Any value in a never worn '98 humorous typo belt buckle from Old Colony Council?

Has anyone done this week-long experience at Summit Bechtel? If so, do you know if the experience includes Rifle or Shotgun MB sign-offs as part of this if the boys bring a blue card?

Thanks!

Like a lot of Troops, as a result of the Bankruptcy, we had to find a new Chartered Organization.

Our Chartered Org is in the next town over. To give you some context, where we are - if you drive for 10 minutes you may go through 4 towns (our COR lives in our town).

We recently had an Eagle Certificate come through with the name of the town of the Chartered Org - not the town where the Troop meets (and the scout lives). Our town is very proud of the troop, and its over 75 year history in the town - it was a little off putting to see the neighboring town name on the Certificate. The scout does not have any ties to the neighboring town and would like the certificate to show the town where he lives and has done all his scouting.

We reached out to our Council and asked if we could get the certificate reprinted with the name of the town where the troop meets. We got a no - but you could get a new Chartered Organization in the town where the troop meets. That response seemed slightly tone deaf - as difficult as it has been to get Chartered Organizations to step up.

Has anyone been able to find a way to get the Eagle Certificate printed with anything different than the Chartered Org town? I am not sure what the harm is of putting the name of where the Troop meets.

Is there a great, gripping audiobook related to the subject / skill that is near and dear to your heart? I would love to hear about it!

I’m the disabled mother of a traumatized AuDHD teen. He’s been a shut-in most of his life; it’s unbelievable how much getting involved with the local troop is turning things around for him. He struggles with reading print but loves the spoken world and now he’s trying to get into more real-life relevant writing.

Looking for audiobooks that inspire and immerse, that you want to hear all over again just to repeat the experience, that stay with you.
ANY merit badge or scouting related topic.

Question regarding propane tanks being transported and stored in an enclosed trailer.

We are a relatively new Troop and working on getting our trailer decked out. Along with shelves for 27 gal totes, cast iron, and other misc. storage solutions, we are planning on making storage for a few 20lb propane tanks. We were planning on an open topped box with dividers that holds up to four tanks snuggly and securing them with ratchet straps during transport.

We were recently told that the bin needs to have a way to chain/lock the propane bottles in place, an adult must have possession of the key, and that this would be part of campsite inspections. That is the FIRST time I've ever heard that and I was hoping someone could confirm or debunk this.

So my pack transitioned from requiring dues to paying for everything through fundraising. This year we wanted to try and maximize fundraiser participation by offering an incentive. Kids who participated in fundraisers would be able to participate in a special activity with the cost covered by the pack. All others would still be able to participate but at a cost of $20.

Unfortunately this did not work as intended and every kid who participated in the fundraisers were the leaderships kids. Collectively, through them, we were able to fundraise enough to fund our pack completely for several years. This has allowed us to help pay for children’s memberships when their families would not have been financially able to do so. It is paid for every kids pine wood derby kit, rain gutter regatta kit, and helped with our uniform closet.

I do not believe that there is anything the incentive program has that is against scouting America’s rules. In fact, it is based on a program that our council offers work out how to sell a certain amount of popcorn can go to a local amusement park for free. I’m just concerned that they’re might be the appearance of partiality, and propriety, and corruption because of the children who did participate and did not participate.

Has anyone ever been in a similar situation? How did you handle it? Is there a rule or guideline that I have forgotten?

My son completed most of his insect study requirements at summer camp. Upon his return home, we worked to raise monarchs and to find a beekeeper who was willing to show him the ropes (this was not easy, but a park district helped us out!)

Now, though, we can’t figure out HOW to get those last two requirements approved. The scoutmaster says a MBC must approve them, fair, but has reached out and none are replying. The best suggestion we have received is for him to sit for another class at merit badge university…which would hit many of the already approved requirements and none of the two we did on our own.

I reached out to the camp; they said they can only mark complete what was done at camp.

Any advice?!?

I’m a leader in a pack, and in my copious spare time I also serve as my district membership chair. We just wrapped up recruiting season, and the results were positive; membership is up 5% compared to this time last year, but I am so frustrated with the old folks on our Council board.

80% of the people on our council board are over 55. Many are in their 70s. We presented how we’re up 5%, and they immediately started throwing out the most ludicrous ideas.

• "We need to advertise in newspapers": Two of the three main dailies in our council have folded or merged, and the third is on death’s door. I cannot remember the last time I saw a newspaper delivered to a driveway or box. The data I’ve seen shows readership down about 70%. But these old-timers still get their papers, or at least the Sunday edition, so apparently we need to dump money into that.
• "National needs to fund a Super Bowl ad": Okay, but do they have $8–10 million lying around? And even if they did, it wouldn’t help us.
• "We need to advertise on Fox News." The median age of a Fox News viewer is 55. These are not the people with kids in Scouting. I’m not getting into the politics of it; I’m just pointing out that these are not parents.

I don’t know what the perfect answer is, and I know National is broke as a joke, but seriously? Is our council going to take marketing advice from grandpa? Sure, they want to see the ads, but that is not where the parents are.

I am so frustrated. We did well (5%!!!), but we’re getting dumped on anyway.

Out of curiosity… where does the OA Arrow pin go? On the uniform?

Any information would be appreciated!

A random thought as I was helping my son work up the energy/interest/get over frustration to tackle knots and lashings.

Summer camp has a ton of MBs and many do other activities tied to scouting to augment the program. Wonder if a Knot Academy or something may be worthwhile.

As a kid my Explorer Post adult lead was a navy guy so knots and lashings were things we had fun with at campouts. In Boy Scouts before even that, we actually did more lashings at camp to build this and that. I just am not seeing as much today before basic requirements.

