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This is dependent on how your troop camps. In my old troop, we camped Friday to Sunday 99% of the time, so we had three chaplain's aides, and coordinated the Scout's Own on Sundays. My new troop rarely camps on Sundays, thus no aide. If the only role of the Chaplain's Aid is to do the opening and closing prayers at meetings, then it's not worth filling the position.

I'd really like to see how supporting a group which requires a profession of faith constitutes "excessive entanglement" on the part of any government...

I know a few parents who've done this, with mixed results... I'm not forcing my son to get his Eagle first, but I have told him that if he wants to get his learner's permit before he turns 16, he needs to have his service project plan ready to present for approval. Otherwise, he'll wait until after his 16th birthday. Yes, it's the carrot/stick approach, but whether or not he actually carries out the project, or finishes the last couple merit badges is still up to him.

We don't banish them to the edge of the site. Tents with women leaders are intermixed among the adult patrol when camping. That gives some of the more conservative units in our area fits, but personally, I see segregating the women into another campsite or the edge of the campsite as a risk to their safety. When we overnight in a large room like a gymnasium (e.g. enroute to an out of council camp, some troops overnight at an armory or church so that they don't have to carry tents), we separate as much as possible. It's not always practical (or possible) to have a separate room for the w

Avoiding potential conflict of interest would trump the "don't delegate" guideline anyday. You don't allow a parent to sit in on their son's BOR, so the same would easily carry over to SMC.

Sounds like as long as it was halal & kosher, you could be accommodated...

Considering how limited of a program Varsity is in the overall BSA universe, I wouldn't worry too much about ignorance from National over it...

What's a bit ironic here is that Centennial Quality Unit will probably make more than a few units rethink FCFY. One of the metrics is advancement, and boys who advance T-2-1 only get counted once... I've heard more than one district level scouter also involved with a unit suggest that it might be beneficial to put the brakes on the rush to advance the boys...

Merlyn opines: Just goes to show that atheists exercising their first amendment rights are considered to be ruining it for Gold Winger. Too damn bad for you, eh? But it's not OK for people of faith to exercise their first amendment rights... Ed responds: What really chaps my shorts is how you mods let Meryln call people liars & do nothing! Yet we get our posts whacked when we do less. Just like the courts and the mainstream media, at times around here it appears that dissent is healthy only when it benefits, protects, or promotes the opinion of the minority..

Yes, Merlyn, but pretty much all of us here would have been born on other continents, speaking different languages. It's a great chaos theory experiment... Take away Christianity, and the subsequent religious persecution of the 1600's becomes the crushed butterfly... Colonization might have eventually occurred, but without the English colonies, the USA (and thus BSA) would have probably never been formed... And yes, I hope you too have a Merry Christmas...

Sending too few troops? We wiped out Saddam's Army in the blink of an eye! Yah, and then the enemy wiped out Iraq's oil and electrical infrastructure which was part of our mission to preserve. So much so that oil production I don't think has yet recovered from pre-war levels. I don't blame this on either party -- I blame it on all of Washington, by trying to play nice for the cameras. Had FDR and Truman allowed the military to be as micromanaged as it has been since Korea, Israel wouldn't exist and the only people speaking French would be in Quebec... Likewise, had the main

Ed, Pack is right; if Christianity hadn't taken hold in the Empire, we would probably still be celebrating a Mithraic mid-winter festival, or a version therof. If Christianity hadn't taken hold in the Empire, we probably wouldn't be on this continent... Merry Christmas to all... May Santa Scout be good to all of you! E

We've collected OA dues with recharter for a while. It's a good way to get people to stay current...

Prime rib with baked potatoes (both cooked over coals) and salad: $4 for of the each 10 adults. Charcoal, dressing, spices, and paper products: donated... Seeing two patrols of boys lined up for the chance to eat the adult's leftovers: Priceless.

Maybe my view is tainted by the council wood badge staff who waggled his beads at me and said, "This is why you go to Wood Badge, to get these so the boys will know that you care." Isn't that more or less the same reason why you wear your adult knots?...

What then has the scout accomplished? Where is the benefit to the community? It's not about what the scout accmplished -- it's what they learned in the process. Some of the best Eagle projects are the ones that fall apart while underway. That's where leadership (or lack of) gets tested best.

Y,know, GW, it's one thing to talk trash about something you've been thru and found to be a disappointment. It's yet another to talk trash (repeatedly) about a course you haven't even been thru. If you don't want to go to WB, then don't. That's your personal choice. But quite frankly, you haven't earned the right to badmouth WB. The Scoutlike thing to do would be to quit grinding your axe until you've actually been thru the course.

It has a published handbook... how much less of a secret can it be?...

This is shaping up to be one of the wierdest election cycles in history. You've got a subset of people who are voting for Hillary simply because it's time we have a woman president. You've got another subset of people backing Obama simply because it's time we have a black president. If Romney or Huckabee were a black woman, it would be even more interesting, but since they're not, they have to make some sort of ruckus just to get attention, and religion seems to be the only real differentiator... Heaven forbid they actually start discussing their stance on important things like.

I personally like it... especially if the kid has any interest in Civil Engineering. I've worked on traffic studies before, and this isn't just a matter of standing outside with a clipboard for a couple hours. Bringing to light a problem, collecting the supporting data to prove the hypothesis, and gathering support within the community to take action would certainly present a lot of opportunities for planning and leadership. Sure, it's not the typical project, but having looked at what constitutes an Eagle project in other troops and districts, I see this being unique, and having the pote

I'm told that by going to church every Sunday, I'll become a better Christian. How? It doesn't look like I'm learning anything new. I'd rather go to the University of Christiandom and take a class that I've never had before like "Fundamentals of Arameic" or "How to Deal With a Flatulent Zealot." With all due respect, anyone who thinks they have nothing left to learn in a particular topic is the very type of leader who scares me the most... Personally, I learn something new every time I teach a NLE or SMF class, even though I'm the instructor. I also learn something new everytime I

Yes, many units did set unreasonable goals... I had one in particular who set 85% retention as their goal, even though the district standard was 70%. As an ADC, I'd have a hard time justifying not awarding it to them even though they had 82% retention, while the guys down the street went with 70% and only retained 75%. Fortunately, we were told that the DC's and ADC's have the discretion to apply some discretion.

The State of Michigan allows not-for-profits to hold 400 acres of land tax free That's a fair amount of land. Texas's limitations are 1,000 acres for an organization in any one county, and there is only one scout camp I can think of that exceeds that (Sid Richardson or SR2, which is 2500 acres). To keep all of Owasippe tax exempt, the land could be subdivided into 400 acre parcels, with individual councils and other not-for-profits owning them. If CAC is unable to sell it as residential property, I don't know if they'll still go forward with selling it. If they do, someone shou

Same here. Camp gets a copy, and we keep the rest in the binder with the permission slips and contact info. If it's bad enough, we bypass the camp medical shack and head to town. Knowing where the nearest ER is one of the things you should be seeking out in advance.

I'm a little distressed by the idea of some troops turning away a Scout who wants to go at the last moment... I'll give up some food from the adult patrol's grub box if it means getting a kid into the outdoors for the weekend.