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SaintCad

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Everything posted by SaintCad

  1. Not the boys fault so let him advance. Let me explain. All of this is coming from evilramsfan not knowing the rules and regulations. I had to look them up as a new scoutmaster when a scout complained that Eagle Scouts were always allowed to sign off on advancement and I shouldn't overturn that policy. The rule from National is that the person who signs off on rank advancements is the Scoutmaster OR those he/she designates. End of discussion. So the Scoutmaster needs to make it very clear who can sign off on what in a troop and if the Scoutmaster does not feel that it is appropria
  2. First of all, can you counsel your son? Maybe. I'd have to look up the actual rule but I believe the unit leader that opens up the blue card has the ultimate say in who the MBC is. Probably a non-issue in most cases but if I knew for a fact that there were an MBC that was not making the boys do the requirements, I would not allow any scout to work with them. Technically, I did invoke this rule when I invited a presenter to work on emergency preparedness with the boys. As part of it she did the first-aid rank advancement requirements and I signed off on those in their books and she did
  3. I'm a little confused here. Was the boy given accomodated requirements because of the disability and the SM is questioning if they were appropriate? Is the SM questioning that he met the requirements for tenderfoot-2nd class-1st class? Maybe but if that is not taken care at the scoutmaster conference or the BOR (and yes, a BOR can reject advancement if the boy has not met the requirements. It happened once in my troop because of a misunderstanding by the scoutmaster over whether a requirement was completed and was a miror issue corrected within a week. I heard about another troop
  4. One thing I found out in becoming a SM was that my troop had no concept of administration. Part of that was prior practices and part was that we have very few older more experienced scouts. For me the problem is that the Troop sees no problem with agreeing to an outing on Tuesday and with almost no planning expect it to happen on Saturday. There were never any sign-ups and they would go on outings not really knowing who was planned and what was not. And forget about any money management. My interpretation of a boy-led troop is to have the troop through the PLC develop a full annual pl
  5. I agree that the "get approval" is nebulous. If I were a pets MBC, I would interpret the "get approval" as getting the approval of the pet owner. Certainly I don't want some kid looking after my corgi if he has no clue how to feed it or clean up after it. I would also see the point of "get approval" meant the approval of the MBC after they ascertain that the Scout knows what is involved with taking care of the pet. I disagree that "get approval" means the approval of the SM because a Scout cannot begin to work on a merit badge until it is open. If that's the case then "get approval"
  6. There are really two issues in the OP. First, I don't think it is appropriate for a scout to start any merit badge without consulting the unit leader. In over 99% of the cases, it is really a non-issue but there was a case of a scout spend all of his time earning merit badges and not advancement requirements. The SM felt that given the Camporee setting, it would be more valuable for the Scout to work on First Class Trail skills instead so he denied permission to the scout to work on ANY merit badge during that weekend. As for the actual signing, I think that the unit leader should sign
  7. We didn't do CERT but we do have a Troop Emergency Manager that does CPR training, First Aid MB and the BSA Emergency Preparedness program. We also got a county emergency manager out to talk to the Scouts and hopefully they will be invited to the next emergency drill. If you don't have CERT available, I would suggest the BSA Emergency Preparedness Award instead. Both youths and adults can earn it and in my experience there is a lot of pride in wearing the pin on the uniform.
  8. But if every group has their own unit, isn't there a danger like what I see in a lot of cities of a lot of units with most of them very small and unhealthy?
  9. Thanks Eagle92 for the update but I do have one question and it is not a knock on you but rather National having such a decentralized way of communicating important information. The question is how current is your information and did it come before or after my information? The reason I question it is that your quote mentions "This is Scouting" as a requirement which has been specifically taken out as of 2012 as a training requirement (it is now only recommended). The list I pulled off scouting.org confirms that This is Scouting is not required.
  10. Under the guidlines, chartered organization own the scouting unit. In some cases, like the LDS Church, this is because Scouthing units are a fundamental part of their youth organization. I'm in a troop where our CO was an absentee owner for years and I know that many COs are somewhat involved but their units are not really part of the overall community of their CO. Many units get no support from the CO yet if the unit were to ever disband, the CO would own everything the Scouts worked hard for. But in addition to that, I'm reading the charter agreement and to be pedantic, my Troop is e
  11. As someone who minored in Comparative Religion, I'm pretty sure I know the difference between atheism and agnosticism and that they are not necessarily synonymous so believe it or not there is a difference. Since you choose to assume I am ignorant let me point out that the difference between the two is about faith vs. knowledge. Agnostics believe that belief in God is based on faith in that there is no true way to prove God exists within our epistomology. Atheism is the belief that God or any other deity does not exist. I don't believe I ever said the two views were contradictory. I
  12. Getting back to the OP, National has clarified the rules on being Trained while simultaneously making it more confusing. Some Councils require a leader to be trained before taking a leadership position. For this, once trained - always trained so that your Cubmaster/ASM/SM etc. trained 10 years ago is always trained. HOWEVER: In order to ensure that a leader has the most current training, a leader must have completed current training requirements to 1) Wear the "Trained" patch 2) Be considered trained for the purposes of Journey to Excellence
  13. Not exactly the same issue but similar. My Troop (as are most units) is chartered by a religious organization. We want to foster closer ties and with a new pastor, I (as Scoutmaster) want to make him aware of the office of Chaplain and also ask if they would be willing to provide instruction on the generic Protestant youth religious award if any of the Scouts want it. One parent on the committee was upset as they saw that as an encroachment on the scouts' religious freedom. I did not disagree with her, but made it clear as the "owners" of the Troop, the church can play an integral part
  14. I am a committee member and was requested by our SM to wear a uniform, so I pulled out my uniform from my denmaster days and changed the blue epalauts to green and sewed on the new council patch and troop number on my sleeve. I also changed denmaster patch to committee member patch and changed the trained bar from red to green. Before, I didn't wear my uniform because I wasn't a SM/ASM, but the SM said that adults in uniform are an example to the kids - and yes, I wear my 1930's campaign hat just like I did when a denmaster because a hat is part of the uniform. I also kept my denmaster
  15. Is there an official BSA BOR training? Out troop committee chair want all of the committee members to take it and I see that it was available in 2008 because it is recorded for on of our scouters, but I don't see any mention of it and that page on the BSA site is no longer there.
  16. Stosh, I can't agree with you more. Like I said before, I've seen SPL unable to get scouts' attention yet not use the bugler he has. Here's a question germane to the Bugling MB: is there any reason a troop cannot have more than one bugler? It's not a line officer so what if there are two or more (can you imagine a troop doing echo Taps for a Memorial Day ceremony?)
  17. SaintCad

