qwazse

'skip and tyke, there's no "US" in the URL, so as far as I'm concerned, we Yanks are only "native" by virture of numbers ... and we happen to be closer geographically to the webmaster. On or two of us actually are interested in our impression on the rest of the world, so thanks.

LeCastor, for a smiley emoticon from your ipad, type: space colon right-parenthesis. My wink above was space semi-colon right-parenthesis. XD

E441, the example you cite is not an example of political correctness, but rather contextualization - a common practice among Christian missionaries. Why do this? Well, what would a native American hunter-gatherer know of the life of a Semetic warlord? Taken literally, we have King David declaring himself to be a dumb sheep ... an analogy that works quite nicely in a culture where animal husbandry is central to the economy. For a brave who has no knowledge of animals that are entirely dependent on a human for their survival, the analogy falls flat. Another example? Well, nobody had lived through a Roman census for centuries, so the notion of the desperation engendered by having to cooperate with an occupying army to accomplish such an endeavor was lost. So how does one communicate the context of the incarnation? Choose the bleakest time of year when the average pagan is waiting for days to lighten, and have the event venerated around then. It worked! Europeans throughout a fractured empire came to associate winter days with pondering the Christmas message over all other narratives. The trade-off: the modern Christmas is rife with "politically correct" nods to pagan ceremony ... and more recently capitalism' narrative of the importance to "jump start" a consumer economy. So, maybe your "scouts own" service isn't that extreme after all.

Not getting into philosophy as to whose culture is more enlightened. (Suffice it to say that I endure scouters who would never look outside US borders for organizational models and resent me when I point them out .) , but you raise an important point ... Our market is more complex than yours. For example, I advise a Venturing crew. (You've clearly browsed official websites, so I'll spare you the details.) These youth (ages 14-20) have an option of the national uniform, or devising their own uniform. These neckers you speak of ... there is not a boy or girl in my crew who would ever put them on ... NOT EVER ... even the ones who are boy scouts and have a uniform shirt to match officially removed them as a required element of our troop's uniform. Meanwhile, an adjacent crew adopts the national uniform with no qualms whatsoever. (Still, no necker.) They'll likely be the ones paying a visit to our chief scout executive one day. I'm really excited for UK scouting. I think their growth is inspiring. But it will take a little more than that to impress American parents. And as long as they're writing the checks, BSA is limited in its innovation.

Great project! Really, if he keeps it up, ask the SM to get him a quartermaster patch and write "community" in the top of the circle! Our CO operates a local food pantry as well. The boys help stock it with Scouting for Food collections. (Really, since where we store flags and some ceremonial gear is next to to the pantry, they can't miss it. From time to time, they go through and check expiration dates on the items.) Usually once a year, cubs canvas the neighborhood, and on a different weekend boy scouts collect at a store front on a Saturday. When times are tough, the boys will arrange with a store for an additional collection. All our boys are up to their eyeballs in service hours, but this would count for any who needed them. We don't do store-front popcorn sales. However, as part of our spaghetti dinner, the church "purchases" meals for their pantry clients anonymously. But the $ aren't where the benefit lies. We'd never know who these clients were if not for some of them take a moment to talk to the boys waiting on their table and tell them how their efforts put decent meals on their family's table when they couldn't afford it while between jobs. Frankly, the occasional "thank you" is the best reward those boys could ever have. (From time to time, the lady who coordinates the pantry does take a moment to swing by the troop meeting to thank the boys, but it's not quite the same.)

And exactly how much is in the Boy Scout Handbook (or any other BSA material) about how a scout should carry himself around a scantily dressed and very friendly young lady? Maybe the boys thought it would be discourteous to not arrange to meet them someplace privately after hours. And it would be unkind to wake their SM after his very hard day!

No matter how we slice it, it is pretty impressive. It's also an under-count because lots of folks (myself included) will rarely bother to log hours.

Hail moderators! Time for a new sub-forum!

Extra work for the treasurer(s). Put the scout on a payment plan: $30/month until the dept is cleared. No summer camp unless a substantial amount of that is cleared. Every meeting inform the boy on what's been payed vs. what is owed. Your bigger problem is dealing with the boy's deeper issue. It really stinks to have kin steal your stuff. But the boy isn't helped by keeping him out of the loop. Keep talking to the boy as if this is his problem to solve. If you discover that this is happening with other activities he's trying to participate in, inform your SE. This may be a sign of neglect. Meanwhile, the troop and pack may have to adjust their respective budgets to account for loss due to theft. In the future, your committee might decide to not accept fundraising orders without payment in advance.

"All politics is local." The culture in the community makes a big difference. If parents are brought up with every-man-for-himself attitudes, they are going to pick troops who, as far as they can tell, give each boy maximum control over his fundraising dollar. If they are brought up with one-for-all-and-all-for-one attitudes they will look for a troop who makes sure no scout is left behind. Of course there's all manner of in-between and mixes of different proportions thereof. And part of our job as scouters is to get everyone to respect where the other is coming from, yet still nudge them along a certain trajectory that works best for the boys. Especially harmful is a parent who seeds a none-for-all-yet-all-for-me attitude (a.k.a., an entitlement mentality). That'll undermine every possible benefit that could come from scouts working together to solve a problem. My general impression is that communal fundraising might get you to offset registrations and everyone's summer camp fees. But it wont underwrite trips to the BSA HA bases or Jambo. Bless the troop where every boy is all-in with fundraising to the point that large fees like that can be paid ... but, sometimes it helps an SM sort out a boy's interest and commitment to a particular adventure if he has to make payments of $100 out of his own earnings every month. Finally, what's better for your boys? Them learning to find odd jobs that make it worth folks paying them ~$25/week, then deciding if the income is to be spent on scouts, sports, or girlfriends? Or, them learning to team up for a collective financial goal?

