fred johnson

Your points are well made and I can sympathize. Chuck boxes do help a cleaner camp site, less unpacking/repacking, elevated work surface, etc. Encountered each. Know exactly what you mean. But I'll trade that all for light weight packing that young scouts and old scouts with bad backs can easily carry. Please note it's just one tote per patrol. Not multiple. They also check out a stove separately.

I've promised myself that the next time this happens, I'm just walking out. And I stay sitting when they call my unit. I've seen that done too for friends of scouting or JTE or one of another things. I've hit JTE and FOS plenty of times. But the recognition is done more so that you don't want be one of the group still sitting.

KDD - You are right. It's just that the originally poster included the new memorandum of understanding for Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, LCMS. That document confirms and reinforces the major objection that you yourself listed. Local option in all except sexual orientation. The document explicitly states that LCMS can not use sexual orientation as the basis for denying memborship. Of course, the statement is still vague and creates lots of questions. "Will respect the membership standards" of the BSA. Is that just emotional respect and thus meaningless to practial implementations o

Not exactly what you wanted, but the best improvement our troop made was when we burned our patrol boxes. We now use rubbermaid tubs that have packing diagrams. They can sit in the rain. They can be washed. They can be dropped without breaking someone's foot. And best of all, one eleven year old scout can carry it. Two at most. Stoves are on a shelf waiting to be checked out separate. Solves the issue of white gas leaking or if a patrol needs multiple stoves. The old patrol boxes were heavy for two adults and required four eleven year old scouts to carry. Major weight savings i

KDD - My apologies. Yes, your interpretation was right. I was just surprised to see this posted today.

The proposed agreement AZMike posted above is not a local option. It puts membership policy constraints on the charter org. I would not sign up to that agreement.

Agreed. Patients is needed. I want everyone to experience scouting. But if you don't value what my church teaches or at least can show respect for what my church teaches, then open your own scouting unit under an organization with similar values. Let schools, fire departments, parents, etc open scouting groups to reflect their values. The whole idea is charter orgs create a youth program using BSA's structure for the church'es members and for the local community. But we should not ask churches to use the BSA program if it subverts the teachings of the church. Let BSA manage th

SUMMARY - If my church had to sign that agreement, I'd recommend my church drop the BSA charter. The agreement scares me. It implies an interpretation that applies the new BSA membership rules onto specific units. I always thought units could choose their membership, youth and adult. Most units accept everyone. Some do not. Maybe I was wrong to be sad when churches have drop their BSA charter. Now from reading the above memorandum, it seems those churches may have been justified and right. The above agreement says the Lutheran M.S. church will not deny membership to a scout base

I've always been continually amazed at the hard bullheadedness of volunteers who know better than the organization that they profess to love so much.

Certain rules you MUST follow or there are penalties. Speed limit. Seat belts. Others are guidelines. But this ordinance? I'm not sure I'd pay too much attention to it. Door to door? I'd like to see the the police officer who will write a ticket to a cub / boy scout for selling boy scout popcorn ? I'd even take that one to court and have my son represent himself. And I'd call the city attorney to confirm the process for how my 9 year old or 12 year old represents himself in court. OTHER IDEA - Do you have adults who live in that burb and belong to a church or non-profit?

Keep his blue cards tucked in his BSA handbook. And/Or get a handbook cover and put the blue cards in a zippered pocket in the cover. The completed requirements should be initialized on the card.

Cub Scout "ranks" are very different than Boy Scouts. Boy Scout ranks are sequential and earned. Cub Scouts are "IN THEIR RANK" because of their school grade and spend the year completing that rank's requirements and thus earning the patch that indicates they completed the rank's requirements. So while a Boy Scout can't be a life scout and work toward Eagle without earning all the previous badges in sequence, a Cub Scout can work only on his current grade's rank requirements. Plus the Cub Scout is already that rank and can claim to have been a Wolf, Bear or Webelos without having ever comp

We are starting the recharter process. We are dropping all non-contact committee members except the bare minimum number needed to recharter. I wish I could buy the Scouting magazine for them. For scouts, our cost is $36 now (boy's life too). When we created our policies, the cost was $22 per scout ($12 boy's life + $10 membership) Our policy was that if they might continue, we'd recharter them. Now, we are purging them from our roster. We have to do that. Our troop is essentially a 25 to 30 scout troop now. We have a SM + 6 ASMs + 6 committee memberships. We've shrunk significantly a

You mentioned that you only asked for the BSA membership cost with the application. Later you ask for unit dues. The trouble is the 2nd year, 3rd year, etc. The unit dues need to include BSA membership cost because the "unit' pays that cost when the "unit" recharters. Individuals do not repay a membership costs.

