Aquila calva

You can make a difference, (probably) The short answer is yes a Scoutmaster can reject a scout from the troop. This is not a happy event. Here is one long answer... Find the original copy of the Scouts application to join the troop. If there isnt a copy at hand in your troop, go to the Council office. The original form may be available there. (Every scout registrar in the country reading this just said Oh, my gahd.!!!!) Who signed the form? The old form asked for the Signature of Scoutmaster. So, if the current Scoutmaster signed the form, it seems reasonable that the current Scoutmaster can un-sign the form. This sounds legalistic but it also is reasonable. If the Scoutmaster no longer feels the Scout is worthy to be a scout in this troop then the Scoutmaster can reject the Scout. The Scoutmaster wins. Very sad, but oh so true! In the last year, or so, the new Boy Scout application requires a Signature of unit leader (or designee). This is more undefined than the old application so, good luck. The Scoutmaster just "lost" a major bit of "power." If a Troop Committee is faced with a decision like this, then it could come down to a question of it is the Scoutmaster or it is the Scout. If the Scout in question happens to be the son of the Committee Chair or the Chartered Organization Rep, then the Scoutmaster may be on the losing team. Isnt politics fun? Can the troop's Chaplain have a Heart-to-Heart discussion with this Scoutmaster and the Scout's family to find out what the heck is going on? An intermediary may be helpful.

A hoot owl flies past My car window as I drive Home from Roundtable.

At 12:02 today Beavah wrote: Da Catholic scandals have all been with adolescent and post-adolescent teens, not younger children. All? Really? The victims I have read about were (are?) of many ages and different genders. At 3:12 today Beavah wrote: Just goes to show yeh this stuff gets written by policy amateurs more than half the time. Difficult job, no doubt.

Birds of different feathers!

Tile :John Lennon - Imagine Imagine there's no Heaven It's easy if you try No hell below us Above us only sky Imagine all the people Living for today Imagine there's no countries It isn't hard to do Nothing to kill or die for And no religion too Imagine all the people Living life in peace You may say that I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope someday you'll join us And the world will be as one Imagine no possessions I wonder if you can No need for greed or hunger A brotherhood of man Imagine all the people Sharing all the world You may say that I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope someday you'll join us And the world will live as one

and sue everybody if anyone from the pack was there. threatening comments were made to me Dear Jeff, You are dealing with an abuser and a severely dysfunctional family. You owe this abuser nothing and you owe this family nothing more than you have already tried to provide, a safe scouting program. Its time to bring the abuse to a halt in your life and the life of the pack. Send the mom a certified letter telling her that her son is no longer a member of the Pack. No excuses, no lengthy explanation. This family is no longer a part of the Pack. Period. End of discussion. Since you are the Committee Chair the only persons who can overrule you on this are the Chartered Organization Representative and/or the Institutional Head. If they DO overrule you on this then submit your resignation and move to a different Pack yourself. This is a very sick situation. From what you posted in your last comments, you need to get that family out of the pack.

A few years ago a group of Webelos crossed over from our feeder pack. One of the Webelos was the son of divorced parents. He was a nice kid, but not all that interested in doing outdoor activities. His Mom said that his Dad would come on campouts occasionally to be with him. Other adult leaders thought that was fine. The Dad seemed nice enough and was cooperative. Long story short.after a couple of campouts the SM started to get complaints from parents that this Dad was smoking in front of the scouts, and was sitting around the campfire with the scouts explaining how to hot-wire cars. SM suggested that we would watch this guy carefully on outings. Trained, active adults started to decline going on campouts saying they were in scouts to work with the scouts not to watch out for other adults. SM told the Dad he was no longer welcome on campouts. His son stayed on for awhile but couldnt come to scout meetings because it was the same night as his family counseling session. There was one accusation, late in all of this, that the Dad was a convicted felon. He was already out of the picture and this was never confirmed. Since then I have asked more questions of new parents. Going on a troop campout with a known convicted felon, and a violent one at that, is not a good idea. If I was in your shoes, I would say No way!

