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Liz

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Everything posted by Liz

  1. Are people generally finding these available through the local Scout Shop now? When my daughter earned Protect Yourself that was awarded last Fall, her Cubmaster mentioned he had to special order it, but I don't recall whether it was through the local shop or online. She has now finished the Yo-Yo adventure. Paying shipping from the online store doesn't seem very thrifty when we live so near the Council Office. But I'd like to be able to advise the other adult leaders in our new Pack correctly on the procedure.
  2. Our Council made it very clear in a letter sent out today that their assets are entirely separate from National. I suppose any Council could also be named in a suit, but each Council is its own legal and financial entity, and not financially responsible for the actions of Scouters in other councils.
  3. I'm so frustrated right now. There are only two female Troops in our city. Most of the Webelos girls are choosing the other one. I suspect they have a more put-together look and feel compared to our Troop, as theirs is entirely adult-run and ours is run by a bunch of novice Scouts who have not been at this Scouting thing very long. We have a great group of girls, but they are learning as they go and, within reason, we let them make a fair number of mistakes along the way (and they are doing AWESOME at learning and doing better each time). I'm very happy with our Troop and I'm excited to
  4. Well, although I want my daughter carrying her (currently Webelos) handbook with her to events where she might need it, I don't want her carrying it around everywhere. It's already falling apart. The back cover is ripped halfway off and there's at least one page in the middle that's missing entirely. I am buying her a book cover that's designed/marketed as a Bible cover. She picked something in purple, but there's a really nice one on Amazon that looks like a pair of boy scout pants - has pockets in front and even a compass attached to it. Almost all the reviews on it are from people who
  5. Yes, it is by council. There are “common” leading digit conventions but there will always be variations.
  6. That's how ours is, and we are required to have 4 digits, starting with 4. The District rep wasn't very happy when our committee chose troop number 422 (4/22, Earth Day) and chose not to put the leading 4 on our uniforms or public facing materials. As committee secretary I've started marking the minutes and other internal documents as Troop (4)442. None of the boy troops have to put 4-number numerals on their uniforms (they all start with the number 1 I think; packs start with 0, crews start with 2, and I think Explorer posts are 3)so I don't see why we have to do it. Only the crews act
  7. I never even entered that argument, Barry, let alone came close to anything you're saying I said.
  8. You're conflating "faith," "religion," and "any one religion" together though. Faith and religion are not the same thing, and one religion is not the same as "religion" as a whole. I suppose it might be a tough competition if you pitted the world Scouting movement against, say, the Roman Catholic Church, but at that point you'd be splitting hairs and missing the point of what they're trying to say.
  9. Well, we'll just have to disagree here I guess. I don't consider my religion, or yours (I don't even know what yours is, but it doesn't matter) to be more powerful than a youth development movement that teaches skills, values, and citizenship. My religion is not my god. It is just one possible expression of my reverence for my god. I have a hard time even comprehending how that statement could be either arrogant or offensive. I could write an entire essay on how I have seen people fall into idolatry of religion or religious symbols; but it would drag us too far off the topic at hand, so
  10. This is an excerpt from the Scouts for Equality webpage, describing their position on reverence. I feel it is well reasoned and well argued.
  11. I agree. And actually I go so far as to teach my own children to respect everyone - adults, peers, younger children, and even animals. Obedience comes into play when there is a superior. If your boss tells you to clean the bathroom even though your "job" is, let's say, a cashier and not a janitor, you should probably obey; the bathroom isn't going to clean itself just because the janitor called in sick. If an EMT shows up in a first aid situation and tells you to step back and let them take over, or "Hold this for me" or whatever, you obey because the EMT is the expert in the field and you may
  12. Same. I have known a few people engaging and getting convicted for criminal behavior who have been Boy Scouts. My ex husband was a Boy Scout and has been in the local jail at least twice not including his stint in a federal penitentiary (there's a reason he's my ex). Some of these boys even in units I've been directly involved in (peers of my older kids). Even an Eagle Scout. But OVERALL I think it has a positive influence. The kid I'm thinking of specifically probably would have gotten in a lot more trouble than a DUI and minor in possession if it weren't for the positive impact of Sco
  13. Yup. My local religious group that I asked to sponsor our girl's troop ultimately got hung up on the atheism thing. Although it's not an atheist group of people, several members had friends or family members who were atheist and would not stand for the organization sponsoring anything that might even have the appearance of excluding them. I thought the agreement that was reached between the BSA and the Universalist Unitarians might be enough to convince them that they need not worry about the semantics of "what exactly do you believe constitutes 'god'" but it didn't go far. We ended up get
  14. We all know that G2SS is there to protect our behinds as leaders, but in the process, yes, I do believe it also makes the kids safer. I feel a lot more confident knowing my unit follows the G2SS especially the YPT portions. Are there some risks that don't get taken that maybe our kids could benefit from? Sure, probably. But overall I see the guidelines as a positive. Then again, I work with Safe Kids USA and am perhaps more acutely aware of the kinds of things that cause preventable injuries in kids.
