Gold Winger

"Anyway, somewhere I have a photo of a 4th-of-July regatta in which some of the sailboats are flying the flag. Guess which way those flags are pointed.." That's because they are flying and not "displayed against a wall" When flying from a pole, mast or halyard, the canton is closest to the pole, mast or halyard. That was my point a while back. Trying o emulate a flying flag by wearing it backwards is silly. A flying flag sometimes flys back, sometimes to the side, sometimes to the front. All depends on the relative wind.

"OK, all you lawyer types. If Bears aren't allowed to cook hot dogs over an open fire, then why does the Bear book show a Bear Scout doing just that?" That's obviously a family outing and the Cub Scout is wearing his uniform out of enthusiasm for the program.

We're really in trouble now since most of us don't render a "military salute" but use the Scout salute. Now I have a new crusade, to stop Boy Scouts from reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Also, did anyone notice that no mention was made of what women should do?

" We also told the scouts that if they didn't return any unsold tickets that they will have to buy them for $4/ticket." Not sure what this means. If they sell all their tickets, what will they have to buy. Or did you mean that if they didn't sell all of their tickets, they'd have to buy the unsold ones? Keys are . . . good food and plenty of it. A spacious hall to have the event. Look like you're having fun. Make sure that the boys are there and working, the people are supporting the Scouts not the Scouters. Be careful about asking for cash donations. There's a rule (yes, a

Why do we worry so much about it? Because we live in a society which has more lawyers than doctors (according to my doctor). People sue because their coffee was too hot. People sue because a tree drops leaves in the neighbors yard (it happened in my neighborhood). People sue because their child gets the sniffles. Even if a suit is thrown out, it can still cost you. You have to pay a lawyer, take time off work, get your name in the paper, etc.. The suing side doesn't get anything but the scummy lawyer still makes out. Sure he doesn't get paid unless you win but he can still

Many things aren't in the training syllabi. What I do know is that I found two council websites that said that if you take your Scouts on an unapproved activity and something bad happens, you may not be covered. Not "will not" but "may not". Bevah may have his opinion about "intentional" but the reality is that "intentional" means whatever who is writing the rules says it means. Notice that the council websites didn't say that you have to have a tour permit or that you have to wear your uniform which are the big myths. By telling everyone Bevah's version of wisdom that "BS

I didn't make anything up, just parphrased from a council website. I think that I'll take their word over yours. To paraphrase someone here, you're just a volunteer so your opinion isn't worth any more than mine.

I'd start with Coleman for parts, they seem to have parts for everything. In my opinion, white gas is far better than propane or butane which is why it is still the preferred fuel at Philmont.

One of the things that insurance companies and in this case BSA is the insurance company,do is pay if fighting is will cost more than the settlement. My auto insurance did this about 20 years ago. I was hit but they paid both claims because it would have cost more to fight it. Be that as it may, I'm not willing to take the risk of being left out to dry because I didn't follow a rule in the G2SS. Do I follow every rule? I try to. Have I broken any? Yes but I didn't set out in the morning knowing that what I was going to do that day was inviolation of the rules.

I bought some vinatge and good quality buckles on ebay. You can see the difference quality. The stampings are better. The metal is heavier. A fellow named Ora Sheffler used to make nice looking buckles from scout badges silver soldered to military issue belt buckles. I don't know if he's still doing that. Also, GI buckles are all now gold plates (polishing brass is a thing of the past) and I don't know how those would work. Another solution is to get a nice leather belt and put a Scouting buckle on it. I have belts from different summer camps and one from Philmont. I als

Interesting. I suppose it makes sense to drop the term "field uniform" since no one wears it in the field and it really isn't even field worth. On the other hand, calling one specific uniform the "official uniform" implies that other uniforms are "unofficial" despite the editors claim that the "activity uniform is still an official uniform" . . . this could lead to recursion which usually causes a stack overflow and system termination. Danger! Danger!

