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nolesrule

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Everything posted by nolesrule

  1. I do agree with all of that @qwazse. A good camp merit badge program will want to know if they made mistakes in issuing a merit badge completion and will take the opportunity to get feedback and also make the corrections.. Merit badge counselors should never be signing off on requirements that cannot be personally verified. We had a case where someone took E-prep at camp and the First Aid merit badge requirement was signed off even though I knew they hadn't earned it. I said something and they fixed it. It would not have issued a completion anyway because there were other requirements that
  2. The summer camp's Program Director has taken it upon herself to get this matter resolved, so I am stepping back. I appreciate everyone's input and feedback here, even in the cases where I disagreed with some of the reasoning.
  3. @fred8033 #1 My involvement in this was to actually facilitate the information gathering when this past Tuesday I was told that the CC reached out to someone but never got a response. The camp used Group.me for information sharing during camp with a separate channel for each week. It was still active, so I reached out to ask the questions and got aresponses. And then I provided the screengrabs of the conversations. That's the extent of it. However, this is not the only advancement-related issue I've been noticing with the troop (the others are not related to summer camp) and it is effecti
  4. @qwazseAgain, we'll have to disagree on the aspect of how a scout is getting short changed in scouting. I would contend that improperly executing the Methods is what shortchanges the scouts, because it is the Methods that instill the Aims and Ideals. The only thing this kind of situation teaches scouts is that they shouldn't trust adults. My daughter doesn't need this merit badge for anything. She wears them on her sash in the order she earns them and has decided to leave the spot open on her sash if it never gets awarded. She has already decided she will not redo a requirement she has alr
  5. She only came back from summer camp with completions in what was signed up for that was actually completed, as did all our scouts. Scouts returned with incompletes for those merit badges that were designated as not able to be completed at camp and also those that due to various circumstances were unable to be completed due to weather or other reasons. Our troop has gone to that camp 2 years in a row, and both my kids have gone an extra week each summer. The camp staff is extremely trustworthy in that regard and has solid lesson plans. It's my understanding that this particular requirement h
  6. @qwazseI see your point, but I disagree with it. The requirements are the requirements. Asking someone to do better than the minimum is fine. Denying someone credit for something they did that meets the requirements even though there is a better way is not fine and is ultimately a disservice to all involved. Why set the minimum as the minimum of that's not really the minimum? It's changing the rules of the game, and this is supposed to be a game, right? It's moving the goal posts, and that is a bad thing, not a good thing. It seems to me the language is intentionally vague, so as to allo
  7. @DuctTapeyour response is fair, and so are how you would handle the discussion. I'm not the counselor here, but I would handle things in the same manner. Essentially the CC/AC declared the requirement impossible on the basis of the moonrise time and knowledge of the camp's layout and the rules of camp regarding when scouts are required to remain in the campsite at night due to curfew. The point here is they did not take into account even the possibility of other means that meet the wording of the requirements. Is using imagery okay? The camp thinks so. I asked around in other places and
  8. Sorry if I wasn't clear. My point was that in the case of a cloudy night for someone not visually impaired, one could hold up a tablet with a night sky map (without lines or labels) and do the identifications. It is, for all intents and purposes, the same steps. Okay. Here's the requirement; Sketch the phase and position of the Moon, at the same hour and place, for four nights within a one week period. Include landmarks on the horizon such as hills, trees, and buildings. Explain the changes you observe. So here's the question at hand. Does this require actually looking
  9. Agreed. Right, but it demonstrates that you don't actually have to see the stars themselves in the sky to be able to meet the requirement. You essentially just have to point to something held above you outside at night (there's a note on that particular set of sub-requirements that basically says it must be done outside at night). But someone else's intepretation of that requirement might deem that scenario to not be completed as written but rather a circumvention. This was not the requirement that was disputed as being impossible to complete. But a literal reading of the di
  10. Interestingly the merit badge in this case is Astronomy. I am not going to post the specific requirement at issue nor what methods the camp employed to meet the requirement because then it might in fact turn into a debate about interpreting the requirement. I'll also note that when doing research on this subject I found an old Bryan on Scouting post from 2018 which discussed employing creative methods for differently abled people to be able to meet requirements as written. One of the examples included how a blind person was able to complete the observation requirements for Astronomy. The t
  11. Let's say that someone in the unit questions the completion of a merit badge based on their own interpretation of a specific merit badge requirement. 7.0.4.7 states in the first paragraph.... Is it not the purpose of this paragraph to give the merit badge counselor the opportunity to rescind a completion in the event the merit badge really was not complete? So what is supposed to happen if when consulting the MBC/org that administered the badge they affirm (or rather re-affirm) that all of the requirements were completed as written? Can the unit decide to overrule the informati
  12. Agreed. Just because you can doesn't mean you have to. No one is going to force you to wear your medals, square knot or no square knot. For that matter, no one is going to force you to wear the square knots either.
