andrews

The man who thinks he sits in the place of God is more enslaved than anyone else....

I pray that his eyes might be open to the true reality.

Brad

Something scout related might make a good "parting memento."

Also, make sure to help him/her fill out the paperwork for any Cub Scouter knots he/she may have "earned" through those 5 years.

Brad

BSA has always had a strong religious element, and largely, though not exclusively, Christian because most of the population classified themselves as such.

They wouldn't have to clone anything to keep a heritage they already have.

Brad

That was it, I replied there.

Brad

Yes, this is what I was looking for.

I still thought the requirements for each palm was 3 months time, but the posts above indicate it is 3 months for any number of palms.

From meritbadge.com:

After becoming an Eagle Scout, you may earn Palms by completing the following requirements:

Be active in your troop and patrol for at least three months after becoming an Eagle Scout or after award of last Palm.

Demonstrate Scout spirit by living the Scout Oath (Promise) and Scout Law in your everyday life.

Make a satisfactory effort to develop and demonstrate leadership ability.

Earn five additional merit badges beyond those required for Eagle or last Palm. Merit badges earned any time since becoming a Boy Scout may be used to meet this requirement.

Take part in a Scoutmaster conference.

Complete your board of review.

You may wear only the proper combination of Palms for the number of merit badges you earned beyond the rank of Eagle. The Bronze Palm represents five merit badges, the Gold Palm 10, and the Silver Palm 15.

This would mean that you must earn the palms in order, one for every 5 merit badges and 3 months time.

If someone has something that shows differently, I would like to know, but this leads me to conclude that the only way you could get a silver palm at an Eagle COH is if the COH was delayed at least 9 months.

Brad

. I cannot, and will not forgive those who did this to us

That certainly isn't a very Scout-like attitude, and it will also eat you alive if you don't deal with it. Hate is a very powerful, and destructive force, no matter who welds it.

I would gladly apologize for any wrong done to you, even though my ancestors (almost all from Poland and Germany in the 1900s) had nothing to do with it.

Much wrong was done, and many "Christian missionaries" were foolish in their approaches. That doesn't negate the true Gospel, just the coercive religion they practiced.

I pray that you can find true peace....

Brad

On another thread (or maybe another board/list), someone said that a Scout could get his Silver Palm at the same time as his Eagle if he had enough merit badges. I don't believe this is correct, especially since each palm requires 3 months of service.

Can anyone clarify this? I can't find where the discussion was, so I may have missed the clear answer already.

Brad

According to what they taught in Scoutmasterhip Fundementals, you can't even do that much according to the rules. You can only verify what has been signed off.

However, I can see a place for it myself, especially after seeing my younger son practically forget everything he once knew.

(We are working on that as a family.)

Brad

1)Be active in your troop and patrol for at least 6 mouth as a Life Scout.

It says to be active in the troop, not listed on a piece of paper.

Require activity in the troop is completely consistent with the requirement. I would stand for that even if I would later be overruled by the Council or National.

Brad

I got a great deal of my "male role model" experience as a youth from an ASM in our troop. A lot of that wouldn't be acceptable because of the safe scouting guidelines now, but this boy could still get something close.

Brad

How can you pass the cooking requirements at one of those "first class express" programs? You would still have to do the planning, buying, and cooking. Someone goofed signing that part off, at the least.

Brad

As much as it would pain me, I expect I would leave. It is a large part of the reason I never got my daughters involved with Girl Scouts.

Our church would probably switch to the Royal Rangers program, instead of the Scouts, as well.

Brad

In addition if a male Venture Scout want's to become an Eagle Scout he must also be registered in a Boy Scout Troop.

I don't believe this is accurate. I don't have all the docs here, but the Venturing rules say that as long as you get to First Class in a troop, you can advance to Eagle in a crew. I don't recall having seen anything requiring troop registration for Eagle.

Brad

Girl Scouts can be as squishy as they want to be.

But it is also false to try and separate private actions from public ones. They all come out and affect what is being taught to my sons.

However, I do believe that this is a form of religious discrimination and because of that the BSA should not expect to use public facilities or receive any kind of government funded perks.

This is definitely not accurate. The First Ammendment guarantees the free exercise of religion, and only limits the government's establishment of it. The free exercise part means religious citizens are just as free to use "public" facilities as those who have no convictions at all.

And I can think you are foolish, but still defend your right to be such. What riles me up is when you start demanding that I not even say you are foolish in your beliefs, or face living my life out of the public merely because I believe the Bible, and take it seriously. (Not a false reading of "love" that endangers people because it condones sin.)

Brad

An Eagle Scout must wait the 3 months before his first palm (it can be a silver palm if he has a total of 36 merit badges) He can continue to receive palms every 3 months until his 18th birthday

Don't you have to get the palms one at a time, for each 5 merit badges? Thus a silver palm would take 9 months at minimum.