Welcome! and on behalf of our boys, thank you for your service.

Yes and no. The boy hit the bottom of his "safety net". Now, it would have been nice for it to happen where BD could help him forage for some cattails and trap some fish in a sieve. (Or entice them to bite on some baler twine .. seen that done.) Then he could have gone home angry, but empowered. He may not appreciate it now, but by forgoing the movie with him, SM could afford the PP&J and gas in the Mrs' car. It's not what a boy wants, so on one level that's downright mean. But it may be what the boy needs. If his mom pulls stunts like this in other areas of his life, he will need to understand that level of resourcefulness ... accepting that other people may help ... but not in the terms he thinks he needs.

The LDS uses the BSA program to meet the needs of the church's youth development program. So, there are specific leadership needs, scheduling needs, age targets etc ... (although the age targets apply more to young boy scouts than cubs, that would certainly impact which troop you would direct your AoL's to). Other COs adapt the program as well; however, this tends to happen at the unit level. LDS simply sets nation-wide guidelines on how to do so.

Suggestion from the cheap seats under the heading "If you can't beat 'em, use 'em." For your dadwood derby, have a staggered finish line. The track gets an inch shorter for every committee meeting attended that year. Ten inches shorter for every service star.

First, this is where you bend the CC's ear. He/she and the COR need to get the parents and any other responsible relatives in the room and make clear this is unacceptable. They need to come up with a better plan or be prepared to have the police knocking on their door for neglect. We get that this economy demands folks work double shifts, Sundays, etc... And for some kids, we know grandparents, etc ... for this purpose. And, some kids are latch-key. Got it. Tell us ahead of time and we'll support your arrangement. But behavior like this is beyond the pale. Calling your SE is probably a wise move at this point as well.

Never heard of a den meeting on a Friday. Our CO building use dictates the schedule. So, afternoons are out because the daycare is running. Troop and crew have Monday nights, which is sometimes the CO board meeting night as well. That leaves Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays, of which one of those is the monthly Pack meeting. Leaders' schedule is the main determinant.

In fairness, fellas, this story could easily turn into "Eagle badge procrastinators cause local governments to interrupt essential services for last-minute interviews." If I recall, Son #1 and his buddy had to make an appointment with the school board president weeks in advance to meet him *after* the board meeting. He expected them to attend the meeting and be prepared to discuss the night's docket as well as whatever issues they had in mind. Before any of you shout "adding to the requirements", everyone needs to understand that 'round here we expect a certain quality of work from high school youth, especially boys at the top of their class in both academics and athletics. And it makes sense that an elected official responsible for educating young people should make every youth encounter an educational one for both parties. I think our elected officials have the right to hear from our scouts on the officials' terms, in a way that they can ensure good two-way communication. So, I'm all for a scout finding out from his government "why" they won't turn on a dime. But, I'm against a young adult whining to the media about it without him being willing to commit to helping the solution by either voting for a candidate or putting his hat in the ring himself. P.S. - The board president's daughters were in my crew and one was a good friend of the boys, so he could have made this very convenient for the scouts. I'm quite glad that he didn't.

So, daughter comes home from break and I find her, Son #2, and Mrs Q playing a feisty round of cards. Talk turns to who endured the worst childcare, who got sent to the worst church camp, who didn't get sent to any church camp, etc .... Daughter than pipes up, "Well, I couldn't be a member of the BSA for 7 years." I tried to point out that she was the one who let her membership lapse when she went to college, and she said that those weren't the years that mattered. Her childhood was spent watching me take her brothers off camping. GSUSA, you gotta step it up. Get your moms out under canvas (or less) more often in tougher conditions. Or, someone else will.

I'm assuming you're the counselor. If not, he should call the MBC right away and let him/her know about this snag. Failure is a possibility. Partly his fault because for starting this one so late. Partly the fault of an unresponsive government. How to counsel the boy? Well, persistence does matter. So he should stop in at the town hall every day for the next two days. He should log every call. There has to be SOMEBODY he can talk to about this. As a last ditch, he could interview the person who is putting him on hold, and ask if he could get his/her opinion and if he/she has any idea how young people can help. Even if he gets a "No Comment" I bet he's learned something. When he turns 18, he should request a voter's registration. And possibly consider running for office.

My SM started in retirement and kept going till the Parkinson's got the upper hand. This had certain advantages. If you needed a conference, you could just walk over to his front porch after school. (My house was a mile away, but it was a splendid hike.) Plus he could tell you history like it was first person. (Still remember him talking about his family worrying about polio.) It had disadvantages. He was no spring chicken. So our backpacking was in countryside, not wilderness. Point is, he stuck with it thanks to constant support from the CO (his home church, which he would attend when the church he played organ for didn't need him). We boys didn't know the difference until some of us went to ?Jambo, etc ... and the contingent was led by a young SM. I don't know when I'll turn in the Advisor's patch. I've got decent support from the CO, but I keep thinking that my youth might benefit from someone young stepping into the gap. Still looking for that replacement.