ASM915

John, A "Watermelon Man" scenario would be interesting. But as we both stated, how to have them experience both racism and intimidation safely and effectively, without being clued in on what is happening, is the drawback. Skipper, As Beavah stated, not everything has to be tied to advancement. If you were so inclined, and know the MBC's of the MB's that I mentioned, you could have a talk with the perspective MBC (you are the one who gives the scout the MBC names). Explain that there was an incident involving the young men (no specifics need to be mentioned), that you would appreciate

keoki, How old was the scout that offered up the joint? As stated by one of the posters, Council may feel that if they allow your son to re-register within the Council, that they would also have to let the other scout re-register. Maybe their stonewalling, wanting your son to wait a year to re-register, is a delay tactic to age out the other scout. It doesn't make it right for your son. Do you know who the instigating scout is? Was he from this Council? Who is his daddy? Is it someone from the EC, and Council is trying to keep it quite, as not to embarrass one of theirs, and themselves?

Scout, I wonder were you know who got his start? Yes, maybe Schindler's List may be a bit extreme, but isn't 6,000,000 people ethnically cleansed because of their heritage the worst case scenario of racial discrimination? Sometimes it takes extremes to get boys to open their eyes and see the real picture. Only then may they see the societal effects of what they may consider harmless comments and name calling. Another option could be something on Apartheid. In 2000, my son had the honor of meeting and becoming friends with Dr Colin Smith of the Tutu Foundation. Dr Smith is one of Mandel

Wow!!, Don't we have some learning opportunities here. 1) Weekend trip is out for both. 2) For the SPL: - DEMOTION! Maybe APL if your so inclined to even give him that. - If he does not have his Citizenship In The Community yet, make him do his required 8 hours of service to a non-profit organization with an organization that deals specifically with racial discrimination and hate crimes. He also needs to watch a movie about the en-betterment of a community for the above merti badge. I wonder if Schindler's List, or a documentary on the Bosnian or Rwandan genocides, and how tho

Skipper, Older Life scouts? Depending on how your fact finding mission went tonight, if there was some maliciousness involved (or not), one good life lesson could come at their EBORs. Let them squirm a little when someone sitting the District EBOR asks each of them "We heard that a few months/years ago there was an incident in your troop involving Joseph an improper comment. Can you enlighten us on this situation, how it reflects on the Scout Law, Promise, Spirit, and how you handled it in your POR at the time? What lessons did you learn from this experience? How would you handle a simular s

Proud Eagle, First of all, the boys do need to buy into the program. Right now the program is lacking. The scouts start loosing interest, because the program is falling apart. Give them a vision, something to achieve. Maybe offer up three or four choices for a future trip (2-3 years down the road). Tell them that it is their decision. Ask them for ideas on how to fund the decision. Once you get them on board, have them make a presentation to the Webelos and Bears while the leaders present it to the parents. You may get some buy in from the pack, and some new members and adults. As for g

Gutter, Purchase the Okpik book on winter camping and survival. If you live in or near the Detroit area of Michigan, the Clinton Valley Council offers a good Okpik training program, 16 y/o and older. Maybe make this a 16 and older campout. Wherever you camp, rent or have an indoor facility available if the weather gets bad, or incase someone gets to cold. If they bring or wear cotton and sneakers, send them home. Wool, polar fleece, other synthetics are the only way to go. We ran a couple of winter camping trainings. We covered layering techniques, and had the FD bring in a thermal imag

Chug, After a 22 year hiatus from Scouting, I politely informed SWMBO that she would become a Scout Widow. And when I die, that it isn't mold growing on my dead body, it just that I died while wearing the uniform (1 hour, oops, make that 40 hours a week. LOL.) The few OOS trips we have taken, SWMBO has been invited, and participated.

scoutldr, It was just a discussion. We have not run into this problem yet. Luckily, we only have one set of divorced parents in the troop, the SM and his ex, and this topic is not an issue. So let's rephrase the question a little. troop ### is having a trip to DC. Johnie's parents settlement has a "No out of state travel" clause because one parent does not trust the other (or is being vindictive) or the court tossed it in on their own. Johnie really wants to go on the trip and neither parent will attend. - Can the Guardian parent (or do both parents need to sign), or LPOA give permissi

At our Monday evening meeting, an interesting topic came up. The question was raised about how to handle out of state scouting trips with respect to scouts with divorced parents. The concerned raised was whether the scout would be allowed to leave the state due to stipulations in the divorce settlement. The statement was made that the courts institute clauses restricting out of state travel of minors in the settlements. I'm ignorant. I've been happily married (well sort of, LOL) for 27 years as of T-day with no plans for a divorce. Plus my kids are all grown now anyway. Is this the case i

Our Lodge holds Ordeal at he end of May and again in mid August. The candidates help position the tent platforms and help with other camp projects. The camp ranger goes out to the sites before Ordeal and marks the platform sites with spray paint. After Spring Ordeal, during camp staff week, the staff put up the tents, and also take them down before Fall Ordeal. I agree with emb. I would rather see the candidates involved with projects that will be around for generations to come, reforesting an area of camp, helping put in new ceremony sites, maybe helping put a new pavilion, etc. Somethin

samzpop, Sit down with your troops advancement person and see if the scouts in question have met all the other requirements prior to your arrival. If so, your unfortunately obligated to continue them along the path to Eagle. It is unfortunate that National now allows the Lifes' to sit back on their duffs and do nothing after six months of activity, if that is what they want to do, unlike when we earned our Eagles back in the 70's (76). Isn't it strange that if we make a call to ask them where they have been, that they are considered active, even though they are not the ones initiating cont

