JoeBob

Sentinel947 - I couldn't figure out the Private Message function on the site, so let this post serve as my response to your editorial rapier. I can sorta understand your deleting 'Raghead'. I meant it in an effort to mimic the tone of the murdered cartoonists. Removal accepted, but I might chide you for being thin-skinned. +++ A citation for my mocking of Mohamed as a 'Pedophile Prophet': "Critics such as Baptist pastor Jerry Vines and the Dutch Party for Freedom leader Geert Wilders have cited the age of Aisha to denounce Muhammad for having had sex with a nine-year-old, referring to Muhammad as a pedophile.[28][45][46] Pandit Chamupati wrote that Aisha was about the same age as Muhammad’s granddaughter." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Muhammad A Bing search of images for 'prophet Muhammad pedophile' returns 6 pages of cartoons. Some are admittedly in poor taste; but some are funny. https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=prophet+muhammad+pedophile&qpvt=prophet+Mohamed+pedophile&FORM=IGRE#a 947: Was deleting the word 'pedophile' part of YPT that I missed? Or are you disputing the history? +++ The 'Issues' forum was created as a place to bandy about ideas. "In answer to many requests, we established a separate forum for these topics. Those not interested can skip this forum instead of spending time reading unwanted messages to identify content." If you were easily offended, you were not supposed to venture into 'Issues and Politics. So I have no idea why you would want to delete the idea that I posted: ___ I would like for all world leaders to adopt the policy of burying dead terrorists in a fresh pig skin. Presidents: "I know that burying a Muslim in pig-skin is offensive to your religion. I'm sorry about that. The easiest way for you to avoid being denied your 72 virgins is to NOT blow yourself up in our cities or commit 'suicide by cop' in Western towns." ​When you are fighting an enemy that wants to die and go to heaven, deny him heaven. ___ Is Scouter.com Forums afraid of Radical Islamic retaliation? Is discussing a way to discourage Islamic children from blowing themselves up offensive? I'm lost. Could you elaborate? Would you mind leaving this post online long enough for a few of the other older Scouters to weigh in?

Yes. If we are brave enough. Mockery is a very powerful political force. (Look what Tina Fey did to Sarah Palin...) If certain Muslims are not secure enough in their worship of a prophet to withstand a little ridicule from the rest of us, then they deserve our mockery. If we communicate to them we are too afraid of them to laugh at cartoons, then they are winning. We will be terrorized. World-wide mockery of Radical Islam will diminish their hold over young minds. Think of it this way: would your boys be more likely to join a clique that their peers laughed at, or a group that their peers were afraid of?

I gave myself 24 hours before responding to SMMatthew. I was initially outraged and then partially understanding of his position. And you've obviously never been exposed to an old geezer who could swing an axe, roll a kayak, identify 30 kinds of moss, name every bird in your area by their song, and make their scouts hunger for more knowledge.

Don't overlook the expertise that a youth staffer can gain from working with a pro. A youth MBC can pass on better instruction the rest of the summer if he gets to work one week with an expert.

Therein lies the problem. And probably the foundation of the camp staffers' nasty attitude.

I like where you're heading with this idea. Two suggestions: Use an older MBC to augment the camp staff; have him work with a youth instructor. Old Expert can come for two days instruction with time in between for the youth instructor to supervise the work. Use the SMs that are already coming to your camp. How many of us have gone to camp, checked on our boys in their classes on Monday, and filled the rest of our time during the next 4 days with make-work? You're challenge in recruiting SMs will be changing the camp staff attitude towards SMs. For example; I was scrounging for an entrant for my troops 'Critter Crawl' and stumbled onto a medium sized copperhead near the swim area. Collected the snake, put him in an empty Tang container and took him to the staff for relocation or nature exhibit. The nature staffer refused to believe that I could have caught a poisonous snake. I had to be quite forceful to prevent him from peeking into the jar (holding the jar up to his face and cracking the lid open). When he dumped the copperhead on the grass in the parade field (Oh Snap! That is a poisonous snake!) he didn't have a stick to recapture the snake. I re-packaged the snake for him. He looked at me like I had violated a basic rule of being human and stalked off without a word. (Evil JoeBob said I should have let the snake bite him in the face...)

Adding my endorsement to TwoCub's ideas. Especially:

And replace them with what? POR, time in rank, and service only for Star and Life? I like having Eagle required MBs that reinforce Scout Skills. We can quibble over which MBs should be Eagle required. MBs add some measure of quantifiable effort. How would you replace that?

If you eMail me once a week, I'll either stop reading the eMails or block you as spam.