  15. Exactly this. It makes it simpler because it doesn't change with the seasons. If Aeryn (my kiddo) and Samantha can tent together, they can tent together throughout their years in Scouting. If Samantha and Michelle cannot tent together, then that doesn't change just because Samantha had a birthday in April and now it's June. They can't tent together ever. But apparently, they can yurt or cabin or lavvu together in large groups.
  16. Yes, that's a situation very similar with what I ran into with my oldest kid's first patrol, described earlier in the thread. When the committee met and discussed this issue, we just all agreed to review the G2SS and make sure having all the girls in one yurt wouldn't be forbidden. This is a great group of girls. I don't anticipate problems. I feel quite comfortable calling a yurt an "accommodation" rather than a tent. What I wasn't quite clear on was whether the 2 year rule also applied to tents. I was leaning towards "no" because it doesn't mention the 2 year rule in
  17. We discussed this at our committee meeting and we decided to use a CYA approach and assume they meant 24 months. This also makes it simpler because you won't have kids who are eligible or not eligible to tent together at different times based on whether they've had their birthday yet this year or not.
  18. Right. That was a case where we had one Scout who, while the same age as the others, was MUCH larger, and he had a long history of major behavioral problems. We couldn't see any sign that his parents were acknowledging or addressing those problems. He'd been in cub scouts with my oldest, and the incident occurred at their first Campboree shortly after crossing over. I think all the kids in my child's patrol were traumatized by the incident. They all did single-person tent camping from there until the end of their Scouting days (which for several of them was 7 more years).
  19. I've seen an abusive situation happen in a large tent full of same-age (11 year old) Scouts, but then again, we were able to quickly put a stop to it and the offender was immediately sent home from the event and then barred from Scouting. That might have been more challenging in a 2-person tent where it was one kid's word against the other's. I feel quite comfortable with our girls sharing a yurt. I just wanted an outside pair of eyes on the G2SS rules to make sure I wasn't conveniently interpreting it to suit my unit's situation. Stringing a hammock outside (without rain and wind pro
  20. Our young ladies have decided to reserve 2 yurts at a state campground for a "cabin camping" weekend next month. Each yurt holds 8 people. The intention is to have the youth in one yurt and the adults in the other (we only have 8 youth planning to go; it's a new, small female unit). How would you interpret this rule to apply here? We'll need to get creative for the male and female adult issue (probably involving the addition of an RV or something, and one male leader has offered to just sleep alone in his truck), so I'm confident we'll find a way to handle that. But I am not ent
  21. So, news outlets are notoriously lazy about details. It didn't actually say that $1200 cash was donated to the senior center. It vaguely "went to" the senior center. If the Scouts in the unit decided to spend $1200 on an event that they made possible for the Senior Center, I don't see a single issue for that. That's not raising money for another organization, that's using money they've raised for their unit to do a good turn for a neighbor. I don't think the distinction between those two things is all that blurry (maybe it can be sometimes). We don't really know exactly what happene
  22. Ah, I didn't realize there wasn't one for Secretary. Troop Committee would work.
  23. oh yeah, and a red numeral 2 (actually two of them) or a 20 but I already have a few 0s I have a zillion random patches I can trade. I’ll post a photo if anybody has the above patches laying around they might want to trade me. I can walk into the Scout Shop and buy these for a few bucks each of course, but A Scout is Thrifty so I figure I should ask here first.
  24. Our Council will waive the 5 Scout requirement if there is a plan in place to promote growth. Our Girl Troop started with 3 in July, and we're up to 7 now including the Scout we just accepted at Crossover last night, plus there's another girl that's almost done with her AOL that we know is committed to joining us shortly, and we are having a Webelos Night this week and will have a sign-up table for the 5th grade girls. Our Pack had all its recharter paperwork ready with 4 Scouts, our Cubmaster attended a meeting to get recruiting ideas we were getting ready to implement, and everyt
  25. We usually start with a round of "Sorry I'm late," and "Do you know if so-and-so is coming?" We usually meet after hours in a truck stop type restaurant owned by our CC; occasionally if we're not in too much of a hurry she'll take orders and make everyone a burger or something. Every once in a while, if a financial or policy change decision is made, someone reminds the rest of us that someone should make a motion and we should officially vote on it. That's pretty much it. Our committee meetings are very informal.
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