scoutldr

I'm a geek and proud of it! Who cares what others think? My brothers-in-law have no other life but sports. When there's a football game or NASCAR race on TV, nothing else matters and nothing will interfere. If they have to come to my house for a family gathering, one of them will commandeer the remote and put the race or the game on, regardless of what others may want. I find this rude and boorish. Their sons do nothing but sports. What will they do when they realize they won't make the varsity and go on to the NFL? Watch it on TV and drink beer like their dads? Sad. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against sports at the youth level. Everyone should play if they've got a mind to. But everyone should also learn to play an instrument, build a fire, do CPR, enjoy a play, treat women with respect, and take care of younger children and animals. Sounds like Scouting to me.

Sounds like a fair system for all concerned. Thanks for posting, Kurt.

Just be aware that most BSA logos are registered trademarks. If you can't buy it in the scout shop, it's probably not legal. I wonder how the scrapbookers are getting away with it.

Lisa brings up some good points. I do not support the parental buyout option. Either the scout earns his OWN way...or not. Allowing Mommy to carry your butt should no longer be an option at the Boy Scout level. It's not about money...it's about teaching self-reliance and responsibility. The PLC designs the program, which includes figuring out how to pay for it.

What do you do with a Life scout who joins your troop at age 15, and never shows up for meetings due to "family issues" (divorce)? His POR was served in a previous troop (e.g. Scribe) and is signed off in his book (previous troop folded, so I can't confirm). He goes to summer camp in another council as a provisional and collects all his MB there. He is registered, but does not participate with his troop...in anything. What do I say when he presents me with his Eagle application? Has he met the requirements? Heck if I know.

Jerry's right. It's pretty transparent to see why Councils don't want to be bothered with returned product. Once they "sell" the unit a full case, they've got their cut and don't want to give it back. We have some units who refuse to sell popcorn, but just stroke a check to the council every year as an FOS donation. They seem to be happy with that.

Ditto to what Prairie said. I can go to Council and pick up one box of butter lite if that's what I need (I've done it). That is one selling feature they use to convince units to sell popcorn over other fund raisers...NO RISK to the unit. All unsold product can be returned to council, and they sell it out of the scout shop all year round. My DE even gives it away to the faculty and staff when he goes to schools to give Boy talks. Your council is just being difficult.

http://www.mninter.net/~blkeagle/quality.htm

Do you have a Unit Budget Plan? After the annual program is planned, sketch out the budget...costs of activities, B/G banquet, PW Derby, monthly awards, Den expenses, leader training, etc. Then plan fundraisers and set dues to raise that amount of money. No more, no less. Then provide a copy of the Pack Budget to all parents with the expectation that this is THEIR program that THEY must support. If the funds are not there, the program will NOT be delivered. As someone wise once said, "There is no such thing as a free Wolf badge." I have heard units amassing five figure bank accounts through constant fund raisers...that's simply not necessary.

Is it just a problem with this scout, or would they not be interested in helping with ANY Eagle project? You might explain to them that they ALL need service hours...who is going to help with THEIR advancement?

When you are generous with your own money, it's called "liberal". When you are generous with MY money, it's called "stealing".

Concur, drbob.

Your brethren and sistren are showing an amazing level of scriptural ignorance. The "moneychangers" were those who collected the half-shekel "temple tax" that was levied on each male over the age of 20. The tax was payable with a half-shekel coin only. Those who did not have correct change or pilgrims who showed up with foreign currency were ripped off with a healthy "fee" for "changing" the money into the proper denomination, thus earning a healthy profit for themselves. How they relate this to Boy Scout fundraising is beyond me. If the church members are opposed to fund raising, then an alternative is that they provide you a share of the weekly offerings to fund the youth program that they agreed to support by signing the charter.(This message has been edited by scoutldr)(This message has been edited by scoutldr)

Once at a Troop meeting, I overheard some of our scouts discussing the merits of one MP3 player over another. Acting dumb, I asked, "how do you get the music onto those things." "Oh, you just download songs from the internet." "For free," I asked feigning incredulity. "Sure." was the reply. "Aren't there copyright laws against stealing someone else's work?" I asked. "Aw, everyone does it. If it was illegal, it wouldn't be on the internet" My point is, today's kids have no problem swearing an oath to be Trustworthy, and at the same time freely ripping CDs and MP3s and trading them around, or cheating on an exam or plagiarizing a paper off the internet. They just don't make the connection. Our challenge is large!

