NeilLup

If we look for a moment at the swamp we started out to drain. May I suggest that you take a wireless or broadband capable laptop to your next unit meeting. Have the ASM sit down and complete YPT on-line. It will take about half an hour maximum. Have him print out the certificate when finished. If you have no printer, print it out as a .pdf file. End of problem. It took half an hour and didn't raise blood pressure that much

Hello, A couple of thoughts. 1) Inclusion of the Scouts who abstained would only matter if the voting were exceedingly close. Under current OA procedures, Scouts who abstain are not included in the number needed to be elected. Let's say that you have 14 Scouts at camp voting and 2 abstain. That leaves 12 voting. The number of votes needed to be elected is six. Now let's say that the abstaining Scout decides to vote so there are 13 voting. The number of votes needed to be elected is now seven. The vote of the abstainer would make no difference at all. So adding o

I've been involved with a few of these. I can only hope that your local council advancement committee is experienced because I have seen a few cases of "That isn't that special. He didn't do that much." If this were his job, i.e. he is a lifeguard, then he does not qualify for any award. Depending upon circumstances, it would sound as if the Heroism Award or the Medal of Merit would be appropriate. Based on the article, I would recommend for the Heroism Award. I always recommend to our council's committee that they approve the highest level award that might be given and send it

Hello Gunny, No, but we are, once again, getting paralyzed about Scout advancement. To make Eagle Scout, one must meet the requirements to be an Eagle Scout. That means 21 merit badges and an Eagle project. However, if the Scout does his sincere best and falls short, he has done his duty as a Scout. He has done what is required to be a good Scout. There is no shame in his status, nor should he in any way be made to feel unworthy. This is, in my opinion, a problem with the great hoohoo we do about Eagle Scouts. Yet that is today's society. Advancement is on

With respect to OGE, I disagree. The standard is to do one's best and, if so, one has met the standard for being a Scout. To be a Scout, one is not required to succeed. Perhaps it's hair splitting, but that doesn't necessarily mean that doing one's best is sufficient to advance except in the somewhat more subjective areas like Scout Spirit. One is still required to do the days and nights of camping and meet the requirements for personal fitness. But I would say that the same thing is true for Cub Scouting. If the requirement is to do something, the Cub Scout has to do it to adva

Hello, 1) I know of people who have appealed to the National Council for ranks other than Eagle Scout. It is rare, but it happens. 2)Words like "arbitrary" and "roadblocks" are, in some cases, accurate and precise. Some units, for example, have a strict percentage attendance requirement for being active and for leadership. In other cases, there may be a formal or informal age requirement for certain ranks. According to the National guidelines, that is not proper. 3) As a practical matter, a unit may use whatever criteria it chooses. All that happens is, if a Scout appe

Actually, John, not to be too jesuitical, but I don't think that the ACP&P does proscribe leaders from other Troops. It says that the BOR must have at least 3 Troop Committee members. I don't believe that is explicitly says that they need to be from the boy's Troop; presumably, they could be Troop Committee members from any Troop and meet the written requirement. I believe that we all know what is intended but if one wants to microtome hairs, I believe that is what is said.

In fact, A board member just contacted me a few days ago asking for my help in a fundraising program he is planning....why would he ask for my help if he though I was going to halt potential? >> Do it .... do it, do it, do it , do it, do it. There is nothing quite like fund raising and being known as a fund raiser to get one appointed to the Board. Plus this is the kind of person that may be willing to help mentor you and get you appointed to the Board.

After 6 months of being troop guide, I plan to be the OA Rep. come my 16th birthday my scoutmaster wants me to become a JASM (hope I am still a good leader in a year ) So I guess that's my future in scouting>> Outstanding, Michael. It sounds as if you have an excellent, clearcut path laid out that will help you grow. I might only comment that you have laid out your short term and maybe intermediate term future. Longer term, who knows? You might just end up a Scoutmaster answering questions from Scouts. We wish you well.

"I have tried to do my due diligence on this issue; I have poured over by-laws, looked over training manuals, looked up stuff on the internet, and even called the National Scout Office. It really comes down to the Council. Im sure that if my council wanted me on the Executive board at 20 years of age, they would find a way to get me on." Wise on your part. And as I have followed the thread, I see some other elements of wisdom. Meeting with the nominating committee is good, and it is great that they gave you the time that they did. I was going to write that I thought the BSA Nation

Hello Michael, We do get wandering in the weeds sometimes, don't we? To get back to your original question, a few thoughts: 1) The SM pretty much controls the youth leadership structure of the unit. So in your unit, what the SM says pretty much goes. Under unusual circumstances, that might be overridden by the committee, chartered organization, etc. but normally that happens right before a change of SMs. 2) Having spent time in both the military and the BSA, I get troubled when people use the term "chain of command" in the BSA. We don't give commands. We do h

Hello Don, I have some real sympathy for what you are saying. I have staffed Wood Badge, directed Wood Badge and staffed and directed the Regional Conference. We tell the participants and potential course directors that the ticket should represent doing a good performance in their current Scouting job. I tell participants to close their eyes and imagine where they would like their unit to be in 12-18 months. Then their ticket items should lead to that. And then occasionally I will visit a course, including a course run by someone who has listened to our Regional guidance an

