Horizon

The only thing our unit does is scholarshipping Scouts in need. We ask them to pay the National portion of the dues, and waive the rest. We cover them for camping fees as well so that money does not stand in the way of a weekend with the Troop.

Personally, I would mention it over a cup of coffee with the DE. Your involvment at that point is finished IMHO.

Thanks!

It looks like each individual Scout will have to submit their information on that page to earn the patch, and THEN they order it? Is that correct?

Growing up - it was "Bill." The rest of the adult leaders were "Mr. X" The Scoutmaster insisted on his first name.

In my troop, it is "Mr. X" for all adult leaders (or Mrs. or Dr. actually).

Except... Eagles can call me by my first name. I consider an Eagle to be my peer in Scouting, the same as an adult leader.

Where we are it looks like this:

Just before school lets out: OA Ordeal at the Council Camp

The week following: NYLT

One week later: Summer Camp begins.

The Ordeal and NYLT sessions help serve to get the camp into shape, shakedown, test out, find issues, etc.

The only downside is that for some of the families in my troop, the trip to the Council Camp was made 3 times in as many weeks!

I inherited this system when I became Scoutmaster, and I have not seen a reason to change:

First Class can sign off Tenderfoot.

Star can sign off Tenderfoot and 2nd Class

Life can sign off Tenderfoot, 2nd Class and First Class

Ranks of Star, Life & Eagle are signed off by ASMs.

Scout Spirit is signed by the Scout himself. I tell the Scout during the Scoutmaster rank advancement conference that he is the best observer of his ability to follow oath and law in everyday life. We discuss it, and then I let the Scout initial his own Handbook.

If I were putting together a display:

My Eagle is #1 I admit.

Philmont arrowhead and Bull

1981 Jamboree Trip

I lost my patch for Sommer's Canoe Base from 1987, my first trek as an ASM having turned 18.

JoeBob: Have you read One Second After?

http://www.amazon.com/One-Second-After-William-Forstchen/dp/0765317583

Our Trails are so well marked in the forests around Southern California (that we have hit so far) that navigation is not seen as that critical, except in determining "Are we there yet?"

It is hard to get lost when there is only one trail, and the few crossroads have signs pointing exactly where you are to go.

1) He has doubled the time to get the 20 nights camping for Camping Merit Badge. This should be explained to him in an SMC.

2) His Patrol Leader, with the SPL and SM's support, needs to assign appropriate duties to ensure he carries his load. This should be up to the Patrol, and they can discuss it. Perhaps he is on KP duty for all meals, as that is the equivalent of camp breakdown.

3) He is going to have problems getting a POR of leadership with his attitude. This should be explained in a friendly SMC.

4) His SMC should discuss carrying his weight.

5) His BOR should discuss carrying his weight.

6) OA elections might be problematic with this behavior.

Now that I wrote this, I think that #2 is the key place to start. Let his Patrol come up with a fair way to deal with this.

The American Psychological Association today made a statement about the ability to change orientation through therapy:

"Contrary to claims of sexual orientation change advocates and practitioners, there is insufficient evidence to support the use of psychological interventions to change sexual orientation," said Judith M. Glassgold, PsyD, chair of the task force. "Scientifically rigorous older studies in this area found that sexual orientation was unlikely to change due to efforts designed for this purpose. Contrary to the claims of SOCE practitioners and advocates, recent research studies do not provide evidence of sexual orientation change as the research methods are inadequate to determine the effectiveness of these interventions." Glassgold added: "At most, certain studies suggested that some individuals learned how to ignore or not act on their homosexual attractions. Yet, these studies did not indicate for whom this was possible, how long it lasted or its long-term mental health effects. Also, this result was much less likely to be true for people who started out only attracted to people of the same sex."

http://www.apa.org/releases/therapeutic.html?imw=Y

Mr. Boyce: Your .pdf link is interesting, but while skimming it in only 1 or 2 places does it appear to compare the rates of risky or dangerous behaviors of homosexuals to those of heterosexuals. Without showing the rate among equivalent heterosexual populations (and controlling for appropriate factors such as income and education), you can not make a scientifically backed judgment call.

Skeptic:

BSA legal says that gays are not morally straight, i.e. immoral.

"Q. Is Boy Scouts implying that homosexuals do not have good moral or emotional character? What about other types of sexual immorality?

A. Boy Scouts regards homosexual conduct as not morally straight as required in the Scout Oath. Morally straight is a broad term which includes all types of moral behavior. There are many persons who may be unsuitable role models of the Oath and Law for adolescent boys."

http://www.bsalegal.org/faqs-195.asp

Now - many agree with this. I used to as well. I even think that this belief can have grounding in someone's religion, and I respect their right to their belief.

