E V Augustine

Unfortunately my troop has had to function on the basis of who has the assets in possession. The troop was chartered by a Catholic church for 71 years. The diocese closed the church as part of a consolidation program. A week or so before the official closing date the gear was relocated to a storage facility and the funds held in the name of the Troop remained. We were subsequently chartered by a parochial school formed in the consolidation. Now four years later the school trustees have decided we need to move before January 1, 2014. (Insert new thread here.) Its deja vu all over again.

A request for an extension to complete Eagle requirements after age 18 mst be based on compelling reasons beyond the control of the Scout. Current advancement guidance finally memeorializes that the Scout is responsible for the information in the Handbook and presumably can read a calendar. The common sense concept expressed in multiple instances in the guidance cuts both ways. In 8 years as district advancement chair the vast majority of discussions I have had on this point boil down to the Scout's failure to choose working on things that will lead to making Eagle rank.

You could look at Dolly Sods Wilderness Area near Laneville, WV. The National Forest Service and US Army Corps of Engineers have good information and mapping on their web sites. Dolly Sods is a plateau of about 50 square miles at about 4,000 feet elevation. Topographic relief is almost 800 feet in the southern valleys; 400 ft in the north. The trails are rocky. The vegetation is sub-Alpine with heather covered valleys in the north and bogs near the streams. Tree cover tends to be Spruce with dense canopy only in the valleys. A late October trip could very well experience below freez

Gentlemen, Before we can be accused of male centric responses; ie. taking care of one of our own, consider the consequences of "ta-ta" tapping reported to the police. The Scout Oath and Law have little currency in an arraignment hearing. Given that a Scout is thrifty, I have no funds accrued for BSA related legal defense. Consequently I would take all prudent action to limit my personal legal exposure. Given that its about $40k to the court house steps, as a volunteer adult leader why do I need to care if the perpetrator makes next rank or if he has a positive Scouting exp

Scouters, Having served as District Training Chair during program years 2001 - 2004 I can assure you that council training record keeping has been abysmal. The SE authorized zero staff hours to record unit leader training credits. I had three Wood Badge beads before I was shown as trained on my unit roster. The current emphasis is Youth Protection Training necessary for renewal/recharter. All to be completed and recorded electronically through the national web portal. Absent electronic documentation the non-compliant individual is removed from the roster. Since the pilot top

Eagledad (Barry), Things have changed. An $18.5 million liability settlement in April 2010. A May 24, 2010 memo making Youth Protection Training mandatory with an effective date of June 1, 2010 requiring submittal of proof of training to initially register, and automatic removal from the roster at recharter for failure to comply. Assuming the facts initially presented are accurate the youth committed an assault resulting in physical injury. Policy provides that the perpetrator be removed from the unit roster for disciplinary reasons and a YPT report be made to the Scout Executive.

dhendron, Your most recent post indicates you've taken some action, but from from your statements it appears that you've not taken the notification steps mandated by Youth Protection Training. You are probably aware that YPT became mandatory June 1, 2010. Given this emphasis it would be best if you followed through with all anticipated notifications before the train leaves the station. Those registered leaders present at the incident may have personal exposure due to failure to notify particularly since the acts resulted in an emergency room visit. Although from your account it a

Scoutfish, You did not mention the brand you purchased. Lodge Manufacturing Co. has an excellent web site (http://www.lodgemfg.com/) that compliments their products where you can access information on use and care of cast iron cook ware. The odor you describe on initial heating was residual shop oil, a petroleum product, which should have been washed off with hot water and dish detergent before seasoning. Since you do not mention that anyone has keeled over yet the oven is probably OK now. There are two schools of thought on cleaning. Scrape the oven out and heat it burnig th

Untrained folks are conditionally approved and notified, again, of the training requirement indicating they will be approved on reciept of the training verification. New counselors are similarly advised then registered and run through the background check. The individual is finally approved and notified when everything is complete. Cumbersome at start up the procedure has a low error rate.

moosetracker, Unless National modifies the input for the MBC code 42 roster to include updates from internet training reports it would be futile to track YP training status independently. It would require reconciliation of the adult unit and district rosters with the code 42 roster and one would still miss those only registered as counselors. Given the recent court decision I imagine the data management solution would be implemented sooner rather than later. The Greater Cleveland Council Advancement Committee has been requiring that MBC new applicants and renewals attach a copies o

Serving as advancement chair I've been able to get text files from the council registrar for the MBC code 42 roster and unit rosters which are reasonably easy to format and upload to versions of Troopmaster district management software. The MBC roster is checked against the district list with edits returned to the registrar. Council maintains an MBC listing on the web site for those counselors who have expressly consented to the posting of their contact information on the Internet. The system works reasonably well. Training records are another matter. I've seen the not trained rep

Basementdweller, my post was not a suggestion of what you additionally needed to do, but rather a reminder to add to your list. Folks who do what it takes are most often trained.

Basementdweller, Well spoken. I would suggest that you add a few more Good Old Boy activities: SM SMA Trained, Wood Badge, Red Cross First Responder, Red Cross CPR, Wilderness First Aid, Safe Swim Defense, Safety Afloat and Climb on Safely all completed in addition to the hour a week. Being admitted to the network is not tough. It is a stepped process of reliable participation, training and increasing leadership responsibilities. Kind of like what a Scout goes through in his time with the troop.

As a guess I would say the transport authorizations/restrictions would apply to council and district events, including summer camp under the circumstances where a Scout leaves the event early. In an ideal world the scheduled drivers would be listed on a tour permit. At council summer camps the forms are turned over camp management. On early release the driver would complete a second form authorizing transport which is required by National Camp Standards. Since they've issued the forms they are stuck with matching up the names similar to the process at a school. I have difficulty thin

Jeff, District Advancement and Recognition Chairs should be maintaining lists of merit badge counselors as well as the Council registrar. There are two types of counselors, those that teach only in their unit and those that will teach any Scout. Typically the array of badges covered is 85% of those offered. I would like to think getting the lists is only an email away. P.S. The Scout should probably be making the calls.