Just for the fun of it, I looked up some ancient examples. The Hill Monastic Manuscript Library at St. Johns University in Minnesota has a terrific website. You can type in a letter and see beautiful illustrations from their collection. Type in X and you will see some artwork from the 14th and 15th century. The first example is one where the Christian writer was copying the words and music to the still-used Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison. For Christ the letter X is used. I hope these links work for you. My point here is that the X for Christ was created by Christians for use by Christians. If some other group now wants to make use of this shorthand, it may be helpful to remind ourselves that we (Christians) had it first. X means Christ, as far as I am concerned, and there is lots of evidence to prove it. http://cdm.csbsju.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/HMMLClrMicr&CISOPTR=6676&CISOBOX=1&REC=15 http://cdm.csbsju.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/HMMLClrMicr&CISOPTR=12419&CISOBOX=1&REC=14 You can search for illuminated capital letters here: http://www.hmml.org/research06/vivarium.htm

"they like to call us Xians" X has meant "Christ" for many hundreds of years, perhaps going back to the first century. Xmas = Christmas Xians = Christians Xianity = Christianity Go to Google and type in "xmas" and you will get the whole story.

There once was an apostrophe that wasn`t. Came to service `cause it just doesn`t Make double exposure. (Upper left-hand compose`r.) Or lead Scouts to go nuts, it mustn`t!

Our troop committee takes a look at our "Activity Fund" policies at least once a year. The policy makes it clear that ALL the funds in this fund belong to the troop, and by extension, the money belongs to the chartering organization. As to what to do when a scout leaves or becomes inactive. We keep the money in the scout account for one year past the time the scout is no longer registered in the troop. Then the money either goes to the troop''s general fund or is designated to become part of the troop''s "campership" fund. This is a committee decision. If the scout transfers to another unit sponsored by a different chartering organization, the troop will transfer up to $750 to the new unit. The committee decided to set this (generous) dollar limit, because the funds are earned in the name of the troop''s chartering organization. When a scout transfers to a unit (such as a Crew) sponsored by another chartering orgainization, basically what is happening is the money is being transfered from one CO to another. So the money could be going from a Methodist Church to the Friends of the City Fire Department. The orignal CO has no control over what happens to the money once it is transfered. Beavah''s comment about personal equipment is interesting. I think our troop needs to take another look at how we handle this. We have allowed scouts to purchase uniforms with this money. We also have allowed scouts to purchase some equipment that is needed for scouting purposes. If the troop is going winter camping and the scout needs an appropiate cold-weather sleeping bag, then we have allowed the scout to use the funds for that. But it can be a slippery slope. Where does a unit draw the line? Do we say no money for uniforms, sleeping bags, or boots for the Philmont trip? One single mom in our troop has been particularly active selling products, including popcorn, to help fund her son''s scouting experience. Her regular "day job" just doesn''t provide enough. She also receives camperships for her son.

