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Oak Tree

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Everything posted by Oak Tree

  1. packsaddle, it was indeed just an oversight. Even as I was listing a few people off the top of my head, I knew that there were others I should be including. One of the others would be that Basementdweller fellow who is pushing his gay agenda... "I don't agree with BSA's ban on Gay or Lesbian Leaders.....I know some folks in the Gay/Lesbian lifestyle that are much better people than some of the Bible thumping Heterosexual folks I have met in scouting... Just sayin..... " (3/29/12)
  2. I'm not sure I see the "focal point of that attack". Sure, there's Merlyn. He's not a registered Scouter and he has an up front agenda. Other than that? I've seen a number of active BSA volunteers state their position. I don't think Eamonn, or Lisabob, or NJCubScouter, or moosetracker, or BSA24, any of the other volunteers who say they are in favor of local option are "PUSHING the gay agenda" nor are they trying to "strike out at the BSA volunteers". I think it's good that there's a forum where active volunteers can state opinions on the current policies. Now, if we were being overru
  3. We have a lot of home-schooled boys in our troop. Maybe a quarter or a third of the troop? Hard to keep track. Some of them switch back and forth. We have all kinds of home-schooled kids, just as we have all manner of public school kids and all manner of private school kids. I'd be hard-pressed to say whether I can notice any overall average difference between any of those groups. At least in our group, I definitely do not see a trend of helicopter parents with the home-schooled boys. The last few cases I can think of where the parents were overly attentive all involved kids who atte
  4. Can they still do these positions without being registered in those 5 key positions as a non-registered adult? Well, a non-registered adult can't fulfill the role of being your officially registered committee chair. You must have an officially registered SM, two committee members, and a committee chair. You need a COR, but that can be the CC. A person can be a treasurer, or an advancement chair, or pretty much anything else, without being registered. Note that you do need a registered leader to go on every trip. If they are a committee member and won't bother to take the si
  5. Could be burnout. But that's not my initial reaction. I wouldn't be surprised if he's had this general attitude forever. I would guess that either way he doesn't realize how he's coming across. Sometimes it's easy to roll your eyes at some Scout behavior. We try not to say anything in front of the Scouts, but sometimes it will come out around the adult campfire in the evening. We have to watch what we say there, too, because Scouts are often listening. I could just as easily imagine feeling "Now I remember why I hate riding with groups." Takes forever, you have to wait until everyone
  6. Ooh, ooh, ooh, I like it. Not sure if Lowe's would go along with it. And I fear that someone might call the council, but it would be worth it just to give it a try.
  7. Seriously? There is a Council out there that has made a rule about when you can start selling popcorn? Well, as Basementdweller says, it's competitive and a one-day advantage can make a big difference. Our council does have a date, and it's a Saturday. They want to get all the forms out ahead of time, but they don't want to create some type of situation where some packs or troops have an advantage over others. Everyone around here just accepts that this is the fair way to proceed. I haven't heard anyone complain about it.
  8. Don't know if this is the "best", but it's one I like. We had one Scout join our troop when he was 15. He was the typical 15-year old, nice kid, good in school, likes to hang out with the older kids and not the younger ones. We don't get many his age who join up. I was doing his Scoutmaster conference for Scout - it had taken his mom awhile to get around to doing the child protection exercises, so he'd been in the troop for a few months. I asked him how he was liking the troop, and he said he was having a good time. I asked him what he liked about it, and he said the activities were a lot
  9. Yeah, I'm not so sure, BSA24. I feel like Scouting's brand has always been associated with nerdiness. In my estimation that cannot be the primary problem, but your estimation is obviously different. Now, back to focusing on Eamonn's main point. Just to put a little bit of variety into the discussion... Around here units seem to be pretty successful. We have more units being created on a regular basis, and many of the existing ones have grown to be fairly large. Our districts are being split because there are too many units in a district. I do hear folks talk about how "in t
  10. I've seen Scouts selling popcorn at the local hardware store the last several times I've been there. I talked with a couple of them today. I should have asked them if they've had anyone express any political opinions. Maybe next time. I did ask them how things were going, and the only issue they mentioned was that a lot of people have already bought popcorn. They said they were making some good sales, though. Basementdweller, there are undoubtedly lots of people who share the same opinion as the people who talked with your Scouts. There are lots of people who have an opposite opinion. I t
  11. See http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/Media/InsigniaGuide/06D.aspx for the current rules. I'm not aware that there's ever been a minimum number to wear on a sash.