I feel for you. I'm your target audience, and I attend roundtable about once every 2 years. We had a great RT commissioner who put in a lot of effort to attract new attendees, but the program content just couldn't justify my time. Suggestions: 1- Put announcements on a sheet of paper to hand out. 30 minutes listening to old farts in Liberace uniforms bloviate will guarantee my late arrival or absence. 2- Send out your RT agenda for the year. I'm feeling guilty enough about not attending RT that if you have a topic that is of particular interest, I'll make an effort to be there. 3- Don't promise me interesting discussion and not deliver. I may allow you to bore me once or twice, but not 3 times. 4- If you try a 'new guy' promotion, think about it from the new guy's perspective. That trophy that rotated to each unit with the highest attendance did nothing for the solitary SM from the smaller troop. And I really thought my time was well spent watching grown men fight over a plush toy... Less under your control: make a new guy feel welcome. Maybe even assign him a sponsor. The subtle 'down your nose' from the old boys is hard to quantify. After I learned that most of the Liberace dudes were really idiots trying to re-capture a lost childhood, I chose not to offer myself as a target for their disdain. Your efforts are respected. JoeBob

What parent would NOT recommend their child for Eagle? That would be fun... Hmmmmm. What can I get out of my Star Scout son this weekend?

Since a portion of your funds is credited to your legacy members, how should you spend it to honor them? I'd recommend keeping the troop alive. Host some outrageous recruiting events. Take the Weebs go-carting, miniature golf, rock-walling, bouncey house, etc. Whatever works for your area. Get a snake or animal expert to visit the Packs, and have your scouts go. Money puts you in position to recruit in unusual ways.

When you have your "Come to Jesus!" meeting with this woman, do 2 things: 1- Let her know which Den activities she may NOT sign off. Circle or highlight them in the book. 2- Point out that she is not helping her child. When he moves up to a level where mommy can not sign off on anything, this scout will have no idea how to function. She is setting him up for failure.

PC is killing us. Literally.

TAHAWK: My compliments on your excellent explanation; trapped air insulates - insulating materials are designed to trap air. 1- A light weight poncho liner thrown over the top of your sleeping bag will add ten degrees of comfort. It traps more air on the outside of your bag. Heavy blankets on top of you bag push air out of your bag; no help or worse. 2- I wear a sweater/fleece around my neck (arms out of the sleeves) in extreme cold. It serves as a baffle to keep the warm air in and those cold 'suction drafts' out when you turn over. KDD: Using the porta-tree from my hammock is a particular challenge. Almost makes me wish for a catheter...

Mostly good advice above. I differ in that NO HECK NO would I let this pass. 'Looking the other way' allows / enables cheating. It is good that your son is upset. At the minimum, I'd encourage him to have a private chat with his SM. As an SM, I try to foster a culture that allows boys to approach me with anything. That means that I don't prattle "John says that you did so and so...". I try to verify from another source so that I can protect the first source; and I don't accept anything bad about another boy unless I can verify it. One of my biggest challenges is protecting the integrity of the Merit Badge program while keeping it easy for the boys. If I set up barriers, they won't participate. If I make it too easy, they don't appreciate their work product. It's not possible for an SM to verify the work done on all the MBs in his troop. Any help that the SM can get correcting shortcomings in the system is a good thing. An Eagle candidate who brags about cheating deserves to have his wings trimmed. He thinks so little of Trustworthy that he is going out of his way to degrade Scouting in general.

I'd like to see some leadership tools for adults to have available for their boys. 'Here's how a small/young SPL can motivate a big unruly scout to co-operate' As our culture moves farther from the rural roots that woodcraft is based upon, those woods skills may provide more of a draw because of their unfamiliarity. (I'm dreaming, right?) One of my boys this weekend took my sharp tomahawk and, with a little instruction about cutting chips, whaled into two downed trees for firewood. He had fun, felt very accomplished, was surprised at how much he got done, and wants his own tomahawk. Ain't it great when it works? Scouting needs something to compete with electronics. Xbox does not teach leadership. Woodbadge, what have you got?

If I'm not mistaken (Pile on!). kindergartners were the first step of scouting at one time. There has been discussion about going back down to kindergarten. If some of your boys get to repeat a few Tiger and Wolf activities, maybe they'll be better at them the second time! Fear not your district personnel: they want your dollar.

Burrow down to page 11 for the summary. I liked most of it! http://www.scouting.org/filestore/program_update/pdf/2015_Program_Change_Overview_Cub_Scouts_Boy_Scouts.pdf

Given the choice between a male instructor and an equally qualified female instructor, I'd choose the female. Because the boys will pay more attention.

Hooyah! Where do you wanna be kissed?

skeptic is right. Tapped out the wrong boy? Congratulations! You have an extra lodge member. If he is not up to 'honor camping' standards, he'll drop out. Sounds like the Lodge Adviser didn't get puffed up enough at breakfast and took it out on an 'unworthy' scout. Unlike skeptic, I think it might have been intentional. Signman, for the old school Order of the Arrow, I apologize. What happened was awful for your son. I'm surprised that you are still in scouting. If you care enough to report this up the chain, these decision makers need to be reamed and removed. Of course you may prefer to just leave it alone and let them continue to rot in their 'We're so special!" misconception.