epalmer84

As best I can figure, Virginia state law is that you can carry a folding knife under three inches in a school. http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+18.2-308.1'>http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+18.2-308.1 Othere than that, the Code of Virginia is quiet on a standard knife: http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+18.2-308 Of course, there may be local laws that also apply. The county courthouse has a sign that says no knives are allowed. Ed

I use binders. I picked up some nice leather photo albums for cheap and bought the patch holders. You can also get the official patch binder (#34388) but at $29.99 it is a bit pricey. 33139 3.5" Patch Holder Pages 3220A Pocket Certificate Holders Ed

We have some folks who are on the pack committee and the troop committee; and some folks who are on the troop committee and the crew committee. I'm an assistant Scoutmaster and an Advisor. When I took over as Advisor (the previous Advisor moved unexpectedly) it took a year to find a replacement for me as Boy Scout Roundtable Commissioner. We all wear multiple hats- the troop committee chair and I did Wood Badge staff last year; he and the Scoutmaster are doing it this year. I'm the still the district webmaster, as well as for the troop and crew. Our COR is also the Cubmaster. The Sco

Guess they need to change the school district name. Ed

The Moose lodge in Covington, VA has a merit badge weekend every April. It is run quite well. They have several merit badges that are not easy to get counselors- Pulp and Paper (paper mill nearby), Railroading, (the lodge is by the river- in Virginia that means there is a railroad), Chemistry (paper mill again). There are several standard badges- Communications and the like. All in all, it is no worse than summer camp- they can do one or two badges in a day. It has it issues- the Scout is supposed to do the legwork of getting a blue card (done with Troopmaster now), finding a counselo

The Guide to Safe Scouting and Tours and Expeditions have specific rules for youth drivers, but this only applies to trips. Your state or community may have laws that pertain to youth drivers (Here in Virgina there are a lot of limits). Driving isn't the real issue here, it is the Scout leaving- driving just makes it more interesting. How would you treat any other Scout who left the meeting? What if they walked up the block to the 7-11 with their buddy (a problem we had before we moved)? It sounds like it is time for a Scoutmaster conference. We have had to do this in the past.

As I understand it, Bobby Henderson created the Flying Spaghetti Monster as a response to the Kansas school board's position on creationism and evolution. He could have used any established creation story from any religion, but chose to create one from whole cloth in order to not bring ridicule upon any religion. Ed

Cub Scouting, Boy Scouting and Venturing are different levels of one Scouting program. Wearing awards for one level on the uniform of another is not only authorized, but in my opinion should be encouraged. There seem to be disconnects between these program levels by folks who simply do not comprehend the gestalt of the Scouting program. Proudly displaying awards in this manner is a simple way of showing that connection. For youth, we allow certain awards from one level to be worn on the uniform of the next level, (Arrow of Light on the Boy Scout uniform, Boy Scout rank on the Venturi

For the lower end tents, a tube of seam sealer works well. It looks like and applies like glue. I use a solder flux brush to daub it on. Let the tent sit overnight to dry and spray the seams with Camp Dry or the like to fill in any bits you might have missed. You do not want to spray the uncoated nylon that is under the rain fly as this is not waterproof and is breathable. Higher end tents no longer require sealing. They have "bathtub" floors- the floor material comes up the side without a seam- the only seams is the corners that are permanently sealed with heat tape. The fly is als

>It bothered him that the WB songbook only contained songs from an Anglo-Saxon perspective. He knew a lot of African folk songs and wanted to try to get those integrated into the WB songbook. Rather ironic considering that the very emblem of Wood Badge has an African origin. Although one could take the view that the necklace in question was part of the spoils of war by a white overlord. Ed

The BSA rules are here: http://www.scouting.org/webmasters/standards/04.html This particular document has a catalog number of 18-942B. The hyphen indicates this is a "bin" item and can be locally reproduced and distributed. Ed

>The VA is currently denying the family of a Wiccan soldier who was killed in action to ability to put a pentagram on his headstone Nevada sidestepped the VA. The Nevada attorney general ruled that the state had jurisdiction over state veterans' cemeteries. Sgt. Patrick Stewart was buried in the Northern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery. The headstone with the Wiccan emblem was installed just before Thanksgiving 2006. It still does not address the VA issue, and has no application to federal cemeteries. DanKroh: I am curious as to why the Wiccan religious emblems are not offe

