NeilLup

I'm going to risk some serious flames here. That's OK. BP supposedly proposed an additional point of the Scout Law "A Scout is not a fool." By this, he meant that a Scout does not let his following of the Oath and Law become so mechanical and rigid that his actions become predictable and others can take advantage of him by putting him into a situation where his following of the Oath and Law will work to his disadvantage. Or as I learned very long ago in a college course in group dynamics, talking about collaborative and competitive strategies, "Applying a competitive strateg

When I introduce myself to a youth, it is with my first name and second name. Whatever they call me is fine provided they listen. In virtually every case, calling a person with title and last name has been acceptable. However, in one case, I consistently called the Sr. VP of a major customer of mine Dr. XXXXXX for reasons of respect. He later gave me a good job reference but a negative comment was that I didn't call him by his first name and so I didn't consider myself to be a peer of his yet.

Hello OGE, I am not diabetic, but I know at least 2 insulin dependent diabetics who do serious camping. (On our recent Wood Badge Course, there were 8 diabetics.) The one who is more thorough tests himself frequently. He said that when he is working hard in the outdoors, he can reduce his insulin requirement by half. The other guy takes whatever insulin he feels like and titrates his blood sugar by eating candy bars. (DON"T do that.) However, he is late '70s and has been diabetic for over 40 years so he has been doing it for quite a while. However, two years ago, h

Laurie, Thank you for the information about wearing the uniform. That certainly can be addressed for Committee members by saying that one doesn't need to. To me, that's an excuse but then, I'm a lifer. And let me make sure I understand what you've said. If a non-registered person shows up for BSA training in your council, they are actually refused the opportunity to participate! Someone actually checks registration and verifies it before training? Which training? Do you require registration before Fast Start? To me, requiring registration before training is rather rema

This thread goes in an interesting direction but to me, it is somewhat backwards. Why would you NOT want to have adults registered as leaders? Here are some of the reasons I have heard that an individual doesn't want to register. For me, none of these are particularly good reason. 1) They don't want to spend the $10. Come on now! If it's that big a thing, I am sure the unit can help fund it. I know that some units pay the registration fees for all adults but, quite frankly, if that becomes a problem for the unit, let the adults pay. Personally, I think having the

Most sincere congratulations, FloridaScout. If you're a good student, do apply for the National Eagle Scout Association Scholarships. The application form can be obtained from your council office. Welcome to the brotherhood of Eagle Scouts.

Hello Eamonn, Your story is wonderful. Thank you for sharing it. The reason that each of is us active in the BSA is that someone recruited us and invited us to join, either as adults, as boys (or girl Explorers) or both. You did the most difficult and most important job of a District Chairman or other District level leader. You identified and nurtured a future leader of the BSA. I hope you are now nominating her for the Silver Beaver. Having read the other posts, may I suggest the following New Year's Resolution for all posters on the forum: For each minute that we s

Hello Eamonn, My understanding is that checking the "yes" box for a felony, etc. is not an automatic disqualification. However, in a case like this, the District Chairman and Chartered Partner should make sure that the council knows the situation before the applications go in and is comfortable with it. That should involve any embarrassment to anyone concerned. If some judgement about the persons's suitability needs to be made, it will be made in the local council, so the key person is the Scout Executive.

Hello Eamonn, My understanding is that checking the "yes" box for a felony, etc. is not an automatic disqualification. However, in a case like this, the District Chairman and Chartered Partner should make sure that the council knows the situation before the applications go in and is comfortable with it. That should involve any embarrassment to anyone concerned. If some judgement about the persons's suitability needs to be made, it will be made in the local council, so the key person is the Scout Executive.

Hello Dave, Since you asked about the wearers of our former council patch, some didn't do much, but some were real leaders in the former council. The more interesting problem came when we had to "mothball" one of our two summer ( we have two fully equipped summer camps five miles apart and over a 2 hour drive from the council). Several of our units say they will never go to our council camps again. However, they were the ones most loudly complaining about the one camp before it was mothballed.

Hello SPL T15 I hope you had a good holiday. The "by the book" answer is that you should be wearing the council patch of your current registered council. However, as a practical matter, when councils merge, patches from the component councils are worn for years by some persons and not much is said about it. In our council, which was formed by merger in 1992, a couple of leaders still insist on wearing the old patches as a "protest" against the merger. However, if you want to keep your old patches for value, the less worn they are, the more valuable.

