NeilLup

Hello Lynn, Your Commissioner's staff should be able to help you. If you have a good Unit Commissioner, contact him or her. Otherwise, contact your Asst. District Commissioner or District Commissioner. They will give you support on the local level.

Ursus sonorus roarus has given some exceedingly good counsel. The fact that the SM was honored with the Vigil at one time doesn't mean that he or she doesn't have a major hair up their tail about the current OA and/or the current OA leadership. If possible, find out that history. If they are supportive of the OA, then co-opt them. And as USR said, unless you are doing a one-time build of your chapter from scratch, you, as the DE, should not be doing this promotion. That's a volunteer's job.

"1) Really making friends and working with the volunteers, especially if they view you as a "real scout leader." 2)Recruiiting and starting new untis as very fun as I go to see the lookon the faces as people got introduced to the program. I had experienced an especially great pleasure in starting a minority unit in a very under served segment of the population. Working with the leaders, helping them to recruit members, getting sponsors, and seeing them at camp where I introduced them to one of my troop's traditions was an awesome experience. You must weigh the benefits and costs."

From my friends who are pros, comes the following counsel: 1) You will not be working directly with youth except in very rare circumstances 2) Your job will not be primarily working program except in very rare circumstances 3) Your job will largely be working through, recruiting, motivating volunteers unless you have one of the SEs who don't believe in volunteers. Then you will be doing everything yourself or with other pros. 4) You may find that you are doing the less glamorous, less "fun" aspects of Scouting. The pros have a saying "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, if

In this vein, I have had a question about the Position of Responsibility "Troop OA Representative." Arguably, during the entire time that the he is performing this POR, he is performing OA service and representing the OA. Does that mean that the Troop OA representative whenever in uniform should be wearing his OA sash and, per the official uniform guidelines, should never be wearing his merit badge sash? Not saying this should be the case, but just wondering if, in effect, the Troop OA Representative is always "on duty" as an OA member and representative and should be unifor

Hello Mr. Boyce: "(e) the rate of pedophiliac incidents runs proportionately higher among homosexuals than heterosexuals." May I ask you list references or data to substantiate this statement if possible. I have never heard that individuals who are homosexual in their ADULT sexual orientation are more inclined to pedophilia that persons who are straight in their adult sexual orientation. In fact, I have heard that pedophiles are most commonly males who are straight in their adult sexual orientation. Of course, that doesn't take into account that homosexuals are thought to

The idea of "Traditional" is interesting. To me, the tradition of Scouting is embodied in the Scout Oath and Law. The traditional idea of Scouting was, I believe, that one pledged oneself to doing ones best to following the Scout Oath and Law (On MY Honor, I will do MY best). Scouting welcomed anyone who agreed to do that and wasn't guilty of certain rather grievous felonies or other sins against society. One was one's own judge of whether one met the standard and striving to meet the standard was what was expected. There were, I believe, always gay leaders. They stayed

"whoops...back on topic... going out of council for summer camp doesn't mean you don't support council. telling everyone that will listen that you'd never ever consider going to the council summer camp does mean you don't support council though." Here are some things. Would you consider these not supporting the council? 1) You sold MYYYYYYYY camp!!! I'll never, never, never go to yours!!! 2) Working as Program Director for a camp from an adjoining council 3) In connection with 2, consistently and always taking your unit to that camp 4) In connection with 2 and 3,

From the current, official, on-line BSA insignia guide comes the answer to the original question: "(OA sash is never worn on belt or with merit badge sash.)" and "The OA sash is not worn with the merit badge sash." http://www.scouting.org/media/insigniaguide/10L.aspx

"I found it difficult to accept records that show boys passing all the requirements for a merit badge and new boy requirements and the boy didn't even attend camp." Depending upon your relationship with your council leadership, I would share this information as high in your council's leadership structure as you can get. I would not do it to embarrass anyone but as a quality control measure on your council's camping and advancement program. When I was Council Commissioner, I would have wanted to know thia right away. Now that I am VP program for my council, I would want to know

Hello artjrk, A reminder that, with the approval of your Scout Executive, you can have an additional 6 months to complete your ticket. Before concluding that you won't finish, I would have a serious counseling session with my ticket counselor. If someone is doing good work in Scouting and in their unit and is doing their best on behalf of youth and to apply what they have learned at Wood Badge, they should finish and get their beads. The ticket should, if necessary, be amended to reflect the good work they are doing. The ticket should be an enabling document, not a pair of

Hello diogenes, In cases of multiple "rescuers" or candidates for National Court of Honor recognition, please note that a separate nomination needs to be filled out for each person although copies of the same substantiating material can be used for each. Also, please note that each person is considered on a reasonable standard for their age, status, etc. In other words, something that might get an adult a sincere "thank you" might qualify a Tiger Cub for an Honor Medal. In filling out the nominations, please be sure to list separately what each person did individually. Presu

No problem, BW, I am envious that you are Sea Scouting and I live a quarter mile from the ocean. I completely agree that, as I remember the handbooks, they say that Scouts should not be involved in discipline. And if so, I agree with that too. But having said that, I would argue that a PL, SPL etc. is involved with getting Scouts to do things, keeping order, etc. Ideally that does not mean discipline but that could be a matter of definition.

