eisely

This raises some interesting questions. BW is correct about the fact that a scout troop is not a stand alone legal entity. However, that should not necessarily be a barrier to corporate support. One of the biggest employers in this area is Chevron/Texaco. They try to encourage employee involvement in community activities and will donate up to $500 to support those activities in which the employees are involved. These are typically grants for specific purposes. For example, our troop owns a laptop dedicated for record keeping purposes. When we bought our first one, the parent who was a Chevron/Texaco employee filled out some paperwork, and provided a copy of the receipt and the troop got a check. Likewise, Chevron/Texaco subsidized some purchases of cookware for our patrols in another year. Thank you all you Chevron/Texaco customers out there. Now there may be a lot of ways a large corporation may handle this. They may have a pre-established foundation to use as a conduit for these kinds of community support activities. If that is what Chevron/Texaco did, then it is not a "direct" contribution. While your troop is not a stand alone legal entity with any status, there is nothing to prevent you from organizing your own tax free charitable foundation to support the troop. This may be more trouble than it would be worth, but I know of at least one wealthy troop in this area that has done exactly that.

I would be surprised if there were any official ranking internal to the BSA organization. I doubt that national wants to put councils in competition with one another, although that competition exists at some levels. Camps are inspected, but I think that amounts to a pass/fail grade. Here in California my own experts (sons) put Emerald Bay and Royaneh at the top of their lists.

Off of the internet... Dengue menace grips city-Boy scouts, girl guides to start cleanliness campaign from today Thursday July 15 2004 11:12:33 AM BDT Dengue is spreading in the city at an alarming rate, bringing increasing number of people to hospitals with infection. Official sources yesterday said since mid-June 427 dengue patients, including those coming from outside, have been hospitalised in the city, with 128 under treatment at the moment. According to health directorate records, dengue seized 486 people and killed 10 last year, 6,132 and 58 in 2002, 2,430 and 44 in 2001, and 5,551 and 93 in 2000. But Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) pays little or no attention to the scare, keeping virtually mum on mosquito control issue, experts alleged and pointed to the need for a survey on Aedes mosquito population which the mayor, however, calls unessential. DCC Mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka at a press briefing last week defended his office's position in this respect claiming the yearly allocation the corporation receives for mosquito control to be not enough. He maintains the DCC needs Tk 50 crore a year to keep back mosquito breeding, whereas it now gets Tk 17 crore for the purpose. Talking to The Daily Star the mayor said, "The survey is unnecessary... Our findings show only a few areas like Kalabagan and Kathalbagan and some pockets of Gulshan and Banani have Aedes population. But I must repeat that dengue control is not a responsibility of the DCC but of the society as a whole." Pointing out that the Aedes mainly lives in containers people use in their houses, Khoka said residents of the Aedes-populated areas should be more aware and active, exercise more caution and take more responsibility in keeping their households clean. The DCC mayor said the public health department and the district administration of Dhaka have significant roles to play in checking Aedes breeding. "I have written to the LGRD ministry to form a co-ordination to fight the mosquito menace, particularly of Aedes. Without co-ordinated efforts, the DCC alone cannot curb mosquito population." He also mentioned that some areas including Bashundhara, low-lying areas of Badda and Dhaka Cantonment in the city do not come under the DCC's jurisdiction, and said if mosquito control programmes were not launched simultaneously in those areas the city corporation's efforts alone would not be effective. The mayor said he has initiated a programme to aware people on Aedes and keeping their houses and the adjacent areas clean to prevent the dengue carriers from laying eggs. Under the programme, five-member teams of boy scouts and girls guides will go from door to door in the city from July 15 to motivate and help people clear their houses of empty containers, the most favourite breeding ground of Aedes mosquitoes. The DCC has already trained 4,500 boys and girls for the 15-day operation. The mayor also stated that the DCC now has sufficient insecticide for spraying in the city areas.