However, I am pointing out that there is a growing movement in Christianity and Judaism (the predominant religions in America, and the most represented in Scouting in America) that does NOT consider homosexuality to be immoral. We are running into a conflict with our existing Chartered Organizations on this subject, the same Chartered Organizations that are the backbone of Scouting.

Skeptic:

The BSA DOES say that gays are bad. They say that they are immoral, and therefore not welcome.

My concern for Scouting is our Chartered Organizations. We claim the the CO and the COR are the real boss. We have mainstream religious groups in America that disagree with BSA's interpretation of Moral in regards to gays and lesbians.

For example, the Episcopalian church is ordaining gays and lesbians plus performing marriage ceremonies for gay couples. We could have a COR minister who is gay wanting to sponsor a Troop within their congregation. Will we respect their religion, as the Handbook says of "Reverent?"

Comments on the Denver site indicate that he has not been involved in Scouting for 15+ years, and was not a registered leader in the local Council.

Field (aka Class A in the vernacular) to and from 90% of campouts. For a recent backpacking trip I authorized Activity (aka Class B), so that we could hit the trail immediately, and not have to carry the extra weight. I personally wore my Class A on the hike.

Class A for most of our activities as well. We switch to Class B for the semi-annual Charter (a Church) cleanup. We have two activity shirts - a custom collared red Shirt with the Troop logo - a spin off of the red one that they sell at Scout shops, and a custom green t-shirt with the Troop logo.

We seat the Queen's Scout recipients in the Eagles Nest at our Eagle COH ceremonies.

Two tech paths if you insist:

1) ecopy desktop. www.ecopy.com The product is made for putting together pdf files, writing on them even when they do not have that capability, etc. I think they have a trial version for 45 days that you can download.

2) Adobe Professional. Find someone with a copy that can help you, and again you can do more to the final product. Great product as well, and having a single .pdf file in the end makes it much easier to print spare copies of the project in the future (and to archive).

Knowing how to do both of these is a good skill to have, IMHO. Then again, I work in tech!

dewASM:

Welcome to the campfire.

Head to the Council HQ and find out where most of the tour permits take the local troops. Having a nice listing of different places you can get to is very helpful. We have sites where we are crammed together, but the trail availability is awesome. We also do some lightweight high adventure, but is self-limiting due to elevation and trail. When I joined the troop, we already had the patrol boxes and a small trailer for them and our tents, dutch ovens, propane tanks, etc. They work quite well for Base camping, and when space is available at the sites some of my Patrols do their best to scatter.

For lightweight, the Troop is working on getting a new set of supplies. Every Patrol will eventually have two Bear Cannisters, two lightweight stoves, and one water filtration pump. This is a slow process, however, given the cost. A bear can costs $70 for example.

Don't be too quick to call a council flyer with photos of squirt gun wars hypocritical, when it is more likely to be an example of lack of knowledge by the volunteer marketing person who did the layout of the flyer.

When the ban on paintball and laser tag is in the G2SS, some might assume that it is a safety issue. They could even reasonable assume that there is nothing risky about squirt guns, so they put it in since it looks like good, clean fun.

However, we also have discussion that the issue is one of pointing guns at fellow scouts, which is more of a moral/behvioral stance than a safety stance. If you come at it from that perspective (and have been CORRECTLY educated and trained), you would probably guess that the BSA would not like squirt guns either.

This is just confusing enough to volunteers that it would be easy to leave in the squirt gun war photos without even catching that this might be a banned activity.

We rotate through 4 camps, and hit our Council once every four (about to move it to 5).

We started the rotation the year our Council Camp cancelled our reservation so that the LDS troops could have an LDS Scout only week.

Gern:

BrentAllen is also wrong about the impact of the Exxon Valdez. I kayak the Sound every few years (including before the spill), and the impact is still visible if you know what is missing (and what is missing is still significant levels of wildlife).

Does the BSA gather racial demographics? People here claim that we are a white, middle class group but that is NOT what I have in my Troop. My Troop is White (US born and foreign born), Korean, Chinese, Indian, Japanese and Middle Easterner. The income is decent, but that is due to my area.

I hook kids with an annual shooting campout, high adventure, white water rafting and some car camping.

I sell parents on leadership, morals, self-reliance, and that Eagle is the one of the best recognized signs of achievement a youth can earn.

My son is joining Sea Scouts (and heading to the UK this summer for the 100th anniversary for his FIRST Sea Scout trip). He was hooked by an older Sea Scout at Camporee who spotted him at the competitions, and then sold him on taking the Ship to Catalina Island and up and down the California Coast.

