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NJCubScouter

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Everything posted by NJCubScouter

  1. Packsaddle, I think you are correct. A laser gun (or whatever it is called) is not really a firearm. The language should be clarified. (Hear that, BSA? Clarified. Not with language about a "beam of light" that makes adult leaders wonder if they are supposed to start confiscating flashlights. OK?)
  2. Ed says: Votes middle of the road Ed, not that it's any of my business, but are you more than one person using an account name? And I have seen you say before that you are a Democrat, which is also somewhat puzzling given some of the things you say. Oh, and so I won't get accused of going off-thread; I'm still right-handed. Everybody in my family is right handed, and since some of them are current or former Scouters or Scouts, I guess they count too.
  3. Bats right, throws right, writes right. Though some may think I lean a bit to the left.
  4. Bob says: I know that the BSA thinks that communication skills are important, and that citizenship is a key element in advancement, and that developing citizenship is an aim. So I see no problem in the use of debate to help hone speaking skills, encourage knowledge of current events and the electoral process. HOWEVER, like any activity in scouting there should be some training involved first. And as the Sweet 16 of Safety points out, you should have an experienced person leading the activity. So I would recruit someone with actual debating experience to teach the rules and methodolo
  5. Rooster asks me: Are you suggesting that adult leaders must not or should not come up with any ideas unless there is BSA documentation that specifically endorses the same? Of course not. I am curious as to what BSA program materials do say about prayer. I want to know if the BSA confirms your opinion, mine or neither. Rooster, this whole debate that we have on this subject really boils down to one sentence of yours from a previous post: If the chartering organization has no religious affiliation (i.e., LDS, etc.), I don't feel it should be a unit decision. It should be th
  6. Jumping Jiminy Crickets. The third paragraph of my previous post was something that must have been in my copy-paste buffer from a post in another thread. (Bob wrote it, except for the word "Fat.") I must have hit the wrong button. I cannot edit posts for reasons that I cannot figure out, though the forum manager has tried to help me. I need to keep remembering to check the "preview" box. So please disregard the third paragraph. As either of my grandmothers would say if they were still with us, Oy vey.
  7. I agree with KoreaScouter. If it walks like a unit-related activity and quacks like a unit-related activity, I think the leaders run the risk of being dead ducks if anything happens. (Hey, that was pretty clever if I do say so myself.) My son's former pack had the same issue with a "whitewater" trip for Webelos. G2SS essentially says that Cub Scouts (no exception for Webelos) do boating on lakes, not rivers (among other requirements, of course.) Some of the parents in the Webelos den (including a leader) ended up doing it as a "family activity" even though other leaders said this was not
  8. Ramming speed! (A line that is funny mainly because it was ripped off from another movie.) I wonder what the few forum members (if any) who have never seen "Animal House" must be thinking right about now.
  9. BobWhite says: The problems that Rooster sites in his initial post comes from units who have made a decision to not follow the program. The solutions he proposes in a later post can almost all be found within the written program resources. This, by the way, is the reason why I did not discuss most of Rooster's suggestions: I did not have a problem with them. Although I do not have occasion to read the BSA's current "written program resources," most of these things sounded familiar either from my own Boy Scouting as a youth or from what my son's troop does now. However, Bob uses th
  10. I first noticed something was out of whack at a troop meeting a few weeks before summer camp, when my son was given a schedule to fill out for and met with an ASM to discuss what he should "take." It was confirmed when my son came home. First of all, I don't remember things being so regimented when I went to summer camp as a youth. You got there and there was a schedule for merit badges, and you went to what you wanted to go to. I do see that there is a value to having a schedule in advance for purposes of staffing, but this seems to be a symptom of making summer camp into an advance
  11. Welcome back littlebillie! Wow, almost a full month without a post. I knew something was missing from the forums, but I wasn't sure what it was.
  12. I had decided I was not going to be the one to keep this thread going, and then a camping trip got in the way. (Pretty poor attendance due to the rain; and some poor communications about when this trip was going to be; and the high school and middle school sports schedules getting into full swing. I went mainly to induce my 11-year-old son into going, and ended up being the "second adult" behind the Scoutmaster, not counting the 18-year-and-2-month-old "Assistant Scoutmaster" who unfortunately by his conduct did not really count as an adult leader. But if I decide to go into that, it will b
  13. Just want to add, as someone else said, the role of JASM's differs from troop to troop. He could work with boys on completing Tenderfoot, 2nd Class and 1st class requirements just as the ASM's do. He could provide instruction in Scouting skills. He could work with the Troop Guide, not to do his job, but just to make sure everything is going smoothly with the new scoup patrol, and give advice. Or any of a number of other things. Or sometimes he could just follow around the SM or ASM's and watch what they do and learn how to do it. I would also say (as I think someone else also suggest
  14. CubsRgr8, a JASM does not necessarily have to be an Eagle Scout. He does have to be at least 16 but not yet 18. In my son's troop it appears that the JASM is typically a Life Scout (who, like most of the other Eagles, finishes the Eagle requirements at the "last minute," turns 18, and either vanishes off to college or becomes an "ASM," the "ASM" being in quotation marks for a good reason, but that would be another thread.)
