Liz

Let's just say we stop playing games. If there's something improper going on, you haven't said what it is. There is nothing in the rules that say women must be married in order to attend a Boy Scout camp-out. GaHillBilly is right; it sounds like you're just upset that you weren't asked. Or maybe you have an issue with a woman along on the camp-out because you personally can't keep your head out of the gutter. I'm starting to smell a troll.

So? If they are exhibiting behavior that is contrary to the Guide to Safe Scouting, that's an issue. The visitor being female is not, by itself, a cause for concern. Is the lady behaving inappropriately toward the boys? Is there inappropriate behavior going on in front of the boys between the SM and his visitor? If she's got her own tent and not causing problems, I still don't see what the issue is. Perhaps you could clarify a little bit about what, specifically, is causing you concern. -Liz

We have someone who functioned as troop bugler for a while. That person is now ASPL, and not currently functioning in the bugler role, but when he was doing bugling regularly he opened some of our CoHs with some music. I kind of liked it. Both of my sons play trumpet, but neither one is interested in learning the bugle calls. -Liz

I can certainly see good reasons why waiting a couple of weeks for a CoH might not be as beneficial as giving out a rank badge immediately. On the other hand, I think our system is by far much better than the previous troop I was involved in, where everyone waited for the quarterly CoH, and it didn't matter how long you went between earning the rank and receiving it. I suppose what we have now is such a big improvement, I hadn't really thought too much before about what might be done to make it better. As I said earlier, as the troop grows I don't think our system will continue to work a

BW, The boys never have to wait very long after earning their rank to receive them at a CoH. I guess I didn't explain it very well. We hold CoH as needed. Occasionally one might be put off for a couple of weeks IF we don't have much to hand out (only little things like SFF segments or whatever) AND there are boys who, if the CoH is put off a little while, will have a significant award like a MB or a rank advancement. We have CoH's fairly often -- I'd say we average one every 2 months. We have a lot of them in the spring, when newly crossed over Webelos are advancing fairly quickly, a

Interesting discussion... We only give rank badges at CoH, but we don't have set times for the CoH. When a fair number of boys are ready to advance, or we start getting a backlog of merit badges to award, we schedule a CoH. Sometimes, if we have several Scouts who are *almost* to the next level, but we haven't had quite enough time to conduct all the BoRs or something, we'll even postpone a CoH for a week or two in order to make sure none of the boys have to wait too long for their rank advancements. Regardless of whether the Scout has received his current rank badge or not, onc

I like the suggestions people have given for giving him a very specific task as ASM. Children who struggle with Asperger's often (but not always) mature out of the behavioral problems. Many that I have known are no more than a little socially awkward as adults, even though they were quite out of control as children and teens (some of my friends have been dx'd with Asperger's as adults, but were only labeled as "problem children" when they were young). Since this young man is improving, it's reasonable to think that he may make a perfectly fine adult leader at some point -- but he should be tra

Well, that's annoying, isn't it? Bleh. My younger boy was in a den with a couple kids who were small for their age (they're still small, and they're a few years past cub scouts now!!). I remember how much they swam in their oversized blue shirts. I don't think they every fully grew into them, and my son was the only one in the den who ever switched to a tan uniform during Webelos (because he was the only one who ever outgrew his blue shirt, and I couldn't justify buying him a blue shirt for the last 6 months of cubs!!). Probably the best solution, then, is to just buy the cub-scout

From the Scoutstuff.org sizing chart: "If you do not see a size in the chart that works for you, keep in mind that our uniforms are also available "Made-to-Measure". Please contact our Customer Service Department at 1-800-323-0736 for more information." If I ever get a uniform, that's what I'll have to do. I'm, well, let's just say I'm shaped in such a way that I can't button a Scout shirt up without it hanging off my shoulders in a ridiculously baggy way. This is one of a couple reasons I opt for the troop t-shirt instead of a uniform. (edited to fix a typo)(This message

No, I think it translates directly to "United States of America." You could probably also translate it to, "United States belonging to America" but that would be weird. ;-) "De America" (Spanish) means "of America," while "Mexicanos" is an adjective meaning "Mexican" -- so when it's translated into English, it's moved to the standard English location of adjectives (before the noun it modifies). Disclaimer: I could be misapplying this since I don't speak Portuguese and I know virtually nothing about Brazil, except that their official language is Portuguese, which I do not speak; not Spani

It sounds like what they really need is some TALL sizes in the new Scout shirts... I'm not sure exactly where you go to suggest such a thing, though.

