dScouter15

Well, I'm not a lawyer, not even an armchair lawyer, so I won't attempt to get into a discussion of the relative severity of this alleged transgression from a legal perspective. I'll re-phrase my point: how do you want to be perceived by your fellow volunteers in this organization? And what are you really hoping to accomplish here? Folks, I'm telling ya... I know its popular on this forum to hypothesize about all the ways our fellow volunteers are criminals and everyone but you is liable to go to jail for something or another... And S915, maybe you would appreciate, after investing

Just to play devil's advocate... Lets imagine for a second you're on the other side of this situation. (This is purely hypothetical, I have no knowledge of this particular situation, I'm merely offering this as a "walk in the other guy's shoes" moment). Maybe I'm a Scout leader who volunteered to help at this lock-in thing (presumably an overnight event?) So that means I give up a weekend night to supervise an undisclosed number of amped up boys on whose sugar high is competing with their fatigue. I need to come up with 12 hours of program to keep them entertained, figure out the logi

I'm strongly opposed to the BSA's position on these matters, but I'd also argue that the majority of the rank-and-file volunteers (even those who may support the policy for whatever reason) are not "bigoted" per se. That said, I did a spit-take while reading Beavah's take on this. Easily the most starry-eyed and revisionist "interpretations" of this issue I've seen yet... The BSA has a lot of strengths and positive program elements, but diversity is not among them.

Apologies if I jumped to conclusions - it just read a lot like an advertisement (cross posted to two separate sub-forums), and when combined with the fact that your username is an abbreviation for the group you're promoting... Anyways, sorry if my initial assumption was incorrect.

You wouldn't have any association with this group, would you? Your username looks awfully similar to an abbreviation of the organization's name...

Not sure what you're looking at price-wise, but connecting through Chicago might be a doable option if it's going to save you a lot of money (keeping in mind you'd need to factor in additional cost for ground transportation from Buffalo to your final destination.) I fly out of Chicago fairly often, and it's not too terrible finding where you need to go. You would need to change terminals after you clear customs, though. But I find Chicago OHare easier to navigate than Heathrow, anyway. But I echo the comment about leaving plenty of time for the layover in Chicago - I'd say allow at l

I apologize if this advice is unsolicited or unhelpful - but I'd strongly recommend trying to make a direct flight work, even if it works out to be a bit more expensive. Not sure where you're starting from in the UK, but I believe that there's some variety in carriers offering direct service to Toronto from various cities in England and Scotland. It may end up being more expensive, but at least you won't have to deal with going through customs/immigration multiple times, transferring luggage, worrying about whether a delayed flight will cause you to miss your connection, etc - and dealing wi

I'm not sure that "control" is a priority in and of itself; the priority has been being able to deliver a quality program to the youth at a reasonable price. Up until now, we needed to have some control over the equipment to achieve that goal, which is how we got to this point. Maybe we made a bad decision initially, or maybe we should have done things differently somewhere along the line. BD - Well, the scope here consists of some fairly large items - patrol boxes and cooksets for around 20 patrols, several dining flys, a large refrigeration unit, industrial stove and oven units, assor

Thanks all for the feedback. Just to be clear, I'm not trying to do an end-run around anyone with regard to this equipment - In fact, I personally have some equipment "on loan" to this program, so it's not like I'm trying to find some kind of loop hole that will allow us to continue to use gear that doesn't belong to us. In fact, as much as I hope to not have to deal with finding a bunch of replacement equipment over the next few months, I'm personally somewhat sympathetic to the folks who are uncomfortable with continuing to lend us this equipment, so I definitely wouldn't hold anything aga

The thread about ownership of OA equipment got thinking about a situation we're currently facing in my council. Background: For a particular training program, over the past several years we have accumulated quite a bit of equipment, probably worth a couple thousand dollars total. Reason being, the council wasn't interested in footing the bill for the equipment, and fortunately we have several committed volunteers who agreed to donate the equipment. The curveball is that the equipment wasn't technically "donated," but rather is on an "extended loan" to this particular program. So th

I don't think I'm so worried about one kid or another feeling humiliated - I would hope that if someone had feel that way, that I or another leader would have found out about it directly so that it could be handled. I don't think that this committee member's comment was triggered based on one specific kid. I think her concern might have to do with how the wider community would perceive our fundraiser - as in, passers-by may conclude that we're making money by setting our scouts up to be humiliated, and that's not the kind of "image" we would want the troop to have. I can kind of und

A incident recently occurred in my troop that's somewhat related to the ongoing "hazing" discussion, but different enough that I thought I'd make a new thread. First, a little background. My troop has operated a dunk tank fundraiser for the past several years. Our PLC sets it up as a patrol competition - each patrol is given a time slot to operate the dunk tank, and there are some prizes given to the patrol that pulls in the most money, the patrol with the most "dunks," patrol with the goofiest costumes - stuff like that. Like I said, we've done this for several years, and it alway

moose - maybe the next time your troop does a swimming activity, you could get a group of scouts to wear different outfits made up of various clothing items (shorts/tshirt, jeans, other long pants, button down shirt, long sleeve tshirt, sweatshirt, etc). Don't ask anyone to buy or come up with anything specific, just have them wear a typical outfit that they would normally wear. Then have them do the jump in the water activity, and see how easy or difficult it is to stay afloat in different kinds of clothes. Maybe make it a game to see who can stay afloat the longest, or with the least amou

