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Councils need to establish special needs umits with paid professionals who are not only SMs, CMs, DLs, but are also professionally certified to deal with things like behavioral and neurological challenges.

I'm in favor of mandatory liability insurance for every firearm. Policy limit could be determined by magazine size at $250,000 per shot, or something similar. Of course, this would only affect legal and responsible gun owners and not solve our real gun problem which is illegally possessed hand guns used by the average criminal.

Trans-Atlantic is short DEs, but I'm not sure they are actively seeking to replace them. Teh pay doesn't come close to covering what is needed to live on the economy.

Let's count it as one of the un-enumerated "blessings of liberty."

A few more things for the hopper: I learned in college biology that for every pregnancy that carries to term, 6 conceptions have failed to flourish. Humans have been seeking to control fertility since they could reason. Look up herbs for birth control or to induce miscarriage. Are they the most successful herbal remedies? Probably not, but they point to a long history of humans desiring abortion. And, what about abortions that really and truly are medically necessary--it's really the fetus or the woman, and the woman will not survive to viability? In an accident scenario the doctor can save the mother or the almost viable baby, but not both. Who gets to choose? Which one should the chooser choose? Is one choice more moral or ethical than the other?

Who has more right to control what's going on in that uterus? The woman? The fetus? The man? The State?

And if you do it, vice the SM, it will have more of an impact.

Is Scouting the coolest thing on post? No, but we also have mostly well-rounded and well-adjusted boys and parents as part of our units due to demographics of a higher headquarters and the reluctance of the military to transfer families with special needs to this area. For my nephew though, most of the kids in his den are "challenged" to one extent or another. Only one other child in D's den is "normal." (My sister is a middle school teacher, so her definition of normal is pretty expansive.) These kids are unable or unwilling to fully participate in an active program. Their parents often abandon them to DLs who are not therapists or social workers to get an hour of quiet. It's no wonder the D-Man prefers his baseball teammates and quit Cubs. I suppose I'm getting to the point that I believe if kids can't behave or perform at/near grade level, they need to be in a pack that runs every den like a Tiger den. It's not having one or two kids in the pack with a "special need." It's having 30-40% with issues but not having those parents realize that the average volunteer just can't handle it, and those parents still insist we treat their kids both like everyone else and in accordance with the IEP.

This sounds more like the CM and CC haven't made a solid division of yours-mine. When I took over for a weak CC, I told our CM that admin was me and the committee, not him. If it's paper, I sign it. Other than staying in the loop with Outdoor Activities and Advancements, our CM has totally backed off all admin functions. We have also shown the entire Pack our color coded org chart, which works well with military folks, and that has helped get a lot of admin issues directed to the Committee and away from the CM. It really sounds like the CM and CC aren't getting along or working well together. It is truly a partnership, with the CC being the sharp eyed quieter partner in the back of the room taking care of business while the CM is up front and active with the boys and DLs.

The CM needs to be at pack meetings, all-pack activities/functions, monthly pack committee meetings, and any DL meetings or training he sets up. If your CM can't/won't do these things, it's time to find a new CM. The CC and COR are the ones who approve adult positions, so the CC can appoint an ACM if necessary. However, you shouldn't be expecting the CM to be at every den meeting night. How involved is your CC and the committee? Has a clear line been drawn between program and administration? Do the CC and CM even get along? What does the COR have to say?

They ask for e-mails on the app and council/national never use it to confirm registration, send out a member number, or anything else that I can tell. Why ask for information you aren't going to ever use? Cause it's fun? Everyone else does it? Every time I get an e-mail from BSA or TAC or our district it's because I asked to be on a list.

Every app includes a place for an email address. Why doesn't the system, at some level, send an automated email that confirms registration and the assigned BSA ID with a link to myscouting.org where the recipient could immediately update his account? Is this hard from an IT standpoint? (This message has been edited by Nike)

iPad failure. (This message has been edited by Nike)

If we were to apportion EC vote by who wins a congressional district, wouldn't we be just as well off to let only the House of Representatives vote for President with a few stray Senatorial votes here and there? It's worked pretty well for 200 years. I'd try another 200 before messing with it. We're still dealing with fall out from the direct election of Senators.

Every system has idiosyncrasies. The Electoral College is ours.

"What's a good customer service way to avoid this drama? There's only so many strings I can pull." Get out in front of the problem by: 1. Communicating regularly to units--Remind them to send you stuff and remind them that they can check their rosters on-line. Attach instructions. Put this stuff on the front page of your council website or at least somewhere it can be easily found. 2. Make sure they know what your postal and email addresses are and then respond to every app you receive with a short "Got Bob's app. Thanks! BR" 3. You know who your problem units/leaders are. Stay on top of them. 4. If this is a real problem in your council, talk with the powers that be about incentives for units that turn in any apps by mail/e-mail. 5. At summer camp, if you have some video-related MB, ask them to do a 30 second funny video on filling out forms, etc. Stop being passive and do your job creatively.

Wear it in the rain for a weekend. He'll hate it.

Yes, they get access to BSA members, and those programs generally provide another dimension to the program. When's the last time any of them needed BSA to provide them with training and facilities or an entire week of Philmont programming? Seriously, what does AHG bring to the table other than an evangelical ministry to girls that might soften up new charter organizations for the BSA pitch? If BSA wants a girls program, they should just do it themselves.

AHG is gicing my the impression that they can not survive without significant BSA support and may even be angling for absorption as a long term strategy. Girl Scouts stood its own two feet from the beginning. Yes, they had influential backers who were able to pour money into the program, but they didn't have to reach out to BSA in order to provide training, programming, and facilities. (Whoever says they just copied it: well, why redesign the wheel when you could just redecorate it?) WHO is pushing this organization onto BSA from within?

If we lived in DC, I know one Scout who'd give that man a toga. Does anyone else think the Boy Scout looks like Eisenhower? (This message has been edited by Nike)

Once again, WHO at the national level is pushing AHG onto BSA? And, why is AHG so desperate to attach themselves to BSA if they have a sustainable program model? Do they want to be their own organization for girls or is absorption their long term strategy? AHG is a first and foremost a ministry, not a Scouting program that is used as part of a ministry outreach. It's right there on the front page of the website.

Is BSA using AHG as a stalking horse? Are they testing out a Girls' Division without having to do any work or suffer any embarrassment if it doesn't go well? And who is AHG's special connection at BSA? It's not just the ladies at AHG pushing a more robust and active partnership.

PERE, We have third-nation nationals who are members of USA Girl Scouts Overseas (a division of GSUSA since the 1920s). American Girl Scouts is very popular with our local ex-pat Japanese community. If the parents are part of the general expat Anglo-phone community but there isn't a unit from their native country, they will frequently join an American Girl Scout troop. Many English speaking International Schools host Girl Scouts as well as BSA units. There are also occasional British Scout units, depending on the size of the British community.

AHG membership in other countries is probably tied mainly to the American ex-pat, military, and missionary communities. India, in particular, has had a strong Guide program since the 1920's and is the location of WAGGGS' Sangam center in Pune. I just wish AHG would be either more honest about their aims or better reflect their inclusiveness on their website.

And not one word that AHG is an exclusively evangelical Christian organization when it comes to adult leadership. This does not help BSA at all. I just sent my letter to the editor.(This message has been edited by Nike)