emb021

"Eamonn brought up the fact the old course ran with guys who staffed over and over and over never letting anyone new into the course. And that even when the new course started the old regime stayed glued to their positions." "From what I am told, Currently the 21st century course is suppose to have something like 2/3 the staff be first time staffers, while the others go through a few courses being groomed to someday be the course director." Not quite. In the old course (ie, pre-"WB for the 21st Century"), it was EXTREMELY hard to get on staff. Per the literature, a council had

I have to agree with SR540's assessment of jrush's comments. This isn't what WB is about. "The tickets aren't just about improving yourself or the organization...they should force reflection of why you're in scouting to that extent in the first place." No. The purpose of the ticket (there is only 1 ticket, composed of 5 or more tasks or goals) is a chance for YOU to put in practice what you learned in WB in a practical way. This is very valuable, but something too many people loose sight of. Too many leadership courses are just going over leadership concepts. All well and g

"If this young man wants his public Scouting identity to be beyond the troop level - thus the different loops and the district patch - odds are the troop program no longer holds any interest for him. I'm just guessing here, though, based on my own experiences." I wouldn't quite look at it that way. Every Venturer who holds a position above the unit can wear (depending on the position) silver/gold loops, appropriate office patch and sometimes a VOA patch. I have no problem with that. (same for OA officers at any level) What I do have a problem is when such youth wear a uniform

Comment on this: "the district committee and troop committees can totally have youth members. In my troop, the SPL is a nonvoting member if invited, as are lodge and chapter chiefs in the OA in their respective council and district committees (again, if invited)." Not quite. At the district and council level, there are really only some youth who could wear silver. As noted, these could be the chapter and lodge chiefs and the district and council venturing president. There is NO proviso for any other 'district youth representative'. Like Eagle92, I am puzzled by the fact that

There are only a certain number of loops: Blue- Cub Scout unit leaders along with Webelos Scouts Red and now olive green- Boy Scouts and Boy Scout unit leaders Orange- Varsity Scouts and Varsity Scout unit leaders Spruce green- Venturers and Venturing unit leaders Silver- District/Council leaders (adults and professionals) and SOME limited youth Gold- Area/Region/National leaders (adults and professionals) and SOME limited youth You wear the loops for the position you hold. It has ZILCH with your 'primary' position, as you can hold several positions at different levels, an

FWIW, I'm involved with a Fraternity, so the issue of hazing comes up. About every fraternity and sorority defines hazing and opposes it (and as noted, its against the law in probably every state, and against most school rules). But it still happens. With most such organizations, hazing is one of the quickies ways to get yourself removed from an organization and have your chapter shutdown. Here is how APO defines it: Hazing activities are defined as (but not limited to): Any action taken or situation created, intentionally, whether on or off fraternity premises or during f

This is covered in the Advancement Committee booklet. He follows the BSA program. [this is off the top of my head, so consult the booklet for the correct, in writing, policy]. What is supposed to be done is that a committee reviews what he has done in his own country's program to determine where he is in the BSA program. That is, what equivalent rank he is. He can be given any rank automatically EXCEPT Eagle. That is, it can be determined he is a Tenderfoot, 2nd Class, 1st Class, Star or Life. He can then continue to work on the next BSA rank and earn it, INCLUDING Eagle.

I thought they revamped their uniforms a couple of years ago.

"Sure it's nice for SPL's to get to know other SPL's in their district, but there's nothing in the manual that says that's their responsibility." True. But keep in mind you're speaking apples & oranges. the Boy Scout program is not the venturing program. By and large, troops rarely come together except at district/council events, which are all run by adults. For Boy Scouts, the only time they come together to plan and run stuff is in the OA. Venturing is different. Because Venturing, more so then in Boy Scouts, is youth run, the district/council venturing events should a

"Anyway, I wanted to know in what ways you or your crew are "innies" (tend to just do your thing and steer clear of council or other crew activities) or "outies" (tend to connect to other crews, Council VOA, or other "upper tier" Venturing associations). " Why would any crew want to 'steer clear of council or other crew activities'??? My experience is that most crews (and their members) LIKE to do things with other crews. When it doesn't happen I usually find its due to certain adults preventing it, by keeping their crew isolated (usually due to attitudes like they don't like th

"TLC's have been re-cast as VOA's." Not really. What happened is most were called VOAs from the get-go. It was natural for VOA to be used, as the prior term was EOA (Explorer Officer Associations). Few used the new term National was pushing (which was used because they wanted to allow older boy scouts, varsity scouts, and explorer to be part of the mix). Its just that National realised most prefered the term and switched. "But the leadership guide is very clear that by definition, crew officers, if they properly fulfill their duties, will be agents of their Council as well as

Well, as I understand a LOT of things will be different. * they will be a LOT tougher on participants (and staff) meeting the physical requirements. So, I think that means a lot of people who had been on staff, won't be allowed this time. I actually wasn't planning on attending, and probably good, because I might get turned down. * tempatures will NOT be as bad as the AP Hill site, so those issues will be less. * Visitors need to be aware that they CAN'T visit the Jamboree. Really. They will be limited to visiting the 'visitor village' (or whatever its called). This is a HU