The following is from The Minsi dated January/February 2007. (The link is in OGEs post above.) It may have been written late in 2006 to get published for early 2007. It sure sounds like they are grandfathering existing leaders, unless the leader changes position. This may be a helpful approach to a difficult issue. The council started (in 2004) by requiring the CM, SM and Crew Advisors to be trained. I wonder how these requirements are affecting quality and quantity of leaders. That may be the million dollar question. Training Requirements Since 2004, all Cubmasters, Scoutmasters and Crew Advisors have been required to complete the basic training for their position before the council renews their units charter. In 2005, this training requirement was expanded to include the Committee Chairmen of each unit. In an effort to bring training to the volunteer leaders who work directly with our youth, the Executive Board adopted additional training requirements for 2006. Beginning last year, all newly registered direct contact leaders, age 21 and over, must complete the basic training for their position by the units rechartering date or the Council will not re-register that person in that position. Direct contact leaders for Cub Scout Packs include: Tiger Cub Den Leaders, Cub Scout Den Leaders, Webelos Den Leaders, Cubmasters, and Assistant Cubmasters. Direct contact leaders for Boy Scout Troops include: Scoutmasters and Assistant Scoutmasters. Direct contact leaders for Venturing Crews include:Venture Crew Advisors and Associate Crew Advisors. This training requirement would not apply to existing leaders unless they changed their position after January 2006. Limited exceptions may be considered by the Council Training Chairman based on individual circumstances. Our hope is that over the next four to five years, as we train all of our new leaders coming into our organization, we will realize our vision of having every Scout led by a trained leader. National BSA studies have shown that, on the whole, Scout units led by trained leaders present a higher-quality program that retains boys longer in Scouting. This is key to our councils long-range plan, which calls for retaining boys longer so as to have a positive impact on their values & character.

So, all "new" "direct contact" leaders need to complete the training but not the "old" guys. Hmmm. (As in the Minsi example.) What will probably happen (and may already be happening) is the untrained assistant scoutmasters will be re-registered as committee members and will continue to go camping whenever they like. This will be unfortunate, but will be one way for units to maintain their "numbers" of registered leaders and get around the training requirement. I do agree that every effort needs to be put into getting leaders trained as much as possible, especially in youth protection and outdoor leader skills. For all practical purposes units will end up fulfilling the requirement as put forward in the "old" quality unit award form. That is, the Scoutmaster needs to be trained for the SM position. Now, at least one registered ASM and the Committee Chair will need to be trained. This is good, but it is not much change for a great deal of effort. As an aside, when did the term "direct contact" leader get coined? I first saw it about a year ago on the new Centennial quality unit award form. It is a "good" term, just new to me. The problem is, of course, all those committee members who continue to go camping, are having "direct contact" with the youth, but may not have the "required" training. I will be interested to see other responses because this is a hot topic in our troop right now.

Our troop has a reasonable amount in our operating budget from dues and fundraising. We budget each year for some training costs. The troop pays in full for leader and youth training when it costs in the $15 to $50 range. For Woodbadge and NYLT that costs $200 or so, the participant pays the fee up front, and then when the training is successfully completed, the troop reimburses half the total fee. It helps get people trained.

The thread has gone a little astray, but here is something of interest. See this article from Scouting Magazine, October 2002, especially section with heading: Enter Oscar de la Renta http://www.scoutingmagazine.org/issues/0210/d-wwas.html

Kittle, Did your son earn his Tenderfoot rank? Maybe he has also earned 2nd Class by now, too. I see in the Personal Fitness merit badge requirements that the scout can do either the pull-ups or the push-ups. This is a good idea for the Tenderfoot requirements, too. "You must use the sit-up test and EITHER the pull-up or push-up test."

See this series of postings from early July. http://www.scouter.com/forums/viewThread.asp?threadID=160666

Hello again Scoutmom2, You now have several answers to your straight-forward question. Are ASM's committee members? In a word, the answer is No. But this doesnt seem to get to the heart of the matter, since your post includes a couple interesting and provocative statements, including my stress level and We have an issue our committee has to vote on and there is some confusion as to who can actually vote on it. Since you are the Committee Chairman (according to your profile here) you have several extremely important duties in the troop. One of those duties is to set the agenda for the committee meetings (or "leader meetings" or whatever your troop calls them). If you feel there is an issue the group has to vote on but yet you (as CC) are not sure who can actually vote on it, then the best choice may be to not get in a position where a vote will be called. As the person who sets the agenda, you can explain to the group that more discussion of the issue needs to take place, and there will be no immediate vote on the issue. Now is your opportunity to become a consensus builder. Perhpas have a private talk with the Scoutmaster, and start finding a consensus. If the two of you can go to the others with some well-thought-out ideas, there is a much better chance the rest of the group will follow your lead.

