NealOnWheels

It seems to me that Gern has a firm grasp on reality. The US has a lot of regulations that cost business a lot of money. Asian businesses do not have anywhere near the regulations we have. And then we have to have "free" trade with them. Even though Gern may be liberal, I doubt he hates that the US has been successful. I am very conservative and could not agree with him more on this subject. If we are to be competitive we have three choices: 1. Eliminate our regulations. 2. Require trading partners to have similar regulations. 3. A compromise between 1 & 2. If we c

That will sure make it difficult to get seven rows of knots on a uniform!

Thanks Kudu, I have always been curious to see what I have agreed to abide by. This should make some interesting reading.(This message has been edited by NealOnWheels)

Beavah writes: "Can yeh find anything in da BSA literature which states that review of the Troop's program is a function of the Troop Committee at all?" From the ACP&P: "The review also reveals what kind of an experience the Scout is having in the troop. With that knowledge, the troop leaders can shape the program to meet the needs and interests of the Scouts."

Beavah, In Scouting you are entitled to an award when you earn it. Witholding an award when a Scout has earned it is just plain wrong. I don't think the term punishment is correct. That would imply an award was being witheld because the Scout misbehaved. In the case you are refering to it was the adults misbehaving.

What I have been told on several occasions it is because an Assistant Patrol Leader does not have any responsibility to the troop. It is a patrol responsibility only. I am not sure I agree with that argument. I have never found this explanation in any scouting literature.

NJ, I think you are off by a decimal place. There are 1000 ml per liter. So that would be between 2.3 and 3.5 liters.

Remember we have a centenial uniform. It will not be going away next year. Or will it? Hmmmm

ScoutMythBuster wrote: "I have already spoke with National and any entity that is modifying this position's requirements is doing so wrongly." Be careful, this is how many Scouting myths begin. A statement like that has no credibility. We know nothing about your source or the context of your conversation we cannot make any assumptions. We can only rely on written documents on anything pertaining to "rules".

MythBuster, If we use your rational then the Scoutmaster's assesment of maturity could not be used as well. The national requirements do not mention anything about maturity. That means, according to you, that considering the maturity of the scout would be "adding to the requirements". The only requirement mentioned is an "older scout". It does not even say what an "older scout" is. That gives a lot of latitude to the Scoutmaster.

BadenP writes: "If there are two applicants with almost the exact same qualifications, but one lists being an Eagle Scout that can not be used as a deciding factor in choosing who gets the job, ethically, professionally, or legally." What would be unethical in considering an Eagle? What would be unprofessional about considering an Eagle? What would be illegal about considering an Eagle?

LlBob, I am confused on why you feel the Safe Swim Defense does not apply to a "swimming hole" and that it would be a bad idea for us to allow our Scouts to swim in such a location. The Safe Swim Defense states: "Safe Swim Defense standards apply at backyard, hotel, apartment, and public pools; at established waterfront swim areas such as beaches at state parks and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lakes; and at all temporary swimming areas such as a lake, river, or ocean." A "swimming hole" sure sounds like a "temporary swimming area such as a lake, river, ocean" to me.

My local Scout Shop has been out of Adult Medium shirts for a while now. I picked one up yesterday as soon as the shelves were restocked. When I got home the tag caught my attention. It did not say "Made in China". Unfortuneately it said "Made in Bangledesh". They must be shopping around for the best price.

That is not an official source. If it were on Scouting.org or in Scouting Magazine or some other BSA source then I would believe it. Until it is official I will consider it an Urban Legend. Perhaps it is official in which case I would like to see it.

Effective June 1st? Not much advance notice. It will catch a lot of people off guard. I agree it is a good thing but they should have gotten the word out sooner. How about an official source for this document?

Good - even newer data. Thanks OGE. Something interesting to note - average unit sizes: LDS: 11 Methodist: 32 Catholic: 32 Presbyterian: 33 Lutheran: 29 Baptist: 25 Episcopal: 33 LDS seems to be an outlier. Not sure why

In several other threads there are claims made that the LDS has large influence over the BSA due to the number of youth members registered and that these numbers are inflated. Doing some research I found some December 2008 data. A copy of the data can be found on Merlin's website: http://www.westley.org/bsa2008.pdf From that data it looks like the LDS has 14.2% of the total youth membership. That hardly seems to be a stranglehold on the BSA. Should we also be concerned about the United Methodist Church having 13.0% of total youth membership? Or how about the Catholic Chur

Acco, Why should one not consider units in a council they do not live in?

Ask the head of you chartered organization and your Scout Executive. They are the ones who would approve or deny the application.

I am not sure that would work for topics like you mention as there are as many opinions as there are posters. I doubt we would all come to a consensus on any of those topics.

Acco40, "You" was probably a poor choice of word as AT1988 is an Assistant Scoutmaster. The "you" I was talking about is the members of the board of review. The procedures clearly state they are the ones to schedule another board of review if one goes unfavorably for the Scout.

Proper procedure would mean you need to schedule a "follow up board of review". If they have completed their requirements it should go quickly. You might want to look at what happened prior to the original board of review. Most issues as this could have been prevented at a Scoutmaster's Conference.

Why not?

What are "Program Beads"? Who is an "ASM of Program"? Why are you in possesion of them? Did the "ASM of Program" lose them? And why do they need to be returned? Perhaps this is some strange local custom.

I am not sure it was an April fool's prank but it was a good one anyway. Early in my career as a computer programmer I played one a couple coworkers. This was back in the MS-DOS days. I wrote a program that simulated the MS-DOS FORMAT command and put it in their autoexec.bat file so it would run it when they started their computer up in the morning. I waited one evening for them to leave so I could install it. In the morning they started their computers. The computer program would display a simulated command prompt with the FORMAT C: command and then would ask them if the wish to