Congratulations, guys, you've done it. You've pushed one of my really hot buttons concerning Scouting. This is a KID"S PROGRAM!!!! We are talking about a program which, by and large, is for kids 8-14 years old with some few youth who are older. When we start getting into exceedingly subtle theological distinctions and attempting to parse those distinctions in saying that some youth are welcome and others are not, I would respectfully suggest we have gone way, way, way over the line. Perhaps this is fun, perhaps it is not, but I am exceedingly hard pressed to see how it c

The scout is elected to ASPL for a 1/2 year term (June COH-Dec COH or vice versa) and then automatically moves up to SPL for the next 6 months.>> This is an exceedingly interesting approach. At first glance, I really like it. I might suggest that you see if you son can have one or more of those Scouts which he is encouraging to run for ASPL be appointed as Troop Instructors (if they are not) so they can get some leadership experience at the Troop level.

Hello Lisabob, By and large, the job of SPL done by a 13-14 year old is different from the job done by an older boy. The older boy has seen more and makes fewer errors but the younger Scout makes up by enthusiasm. Both are great experiences. Best of all can be if the somewhat younger boy is the SPL and the older boys are JASMs and mentors. It would be interesting to learn why this trusted adult is encouraging these younger boys to run. Does he not trust the older boys, just want more competition or something else? Is he committed to training and supporting the younger

Hello Sprite, You raise some interesting points but there are a couple of points I would like to address. Probably most important -- I don't believe that National has ever said that previous training is not valuable or is not valid. Much the opposite. If one has ever completed Training, they are considered trained according to National guidelines. It would be a local council which would mandate or strongly advise retraining. I know that currently Wood Badge staff service requires that one have taken or previously staffed 21st Century Wood Badge. However, this is after

Hello GaHillBilly, As best I understand it, Kudu's observations about BP and religion are precisely accurate.

I have at least a little sympathy for the Democrats in Florida. My memory is that the early primary was "forced" by the Republicans in the legislature over the opposition of the Democrats. But it is the Florida Democrats who have to pay for the action.

I see the opposite side of this. In our part of the country, we have a number of smaller councils, each with its own camp. There is, quite frankly, an overcapacity in camping spaces considering the total number of Scouts available in all councils. So there is poaching and atealing of campers by councils. We are expected to keep our summer camp running, losing money every year, yet many of our units quite aggressively refuse to even consider our council's camp. We have tried very hard to improve our camp quality, staff quality, etc. but we have great difficulty competing with

Hello Avery, You ask an interesting question. I would suggest that you talk to friends of yours about their religions and particularly about their clergypeople. Your friends probably have a pretty well developed BS detector. But I would say that most good clergypeople would be honest and sincere with you if you went to them and said that you were considering religion and religions and wanted to know both about their religion and about their observations of other religions. Before you consider a particularly religion, you might go to its website and read up about it. At th

It would seem that two topics are getting confused here 1) REtraining to be considered trained 2) Mandatory training I believe that at various times, most of us have felt that mandatory training is a good idea. Personally, I am very hard pressed to be comforable with a leader of youth who is not trained. Noting that training can be completed by group training, or personal coaching, or self-study, a person who studies the material by himself or herself can still achieve the status of fully trained. Retraining can also be a good idea, agsin by group training, or

Hello Evmori, I truly find it sad that you are such a believer in conspiracy that you regard Avery and BDPT00 to be the same person. Perhaps you are right. If so, I have wasted a little time. No big thing. But I believe that you very likely are wrong. I can tell you that I have been asked the exact questions Avery asking by a several extremely sincere Scouts personally. And I know that in some parts of the country and some units, even asking those questions would have the Scout branded an "atheist" and summarily removed from Scouting. I choose to believe that Avery

Hello Avery, Excellent, thoughtful discussion. Thank you. Most of us who are posting have a bit of an advantage over you. We have all, at one time or another, been 14 and have seen the other side. You have not (yet,) That doesn't make your thoughts and concerns any less valid or any less significant to you or us, it just gives us a bit of perspective that you don't yet have. I would say that, at one time or another, almost all of us have questioned religion and have felt agnostic. (You know that you are agnostic, not that you are atheist.) You have not said that

Hello David, I'm not sure that your question has been explicitly answered. There is, to my best knowledge, no "statute of limitations" on training awards and whenever you document that you have met the requirements, you can receive the award. There are some limitations on some other awards: 1) The most often encountered is that one cannot meet Eagle Scout requirements after age 18. Also, the Board of Review is to be held within 3 months after the boy's 18th birthday. Between 3 months and 6 months, an explanation from the Scout Executive is required for the delay. Lo

One interesting thing that I've found about switchbacks and that is that the male sizes may have "vanity sizing." With any other trousers, my waist is 36 or even 38 if I breathe out. When I tried the Large Switchbacks (supposedly 36-38) they essentially fell off my hips. The Medium (supposedly 32-24) fit quite well. I really need a 31 inch leg, but bought the 30s. They look fine and work well. As far as looking sharp, fitting well, etc. I don't believe that is a significant factor for today's youth Think of the jeans falling down around one's knees. I think that the swi