This from Indiana.... LAKE MONROE, Ind. (AP) - A 59-year-old Bloomington man who fractured his leg while hiking was rescued by a Boy Scout troop. Peter Bartczak went on a hike in the Charles C. Deam Wilderness on June 30, but got his feet tangled in a stick and fractured his leg in two places. Hours passed, and Bartczak remained on the ground, fighting the severe pain and watching his leg swell. He couldn't walk on the leg. He is retired and lives alone, so he thought it would be a while before anyone noticed his absence, especially since he didn't tell anyone where he was going. ''I ended up lying there till the next morning. I didn't sleep at all that night, because it was quite painful,'' Bartczak said. ''I just laid there, with spiders crawling all over me, and saw the moon come up and the moon go down.'' The next morning Bartczak used his arms and legs to scoot down the trail on his rear end. ''I made it about a mile and a half in eight hours,'' he said. Then he heard voices, which turned out to be members of Boy Scout Troop 566 of Columbus. The troop made a makeshift stretcher out of wool blankets and a few sturdy tree branches. They carried Bartczak to the edge of Lake Monroe, where they met Department of Natural Resources officials who had been dispatched by boat. DNR officials took Bartczak across the lake to an ambulance that took Bartczak to Bloomington Hospital. Bartczak had fractures in both his upper and lower left leg, and spent five days in the hospital.

I have never been called by any scout outside my own troop. I totally agree that having a single person at the district level handle all calls is not a good idea. Does your district have so many volunteers that they have to invent jobs for people to do?

I have seen it done both ways. I prefer the idea of listing all the planned events annually and having the parents sign once. This requires a somewhat more organized approach as someone has to agree to be the custodian for these and make them available to other adult leaders as needed. However, we currently do it event by event. There is a difference between permission to treat a minor for injury and permission to participate in an event. Our permission slip covers both issues.

I don't see why you couldn't do that. I would take it up with whoever in your council is responsible for approving these awards.

Interestiing question...the requirements as written seem to leave open the possibility of sailing 50 miles. Quoting from the "Boy Scout Requirements 2002" book below, the language talks about boats and waterways, but not paddling. This source is a few years old, but I don't think this has changed during the interval. "The 50 Miler Award is presented to each qualifying individual for satisfactory participation in an approved trip. In order to qualify for the award the group of which the individual is a member must fulfill all of the following requirements. 1. Make complete and satisfactory plans for the trip, including the possibilities of advancement. 2. Cover the trail or canoe or boat route of not less than 50 consecutive miles; take a minimum of five consecutive days to complete the trip without the aid of motors. (In some areas pack animals may be used.) 3. During the time on the trail or waterway, complete a minimum of 10 hours each of group work on projects to improve the trail, springs, campsite, portage, or area. If, after checking with recognized authorities, it is not possible to complete 10 hours each of group work on the trail,a similar project may be done in the unit's home area. (There should be no unauthorized cutting of brush or timber.) 4. Unit or tour leader must then file a 50 Miler Award application with the local council service center. This application gives additional details about planning the trip." Observations: This explicitly authorizes doing conservation work at other times and places to complete the award. This question was raised in a different thread. It is up to the local council to decide what qualifies. Suggestion: Pick up a copy of the application to see what other information is included. Discuss your ideas with the cognizant council official before committing to a plan.

It is a common practice to complete the conservation work at different places and times. It is difficult to get that many hours in in a single effort. When I was at Philmont two years ago, they provided us with a slip of paper with our crew number on it certifying that we had hiked 50 miles and done so many hours of conservation work. Since our crew was one of four in a council contingent, I provided a copy of that slip to the scoutmasters of each troop contributing participants to our crew. You will want to inquire about this when your people return.

Another cooking story. I was a patrol leader at the 1957 jamboree at Valley Forge. I don't know how they do these things now, but I imagine it hasn't changed much. Jamboree patrols were of a standard size and you established a rotation of duties during the week. You drew each day's rations in the morning at a commissary tent near you. With those rations came printed step by step instructions. For our evening meal one day, the vegetable was ordinary green peas and the dessert was a butterscotch pudding. All these items were dry and did not require refrigeration. The scout who was chief cook that day (I remember his face clearly, but not his name) followed the directions literally. One of the first steps read "Pour peas into pot". You then added water and set the peas aside. A few steps further down another instruction read "Pour butterscotch pudding into pot." Now the instructions did not say which pot, or whether the pudding should have its own pot. Being thrifty with the pots, our cook put the pudding in with the peas. After we had eaten everything else, one of the other scouts ate the whole thing, peas and pudding together. He was the largest scout in our patrol and had the typical "hollow leg" of an adolescent. He assured us "...this ain't too bad"