Thank you, FScouter. I would only add "particularly in the area of discipline." BW, I read through my post again and can only come up with four items that might be considered "methods" 1) Youth leaders need to know where their authority starts and stops 2) Youth leaders need to know when to involve adult leaders 3) Youth leaders need to know they can always come to the SM and other adults for advice and counsel 4) Youth leaders need to be trained that they should not hipshoot an answer but should think it through I guess based on your post that in the current SPL a

I concur with what Bob White and others have said with this addition. I don't believe that it is fair or proper to expect the PL or the SPL etc. to know, a priori, how to assess and create discipline and correction. This is an area where those leaders need to be trained by the SM and other adult leaders. They also need to know, I would suggest, where their authority starts and stops and when they need to involve the adult leaders. Finally, they need to know, I would suggest, that they can always come to the SM for counsel and guidance in how to address discipline problem

Hello BW, Your last post is one with which I am reasonably comfortable. I disagree with your conclusions for me personally, but that's OK. One of the things that I learned long ago was the "principle of completed staff work." This means that in presenting something to your boss or other person in authority, you present to them a finished package ready to go with just their signature. If there are options, you may in a separate document present those options but you still have recommended the one that you most believe is appropriate. The organizational structure in Scout

Hello Dengar, It sounds as if you are proceeding reasonably. As others have said, if the Scout demands a Board of Review, he is entitled to it. You do not need to approve his application for that to happen. Similarly, he is not required to "pass" the Scoutmaster"s Conference, only to participate in it. And it does not need to be after all other requirements are done? He might even argue that some of the conversations you have already had are a "Scoutmaster's Conference." I might only suggest that you document your dissatisfaction with his performance up to now in a lett

Having once seen one of our council committee chairmen/board members wearing a little less than Scout uniform, I referred to her a couple of times as Lydia. She laughed and understood. Groucho Marx fans will too. She is a 3 bead Wood Badger, Silver Beaver holder and grandmother.

" heck, the new DE of my district has a tattoo on the small of her back, of course its in the shape of the Venuring symbol, but still its a tattoo." She had better hope that what happened to Exploring doesn't happen to Venturing. Or that the symbol gets changed.

Respectfully disagree, OGE. It says ALL. That should mean all. In my reading, the third sentence adds an additional requirement for coed Venturing crews but does not eliminate the "all" of the first sentence. I remember the discussion of a few years ago where it was asked if female leaders on a Boy Scout outing made the outing coed. The specific question was whether it would be permissible to have a Boy Scout outing with only female adults as leaders. Not a discussion of whether it is prudent, only whether it is permissible or whether it would be a "coed" event requiring

I once was with a member who said that in his lodge, the custom was that you kept the sash of your current honor of membership clean and pristine and wore it only with the uniform, etc. If you were doing work or other activities where the sash might get dirty, you wore the sash of your previous honor. In other words, if you are currently a Brotherhood Honor member, you would wear your older Ordeal sash when doing work.

Are you suggesting that it is possible that in Scouting literature, even the Guide to Safe Scouting that there is an inconsistency, even an error?????? I am shocked, SHOCKED!!!!! Of course, it's possible that there is an error or an inconsistency. Believe it or not, these documents are written by mortal human beings and sometimes, different sections and even different paragraphs are written by different people who aren't able to crosscheck every other word written in every other Scouting document. This particularly can happen when two documents are being revised separately by

I agree, Ed. In fact, I would consider the former response to be "blowing them off" and might expect it to provoke that old bugaboo response "The council never does anything for us."

Thank you for your concurrance, ASM. Another reason for talking with District/Council is that there may be some misunderstanding on the part of someone of what the job really is and that can be quickly straightened out. Imagine, for example, if the statement were: "Our Scoutmaster isn't doing the job at all. All he does is sit around. He's so lazy that the boys have to do everything. I was a leader in Cub Scouts and I know that's wrong. He's got to go." This is perhaps a silly example, but I can tell you that I've heard that more than once in my time. Scouting real

To Bob White and ScoutNut: There's a difference between authority and wise counsel. Commissioners and DEs are trained to be friends and supporters of units and to help resolve disagreements, disputes and conflicts. Ultimately, the decision rests with the unit and the chartered organization. But the district and counsel can provide support and help. There is another reason to involve the district. If things go bad, the district/council will be expected to come in and clean up. I can tell you from painful experience that it is extremely frustrating as a council level volunt