fleetfootedfox

I was part of the pilot before it was renamed to Fast Tracks and got the web site. At that time it was just a CD instead of a web site (and the web site still mentions the CD). First issue I had with it was they spent all this time convincing us that the program would improve retention and then they made us sign a form saying we wouldn't share the information with anybody. The other problem I had with the program is that if you follow the meeting schedules they lay out some significant activities are left out. In particularly, I was surprised to find that following the Bear progr

Yeah, I am reminded of a little story about Jesus who said something like let the person who is without sin throw the first stone. That said, some consequences are in order, but I don't think it's an automatic trip home. If the boy brought a magazine taped to his leg, that is a lot of effort he went through. It is premeditated, so I might actually view that differently than the phone stuff which may not be planned. On the other hand, as somebody else said, Playboy isn't illegal. Also, I know that child porn is totally illegal, but IMHO if a girl the same age texts them something

jtswestark: "Ive counseled over the years complaints about why adult nominees werent selected by the lodge. The leaders keep focusing on their nominees Scouting resume and could not believe he wasnt qualified or 'deserved' to be selected. But then they couldnt tell me if that Scouter would ever attend another Ordeal after his own. Or go to a single chapter meeting. Or assist in OTHER units elections. Or commit to making sure Arrowmen would get rides to events. Or what skill he would be willing to assist in advising a youth in that WASNT his son. Think about those questions when considering ad

This is an interesting topic. Weight charts like this do not at all take into account how muscular a person is. Muscle and bone weigh more than fat. Therefore, a thin-boned person who isn't very muscular would have less trouble staying in these ranges than a thicker-boned person who has a considerable amount of muscle (all other things being equal). In fact, many professional athletes could not meet these guidelines despite being in excellent physical condition.

I read recently that the average person spends 3 years of their life sitting on the toilet. So, if we could cut that down then maybe we'd have more time for scouting. Regarding sports, you are not taking into account that these days boys can play some sports all year round and some teams have multiple practices per week and multiple games with tournaments that require some travel. And some boys play on more than one team at a time in the same sport or different sports with overlapping seasons. And the select teams and school teams expect 100% attendance. Music, dance, karate and

scoutldr, the discussion was not about encouraging Scouts to ignore the rules. I think it is telling that you referred to them as "Scouts" when in fact by 18 they are supposedly now Scouters and not Scouts, which makes me question if at some level you do not consider them to be adults. Anyway, if I expressed the opinion that the speed limit on a particular road is too slow it doesn't follow that I am encouraging people not to observe the posted speed limit. It's a free country. People can have whatever opinions they want, right or wrong. I pointed out the medical fact of 18 year olds

I know that people come back from Wood Badge and NYLT very fired up and excited about Scouting in a way they weren't before. That by itself makes it worth the time and expense and "what goes on" is really not as important as knowing the outcome. However, what goes on is some pretty high quality leadership training which I think is likely to leave a lasting impact on a young man which will hopefully benefit him into his adulthood.

Thanks for the humorous comments and the practical advice. I have heard that the earth's pole is due for a flip, that this happens every so many 10s of thousands of years. However, one would think then that the other two compasses would also have been pointing wrong. We can also rule out the Bermuda triangle phenomenon as this was in the Mid-western US. I think that the compass was manufactured by Silva, but I have no idea if it was defective from the factory or something that happened to it later. The owner did tell me it was a recent purchase from the scout shop. The

Yesterday I was out on a trail with a fellow scouter doing some preliminary scouting prior to an upcoming backpacking trip. At some point we both took out our compasses to take a reading and were shocked to observe the two compasses pointing at each other. We moved about to make sure we weren't standing over some sort of magnet. It was a rainy day, so couldn't see where the sun was. Fortunately, we had a third compass that my friend happened to have with him (he is "Mr. Be-Prepared"). It turned out that his BSA compass was pointing south instead of north. Both mine and his were the same

> 1. Let us know if you would be in favor of an 18-21 Year old Adult Leader being allowed to wear his Eagle Badge (and only the Eagle Badge). No. Nobody is telling a boy he has to wait until just before his 18th birthday to finish his eagle. If he registers as an adult after that instead of joining a Venturing crew, then he should follow the same uniform rules as the other adults. > 2. Are you an Eagle Scout. No. I was not in Scouting as a youth. "18 year olds are only NOT considered adults because society has recently gotten warped into a nanny state." B-P

Yeah, ThunderFox, you'd think Boy Scout leaders of all people would not have so much trouble following rules, but there are lots of opinions out there for everything under the sun. The BSA tends to hand out more guidelines then actual rules, and even the rules can be interpreted differently by different people. Then there are those who just don't see any problem with breaking the rules if it suits them, and they have lots of rationalizations for this. So, there have been a lot of discussions about this on these forums. You might want to look at some of the previous related threads if you h

"But making a blanket policy is wrong." Maybe there should be a blanket policy against blanket policies. Anyway, you are arguing with yourself. First you say blanket policies are wrong then you say "COs can make stricter requirements if they want". So, which is it? Are they wrong for setting stricter requirements or not? "What I get upset about is people doubting the abilities of 18-21 y.o., especially if they have been in the program." Yeah, but I'm not sure anybody said that, so I think you're getting upset over an imagined controversy created by you and Beavah reading

"... I know how difficult it is to get the respect of older leaders. Heck even after I turned 21, and was recruited to serve on the district committee as OA Chapter Adviser, I still had problems. So these sentiments tick me off." No need to get ticked off. "So if national doesn't have a problem with a 16 y.o. driving, why would anyone have problems with a 19 y.o driving?" So, you agree with everything national says? If you do, you're the only one I've ever met who does. Anyway, your quote also says "...under the leadership of an adult (at least 21 years of age) tour leader..."

