Issue 648 – July 21, 2020 ________________________________________ (The correspondence immediately below is from in July 2018. I’m offering it to you here because I believe it calls up an issue that has—I certainly hope—been put to rest, as a result of the huge enthusiasm of girls everywhere, many of whom have grabbed on to SCOUTS […]

________________________________________ Hi Folks! On Monday, our fifth grandchild (bringing the “count” to three boys and two girls, the youngest now two days old and the oldest approaching his 19th birthday in October) was born healthy and noisy in Washington, DC, to our Eagle Scout son and his beautiful wife! Needless to say, you won’t be […]

________________________________________ Hi Andy, In your column last week—June 30, Issue 646—you talked (accurately) about “dark” troops and tenure-in-position. I’ve done some further checking and there’s an even more COVID-19-specific reference that includes the GUIDE TO ADVANCEMENT you mentioned for the Scout who is Senior Patrol Leader of a presently “Covid-dark” troop. The BSA’s online COVID-19 […]

________________________________________ Dear Andy, Unlike other Scouts in his troop, my son (let’s call him “David”) decided to complete his Eagle Service Project before taking care of other requirements like merit badges, tenure-in-position, and so forth. His project was a success and his merit badges came along just fine, but tenure-in-position has become a problem and […]

________________________________________ Hi Andy, Last week, while your answer to John Walker about current camping protocols was correct, it was incomplete. The BSA has guidelines that have been specifically put out on how to count “virtual camping” toward advancement, and also for Order of the Arrow camping requirements. As always, it’s great to get your columns—Thanks! […]

________________________________________ Hi Andy, Given the restrictions now in place as a result of our country’s Covid-19 circumstances, do you think there’s any room for exceptions to the “camping nights” requirements for rank advancement and Camping merit badge? For instance, do you think the BSA would say it’s okay for a Scout to count camping nights […]

________________________________________ Hi Andy, One of the joys of my Scouting activities is serving as the council representative for Eagle boards of review. I had my first one tonight, since social distancing was put in place. It’s always rewarding to welcome a hard-working, happy Scout to the rank of Eagle Scout. But a big drawback now—I […]

________________________________________ Troop 5 of North Bergen, New Jersey was founded in 1916. In its long and storied history, it served generation upon generation of boys and young men, touching their lives in myriad ways and always true to the Scout Oath and Scout Law. I was lucky enough to be a part of one of […]

________________________________________Hi Andy, Inspired by Ken King’s recent posting of the famous Ashley Book of Knots, here’s a question… Let’s say I need to join the ends of two hanks of the same kind (and diameter) of rope. Assuming the rope is woven like parachute cord and not “laid” or a monofilament, which one of these […]

________________________________________ Several weeks ago, a discrepancy in the descriptions of the points of the Scout Law was pointed out to me. The online versions (verify these for yourself at https://www.scouting.org/about/faq/question10/). You’ll notice that these tend to take all self-determination away from Scouts; instead, they’re much more like “rules” and, as such, they eschew Scouts’ self-evaluations […]