How does your Pack/Troop/Crew/Ship/Post encourage knot and lashing knowledge?

Hello! My understanding, for merit badges, is that you cannot start any of the requirements until you have a blue card/counselor.

Is that different for the camping merit badge? If a kiddo has been in the troop for a few years, done a bunch of camping with the troop, but actually signs up/gets the blue card for camping AFTER those trips, would those trips count or do they have to do them over?

Thanks!

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I have a son that's still too young for scouts, but I seem to remember religion or belief in a god required to be a scout. I'm an atheist and not planning to raise my boy with religion. If he decides to believe eventually, that's his choice. But assuming he doesnt, would that preclude him from scouting? How is it enforced?

Hi so our troop advancement chair had to move on and our troop has grown to over 50 kids. Can I ask how many people and positions your troops have for advancement? Just looking for ideas on how to structure adults instead of putting everything on one person. Thankyou

I have a stain from a while ago on my uniform’s right sleeve that I’ve never seemed to be able to get out with any stain removing sticks. Any ideas?

hi,

so has anyone heard how the prorating for the new renewal process starting in '28 is going to work?

For example, im grandfathered in from the last time units handled renewal so my renewal date is dec '26. Will the system prorate me to feb '28 so then my unit can get the years worth fees?

And if so what about people who renew way earlier? my daughters renew date is in july, are they going to pro-rate that to feb 28 or will i have to technically pay for her twice? (renew in july to feb but then be charged for the year fee in feb) Because this sounds like it will be a bit of a pita to tell parents 'oh you will only renew till feb, then you will have to pay the full fee a few months later.."

Also i'm not sure why sa has not gotten out more communication about this, ive seem more comms about the dumb ai agent then i have that units are taking back the renew process.

Anyway does anyone know how the prorating will work or is that not announced yet? (very odd of SA)

Two questions. What are your troops policy for reimbursing parents that drive to campout/outings? The second question. Does anybody know if there’s a national policy regarding gas reimbursement? Thanks in advance for your comments

Does anyone know where we can provide official feedback about some outdated publications available via the Scouting.org website? As a new Scoutmaster I have been trying to keep up with the official guidance as much as possible. The new Troop Leader site is helpful while the Guide to Safe Scouting digital version could use some user experience updates.

But my biggest gripe so far is that some of the information is just old (still talks about boys only for example) and appears to be forgotten. For example, the ILST Facilitators guide (ILST_IntroSyllabus_9_11.pdf) was last updated in 2018. The content may be still useful but the verbiage does not follow the modern standards I expect from Scouting America. For example: "LEADERSHIP IN BOY SCOUTING" "Boy Scouts in positions of leadership" & "Helping other Boy Scouts" all appear on the first page of the guide. As the SM for a girls troop this makes me feel very awkward when I ask my SPL and ASPL to review this guide for our upcoming training sessions. I would be willing to help identify documents that need updates or even be part of an official review process, but I just don't know who to even bring this up to.

I know some people here have been helping with the latest Guide to Advancement reviews so I am hoping someone may know the best way to provide feedback on other documents that are outdated or in need of other help to make them more usable.

Taking a long shot here: Is anyone from our council following this sub?

I’m trying to register our troop’s two nominees for the fall course. Registration is due with all 3 forms (plus the medical form) on Friday, and the forms are NOT all available online, maybe due to the council software change recently?

Or if anyone else from MCC has the blanks they can DM me or email them to ASM at Troop502 dot com

UPDATE: Solved. Ultimately got the files via a council contact who saw this post.

Edited to add: Thanks for the recommendation. We contacted the council registrar and they were able to remove him on their end. :)

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We parted ways with our SM and appointed someone new. Previous SM is still logging into the system and seeing the rosters. We move him to "Unit Scouter Reserve" and out of the key 3, but that doesn't seem to change his level of access. We opted him out in the roster, but we are not sure if that solves the problem. How does one remove a person who is no longer part of our chartered organization units entirely?

I have recently been recruited for the activities chair position for our scouting district. I told them I would need to think/pray on it as I'm already assistant cub master, leader of 2 dens, and help with troops on top of things outside of scouting. I have already googled and chatgpt and been given a brief description of responsibilities of the role.

But I was wondering if there was anyone here that has or is currently serving as their activities chair and could give their personal input and experience, what they do, what they like/don't like, etc.

These include all the officially recognized ones and a couple not yet recognized, but still available from those organizations. I'd love for any additions or corrections! I plan on sending this to my unit as a reference.

If anyone has contact info or photos for what isn't available, I'd love that too!

A couple of months ago, Campmasters parents/adults were outside the Kroger grocery store (Diamond Pkway in Savannah, GA/Coastal Empire unit) were urging the young "Scouts" to "go after" potential buyers in the parking lot. In addition, these kids were, obnoxiously, standing in front of Kroger's exit doors nagging Kroger patrons to purchase their product and blocking their carts until they complied. My grandson, finally, agreed to purchase a bag--only to discover later he had been charged twice the price he was told he would be charged (refunded by bank). To be called "Scouts" is an abomination to the TRUE "Boy Scouts of America!"

I'm an adult leader in a unit. We had a chance tonight to do the right thing and allow girls into the troop. The current Scouts were OK with this. It would have help us a great deal with recruiting something the unit needs desperately to survive. But because of bigotry, misogyny, and general small mindedness a majority voted against it. I have 15 years devoted to this unit, and I now question how much support I should continue to provide. I'm not going to start over with a different unit, but dang I'm disappointed.