qwazse

I guess here's an original answer to the OP: (Colossians 4:6) "Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man." I'm not exactly sure what St. Paul intended by "salt" but it probably wasn't what my SM called "salty speech". Regardless, it's a reasonable model for "a scout is clean." And it came from a guy under house arrest for his public declarations. I'm not saying I know exactly what pen strokes allow a cartoon to become "grace, seasoned with salt", but I kinda suspect that we all have a sense of what we should allow ourselves. Even so, that's not gonna keep someone from being killed over what they say ... Nero had a quite visceral answer for what Paul and his lackeys said ... but what was said eventually won over an empire.

I'd chalk it up to post-modernism and the necessity that there be more than one narrative for everything.

When we had a scouter who was dying, regular transfusions of blood were a huge help. So, the boys canvased the neighborhood and hosted a blood drive for him. After he passed, they hosted it for many years in his honor.

Every school district is different. Ours will allow us to produce flyers with the note at the bottom that the program is independent of the school district. They sometimes will make copies and circulate them as well and put them on the "community" page of their website. The principal may arrange time for an assembly or let you set up a table at the end of the school day, or the PTA may ask for you to come to one of their family nights. The school principal and superintendent would probably love to hear from you. Let your DE know your plans. He/she might have promotional materials all ready to go.

Excellent questions! Some uncomfortable answers: Engage lovingly by learning the arguments for and against the other faith.This includes Getting to know the the occasional zealot. Understanding what they value. Learning their language. Distinguishing the thugs from the idealists. Reminding zealots that in their hey-day, Islamic empires benefited from the good graces of their non-muslim citizens, and in its dark ages Christian Europe marginalized non-Christian (sometimes non-catholic) citizens. The Soviets marginalized everyone who would not put the state above all else. Things weren't all that great when our countrymen started demonizing godless communists, and when they stopped being communist, the simply godless. The general consensus after centuries of observation: a healthy society grants folks a little room to be themselves. Admitting where your people may have sold out your faith a little for the sake of your culture. Learning how to communicate what your religion has taught you about handling provocations. Prepare youth to oppose thuggery wherever it may appear. This means figuring out how to stand up against and command the respect of brute force bullies. It also means figuring out how to stand up against and command the respect of those who openly mock others.

Willkommen! I can assure you that each of your six boys is different even if they are the same age. (But you probably already knew that!) We look forward to hearing your adventures as they hike and camp and generally grow into find young men.

JoeBob, the proposal is based on a skewed Western understanding of Islam. Even if there were a tradition of Allah being unwilling to honor the works of any body touching swine, it could simply be annulled by fatwa declaring that the lamb sacrificed for the Eid would be sufficient to overcome any infidels' defamation of your corpse. Pawns though they may be, jihadists are not deterred by feeble attempts at twisting their superstitions.

I have a couple of friends who are political cartoonists. So, I know that they've born malice from extremists, and it made them think twice about what they drew. I think there are bounds on taste. If we are merely mocking someone else, or setting them up for abuse, then maybe we should change our tone. If we are appealing to someone else to see things at a higher level, then maybe they should listen. I agree with Pack that you can't legislate courtesy. And those gunmen who felt the could do so by force are mere pawns in someone else's very nasty game.

This is where you get state park/trail maps, and draw a radius reflecting how far you all want to travel. Then have the boys research points of interest within that radius. Then, figure out how you can get by with minimum equipment. I met a troop from Michigan who was backpacking the North Country Trail in PA. They didn't bring tents. Each patrol was assigned two light-weight tarps. These were specifically designed for backpacking. But trade-off some weight, increase flexibility and 8'-by-8' or 8'-by-12' tarps would serve.

E94, look into the politics of those "primitive camps." In our council they are typically land grants that if the council cedes ownership (i.e., attempts to sell), all proceeds revert to the estate of the original donor. A rule from which my boys benefit greatly, since they love primitive camping!

Rechartering my crew was nasty. That's partly my adults' faults for waiting so long to do their YP online, then discovering that the site was resetting their password or whatever. Partly, because the system didn't recognize who my COR was even though he was registered as the troop, so I had to touch base with our troop CC to make sure we had our documents in line before I even bothered sending them to HQ. Staff in most councils aren't IT saavy, and unless there is a volunteer who knows how to design user interfaces they set things up badly, You're not alone.