Yeah, true that theoretically 2-deep leadership is the responsibility of the chapter and lodge, although I think lodge members usually camp with others from their troop.

Hey. I didn't say not to sign them up. Just need to understand the 19 year old has still got some maturing to do. Actually, I'm generation X, not baby boom, and I'm not too old to remember what my driving was like when I was under 21. I think I was actually a pretty good driver. However, my car insurance was expensive for a reason, and I don't think there's anything wrong with taking such things into account when setting troop policy. It would be a lot easier to make a rule that applies to all leaders under 21 than to single out one that you think is a bad driver. How are you

If you are 19, I would recommend you join a Venturing crew and stay involved in the OA. This should give you plenty to do for a couple years, and you'll get to see some of your old friends and meet new ones. Personally, if I was the COR and I was going to allow ASM's under the age of 21, I would definitely want some limitations on what they could do. They could not drive other scouts, for example. There is a reason that car insurance is very expensive for young men under the age of 21. There's no point in arguing with the insurance companies on this. They know their statistics.

How is it lazy if a boy does something 10 times instead of 1? I'm not sure lazy is the right term. Also, there are real-world examples of people getting paid for the same work twice. For example, if you write a book, you hopefully get a royalty every time somebody buys another copy. If you refuse to give a boy credit when the rules allow it, you're making yourself the bad guy and maybe making the kid feel bad. So, what's the point of that? I would also be careful about treating scout achievements like school assignments. A lot of kids don't like school that much. If you don

I am thinking what they meant to say is that a scout has to be Star rank to take WFA, not the other way around.

I just had to share this. I got this e-mail from a mom in my Webelos den about something her boy wrote about me. I am sure most of the scouters out there could replace my name with theirs and it would apply equally if some boy they've worked with had happened to write it. "Hey [name of scouter], you know how the fourth graders had to write an autobiography? Well, [name of boy] wrote about you on his 'Who I Admire' page. I wanted to share with you what he wrote:" "'I admire the boyscout grownups because they help everyone the best they can. They take us to camp and guide us on tr

Unless there is something in the requirement or elsewhere in writing that specifically precludes "double dipping", I don't see a problem. Adding requirements is a no-no, even if it is adding a "double dipping" requirement. Here is an example of a double-dipping rule spelled out in the requirements for the scholar pin: "While you are a Webelos Scout, and if you have not earned it for another activity badge, earn the Cub Scout Academics belt loop for Mathematics." This requirement is saying the boy is expected to double dip in the sense of counting the activity both for the mathematics

I thought this worth spinning off a new thread... Mister T. wrote: Wow, I read through this thread with interest to say the least. My son has had nearly the opposite experience in scouts as your son. I was his Webelos Den Leader and we visited two troops and camped with one of them. His best friend was in one of the troops, so that was the troop my son decided to join. I volunteered to be an Assistant Scoutmaster (ASM) and got the Scoutmaster Training (thinking that at least one leader will be trained!). The Scoutmaster was planning a major camping trip, to Philmont Scout Ranch, in

Mister T., thanks for sharing. It seems like no matter how messed up a troop is there are always others out there that are worse. Of course, a troop with out patrols is arguably not a boy scout troop at all. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. Sometimes when I try to do things the way the training recommends other supposedly trained leaders seem to have no clue what I am up to. The boy-led idea is a particularly hard sell. For some reason, the Scoutmaster training does not seem to adequately convey its importance. I think part of the problem is that th

Lots of tangents to go off on. I think the lesbian/gay issue and the legal guardian issue are two separate issues, and I don't think NWScouter was implying otherwise. If a single mom who wasn't lesbian had asked the questions this woman asked, I would have responded no different to her. We tried to work with her. Also, as I said before this was a Council event, not a pack event, and so the pack had no control over how the event was named. Personally, though, I think that cub scouts tend to be dominated by the moms so it's kinda nice to have a father/son event to get some o

Maybe Dad & Lad is a bad idea for all the reasons people list or maybe it's not. However, this was a Council sponsored event with an alternative Mom & Me weekend and also a Parent & Pal weekend. We also did not tell the mother that his son could not go with another related male adult. We even offered to check if an unrelated male could go if he was willing to undergo the background check. None of these alternatives were good enough for her. So, what you people are telling me is that the solution is to get rid of any father/son events? Sounds like throwing out the baby w

There are two boys in my son's school who have "two moms". One of the moms came to our school night to join scouting. She seemed to be upset by the fact that when the other boys went to Dad and Lad camp, her boys would be left out. She wanted to send some other male with them to Dad and Lad. We didn't know what the rules were on this, but we suggested she take the boys to Mom and Me camp. She didn't like this, because her sons would feel left out. You see, if these people have their way, we can no longer have father/son activities, because some boys don't have fathers and it's not