NJCubScouter

Do we get to use AHG stuff? Like what stuff? Like all the camps they own, or their version of Philmont or other high adventure bases? I think the point is that they don't own any of that, so they need to use someone else's. In theory it may be a two-way street, but that begins to look very much like a one-way street if only one of the "partners" owns a street.

Basementdweller says: The AHG has a belief there is A, one god and the Western style belief in him. Well, they are a little more specific than that: Their statement of faith includes, "We believe that there is One Triune God Father, Jesus Christ His one and only Son, and the Holy Spirit Creator of the universe and eternally existent. We believe the Holy Scriptures (Old/New Testament) to be the inspired and authoritative Word of God." I am from a "Western style" religion -- one that is, genealogically, closely related to Christianity -- which does not believe major parts of that. (My religion does have the one God, the Father (and the Holy Spirit, though that gets a little complicated) as well as the Old (but not the New) Testament.) I also wonder about their stance on Gay or lesbian adult leaders??? Do you really wonder? I don't wonder. But it wouldn't bother me if they do exclude gay people as leaders because (1) I'm not a member; and (2) they make it clear up front that their organization is based on certain specific religious beliefs, so it is understandable that they have policies consistent with those beliefs.

ForTheBoys, we don't actually know whose money it was. I doubt that it was ultimately the Secret Service agent's own money. Maybe the agents guarding the president carry some money for things like this; maybe it is the president's money and maybe it is your money and my money. Personally I would not object if $20 of our tax dollars from the president's "discretionary fund" went to buy the popcorn, although I guess technically in that case he probably shouldn't eat the popcorn himself. Maybe he puts it out for guests at the White House. Does it really matter? It kind of reminds me of that movie where Michael Douglas plays the president, and there is a running joke where he is trying to buy roses for his girlfriend. At one point he asks his staff, "Where are my credit cards?" and they tell him they are "in storage in Wisconsin (I think) with the rest of your things." There was a strong implication in that scene that the president carries neither cash nor credit cards himself, which apparently turns out to be true, and I guess it makes sense.

SR540Beaver, don't you see a difference between an organization that declares that it is is "absolutely nonsectarian" in matters of faith, and one with a statement of faith that requires adult leaders to be Christian? (And I'm leaving aside for now the question of whether the BSA actually is "absolutely nonsectarian" and just focusing on what they say.) As I have said, I have no problem with the AHG, and certainly think there is no justification for name-calling. I have no problem with the Girl Scouts either, and in my personal opinion it is the Girl Scouts that is more "compatible" with the BSA because they are not oriented to any single religion. Whatever group people want to join (if any) is fine with me. But when it comes to the BSA (which is the only one of these organizations that I am involved with), I don't see the benefit of "partnering" (or whatever it is) with the AHG, or of emphasizing the "relationship" in Scouting magazine.(This message has been edited by njcubscouter)

Well, I have no power at home -- I believe approximately half of New Jersey lost power and only about 20 percent has been restored, but who's counting -- but I do have power here at work, which is how I am writing this. We lost power around 8 pm or so on Monday and it may still be out for days.

Thanks Packsaddle. This will be interesting. Fortunately I am not near the coast or any other area that has been evacuated. My house itself is not in a flood area, but a major river passes through our area and there will definitely be flooding. I am anticipating being without electricity at some point, hopefully not for too long. I wish the best to everybody else in this area.

AHG's program and organization is very similar to BSA... That's not too surprising, considering that they have tried to copy the BSA as closely as possible, right down to at least one of the trademarks ("Tenderfoot") that the BSA had to ask them to stop using (which they did.) Of course, they did not copy the part about being "absolutely nonsectarian." But hey, if anyone wants to join an organization like that, it's fine with me. I just don't see why the BSA necessarily needs to associate itself with them.

I would suggest speeches of 2-3 minutes, tops, but ultimately I would leave it up to the boys. Our elections are usually run either by the outgoing SPL, or if the SPL is running for re-election, by a JASM or former SPL, and they pretty much run it however they run it. It is a tradition in our troop that the adults do not say a word to the boys during the entire election process. The way it was run this year made me a little nervous (it seemed kind of chaotic and I couldn't quite figure out what they were actually doing) but the resulting SPL was the one I would have voted for if I had a vote, so all's well that ends well.

Tampa Turtle says: Actually drove 300' past my house on the way to the local fires station. I wish I had mowed the grass. I'm sure the Secret Service took careful note of your unkempt lawn as they passed.

New Jersey has required background checks and (more recently) fingerprinting for teachers for a number of years, not sure how long. I am not sure about volunteers. I do know that in the past 2-3 years, school board members have become subject to the background check/fingerprinting requirements, which as far as I know, no other elected government officials are subject to. If the excuse is that a school board member would be likely to visit a school while children are present more often than most other government officials (which is probably true), my response would be that the schools are visited much more often by parents -- not even necessarily as volunteers, just in their role as parents -- and nobody would suggest that a parent must be fingerprinted and background-checked simply to visit their child's school. So I am not quite sure why school board members are subject to this requirement, except that it is one of a number of requirements that have been piled on school board members (who at least in New Jersey, are unpaid) so nobody will want to be a school board member anymore, which has become increasingly true. (As "older" forum members may recall, I was once a school board member, which is why I pay attention to this.)

In our troop the letters are to be addressed to the Scoutmaster. If the Scoutmaster is attending the Eagle BOR (not as a member, just for "moral support" for the Scout), the SM brings the letters (in their sealed envelopes) to the BOR and gives them to the chair of the BOR (who is a member of the District Advancement Committee; all other BOR members are members of the troop committee.) If the SM is not attending he gives the letters to one of the troop committee members who will be part of the BOR, who gives them to the chair. At the beginning of the BOR, with the Scout out of the room, the chair opens the letters, reads them and passes them around. At the end the chair collects the letters, and I don't know what happens to them, but I am going to assume that he destroys them as the guidelines say. The letters never reach the council office, nor are they ever shown to or given to the Scout.