"My first question is why would a Sea Scouter be in a WB course? Don't they have "Sea Badge"? (just curious...I don't know the answer)." Sea Badge is NOT Wood Badge. Wood Badge is the advanced leadership course for ALL scout leaders. There is nothing wrong with Sea Scout leaders attending WB. They will get a lot out of it. "If they do attend, I think common sense should prevail, as it does in the military (quit laughing!). The whites are a dress/ceremonial uniform. For everyday work wear (ie, office or classroom), the khakis are appropriate. For field training, the BDUs, or "Na

"Did you know that if you are a 501 you need to file a tax form every year, 909 or 9099????" 990. Or E-990. Many small orgs have to do this each year. I can tell you that my Toastmasters club must do this each year, and my parliamentary org (part of a National org) and my professional society (again, part of a National org) has to do this each year. Our parent orgs provides us with our unique tax id number. And bug us to make sure we do this. "As predicted the church won't share theirs and the DE is almost of the tough luck line." Won't share what?? Their tax id number? Th

One council I work with has an annual Eagle Banquet. All the current Eagles (ie from the prior year's 'class') attend free. We usually have about 140 Eagles each year, but only about 70-80 will attend (as I seem to recall). Anyone who wants to attend may do so for $40 (that is just a little more then our costs). We have other levels, such as sponsor (you pay for yourself, and another, and extra money goes to pay for an Eagle). And then we have 3 donor levels (several hundred dollars). This helps the cost of the dinner for the Eagles and the extra money goes into a scholarship

"I would like to hear more about the parent letter" Don't know what you mean by a 'parent letter', but some organizations (especially those that don't use a nominating committee) make use of some kind of nomination form. This form specifies the dutes and responsibilities of the position being sought, and may also set down a code of conduct for the position (or all officers in general). The person putting forth themselves as a nominee is then required to agree and sign the form (and it may also require a brief essay explaining why they want the position and what they plan on doing with i

"I can find almost no information on the Bronze Bighorn Award. I received it in 1979 or 1980 as an Explorer Scout. Anybody have a clue as to that history?" This award is not a National award, and AFAIK, was a regional award that only existed in one of the regions. I have yet to find any info myself. BTW, you were an Explorer, not an Explorer Scouts. Explorer Scouts only exist pre-1949.

"A few folks mentioned the Scout BSA dark green shirt was dropped in 1979." The Explorer/Scout BSA forest green shirt WAS dropped in 1979. They no longer had them in the catalog, and they revised the literature (such as the leadership corps booklet) to no longer mention them. So don't know how your camp was able to continue to have their staff wear the green shirt, unless they had a stock to provide to new staffers.

FWIW, I just was doing an edit of my parliamentary club's bylaws. (we did a minor amendment to bring our bylaws in-line with certain policies of our national body). Our bylaws are 5 1/2 pages long. Our standing rules take up the rest of the 6th page. Also, the standard articles of bylaws are: Name Object Membership Officers Meetings Executive Committee (or Executive Board) Committees (committees within the organization) Parliamentary Authority Amendments

word I've been hearing is they are coming out with a revamped set of Venturing pants (which supposedly are zipoff). Could care less. Am quite happy with the charcoal gray pants & shorts I get from Bass Pro Shop. (cabela's has similiar). I have several 8-pocket shorts. And they have a newer item called "Sportman's Cargo Short" which also has a pants version I've used.

"When was this "brought back"? Are you refering to the current Centeninal Uniform?, or are you talking about something else? " You know guys, if you would check out my site, www.seniorscoutinghistory.org, your questions will be answered. He is refering to the forest green shirt. BSA National actually dropped it TWICE. They first dropped the shirt in 1979. After this, Explorers (and leaders) had to wear the tan BSA shirt with green loops, and also made the office patch strips on tan instead of green. In 1985, they brought the shirt back, and AGAIN dropped in in 1990

Overall, I thought the segment was pretty good. Nice to have both Boy Scouts and Venturers highlighted. Only nit was the slipup in refering to Venturing as "Venturing Scouts" by one of their leaders (who should have known better).

Yes, its ok. There are ADC-Venturing and ACC-Venturing, and you have Council Venturing Committees, and you could have a District Chair for Venturing, so if you are a unit commissioner ONLY for VenturING Crews (please note the correct term), then wearing the spruce green uniform is perfectly fine. That's one of the reason the uniform has epaulets, so you can wear green or silver or gold loops.

"I've always found it curious how a Scout can be "active" enough to earn merit badges, do service work, carry out a position of responsibility, and fulfill all the other requirements for a rank advancement, but be declared "not active" by some pompous adult that wants more." Well, as they say "Your mileage may vary", but this has NOT been my experience. If a scout IS doing all you say about, then I doubt anyone would claim he was NOT active. What usually happens is the scout who does all his stuff, then disappears for several months (ie no meeting, events), then returns to get h

"So emb, you put no stock in "The official BSA Rules and Regulations that you agreed to when you became a member state the Policy of the BSA: An active youth member is one who, with the approval of a parent or guardian if necessary, becomes a member of a unit; obligates himself or herself to attend the meetings regularly; fulfills a member's obligation to the unit; subscribes to the Scout Oath or the code of his or her respective program; and participates in an appropriate program based on a member's age." ? " OGE- what I do or do not put stock into doesn't matter. I do