Our troop does not own tents, and most times this is not a problem for us. Everyone is correct that the large tent is a symptom of a larger problem. Nevertheless, the tent issue can be approached on its own merits. Aside from the noise issue, there are two reasons for limiting tent capacities. First, in many campsites, there may not be room for a single larger tent. Second, carrying extra canvas is a burden for the entire crew, and that goes for tents occupied by single scouts too. I would suggest that the PLC can be asked to address this issue from the viewpoint stated above.

No organization can or should tolerate public statements by employees or members that bring discredit on the organization. I would not expect a business corporation to keep an engineer on its payroll if that individual convenes a press conference to claim in public that the corporation's products are defective. The decision to keep such a person around in this instance has nothing to do with the merits of the claim or position taken. I too am somewhat uncomfortable that I don't know where the boundaries are in BSA. I think the answer is along BW's argument, that there are no bright lines, just big grey areas of what will be tolerated and what will not. A few years ago there was a highly regarded scouter in Marin County here in la la land who was expelled because of the highly public positions he took on the gay issue. He was a scouter who had worked with the Cozza kid. I forget his name. That was the first instance I knew about where a scouter was removed solely for the public position he took on controversial issues regarding BSA. I am not about to say that the Marin council was wrong in what they did, but it should put people on notice. Nobody has revoked free speech. Any of us can take a soap box to any street corner and say anything we like about BSA. We cannot expect to retain our membership in the organization if we do that sort of thing. I don't think anybody has ever been threatened with removal, much less removed, for expressing their views in front of other scouters, in either an informal or formal setting.

BW, I saw some of that same language, but I don't think that precludes the committee getting together and having an election unless the chartered organization objects. As a practical matter, one rarely has more than one person interested in the committee chair job, and the person who is interested and willing usually gets the job, unless the COR has a clear objection in his or her mind.

The official guidance for Troop Committee operations is the "Troop Committee Guidebook". Hopefully this is available in your nearest BSA service center. As far as I can tell, the Guidebook is silent on the subject of selection of the committee chair. In my mind the committee chair should be elected by the troop committee, although in some instances the committee chair might be appointed by the chartered organization representative. I think you have the latitude to have an election if you wish to do so. If you currently do not have a chair, contact the other people you know are on the committee and organize a meeting. Be sure to notify your COR. Presumably that person would be more than happy to have the committee take the initiative. Of course, organizing such a meeting means you probably will be the one elected to the position.

I am reminded of the last verse of Tom Lehrerer's satirical "Boy Scout Marching Song" "And if you should seek adventure of a new and different kind.. "And you should meet a girl scout who is similiarly inclined... "Don't be worried, don't be flustered, don't be scared.... "Be Prepared."

In other threads in the past forum participants have discussed the idea of new merit badges. Well, here is an idea. Maybe the Norwegians are on to the something. Of course their other social indicators tell a different story. _______________________-- Sex badge on offer Young Norwegians can earn a merit badge in sex this summer. The pin, modeled on a popular summer swimming merit badge, is an offer from Swedish-Norwegian sex education group RFSU, also the main producer and importer of condoms to Norway, newspaper VG reports. The badge, which displays sperm cells swimming in waves, can be won by correctly answering 10 out of 13 questions about sex. "You need a license to drive a car and you should have a sex certificate that shows you don't take health risks. This is done seriously and with humor and the goal of course is to get more people using condoms," said RFSU manager Tone-Berit Lintho. The summer is also high season for sex and sexually transmitted diseases and the RFSU specializes in attention-getting campaigns to promote safe sex. A recent survey of this year's 'russ' - the reveling high school graduates who go wild for three weeks of debauchery before final exams - revealed the teenagers have a lot to learn. * While 75 percent of Norwegian youngsters are positive towards condom use, only 1 in 5 actually used them when last having sex. * Fully 90 percent of Norwegian boys believe 'no' means 'maybe'. * Three out of four youths put the condom on incorrectly and many bite open the package, creating the danger of condom puncture. Contraction of venereal diseases and HIV reached a new high last year, and an average of 45 Norwegians a day contracted chlamydia.