I was a Webelos den leader for two years. My dear friend the Cubmaster (now our DE) 'talked' me into it since she was short on leaders. I was a deb chief thirty years ago and had had no real Cub Scouting experience since then. It was a rewarding experience- six of the eight Webelos crossed over to the troop and two mad it to Eagle. I proudly wear that yellow knot on my tan shirt and my green shirt. If someone thinks to question my expertise in the Cub Scouting program, that knot is there. I have Cub Scouting, Boy Scouting, Venturing and commissioner knots on my shirt and I use them to sh

Someone had pointed this out a while back. I was considering canvasing our pack, troop and crew (since we are all under one roof now, I think I'm going to use the UK term of group) and making a mass order. 1.40 for the 7 cm (2 3/4") patch works out to $2.76 at todays rate. Call it $3 even for shipping. Ed(This message has been edited by epalmer84)

> It would be a lot easier and probably more consistent with the heritage of our country if the BSA only recognized Judeo-Christian Emblems and COs. Actually, it would be easier if we did not have a religious program at all. But, our purpose is not to take the easy path, but to try to do what is only right. We have to balance our heritage with the realities of today- and that includes the bald fact that other religions are growing rapidly in this country. --- DanKroh: Here is the whole entry from the LoS: American Indian: This term is preferred to "Native American" when

First, some pedantic nitpicking: *The Programs of Religious Activities for Youth is abbreviated as P.R.A.Y. *The BSA preferred term is American Indian. See http://www.scouting.org/identity/los/index.html Also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_American_name_controversy for a good discussion on naming. --- Merlyn: I would be interested in any information you might have on specific Wiccan groups such as CoG that were denied a charter. --- While the "rule of 25" is the big part of this issue, the Religious Relationships Committee actually created five rules in 1993

We don't allow politics or glurge (see Snopes.com for a good explanation) in our troop emails. In my opinion, if we can keep religion out of politics, then we won't have the government in our church. Nor the IRS... http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-me-allsaints18sep18,1,2982838.story?ctrack=1&cset=true Ed

>One more idea that I thought was a good one, have a Q & A session at the end that has no scope, save scouting in general. That became a popular feature when I was the roundtable commissioner. You just have to steer it so it doesn't become a flaming gripe session or a good ole boy chatup. I usually started it by asking who had done something interesting lately- trying to share ideas. Or; soliciting ideas for future roundtables. Ed

"but I DO know that one of BSA's pilot Kinder Lion Scout programs is co-ed. " Michael- I believe that one of the councils up New York way is testing a kindergarten level program for boys and girls. As I understand it, they are calling it "Lions" (the BSA never throws anything away, they just recycle it). Apparently, it is using some variant of the Learning for Life "Seekers" program. I still have a Scouting/USA decal and the Scouting/BSA strip you wore when you were in the Leadership Corps. Ed(This message has been edited by epalmer84)

As a youth, I helped cook turkeys in dutch ovens one year. Had to do CPR to squash the birds to get them to fit. We used one aluminum dutch oven- it overheated and fell apart. Many years ago I was a Scouter in the Transatlantic Council in Germany. We went to Camp Dahn in for a week, not long after I arrived in-country. We decide to make a peach cobbler for the troop campfire one evening, and requested the ingredients from the quartermaster. So- we have cake mix, butter, peaches and a dutch oven. We toss it all together and throw it on the coals. Thirty minutes later, we have pe

After we get our quartermaster shed moved, I'm going to do some new inventory sheets. I'm going to take photos of all of the parts of a cook kit and a chef kit and make a diagram of how to put it together. We use Action Packers for each patrol kit. We only use the patrol kits for camporees and the like. We have other equipment for light camping- single burner propane stoves, mini-lanterns and the like. Ed

This issue has been extensively dealt with over at Ask Andy: http://www.netcommish.com/askandy.asp There are several columns that deal with issues like this. Ed

ScoutNut: Downloading requirements must be new. It has been about a year since I did it online. I guess as troop trainer, I need to check this out again. Ed

"if I took YPT online through the Chief Seattle Council's Website that would not count for me because I live in Phoenix, AZ and need to go through the Grand Canyon Council's web site." http://olc.scouting.org/ That is now correct only for Venturing YPT, as it has not yet been updated to the Online Learning Center yet. With the OLC, you no longer have to go through the council web site to get properly registered. You now create an account using your membership number. As you complete a course, you can print a training certificate and your record is maintained online. What is c

Mike Walton mentioned this back in 2000: http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:H74QcVQ6g7EJ:www.infinetivity.com/~blkeagle/celebs.htm+%22mike+walton%22+destiny%27s+child&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us&client=firefox-a or http://tinylink.com/?zZAzmsfjW9 This link is to a cache- it looks like his site is down. Ed