scoutingagain

We have counted consecutive nights of camping outside of summer camp, on backpacking trips where the campsite changes every night. So a 7 day, 6 night backpacking trip would cound as 6 nights of camping. Plus possibly another night or two camping on the way to and from the backpacking outing. We have counted 3 nights for a long weekend camping trip, we do not consider a "long term" camp. i.e. Friday, Sat, & Sunday night. SA

Yes, another sad story worthy of a few prayers for those affected. The fact is we're an outdoor based organization. There are some inherent risks with that. With forethought and prudence many can be managed. Drop a funnel cloud in an area where there are a 100+ people spread over a 1000 acres or more where there are little or no structures designed to take such weather, be it a trailer park, scout camp, or subdivision built on slabs with no basements, and your likely to have problems, serious problems. The reports I read, indicated the storm virtually formed very close to the ca

This is my worst nightmare. A leader given responsibility for the safety and well being of other people's children and losing one. I too, say a prayer for the boy, his family and his unit. None of us were there so we don't know the circustances. What little information is provided in the article leaves many questions. The article indicates this was a unit had a reputation for doing canoe trips and it sounds as if they were experienced. They probably filed a tour permit and met all the G2SS requirements. Life jackets were used and the boy sounds as if he was a strong swimmer. Howe

"I think I got it now, I am going for Troop Guide, I understand what I am supposed to do in this position and how to do it. " Wise decision. SA

"One in Four Believe the Nation is So Divided That a Common National Identity is Not Possible " I'm quite certain if the question giving this result was asked on the afternoon of Sept. 11, 2001 there would have been a much different response. I drove cross country the days following and can assure all there was very much a national identity on display. No Blue State/Red State nonsense. Just the United States. SA

Sven, I've followed this thread for a while and havn't jumped in mainly because I think others are giving you pretty good feedback. At this point I will be blunt though. Re-read John-in-KC's last Post. If you truely value your membership in the BSA I'd suggest you follow Neilup's advice. If you think, "if I can get a majority of Chartered Reps to reject the slate of nominees made by the nomination committee, then they would have to re-evaluate who they want to nominate. Perhaps a deal could be made where if I'm added to the list the Chartered reps will vote in the rest of the

Yes, Congratulations!

I'll leave the discussion of gas prices alone for now except as I've stated before I'm in the same camp as Gern. As far as the economy goes, while I accept certain areas are harder hit than others, I continue to be suprised by the resiliency of the economy. It actually grew last quarter, although at an anemic less than 1% rate. Employment overall nationally is holding up suprisingly well. My commute still sucks because not enough companies have laid people off yet and they still clog the highways getting in and out of the city and it seems worse than it was last year. They tell me ri

First, I don't know if some are confusing the Eagle Project Workbook with the Application. As I recall the Workbook is a savable form. I just tried using Acrobat Version 8 and it allowed me to save data on the Application form. SA

Link to Congressional Research Report on Bisphenol A. http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/RS22869_20080505.pdf. My conclusion after reading this report is that for the vast majority of scouting uses of polycarbonate type bottles there is little risk to adults and adolescents drinking cold water or other cold beverages from these bottles. So I'm not going to throw out my inventory of bottles. If I had infants or young children in my household I would not use polycarbonate bottles to feed them or store juices etc. intended for their consumption. That's my take. Read and make

Acutally I was thinking going to something like a combination of American Idol and Survivor with all the candidates of each major party starting out in their own tribes, third part candidates could be a separte tribe. Each week one tribe member is voted out by the viewing public until you get three major candidates left. Seems like some folks know more about the participants on American Idol than they do about the Presidential candidates. SA

"Kind of wish National would look into something that would be recognizable nationaly, and would stop some of the nonsense out there." Or NYLT developers and staffers could be satisfied that their efforts have gone serve the development of youth leadership and leave the recognition at that. SA

My experience with the Appalachian Mountain Club here in New England, is that they will extend member pricing for the use of their campsites, campgrounds and facilities to Scout groups. SA

