sandspur

If memory serves, the city of Maitland, Florida has an active scout house in a city park. Any one have more information?

Jblake: I gently disagree. Cell phones are allowed in our troop, with appropriate controls (off or on vibrate during meeting etc) but If my son chooses to carry his it in no way reflects on my confidence in the SM or leadership. In fact, it is my sons decision on whether or not to carry his phone, and on campouts he chooses to leave it at home (so as not to get lost or damaged and he is likely out of range anyway). It is just a tool, a device. If it is used with courtesy and respect for others, all the objections I have seen seem moot. If it is not thus used, courtesy and respect nee

Wow, a hot topic indeed. However, I disagree with the posters that think courtesy is not the issue. It is the main issue for me. Cell phones are ubiquitous. The lads do have them. If a troop bans them (as you have the right to do) I feel the scouts learn nothing about how to handle this technology on a daily basis. They will have them in church, at the job, in meetings, during shows, the list goes on. Did we help them to learn courtesy and respect for others by banning cells at scouts? Now, if we said you can have them, but turn them off or keep them on vibrate during meetings and i

Nolesrule: I agree totally. If we ban phones, I suspect we have taught nothing about how the scout should act in life outside the troop. If we say, sure you can have a phone but use it properly and with courtesy, then we generate teaching moments. When a scouts phone goes off during a meeting, the SPL can stop the meeting and ask the offender to turn his phone off or go outside. As all the other scouts turn and look, embarrassment sets in. That will have more effect on a teenager than any set of rules. I bet every phone in the troop is off or on vibrate after one or two incidents like

Well cubs is the main source of scouts, but not all. One of my sons, now an Eagle, joined scouts directly but was never a cub. His younger brother did the cub thing and is now in scouts. I myself dropped out of cubs (Boring!) and later joined a scout troop and rose to Eagle. Looking back, I joined because my friends were in scouts. Scouts who bypass the cub route (while I agree they are rare) tend to join because of what they hear from their friends or to participate in the high adventure aspect. They want to canoe the BWCA or hike the AT and scouts is the way to do it. So, if we

Nolesrule: Fines may work (do you have repeat offenders?). My favorite learning moment was during a staff meeting when a director took an important call in the meeting. The VP running the meeting, with a deadpan look, pulled out his cell, called the guy right across the table he had been talking to and continued the meeting that way. Message sent!

I think Lisabobs question was to ask how a generation growing up with cell phones may alter their perception of what is a normal tether to place on their youngsters. This tendency is already evident in scouts, although it comes from many things, not just technology. A lot of us are old enough to remember when a lot of scout activity did not include adults. I recall doing 10 and 20 mile hikes through wilderness areas for the MB requirements either solo or with one other scout my age. Pretty sure that would not be OK today (might not have been then either, but we sure did it). So, when s

First of all, I am not surprised at terms which may or may not have been from the Lenape language are mispronounced. How many native speakers are there today and how many lodges have access to them? There is no disrespect intended. To give another example, many Latin-origin words are mispronounced and misspelled today, even by the US government in official documents (I will not bore you with examples). As far as the example of a group using Christian imagery in a ceremony causing offense... I doubt it if no offense was intended. It actually happens to some extent. Some common imagery of

An observation I had never heard before: Hispanic culture is not supportive of sending their boy out to camp with non-family members? I am not of that community, and so dont rightly know, but in troops I have been associated with there are a lot of adult leaders, most of whom have scouts active in the program, so isnt a family member involved if you culturally need that? Where would the send my kid out with strangers thought have come from? The we lived in tents in the old country and dont find camping fun observations, while maybe half in jest, also seems off the mark. How to explain s

OK, apropos of nothing but a thread on how scouting is seen in todays world and how or whether we should adapt made me think of how scouts are portrayed in the media. Aside from Steven Spielberg in his Indiana Jones phase, nearly every portrayal of scouts I see on TV has some pseudo organization (like Boy Woodchuck Guides) with what is clearly intended to be a scout uniform but in a different color and a portrayal of the program that is clearly from someone who is aware the BSA exists but knows nothing about it (the writers). So, this caused me to wonder. Are the portrayals of pseudo-scou

Well Beavah, we have reached out a bit. Venturing has members of both genders. Scouts are all boys, but then there is the Girl Scouts. However, I agree that efforts to reach into inner cities and some ethic communities have not been overly successful. I get your point though. There are lots of folks (many of them outside the program)who would change us to be so inclusive we would no longer be recognizable as scouts. My $0.02? We should not exclude anybody who adheres to the scout oath and law. If traditional father/son for cubs is better served by parent/son given todays demographic

CalicoPenn Yes, I agree we should not change the core program. But the BSA does not provide detailed guidance on most issues (and probably shouldnt try). Most of these arguments seem to be scouters trying to come up with policies for their troops where the BSA is vague or silent. I asked a while ago how far a troop can go in adding requirements for what constitutes a successful completion of a POR by a scout. After due and diligent search, BSA doesnt really say. So I guess it is open for troops to set their own policy (please be reasonable says I, but if youre not, theres really not

Though you call it Dad and Lad or similar would you really exclude a mom from attending with her cub? Not in my experience. Just rename it to something gender neutral and let the cubs have a blast camping!

