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ASM59

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Everything posted by ASM59

  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
  16. Hello, As a Swimming MB Counselor, I always make sure that a Scout can do all of the above mentioned requirements (Second Class-7a, 7b, 7c and First class-9a,9b and 9c). Before continuing on to requirements beyond requirement #3. In doing so, I am sure that they can really do it, whether they have done it previously or not, whether it's signed off in their book or not. Now as an ASM (with the OK of our SM), we do sign off on the Second & First Class requirements of any of our boys that complete the Swimming MB. This is because every Swimming MB Counselor that works with our bo
  17. Let me take a moment to brag on our newest Scouts. Nine boys who crossed over from Webelos to Boy Scouts about a month and a half ago. I have been impressed to hear them as they not only all know the Motto, Slogan, Oath and Law, but they understand the meaning of them all. They can all describe every part of the Scout Badge without missing anything (OK one of the boys needed to be reminded that he missed the scroll at the bottom). The truth of the matter is that their Webelos Den Leader took the time to make sure that they knew this information. Far too often it happenes as GWD menti
  18. Chafing... We traditionally keep Gold Bond Medicated Powder in camp, but last summer found that one of our boys had chafing just below his arm pits where his arms were rubbing against his side. He was in so much pain. Tried the Gold Bond, didn't work, tried several other kinds of powder over the next day and a half, but that did not seem to work either. This 12 year old wanted to stick it out but finally asked if he could go home. We mentioned the problem at an adult leader's meeting and one of the Scoutmasters donated some Johnson's Cooling Cucumber Melon Powder. It gave him immediate
  19. Brent... That doesn't suprise me. I have not received a single e-mail notification from this site for months; despite the fact that I have requested e-mail notification on several threads. I saw that someone posted that they were having the same problem a while ago, but I don't recall seeing an answer (of course I wouldn't have receive an e-mail notification to tell me if there was an answer). There must be a problem somewhere with the site and the owner/operator probably doesn't have the time to address it. Just my 2 cents... ASM59
  20. Basement... I believe it is "Protecting God's Children" (a course for volunteers working with children) from (or at) the Catholic Church. ASM59
  21. Kenk, I have been active on these forums for sometime now although recently I haven't been actively posting. Mainly because of the comments of others that were (IMHO) direct attacks against me. I simply did not have the time to deal with what I thought were necessary defenses of myself. I realize that it is only a few that do that, but a few rotten apples will spoil the whole lot. I guess I say this only to let you know that indeed it is only a few or maybe one; I don't know the details in your case. I suspect that most of the people on these forums are the kind of people you'd want
  22. Hello, We have an "Advancement Chairperson" on our Committee who tracks the Adult Training as well as the boys' advancement. I noticed this year that on our re-charter paperwork from Council, that the current training level of all the adults is noted. I don't know if that is normal, or maybe something new this year. At any rate if the adults who have been trained did so in your local council, there should be a record of it at the Council office. This might be a good place to start to help you put together a list for your own unit level tracking of adult training. Most people (inc
  23. GKlose, While our local YMCA only has two locker rooms, I have been to YMCA's that have the 4 locker rooms too. While it's nice, it also worries me that I am not allowed in the youth locker room while other adults are (parents of youth). If I were to take Scouts to a facility with such a locker room, I'd recruit a trusted older Scout to attend and ask him to make sure everything in the locker room goes OK. ASM59
  24. Happens a couple of time per year with us. I am a Swimming MB Counselor and will typically offer the opportunity once per year for boys to take the MB. We do one session at our Scout Shelter and two or three sessions at the local HS or YMCA pool (The YMCA will not let us do clothes inflation, so we definately schedule the HS for this part although the HS is more expensive). I have never had an issue with the problem noted. The boys never change in the open locker room. They always go into the toilet stalls to change. To respect the G2SS guidelines ("Adults must protect their own privacy.
  25. I really find it disheartening that we continue to have these discussions. There is right and wrong, good and bad. It seems that we want the best of both worlds; I dont like cussing but Ill do it at the right time/place Oh, and if you happen to believe differently, youre just self-righteous and judgmental. The word integrity has been used in this thread. Im still involved in Scouting because it is one of the few places in our society (outside of the Church) where a boy (young man) can learn what personal integrity and responsibility is. Now, just because I believe thats impor
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