  12. The actual question asked in the topic appears to be a bit difficult to answer based on a quick search of the web. It seems clear that most European countries take a more liberal approach to this topic than the BSA does, but France has additional complications. There are five Scouting groups in France, which appear to be the Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and Muslim Scouting organizations, as well as the original, plain, Scouts of France. They all belong to one French Scouting organization. From their interactive map of Scout units, it looks like the Catholics are the overwhelming majority
  13. Our district holds one event per year, the district camporee. We generally attend, although sometimes we also offer an alternative event that month. I'm not entirely sure what "go it alone" means in this context. There just isn't much for the unit to do with the district. Our district Eagle boards used to be very difficult, at least the proposal part. The chairman gradually pushed out some of the overly aggressive old-timers and they are now much more pleasant. I think that for many district issues, what is really needed is for new blood to come in. The guy who runs the district camp
  14. Our unit does not receive any funding from Intel, but we do receive funding from similar programs at other employers. As for the question of whether Intel would fund Christian organizations, they will, depending on how you define "Christian organizations." From the Intel Foundation section on Intel's web site:Intel will not fund:Programs that are outside the defined site community (see list) Foundations that are strictly grant-making bodies (Section 509(a) under US tax code)Sectarian or denominational religious organizations, such as churches, temples, missionary groups or funds w
  15. Part of your assumption is that "strong" units are swimming in volunteers. Gotta agree with this. Our unit always has an adult position or two that are open, and we are constantly having to recruit adults to fill certain roles. Occasionally even twist arms. We don't have lots of adults hanging around with nothing to do. It's not like I just snap my fingers and hordes of adults leap to do my bidding. I have been entirely unsuccessful at getting any other adults to go to Wood Badge. The one thing we've been able to do is to get a few of our adults to serve on district Eagle boards. It
  16. I doubt much, if any, of those contributions ever trickled down to the membership base anyway. These were grants made to units and councils. It doesn't say how much went to units and how much to councils, but many volunteers get matching grants at the unit level. If you were a unit that regularly received these donations, this could make a fairly big difference to you. This pressure is not directly on National, but it is a way that corporate America exerts influence. I expect more and more of this.
  17. A Venturing crew can choose their own uniform, right? So a kilt could be a fine part of a crew's actual, official, uniform. Kilts could even be worn with the Venturing uniform shirt, and still be legal, as far as I can tell. From scouting.org "It is recommended that crews adopt a charcoal-gray casual pants and/or backpacking-style shorts for their uniform. However, each crew may determine what, if any, specific uniform pants or shorts they will wear based on crew activities."
  18. If this SE and the cronies associated with him make it work.....He could end up bein your SE.. Yes, I realize that. We're lucky to have the SE that we have. It doesn't sound like this new system is working all that well, though. Don't think your protected..... I realize that there are many factors that influence whether or not we are successful, and many factors that influence whether a council sells a camp. I don't think we are "protected", but I do think there is a low likelihood that the camps around here that we use are going to be sold off. The reasons I view it
  19. SeattlePioneer, Like TwoCubDad, I recognize that you do valuable work at the district level and that your work in revitalizing the pack(s) is excellent work at the unit level. Maybe there are districts and units where things are much more district-centric. I do not think that my unit is all that unusual around here. DO you organize your own unit Cub Scout Day Camp and Cub O'ree? We did organize our own pack outings that seemed to generate more individual family satisfaction. They were more organized, had a higher ratio of adults to Scouts, and had fewer frustrating logistic
  20. Congratulations to you and your son! I'll bet there were times when you thought this day would never come.
  21. I went to a district committee meeting once. I was bored beyond what any reasonable participation in any Scouting activity should make me. The only interesting thing was to chart how boring it was. I agree with TwoCub that the district is there to support the unit. And I agree with BSA24 that a strong unit really doesn't need the district. Things of value that the district does for us: - organizes a join Cub Scout day at the local park. Gets a flyer for that into schools, and invites the packs to show up and have a table. - delivers popcorn to the units. At least for the Cub Scou
  22. If the different activity was known in advance to the leaders, but was not shared with the parents, I'd expect to have at least a few unhappy parents. I can't imagine doing this, actually, just because it would create a huge trust barrier. That said, there have certainly been events where things were probably riskier than the parents understood them to be, but that's just because it's often difficult to assess risk when you aren't familiar with the activity. Heck, there have been events that I've gone on, just to find myself partway through, saying, "Dang, this is a little bit riskie
  23. I had one older woman from the church mention it to me in passing..."Did you see the latest news on the Scouts? [shaking her head] That's terrible..." That's the only local reaction I've seen. No parent has brought it up, no one of any authority at the CO has brought it up. From that I am inferring that anyone who has seen any of it recognizes that it is not a troop-level issue, and it does not affect the day-to-day operation of the troop. I think I would do more harm than good if I were to bring it up in any general fashion. If people were to start talking about it, my reaction might be
  24. Do they keep serving in their position? Typically yes. There are many adult roles in a troop and most of them do not require a registered leader.
  25. The best thing about this is that nothing like this is happening around here. I suspect that the large majority of councils are not doing this. If you looked at the last census bureau map, it appeared that a state's population grew in proportion to the distance from Michigan. Seriously, Michigan was the only state to lose population, and all of the states with 15%+ population growth form a concentric arc from Idaho to NC. You had to be at least four states away from Michigan to grow that fast. Anyway, just wanted to report, things aren't like that here, as far as I know.
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