My own sons will end up with plenty of palms, assuming they stay active in Scouts, which is likely because all our family will be active in Scouts. We are using them as part of our homeschooling, so it works well for everyone. I would love it if they could jump through the "palm ranks" at their own pace, but I still think they are limited to "5 at a time."

Please correct me if I am wrong.

Brad

I did the Ordeal all right. Though knowing the weekend (Labor Day in Texas), I almost skipped it. If it weren't my last chance (since I didn't get my selection until Summer Camp), I might easily have skipped it.

It got to 105 or 106 during the day, though I was glad to have made it!

I will do the Brotherhood at some point, perhaps when my own sons do their Ordeal, or maybe when they do their Brotherhood. I expect that being a new Scoutmaster will keep me busy enough soon. (As it had in the past.)

Brad

I am the (new) Committee Chair for a Venture crew in Dallas. We meet twice a month and do high adventure things throughout the year. The crew is coed, ages ranging from 14-20. Several Eagles, but a fair number of non-Boy Scouts as well, especially the girls.

A good chunk of the members come from the local high school which has an ROTC program.

We have a "normal" officers group with a President, 2 VPs, 2 Secretaries and a Treasurer. We just had elections, so involvement by officers is good. Last fall, when terms were 1 year, several positions were effectively unfilled, but we switched to 6 month terms and hopefully that will help things.

Meetings are controlled chaos, even more so than young Boy Scout meetings, which was a bit of a surprise, though it probably shouldn't have been.

I am driving across town (the Crew is near where we plan to move, and very near our church) because I couldn't find any active crews locally for my daughter to get started with. The number of crews is quite minimal.

Brad

I would expect a fair number of adult volunteers to leave if they changed their policy, with very few joining because of such a change. Those who are most fighting for the change would likely despise those in the organization for "clinging to old ideas" (or something similar) for so long.

And the passionate adults are the backbone of the program. Them, and their dollars, are what allow the program for the boys to be carried on.

I already dislike many things, including a "squishy" definition of religion, but I suspect an open embracing of atheism and homosexuality implicit in such a change would launch me into other efforts to accomplish my goals of reaching youth with something that can change them.

Similar policies by the Girl Scouts kept us from getting our two daughters involved with their program.

Brad

You can have more than just three palms, something I only learned recently. They are worn in combinations indicating how many merit badges you have earned over the 21 required for Eagle.

Each requires 3 months tenure, and I believe 3 months in a position of responsibility.

Brad

I may just do that under the guise of "its easier to get forgiveness than permission."

How does a lodge know an adult is really eligible? I was tapped out as an adult about 2 years ago. (Somehow I never got it in my entire experience as a boy in spite of being everything from PL to SPL to JASM. My SM told me recently it was because we "never got into OA much.")

I am waiting for my own sons to get selected, hopefully this year since they are both eligible.

Brad

I think I asked this before, but here it goes again.

I am a registered adult leader in two different councils.

Can I register in the OA lodge for both councils? If I pay my fees, will anyone care?

I am in the process of moving, but I don't know how long that will take and I was thinking about just paying the annual membership fee in the lodge for the new council.

Brad

And don't call him late for dinner....

Brad

Being COR and CC is the one case where a single individual can hold both positions. If we were to "recruit someone" from who is available now, we would either not have a troop for lack of a CC, or have a completely inactive CC. I expect that situation to change, but it will take a while for the "right one" to shake out.

Having started one troop before, I have seen the value in "boy led," but I also fully realize that it is not a panacea. Some boys won't lead, even if they are the oldest and in a position of authority.

My own son is Life, soon to be 13 years old, and almost expects to be the SPL. I have told him many times that the position is far from guaranteed to him, and that if a more qualified boy comes in, the other boy may get the job. Of course I expect he will be SPL, and he has a great deal of experience for his limited age, including going through the other troop and working through some personal issues. He has also been through our current Council's JLT, and that should help.

For those who wonder why I am starting another troop so soon: We are moving across town to be closer to the church we have been a part of for the last year and the pastor there really wants a Scout-like program for the youth. He was thinking of Royal Rangers, but I talked him into Boy Scouts.

On the question of leadership and young boys - I see it as a balance. We need to led youth "grow into the job," but we also shouldn't hamstring the troop by having lots of token positions before they are needed. And the latter is probably the key. If the troop is the size of a single patrol, a full leadership core is probably not as vital.

Brad

It is interesting to note that Proverbs deals with just such an issue. It says to answer a fool in his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes. But then it immediately says to not answer him in his follow for it will just suck you down.

We have done enough answering, and had enough issues ignored that it is time to move on.

Brad

It is politics and religion. I would hate to live in a place where I could never discuss the Bible with my friends. Pretty boring life that.

Brad