  13. My two year old daughter is outside blowing bubbles with her great grandmother right now. :-)
  14. I came across this last night. Thought it would be relevant to the discussion at hand. http://www.businessinsider.com/here-are-the-four-charts-that-explain-what-the-protesters-are-angry-about-2011-10
  15. "In short--- BSA should change it's policies on homosexuals only if it's decided that it's the right thing to do." I don't disagree with the Dale decision. It's one of the tenets that makes this country what it is. But the BSA itself shouldn't have a homosexual policy. The responsibility should fall onto the Chartering Organizations to decide if a leader meets their needs as a leader of scouts (Ideals, Aims, Methods, etc.). If the BSA is taking on that responsibility beyond criminal background checks, then they begin to decide that the morality of certain religions is more important
  16. The outside perception all come down to a couple of things. Most people see the BSA as camping, knot tying and merit badges and that they discriminate against homosexuals. To outsiders, there's no mission, Aims or Methods, and as such there's just a lack of communication in general. It's a public relations nightmare that the BSA doesn't know how to handle, and it's costing them come recruiting time. It is resulting in loss or reduced access to schools for meetings and recruiting, and you take a big hit when it affects recruiting. When you can hit up schools, you are having an opportunity
  17. Certainly not. In what manner you spend the money is somewhat different, but the principle is the same. Cash flow and growth are the keys to a thriving economy. People tend to ignore the cash flow issue and focus on the buzzwords with big red numbers like debts and deficits. You know what hurts cash flow? CEOs taking 2-digit millions in bonuses and laying off thousands of workers at the same time so that they can earn the bonus by decreasing expenses rather than actually trying to increase revenues. 1000 people making $40,000/year will put more money back into the economy (and thus
  18. I agree with Beavah, and so do economists. That's "economists", not "communists". Whatever happened to "You have to spend money to make money"?
  19. Welcome to Pinellas County. In other news, our Board of County Commissioners voted to end fluoridation of our drinking water last week.
  20. Have the SPL use the Troop Meeting Plan. http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/34425.pdf When was SPL back in the day it was essential to planning out a proper well-executed meeting, and doesn't leave time for anyone to get bored because things were always moving. In a well-planned meeting, 90 minutes will feel like it's not enough time rather than too much time.
  21. "Scouting is about the boys right??????? Not for some..... " Not sure what that has to do with this thread. The answers given to the question asked were spot on.
  22. I'm in agreement with 5yearscouter. In the Scout handbook, there is the asterisk for this specific requirement at the bottom of the first page of requirements. There is also a separate note on the second page of the requirements about Alternate Requirements for physical or mentally disabled that meet the disabled criteria. The Tenderfoot and First Class ranks have the same Note about alternate requirements, but no asterisks pointing out alternatives to any specific requirments. I think it stands to reason that the asterisk can be applied to any scout who needs crutches or i
  23. What exactly is a "unit leader"? Is it any adult with a unit registration? Is it anyone registered to an adult unit program leader position (DL, CM, SM, CA and assistants)? Is it specifically the person holding the top program adult leadership position (i.e. the person who signs on the "Unit Leader" line on various forms? And as a UC and former ADC, I do know what the actual expectations are and what the reality is. Perhaps I'm asking a rhetorical question, but then I've never seen "unit leader" (lower case) actually defined anywhere.
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