A scout or scouter can belong to any unit he/she chooses, as long as the unit is willing to have them.(This message has been edited by scoutldr)

Center looks at academic integrity ills By Monica Rozenfeld\Correspondent Published: 10/24/05 For the last 15 years, Don McCabe has looked into what influences a student to peek over at the test of the person next to them or to pass off an internet-purchased essay as their own. McCabe is a professor of Management and Global Business at the University, and also the founding president of the Center for Academic Integrity at Duke University. His research in the past 15 years on cheating has included over 140 colleges and universities in both the United States and Canada, surveying over 100,000 students. Aside from college-level cheating, he has focused on high school students as well. According to his research, high school students report a higher level of cheating than college-level students. Does this mean that cheating originates at a younger age and the habit transfers over to college? "It often does originate at younger levels but also can be very situational so that there are some students who may well cheat in college for the first time," McCabe said. Data show that 75 percent of the 4,500 high school students surveyed engage in serious cheating, according to a national survey by the Rutgers Management Education Center. "There are many reasons different students cheat," McCabe said. "Time pressures, competitiveness, panic, a way of life." In a CNN article, "Survey: Many students say cheating's OK," students respond to McCabe's findings. One student, Alice Newhall who attends a top school in northern Virginia, said the pressure to do well academically and compete for good colleges has made cheating a way to survive high school. "What's important is getting ahead," Newhall said. "The better you do, that's what shows. It's not how moral you were in getting there." And this mentality attributes morality to the real world as well. Aside from academic pressure, the most common response on why students cheat is due to the corruption of the adult world they see, including politicians and celebrities. "I think kids today are looking to adults and society for a moral compass and when they see the behavior occurring there, they don't understand why they should be held to a higher standard," McCabe said in the CNN article. There are many reasons why students do cheat, and knowing or not knowing possible consequences they still continue, but why does this not stop them? "It depends on the student," McCabe said. "Some obviously think they won't be caught. Some really don't care because they feel the reward outweighs the risk, especially if penalties [at their school] aren't severe. " "Some simply panic and others simply do not think about the consequences assuming somehow they'll get off if they're caught," he said.(This message has been edited by scoutldr)

When my dad saw me watching TV on a nice day, he would walk in the room, turn the TV off and tell me to get my a-- outside. If I didn't have anyone to play with, he would find a few chores for me to do. It's entirely within parents' control. I have to agree with the school lunch issue, though.

I have been a member for many years. It's locality specific as to whether you will have a local chapter and how active they are. We don't have one, to my knowledge. For your money, you get a nice certificate (suitable for framing), a quarterly magazine (most of which is a listing of new life members), and a resume entry. Council gets a list of members for their use in recruiting (commissioners, etc), which I have since decided is probably the main reason the organization exists...a tracking system for Eagle Scouts.

As some here would have said, the Rules are the Rules...everything else is just opinion. In reality, the DE should sit down with the CO and ascertain their intentions of continuing their affiliation with the BSA. It is the DE's job to "talk a blue streak" to get them to maintain the charter and not give up the unit. If they intend to reform a unit in the future, the CO can retain the assets "in trust" for that future unit. If they have no such intention, the assets revert to the Council for use as they see fit. That's the terms of the Charter agreement that they signed when your unit was formed. Under NO circumstances do any of the assets belong to the Scouts or Unit leaders to do with as THEY see fit. If the CO wants to allow scouts to transfer their unit accounts (if any) to their new unit, that can be negotiated, I guess.

