scoutldr

I refuse to shop at Best Buy. They are all idiots. Great story!

Just my opinion: the Eagle COH is a troop function and, as such, should be planned and run by the SPL and PLC, with guidance from the SM. If parents want something special and are willing to fund it, they can make the offer to the SPL.

Then I am in favor of a separate area for Trainers, password protected. WB is just another training course. The same logic you presented applies to all training.

How about a separate section for Eagle Scouts with a secret password? Or one for Silver Beavers? Or one for Trainers? Or one for Commissioners (if there are any left)? NeiLup said in a different thread, "There is very, very , very little in Scouting that is "secret." Apparently not.

boleta, I took a look at your Troop by-laws and the first thing that jumped out at me is that you require Class 1 and Class 2 medical forms to be notarized. Do you also enforce that for adult physicals? Just curious as to what prompted this rule and how do you enforce it. BSA does not require it, and if I required that in our unit, no one would go to camp.

The effect it has on me is that my scout shirt costs me almost $40 while a shirt of similar quality from WalMart is $12.99. SOMEBODY's making a lot of money off of my volunteer service. I'll concede that unions are not the only ones at fault, and I apologize for attacking them. Most union workers I know are good, hardworking people, as are most non-union people. It's the American people. What's wrong with wanting more? What are you offering for the extra money? Increased productivity? Working more hours? Better quality? None of these things are happening. In fact, they are decre

It's not really germaine to compare today's Unions to the sweatshop conditions of the past generation. Unions did a lot of good during the Industrial Revolution in the "smokestack industries" to end oppressive, unsafe conditions, nepotism and discrimination. At the local shipyard here, the Steelworkers are preparing to go out on strike at midnight Sunday. Why? They have jobs with good salaries and benefits, a retirement plan, and guaranteed work into the future. But they want more. They don't care that it drives up inflation and cost to the taxpayers (govt contractor). But when the cont

I'll gladly pay double for my uniform so that a Union worker can drive a new 4x4 SUV and have a vacation home at the beach, 6 weeks vacation and satellite TV. I want his kids to have a better life than mine did.

As far as the IRS and BSA are concerned, the scout unit is not a legal entity. Whatever rules apply to the CO also apply to the unit funds, since the money technically is theirs, just entrusted to the use of the unit.

I've seen a lot of troops which have too many ASMs and not enough MCs. THey need to reverse the ratio, since many of the ASMs are serving committee functions anyway...or not serving any function at all. It's all in the nomenclature.

scoutmom is correct. In a "perfect world", The CC and SM/CM are recruited and appointed by the CO/COR. The CC then recruits and appoints the rest of the committee, with the CO's approval, and the SM does likewise with his/her assistants. There is no "election" involved. One solution posted previously on this forum is to establish all positions as one-year terms, renewable at the discretion of the CO. Some will be asked to continue, some will not, and some will be relieved that their "term" is up and they can step down gracefully. But all this is up to the CO. The reality is, many CO's

Neil said, "If a boy is insufficiently active, they say he should be transferred on the rolls to being an "associate" member." I'm not aware of this membership category...can someone please clarify? As far as I know, they are either registered members and show up on your charter...or not. To address FOG's original question, if the scout's POR is "Troop Photographer", I would ask him to bring his "portfolio" to the BOR for review. When he can't produce, ask him why he is there. The answer should be obvious, even to him. The purpose of the BOR should be to show the scout t

Not to oversimplify, but the professional's job depends on more youth, more units and more money. If they are successful, making Quality District, you can expect them to be leaving soon as they are transferred to another district or take a promotion to another Council. Eamonn, the situation you describe violates several points of the Scout Law, not to mention possible fraud when it comes to the operation of a non-profit corporation. Heads should roll, and I would side with you in refusing to be a party to it.

Oz: "Remembrance Day" is known as Veterans Day here in the US. It was originally Armistice Day, celebrated on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11 Month, when the armistice ending WWI was signed. It is now Veterans' Day and is one of the few holidays that was not moved to a Monday by Congress. It is proper to fly the national ensign at half-staff until noon, at which time it is restored to full-staff. We are proud to have the Australians as allies throughout the past century.(This message has been edited by scoutldr)

On line roundtables? Isn't that what we're doing here???

Thanks, twocub. You echoed my sentiments exactly. It is very frustrating as a trainer to have to tell Den Leaders in an April course, "of course come September when you become a WL, you are no longer trained and have to take WL training which is 75% a repeat of this course." In fact, this is so stressful that I am thinking of stepping down as a trainer and trying some other underserved position, such as Commissioner. As to Fast Start, our training is advertised as "Fast Start training is a prerequisite". Then I just assume they have all had it, realizing, of course that in reality ver

I agree with FOG...it's cultural. We could name this generation "The Pamperedest Generation". Before everyone jumps on me with both feet, I will agree there are exceptions...but they are getting fewer and fewer. This generation wants everything spoon fed to them, and I see it every day. Who's guilty? We all are: parents, teachers, scouters, coaches, employers. We no longer demand that they be responsible and accountable. Didn't do your homework? We know you're awfully busy, so bring it in when by the end of the semester and we'll count it. Don't want to work on MB? We'll organize a

FOG has the right idea. Here's the concept: following each BOR, the advancement chair logs in to the unit's folder on Scoutnet and enters the advancement info. It will not accept any entries that do not match, e.g., unregistered scout, wrong name (Bobby vice Robert), logic errors (advancement to rank if previous ranks are not entered; not enough time between ranks, Lifesaving MB if Swimming not already entered, etc). Prior to COH, advancement chair goes to scout shop to purchase awards...registrar pulls up current report (awards entered, but not yet purchased), and only those awards are so

I know an SM who after 30+ years, is still attending roundtables. At what point would you consider him "trained"? As a trainer, one of my frustrations is that there is not enough time allotted for each course...if one follows the syllabus to the letter, shows the videos, etc, there is no time for questions, discussions, interaction, sharing of ideas, etc. We would be there until midnight. I agree that the weakest courses, next to TDC (which is pretty worthless), are the Cub Specific courses. My council always (in spite of my pleadings) advertises "Cub Specific" as one course. Then, o

Not me!

FOG said, "They work as hard as they can to not believe in a supremem being when the evidence that there is a supreme being is all around them." Kinda like the Christians who teach their kids that those dinosaur skeletons are all fakes planted there by the evolutionists?

Everyone is correct, we can't add to the advancement requirements. We don't have an attendance requirement. We believe that "any" Scouting is better than "no" Scouting. But...the Scout and his parents need to understand that there will be natural consequences to their choices, e.g., he may not be elected to leadership positions by the rest of the Troop (out of sight, out of mind), he may not be elected to OA, he may not advance as a result of not satisfactorily completing a leadership position, merit badge work, etc. Make it clear that these are all within his control, not the Troop Commit

So THAT's where all the Unit Commissioners are! I've never actually seen a live one in the wild.

The BSA Policy is called the "Declaration of Religious Principle" and is found on the inside cover of the adult leader application: BSA DECLARATION OF RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLE Excerpted: from Adult Registration Application B.S.A. No. 28-501K. The Boy Scouts of America maintains that no member can grow into the best kind of citizen without recognizing an obligation to God and, therefore, recognizes the religious element in the training of the member, but is absolutely non-sectarian in its attitude toward that religious training. The Boy Scouts of America's policy is that the ho

I've seen these on eBay, but are they an official BSA item? If not, then putting it on the red wool jac-shirt is questionable, since it is considered part of the uniform.