Eagledad

>> How many youth really make good, thought out decisions about things that may not involve them in a few years without outside input. Actually, most of them ... If they've had to put up with the crap most adults have foisted on them for at least a season of camping!!!!

In the begining, we adults wanted better patrol boxes because the old ones were wearing out. And our troop was basically starting new all over, so it seemed appropriate. An old Eagle donated A LOT of money and spend a lot of time building us some the best patrol boxes anyone has ever seen. They could be used for tornado shelters if they were a little bigger because they are some stout boxes now. Three years later our troop wanted to experiment with becoming a backpacking troop, but there was some adult concern the Patrols would not want to leave the boxes behind. So we asked them to experiment for one campout without the boxes and see how it went. You would have thought we gave them $1000 to leave those things home. They hated those boxes and we have been a backpacking troop for over 15 years. I wished we would have included the scouts in the decision process at the begining. That money used for the boxes would have gone a long way to the SM retirement fund. Barry

>>Allowing same-gender couples to get married does not affect the marriages of your children (or mine), or their children, or ours.

We've had a few counselors that I would say have an aquired taste in their style, but power hungry isn't how I would decribe them. I know folks on the forum like to raise the "Adding Requirements" flag a lot, but I find the opposite of counselors not wanting to do enough to be more common. As has been said, once we learn a counselor's style, we pass that on to the scouts so they can make the choice. I will admit that I have taken a counselor or two off the list because I was not comfortable with their behavior. But that was more of a temperment issue, not a power hungry issue.

>>How does calling it marriage affect your marriage? So I'll ask in this forum - how does same sex marriage or calling same sex marriage by the word marriage personally affect your marriage?

>>My rule is that if there isn't a youth to head up the project, we won't do it. That's not as tough as it sounds. Usually all we need is a youth willing to talk up he project at meetings.

>>Beavah, my point about "natural law" is that it is invoked to justify anything, so it is really not worth much more than "in my opinion." If it were applied in a consistent way, it might have some value. But it you have your "natural law" with certain elements, and someone else has their "natural law" with some different elements, what good is it? And if you are referring to me as one of those who merely "dismisses" it, that's not the case. I have heard and read more than enough about it to conclude that it isn't really useful.

>>They also stated the party positions Republican tradition man and woman marriage. Democratic Anyone can be marriage.

>>I figure it can't be because they wanted to choose an easy or pleasant life for themselves. It must be because this is just the way they are. And maybe this does, as suggested above, fit in with "natural law."

>>But Barry, that is not the public reasoning that the BSA is giving for their policy. It is not money, it is not members. Their reasoning is the "role model" issue (morals to some).

>>Then Barry, why doesn't the BSA follow the Scout Law and Oath and state the reason we have this policy is because we don't want to risk a membership decline? Yeah, that doesn't sound very good. How about - the reason we have this policy is because the vast majority of our charter organization members believe this.

>>Barry, BSA already did this when they allowed blacks to join. Everyone said it would die. It doubled its size. It doubled again. And again. And again.

>>How do you choose which pack to join? I'd bet a good number of packs fold as one or the other packs gets favored. Only to be recreated later as the other pack grows too big.

>>Awesome mom, awesome kid, and awesome partner. I'm betting this would be a life long Scout based on the boy and the parent. I'm sure our pack would welcome them in a heart beat.

>>But you never see multiple packs actively recruiting the same school.

>>There are two troops that have extremely geared up their recruiting to the point that I swear they teach their boys a script to say. I've heard it from multiple scouts at different ocasions

>> I know there is no strict answer and that things can vary greatly. And BSA is pretty vague too on this stuff..

>>Are you certain you aren't confusing correlation with causation?

>>I don't think it will be that bad. It is inevitable. When it happens, it will end with a whimper and not a bang. LDS will get some special exception, the others will shrug, there will be two news stories of gay guys joining troops, and then not a another sound about it ever again.

>>Again? Really? Please stop spreading nonsense when you have no first hand knowledge. GSUSA DOES have men in their program - ESPECIALLY fathers.

>>This leads the troop to focus on older scouts, and their advancement, to the detriment of the younger scouts.

>>Most units I know do their's in late August or so, after the Council Program Kickoffs when the council calenders for the coming year are released.

My experience is troops that rotate SMs tend to have a consistent program that doesnt change much over the years because the ASMs basically all have the same vision. They lean just a bit more on the advancement side and less boy run. But, I wouldnt call them Eagle Mills, just less creative. Barry

I certainly would not be a chairman of anything while I was a SM. But there eventually comes a point when some of us have enough time and scars of wisdom to help hundreds, if not thousands, of scouts by taking a position at the district or council. Some adults who actually know what they are doing can make a big difference. Barry

We are also very much like Fred, but we do it every six months. Its kind of a complicated process but the scouts have it down so well that it rarely takes two hours. Usually the PLC follows the planning with an all-nighter video game lockin. The SM usually kicks in pizza and coke before going home to a nice comfortable bed. Strangely, Planning Night is considered a perk for being on the PLC. For me, the key part to making planning successful is meeting with the SPL the night before. That's a good place for the SM and SPL to discuss where the troop needs to improve or change. That is where one of my SPLs told me he was cutting out some fat by getting rid of a couple PLC positions. I love this scouting stuff. Barry