"http://www.scouter.com/forums/viewThread.asp?threadID=166499&p=1 " I read the thread but I didn't see the example. I think that you aren't asking the right question. You know that you aren't supposed to go canoeing without PFD but did anyway, that is the intentional act that violated policy. However, you did not intend for Johhny to drown which doesn't matter anyway because drowning is not a violation of BSA policy. Now if the canoe rental place told you that all of their PFDs were CG approved but they weren't, your violation of policy would not be intentional. I

" but I don't think there's anyone out there that can even say which is the current version." How's this? http://www.access.gpo.gov/uscode/title4/chapter1_.html

" A bit of transparency would help you a lot, it seems." I don't know how things are in your country but if I wore a transparent uniform, I'd get arrested. The book does prescribe the uniform but far too many don't want to buy all the parts. Or when on outings we usually don't wear the uniform and what is appropriate becomes an issue.

"The uniform shirt is not a Field shirt, and the BSA does not use the term "Field Uniform."" That's recent then. In the tenth edition of the handbook, they said "The field uniform consists of . . ." There must be more recent references to the term "field uniform" because I've used it since I got involved in Scouting.

"Gold Winger, I'm still waiting to hear from you about your verboten ALICE gear..." What can I say? I have great anguish everytime that I put it on. "is this the right thing to do?" I continue because I haven't found anything else that does the job as well just like I went for years without official BSA pants because I couldn't find a pair that fit without going "Made to order".

"I take anything Mike Walton says with a grain of salt." Sounds like a personal problem. Anytime that I've asked him a question he's given me page and paragraph of his source.

The requirements show what is important to BSA. Advancement, Friends of Scouting and growth. All of which are tied to money. Does any parent really care if quality unit was won when they are looking for a pack or troop? Probably not. They look to see if the boys are having fun and learning. They look to see how the leaders deal with the boys. I'm with RagnerT on this one, scrap the whole thing.

"And this is just a guess on my part, but they may not care about earning CQUA! Consequently this is not a very big stick to shake at them, IMO. I think CQUA is important," I guess that you missed my smiley. I don't really care if they get the CQUA. Our dist commish is making a big deal about unit visits so the can get the CQUA.

"BSA General Liability Insurance Covers Chartered Organizations... ALWAYS." Really? I found this at the Mt. Diablos-Silverado Council's Website, http://www.bsa-mdsc.org/hslllawsuits.php Intentional and criminal acts are not covered by the General Liability Insurance. Although criminal acts are fairly obvious, and we hope not a problem, intentional acts might need some explanation.Among other things, an intentional act would include conducting activities that are not authorized by the BSA or conducting activities in a manner contrary to the safety guidelines of the BSA. In these cas

If they published all policies then they wouldn't be able to put you on Double Secret Probation.

Not in my council. The way that whole thing was explained to us was that if you had 30 boys, lost 25 but recuited 30 new ones. They'd consider that you had retained 30 and grew by 5. Of course that was the interpretation last week. It may have changed this week.

Everyone thinks that if the military does it, it has to be right. This is the same military that marched soldiers into atomic blast zones to see what would happen, that fed soldiers LSD to see what would happen, that dumped Agent Orange on our soldiers, that bought Chinese made berets for our soldiers. I don't think that I'd point to the military as the keepers of "what is right." Dig around for some photos of D-Day. The 101st Airborne wore flags with the canton to the rear. Strange how during the biggest war ever, no one gave a thought to making flag look like it is "running into ba

I like the suspenders with the ALICE for a couple reasons. One is that I dont have to cinch the belt very tight to keep it up around my ample middle and the weight of the pack and the assorted pouches aren't dragging on my hips. Oh yeah, I also wear my K-Bar on my left suspeneder :-) Just kidding. Its actually a bali-song on my belt. Still kidding. My hiking knife is a 1.5 oz Buck ultra-light which is tethered to a belt loop.

" while I am not a lawyer, I don't believe that laser tag is putting the unit nor the CO at risk." I'm not a lawyer either but from what I understand is that BSA protects itself pretty well. Its also been my experience from other organizations that if you break rules that are laid out in black and white and something bad happens, you are left dangling. So imagine this --- Johnny pokes out Jimmy's eye while they are laser tagging. In today's world, accidents aren't accidents so the lawyers get called. BSA says "they ignore our rules so we aren't responsible" so the lawyers go after th