OGE, All of your Porsche and Lotus dealers, as well as all the other working people, would now be green card holding residents from south of the border, Asia and Africa. Oops!! Forget that last statement. Pelosi will make sure they get their million also.

mm, We went to DC last April 15-20th. We stayed at Hosteling International at 11th and K Streets for three nights, and camped at Mattaponi Retreat Center in Upper Marlboro, Maryland for a Catholic/ Protestant Scouting retreat on the weekend (tenting, cabins, pool, Six Flags close by). The hostel was $29 per night for a 6 bed room and $31 for a 4 bed room. For $2.00 more, you get a continental breakfast. I don't remember the rooms having AC, but we didn't really need it. During the summer you will. The elevator was slow. Parking, we were lucky. We arrived around midnight, and were able to par

Our district has a committee of 5 Scouters that handle ELPS. The Scoutmaster, after giving his approval on the proposed project, gives the Scout a name and phone number of one of the committee members. The Scout then contacts that person and sets up a meeting. The District person, after discussing the project with the Scout then initials the signature line. They'll only sign it after the project has been completed to their satisfaction. Whoever is the District advisor for the project is not allowed to sit on the Scout's EBOR. Three other District people handle the EBOR and can drill the

Our troop, 915 in Canal Fulton, Ohio has a Scout House (15 by 25 and lofted) down in the towns park. The building was built back in the late 40's or early 50's by the Rotary as a war memorial and to only be used for Scouting. A few times over the years, the town toyed with razing it, but the Rotarians always show up at the council meeting with document in hand, and remind council that it is a memorial. The Troop's been in it since the beginning. The only problem we have is that the building sits between the Ohio & Erie Canal and the Tusc. River, smack dab in the middle of the flood pl

309, We just went over this last night at our District Roundtable. The DAC held his "Soon To Be Eagle" talk for the Star and above scouts. If today, November 13th, 2008 is your scouts 18th birthday, your scout had to be First Class on or before July 13th, 2007. If he became First Class on July 14, 2007, he looses out by one day, and stays Life. If the committee were to then changed the date to make things fit, then there would be falsification of records. Since your scout was Life for 23 months, he has the required time needed for all ranks and PORs regardless of dates. There should not

This weekend was our District's Cow Pie Camporee. While helping with a station, the other adult leader and I ended up in a conversation about how many leaders were sitting around by their fires most of the day on Saturday. We were wondering if anyone else has ever ran any fun or stupid adult activities at their camporees? If so what did you do? We thought maybe we would suggest trying this in the spring or next fall and name it "ARE YOU SMARTER THEN A TENDERFOOT". All ideas and suggestions are welcome. YIS Eric Prather Bicentennial Eagle ASM Troop 915 Canal Fulton, Ohio

Tex, Good for you for wanting to take on the challenge of becoming SM. But like others have stated, you are chosen on your attributes and sometimes through the pecking order. You can inform the present SM that you are willing to step up and step in on occasion when the SM is not able to be present for an activity, and leave it at that. When you get to know the CC in more then an occasionally seen parent relationship, you could very subtly drop a hint that if and when the time comes that the SM decides to step down, that you would like to be placed in the pool of candidates being considered a

Over the last several years, one troop in our district has hosted a "Cow Pie Camporee" at one of the CM's farms. Over the years other troops have been invited. Last year they made it the district camporee. It is usually well attended, 100-150 people. Last year the district also restarted a spring camporee, maybe around 100. One problem with spring is that our Council holds three Good Turn weekends at the main camp one of the requirements summercamps camp honors program. This weekend, Council held it's first camporall in 20 years. Each district had a specific area to camp in. Our dist

BW, You are right, I should have phrased that as "a signifcant number of people in todays society....". But several of the responses at the start of this thread and the one it was spun from have appeared to have taken this stance. And yes you are right, several people on this thread have take a moral stance, and several more via PM's have agreed, but have been reluctant to voice their opinions openly and be slapped down.

ASM59, Thanks for the PM. In another PM received, "I don't think Lay, Skilling, and the Enron group would be considered liberals, also the vast number of Evangelists who have been caught in a variety of sexual indiscretions I don't think consider themselves liberals either. I don't think a liberal or for that matter a conservative way of thinking has anything to with promoting a disregard for rules. These are people with either way of thinking that are just greedy, selfish, or arrogant and don't believe the "rules" apply for them. But if you want to be honest yourself it has nothing

Smitty, It's nice to see your posts starting to roll in. Welcome from another Westarker. "A little variety in their patrol makeup is ok as they get to work with some other guys...", yeah, especially with all those provisional scouts we have sent you over the years for SPL2B, etc. By the way, are you going to camperall, and could you accommodate a couple of provisionals?. ASM915

Lisa, I would at least start stashing away a nest egg to cover the cost. Our price as of now is $1500. You are only a few hours north os us. I would plan on $2000 - 2500. If that ends up on the high side, then he has some spending money. If he doesn't get chosen, then there is a nice nest egg for some other adventure.

Lisa, Who at ouncil did you talk with? I would be calling the FD or SE and asking what is happening. Maybe we are spoiled in our Council, but they had the adult leaders picked back last winter. The youth registration was started in March, at least at the Council level, and just filled up in August and has a waiting list. We just received a Council packet about registering Dan online two weels ago.