scoutldr

When my financial advisor found out I was a scout leader and taking other people's kids in my car and out camping, he recommended I carry umbrella liability insurance. I have done so for 30 years now. It is very reasonable in cost. You can be perfectly innocent and not at fault, but if you get sued or accused, it can cost you everything to defend yourself. Such is today's litigious society that feels if my kid gets hurt, SOMEONE has to pay, no matter the reason.

This was the BSA version I am familiar with.

I was a Cubmaster during that period and am not familiar with this. Looks like a local Unit-specific thing, not official BSA.

We are in a high military concentration area. While the Scouts were gathering on the parking lot for our weekly meeting one summer evening, a young man stopped in, saying he was a Eagle Scout in the Navy and wanted to get back to Scouting. Seemed nice enough. I tried contacting his home Council (Caddo) SE and never got a response to verify his creds. I had given him an app and explained that he couldn't participate until the background checks were done and he had council approval. Never saw him after that. I will always wonder if we dodged a bullet, or did we miss an opportunity.

As stated above, your District is where the physical address of the CO is located. We had a situation where we got a new CO, which was physically in a different city and district, by about 100 feet. The SE made an exception for us, since the IH lived within our old district.

And which part of the Scout Oath and Law makes it OK to make up your own rules when you don't like the ones you agreed to follow when you signed your membership application?

Such is the culture we find ourselves in. "Either you agree with me, or you will be neutralized and canceled." There is no longer room for civil discourse. I attribute it to the way those younger than us have been raised...never having been told "no" and rewarded for anything they do, noteworthy or not. Temper tantrums worked growing up...why not continue into adulthood?

Just remove the BSA strip from old shirts and sew them on this one. Legal and cheap. The shirt itself is not "trademarkable" since it is simply a khaki shirt with epaulettes.

I know at least one member who is on the National Staff. IF they are smart, they would be regular lurkers here, and heed what we have to say. For some of us, our Scouting experience goes back to the early 60s.

Er muss mein Hut sein.

So, you no longer need a parental signature? (I'm old)

You are correct, as soon as he submits a properly signed transfer app, his Cub Scout career is over and he is a Boy Scout, with all that goes with it.

We once had a Commissioner show up at a B/G to present the Pack Charter. I am not exaggerating, he looked like a North Korean General. He was a long time Scout/Scouter and was wearing EVERY possible award that had ever been presented to him, from the Bobcat pin to his youth MB sash, OA sash, medals, neck ribbons, etc.

OA has always been an "optional" Scouting program and is an individual decision. You don't want to do OA, then DON'T. If you take the obligation that goes with the honor, then do it with good intentions and fulfill it to the best of your ability. If you don't want to participate after the Ordeal, then remove the lodge flap and carry on. And don't show up at your EBOR sporting the flap and sash, because I WILL ask you questions about your OA experience.

Few Carhartt products are still made in the USA. Most is outsourced to Mexico and China. That's a NO from me.