Eamonn, How do the ads here compare to those in the UK? From watching "Prime Minister Question Time" on C-SPAN from time to time, it seems like politics gets pretty nasty there as well. As far as this election, I have pretty much tuned it all out at this point, except for one of the local races, in which I am actively involved in supporting several candidates. I know who I am voting for for all the offices, so I am directing my attention to the one race I can actually help do something about.

The word "homework" in this context makes me cringe, and evidently I am not alone. I agree with ScoutNut's approach. I am not sure I would necessarily call it "cheating." I agree with qwazse's comment about different Scouts having different abilities. Also, I looked at this requirement and what it requires is that the Scout go to certain locations, observe certain things, prepare a written report about what he observed, and discuss the report with his counselor. (Oversimplifying slightly but not enough to matter.) When you "discuss" it with him, it might be reasonable to find out whether he actually did the "going" and "observing". If he did, and brought his father along, and his father helped him with the report, I would feel better than if... well, you can fill in the other possibility/ies yourself. One also must wonder what possessed this young man to tell his "friends" how "his" report was prepared. Not that I want kids to "cheat" and then cover it up, but who really needed to know that?

Does anyone have any information (or even an educated guess) as to what the requirements of this badge might be? It appears that the official "unveiling" will not occur until next summer after the Jamboree. There is a description of "sustainability" on my favorite source of sometimes-correct information, here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainability Note to Seattle Pioneer (based on a comment in the other thread), it does mention economics, and I think economics is implied as part of the whole concept. But I'm not sure exactly how you get a meaningful set of requirements out of that.(This message has been edited by njcubscouter)

Sentinel: No, I'm not saying that at all. Perhaps that would have been clearer if I put a "smiley" after what I said, as I meant to.

The place I have seen the most denigration of beliefs by ANY group of people is this forum. Sentinel, you need to get out on the Internet more. This place is very tranquil in comparison to some others.

Brewmeister, my use of the word "most" implies that I have known atheists who do not respect the religious beliefs of others. As I also said, I have known religious people who don't respect the beliefs of others, and I have known people in both categories who do respect the beliefs of others. As for "freedom from religion", that is one of those "labels" that I think don't contributes much to a conversation. In some cases it is used as a "self-label" and in others (including your post) it is used as a derogatory label. I'll leave the labeling to you.

Brewmeister says: The problem with believing in atheism is the odd combination of nihilism and self-loathing that comes with it. As a result, believers in athiesm have to spend time denigrating the beliefs of theists--it's totally predictable. Actually, most atheists I have known do not denigrate the beliefs of others, as Merlyn sometimes does. On the other hand, I have known many believers in God, of a wide variety of different religions, who denigrate the religious beliefs (and non-beliefs) of others -- and many that don't. Some of those believers who do denigrate the religious beliefs of others have done so right here in this very forum -- and they have outnumbered our one resident "avowed" atheist.

SP, nobody has even seen the requirements yet. How do you know what is and isn't going to be there?

As a troop committee member, there is nothing for me to do about it except to continue to emphasize the importance of youth protection training and adherence to the guidelines. If someone from the CO starts asking about it, I would refer them to council.

Has anyone actually spoken with this person about whether he still wants to be registered as part of the troop committee? If that were done, he might (1) start participating, which some of your committee members might not like, but at least he is then a contributing member again, or (2) say, no, take me off the charter (maybe he doesn't even realize he is still on it), or (3) stay on the charter and at least start paying his own registration, which is an "option" that our troop does with non-participating adult leaders, in fact they often suggest it themselves when asked if they still want to be on the charter, or (4) keep things exactly as they are. It seems to me that 3 out of the 4 possibilities are better than what you have now, although my opinion might change if I knew what he had done that had a "negative impact" on the troop.

Sustainablity Merit Badge. Sounds like the liberals are making inroads into BSA. Yeah, yeah, I expected something like that as soon as I saw the word "sustainability." At least you gave it a "smile." Well, you know those liberals. The next thing you know they'll want to have a "Citizenship in the World" merit badge and make it Eagle-required. Oh, wait...

There is a thread about the same general subject under Advancement (it has "Sustainability" in the title) and I made a longer comment there. It is good to see Cooking back as a required MB (I also have the silver-edged version from way back when) but I think they should have cut out 1 or 2 of the other requireds at the same time. They also may have overdone it on the number of new technology-related MB's, though I guess I understand why they did. It will be interesting to see the requirements for the "Sustainability" MB and how they differ from Environmental Science, which will become alternative/required badges.

While I am a big supporter of technology education, I think they may be overdoing it with all the new technology merit badges. By my count they are going from one computer-related merit badge to five (counting Robotics) in two years. Also, I have been "campaigning" on here for years for them to reduce the number of Eagle-required MB's from 12 to 10 or 11, and now they are increasing it to 13. There should be some balance between required and non-required in my opinion, and now they are making it even further out of balance. I am fine with making Cooking required, but they should have taken one or two others off the list at the same time. It is the "good idea syndrome" all over again; same thing with all the new technology MB's. The new "Sustainability" MB (whatever exactly that turns out to be) is fine since it is not adding to the required list, as it will be an alternative to Environmental Science.

One of our largest neighboring troops is chartered to a United Methodist Church, I wonder how this will affect them (if at all.) If this spreads to other "nationwide" CO's, it might cause National to rethink their stance towards "Friends of..." charters. Better to have that than not have a unit at all.