Barry has a point. And it's not just adults. My boys know my opinions about the irrelevance of an SPL unless there are 18 or more boys around. Nevertheless, they are down to a 1-patrol troop and they still fuss over who is SPL ... even though we haven't doled out an SPL patch for a couple years. The real issue is what a troop tasks the senior patrol leader with. Does he coordinate? Or does he dictate? Is he mentoring? Or is he bailing out slackers? Are the PL's giving after-action reports? Or are they waiting for his orders? I'll through this out: with a troop-method emphasis, the SPL is a grueling, nasty, mop-up-other-peoples-mess position. With a patrol-method emphasis, the SPL is an honor position, slightly easier than PL, with ample time for naps (or practical jokes on JASMs).

Shooting Sports Weekend. Rock Climbing. Visit the County Jail.or State Police Barraks. Fly Fishing. Serve at a Soup Kitchen. Visit a Farm (sleep in a hay loft). Hold a square dance (invite sisters and girlfriends). Oops, I got my venturing hat on ... But I bet certain troops could do that as well.

I love Question Time ... the parliamentary one, not the TV show. I like the TV show (think I saw it once) ... there's just no way to improve on the back-and-fourth of British MPs! This is usually a classroom project in most of our schools, and usually involves a lot of chaos unless the kids have been brought up with rules of order (which they mostly haven't). Our venturers should be hosting ethical controversies. But few are very interested in doing so. The real trick is to choose a room where the acoustics favor the speaker. Also you need ways of casting votes by the end of the debate (colored marbles that voters place into bins representing rank-order of preference might work well in your case).

Controlling co-leaders who never of wanted the kids to be disappointed were one of the reasons I joined this forum. So, you all may be preaching to the choir. I'd like hear from folks with dissapointmentphobia. What drives it? If you used to have it, how did you get beyond it?

Welcome! Most of us don't know what else to say either, but we somehow manage to blather on ...

No offense JG, but when I see "very sad", I usually expect it to be about a scout or scouter dying. This may be "pathetic", but not something that should bring you to grief. Life is feeding you lemons, so ... Keep taking your boy camping ... with our without his troop! (So I think we've advised you before.) Visit both troops, ask your son which he think is best for him. Be honest with him abut costs like time and money shuttling to another town. In your town, ask if there would be community leaders (not necessarily in scouts) who would like to help you sit on EBoR's. Trust me, your DE would like that prospect. Look for young adults of noble character in your town who would be willing to assist the SM. Look to your den parents. Even the ones who've sat on their hands until now. Are any of them better suited to scouting than cubbing? Bring them and their boy along on your father-son campouts. (I think you get where I'm going with this.) This might mean you begging off a couple of pack activities. (Note: you don't have to leave your current pack if your son winds up in a different CO's troop!) But, part of your job is to find your replacement. Sounds like its time to start now because if you're like me the right guy is not waiting to pop out of the woodwork. Oh, and here's hoping that lemonade will be surprisingly good!

" ... I guess I try to much to be a people pleaser....I do not want any of the boys to be disappointed ..." This theme is either explicit or an undercurrent of many recent threads (including an article in Scouting magazine on pinewood derby races). What is preventing people from realizing that there's no real pleasure for a boy to receive a reward: that his buddy got even though he didn't even care to work toward? that represents some compensation for the subtle quirks of physics and track engineering that led his car to not win its first two heats? that actually promotes values you no longer (or never really did) believe in? Sure your fear of any single boy being disappointed might get every kid to that awards podium kicking and screaming. But in doing so, aren't you really disappointing every boy?

I think it's also because we as a nation now send our young men (and women) to war against "religious zealots" instead of "godless communists". Be that as it may ... C23, I strongly recommend you get your questions (maybe via the SM) to the boy BEFORE the BoR. Your goal should be to help him decide if the Eagle represents his values, NOT to help the board decide for him.

Your husband's history, although unenviable, is not a show stopper. The BSA would consider his application. Have him note it appropriately and let your Charter Organization Representative know. (He/she should be reviewing the application befor signing it anyway.)

That's a huge list. It's not bad. And we've gone through a lot of these at Eagle SMCs to help a candidate prepare for the BoR. I would drop or revise the "yes/no" questions. For example: I would change to: [*]The BSA leaves the definition of God up to you and your parents. How does that help or hinder you in understanding duty to God? Then, say each question in your list out loud in front of a mirror, and based on what you know of the boy and how you feel about the question, keep it or scratch it. Let's face it, a lot of us have a problem with this requirement because it seems like we're asking a boy to recite from someone else's script. That's not we should be doing here. The assumption should be that a boy has gathered some sense of a higher power in the passed few years, and he should be able to give you his perspective on what that is and is not.