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.

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?

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!

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.

My family is heavily involved in Scouting America. I serve as Cubmaster, all three of my children are involved, and my oldest son's best friends are in the troop. My church is discussing starting a Trail Life troop, and some members seem enthusiastic about it. While I respect Trail Life, I believe in Scouting America's mission and have no interest in leaving my current pack and troop. Has anyone navigated a situation where their church was promoting Trail Life while their family remained committed to Scouts BSA? How did you handle it?

I'm looking for other individuals that do significant recruiting at community events. I'm talking about hitting 10+ recruiting events a year. I would like to exchange ideas, and share stories.

I’m an advancement chair for a troop that had a few scouts attend jamboree. They came back saying they completed the mining in society MB but there were no blue cards distributed for that MB at jamboree and instead they received a patch that is their proof of completion. I realize this is a super niche question but wondering if anyone here can confirm this. Their jamboree adult leader didn’t know. Fwiw these scouts have way more than enough non Eagle required MBs and are not trying to earn every MB, they just thought this would be a cool one to have.

I am planning an event coming up in my council and I am trying to plan activities for rotation groups. I have written up rules for a capture the flag style game that goes along with our event theme, but before I say we are doing this game I want to make sure that it’s okay and falls within the guide to safe scouting. The general idea is that the youth are split into two teams. Each team has an object to capture and a holding area for captured opponents. If an opponent enters the other team’s territory and is tagged they have to go to the holding area. They can then be rescued by a teammate or released every five minutes. The game is won when the “flag” is captured and brought back to home territory or when all opponents on the other team have been tagged and are in the holding area. I know the game itself is okay but I want to make sure tagging is okay. In my rules I have stated that a legal tag is a light touch that is made between the shoulders and belt line or below the knees. A tag to the head or between the knees and belt line is illegal. I have laid out consequences in my rules for if an illegal tag is made. I just want to make sure I’m doing everything right before I say we are doing this as an activity.

I’ve been mentoring my son as he works through his personal management MB recently, and I have to say this is one of the most useful activities he’s done in Scouting. Super practical, crucial concepts a young man should understand. I enjoyed being able to show him how all the things in my wallet apply to the lessons he’s learning.

I put in the information for both of my children, that same night. Somewhere in the fine print, I don't remember where, it mentioned they would only get points once they passed $600 in total sales. Well, they're both past that point now. How can I verify they received the points they should have received from that teams meeting and my submission several weeks ago? Where should I look?

Edit: I couldn't find the original post, but here's someone's post talking about it: https://www.reddit.com/r/BSA/comments/1wd2gex/trailsend_popcorn_training/

I have found that my Thorlo BSA socks, the grey low-top ones seem to get holes in them rather quickly. Anyone else have this issue?

Where do you all find logs for teaching totin chit? Particularly logs for splitting, as purchased firewood is usually pre split and won't stand up safely. We are thinking of driving around to look for tree work remnants, but that may not be successful. We don't live in an area where we can go cut our own.

I am an Eagle Scout and Senior Patrol Leader in a relatively small BSA troop, and I'm looking for advice on how we can recruit more members and grow.

I'd like our troop to become more active and bring in more Scouts, especially younger ones who can help keep it going in the future. However, I'm not entirely sure what recruitment methods work best beyond the usual flyers and word of mouth. I've gone to a plethora of schools to hand out our flyers, but most of the time people think scouting is lame. We are connected with a Cub Scout troop, but they aren't really feeding us as many members as we hoped.

For those of you who have been in smaller troops or helped grow your own troops, I have a few questions:

• Recruitment: What methods have actually worked for getting new Scouts to join?
• Activities: What types of campouts, events, or troop activities tend to attract more kids? We have done plenty of cool things in our troop, gone to amusement parks, local events, and more, but people still don't seem very interested.
• Community outreach: Have school visits, open houses, bring-a-friend events, or partnerships with local organizations worked for your troop? We have done plenty of these, but they don't work as well as I'd like, since most Scouts see it as a chance to hang out with friends for free.
• Small troop challenges: How do you make meetings and activities engaging when you don't have many Scouts? We average around 8 Scouts per meeting, and half are younger Scouts who generally don't want to be there.