"Committees should never have to "vote" on anything." I'll second that! Troops are collective efforts by many people, young, old, trained, untrained, experienced with Scouting and totally inexperienced. Building consensus on issues is a lot better than trying to formulate a "motion" that then someone feels needs to be voted up or down. Talk about stress! This just produces more stress than is ever necessary. The "troop committee" structure is a way of dividing up administrative responsibilies among people who have expressed an interest in helping the troop function as effectively as possible. This effectiveness can vary greatly from one troop to the next.

Well.... Troops are for the adults. Scouting is for the Scouts. Have fun Scouting.

Back to pull-ups. Yes, it has been 3 1/2 years since he crossed over. A scout has been hanging onto this program for all this time, and been denied advancement to Tenderfoot for the sake of half a pull-up!!! This in unbelievable! And then we wonder why Scouting is losing members. Lisa has been her usual eloquent self on this topic. I agree with Ed on this one, too. If a scout can do one pull-up in one minute and then a month later, do one pull-up in less time, he has shown improvement. "Show improvement" may be intentionally ambiguous but it is the spirit AND the "letter of the law" ("requirement" in this case) that counts.

I think this is a good question. The idea of a troop setting up a separate checking account for the purpose of funding Eagle service projectSSSS (plural) should raise some questions. Who gets check signing authority? A young man under the age of 18? I dont think so..Bankers might think this very unusual and some would not allow it. Who is raising the money? Who is asking for money to support these Eagle projects? Many ESLPs are done to assist a NON-PROFIT 501c3 in accomplishing some goal. If the scout is receiving (or soliciting) tax-deductible donations to support the non-profit purpose, then the money belongs to THAT non-profit organization, not the troop. What is the TROOP doing in the middle of this? It isnt the troops money. Isnt there some rule about this money-management issue in the Eagle project packet? This needs more thought and consideration. It raises too many questions to pass the smell test.

How many Scouter psychologists does it take to change a light bulb? None........... But it really has to WANT to change. (OK, so its an old joke!.)

1907 to debate which posters are considered ACTIVE members of the Scouter forum and who, therefore, have any right to actually change a light bulb.