Again, Im not a lawyer, but it seems to me if Mom wants her second grader to attend the pack camping event, and cannot go herself but sends Uncle Mike to camp with her son, then Uncle Mike turns out to be the bad Uncle, who can go after the scouts? Only Mom has standing to sue. But Mom is the very one who sent Uncle Mike. Hard to make that case I would think. If youre concerned, get it in writing from Mom. I agree with Beavah, I would not make a second grader sleep in a tent alone. Scouts (as opposed to cubs) are another matter. I have only once seen a scout sleep with an adult parent

Well, seems to me that an uncle, adult older brother, or whatever family member sent BY THE PARENT to camp with their scout can sleep in the tent with (and only with) that scout under Youth Protection Guidelines. I call them the Guardian in my book. A lawyer might have a different interpretation (and a lawyer that wants to file a lawsuit if something goes wrong will always find a way) Since the parent designated the family member as acting for them does that not relieve the scouts of responsibility for the parents decision? I might be wrong though. Now the interesting question for me is h

As you say, we need allow room for different troops to define what works for them. I have been a member of two troops as an adult scouter (and two as a scout). Troop A wore shirt and necker but not the scout pants. Troop B wore full uniform including pants and socks. Both OK by me. Troop A never wore uniforms on monthly troop campouts (got dirty and torn up), Troop B wore full uniform on the trip out and back and changed once camp was set up. Both OK by me. On the other hand, troop As Eagle projects were a BIG deal, with full troop participation the norm. Troop B not so much. Tro

Or a professor gives Mary an A with 87% and Billy a B with 88%. Because Billy wasnt active in the class Hey, happened to me. Aced all the tests and got a B in the course. When I complained, Prof said I never attended study sessions. That I didnt need them was, to him, beside the point. Yeah, I thought it unfair, but I was careful about call attendance in the future. As I said before, we need to be reasonable. A troop needs to be able to require performance in a POR or minimal qualifications for a critical position like SPL. If the expectation in a troop is to wear full uniforms to a

Gutterbird: Sounds like a minor transgression. For a sanity check, there was two-deep leadership right? So another adult must have been nearby. Did he/she think you were out of line? Might talk with them before you decide what to do. The fact that you ask your question at all indicates to me you do not have a real problem.

So, the proper course is to wait for the BSA background check and evaluation to take its course.

Packsaddle: Yeah, did my scouting in the south and always came back from hikes with socks loaded with the little devils. Folks up here dont know what theyre missing. Your post provides a perfect example of the reasonableness dilemma. My current troop allows MB requirements to never expire. Clear rule. Fairly applied. Thats the rule and I abide by it. However, I confess that when a scout approaches me to sign off a partial card and I see requirements he had signed by another counselor over a year ago, and the scout cant remember what he did or what he learned, I find myself wonderin

OK, its not the cell phone or no cell phone debate that concerns me as the comments by a few that if they see adults with cell phones they will confiscate them. The SM is in charge of the program at the troop level but is not a dictator. A SM that acts like this will not have many adult volunteers to help them and will ultimately fail. If an adults cell use is disruptive, it is entirely appropriate to ask them to cease. But take the phone away? These are adults, not Jr. High students.

I agree that the cost cited does not appear to be out of line for a week at a quality camp. For those whose finances are tight, there might be help available if you look. My last (not current) troop used a donation years ago to establish a campership fund which paid the expenses of any scout whose family could not afford to send him to summer camp. The scout always had to pitch in on fundraisers and make an effort to pay part of the fees though. Perhaps your council has a similar program or perhaps you could start one.

Agree with twocubdad. If the BSA background check was failed, it should be out of your hands. Assuming it was passed, I guess I would have to ask what was the felony many, many years ago? What does he want to do? If he stole a car twenty years back and served his time with no problems since, and wants to help out along with other leaders I guess I say why not? He wants to be with his son and participate. Is there no such thing as redemption? On the other hand, if there was violence or worse yet a youth protection concern I might go the other way. Are you concerned for the safety of you

The scouts handle it themselves. Since (at least on the last day of a campout) no-one eats until camp is struck and the area clean (we cold-camp the last breakfast and have juice, doughnuts, bars etc). The scouts have been known to drop the tent and start folding it up with our notorious late sleeper still inside.

As I said before, be reasonable. Showing up to an Eagle BOR (or any BOR) out of uniform (in civvies) is out of bounds. BUT, having a meltdown because the scout is wearing one BSA uniform (venturing) vs. another seems trite, especially if it was OK with the SM. Having said that, I thought the venturing green uniform was for the venturing program, not the older scouts in the BSA troop. So perhaps someone in that troop is unintentionally setting scouts up to not have a uniform that fits when they go for Eagle. SM might look into this for the future.