Rules and Regulations, Article XI, Section 1, Local Council and Unit Finance Clause 2, Disposition of Unit Funds Upon Termination of Local Council or Unit (b) Unit Obligations. In the event of the dissolution of a unit or the revocation or lapse of its charter, the unit committee shall apply unit funds and property to the payment of unit obligations and shall turn over the surplus, if any, to the local council, if there is one, or if there is no local council, dispose of the same in accordance with the direction of the Executive Board of the Boy Scouts of America. In the case of a chartered organization, any funds or equipment which may have been secured as property of the unit shall be held in trust by the chartering organizaiton or the chartered local council, as may be agreed upon, pending reorganization of the unit or for the promotion of the program of the Boy Scouts of America. © Administration of Local Funds by Corporation. Any property or funds acquired by the Executive Board upon the dissolution of a Scouting unit or local council shall be administered so as to make effective, as far as posssible, the intentions and wishes of the donors. (d) Special Funds. Special funds created for specific purposes, acquired by a unit or local council, shall be vested in a bank, trust company or BSA Intravest Trust, in trust for the use of the unit or the local council, in accordance with the wishes of the donors, with the provision in the statement of the conditions governing the admiinistering of the funds that in the event of the dissolution of the unit or council or revocation or lapse of its charter said trustee or trustees will, after satisfying any clams against such fund, turn over to the Boy Scouts of America the balance for use by the Boy Scouts of America for the benefit of Scouting in such locality and for the specific purposes for which the fund was granted. If there is no suitable opportunity for the use of said fund in such locality, it may be used elsewhere.

Of course, if this fundraiser is done for the Ship, you will have to submit a Unit Fundraising Application to the Council. Should be an interesting discussion after they realize what it means.

Expectations go both ways. As a District Committee Member at Large, I can tell you how frustrating it is to only have about one third of the District positions filled 3 years after being forced to form a new district. The positions that are filled are filled by "multiples" who are also SM's, DLs and CCs in units doing double and triple duty, while hundreds of adults with youth in the program are doing nothing. Units should encourage adults to get involved in Commissioner service or District positions, rather than having 10 ASMs on the roll that are not needed. If units expect services from the district and Council, someone has to volunteer. As was said before, the professionals' jobs are to find new money and form new units. Everything else is dependent on volunteer labor....that's me and you.

So, what are you saying, Eamonn? If the campsite access cannot be controlled by BSA, and if we can't assure separate facilities for youth and adults, the site should not be on the approved list? That would essentially kill any Cub camping in this Council.

This park IS on the approved list. They were in a "group site", which is just a larger site mixed in among the RV sites. The playground and shower house were on the other side of the campground, and kids were allowed to roam at will. The kids weren't being bad...just having fun. If we limit cub packs to just council-owned properties, I would guess that most would not go, since there would be no flush toilets or showers, electric hook ups, or even water, unless they drive 2 hours to the main Council Reservation. There was no problem with the park that would cause it to be "unapproved". The problem was with the adult supervision. I think that most leaders will assume that, as long as the scout's parent is there, it's the parent's responsibility to protect their own children. Perhaps the solution is to make YP training mandatory for all parents, as well.(This message has been edited by scoutldr)

Pack or troop? Since you mention BOR, I assume troop. Position descriptions are found in the Leader handbooks and can also be found online. As the title implies, the Committee Chair chairs the committee meetings and recruits other members of the committee to whom various responsibilities are delegated. BOR are conducted by members of the troop committee. The chair can participate, but not required. Typically these will be coordinated by the troop advancement chairman, a member of the Troop committee. The troop committee chair also works hand in hand with the Scoutmaster, who's primary job is to train and mentor the youth leaders. You sound like a natural! Go for it!