My troop has done a "sink a scout" dunk tank fundraiser for the past several years, and it tends to be very successful. It doesn't bring in a huge amount of money (our best year was around $1000), but its pretty easy to do and the scouts have a lot of fun with it. Its amazing how much money teenagers will spend to see their friends get soaked in the dunk tank. If you do choose to explore this possibility, here's a few tidbits my troop has picked up on: * Venue is everything. Dunk tank rental can be expensive, and when we first did the fundraiser it was at a church fair for our CO that

A few clarifications: the youth camp staff in question are staffing a program that isn't covered under NCS guidelines. But, I will use the NCS guidelines as a reference. Also, as we all know, "training" is not the same as "presenting." I will of course follow any guidelines and training materials available from the BSA, and by no means do I want to "devise" my own curriculum. But, I think a huge part of effective training is knowing one's audience, and knowing how to convey the raw information in a meaningful and useful way. That's the topic I'm trying to drive at in this thread.

I'm in a position where I may need to direct some youth protection training for youth camp staff members. After reading in another thread how some areas are moving towards requiring YPT training for den chiefs, I wonder if anyone has any advice or ideas on how to conduct a YPT session for a youth audience - what topics to discuss, what topics to avoid, etc.

rdclements - nothing that I posted conflicts with what you posted. At no time have I disparaged anyone for seeking first aid training. And, should you look at the history of my posts, you will see several occasions when I encourage more advanced first aid training for Scouts and Scouters. While I still stand by my position on some of training programs, and of some people who intentionally misrepresent their role, I do apologize that my tone in that original post seems to have clouded the point I was trying to make. Despite this, I have not made any personal attacks on any participa

Brent - I'm not saying that its at all a bad thing that you, or anyone else, receives advanced first aid training. It's the responsible thing to do when leader a back country trek where you may be far away from professional medical assistance. At no point did I ever portray this as anything but a good thing. I don't think it makes a lot of sense to try to simplify my position into a black and white "Is the BSA/ARC partnership good or bad?" If you're asking me if I think that its a good thing that the BSA is requiring more advanced first aid training for various activities, and working

I certainly did not intend to take on an arrogant tone in my last post. Blunt? Sure. Frustrated? Yes. Cynical? Maybe. To defend and clarify a couple points: I understand that no nationwide training initiative can be truly standardized, and delivered in a uniform, consistent way. This applies to BSA training, ARC training, EMS and nursing training, and even medical school. However, there is clearly a difference between courses geared towards lay persons and training programs geared towards professional providers. Professional courses typically operate under the oversight of an inde

As a paramedic myself, I'd like to try to offer some perspective on the matter. There are a couple areas I'd like to clarify. First, I think there is room for some confusion where there is overlap in terminology between certifications offered by private organizations, and certifications granted by governmental entities. Yes, the ARC offers "certifications" in a variety of topics. But, these certifications really only indicate that you attended some course of dubious quality, and potentially completed some examination of knowledge and skills administered in a questionable setting. The

Moxieman - The BSA supply division produces an official red patch vest, which on its website is described as "the perfect compliment to any official scouting uniform." For me, this is strong evidence that it is an official uniform part, and can be worn as a component of the rest of the Scouting uniform in appropriate occasions.

I am not aware of any regulation that would prohibit wearing the brag vest at any particular activity (but I could be wrong, I haven't worked with the Cub program in quite a while). A bit of advice: when some one tells you that something is "policy" or "BSA regulations," etc, calmly acknowledge them, but say something to the effect of, "I've never heard that before. Could you show me the official BSA reference that says that, so I can make sure I'm following the rules the right way?" If it is in fact an actual policy, you'll see it in writing, and would thus be obligated to obey it. But, m

I agree that the family's immediate needs might be best covered by cash donations, or gift cards to department or grocery stores. Ideally, the pack might be able to do a fund raiser, involving all of the youth and adults, to supplement any offered donations. Unfortunately, the winter season kind of makes it difficult to do some of the fund raisers that can be put together quickly, on short notice (car washes, dunk tanks, door-to-door sales). And, of the fund raisers that are successful this time of year, many require too much planning or preparation to bring in an adequate amount of money q

Beav - Maybe we are making the same conclusion, but used a different thought process to get there. But, in this case, I think the process may be just as important. I still have to take some exception to your "Eh, don't worry about it" stance. Your right that at its most basic level, legal action boils down to dispute resolution. But, its not so easy to brush off a dispute where you are being accused of having some responsibility for the death of someone else's kid. Regardless of what the BSA covers you for, and regardless of the outcome of the case, I think a situation like that would

When the "Its Only An Hour A Week" slogan was popular, our troop adapted it a little: "Its Only An Hour A Week Per Scout. And Two Per Adult."