abuse—Let’s Talk About It” and an article about child abuse by Dr. Walter Menninger of the famed Menninger Clinic. Scouting magazine publishes an extensive article titled “Child Abuse: Let’s Talk About It—A Statement by the Boy Scouts of America on Child Abuse,” which includes “the 12 points of the Child Bill of Rights.” 1987 Scouting magazine publishes “Child Sexual Abuse—How to Deal with It” and a letter from the Chief Scout Executive on “Grooming by a Child Abuser.” The BSA develops a camp staff training program, and the two-deep leadership policy, which requires two adult leaders at all Scouting activities, is formally adopted. 1988 Scouting magazine includes an article titled “Barriers Against Child Sexual Abuse.” 1989 The BSA produces A Time to Tell, a video that teaches 11- to 16-year-olds the three R’s of Youth Protection—how to recognize, resist, and report child abuse. More than 3,500 copies of the video are distributed in the first year. 1990 The Boy Scouts of America launches a new version of “Youth Protection Guidelines: Training for Volunteer Leaders and Parents.” The Boy Scout Handbook features an insert titled “How to Protect Your Children,” which includes exercises each new Scout is to complete with his parents when he joins Scouting. The insert titled “How to Protect Your Children” is also added to the Scoutmaster Handbook. 1991 The BSA prohibits one-on-one adult and youth activities, and produces It Happened to Me, a video aimed at 7- to 10-year-olds, which is featured in Scouting magazine in an article titled “A Must Film to See.” 1992 Representatives from Scouting serve as advisers to the U.S. government through participation on the U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect. 1993 The Boy Scouts of America hosts the first National Child Abuse Prevention Symposium for educational, religious, and other youth-serving organizations. The BSA’s director of administration testifies before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on the Boy Scouts’ views on the national Child Protection Act of 1993, providing background information on the BSA and its Youth Protection program. 1994 The BSA requires criminal background checks for all professionals and staff who work with youth. The BSA updates its Youth Protection Guidelines for Volunteer Leaders and Parents video, addressing how an adult should identify whether a child has been or is being abused, and what the adult should do to protect the child. 1997 The BSA is an active member of the National Collaboration for Youth in its publication of “Screening Volunteers to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse: A Community Guide for Youth Organizations,” and the BSA’s director of administration is selected as the chair of the National Assembly of National Voluntary Health and Social Welfare Organizations’ Task Force on Child Sexual Abuse. 2001 The BSA’s Youth Protection comic book series for Cub Scouts is introduced, with the first issue focusing on bullying. 2002 Scouting magazine features an article highlighting the risk of child sexual abuse and proclaims April as “Youth Protection Month.” 2003 The BSA begins conducting third-party, computerized criminal background checks on all new adult volunteers and introduces online training: “Youth Protection Guidelines: Training for Adult Leaders and Parents.” 2005 The BSA revises the insert in the Boy Scout and Cub Scout handbooks. The organization updates and publishes several age-appropriate training materials and launches a new Adult Leader Application that encourages immediate online training for youth protection and other immediate needs. 2007 The BSA updates It Happened to Me and includes the topic of pornography and suicide in “Personal Safety Awareness” training materials aimed at teenagers. 2008 The BSA requires all volunteers to go through a full criminal background check. Scouting implements youth protection requirements for youth to advance in rank and addresses bullying and cyber-safety. The BSA produces a video titled Cub Scout and Boy Scout Youth Protection. 2009 The BSA addresses the use of cameras, imaging, and digital devices by youth and adults, and updates youth protection materials and guidelines. The BSA updates “How to Protect Your Children From Child Abuse: A Parent’s Guide.” The Scoutmaster Handbook includes a section on youth protection guidelines referencing BSA youth protection materials, the three R’s of Youth Protection, and BSA policies on youth protection. 2010 The BSA hires Michael “Mike” Johnson, an internationally recognized expert on child abuse detection and prevention, as youth protection director. The BSA makes Youth Protection training mandatory for all registered adult members and requires it to be repeated every two years. Parents are advised on the BSA youth membership application that abuse can occur “even in Scouting,” and advises them of Youth Protection training and the two-deep leadership policy. The BSA creates a Mandatory Reporting policy, which says that all persons involved in Scouting shall report to local authorities any good-faith suspicion of belief that a child is being or has been physically or sexually abused. 2011 Scouting launches a new campaign called “Youth Protection Begins With You”™, which underscores the fundamental belief that the protection of youth—in Scouting and in local communities—can be best achieved through the shared involvement of parents, volunteers, leaders, and council staff. The BSA establishes an Executive Board–level Youth Protection Committee and names Dr. Jim Wilson chair. 2012 The BSA initiates the volunteer-led and volunteer-focused Youth Protection Champions program. The BSA holds the first National Youth Protection Symposium in Atlanta, Georgia. An email address (youth.protection@scouting.org) is established for volunteers to submit questions about youth protection. The BSA, supported by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s Netsmartz division, rolls out the Internet-safety focused Cyber Chip program for four different age groups. An associated website is launched. 2013 The BSA holds the second National Youth Protection Symposium in Irving, Texas, with an expanded group of youth protection experts and youth-serving organizations (www.nationalyouthprotectionsymposium.org). 2014 The anti-bullying Be Kind initiative is launched; campaign materials are provided for use by units, leaders, and youth.

