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ASM59

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About ASM59

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    Northern Illinois
  1. No, it truly is not that easy... As a National policy, the individual Units were insulated from any legal action with regard to the policy. BSA National took the heat and had to fight the fight. In walking away from the issue, National has left it to the individual Unit and/or CO; which could open up those units to law suits that they would never have faced if they were just following the National policy. The ACLU and the likes of them are relentless; there will be law suits (IMHO, keeping in mind that I am not a lawyer, judge, nor have I played one on TV). ASM59
  2. I've not been actively involved for about two years, but I am still on the membership role of our local Boy Scout Troop and still support them where I can (show up on one or two outings a year and give money, buy popcorn...). I had hoped that I would be able to become more active again at some point in the future. This week I'll be writing a letter to have my membership dropped. BSA National has taken the position of a coward; yet teaches that "a Scout is brave". They have walked away from the fight and left it to many smaller individual units and charter organizations, which opens thes
  3. Good Day, It's been a couple years since I've been actively involved in our Troop. It has been as long since posting here. I am currently working as a small group leader in our Church's youth program. One of the boys in my group has asked me to write an Eagle letter of recommendation for him. I am honored to be asked and can honestly write a great letter of recommendation for this candidate. My question is to whom does a letter of recommendation go? This Eagle candidate handed me two stamped envelopes and asked that I send a copy of the letter to both addresses. One is to the Co
  4. ASM59

    Open toe shoes

    Good comments Twocub... While I am a believer in wearing close toed shoes at Council Camps, I am not for throwing out common sense. If it is truly a clear path (road) to the showers or waterfront, then I can see giving a Scout some wiggle room if he is only going to or from that facility. If however you see a first year Scout leaving for the First Year Program's 5 mile hike in flip flops, then you might want to say something. In all fairness, I think this could be mostly a self policing thing. If a Scoutmaster and/or SPL says something to Scouts and parents about the possibility of hu
  5. Bear Dad, How did it work? Well, like I said, the big attention grabber was when I showed them the hours that the Adults volunteer outside of the normal program hours. When they understood how many hours are give up for free on top of paying the way for our own sons in the Troop, I think it did help to humble a few people. I never heard a complaint again from any of the parents who were complaining at that time; not even through the "grape vine". You are also correct that the parents who were complaining were not contributors to the Troop. I found that true in my days in the Cu
  6. Just came across this from years ago... I Wish I Was That Brother Upon graduation from college, a few years back, a young man received a gift from his older brother. It was a shiny brand new Packard. The car of his dreams! One morning as he approached the car he saw a young lad of 12 peering through the windows into the car! Obviously enthralled with the car, the lad didn't hear the young man approach. "Is this your car?" the lad asked when he noticed the man. "Yes it is!" the man responded! "Wow! This is a nice car!" remarked the lad, "How much did it cost?" "I don't know!" answered
  7. I had some complaints back in 2005 about how expensive Scouting is for the boys in our Troop. I put together some Power Point slides to show at a Court of Honor (the parent meeting portion of the evening). Basically, I showed how many programming hours are available to each Scout; 579 hours. Whether they take advantage of all the hours is up to them. I then showed the total of costs to the parents; dues, campout fees, summer camp fees, recharter fees. The total cost was $345 for the year. This means that it cost the parent 60 cents per available program hour. Where else can you get some
  8. I have seen several comments about the ban on "open toe shoes" lately on the forums. Our local Council, as well as neighboring Councils, has officially "banned" any open toe shoes at least while at Summer Camp and presumably while on Council property for weekend campouts. Most of the comments that I have seen are negative with regard to banning such footwear, but I have seen the result of what can happen when wearing open toe shoes in areas that are not well groomed. About 5 years ago, I witnessed an adult walking across an area that was cut grass with many trees. Because of the trees,
  9. The Patrol Leaders were to have called their Patrol members to let them know the meeting location had moved. When I spoke to Mom, who is actually the one who picked Jr up from the meeting, she is the one who received the phone call from the Patrol Leader. The Patrol Leader explained that we are changing locations to Mom, who forgot to tell Jr and Dad. Mom was late getting home that evening, so Dad had to take Jr to the meeting. Not knowing of the change, Dad took Jr to the Scout Shelter. The other thing causing a problem was the fact that I was in the Scout Shelter with the door open. Da
  10. Here's something that happened at last week's Scout meeting that is related to the thread this is spun from. Our Troop meets at a city provided cabin in the city park. The cabin is known as the "Scout Shelter" because the Scouts have exclusive use of it. On our meeting nights during baseball season, the park is so full that there is no parking available. Because of this, we meet at a pavillion in another park across town during baseball season. This past meeting night, I was at the shelter picking up some paperwork and doing some organizing of medical forms. As I was getting ready
  11. I have spoken to our CC who says that she wasn't sure about the whole thing, but wasn't confident enough to speak up at the meeting. I said that if the Committee wants to make this a "Troop rule" then I'd abide by it, but that I needed to know so we can plan for seat space on outings. She said that as far as she is concerned that we will follow the G2SS and if it doesn't say anything, then we're OK to allow the front seat to be occupied. ASM59
  12. And then there's the old, "you are not covered by the Troop insurance if you are traveling with Scouts that are not in uniform". Now our Troop has a policy that we travel in uniform, but in the odd case that a Scout cannot, it's not the end of the world. ASM59
  13. Hey, I looked before I posted the above, but only just now found a previous thread (2005) that discusses the same thing: http://www.scouter.com/forums/viewThread.asp?threadID=104083#id_104319 The general concensus was that this is just a rule someone made up. I cannot find it in G2SS either and the text John posted above is the same area I looked in. I also have looked over most of the rest of the G2SS also. I don't believe it's in there. I know that you have to be careful because of air bags and weight limits that are sometimes imposed by state laws, but if I have a 14 ye
  14. Good Day, I was at a Committee Meeting tonight and we were discussing number of seats available to take Scouts to Summer Camp. It was brought up that no Scout can ride in the front passenger seat unless it is the son of the driver. This is a youth protection issue and only your own son or another adult should occupy the other front seat. When asked about this, it was said that it is in the G2SS. So, in order to verify this, I am looking though the G2SS and cannot find any such wording. I may be missing it, so I am coming to you all to see if you know the source of this "rule".
  15. Karen, Thanks for the update. Nothing wrong with acknowledging your own hard work. I've been there, and it's hard work to convince the adults and boys that this is the right way to do it, and it doesn't happen overnight. It can take quite a while to get a Troop on the right track; in boy led patrols. It can take even longer to convince adults to be "hands off". I understand your stepping down from the SM position, but do you have to totally leave the Troop? If your health concerns prohibit much activity, you could be a Committee Member at-large with no specific function other tha
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