GernBlansten

Mandated training should be free to all volunteers. The costs of this training should be shouldered by national membership fees as its the members who will benefit. Figure out the costs, divide it by the number of members, assess the fee at recharter time. I bet the increase would be minimal, under $1 per scout. And you would eliminate the biggest excuse for a leader to avoid training.

A cheap AM transistor radio is a great lightning detector. Just tune to a non-broadcasting freq and when you hear static, you have lightning. But seriously, how are you going to use it? What are you going to do if you detect lightning? Aside from getting off the lake in canoes or getting down below tree line on a mountain, what is the response? Also, if you are in either of those positions in conditions that produce lightning, you need to take action anyways, before lightning is present. I just don't see the practical application of such a device.

Yes, people can get hurt around firearms. Ranges need to be safe. But there are two methods to obtain that safety. One is appropriate for youth, the other is appropriate for military recruits. The problem I've seen is some instructors cannot shift gears. If they can't make the change, they shouldn't be around our youth.

Uh, JKC, clearly your training is from the military. We in the BSA/NRA don't use the term weapon, its a firearm. Don't ask me what's the difference, but you should have seen the face on my R. Lee Ermey lookalike shooting sports instructor when I called my rifle a weapon. I can still feel his hot breath on the back of my throat.

Patience, Calico, patience.

I've seen the magic necker ceremony at every crossover I've attended (dozens) in the last 6 years. Our district has a mountain man who does the ceremony, quite well, that every pack hires. He does the one necker and the scouts don't get to do it. He also does a fun safety briefing before, chastising the dad's to not try this at home. Never an unintended consequence and the new scouts love it. However, it is probably a violation of the fire code.

Vicki, That 12 year old who stepped out of rank, will now go home and never come back to scouting because of the treatment by one gung ho drill instructor. I know I wouldn't if it were me. Hey, it did happen to me. 35 years ago. Still remember the incident. I spent 12 months in scouting as youth until I ran across the same type of moron. These guys drive the youth out of scouting. Who's out of place? Who loses? Who is the program for?

At our last COR, we had a surprise guest, a previous Eagle scout from 20 years ago who now belongs to a community men's organization. They hold a golf tournament and he solicited mulligans for $10 each, proceeds going to his old scout troop. We didn't request it, didn't even know it was happening. He showed up at the COR and asked the SM if he could make a quick speech, during which he presented the SPL a check for $950. In attendance was our new DE who was there to pitch FOS. Do you think we'll hear anything from the DE? I doubt it. We did surpass our goal for FOS this year by 50%

That's really a shame. Those instructors should not be allowed near our youth. I understand the discipline and order necessary to safely operate a range, but berating a youth is just not acceptable. These morons will do nothing but drive youth from the organization. There are ways to handle malfeasance or carelessness at the range that neither demoralize the youth nor diminish range safety. These instructors must not only anticipate it, but be ready to correct it in a positive manner. If they can't do that, they need to go play drill instructor with another group.

BadenP, Thats exactly the approach I have made with my crew for their first year. Much more hands off and let the guys set the agenda. Mixed results so far. They still want to do lots of stuff, but have a real hard time getting it planned and executed. I'm giving it two years, if they get the spark, I'll stick around. If they don't, well, lots of other things can keep me busy. One thing I don't want the crew to become is some elite scout patrol extension of the troop. If they want to do boy scout stuff, do that with the troop. I keep telling them the crew is for doing stuff you can'

My crew is 100% scouts from our troop. I took it over to keep it from not being rechartered, in hopes we could do more high adventures than the troop does. The troop is real busy working with the younger scouts, as it should be. The crew is designed to take care of the high adventure stuff. If you want to do high adventures, you need to dual register with the crew. We of course, won't turn away anyone who eligble for membership though. We have a couple of scouts who aged out as boy scouts last summer who are heading up to NTiers with us this summer with the 14 year olds. Allows them to

Never happen. Americans will never accept $3/day wages to compete with Asian factories.