    Old scout hat

    Slight Hijack My son's troop wears class B's at meetings i.e. scout shirt and non-uniform pants, but I have him wear his uniform pants because after all, it is a uniform. I have a Stetson BSA campaign hat from the 30's that I wore as a denmaster. The rule (and yes I did look it up) is once something is official BSA uniform wear it is official forever. Last troop meeting it was raining pretty badly so my son asked if he could borrow the hat. Of course I said yes. He was made to take it off once inside because "wearing hats indoors is disrespectful to Scouting". Now I understand that the
  18. I think it is bugling in general that is being neglected by BSA. Out troop has a bugler that my son has told me has bugled exactly once - reveille one morning at camp. I have never heard him bugle even though I've heard the SPL yelling, "Fall in!" repeatedly. Why not, "Bugler, sound assembly call."? So I go to Family Day at the Scout Camp. No bugle for mess call. Oh ok but I'm sure we'll hear retreat at Flags. Nope. Nothing. When you can't even get bugling at an assembly at a Scout Camp, why should troops take the tradition seriously. Oh, and making a scout have an office for
  19. Let me bounce this off of y'all. We have MBC that are counselors for 30-40 badges because 10 years ago, there were maybe 3 Scouters to do the work. The problem is that as new people come in to be MBC with expertise in that field, the boys are directed to the old-timers. So the best qualified people don't get to teach the boys and then get told they don't volunteer enough.
  20. 1) Assume a committee member has taken Youth Protection, Fast Start, Troop Committee Challenge, This is Scouting and Basic Outdoors training. Are they allowed to wear the "trained" emblem or is that limited to SM/ASM because their training is designated "Leader Specific" 2) Speaking of that, am I missing something or is SM/ASM training rarely offered? There was one this year in my district that I had to miss and the next one is in 3 months in a neighboring district. It's not online so that's not an option. The problem is now you have to have that training before taking the leadershi
  21. From Ed: If the school is chartering a BSA unit what are they doing that is illegal? Probably nothing, but a Judge may interpret chartering the Pack as making the Pack a school organization (especially if all of the boys in the pack are also in the school). You and I may not agree with this interpretation, but there are a lot of judicial interpretation we may not agree with. More likely, it would be probably found illegal for the Pack to recruit on school grounds. From Ed: And, yeah SaintCad, I read what you posted. Did you miss my point? Not at all, your point that
  22. From Ed: The BSA doesn't discriminate illegally. Therefore if a public school is the chartering organization for a BSA unit, they are not supporting illegal discrimination of a protected class since the BSA doesn't discriminate illegally. Do you purposefully miss the point or do you just not read what other people say. It doesn't matter if BSA's discrimintory policies are legal or illegal. Let me sum it up for you: Does BSA discriminate against atheists? Yes Is it legal for BSA discriminate against atheists? Yes Is it legal for a school to discriminate against atheists? No
  23. It was Maryland and not California http://www.theviewnewspapers.com/article.asp?article=7437&paper=1&cat=193
  24. I find it hard to believe that the city would not write into the lease a way for it to cancel the lease. I'm curious to know who brought the "in perpetuity" part of the lease out to the public's view. I suspect that it goes something like this: Lease) BSA may use the property in perpetuity. The city may cancel this lease for any reason . . . Spin-Doctor) See there. BSA gets to use the property forever. Skeptic) But doesn't it say the city can cancel the lease? Spin-Doctor) In perpetuity means forever. Philadelphia is unfairly oppressing the BSA Skeptic) But you're onl
  25. From Ed: If you can't play football or and instrument or swim or play basketball you can't be on those teams! And they are, like a BSA unit charted by a public school, owned by the school. How come no one is suing them for discrimination? From SaintCad What do you not understand about "protected classes" in regards to illegal discrimination. It's been talked about in other threads. From Ed SaintCad,[t]he BSA doesn't discriminate illegally. Moot point. I'll try to explain this (as many other had before) to you. The issue is not discrimination by the BSA, but rather a
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