Evmori, I am not so sure that it is bad press for BSA, given what goes on in the larger society and other youth groups. I think every parent or adult concerned about either their own children or others' children, realizes that youth organizations are vulnerable and attractive to pedophiles. The fact that so little of these things happen in BSA is worth reporting and celebrating. One would rather that these things never happen, but happen they will. The local scout organizations in this locale should make the point that they take YP seriously and that these kinds of incidents are rare in scouting. The point about reserving judgment on the charged leader also merits repeating. False accusations do arise, and as scoutingagain pointed out, every single one of us is vulnerable to false accusations by spiteful youth. I have not personally seen this happen in BSA, but I have seen it happen in other youth groups where nothing like YP existed.

KS, You get to go to all the fun places!! We saw this many years ago before the current eruptions. Even then it was worth seeing.

Youth protection is also adult leader protection.

It seems to me that nationwide there are about two or three such incidents per year in BSA. This is not a bad record considering the size of the organization and the multiple opportunities a truly devious and determined pedophile might find or create. In the case at hand, judgment of the accused leader should be reserved until the process is completed, particularly by those of us who only see bits and pieces of the story over the internet. The real lesson, and the reason to continue to post these kinds of stories, is to remind forum participants that YP cannot be neglected or taken for granted. YP is a continuous process that has to be refreshed every year at the unit level as new people come into scouting.

As requested. http://www.wral.com/news/3431328/detail.html

I was last at Philmont in 2002. As far as I know liquid fuel is approved for use at Philmont. Your advisor's packet should tell you this.

This is bad news, whatever the truth may be. _______________________- Halifax Boy Scout Leader Accused Of Sexual Assault Charles 'Sandy' Boykin Faces Number Of Charges POSTED: 6:09 pm EDT June 17, 2004 UPDATED: 6:31 pm EDT June 17, 2004 ROANOKE RAPIDS, N.C. -- A Halifax County Health Department worker and longtime Boy Scout leader faces some serious charges. A Halifax County man who spent 20 years dedicated to the Boy Scouts is accused of sexual assault.. Police first arrested Charles "Sandy" Boykin in May. They charged him with molesting a 13-year-old boy over a seven-month period, beginning last fall. "We've charged Mr. Boykin with three counts of child molestation and three counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor," said Roanoke Rapids Police Chief Greg Lawson. Since the May arrest, police searched Boykin's home computer and charged him with disseminating pornography. Lawson said the investigation is far from over. "It's a sensitive and lengthy investigation to make sure nothing else surfaces as far as victims," Lawson said. Boykin's wife has called the investigation a witch hunt. She said her husband is innocent. Former Scout leader Pete Luter spent many years in the Boy Scouts and he said he hates to see the organization tarnished. "It's an emotional issue for me. I like the Scouts," he said. Either way, Luter said it is a sad situation for the Scouts. "Don't let one bad apple ruin it for everyone else. Is it one bad apple? Of course, that's yet to be proven," he said. Boykin is out of jail on bond. He is still working at the health department and has another court date in July.

I agree with BW that this should not be a problem. However, it all depends on how the Eagle BOR views things and the guidance they get from the District Advancement Chair. Depending on how comfortable you are with raising this subject, I would consider calling someone at the district level, or at least discussing it with your unit commissioner. Even if an Eagle BOR should reject the applicant on this basis, this is the kind of thing that is, or should be, a basis for an appeal. Of course no one wants it to get to that point.

Although you plan to carry two stoves per crew, you will really only use them one at a time. The second stove is only a backup. I am not familiar with itinerary 14 and am surprised that Philmont is not making fuel available at the commissaries that supply the route. For a ten day trek I would think three bottles would be sufficient for a single stove. The last time I was at Philmont we carried two bottles, and never used more than 1 1/2 bottles before refueling. One thing you might consider is deferring this decision until you get to Philmont. They sell fuel bottles in the tradiing post at the base camp. Upon arrival, I would talk to the ranger assigned to the crew and to the operations office about this question. If you want to be safe you could carry three bottles with you there and leave one bottle behind in your locker when you hit the trail.