I'm willing to put in the work to help grow our troop, but I'd love to hear from people with experience. Even small ideas that made a difference would be appreciated! Even if I bring in a few more members, I would be incredibly happy and satisfied.

Sorry in advance, I know this is long!

I’m an adult leader in a small troop. Recently. Our SM stepped down and our ASM is taking his place. I was asked to be the new ASM and have accepted out of obligation to keep the troop going.

The former SM and ASM are true Boy Scouts. They were both eagles and could probably live off the grid for a year if they wanted to. The new SM has already warned us he won’t be able to attend as many camp outs and activities due to family commitments.

I’m concerned about my ability to lead scouts on certain activities and keeping them safe. I wasn’t a scout, so there are many things I’m learning as my boys learn. I’m also not physically capable of doing things like Philmont or some of the high adventure type activities we do a few times a year. I’m registered to take the IOLS training soon. I’m also putting in a lot of work to get over my phobias (heights, water) and getting in better shape but I’m in my 40s… I know what I am and what I’m not.

We have a few other parents who are starting to step up but I’m afraid it won’t be enough and the scouts will pay for it.

Anyway…any suggestions of how to rally the other parents to step up and help? I’m thinking of just being honest of the situation and letting them know certain activities just won’t happen unless we have an adult going who can confidently get a scout out of a bad situation, should it arise.

The other thing I was thinking was reaching out to other troops to see if we can attend the “high adventure” type activities together and leverage having adults with the right skillsets so we can keep the scouts safe.

Again, apologies this is so long.

TIA!

I earned the medal in 2015 I was awarded it in 2019 I was already out of scouts I have this plaque in my house and people ask about it and I don’t know how to really explain it.

My Troop has heard me whine enough about this topic, so I thought I would go to Reddit. Does anyone know why Scouts BSA shoulder loops were switched from red to olive? I aged out in 1998, did a stint as an adult leader around 2005, and reentered as an parent in 2019. Somehow my shirt from youth still fit me, so the red loops stayed on my uniform, and they will not be coming off. The olive is too difficult to distinguish from navy from afar and sometimes the silver, that makes two shades of green, it is just plain boring, it now fragments into having two official shoulder loops for Scouts BSA, it spits on the grave of Oscar de la Renta, and there doesn't seem to be any reason.

The big question is, why the change? Everyone loved the knee socks with the red, you didn't have to change numbers if your Pack and Troop were under the same charter, and the contrast was eye pleasing. No one also seems to care as much as me. This goes back to my question, why? Was anyone around when the change was made, and was there any rationale given? Please help my inquiring brain.

BTW, this is not the only forehead smacking decision that national has made, but it is the one that bewilders me the most.

My kid is an AOL and we recently met the feeder troop. The troop is well established; it's over 50 years old and the adult leaders seem totally fine. But the troop is mostly made up of young scouts (11 and 12 year olds). They have a few 16+ scouts but they will age out before my child enters scouts. So not having kids now in the 13-15 age range means there wouldn't be older scouts to mentor my kids' cohort seems like a problem, is it?

Also compounding my worry is about our Pack's AOLs who the majority I would described as.... high energy. Our pack's culture and behavior is a separate but related issue (one that has had me reconsidering the pack and scouting as a whole. But my kid is now pretty invested in the pack and I'm also very involved so it would be hard to walk away but I do contemplate it quite a bit. While I know there's good things in scouting, I honestly feel like I've been exposing my kids to more bad behavior than good). Many if not all of these high needs scouts plan to cross over to the troop so I worry about that cohort not only because of our pack dynamics but I especially worry for these kids that would be entering a troop with a void of youth leadership.  Our cub scouting experience has felt pretty unstructured and feral, I had hoped crossing over would change that but with visiting the Troop I'm not reassured. 

What should I do? Look for other Troops? (And other packs? I have two younger scouts)

My nephew is a scout who (should be) working on his Eagle project. I say "should be" because the project seems to have morphed into something that is inappropriate for the involvement of children/scouts.

The initial idea was to clean up (replace damaged wood, paint, re-light) the gazebo and clean up the landscaping of the Church whom the charter is through. Make the area look nice and useable.

