scoutldr

It's still there. And I plan to have it in my obituary, too. As a manager who frequently has to review resumes of potential job candidates, I look for things like that. Nowadays, everyone has a high school diploma and the necessary college degrees to work in my profession. So I have to look for some other discriminator, and having been an Eagle Scout, (or the GS equivalent) or even a leader tells me that chances are this is a go-to person who I can trust to be proactive and get the job done right the first time. I look for "leaders" even for a non-supervisory position. Makes my job a lot easier in the long run.

A cardinal rule is that the we may neither add to nor subtract from the requirements. Ask them for documentation of the requirement that proves that is must be Scout related. Their opinions don't count. Moving into Venturing may be the best thing to happen to him anyway...it was for me (back when we called it "Exploring")...and he's still in the BSA program.

Wouldn't the most fair thing be to just adopt the "box rules" and leave it at that. As I try to teach new leaders, when the unit thinks they need to start making up special rules (by-laws, etc), it usually leads to unforeseen complications. As with advancement, we should neither add nor subtract requirements. Seems like this should be a good policy for other things, as well. Who cares if a catamaran wins? Sounds innovative to me, if the ru

Eammon, my man...How can you justify making $3000 profit on a Wood Badge course? (or did I misunderstand your post?) The way I was taught to do event planning, your registration fee is set to cover a good faith estimate of expenses. No more, no less, +/- . Realizing, of course, that no event will come in exactly on the money, but it should be pretty close. If I were a participant and knew that my training fee was inflated to cover other expenses, such as a copy machine, I would be outraged. My council already charges us trainers 9 cents per copy, which should cover the amortized cost of the machine. I normally just go to Kinkos' which is more convenient.

"Maritime Interest Sea Scouts". Isn't that redundant? Why wait for a "new program"? Just charter a ship and DO IT!

We have 11,000 scouts in 355 units and 7 districts in our council. We have only one pro in our district, but his title is District Director. He reports to a Field Director, who reports to the SE. I still don't understand the hierarchy. I think consolidation is done purely for financial reasons. If you can collapse 2 councils into one, you only need one SE, thus saving about a hundred grand off the top, plus benefits. When membership drops, camp attendance drops (or they go out of council), FOS drops, it's hard to maintain the same level of infrastructure and overhead. It's purely business.

I think it has something to do with the hunting and killing of humans. Even though simulated.

I think it has something to do with the hunting and killing of humans. Even though simulated.

1950's - early 60's I think. I saw them in an old BSA catalog a while back. They went the way of the official BSA shoes.

Venture...or should I say, "Grasshopper".... Once, many years ago, when I was complaining to my office-mate about the idiot no-loads we had to deal with....he reminded me that "hey, without them, we'd just be "average"." So, those whom you find useless and irritating are serving a purpose within God's plan. They make you look good by comparison. Even the mosquito, the poison ivy plant, and the rattlesnake (and yes, even FOG and BW)have a place in the ecosystem, though we may not fully understand it, and without them it becomes unbalanced. Being successful in life will require you to be able to deal with (and work with) all types of people, especially those who do not share your views, values and intellect.

Our DE put it this way..."everyone deserves to be offered the opportunity to donate." Some do so willingly, others say "I'll take the pledge form home and think it over." Of course, that's a nice way of saying "no". I do know that, without the FOS presentation at my small unit, the council probably would have been $1500 poorer this year. Put it this way...do you stay home from church because you know they will be passing the plate? Some (me) drop in $100 a week while some of equal means drop in a measly buck...or nothing at all. If they can sleep at night knowing others are subsidizing them, so can I.

A beret properly worn over a shaved head (or nearly so) looks good. Unfortunately, when the red beret was introduced in the 70s, the hair style was shoulder length and straight. All that hair sticking out under the beret looked just plain stupid.

Life to Eagle planning: Getting and verifying records, leadership positions, planning and executing a Leadership Service project, filling out the application, etc.

I think we've had this discussion before. Based on the logic that people who are overweight may have a higher risk of heart attack, they should also automatically disqualify all smokers.

Some o' dat "Wacky Terbacky"????

I have found that Scout Shops (at least those run by the local Councils) will continue to sell stuff until they are gone, whether they are proper, current or otherwise useful. The excuse I have been given is "we paid for that stock, we can't just throw it away." I was able to buy the latest version of the Training Committee Guidebook at a National-run scout shop a full year before it appeared on my local council's shelves. Caveat emptor.

