eolesen

If they're insults, that's even less justification for this nonsense of a thread.

Ad hominum posts have no place on this or any other forum, and the following comments in this thread do nothing other than attack the poster: "I'd say you're not only not interested, but likely not capable." "I knew it. Ed is incapable of carrying on an argument, even after being tediously guided right to what he needs to do to make one." "Ed, why does the ACLU deserve a Prevaricator's Knot? You have yet to offer a coherent reason." "This one is about your inability to offer even a shred of an argument to support your views. " "You just toss words and phrases arou

"What restaurants would be willing to donate?" Just about any one I've ever approached... It doesn't have to be food -- it can be simple things like paper products. We got Chili's to donate "kids cups" for one of our events, and McDonalds has been known to do that as well. Likewise with napkins, plasticware, etc. We had a Scout with a family member who was an area manager for Applebee's, and wound up getting some of the food staples donated for our Blue and Gold, plus other non-food items like metal pans for holding the food between the prep time and serving time, ladles/servin

Best of luck -- we have an all-autistic unit in my area of the district which formed earlier this year for many of the same reasons. So far, things are going great according to the committee chair, and they're getting ready to recharter with 15 members, and they have another 10 boys who have been attending on a somewhat regular basis but haven't yet registered. An autism charter school is sponsoring the pack, so I know they'll be a success with that type of support (and natural feed!). If you want to send me a private message, I will see if the DE and committee chair are willing to share

Regardless what happens with his tenure as SPL, seems to me that some time for reflection on this is appropriate before recommending him for an Eagle Board. One of the things that an Eagle Board is supposed to evaluate is whether or not the Scout is living and applying the Scout Law in his personal life. Clearly, underage drinking and deflecting responsibility are somewhat in conflict with being Trustworthy and Obedient.

Haven't seen it happen, but I'm sure it could. And with my luck, it will be called into question a week before my son's 18th birthday. One thing I haven't seen mentioned is the boy who moves and changes Councils. That happened to my son, and we wound up showing the blue cards to the new troop's AC when we registered him. Councils don't have a simple way of getting advancement information transferred from council to council. Likewise with registrations... I had to re-register as did my son.

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(since we're back at the beginning again... unless we had a Wolf or a Crow I don't know about...) Ohhhhh.... I used to be a Bobwhite! And a mean old Bobwhite, too. I've eaten me an eagle and a fox and beaver stew. I'm getting rather hungry, And don't know what to do. So I'm going to catch a Staffer if I can! Back to dinner, frying pan, I'm going to eat a Staffer if I can!

What you get out of Woodbadge depends entirely on what you put into it. Will it benefit your unit? Absolutely. As others said, your ticket is mostly going to be work done on behalf of your unit and/or district. And, it's just the tip of the iceberg. My ticket still isn't complete (two of my items have time specific commitments), but I've already been involved with a couple of new "projects" which would have easily been ticket items. And I fully expect that to continue as long as I'm actively involved with Scouting (my youngest son has over ten years until he ages out). Will it benefi

Thanks for the reminder about Richardson, Eric. I'd already forgotten about that... TJ, I don't think there are too many people left who think being gay is a choice. It isn't. I'm sure you're a good example of citizenry. Most of the gay and lesbian people I've known over the years are extremely private, and are decent people. And having worked in both fine arts and the travel industry, there are times where I was in the minority as a hetero. I had several roomates in college who were gay, so it's not that big of a deal to me for someone to be gay. What some people feel is a

We ran into a few problems with the "you buy unsold-unreturned tickets" a few years back, and abandoned that for subsequent dinners. It's one thing if it is a fundraiser where you're buying something like discount cards, entertainment books, etc. with a somewhat tangible value. Spaghetti dinner tickets didn't really fall into that definition for us. Make sure you publicize it with the firehouses and police stations a couple days or a week in advance (like Scouts, they plan menus and shop in advance...) Trust me. They'll show up, since it beats cooking and cleaning for the night. Hec

Beavah, I'm not sure if it is the sex-oriented culture, or simply the continuous push for a secular culture. Having secular governance is seen as good from most viewpoints, but once you marginalize the role that religion and faith have within a culture, things start to unwravel.

