AlFansome

No go ahead, say what's on your mind. I'm not condoning any of the scouts' behavior that's been noted in this post on either side and that wasn't the point of my post. The reality is that for the first time in quite a while, there are a great number of kids in this country that have seen the physical and emotional scars of war close up and they are forever changed by it. How they react and process what they experience varies from case to case. In my daughter's case, she's really been caught up in the election (as I recall being back in '76 when I was 8) since she understa

Or maybe because the scout has a family member who's just come back from Iraq a changed man. That's my 9-year old daughter's reason.

There's a very good synopsis of the current do's and don'ts in the 100 foot zone in California at: http://www.co.solano.ca.us/civica/filebank/blobdload.asp?BlobID=4091 It's straight from the Secretary of State and references a few court cases that are relevant, including the Supreme Court case that allows the 100 foot zone in the first place. In short, anything you wear in California is OK as long as it's not specifically for or against a candidate or issue on the current ballot. For instance, a T-shirt that says "Down with liberals" would be OK since it's not specifically for

Usually known as "Liquid _ss", it's a foul-smelling liquid that can be squirted on unsuspecting victims (or tents!) as a prank. Non-toxic, non-staining according to the web site and the smell is gone in somewhere from 12 to 18 hours. A quick google search will come up with many places to buy it online.

Quick fact check... Bill Ayers has never been convicted (or charged) with killing anyone. A police officer died in a bombing in San Francisco that was suspected of being either the work of the Black Panthers or the Weather Underground but was never proven or prosecuted in any way. In fact, the Weather Underground typically sent evacuation warnings in advance to the government buildings targeted with bombings. ...end fact check You may now all get back to your regularly scheduled rants.

My Kiwanis Club puts on a 4th of July parade for 40,000+ people every year. A couple of things: - either you're on the float or you're not...no jumping back and forth. - no thowing things out into the crowd. If you throw short, folks (i.e. kids) will run out onto the parade route to pick things up. - If you insist on handing out candy or whatever, the folks walking the parade route need to go to the crowd and hand things out, not vice versa. - If horses are involved, no poppers or things that go "bang" Most of the rest of the things should pretty much be common sense.

The next time this leader comes up with a "rule", simply say to him, "Oh really, I hadn't heard of that. Please show me where this rule is written in the Leader Book/online/etc..etc...". When he can't find it (but it must be there somewhere!), then his "rule" is officially "myth".

Of course, Obama was on the payroll of the CAC since he was on the Board. However, your original post implies that he was somehow an employee of the Annenberg Foundation. This is not the case at all. The Annenberg Foundation makes grants just like the United Way, the Gates Foundation or any of a number of other philanthropic foundations do. The organizations to which it makes grants are not in any way employees of the Annenberg Foundation...they are recipients of the grants that in many cases use the name "Annenberg" in their names (perhaps as a condition of the grant). Fac

"ex-employee"? Sounds like you need a fact check. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annenberg_Foundation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Annenberg_Challenge http://www.factcheck.org/about/

Except that here's the whole gist of his argument (from http://hotair.com/archives/2008/08/21/obama-baipa-unnecessarily-burdens-doctors-with-babies/): "[T]he only plausible rationale, to my mind, for this legislation would be if you had a suspicion that a doctor, the attending physician, who has made the assessment that this is a nonviable fetus and that, lets say for the purposes of the mothers health, is being that that labor is being induced, that that physician (a) is going to make the wrong assessment and (b) if the physician discovered, after the labor had been induced, that, in f

Info and analysis of the issue at: http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/obama_and_infanticide.html Couple of points from the analysis: - There already is a law on the books in Illinois that requires medical care for born-alive babies who survive an abortion procedure. Read the first 4 or 5 paragraphs of http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/documents/072005100K6.htm. If this law indeed provides the same or similar protections to born-alive infants as the proposed bills would have, then Obama's vote on the issue would seem to be less about the babies and more about pol

The requirement for the Webelos badge is to earn Citizen, Fitness and one other. But, the boys can of course earn and be awarded whatever other activity pins that they've earned at any time. Go ahead and give them what they've accomplished!

Nope, not according to BSA. In fact, if you look at the Adult Application, you'll see that it is explicitly allowed to register as both CC and COR for the same unit.