No, but if you have any for 2004, I'll take about 5. We made QD for this first time as a new district, but I can't find the patches. My DE didn't even know they make them.

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 ocuncil, 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. This is from the "Rules and Regulations", which, as has been alleged, we mere volunteers have no need to see. Our DE copied this and passsed it out at our last District Committee mtg, as it had recently been an issue. I believe that the use of the phrase "secured as property of the unit" is significant, in that it indicates that units can, indeed own property such as funds and equipment. I am correcting my training syllabus accordingly. I will leave it to NJScouter to interpret the fine legal points, but it's pretty clear to me. The troop committee has an obligation to see that the boys get their "Scout Account" money ("special funds"), and the rest goes to the Council, provided there is no intent to resurrect the unit. As BW is fond of saying, unless the posters here can quote the reference, what they post here is just hearsay and opinion. Caveat emptor.(This message has been edited by scoutldr)

I'll take a shot here...Aggie may be in one of those misguided Councils which is making training "mandatory" in order to be registered in a position. Therefore, you wear both patches, or none at all.

Bob White said: Youth of the UUA, youth of Wiccan covens, youth of the Episcopalian Church as well as the Methodist church are all welcome to join Scouting, as are the adult members of those same organizations. The only thing the BSA has said is that those organizations cannot charter a scout unit, because they have said they will break the rules. My unit is chartered by a UMC...should I be looking for a new CO?????

1 : relating to or manifesting faithful devotion to an acknowledged ultimate reality or deity the BSA requires this for membership by all youth and adults in Cubs, Boy Scouts, and Venturing. Sorry, but I don't read that in the Declaration of Religious Principles. In all of the court cases, BSA has maintained that they simply require the acknowledgement of belief that a "higher power" may exist, i.e., not be an "atheist". That's a far cry from "manifesting faithful devotion". Am I to deny membership to the young boy whose parents never took him to Sunday School, but yet allow the son of an Al Qaeda terrorist? They are, after all, "manifesting faithful devotion." I see a disturbing trend in the formation of sectarian scout units, in direct contradiction of the Declaration of RP...we have exclusively LDS units, a Black Muslim unit, and several units chartered by the Catholic Diocese. We have a unit whose neckerchief sports the Cross on the back and they spend their meeting times praying and working on their religious awards...which are not even awards of the BSA. I prefer to stick to the original model and run my unit to serve the needs of the neighborhood. We have blacks, Puerto Ricans, Catholics, Protestants, and some who have never stepped foot in a church. But if their parents signed the application agreeing to the DRP, I am not going to convene an inquisition to disprove them. I will not add to the requirements.

Everyone knows that "verbage" is the excessive use of verbs. And ending a sentence in a preposition is something up with which I will not put.(This message has been edited by scoutldr)

That's good advice...we also advise that as soon as a scout makes Life, he take a copy of his Troopmaster record down to COuncil and make sure they match the official records. When a scout is 17 years, 11 months old is not the time for surprises.

There is also the law of supply and demand. As has been mentioned above, we are getting away from our ecology-minded conservation ways of the early 70's. The generation X and Y don't remember sitting in a line 3 blocks long to buy a 10 gallon limit of gas at 58.9 cents a gallon. And that's only if your license plate matched the odd or even day of the week. The answer is to put our high-tech intellects to work to develop alternate energy supplies so we can tell OPEC to stuff it. In the meantime, let gas go to 5 bucks a gallon. If the soccer mom next door can afford a Ford Excursion 4x4 to go grocery shopping in, so be it. Personally, I would like to see the driving age raised to 18 nationwide and the speed limits back to 55. A 33 passenger diesel school bus is more efficient than 25 souped up Honda Civics clogging the roads and school parking lots. Only then will I feel guilty about my 6 cyl Jeep Grand Cherokee that I use for scouting.

You made a difference in the life of a child. That means more than all the square knots the BSA can offer. As I write this, I am looking at an obituary of a young man who has been on camp staff for the last 4-5 years. I knew him as a "cheerful spirit" who worked well with the younger scouts and was respectful to us old geezers. He did not stand out. But he was always there, fulfilling his obligation. I didn't even know his name, but I instantly recognized the thumbnail photo. All the paper says is that he was an Eagle Scout and "died suddenly" at age 22. It has been on my desk at work since January. I look at it often and wonder why God would take him at so young an age. And I thank God that my two sons are still with me and healthy and I pray that He doesn't need them any time soon.