Thank you for the tip, InquisitiveScouter! You're right, a lot of the people who want to help simply don't have all the information they need to do their jobs right or well. Next time I feel frustration sneaking in I shall remind myself to be more understanding and help them if I can, or gently steer them back to the Committee Chair. 🙂

On a different note... Pardon my newbie-ness and silly questions: I identified my CO's name on the Summary of Sexual Abuse Claims in Chapter 11 Cases of BSA (updated 8/11/21) and would like to know if that is indeed my CO, or just another CO with the same name. I am wondering if contacting PSZJ Law is the best way to go about this? Or I'm better off asking someone at the LC? Can they divulge such information? If my CO is indeed the one named on the list, would someone there have already been notified? Thank you in advance!

The intent is good but I agree the language is problematic. It'll be interesting to see how it gets implemented here in California. I was fingerprinted, background-checked and TB-tested a few years ago in order to volunteer at my kids' school. A number of parents decided to not volunteer because the prerequisites were "too much work." I think this new bill will have an impact on the already strapped afterschool programs in terms of staffing but parents will be likely be willing to pay more knowing there'll be more supervision. We shall see...

Thank you for the warm welcome! I am currently a unit level volunteer and handles troop registrations and memberships. I am also a merit badge counselor. I am happy with these "jobs" but I find myself getting frustrated at times when I see that a lot of people around me don't do the "job" they are supposed to do. My Scout is enjoying scouting and always has. I will never forget the day he came home from kindergarten and told me excitedly that he wanted to be a Scout. I've talked to him about the BSA lawsuit and possible outcomes, and we've resolved to just keep right on Scouting. He aims to earn the Life rank in six months and hopes to earn the Eagle rank next year. I am happy to be here at this forum where I can feel the spirit of Scouting and I will be sure to post my questions as they come up. Thank you for having me at this campfire!

Hi! I am a volunteer mom of a Star scout. I am here to learn, to be more informed, and to seek answers for questions I have about scouting. I must admit, I've already learned so much more here than elsewhere, thank you very much! I am going to read through as much of the topics and threads here as I can and I am truly grateful to everyone who contribute and share their perspectives and knowledge.

I am wondering if anyone is as surprised as I am to hear this news. I was expecting to hear about the Citizenship in Society MB and this felt like it came out of the left field. "As the fields of human medicine expanded through specialization, support services, and technology, it be-came apparent through direction from the field that Scouts were interested in learning about other areas of human health care and medical support. However, because it would have been impossible to develop an individual merit badge for each field of interest in the health care domain, it has been decided to create a single merit badge that will encompass a wide variety of health care careers: the Health Care Professions MB [2021]. Scouts working on the new merit badge will have the opportunity to learn about dozens of health care pro-fessions/vocations, including: Allopathic and Osteopathic physicians; Podiatrists; Chiropractors; Nurse Prac-titioners; Psychologists; Optometrists; Audiologists; Physician Assistants; Registered Nurses (and other nurs-es); Pharmacists; EMTs; Physical Therapists; Dietitians; Speech-Language Pathologists; Medical Technolo-gists; Phlebotomists; as well as many others. As with all merit badges, there will be a merit badge pamphlet containing support text that describes the roles these individuals play in the delivery of health care, the settings where they may work, and any educa-tional and licensing requirements that may be necessary. The planned release date for the Health Care Professions MB is the fall of 2021, at which time the current Medicine MB will be retired. Scouts currently working on the Medicine MB will be allowed to continue working on it until completed, but after the official release of the Health Care Professions MB, Scouts may not begin working on the superseded Medicine MB. Hard copy editions of the Health Care Professions merit badge pamphlet should also be available in the fall of 2021. The style and design of the merit badge patch will not change between the new Health Care Professions MB and the former Medicine MB."