While surfing the web checking out area troops for kicks (slow day at work!), I found a troop that takes quite a few liberties with the BSA program as written. In particular, it's documented that: - Before working on his Eagle Project, a boy must: Be a Life Scout; Be a Patrol Leader or a member of Staff; Be at least 15 years old; Have completed all merit badges required for Eagle; and Receive the Scoutmaster's approval to proceed. - Merit badges must be earned as follows: earn 1 while Tenderfoot (and must be non-Eagle required) earn 2 while 2nd class (First

Yeah, in CA using the kids' plate, there are a ton of options. Not only can you put in a single heart, hand, star, or plus sign (+), but you also get 7 characters (including the symbol) plus an optional 1/2 space. Stuff like I(heart)BSA or (star)SCOUT or I(heart)MY(1/2-space)CUB are all good. Lots of options. You can even check for availability online.

What about the Venturing Silver or Sea Scout Quartermaster award knots? If a boy is dual-registered in a troop and a crew/ship, can he wear these knots on his Boy Scout uniform if he's earned them before he's 18 in his crew/ship?

Beavah- I can appreciate your viewpoint on CO's and their desire to run a program to support their goals. According to the original poster, though, it seems that this really isn't a top-down CO-driven issue: "Actually, our CO is not very involved. In our troop any registered leader gets to vote in the troop committee and be on a BOR kinda like the troop Stosh was talking about. When I first came into the troop they tried to tell me that ASM's were supposed to do the BOR, not committee members, which totally contradicted my training. As Gold Winger says, they interpret the rules

Beavah- I agree with just about every thing you said in your last post. Indeed, one of the strengths of the BSA is the diversity in the character and flavor of the different units, whether it be LDS, church-sponsored, or whatever. However, it still doesn't address the issue of COs making it up as they go along. There is plenty of room to make unique, distinct, CO-pleasing, scout-pleasing, parent-pleasing units within the BSA program (as written) without the need to re-write procedures and rules that seem to work fine for all the other units out there. That is (after all) exact

Beavah says: "Yeh have to remember, it's the CO's program, eh? They really can do whatever they want, because they're the owner, not the BSA. BSA is just a resource provider. " This is not true. Through the annual recharter agreement, the CO is allowed to use the BSA program. If they stray too far from the program, then I'd assume a Council wouldn't sign on the dotted line next year unless the CO gets back closer to the program. In addition, there are District/Council-level mechanisms in place to ensure that a CO doesn't just "do whatever they want". An EBOR is a good example

I'm sure this has been posted before somewhere in one of the forums, but for our Pack's site, we use free hosting software from DecisionDesign.com. It's specifically made for Scout units and is easy to use and set up. Our site is at http://www.palmerpack215.com/ if you're interested. The main things it doesn't have are e-mail fowarding and alias functionality, along with the ability to use Scripting....static HTML either written by hand or cut/paste --or-- using the WYSIWYG editor.

It's at http://www.cubroundtable.com/assets/pdf-documents/Adding-Machine-Tape-Demonstration-for-Adult-Recruiting.pdf If you Google "adding machine tape scout" you'll find lots of variants.

The requirements for the Webelos Badge are what they are. Don't add or remove requirements or wording. If the badges earned at the time meet the requirements for Webelos, then you're good to go. So, since the requirements do not expressly prohibit the use of Readyman or Outdoorsman as the 3rd badge, then either is allowed. Once you get to AOL, the wording doesn't say "Outdoorsman and Readyman plus 3 more...". It says "Earn 5 more activity badges in addition to the 3 you already earned for the Webelos badge" and then lists which badges and groups are required. So, there really is no

ASM59, as with everything, I think the answers to your questions are "it depends". IMHO, there are clearly cases where one should (or must) get involved. Let's look at the case of a campout or summer camp where I'm a unit leader... Any imminent safety or YP issues in particular would qualify for the "rules police". (I'm thinking things like boys being completely reckless with knives, fire or weapons (as an example) or seeing clearly inappropriate behaviour between adult and scout). I'd step in personally immediately and then follow up with the appropriate unit leader, camp sta

All my newsletters from last year can be found at http://www.palmerpack215.com/generic.aspx?PageType=cubmaster In general, the following get included: - pack meeting agenda - recognitions/awards - upcoming Pack/District/Council Events - tips/hints and suggestions for proper uniforms, possible awards/patches - calls for volunteers - thank you's to folks who worked on events

What about recruiting right before school lets out in the spring? We do this and it works great. Right before school lets out we invite all the kindergarten boys to an ice cream social where we explain the program, have the Webelos lead some games and activities, and get the parents the info they need regarding the program and our summer activities. For those boys who are interested, we invite them to the May pack meeting, and start collecting applications. Once school is out and they are eligible, the new Tigers all get registered with Council and are then able to take part