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Another quote from the new website (Mormons and Gays.org) "Jim If you have not charity you are nothing, so I think we cant profess to be believers or disciples of Jesus Christ if we dont love all people. Regardless of what their lifestyle may be that shouldnt change the way we feel nor our response to them."

The chartered organization representative and the committee chairman sign off on all adult leaders in all packs and troops; however, in my pack they do so without actually meeting the volunteers. Our pack is chartered by the Kiwanis. I have worked in packs charted by the LDS church. In those packs, the chartered organization representative actually asks people to volunteer, so they are hand-picked from the congregation, (usually a parent of one of the scouts). The church preferred to have women serve as den leaders for wolves and bears and to have men serve as Webelos den leaders and Cubma

I had a very positive experience last night. Because the calendar was pretty full and event space is quite rare, we combined our pack Christmas party with the troop Christmas party. It was awesome. The Boy Scouts had games set up all around the room, and there was a dessert table in the middle. The boys had a great time. Santa arrived and gave each cub a compass for his eight essentials and a pinewood derby kit. I got the chance to meed the Scout master, and he offered me a den chief! I couldn't believe it. It was awesome. He said he didn't actually have a scout in mind, but the t

Huzza is absolutely 100% wrong. Disallowing avowed homosexuals to be members of the Boy Scouts of America does not reduce the opportunity for, nor the actual occurance of, inappropriate behavior in any way or at any time. It has robbed several scouts of their very decent leaders. It is robbing the NESA of potential alumni volunteers. It sacrificing plenty of corporate donations, but most importantly it is contributing to an attitude among scouts that it's ok to exclude homosexual youth from their circle of friends, or the prom, or the homecoming court, or the football team, or any oth

Here is another quote from the new LDS website mormonsandgays.org "Love is not to say acceptance or endorsement, but it is to say inclusion and not ostracism. We want to be with you and work together." -Elder Christopherson, Quorum of the 12 Apostles I believe he is primarily referring to celibate homosexual Mormons who wish to remain active in their wards and fulfill callings, but I believe it could also be applied to "avowed homosexuals" who want to fulfill leadership roles in their son's pack or troop. I want this policy changed for two reasons. (1) I don't want anyone from Coun

This is the sentence on the new LDS site which gives me hope: "There is no change in the Churchs position of what is morally right. But what is changing and what needs to change is to help Church members respond sensitively and thoughtfully when they encounter same-sex attraction in their own families, among other Church members, or elsewhere" If we as Saints are to "respond sensitively and thoughtfully when [we] encounter same-sex attraction" in scouting, then I believe we should discourage policies which result in homosexuals being excluded from other scout troops. The Mormons n

This really isn't a new stance. Love the sinner, hate the sin has always been the directive; although, the message hasn't always gotten through. Many of the Mormons that I know are very prejudiced against homosexuals. The new web site http://www.mormonsandgays.org addresses this directly, and I, for one, am very, very excited about it. I really do hope it leads to an end to the BSAs ridiculous policy banning homosexuals.

I'm so sorry that happened to your son. If the individual made the comment as they continued to walk away, then I think the only response is: "thank you, have a nice day." It they stood still, then you might be able to have a thoughtful conversation.

pack committee chairman. She is wonderful. Her boys have all graduated from the pack. She does a lot of stuff with the boy scout troop, but we really needed a chairman, and she has a lot of experience. We are really lucky to have her.

We charge $30 to join. $12 for Boys Life. They have to buy their own uniforms and books. We don't charge weekly or annual dues.

Something terrible happened. It must be someone's fault. It couldn't have been an accident. Someone has to be blamed. Someone has to pay.

I just got a grant to coach a team!

FIRST and LEGO have created a league in which children ages 9-14 can compete in a robot game. They are given a challenge and several missions worth various points and then they work on programing a robot to complete as many missions as possible in the time allotted. Some robotics teams are comprised of scouts: Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts or Boy Scouts. Has anyone here formed up a robotics team? How did you finance it? It costs about $900 to start a team. It only costs about $500/year to maintain a team. Did you just ask parents to pay? Did you conduct fund raisers? Did you get corporate d

Ooo... five days of hiking... There's a trail around here (Oregon) that some people hike all summer long. Pacific Something. I think goes all the way from Alaska to Mexico. I'll bet we could pick out a piece of it and hike it for five days. We would need all that light weight gear. I'll get on the list of things to do, but push it out to about sixth grade.

Of course I intend to ask the girls, and I will not be dragging anyone along who doesn't want to go. Too many other fun things to do to bother with that. But the girls have leaders for a reason, and I find your opinions very helpful. Thank you. And I promise not to forget to go to all my training meetings. We have participated, as a troop, in the spring camp offered by the service unit every year since my daughter was a Daisy. This has always been two nights, sleeping in cabins, eating in cafeterias. I hope we continue to do that. This year my daughter and I are the only two parti

I suspect "less urban setting" is code for "we could get fortune for this land." I can't imagine 2,000 acres feeling urban once you get to the middle of it.

I think the public expects scout (or former scouts) to do the right thing even when it is very inconvenient or impractical, such as every time a character in the movies or on television complains that so-and-so is SUCH a boy scout.

Our troop leader is forming a troop committee this year to help her out. She has asked me to be the camping person. We have six 4th graders. I think we ought to go camping about four times a year. I asked my daughter and she said that we ought to only go about once. What do you think? The Cub Scouts seem to really only go just once a year, but here are opportunities to go more often. But, I think the Boy Scouts have camping goals. I hear someone say they had to have a certain number of nights camping in a year in order to join the order of the arrow. Do they have similar requirements

yes, we do a flag ceremony every meeting, and we rotate positions, but I'm always the caller.

Wolf Requirement 2b states: "lead a flag ceremony in your den." Who is the leader of the ceremony? Is it the member of the color guard holding the U.S. flag? Is it the caller? How do you decide which of your cubs have met this requirement and which still need to do something more?

What is the difference between playing a game of kickball and playing in a pack kickball tournament?

Our pack purchases all the awards for the boys. Years ago, when I was in an LDS pack, that pack also purchased all the awards for the boys, but we had a tiny budget and they didn't want to buy belt loops, so we weren't supposed to use the academic and sports program. That annoyed me a great deal.

I was really impressed by what kudos wrote about lightweight camping. Unfortunately, I read it right after our family bought a five-pound, two burner cooking stove and the REI "camp kitchen." It all worked out very nicely. Maybe lightweight camping isn't the best way to go family camping or cub camping. Maybe it is. I don't know, but today, I just got the packing list for our Girl Scout fall camp, and they list a wash station: "3 wash tubs, dry rack, dish towels, dish soap, bleach." When we went out to buy the camp stove, we thought about getting a wash station, but I decided again

Yes, as I understand it, councils actually have more authority than national in many areas. It's an unbalanced hierarchy rather than a strict hierarchy, and I think its very clever actually. Our council, the Pacific Northwest Council, has adopted a program of awarding segmented patches for all manner of activities which might be part of a local pack's calendar; for example, there is a segment for pinewood derby and space derby and rain gutter regatta and visiting the zoo or the science museum or an air museum or an historic fort. The list goes on and on and on. I know other councils have s

I read somewhere (probably this forum) that assistant scout masters make excellent webelos leaders. I also read somewhere that tiger cub den leaders should be recruited to serve for three years. That might work if a parent has two boys in the pack. I don't know anyone in our troop, so I don't know what its like, but I suspect they have as few volunteer leaders as we do. If that is true then I am not surprised that they don't send leaders our way, but we did get a committee chairman from them, and for that I am very grateful. She's wonderful. Lots of experience. Eager to lend a had hauli