Well you can probably blame Florida for the first four years, I don't know about the last four years. I will admit the Democrats have made for good entertainment. I have to admit though I don't get the whole primary thing. Sure MI and FL probably flubbed by scheduling their primaries too early. But if everyone says the races are over, whats the point in having some states run primaries in late May or early June? It will be interesting to see if Hillary is interested in the VP slot. I think she might be interested, but while there might have been a role as an advisor of s

Ya Beavah. It goes both ways. In a perfect world, in addition to your upfront expectations I'd say each POR gets a review after say 2 months. Feed back given on performance and areas to improve, with another review after 4 months in office with ongoing coaching. At that point the candidate is either performing or not, and should be told whether or not he will likely get credit for the position or not and what he needs to do to start getting credit and restart the calender. If the job really matters and it's not getting done then maybe it's time to give it to someone else. Oh I fu

So more importantly how many rows of knots can I fit above the pocket? SA

I tend to agree with the above. It's not about numbers or ratios. It's what the adults do in the troop that matters. A single, all powerful control freak SM, with just one or two ASMs might be too many adults for a unit of 50 boys. Yet a good boy led unit with 6 - 12 adults and a similar number of scouts might be fine. SA

I thought Beavah's response was good. Jambo's maybe a once in a lifetime experience, but they are expensive, unless your really able get organized and do some good fundraising. The council HA activities are a good way to go. The one caveat I mentioned to our older scouts as they thought about HA activities was that, they will always be able to get a bunch of buddies together and do their own HA activity. However, once they turn 18, their accessibility to the National HA bases and even the council HA activities, will be limited, at least as youth participants. You may be able to go t

I think the question is, Is it fair to withold advancement from a scout, if you believe he has not met one of the subjective requirements of rank advancement,( i.e. scout spirit, actively served, etc.)yet, based on the requirements set by National as quoted by John-in-KC, you are relatively certain if the scout were to appeal your decision, your decision would be overturned on appeal. It's not that we're all worried about appeals, it's more about being trustworthy. While I may not like the way a scout has performed in his POR, if I have not removed him from office within the time

"So if religion works for some folks in answering the questions they're asking why does the Scientific crowd have such a backlash against them unless it is to win them over to their worldview/religion? And then deny that they are adherents to a religion?" I don't believe it's the scientists going into Churches asking to be allowed to present their point of view as an alternative valid faith or religion. SA

I'm afraid I tend to agree with OGE. If the candidate can truthfully put on his application he served a scribe from such and such a date to another and it adds up to six months, in the eye's of BSA national, he's fulfilled the requirement and any denial of advancement based on your subjective opinion will be overturned. If he was doing such a bad job, he should have been removed. I agree the rumor is rumor. That's it. About the only thing I can see you doing is to get the scout himself to admit he has not done a good job as Scribe and needs to serve a few more months doing all the

OK. Ed, teachers have the same right to pray as an individual as students do. However, while a student may be able to lead other students in a voluntary prayer, teachers and administrators may not do so. As Merlyn stated, in thier role as a teacher, they are acting as an agent of the government and must obey restrictions placed on the government by the constitution as interpreted by the courts, who are appointed by our elected representatives. SA

Our Eagle candidates meet with the DAC on Roundtable nights. The process is similar to what Gunny describes. The scout has to show sign offs from the organization benefiting from the project, his SM and Committee or whatever is in the book. He has to have a tentative schedule, (not exact dates) and a plan for labor and materials. i.e. groups that will help, but not names of specific individuals. He has to be able to show what materials will be needed and how he plans on getting them. Again a plan, either fund raising or donations of materials or funding from the benefiting organizatio

Ed, and you don't see the problem with that question either? SA

"Why not draft a Constitutional Amendment allowing prayer in public schools?" Why? There is no Constitutional issue that prevents students from privately praying in public schools now. They are allowed to pray in any faith they want. To be sure there are restrictions on where and when they may be allowed to pray so as not to disrupt the educational mission of the school, but any student can say a prayer privately before school, between classes, at lunch, after school, etc. The government is not allowed to lead a prayer. Nothing in the Constitution prevents anyone from praying...o