How can you make the claim that the book doesn't help Scouting at all when it hasn't even been published yet? If this were a book authored by a gay politician who was also Eagle Scout, the usual loud voices above would be crowing about how it was good to see someone take a positive stance on the issues. Kudos to Rick Perry for being willing to take a stand. Too many people have stood silent on speaking out against the gay agenda because of fear of being labeled a hate-monger. What you do in your private life is up to you. But don't expect others to hold you up as a r

I was always under the impression that the prohibition against paint ball and laser tag had nothing to do with insurance -- it was more to do with discouraging the action of pointing a loaded weapon at another person... Commissioner Staff is a support role to help units put on a successful program, even if it isn't necessarily a fully compliant program. Gold Winger, a few questions.... 1) Does this unit participate in events at the district level? 2) Do they attend Roundtable? 3) Do they have any leaders who have gone thru anything more than just leader specific training?

And, to add fuel to the fire, I'm told there's some fuzzy math allowed by the ADC and DC to still sign off on units receiving CUA if a unit missed their stated goals because of reasons perhaps outside their control (i.e. leader training was set at x% but classes weren't offered).

Let me second (or third) the concept of getting the parents up to speed as quickly as possible. Scouting isn't Webelos III, and helping manage the parents expectations will go a long way towards your retention. Using the new-boy patrol concept might also help (especially if you have enough ASMs and/or Troop Guides to serve in an advisory role), since it helps the boys develop an identity along with like-age boys (some of whom they'll already have friendships with from Cubs?). Having been the patrol advisor to several new boy patrols, I'd say that a third of my time is spent advisin

I love dutch oven cooking, but if you're in an area with a lot of outdoor fire restrictions, it's not always possible to use on a campout. Since someone else mentioned the similarity to crock pots, here's something that may wind up my personal chuckbox once they've had a year or two to iron out the kinks: http://www.cabelas.com/prod-1/0043672517643a.shtml

I had a similar issue with phone calls not being returned by one of my unit leaders, so I simply started showing up at their meetings, and asked if it was OK to observe. Never once was told no... Being a nameless/faceless person who "administers" from afar is easy. Be more than just electrons on the screen or a name on a message pad. Be a face. Get into the trenches with them. I think you'll do a lot to repair the damage and get into a position where you can learn from each others experiences.

"Do we drive down to the DMV or drivers license bureau ever year to get a new license? No, but we certainly do drive down to the DMV before our drivers license expiration occurs." Well, my AZ drivers license doesn't expire until my 65th birthday, which is over 20 years from now....

I used to be a Bobwhite, and a Good Old Bobwhite too, But now I've finished Bobbing. and I don't know what to do. I'm growing old and feeble, and I can Bob no more! So I'm going to work my ticket if I can! Back to Gilwell, Happy Land [stomp stomp], I'm going to work my ticket if I can!

I'll pass on commenting about the homophobia and child molestation angle. I see those as red herrings which just divert attention from the real issue. BSA is entirely within their rights to decide who is and isn't a good role model for youth, and they decided a long time ago that homosexuality goes against being morally straight and therefore isn't consistent with the qualities sought for adult role models. There are plenty of straight adults who have no business being leaders, and I'm sure you can make a case for there being plenty of upstanding citizens who happen to be gay yet are

If there are dates recorded for the BOR and the SC, don't sweat the small stuff. Those items are a "check-in" point with the Scout on how he's doing personally, and for the committee to be checking in with how the program is running. If you were talking about merit badges being signed off by unregistered counselors or being handed out without requirements being completed, I'd be worried...

"His SM had told him his SfF hours could count towards one OR the other (rank), but not both." The only black and white restriction/guideline I've ever seen with regard to merit badges is that work done for one badge can't be used to satisfy a requirement for another badge. Example: the public meeting you attend for Cit in the Community Req 3A can't also be used for Communications Req 5. Most SM's and MBC's I know allow the cooking & menu prep items for Camping and Cooking can be used to satisfy the First Class requirements for cooking & menu prep. It's your SM's ca

There is no expiration in our council, which doesn't surprise me. Our neighboring council requires it to be retaken every three years. I asked our DD about this a couple months ago, and his answer was that it is left up to the individual councils to determine, based on what is required under local and state laws. If you are concerned about it, a unit can always have more stringent requirements for its leaders. Aside from roundtable, recurrent training in Scouting doesn't seem to be an idea whose time has come yet, but I do think there's a place for it, especially in this area.

It's a pain in the butt. If you need to make an edit, you will have to replace every instance of the single quote or apostrophe with two single quotes. example: I think that''s a dumb idea but I can''t do anything about it. And no, don't just use the double quote key. (This message has been edited by eolesen)