I must have a counter opinion. I found VIRTUS to be a much better training than BSA YPT. I did not find the videos that dated and the discussion / training was very helpful. The warning signs. The statistics. Very eye opening. A few years ago a local scoutmaster was arrested and I swear if any of the parents had seen VIRTUS I'd have hoped they would have recognized the signs.

Topic is not really about round table as much as one activity completing multiple requirements. Double counting. Been there. Dealt with it. Been on both sides of the fence. **** I'm more concerned about the quality of the scout program and helping the scouts grow than about inferring things about other volunteer's integrity. That just doesn't seem scout-like. **** The "double counting" that gets me is where requirements are completed because they've done that in school or elsewhere. It's probably legit because the requirements do not all say "in a den activity" or " as part of a

dedkad ... We've tried the Lion Kindergarten program. Run away from it. Too young. To squirrelly. Lowers the maturity of the pack. As far as I'm concerned, start the program in 2nd grade again.

Very well said. The EBOR is not the time to present a new standard to the scout. Create a feedback loop to the unit leaders and ask them what happened. Help the unit leaders develop ways to deal with and improve such advancement.

Our pack is seriously thinking about not recruiting Tigers next year and definitely not recruiting Lions either. It's just too young and it's hard for them to sit thru a pack meeting. I think it's a good idea. Cub Scouts lasts too long and is not the main show. Cub Scouts is just a warm up for Boy Scouts.

Don't worry too much about it. The only reason we have Tigers is because we are told to recruit Tigers. As far as I'm concerned, I'd be okay if Cubs didn't start until 2nd grade. Let kids try out sports and other activities. Then when they are ready for fire, knives, archery, shooting sports and outdoor activities, join scouts. I really believe that recruiting too young makes scouts look like little kids day care and it's not. The best scouting years (both from fun and adventure and also from the impact we can have on the kids) are when the scouts are 12 to 16. But, they tend to d

Very sturdy ... very durable ... but as always treat gently. - If an option, have the track anodized. Makes it look nice longer by avoiding small scratches. - Buy some foam to put between the tracks when you store them. - Alignment. Only problem we have had is reassembly and alignment. The issue is that each track section is made up of one piece per lane bolted together. All are joined at right angles. No triangles. Thus the track can "shift" a little. That requires loosening bolts, realigning and re-tightening. This is easy to fix if you are careful when you pack it a

Point taken. Legalistically, "Scouts" / "Scout" is not a trademark. But as you acknowledge, it is protected and essentially as good as a trademark. And many companies are under congressional charters. Girl scouts. Red Cross. American Legion. Etc. As for trademark though.... http://www.scouting.org/sitecore/content/Licensing/Protecting%20the%20Brand/Boy%20Scouts%20of%20America%20Trademark%20Listing.aspx It seems very clear though that "Hacker Scouts" is trying to leverage the good reputation developed over 100 years of Boy Scouts. BSA does have registered trademarks in

Ya I must admit ... my first reaction would be a red flag to watch out for that volunteer.

It was a very valid defense. ---- You can create your own Pizza Hut, but ya can't call it Pizza Hut. ---- You can create your own McDonalds, but ya can't call it McDonalds. ---- You can sell your own Kleenex, but ya can't call them Kleenex. ---- You can creating your own scouting organization, but ya can't use scouts. The Oakland group was leveraging the goodwill and reputation of the BSA program to create their own credibility. They wanted to ride the coattails of another group and muddy the waters on which program is which. ........................

It is a hard dance to dance today. In this situation I'm all for the what's best for the scout and the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy. BUT ... you also need to respect that scouting unit is "owned" by the charter organization and is a branch of that organization and reflects the values of that organization. Some charter organizations want to keep things at arms length. Others may want it differently. IMHO, it is hard to show an example that contradicts what your charter org teaches. As for the original posters comment ... live-in girl friend? Ya know ... Is it two month live-in girl friend