qwazse

The church does have high ceilings and inverted faces ... and we did a bit of rope work when we were remodeling it back in the day. Now that it's all pretty, they frown on that sort of thing.

So Son #1 wants to tie the knot, literally. Instead of that unity candle that's been all the rage these days, he and DILT (daughter-in-law trainee) #1 want me to provide some rope with which they may join one another with bowlines. (I can see the gears rolling with some your replies already.) They asked me to preside over this part of the ceremony. I've already went over knot guides with DILT #1 and it seems like 1/2" sisal is the way to go. There is some debate about whipping the ends to match the gown, the groom's men, or the bride's maids. Not a problem, I got plenty of thread. So have any of you all seen or heard a ceremony like this? I'd like to keep my speaking part to 3 minutes and explain some of the meaning behind the metaphor while the kids are working the rope. Of course "SM minutes" like his should involve a little old, new, borrowed, and blue.

I agree with every step that Fred spelled out except this one. Taking the requirement literally, the student should be "prepared to pass the requirements to his unit leader’s satisfaction". If the learner can't perform the skill, the skill wasn't taught. I wouldn't tell an ASM he/she needs to adjust standards if they are taking things literally. But I would encourage him to consider any mitigating circumstances that could lead to the standard not being met in a particular case. I mentioned the difference between teaching one scout (as mentioned above) vs. teaching many. On top of that, the EDGE method omits some key steps. I've harped on "referencing" (e.g., to a book or instruction sheet) before, but there's also "evaluation". Under a time constraint, this step gets short shrift, and I suspect this star scout -- eager to prove himself in this new environment -- didn't really evaluate if any of his students were ready to present themselves to for proficiency testing. Which reminds of an important 1st step: "allocate time" and "set up an environment." It is inappropriate to expect there to be enough time during a meeting for a boy (let alone a number of boys) to master each scout skill. Again, a star scout (the concept, not the patch) is constantly setting aside time and space to nudge novices along in the learning process. But a boy who is new to the troop may not even have his mate's phone number to arrange to meet after school or during lunch. Likewise mentoring for teaching involves setting aside time including securing the scout's commitment to teach outside of meeting in a learning-friendly environment, making sure the star scout has adequate references (hint: the current BSHB may not be adequate), making sure the scout can evaluate the quality of his work by soliciting feedback from his peer and asking him to repeat the skill a number of times. Needless to say, if you just use EDGE, you will never do any of these! Thus, I don't think the ASM's standard is the issue here. But there are a whole set of things (including the inherent fallacy of EDGE, but no point in arguing that to anyone) that impeded succes. Focus on those things.

I am, as many know, anti-EDGE. So I simply ask a boy to recall teaching the last time they taught a skill and how they did it. I help him reflect on how to do better next time. (I especially do the reflection if he did use EDGE so he understands how woefully inadequate it is.) This could have been done at the SMC to everyone's satisfaction. That said, following the requirements to the letter ... "use the EDGE method to teach another Scout" singular. Having a boy teach more than one scout can be a recipe for failure. If the boy is committed to getting Life ASAP, I would file an appeal for an extension. There is enough here to indicate that adults failed the boy. But, that's no guarantee that national would approve it. If there is consensus in the unit that the boy had done the requirements, albeit unwittingly, I would just as readily ask to backdate the SMC and BoR.

Even less vision of independent hiking and camping. I'm not exchanging my current den of vipers for one that insists on outlets for their curling irons.

My kids don't need no stinkin' patch to know I'm an old crow ... Why don't you just get another one of your son's patrol patch?

Considering Son #2 just called the paintball range to set up Son #1's bachelor party, I'd say this is long overdue. This has the feel of the typical archery challenge courses. I'm sure following their guidelines (adjusting for the differences in range and accuracy) would serve you well. Nonstationary targets (on pulleys or windmills) would add to the fun. (Although it sounds like range 3 may have those kinds of elements.)

Actually, smiting an individual with lighting in oddly absent from the Bible.

This is a crap piece that judges therapy based on stereotypes. Discard it. The kid was in therapy because he was a sociopath. Folks just didn't realize how much of one he was. Sometimes you catch 'em before they start their spree. Sometimes (as my colleagues sadly experienced two years ago) you don't. It's the cost of doing business in the absence of institutions that can keep patients under lock and key for extended periods so that the only folks they eventually act out on are caretakers and fellow patients and the tools at their disposal are less efficient than firearms. On the bright side, society has benefited from the majority of mentally ill being in our midst rather than locked out of sight and out of mind. We've all become better "therapists." That counts for something, but it doesn't make the news cycle.

J. Are fleur-de-lis or "BSA" stamped on your shirt's buttons? Does not look like it from the picture.

I get the impression that the "universal spirit" phraseology is meant to identify lots of folks from Judeo-Christian persuasion who would rather treat God as distant and impersonal. Such surveys were never intended to quantify atheists who have a "closet belief." The crossing of categories is incidental to the primary thrust of the survey. My personal experience is that the overwhelming majority of folks who call themselves atheists do so because they don't believe God exists -- not because they believe that God is so remote as to be unworthy or unwanting of their worship. And the converts from athiesm that I know of spent very little time in some middle ground that could accommodate the "universal spirit" notion. They remained convinced that they shouldn't believe ... until they were convinced that they should do so with fervor.

Oh, let's see. Yep. But, you saw this coming. A year ago they said they wouldn't help you. They specifically said it was to funnel kids toward their (inferior, according to your estimation) event. You had a year to explain to parents that council is approving your neighboring district's event instead of yours and everyone will have to decide if they want to attend that event or do something other than shooting sports. You could have asked your charter organization reps to gather and meet with the SE and council president about the importance of having two similar events in the same month, how it is a hardship for some in the community to travel across council to get to an event in another district, and how it is insulting to your way of thinking that if multiple units in a district come together to hold an event that that event would be anything other than a district event. That would be playing politics with no clear end game besides pointing out a problem and maybe getting yourself on a committee that you would rather not be part of. So scramble and get the boys signed up for this activity (informing them of the location change), or do your own activity with non-BSA RSO, or plan a different activity, apologizing to parents that you were overly optimistic that council would reverse its opinion. This is something I would never bother discussing with a DE. Rather, I would bring this up with my district commissioner and other volunteers.

Yikes! Central supply changed the buttons on the standard issue field uniform from black to beige! (Can't tell from scoutstuff if the venturing shirt buttons have been changed to green.) When did that happen? For what it's worth, when the venturing shirt was revised, our female VOA officers refused to buy it because the buttons (also black) no longer had insignia on them.

All of your questions fall outside the "summer camp" category, but anyway ...

$55/year. But if we didn't count fundraising, our boys would probably have to toss in another $10-$15/month to cover expenses. (Campsite/cabin, reservations, gear maintenance, etc...)

Some Christian sects do not have professional clergy. I've kept company with a few such houses of worship. They have a lot going for them. They also have a lot of disadvantages.

We do this. Unfortunately so do a lot of other folks, so the return isn't all that great. I recommend contacting a producer local to your area. Ours is Sarris candies and they have sales programs tailored to fundraisers.

How is this a bad thing? Either you have just learned that your peers have found something lacking in your behavior, or - in the outside chance that you are God's gift to scouting kind - that your peers are idiots and instead of wasting your time in honor societies, you should devote the year to helping them be better scouts.