How does Scouting contribute to your pursuit of happiness? Heres a thought to ponder. I especially like the reference to Victor Frankl in this article. It hits home for me. Desperately seeking happiness BY COLLEEN O'CONNOR Denver Post Article Last Updated:07/22/2007 11:36:18 PM CDT We're a nation with a happiness fetish. A new book on happiness seems to roll off the presses every day. Millions of Americans are training for happiness by wearing 'A Complaint Free World' bracelet because, they say, a global moratorium on griping will bring about happiness. Still others prefer the 'Complain All You Want' bracelet, saying the emotional release of complaining is its own form of happiness. And then there are those who seek happiness in the usual things: shopping, sex, food, drugs, alcohol, marriage, divorce, extreme sports, meditation and movies like 'The Pursuit of Happyness.' Our founding fathers were certainly sage: It is the pursuit of happiness that's an inalienable right, not the attainment of it. Centuries after they penned these words in the Declaration of Independence, we're still in hot pursuit. And yet our self-reported levels of happiness have not increased since the 1950s, even though there has been a national increase in wealth. 'Asked the same questions that had been asked Americans in the 1950s, people in the 2000s reported themselves to be no happier,' writes Jennifer Michael Hecht, author of 'The Happiness Myth: Why What We Think Is Right Is Wrong,' citing a compilation of these studies in 'The Loss of Happiness in Market Democracies,' by political scientist Robert E. Lane. So what's the deal? RELATIVE CONTENTMENT We've got more wealth, more education and more timesaving technology since the days of the ancient Stoics and Epicureans, who also wrote tomes on how to be happy. Experts blame the so-called "hedonic treadmill." The modern pursuit of happiness, they say, is like running on a treadmill: Work hard and stay in the same spot. "Once people get to a certain level of material prosperity, they're no longer stressed by the pressure of getting that next dollar," says Stephen Post, co-author of "Why Good Things Happen to Good People," which explores the link between happiness and altruism. "The second or third pair of $200 designer jeans doesn't make people happy. "People are comparative by nature. They compare the state of their material well-being to others, so they're already on the treadmill, never satisfied." Worse, a 2005 study by Harvard economist Erzo F.P. Luttmer showed that falling behind the Joneses triggers a blast of unhappiness. "The very famous, and disturbing, results showed that people were less happy if other people in their community were richer," says Jeffrey Zaks, a professor of economics at the University of Colorado. "The idea that you're happy only if other people are worse off is morally and ethically disturbing." Authentic happiness takes work. And, like lush lawns, fancy cars and healthy marriages, it requires maintenance. It's easier, experts say, to be unhappy than happy. "I think we can do things to be happier," says University of Michigan psychologist Stephen Peterson, a happiness expert. "However, it's not five easy steps to lasting fulfillment. That's absolute nonsense. I'm struck by this enormous new self-help genre on how to be happier, and then the crash-diet books. There are no shortcuts to happiness, and there are no shortcuts to weight loss. "We do know what makes people happier: It is to have good relationships with other human beings, to do work you like and to be a contributing member of some community," Peterson says. "All of that is hard work." For Post, the pithiest summation of happiness was tossed off about 50 years ago by Viktor E. Frankl, a Holocaust survivor and author of "Man's Search for Meaning." He wrote that people cannot pursue happiness directly; it is a byproduct of helping others. "I could be surrounded by millions of people who love me and adore me, but unless I can become a source of giving, I'll never be happy," Post says. "Happiness is something of a paradox." In short, he says: "It's good to be good." CONFLICTING DESIRES Let's say you want to experiment with boosting your own happiness. You decide to follow the principles of just one of the many happiness books flooding the market. Let's say you choose "The Happiness Myth." The book, new in April, details three types of happiness: There's the good day - not spending too much time in tasks of drudgery and indulging in some things that bring pleasure. There's euphoria, an intense and fleeting state that involves some risk or vulnerability. And there's the happy life, which requires hard work - striving, nurturing, maintaining, mourning, birthing. First, Hecht says, realize the fundamental problem. The reason we cannot do everything we want to do in order to be happy is the three kinds of happiness conflict with one another. If your long-term happiness dictates a trim body, but your idea of a good day is a daily pint of Chunky Monkey, you've got a problem. Then, once you sort all this out, move along to doing all the work required by each category, trying not to mess up the balance between euphoria, pleasure, striving and maintaining. If all this sounds exhausting and you're already feeling a tad burnt out, don't worry. Be happy. Just try another book. Like maybe "Happiness: The Science Behind Your Smile" by biological psychologist Daniel Nettle. He writes that total happiness is not possible, so stop consciously seeking it. Don't obsess about being happy, in other words. Just let it be. 5 HAPPINESS HABITS Happiness is an inside job. Experiment with what works for you. Try these five essential happiness habits, adapted from "How to Do Just About Anything" on ehow.com. Figure out what is important to you. Do you value a certain kind of job, material things, a relationship, time alone, time with others, time to relax, time to be creative, time to read, time to listen to music or time to have fun? To be happy, you have to make happiness a priority. Decide to make more time in your life to do more of what is important to you and makes you feel happier. Start with little things and work up. Little things might be reading for 15 minutes, taking a walk, calling a friend or buying a great-smelling soap, shampoo, candle or tea that you will enjoy every time you use it. Focus on what is positive. In a journal, write down as many positive things as you can think of about yourself, others and life in general. Keep it handy, read it and continue adding to it. Appreciate what is working in your life. In the major areas of your life - your health, job, love life, friends, family, money and living situation - what is going well? http://www.twincities.com/life/ci_6425028?nclick_check=1