NealOnWheels

"showin' our age" ??? thanks Beavah! I'm not that old am I? Seems like the Exxon Valdez was not that long ago. Oh, it was 22 years ago. Thanks perdidochas! What a cruel reality check.

I could not disagree more with you Bart. I have repeatably seen scouts develop more character in one week of High Adventure than many adult have ever developed. Sure character is developed when the going gets tough. But only when adults don't step in and do things for them. Scouts will rise to the occasion and work together to get things accomplished. This is a valuable less in citizenship that cannot be taught in merit badge work.

Eagle92 wrote: "A) USE .GIF, .TIF and other "non-loosey" files like .jpeg. A "loosey" file takes up less space, but everytime you open it up, you lose pixals, which over time ruins the picture." The actual terms is "lossy" and "lossless". JPEG is uses a "lossy" compression meaning it looses image information to perform compression. However, by selecting the amount of compression you can have a reasonable tradeoff between image quality and storage space. GIF is a "lossless" compression. It can only store 256 colors so for photography it is not the best choice. It does req

There is nothing stopping a unit from doing it on their own. Define your own rules and provide your own recognition whether it be a patch or a certificate.

When was his Life Board of Review? Has he held any Positions of Responsibility since then?

Just last week in my area a 50 year old man was sentenced to 8 years in jail for operating a vehicle after loosing his drivers license for life. Apparently he lost his license to drive several years ago after repeated driving under the influence convictions. He was arrested again this year when he crashed his vehicle into a large rock. He freely admitted to police he had been drinking and said he was glad no one got hurt. It seems that maturity and judgement do not necessarily correspond with age. And though experience comes with age the right type of experience is what matters.

Correction... The Committee Chairman must approve the application as well.

I believe they need to be 21. Strictly a decision by the chartered organization assuming the application is approved by the council. And the rest of the story???

Have you looked at Swiss Valley? Website is http://skiswissvalley.com/ If you want an overnight a nearby scout camp is Camp Tamarack. Website is http://www.lasallecouncilbsa.org/Camps/Tamarack. They have nice cabins. I have not been to the ski resort but the camp is very nice. Should be a little over 2 hours from Chicago.

That is an interesting website Basement. It does not have the usual copyright notice on the bottom. Whois information shows the domain registered to "Northeast Region Venturing". It does not appear to be a National sanctioned website.

Older versions of "Age-Appropriate Guidelines for Scouting Activities" mention that power tools are suitable for Boy Scout age and higher. The latest version does not mention power tools at all. I wonder why?

And what does Abraham Lincoln have to do with Occupy Wall Street? I must have missed the news report about him speaking at one of their protests.

One person's reasonable expectations are another person's unrealistic expectations. While I think the new advancement guide is an improvement I don't think much will change in the respect of Eagle Board of Review appeals. The national advancement committee will be trying to determine if a unit's expectations were reasonable.

Yes the website is down. Here is a cached version of the demands... http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&biw=1440&bih=724&source=hp&q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Foccupywallst.org%2Fforum%2Fproposed-list-of-demands-for-occupy-wall-st-moveme%2F&pbx=1&oq=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Foccupywallst.org%2Fforum%2Fproposed-list-of-demands-for-occupy-wall-st-moveme%2F&aq=f&aqi=g4&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=1352l6324l0l7919l7l4l0l0l0l0l220l747l0.2.2l4l0

Beavah, Here is a list of demands... http://occupywallst.org/forum/proposed-list-of-demands-for-occupy-wall-st-moveme/ It is written by one individual and does not necessarily reflect the view of the whole group. It seems that individual is completely off his rocker. As far as I can tell these people are protesting without anything specific to protest other than some general concept about corporate greed. Not sure what to make of it so far.

If we look at what the actual Michigan law says: http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(ek44kcmvp3br5k45zyhe0c55'>http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(ek44kcmvp3br5k45zyhe0c55))/mileg.aspx?page=getObject&objectName=mcl-722-111 "Children's camp" means a residential, day, troop, or travel camp that provides care and supervision and is conducted in a natural environment for more than 4 children, apart from the children's parents, relatives, or legal guardians, for 5 or more days in a 14-day period. It is interesting to note the term "troop". Also look at: http://www.legislat

I do genealogy research. From the resources I have available to me I found a 1988 record for Peter E Kleinpaste listing an address of Three Fires Council's camp near Rochelle, Illinois. Three Fires Council is a merger of seven different councils one of which I beleive owned Chin-Be-Gota. I have also found records for a Peter Edwin Kleinpaste who was born in 1930 and died in 1990 in Illinois. The US Grant Council that Kudu mentions is now part of Blackhawk Area Council which is where Rochelle camp is located. Rich Johnson would return too many "hits" without additional inform

I don't know where you get the idea that a Troop Guide is a non-voting member. Various scouting literature show the Senior Patrol Leader, Assistant Senior Patrol Leaders, Patrol Leaders, and Troop Guide are all members. The Scribe is listed as attending for notetaking but without vote. The Scoutmaster is listed as attending but as a mentor and coach.

Just for fun I searched Toys"R"Us for "water gun" and got 37 hits: http://www.toysrus.com/search/index.jsp?sr=1&f=Taxonomy%2FTRUS%2F2254197&kw=water+gun&origkw=water+gun&kwCatId=&view=all I wanted to see if what they offered looked like simulated firearms. Seems to me that all do not look like firearms. And it also seems that manufacturers are no longer using the term "water gun" or "squirt gun" in preference to "soaker" or "blaster". So it seems to me that any of these would be acceptable in Scouting.

No national policy. Can be used for more than one rank. Scoutmaster approves who can be a den cheif. So he can "restrict this behaviour". What is the real issue here?

The Guide to Safe Scouting is vague when it comes to squirt guns. It can be interpreted two different ways. RichardB does not offer any help other than to read the link to the Guide to Safe Scouting. Unless the Guide to Safe Scouting is revised to specifically mention squirt guns or RichardB gives us national's interpretation then we all should use our best judgement. I feel that squirt guns are fun, safe, and completely ethical to point at another person. I would ask that those Scouters who fell otherwise to let me do what I want with my own unit. On the same note. If you f

John, I come from a different perspective. When I was a Scout my Scoutmaster held up my Life rank. As I was approaching 6 months prior to my 18th birthday I insisted on a board of review. Well I got my board of review. The Scoutmaster attended it and told the board of review exactly why I did not deserve the Life rank. That painful experience lasted an hour and a half. I did switch troops and did get another board of review and did get my Life rank. But had 5 months until my 18th birthday. At the time I had no idea there was an appeals process (or was there? it was the ear

You have a year and a half to get the three palms you want. With three months minimum between palms you have plenty of time. Time enough to try and work things out with the current scoutmaster. You have all the merit badges you need but don't forget about the Scout Spirit and leadership requirements.

Your Scoutmaster will decide who does the Scoutmaster's conference. Most likely himself. If you try to go around him it will only inflame the issue. If you have differences that cannot be resolve I suggest moving to a different troop. Is time a big issue for you right now?

See http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/AmericanHeritageGirls.pdf