As far as BORs for Webelos Scouts, I too disagree. That is not part of the Webelos advancement program. It is not age appropriate. When the WDL says that the boy has passed, he has. A second "review" even a mock review should not be done. As far as the boy freezing up at a BOR, this might be addressed by knowing the characteristics and needs of the boys a bit better. In my opinion, the BOR should not necessarily be just the three random committee members who show up that night. In the case of this boy, I suspect that his nervousness and stuttering were known. Could his

I have presented them everywhere you can imagine. Council dinner, district dinner, Council Board meeting, roundtable, Pack meeting, Troop meeting, OA lodge banquet, WB staff development, WB dinner etc. etc. Probably the most unusual was at 3AM on the front lawn of an organization called the "Committee for the Future" in Washington DC. The recipient was an Air Force officer leaving early the next morning for an assignment in Europe. As DSteele said, they can be presented more than once. And as others have said, it is up to the recipient, but as with most things invo

Hello Laurie, You have gotten some great suggestions and advice. May I, for a moment, take the "50,000 foot view." If you aren't getting new members, I believe it is for one of two reasons (or a combination). 1)The potential Cub Scouts don't know about your Pack 2)They do know about your Pack but don't like, aren't interested, etc. in what you do. Make sure that you have the best show in town both for Cub Scouts and for parents. Make sure that your best show in town is broadly publicized. Use your local newspapers, cable TV, a newsletter, e-mail, a web pag

Hello LauraT7: Boy Scout Division of the BSA put together some recruiting material last fall although perhaps not as comprehensive as the Cub Scout material you got. Did you get the Scoutmaster's packet which came in the shape of a backpack. There was a CD included. It was intended for boy-to-boy recruiting. Make a copy and give it to each Troop member. It provides a mechanism for them to invite their friends. Plus they then can get the recruiter badge.

Hello ScouterPaul, Sorry that it has taken me a little bit longer to respond. How do merit badge mill Troops justify their program? I think the answer is that their "vision" of a program which produces citizenship, character and fitness is one where meeting the letter of the law requirements of merit badges is something which needs to be done as quickly and efficiently as possible. If anything, they would say that their youth have met all the physical and mental skills required by merit badges and this is probably true. They do not believe that there is much benefit to having

Hello Sturgen, There actually is a group doing what you purport to want to do. They call themselves the Baden Powell Scouts. They exist in some countries (Canada, UK) and are starting up in this US. You might want to consider checking them out.

NJCubScouter You are correct. Those are theoretical. As I mentioned, the youngest Eagle of which I have personal knowledge earned the award at 12 years, 2 months.

Hello ScouterPaul, molscouter is on the track of the way I was thinking but let's take it a bit further. I know a person who completed the 5th grade at age 8. That would have made him eligible to join Boy Scouts and, with the sixteen months you mentioned, would have had over 2 years to earn the Eagle and still be 10. Or to take it a step further, this person finished the third grade at age 7 and skipped the fourth grade. Arguably, that means that he could have begun work on his Arrow of Light at age 7, completed it early in age 8 (six months after "finishing" grade 4)

Hello Sturgen, Woodbadge robot production, eh!! It would sound to me as if some of the leaders in your Troop have an industrial strength chip on their shoulder. Don't knock Wood Badge personally if you haven't tried it Your Troop sounds pretty neat. Great program,etc. One of the problems that the BSA has is producing a program which everybody can be reasonably successful with. I suspect that the level of involvement and commitment in you unit's leaders is very great relative to most leaders. I do have some problem with your Boards of Review as outlined. It cou

Ev asks this question " So we are to blindly follow a program the BSA says works but has no actual proof that it does work?" It might be worth looking at how new BSA programs are developed. In most cases, a local council, or in some cases, an individual unit or person develops the program. It comes to the attention of the National Council, is judged reasonable, and is published for use in the field. In some cases, National identifies a need and develops a program. This can be done by National pros, National volunteers or some combination. As far as PROVING that somet

Campfire Fairy, From what you have written, I am sure that quite a few young men are very pleased that you were born a girl My wife is certainly the camper in our family. Last summer, we did the Grand Canyon rim to river and back 3 months after her surgery to repair a fractured collarbone which didn't heal.

Hello Dan, I in no way object to the stones you are throwing. That happened a LOOONG time ago. I had met with the SPL previously to try to set up the meeting. I had told him about the exciting opportunities that being SPL represented and the great leadership challenge that he had and how much he could learn and do. We talked about the planning meeting and how to run it. The next day, he phoned me to resign as SPL stating that he didn't want to put that much time into Scouting. His father also spoke with me stating that his son didn't want to put that much time into Scou

Ok, Andrew, If you want an I did it and it went wrong story, here goes. As a new Scoutmaster, one of the first things I wanted to do was have the annual planning conference to lay out our activities for the upcoming year. I thought that we would get the PLC together and develop the plan. So I got a flip chart, set it up, sat the PLC down and said "OK, we have the year ahead of us, what would you guys like to do next year?" Silence "Surely you have some ideas?" Silence After a period of what seemed like root canal dentistry, there was a plan but I sai

Hello Ev, Thank you for this clarification. I have learned that there are likely as many differentiations of deafness as there are individuals who are deaf. Our company tries to help both individuals who use assisted audio and those who use signing. I hope I did not offend you or either of your children.