GernBlansten

Well, that depends on who's in power at the moment.

I don't envy the DE's job on fundraising at all. Our FOS presentation, the DE claimed it costs $100/scout to maintain salaries and facilities. Ok, raise the registration fee to cover those costs. Then turn FOS into a fundraiser for camperships for needy scouts. Those same families who can't afford scouting could draw directly from there. Our unit charges $80/year. $10 goes to national, $70 goes to the unit. Just charge $180 so $100 goes to council to cover costs. Its still a bargain. My daughter plays competitive volleyball. For a three month session (3 days/week), we pay $650.

Ed, do you think its a good idea to intermingle church and state? I suppose, if its your church. What if its not? Or would it be best for the government to adopt a similar policy that BSA has. One so watered down as not to offend any individual or sect.

Sounds like the council wants to get this over as quick as possible and get it behind them. Sad thing, and don't take this personally, but the ease the council is moving, it really cheapens the rank IMHO. We conscientious scouters really try to put the youth through the program and make it worth something special. We test and retest, most of us don't just give out merit badges or PORs. We try to establish some rigor. But if it goes to council for an appeal, it seems like a quick, automatic pass. All the work we do becomes cheap because there's an easy out. Now, please don't think your s

Pack, I don't think that's clear.

"Reagan proved deficits don't matter" - Dick Cheney, December 2002

I'm not sure if DaddyO is a troll, but he sure is pushing all the hot buttons. We had a daddyO in our unit once. His son was very motivated to advance and was well on his way to 1st Class. But he just couldn't seem to make time to come camp with us. Always had something else to do. We designed our program to do advancement at campouts mostly. Our meetings are planning meetings for the campouts. We attempt to be boy led and the resulting chaos really grated on him. He (dad) wanted us to do more merit badges and T21 requirement signoffs at meetings instead so his son could quickly earn

If #2 son is adamant, I'd say you should really try to get on the committee. If only to make them aware that you will not allow #2 or any other boy to be ambushed like #1 son was. I would find it unlikely that you will be able to get on that committee. Sounds like a good ol' boys club.

Sounds like they ambushed your son. Waiting until near his 18th birthday to dredge up stuff from 4 years ago that should have been addressed in every SM conference. Then doing the "investigation" on the MySpace right before the hearing. Move on. Get #2 son in a better troop, it shouldn't be hard. I think the basis of the appeal should focus on the fact that the troop did little to inform the scout of their concerns until it was too late to rectify. Slam dunk appeal in my opinion. I'd still send them a very nice invitation to his ECOH.

I think there's three types of parents. 1) The parents want advancement, signed off merit badges, as many as they can get. 2) The parents want Billy out of their hair for a week. Don't care about advancement or fun, but if it happens, thats fine. 3) The parents want Billy to be happy. If that means he earned lots of badges, great. If it means he met some new friends, great. If it means he didn't do anything but stare at the stars, great.

That's the spirit boys. This reminds me of a thread right after the election where someone posted a website that you put in the zip code and it showed how that area voted. A blue vote meant you should boycott companies in that area. A red vote meant you should support those companies. Guess what happened when you put Irving, Tx? Texas is a very strange place.

I'm really not interested in whether Texas can secede or not, but what if they did and how would that effect scouting? Does the congressional charter for BSA grant us exclusive international rights to the term Boy Scouts? Could we go to war with Texas if they adopt the Boy Scouts of Texas? Would we need to helicopter out the scouters off the roof of Irvine reminiscent of the fall of Saigon? Obviously the Texans would nationalize all assets of BSA stored at the HQ. Would the last of the professional scouters need to destroy any BSA literature before evacuating, just to keep it out of t

not without divine intervention.

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/04/16/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry4950073.shtml Texas Governor Floats Possibility Of Secession So hypothetically, if Gov. Rick Perry (Eagle Scout and author of the book, On My Honor) follows through with his warning that Texas may secede from the USA, what possible ramifications would it have on boy scouting? 1) Rick Perry might have his Eagle rank revoked for violating the Scout Oath. 2) The BSA would need to be re-branded BST at least in Texas. 3) They would need to move BSA national HQ to a US city. 4) Visiting a Texas camp would re

DHS took me off the list? I'm outraged!

I've always been a proponent of dropping the DRP and allowing a local option for membership restrictions. COs could be as restrictive or open as they see fit. Would solve a lot a problems. But there's no need to drop the 12th point. As written and defined by the BSA, I think its just fine.

Does anyone have a good link to the current(NEW) BSA LG requirements? I know they changed and all my searches pull up the old ones.

Ed, the Bible isn't contradictory regarding eating shellfish, yet those who follow it sure are.

GET THE COMFY CHAIR!

It really wasn't much of a war, more of a police action. A few nastily worded essays published in scientific journals followed by a few repugnant rebuttals. Not too many casualties, just a few promising careers.

Yeah, I kept my WSI current through college. Private lessons got me my degree and kept me in adult beverages. Also met the future Mrs. Blansten doing them. It's long since expired. Always thought if I become a victim of the Obama Depression, I'd go get recertified and hit the lanes again. There is as huge shortage of swimming instructors.

Trev, you've seem to have forgotten the Alchemy War.

The topic is moot for my son. I just checked our council website and there is no planned BSA lifeguard training for this year. So its ARC only. I wanted to see how long the training was. Last year, it was two weekends, sat/sun. Old program? Perhaps. Still at most 40 hours. Same as the ARC one. The good thing about him getting ARC LG, is next year he can get his Water Safety Instructor certification at 16YRS. ARC/LG is a prerequisite for ARC/WSI. That allows him to teach at public pools. Trust me, that got me through college. Great job for a student.

I haven't taken BSA LG. And my ARC LG was 30 years ago and long expired. But looking at the hours required, ARC is 40 hours. BSA LG is two weekends. If they do 10 hours a day, it would seem to be equivilant not in excess of ARC. Sure curriculums will differ and emphasis on particular topics will vary. But to flat out say that ARC falls well below the standards of BSA is a bit hard to swallow. Anywhoo. We are land locked and the only jobs for lifeguards are in waterparks and pools. No need for beach/open water here. I'm comfortable with him getting ARC and skip working at BSA summ

The issue is why do both. ARC is gonna cost me $220 and 6 days of my son's life. Why do the BSA two weekends too? This would be akin to BSA offering Wilderness First Aid, but allowing ARC WFA for high adventure. Sure you could wiz through BSA WFA after taking ARC WFA or vise versa, but why would you do it and lose another weekend? IMHO, BSA should accept ARC lifeguard as equivilent and perhaps require additional training for open water or lake front. Just like most beach organizations do.