scoutldr

Quoting the leader,"He said 'This is a naturalist beach, and my family and I go through here all the time it's not a big deal.'" I agree with Huey...they guy is a moron and should have his membership revoked. He knew what he was doing when he planned it.

As I stated in another thread, my wife is a school nurse. As such, she also has responsibility for emergency care of faculty and staff members. One way she's solved this is to request each adult to write down "things we need to know in case of an emergency" and place it in a signed and sealed envelope, which she keeps on file to be opened only in the event she has to call 911 for any of them. At the end of the school year, she hands them back at the last faculty meeting and asks if anyone needs to update anything. Might be an acceptable compromise for you.

If the OP had outlined the WHOLE issue in the first post, my answer would have been more complete. Health and safety rules of the BSA are not negotiable by the committee, whether by vote or by consensus.

Committees are free to function in any manner they choose, if in agreement with the Chartered Organization. There are no rules to my knowledge at the BSA National level. If someone is not satisfied with how the Committee is functioning, they should take it up with the Chartered Organization Representative (COR). In my experience, most Committees function by consensus.

BSA YPT made me really paranoid. After years of Scouter-ing, I re-enrolled at the city rec center to do winter lap swimming. Imagine my discomfort when, as I was showering and getting dressed in an open locker room/shower room (nude, of course), a bunch of yutes run in as their swim class dismissed. It seems no one actually showers in the nude any more. And no "separate showers"...just male and female locker rooms. And no showers before swimming...they just strip off their clothes and already have their swim trunks on underneath. yuk.

Unfortunately, I don't think there's much you can do. I am a public health professional and my wife is an elementary school nurse. Parents today are so narcissistic that they put your kids at risk daily. They will take their kid who has been vomiting all night and has a 103 fever, dose them up with Tylenol and put them on the school bus, hoping against hope that they will make it through the day. Sometimes they don't even make it to class...they get off the bus and go straight to the clinic. Sometimes the parents don't even work...they just don't want to be bothered with them staying home. It's infuriating. She had one just this past Friday...when the tylenol wore off and the kid showed up in the clinic, the mom was called and her only concern was "well at least she got to participate in the party, right?" She did check, and of a student population of a little over 700, she has 7 who have "religious exemptions" to immunizations. There are always a few others who are exempt because of other medical conditions, such as HIV, or chemotherapy. In this state, all the parent needs to do is fill out a form and sign it to get the exemption. I'm betting if you asked the kid what "religion" they are or what church they go to, they wouldn't have a clue. Due to inclusion laws, there are kids in schools intermingling with the others who have HIV, or aren't immunized, or other conditions. Due to HIPAA laws, only the nurse knows...if the school has a nurse (not all schools do). She is not allowed to tell anyone else, and in the case of HIV, the parents are not required to disclose it. Bottom line is, if the parents don't inform the scout unit of an illness, you're not going to know. Unless the local public health authorities advise to "avoid public gatherings", there's not much you can do. I did hear that in the western states experiencing the measles outbreak, non immunized kids who are exposed are then banned from school for 3 weeks, religious exemption or not. That's a smart move, since you can be contagious up to 4 days before symptoms are evident.

I should have said, "the TAY for the geographic area remains the same..." The edit function wouldn't work for some reason.

I don't have any data, but my guess is it would have zero, or negative impact on membership. The Total Available Youth (TAY) for the gegraphic area, and you would have fewer professionals (DEs) out there going after them. The only reason for a merger is to reduce overhead costs.

Cheating is rampant in schools and colleges, and the kids think nothing of it. I once heard my son telling his cousin how to rip music off the internet. They were dumbfounded when I suggested that there was something morally wrong (not to mention illegal) about that. Once I got over charged at a Home Depot (an expensive item didn't get scanned), and when I returned to pay what I owed, the cashier and manager looked at me like I had 3 heads. The problem is, they all can sleep perfectly well at night (unlike me), because it doesn't even occur to them that they've done something wrong. We have failed. At least I've learned what "torrenting" is.

Same could be said about the OA flap. The day your Lodge dues expire, the flap should come off.

Well, you could do your civic duty and report him to the FBI. A few years in the federal penitentiary and a huge fine should make him see the error of his ways. Seriously, you know what is within your power to do. Vote with your feet. Find another unit led by people who fit your vision of "trustworthy, loyal, helpful, etc." And let the unit's chartered organization and Council know why you are leaving. They are the ones who have the liability here....and the deep pockets. My observation is that this is the "new morality"...whatever you can get away with is ok. We turn a blind eye to our kids when they rip off music from websites, or copy CDs and pass them around.

The scout should not leave the BOR not understanding why he was not approved. If he was asked to come back in two weeks, he should be clear on what the board is expecting to see/hear when he comes back.

Over the years, I received little trinkets, but to be honest, I don't know where they are now. The best gifts are those scouts who still keep in touch with me over the years. It warms my heart to know they are doing well and grew up to be contributing members of society with families of their own now. One will be graduating from the Naval Academy this year and two brothers served together in Afghanistan. One is a marine engineer who just got his 2nd Asst Engineer's license from the Coast Guard. I still run into parents out in town who stop me and thank me for the many hours we put in to help raise their sons. You're very welcome.

In the US, every student is taught that Wikipedia is not an "authoritative resource" for doing research. Anyone can author an article and anyone can edit it.

Those of us with government clearances are taught that we shouldn't advertise that fact nor disclose our level of access to those who don't have a need to know. We've even been told to quit advertising that we are affiliated with the military by scraping decals and stickers off our cars, don't wear military-themed clothing and cleanse our social media presence. Just sayin...

Yes, we use the local LDS church for district meetings, OA chapter meetings, training, etc. Only drawback is we can't serve caffeine. We would have LDS units at camporees and the only difference would be when they would pack up Saturday night and go home.

I would discuss with the scout how he plans to show "leadership" through the project. It is not so much the number of hours or product or service that is produced, but how the plan is executed. I also told them my standard is to have enough detail that, should the scout get hit by a truck, someone else coule pick up the plan and carry out the project without him. I learned what the District guy would look for (safety, power tools, budget, fundraising, etc) and would screen for that. It was not an automatic signature...several got sent back for re-work before it went to district.

Grusse!

I agree with Torchwood, but we must be old-school. The trend now seems to be that the entire den marches in lock-step and is spoon fed at the same rate, so they all are "rewarded" at the same time. Maybe the program has changed...?

Kids who have never been told "no" or were never allowed to fail are now showing up in the workplace. They are a real PITA. The same performance awards and promotions are expected by all, regardless of their actual performance.

In my opinion, that was a very unconventional EBOR. ONE person?

Is this not the very definition of atheism? I would make sure that the boy and his parents are saying exactly what he means. If he is sure, then he is ineligible for membership and may not be awarded the Eagle. This really isn't that hard. If this is not a new belief, then he probably shouldn't have come this far before having the rug pulled out from under him. That's not to say he's a bad kid. Just not eligible for membership.

The irony here is that if the boy declared he had the same religious beliefs as Osama bin Laden, we would put a check mark in the box and schedule the Court of Honor.

That's where I'm at. I would walk rather than compromise my moral position so that drug dealers can be awarded the Eagle.

Agree with packsaddle. The problem is the BSA won't clearly define what they expect out of fear of alienating blocs of membership (and financial support). If you try to please everyone, no one will be happy. They need to either clearly delineate a religious requirement, or drop the matter entirely and accept all in the hopes that participation will make them better citizens. As my dear Mom used to say, "time to get off the pot."