  15. At last night's troop meeting I listened closely as the boys spoke into their folded arms (which of course muffles the sound) and what they are actually saying begins "May the Great Master of all good scouts..." As opposed to Great Scoutmaster. I did an Internet search and both versions and other variations appear, some with "good" and some without, and some with other words at the end, and some that use this as a preface to a much lengthier prayer. I guess it's all a matter of custom. I'd be interested to know if the BSA has ever actually published these (or other) prayers anywhere.
  16. From what I have seen, different units have different "customs" on whether Committee Members ("MC") (which is what you presumably are registered as) wear uniforms. In the troop for which I am a MC, I have seen almost all of the MC's in uniform at one time or another at troop meetings, but it seems to be a matter of whether the mood strikes during a particular week. I have not been wearing my uniform to troop meetings. I have been wearing it to Eagle Courts of Honor. Just as a random sample, last night the CC was wearing his uniform (actually still with his SM patch, which I wish he would c
  17. OGE is right, the "Great Scoutmaster" is whatever deity the boy believes in, and can emcompass any belief system. If instead of a specific "God" the boy believes in a "spirit" or spiritual force or forces, of whatever name, then that is what is being asked to watch over us. (That would take in Buddhism and at least some Native American religions, by my understanding.) It also covers polytheism, whether that consists of many separate gods, or one god in many manifestations (and I have heard explanations of Hinduism that fall into each category). The Great Scoutmaster could be one of these g
  18. FatOldGuy, that reminds me of when I was driving my son home from his third or fourth troop meeting. I had observed that the troop did that benediction every time, and I also saw that nobody had explained it to my son, he was just doing what everybody else was doing. So I asked him whether he knew who the Great Scoutmaster is. His answer was, "God?", with the question mark. So I said, that's right, God. Now some might say, aha, this story works against my point that this is an acceptable prayer for a troop that decides to use it. I don't think so. I suspect that if after my son's f
  19. My son's troop had its annual planning meeting at summer camp this year. While I was there to pick up my son, the SM said to a group of us parents that the first troop meeting after the summer break would be on September 11. He did not say it with any irony or fanfare, he could have been telling us about a meeting on September 25 or June 12 or any other day. At that moment I realized that it was the first time in almost two years that I had heard anyone mention the date "September 11" as a date on the calendar, for a regular, routine event. Before then (and even since then), all refere
  20. Packsaddle, your comment about the SM who is devout and is "conflicted" about expressions of faith to the boys, made me think about my son's troop. I realize that I do not know what religion or denomination any of the leaders of the troop are, though I could make a good guess in some cases based on names or other circumstances. I never hear them talk about religion, except when it is an offhand comment like how someone saw so-and-so at church, or how someone can't make a meeting or trip because their church is having some event that day. Of course, I have only been with this troop for five
  21. Packsaddle says: Only ONE Issues&Politics thread active today and it's about...cooking sherry. I think the world is doing just fine. And it is good to know that here we are at peace on this eve. Ironically, however, on the Open Discussion board, Rooster and I seem to be debating about the role of prayer in the Scouting program. At least, we were a few hours ago, I am going back to check there now...
  22. Rooster defines the kind of prayers that should be said at Scout gatherings as follows: Instead of saying a short rote prayer, where by a few if any, actually grasp and/or embrace the meaning (but everyone mindlessly repeats) - I am suggesting a prayer that is from an individual's heartnot rehearsed or from a book, and addresses concerns that are close to that individual and those around him. I'm going to try to say this in a way that does not "disqualify" this thread from being in the "Open Discussion" topic. Because this thread is partly about religion and its place in Scouting, i
  23. Based on the year, these would be the requirements under which I passed Second Class and First Class. Most of the requirements do have a ring of familiarity. I find it interesting that they referred to the requirements as "tests," and I wonder when they stopped doing that. I suspect that the 1972-73 handbook, which changed "ranks" to "progress awards," and substituted "skill awards" for a unified list of requirements, did not use the word "tests." And although today we have "ranks" again and no "skill awards," I doubt that any subseqent handbooks have re-introduced references to "tests
  24. Rooster, what are some examples of things you think troops should be doing to "build character" that you do not think they are doing now?
  25. Kwc, I have no problem with the idea that the issue of alcoholic beverages vs. liquids that look somewhat like alcoholic beverages, but have other purposes, is one of a number of possible tools that can be used to teach and demonstrate the making of ethical choices. I would point out that the factual scenario that started off this thread is not an example of teaching ethical choices. Just the opposite. It seems that the Scoutmaster wasn't really sure whether the cooking sherry should be allowed on the trip, the campmaster was sure it should not be there, and all that happened was a big
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