I am getting one of my Cub Scouts back with the Venture Crew I am putting together. He didn't want the dork Boy Scouts, but backcountry hiking in the Sierras interests him with the Venture Crew.

As for the program, kids like the outdoors. Keep that.

Parents like leadership training. Keep that.

Strong values are important. Keep that.

However - we are going to continue face the discrimination issue, and pay for it. I know an Eagle Scout who claims that he will not enroll his son (my Godson) in Scouting due to the prohibition of gays (my Godson is only 5, so we will see what happens). My church will not charter a Troop for the same reason.

We just had our Memorial Day activities as well. On Saturday we spent two hours planting flags. On Monday, we helped with a parade of flags. We do this every year.

We made Monday a little more fun by having a Merit Badge Counselor for American Heritage onsite. She gave the boys interview sheets, and they went off and interviewed veterans and others in attendance (Requirement 2, parts c & d):

"c. With your counselor's approval, interview two veterans of the U.S. military. Find out what their experiences were like. Ask the veterans what they believe they accomplished.

d. With your counselor's approval, interview three people in your community of different ages and occupations. Ask these people what America means to them, what they think is special about this country, and what American traditions they feel are important to preserve. "

I taught the boys how to ID vets (looking for the baseball caps and VFW hats, for example). They went off in teams of 2 to talk to the vets as the vets gathered for the ceremony. It was great, and I would guess that we will have at least 10 boys earn the badge. More importantly, they had a reason to talk to the Vets, and might have learned something too. Some of them were really excited about the conversations, and in addition they were repeatedly thanks by the vets for being there.

Tombitt: Welcome to the campfire! I think we did Wilderness Survival together back at Bob Garland with the live chickens! I earned it around 79/80 I think.

As you can see from our virtual campfire, we have some strong opinions here (and some who need to re-read the Scout Oath and Law to check to see if they are following it in everyday life).

In our Troop where I am Scoutmaster, Cell phones are welcome - but they are to be turned off. Here in Southern California there is plenty of reception at many of our sites. The rule is that a boy can pull out his phone in emergencies. If I see a boy using one, I ask him about it. I have never had a problem. I personally posted photos of my son hiking in the mountains to my facebook site using my iPhone. I used the everytrail iPhone App to track our GPS coordinates and to track a hike. Cell phones ARE a tool, and can be very useful. When we held a Troop Mobilization for Emergency Prep, it was cell phones that were used to contact people. When we leave from a campsite, the Scouts pass around phones in the cars to give their parents updates on when to pick up at the Church. Finally, when a Scout is one of the last to be picked up at a meeting - the first question is to see if the Scout has called. With dual working, divorced, and non-traditional parenting a follow-up call means that the Scoutmaster does not have to stand around for another 30 minutes waiting.

Teaching Scouts the PROPER way to use and carry a cell phone is a good skill for them to have, IMHO. Perhaps then they can learn NOT to be the one who texts in my university classroom when they go off to school.

That said - your SM has laid down a rule, and good for you for trying to understand the other side of the story by coming here. Best of luck to you in your future discussions.

-Horizon, a Birkenstock wearing (though not in camp due to open toes), concealed permit holding, electronics using Scoutmaster.

"That is dangerous because then the bible stands for nothing because anyone can reject those things that they do not like."

Like the role of women?

The sentence of execution for merely being gay?

The stoning of adulterers?

Certain dietary habits?

Owning more than the clothes on your back (and ensuring that the fiber mix is appropriate)?

How about the allowance for slavery (as waved about by Christians to justify their taking sides with the South during the Civil War)?

Modern Christianity already chooses to ignore large sections of the Biblical rules. There are humorous takes on this in the oft-forwarded Leviticus email, or the video that came out during the Proposition 8 battle in California:

You can also read The Year of Living Biblically, to see what it takes to follow the rules in modern life.

I agree that Homosexuality is ONE of the many things that is in the Bible that we are supposed to see as an abomination (just like shellfish!). However, it appears that many are willing to follow the primary message of love and forgiveness from the New Covenant, and when that contradicts the rules of stoning (Let he who is without sin...), we choose to stop following those rules.

We have a Troop Instructor who only focuses on totin chit. His job is to ensure that everyone reviews knife safety. His job is also to check everyone's book for the sign-off. We don't worry about carrying actual cards.

If a Scout is unsafe with their knife, it ends up in my essentials bag and that Scout reports to the Instructor for a refresher. The Instructor has to make time immediately for the Scout to review knife safety.

To become the instructor is tough - it usually means that you have lost your knife to the SM more than once in a short period of time.

Would I take a knife away from an adult? Sure I would. I would also call out an adult for any violation of the Law or Oath as well.