scoutldr

There, but for the Grace of God... This is a popular alternative to our Council camp ... cooler temps, low humidity and fewer skeeters.

Teddy, BSA was all male until about 1970 when girls were allowed to join Explorer Posts. Exploring was spun off as a separate division, and we now have Venturing which is 14-21 year olds and co-ed. None of the other age groups is co-ed, (yet). Back in my day (early 60s) the only role women could play was Den Mother.

Gotta wonder who is pushing National with this agenda. I am with the others who are puzzled as to why this point of the Oath/Law is deserving of more attention than the others.

Forgive me, but I don't think it's required that the scouts and leaders physically move their residences to the new council. Our district and council assignment was based on the physical address of the CO (sponsor). We attracted scouts who lived in many different locations...council cashed their registration checks just fine.

Well, I'm pretty durn happy with this new software. Good Job, Terry! We appreciate all you do! I, too, remember Fortran IV...punch cards, Basic, nested do-loops ... ick. I used to be pretty adept with WordStar, Lotus 123 and Dbase III for MS-DOS. We just had some bedrooms painted and found boxes of new floppy disks that went in the trash. Now I've been told my laptop with Vista on it will soon be a doorstop and I just need to buy a new one (cheaper than upgrading to Win 7). I hate throwing things away when they still function well enough.

Well, from experience, I can tell you that many SMs would maintain a "goody box" full of excess rank badges, service stars, etc. It is so much easier to comply with the "instant recognition" policy of BSA advancement if you actually have the badge in hand to award to the scout "instantly". And following a COH, we would sometimes have unclaimed "extras" if the scout didn't come back for it. There were times when the Advancement Report failed to make it to the Council registrar, but that is the faullt of the troop Committee. NO rank badge should be awarded except following a successful BOR, and every BOR should have an Advancement Report signed by the Board members upon its completion. I am not concerned with people wearing unauthorized ranks. I am concerned about the young man who is expecting to sit for his Eagle board and there is no record that he made First Class. When we needed duplicate badges for extra uniforms, the registrar would just make you fill out an Advancement Report and write "DUPLICATE" on it. And there was the problem of awarding ranks to unregistered scouts...having an Advancement Report was the check on that.

So, at what point were striped shoulded loops part of the official BSA uniform?

I'm surrounded by college graduates who no apparent skill in any one area. I am of the old school that believed that when you release an Eagle Scout on society, there should be a core set of skills and values attached.

And also with you. From a fellow Lutheran.

It's about time they got that rank badge black market under control. Better sell my Ebay stock fast!

Your best chance is to find a new CO in the new Council and move your charter. This will take the cooperation of your current CO if you want to retain unit number, troop equipment, bank account, etc.

RE: fake bugles...I attended the funeral of a long time family friend and church member, who was a veteran of the USCG in WWII. The USCG sent an honor guard and the young female seaman had bugle duty. When she went to push the button on the electronic bugle, it wouldn't work (batteries were dead?). As an American I was embarrassed for her and for the family who were deprived of that once-in-a-lifetime honor. Can't we do better?

Just to dispel any misconceptions, adults are not selected for OA to "honor" them (as are the youths). They are selected based on what they can bring to the table in the form of supporting the youth. Every adult wearing the flap is expected to contribute in some way, not just "hang out" drinking coffee at the fellowships, ordeals and cracker barrels, as many do. Adults can serve in many ways, some of the more common are, serve as advisor to one of the youth officers or committee chairs, serve as drivers, serve as over-21 "adult supervision", use their trade skills for OA work projects, etc. As a former Chapter Advisor, there were many times I had to ask the "adults" to remove themselves to another room during meetings, because they liked to just hang out in the back of the room and chat. And there were some who worked their butts off, if nothing else, serving as a good example of "cheerful service."

I know you have considered this, CNY, but for others who may be reading, make sure that the "Safety Afloat" requirements in the Guide to Safe Scouting have been factored in. Your statement that the troop are not "strong swimmers" is concerning.

Great project and good article (except for that "Pack" thing.) One of my other hobbies is genealogy and documenting graves on http://www.findagrave.com. I've often thought that scouts who clean up cemeteries could also add to the database by documenting and photographing the graves if they haven't been already.

I agree with BD..."scout values" don't mean everyone is entitled to everything. If I were in BD's shoes, I think I would have resigned a long time ago, and he deserves our thanks and admiration. Water under the bridge indeed. The problem has been handled, so let's close the thread and move on.

Only Committee members can serve on BOR, so this would give you a larger pool to choose from.

In my opinion, mergers are done for only one reason...to reduce the number of paid professionals and related overhead costs. There is almost always no benefit for the unit.

If it weren't for Facebook, we could lay off half the people who work here. The youngsters seem to think it's ok to work with an iPhone in one hand.

"He expressed a belief a "God" but was unsure what that meant, and wants to find something to believe in, and is actively searching" Heck, that describes me most days, and I am on the far side of 60. I think the board made the right decision.

Proponents of a US National Heath System take note. I would venture to say most US teens don't have a clue unless it involves Snookie, The Bachelor, MTV, or the latest video game.

"Doesn't like camping"? You should ask him why he joined. Would he join a swim team if he hated the water? Sheesh.

Don't worry...the government microchips are coming...just like dogs.

I was always taught, "do a good turn daily", but don't seek recognition for doing so.

Rule #1 of goal setting: don't set goals for something that you can't control. Seems to me the "control points" for QA of the project are the SM conference for Eagle and the EBOR where there should be a discussion as to why the final result did not adhere to the plan. My wife, the school nurse, was once the recipient of an Eagle project where the scout proposed to build shelves in her clinic. She agreed. She never saw the scout (or any scouts) again...the kid's Mom came in during the week while he was in school and completed the project. I had to listen to that rant for weeks about how the BSA and the Eagle Scout project was such a joke. (She is a former First Class GS). This was in a different district, so I never saw the scout at his EBOR, but I urged my wife to refuse to allow the mom into her clinic, and call the Council to voice her concerns.