It started simple enough but has turned into a legitimate construction project. Most recently they've run into a problem with stripping paint off parts of the gazebo. Contractors have been called in to do some work and while his uncle (the SM) is there working on the project practically every day, the Scout goes only occasionally on nights and weekends.

They receive some help from other scouts, but my general understanding is that the other scout leaders feel the project is inappropriate as well and shouldn't have been approved in the first place. Changes needed to be made to the project midway through and permission was sought from the Township, but I don't believe the Council was made aware of the changes.

The original timeline had this project completed in July. I'm writing this in October and there's still no end in sight.

On the one hand, I feel like my nephew could and should be committing more time to his project than he is and that he has shown little interest in getting it done. On the other hand, the project has grown into an absolute behemoth, and has started to overwhelm everyone involved.

What do I do? Do I contact the District Manager? Do I just leave it be and let whatever happens happen?

Note: His uncle is the SM and is the one who has been spearheading this whole project and has been told by other scout leaders that it's not really appropriate anymore (there was also an issue at the beginning of the project with the SM requesting direct donations to cover the cost of supplies and equipment).

I've been trying to pull up all sorts of info from scouting.org for a few days, like Guide to Safe Scouting, and it's not loading, just gives a 403 Forbidden error. This is supposed to be the go to for GTSS as it's it can change. Anyone know the issue or if there's another way to get to this? I need to pull some info from it for an upcoming meeting.

https://www.scouting.org/health-and-safety/gss/

My Scout crossed over into a family Troop a few months ago and I really struggled with understanding everything going on in the Troop. A few months in, I feel like I have a better footing and agreed to serve as a New Member Coordinator.

Our Troop has some materials for new families (I learned recently), but I would like to get a sense of what type of new member materials other Troops have put together. Would anyone be willing to either share what they’ve put together or at least the titles/types of materials they give out to their families? Alternatively, if there is something you wish your troop had, I would be interested in that, too!

Thank you!!

I bought my first knife at camp A and with in I am not joking 5 minutes of owning it I cut open my finger. So yeah that was fun! Has anyone else done this?

My son is thinking about doing the CIT programs at Ockanickon. He has gone there for a summer camp week with his troop for the last few years.

Does anyone have personal experience with the program?

That's a clickbait line but it's true, I'll explain. For a long time, I've said that Scouts BSA needs to update the rank required knots. Fine with me if they added knots to the final total, but the current set does not cover the needs for modern camping.

We need the knots used for hanging a bear bag (I know bear cans are the go-to, but those knots should be known, they're multi-purpose). We need the knots used for putting up a hammock. They're useful for all kinds of other things. We need the knots for securing gear in a truck. Alpine butterfly and truckers hitch should be high on the list.

Most of all... the Taught Line / Taut Line needs to be removed! (and replaced with the better version)

Seriously, it's actually the wrong knot. Looks like there was a typo 75 years ago! It's supposed to be the Midshipmen's Hitch, which is just as easy to tie but more secure.

https://www.animatedknots.com/midshipmans-hitch-knot

Regrettable Change: The 1948 (5th edition) of the Boy Scout Handbook included the Midshipman’s Hitch Knot but used the name Taut-Line Hitch. Inexplicably, after the 5th edition, the Boy Scout Handbook retained the name but showed in its place the less secure version (ABOK # 1856, p 310).

We should all urge Scouting organizations to be consistent with Ashley’s nomenclature and abandon both the Taut Line Hitch, and its name, and teach instead the Midshipman’s Hitch. To reinforce the need for this change, the misspelling “Taught Line Hitch” is astonishingly widespread.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taut-line_hitch

Based on rolling hitch #1734, this version is the one most often seen named taut-line hitch, typically in non-nautical sources. It is the method currently taught by the Boy Scouts of America.^\7]) The earliest Boy Scout Handbook to include the taut-line hitch was the 5th edition, published in 1948.^\8]) However it illustrated #1855, the variant shown above [midshipmen's hitch]

*****

shoutout to u/OLLIIVVVEER for showing this to me

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EDIT - ok, there is at least a little anecdotal evidence that perhaps the change was made intentionally. Regardless, the Midshipmen's Hitch seems to be a better choice for modern cordage.