A noble but lost cause. In the last ten years, America has lost its manufacturing capability to China. There just isn't any economical way to produce mass quantities of the range of BSA products domestically. Not anymore at least. Remember when Sam Walton was still alive, back in the early 90s I think? He directed Walmart to buy American. It was the slogan all over the store. It was his effort to support American suppliers. After he died, they went after the cheapest supplier. Nothing sold at Walmart is made here now. That was the final nail in the coffin of our great manufacturi

TheScout, you are a binary person in a gray-scale world. You must use labels to categorize everything as either good or evil. No in between. By doing so, it makes your decisions easier. I consider it intellectually lazy, and fraught with danger. But if it works for you, so be it.

I have one label for people who use labels: LAZY.

I hear your pain. I do IT consulting and for my small clients who have any PC problem, I just tell them to buy a new computer. The larger ones already figured it out and buy spares. It just ain't worth repairing a PC anymore. I charge $100/hour to troubleshoot. A motherboard will run at least $150. If it takes me 2 hours to identify, order, replace and configure the computer, you are looking at least at $350. For under $300, you can get a replacement which will be faster, be running current stuff and have more space than the dead one. Think about it, they work flawlessly for at least

Just got my first. They are coming from the revolving ad at the bottom of the page. Not sure how they are getting by the popup blocker, it usually works flawlessly. But, looks like the product they are using to give them revenue on the bottom page space is allowing advertisers to use them.

Everything is made in china now. but just because it comes from the same factory, doesn't mean they are the same tent. Changes in materials would be the biggest factor. The Alps tent may use inferior materials to the REI one. It may share some components too. But these companies just contract out to a production run of one model, then retool for the production of another product for another vendor. The same plant may one week produce high end North Face tents, the next week a cheapo Coleman, the next week an REI model. If the dimensions and weight is different on the two models, I'd

I use my credit card for every transaction I can. I get bonus miles for each dollar spent. Pay off the balance every month. I do try to keep $100 cash in the wallet for non-CC purchases. But that seems to disappear periodically when the family needs walking around cash. I do have a check book to pay for stuff that requires more than I have in cash, but can't accept a card.

OGE writes "How many technical types out there know people who became a Supervisor based on being the bet engineer, best technician, best whatever the plant had ever seen and then failed miserably in the position because they didn't know how to manage?" Absolutely, I've seen it myself. I've also seen the reverse, managers who rise above their technical capability only to achieve failure, due to their lack of technical knowledge. Great managers are first great technicians (think Gene Kranz, Apollo flight director). They have mastered their technical skills and know their craft. Bu

My "Come to Jesus" statement, was done as a clever ploy to spur discussion. To me, a "Come to Jesus" meeting, is one where you have a heart to heart with another. You know, after Joe has his third fork lift accident, you have a "come to Jesus" meeting with him. Joe's forklift safety talk has nothing to do with religion. I think its appropriate to have such a discussion with the parents. I also included a bit of sarcasm, one to jab the "BSA is a Christian organization" bee hive with a sharp stick. Most evangelicals I come across view anything opposed to their view of religion to be ath

Ed, not everyone can be a Bad Parent. Some will just have to find another organization that will except you and your jacket worshiping ilk.

Ok, I'm all over this knot thing now. The rainbow knot is just too gay. We all know, Bad Parents can't be gay, by definition. How about this, black background, red knot with one end of the rope terminating in a pitchfork, the other end terminating in a bifurcated tail.

The writer is in extreme peril. He has desecrated the cloak of mystery of two powerful secret societies. I predict he will be disappeared soon. Actually, this makes me want to become a Free Mason too!

Perhaps us Bad Parents can just have a knot. I suggest a rainbow one. That way, us Bad Parents can self identify ourselves to be instantly recognized by other Bad Parents, those who wish to live the closet, can do so, but know that there are accepting Bad Parents amongst them. Good Parents will shun those of us who wear the knot, but with or without it, they already do.