"I just can't see a camp director today trying to justify having someone effectively "stand around" without a scheduled class to teach, from a budgetary standpoint. That mindset doesn't exist anymore. " These kinds of MB sessions are popular among the boys in our Troop, at least. Leatherwork, Basketweaving, Fingerprinting, and some others are offered this way at some of our area camps. They end up being some of the most popular MBs that our boys earn. I've never hung out at one of these stations long enough to see whether they're popular with the other troops, but our boys not only e

"you should view it as his choice" Oh, I do... believe me. If I didn't, he'd have had it done a year ago! I can't help but feel frustrated, but I limit myself to reminding him once in a while. ("I know, Mom... I'll do it. Just not NOW.") Thanks for the welcome! -Liz

Ok, I've been participating in the forum for a week or two, so I thought I'd swing by here and offer an introduction. My involvement with Scouting began in 2001, when my boys first joined Cub Scouts. My older boy is now a Star Scout, and my younger one has been stuck at 1st class for a year because he has a report to write for Citizenship in the Community which is too booooring to do, apparently, as are most of the other Eagle-required MB's. *sigh* He's literally one MB requirement away from earning Star. Unless, of course, he's misplaced his blue card, in which case he'll have to start o

I know my boys do not have all of their blue cards. My older son started in one troop, and then changed when my younger son's den crossed over and started a new troop closer to our home. In both troops, the boys have been told to hold on to their books (with advancement signatures) and the little cards they were presented with along with the MB's. They've been really good about that. They didn't find out they were supposed to keep the blue cards until recently. It's been drilled into them that the little printed MB cards and the signatures in their handbooks were the "proof" that they mi

Ditto ASM59! My boys spend an incredible amount of time on Facebook. My son has a cool link on his Facebook page to an Order of the Arrow video someone posted on YouTube (it's called "iSash"). I insist that my kids keep me as a "friend" on Facebook so I can keep track of who their friends are (and I've even asked them to take down certain content I felt was questionable or could be misinterpreted). Most of my career has been in the computer and Internet industry, so I realize I'm a little different from most parents and Scouters, but I really don't know any more effective way to ke

I think I have one of those garters!! I've been wondering what on earth it was. It came in a box of belt buckles, neckerchief slides, and the like, which I got on eBay. If memory serves, the color on it is red. I will dig through my desk drawer when I get home and see if I can find it. -Liz

That's a good point. I might be willing to sit down with them at the start of the summer and help them figure out how to accommodate those with wheat or gluten issues. The nice thing is that anything they do to remove gluten from a kid's menu would also work for anybody with a wheat allergy -- so it kills two birds with one stone. BUT -- I am concerned about their ability to avoid cross-contamination as well. In your example, I would guess that Sysco ham would be somewhat questionable, and I would be absolutely floored if the scalloped potatoes didn't contain wheat. I can eat baked potat

Ok, so I thought I'd try the "spin-off" button since the peanut-allergy thread caught my attention. I wasn't sure whether to put this in Camping or Summer Camp, since it applies to both. I would really like to hear ideas about how different troops handle special diets -- from food allergies to diabetes -- when camping with their troops. I'll start with my specific situation, but I am extremely interested in hearing about others' experiences, whether similar or different from mine. In our troop, we have at least two adult leaders who are sensitive to wheat and one (me) who

Beavah wrote: "If the issue is all yeh people with dirty minds think the man is havin' sex before marriage, " For me, I don't care whether they had sex in that cabin, or anyplace else, or not. (Unless, of course, they were noisy and the kids heard it, which would be a whole other discussion, I think). But, as ASM59 put it, my problem is with "even the appearance of impropriety" among BSA staff. As for the example of chaste co-ed roommates, I don't think that applies to this situation at all because we're talking about an engaged couple. I don't make assumptions about every enga

There is some irony in the fact that an unmarried adult leader who has a sexual relationship with another consenting adult unmarried adult leader would get kicked out of adult leadership if the two adults are the same gender, but a MARRIED adult leader who has a similar relationship with an opposite-gender leader who is not his/her spouse is not breaking any written and documented rules and there's nothing BSA can say about it. Although I understand the concept put forth by the Boy Scouts that, as a society which places a high value on "reverence" in a society where most of the religious

How do you suggest explaining it to the cub scouts later when they hear about or even get invited to the wedding? And why is it that we're all assuming that the cub scouts don't know the marital status of the pair involved? I don't recall the OP ever answering that question, or did I miss it? I would find it surprising if the cub scouts are not aware that their adult leaders are not *engaged.* That seems strange to me. And most cub scouts will have some idea that *engaged* is not *married.* But, even IF the cub scouts are under the false assumption that the couple is married, I do not

I know I'm late to this thread, but I'll be honest -- I have 2 boys in OA and I wash their sashes in the washing machine along with their scout uniforms after every OA camping event. I can't stand to see them dirty. I have not had any trouble with running red (I was worried the first time I washed my older boy's first sash, but not after that). I have also not had any trouble with the red unraveling. I also put them in the dryer. Cold or Warm water... cold if they're not TOO dirty. Stain-remover (whatever is on sale at the moment) if the dirt is really ground in. I always inspec

Thanks, SSScout! It was an interesting thread. It's good to know I'm not the only one out there who thinks about these issues. -Liz

I'd be willing to bet that SOME of the cubs noticed, and were confused by it. It may be the 21st century, but I think there are a fair number of families who are still teaching values based on religious training, etc. Personally, I would be HORRIFIED if unmarried adult leaders shared sleeping quarters on a Scout event that my boys were on. It's not as if my boys don't know this kind of stuff happens... but the idea that a couple who is supposed to be modeling self-control and leadership skills just HAS to ignore the rules and can't even control themselves for a weekend or a week on a Scout