Kaji

I must have come from an odd troop, because I remember when I was going through boy scouts (94-2001) I never had any problem wearing the shirt, and after two weeks in the troop neither did anyone else who stayed for any length of time. I beg to differ with Lisa's assessment that reason #4 holds no weight, because I can most definitely recall seeing the boy leaders in my troop proudly wearing the full uniform to each weekly meeting, and nobody had problems with wearing it in public or anything else of the sort. If the boys are taught from the beginning not to fear social stigma and the like p

Ah, this brings back memories of my cub scout days. Personally, I find nothing wrong with it if you just use the first verse (anything more and it just gets too long anyway). Part of the trick is that you stress to the cubs when it's appropriate and when it's not. My cubmaster made a game of it with the boys, and in so doing he actually got them to pay attention, if for no other reason than to listen out for "the word" so that they could burst out singing. It was clear to everyone that it was a regular part of the pack meeting and the way they were run, and it was a way of engaging the

Due to some interesting twists my career may be taking, I may well be working out in Taiwan within the year or so. I don't have any dependents or anything, but I'd still like to be active in scouting in some fashion if at all possible should I go abroad again. Nobody would happen to have information on how to contact foreign BSA units in a given locality, would they?

Den Chief was one of my favorite jobs I held when I was a boy scout... I'll admit up front that I was never trained specifically as a Den Chief (was one for four years, but was forced to stop because the district made it a requirement for all den chiefs, but never bothered to train any). Basically, what I did the first year (with a group of bears) was plan activities to help further a broader plan set by the Den Leader. The following two years were spent with them as Webelos and then another year with the next batch of Webelos (1st and 2nd year Webelos were combined during this period i

In the end it's important for boys to spend time with other boys and bonding as men, just as it's important for girls to do things together with other girls. There are plenty of opportunities outside of scouting for coed interaction (church, school, other community events), and there's still the Venturing program if they want to do coed scouting. That, combined with the myriad complexities that are thrown in by making activities such as camping coed leave me inclined to think that things are best left as they are.

I remember growing up some boys in the troop holding multiple positions either because they were the only ones willing to hold them, or because they just happened to get elected as both the scribe AND the historian, while also working as a den chief for a local pack. As a result, I'm kind of curious these days about what the rules say about that exactly, although I'm willing to bet that I can guess as they most likely discourage it. Likewise I was wondering if there is such a specific rule for adults as well. I know for a fact that Scoutmasters, Cubmasters, and their assistants are not

Not challenging the right of the organization to form if they so choose, but don't the BSA and GSUSA have exclusive use of the term "scout" as per their charters? Just wondering.

A scout is TRUSTWORTHY. If he says he will abide by the Scout Law, then he will abide by all points of it. A scout is LOYAL. While continuing to be a member of the BSA for better or for worse is certainly a display of loyalty, a conscious violation of the rules (particularly one in which nobody is physically harmed and no inalienable rights are violated) is a stab in the back, no matter how you slice it. A scout is HELPFUL. Peaceful forms of protest can be construed as helpful because they can highlight areas that need changing. Violating rules in the name of protest crosses the

Well, it seems like it's more someone's going to be coming to visit the pack to run it for their leaders, but they've invited others from the district to come and participate. It's my first time at a roundtable, so I'm still learning the ropes about how things work above the unit level

Hmm...Seems I lucked out at Roundtable tonight! A local pack is going to be running a BALOO training session soon, and when inquiring about the Wood Badge course the council is going to be running this August they said that if you pay your deposit for it and don't have the necessary training, they'll make sure you get trained before it starts.

First off, while the lion was being phased out about the time my dad would have come of age for it, there rae still plenty of dads/granddads who remember the lion as being one of the highest honors in Cub Scouts when they were growing up, even if they didn't participate in the program themselves. How are people going to respond to what was one of the highest honors being reduced to the lowest? It's like putting the sergeant below the private, by my view. Second, are they going to give the new lions a badge? Where are they going to put it? They can't keep shuffling the diamond around e

We've already decided what to do in this situation for now, but I thought I'd throw it up here so others could throw in their input. We had two boys show up to tonight's meeting with Cub Scout applications in hand, and upon inquiry it turned out that they were both in 5th grade. Turns out that one of their friends is in the 2nd year Webelos den, and they decided they wanted to join. The concern in this situation is that we're bridging either at the end of March or the beginning of April, and so these boys won't have any hope of catching up with their peers, or even just completing t

I'm an assistant cubmaster for my pack, and just recently learned the date/time/location for my district's roundtables when the quarterly newsletter came in the mail recently (nobody in my pack's leadership knew when they were held). I'm interested in going so that I can keep up with what's going on in the district, and particularly with training schedules. Unfortunately, it appears that the district might only run training for my posititon one time in the fall of each year (not certain, but that just seems to be what I've gathered so far). Are there any options out there to at least get th

I earned the Episcopal God and Family emblem when I was a Webelos scout, and while I became Roman Catholic when I was 15, I still wear the award and knot on my uniform. Unfortunately, shortly after I got it the link between the bar and the shield broke, and so for as long as I can remember I've had a piece of a brass paperclip twisted to hold the pieces together. It's been nice and serviceable and everything, but of late it's just really been starting to bug me, and so I was thinking about trying to replace the medal. Unfortunately, all efforts to find out where one can be ordered from have

I'm in my second year as an adult leader in a local Cub Scout Pack, getting used to some of the things that have changed in the 3-4 years I was out of scouting after having turned 18 and learning new things about how units actually run now and then. One thing that I've been curious about on and off is what role the unit commissioner serves. I remember seeing mine when I was growing up in my troop, but all I really knew about what he did is that he'd show up once a month, share a few words with our elderly ASM who'd been around since the founding of the troop, and that was about it (not sayin

I was with my troop from 1994 until I turned 18 in 2001, and for as long as I can recall, the beret was the official headgear of the troop. Naturally, it had been discontinued before any of us were even born, but that was what Sunny's Surplus was for. If you didn't have an original, then you'd just go down, buy a red surplus beret, then get one of the red BSA universal patches and sew it to the front and you're set to go. Even if you didn't wear it on your head the whole time, they looked just as sharp rolled up and situated under the left epaulet. Certainly didn't look out of place or

The uniform was redesigned two years before I was even born, so suffice it to say that it's the only one I've ever worn as a regular uniform (unless you want to count the blue one from my Cub Scout days). Personally, I've never found there to be any real issues with function, and have worn the long-sleeved uniform shirts in all weather in relative comfort (no fan of the short-sleeved shirts, but that's just me). If it's cold in winter, to me that's a sign that you're not dressed properly. Throw on a pair of long-johns and a t-shirt under it. The epaulets help to hold the OA sash in pla