qwazse

Nice to hear from the exception that proves the rule.

Perd's suggestion might sound like bad form, but it's not. He could ask a few of the boys, especially those who are respected arrowmen, "Do you think I've improved enough over last year to be voted in?" If he's not getting resounding "yes"s, then he can decide to withdraw his name from the ballot.

They won't be "out." All you'll need to do is submit an online "tour around the bases" permit - one for each "at bat." Just have you hand-held connective device in the dugout and gather a thumb print as each boy goes "on deck." Your service center will gladly process the request.

We have several boys in the troop from different school districts. They got voted in when the time was right. (Some took several elections.) If he's camping with these boys a lot, they will learn his character well enough. Then it becomes a matter of if their character being noble enough and him being guileless. I really do prefer elections to be held during camp. Because, biases from school-chums can quickly drift to the background.

I try to boil B=F down more simply to my scouts: "Learn everything you've been taught. Prove it."

Except for the throwing arms. It's like the tamer felines and canines selected ours to fend off their wild-type cousins.

Depends on the troop and the boy. Camp rules may treat JASMs as youth. They would not use adult restrooms

One more thing you could do, is find out if there are a couple of recent Life or Eagle scouts who just came from a high adventure and would like to visit a pack or two in their neighborhood and tell them about their scouting experience.

Thanks for your service to our boys. IMHO the district should never be involved in tracking cub advancement. It's just not that important that someone two towns over knows which boys in a distant pack have earned a given cub rank. But, where you can really help is with training sessions at roundtable. Make sure leaders talk to one another about how they manage awards, etc ... Find out from them what boys like/don't like about the advancement program. Work on training sessions about upcoming changes, how to make it fun, etc ... Bring in speakers on Cubs with Disabilities, Local Historical Sites, Sports, STEM, etc ... If your district has a website, you might have an "Cub Avancement How-to" page. If there's an adult who will help you take point, you might want to consider a "Weblos to Scouts" weekend.

" ... When using a catapult or other shooting device, use a soft object no larger than the opening of a small juice can. The use of pumpkins is not approved." Time to get out the watermelons! Truth be told, lofting large projectiles require lots of engineering experience, and boys should be discouraged from doing that until they've had years of practice. But burying these recommendations in "shooting sports" reaches the wrong audience. My involvement in pioneering was precisely because I was not very good with rifles until I was an adult.

Sometimes packing it in tight is the way to go. Others, not. If you keep interacting with the boys about the design, and how this "tool" should be used, it will be a great experience for the lot of you.

So, I guess you don't teach your kids about Boston Harbor? It's only been a year since this policy was written. It may require an entire generation of scouts to graduate before troops in large numbers adopt more communal approaches to fundraising.

A variety of reasons: "Always done it that way before." "The cost the IRS would incurr in persuing units would not be worth the taxes that could be garnered from every ISA" "Educating boys in commerce and incentives is consistent with our mission." "ISA's are merely troop funds put under stewardship of each boy, according to their particular fundraiser. Purchases made using them improve the life of the troop."

The tough part is making it clear to a boy (and in this case the parent) that it's a good project but his chance of Eagle even if he completes it are slim. The hard part about a BOR giving the go-ahead is that the main reason is to ensure the project is appropriate for rank advancement and that nothing is overlooked that might prevent the boy from completing the project for the purposes of rank advancement. If the board now has project plan, but advancement is effectively off the table, why does the boy need their approval? Age 18 is a tough time. It's hard to finish what you start because life is changing so fast. If advancement was the only thing pushing this boy to complete the project, maybe the most thoughtful thing to do is help a boy see the writing on the wall and not start what he'd likely not finish.

All I'm saying is it's hard to build something that large without needing to climb it -- in which case it's helmet and safety harness time. Hard, but not impossible. And if you build something that big, and it is truly an efficient engine (capable of lofting projectiles 1000' high and a mile downrange), one must understand that some municipalities have "fly-over" ordinances. In other words, at certain levels of grandeur, common sense and courtesy is going to be more comprehensive than the G2SS.

Thanks, never got my cue from those pronghorns last time, so ... ... I used to be a crow and ... ... a good 'ol crow too, And now i'm finished crowing, ... ... I don't know what to do. I'm growing old and feeble and ... ... I can crow no more, So I'm gonna work my ticket if ... ... ooooh shiney!

Can't tell you if the guy was just spoutin' off or if it was a local restriction. He might have been thinking of the 16 foot tall "pumpkin chuckers" (which violate height restrictions and may require filing a flight plan in some municipalities). It's on you to chase this squirrel to ground. As long as you see nothing in writing (and you take the precautions you describe), fire away! P.S. - the stuff in parentheses is fanciful speculation on my part and based on common sense -- not spelled out in the G2SS. As I've mentioned in other threads, there are ways to build massive siege engines without violating OSHA height restrictions.

Sounds like many parents in your community have opted for the next big thing. Has Trail Life or some other group in your area been advertising heavily? The best you can do, IMHO, is rebuild from the bottom. Recruit those tigers (and one or two parents) or bust.

Given that the OP has enabled over the years, this might not be as easy as it sounds. Asking other scouters in the unit to handle this allows the the OP to move on (and donate his $200 bailout to someone who won't take him for granted).

Sounds like you almost got sucked into the perfect storm! Talking to the SM was the best move you could make. Have fun talking to your friend (if you haven't already).

Oh, how to describe the situation? "Stringing the pack along ..."

Tell the other leaders to handle this one because you're too close to the situation to make a fair judgement. That way, it's up to them if and how they want to collect. I would recommend that they boy be denied awards and participation in pack activities until accounts are settled. If monetary compensation is not likely, the committee might settle for some sweat equity, like hand made gifts for the leaders and the boys leaving the pack. Or, maybe there's a donor who will match whatever the family can pay back, up to $100. But it has to be a committee decision. Clearly, in the future you shouldn't accept popcorn/wreath orders unless folks give you the money up front.

Of late there have been several profoundly inarticulate posts from spammers. They link to pages for irrelevant products. How to handle these?

That's much different than our units. Most I find are lead by blue-collar folks ... sometimes the college grad who still lives with his/her folks and never found a career track. The most efficient of those tend to be ex-military. Regardless, very few have experience with non-profits. Partly this has to do with religion. Because of reduced participation in organized religion. Fewer adults have sat on church boards. My wife and I did right out of college. That enabled us to volunteer "side-by-side" with older folks who knew a thing or two about half-million dollar budgets long before we were scouters. When I was a scout, all of my committee (blue or white collar) were volunteers on boards for church, veterans organizations, college alumni associations, etc ... didn't take much for them to translate what they learned there to what our our troop needed. In my boys' troop, a minority of our committee have the same level of experience.

Isn't that an individual decision?