slontwovvy

The most entertaining CNN interview ever was on a couple of weeks ago: Jerry Falwell v. Barney Franks, the only gay member of the House of Representatives. I don't think the commentator got a word in edgewise.

Ozemu pretty accurately describes the scene. Although everyone gives different reasons, I suspect it is because they did not feel good after finishing runners-up in a joke vote.

I have not been able to convince anyone to run as of today. We may have to (gasp) appoint or strongly push an SPL.

We have an interesting situation on our hands.

Two weeks ago the troop held elections. A boy was prodded into running by his friends, and (as a joke candidate) won. Later, he revealed that he didn't really want to be SPL, he resigned. Now, no one from among the other candidates is willing to run again. Ideas on how to solve this?

As we all know, duct tape is like the Force in Star Wars; it has a dark side and a light side, and it binds the galaxy together.

Not in their eyes.

I agree with kwc57. There are too many things now dependent upon or using the Christmas and Thanksgiving holidays to make it worthwhile.

The retail store at which I work cannot possibly implement this system. The reason: on Yom Kippur, people shop. On Christmas, they don't. It's that simple. People would be working at a closed store, with nothing to do or sell. It would be a horrific waste of money. Merlyn's "solution" would cause a lot more problems that it would solve.

We only allow the boys to use the troop's tents. They're perfectly nice, we get enough every six years, and they foster a sense of equality among the Scouts.

Just a word of caution in all this...

Our new friends Yoshimi and Rzarecta seem to have nothing in their profiles. Hmmm......

Use caution!

Where are all these votes coming from? Do we have a "silent majority" or just people voting more than once?

I wonder if they would be willing to say the Pledge of Allegiance for us....

Definitely. Even if others helped him get it (by looking the other way during his BOR), that doesn't make it right.

My troop's PLC is looking at doing a high adventure trip to Isle Royale. Does anyone have past experience hiking the island? What boats do you take, can you resupply with food, etc? Thank you for all the help you can provide.

We just leave around 6:00-6:30 on Friday night. Everyone is able to get there on time as most adults leave work around 4:30. As long as they have things packed ahead of time, they should be fine.

"In the 1990s, gay men and lesbians spawned a "gayby" boom when they began starting families through adoption and childbirth."

Brief question: Maybe I missed some recent scientific discovery, but how is that physically possible?

Active involves attending four troop functions in two months (not hard since my troop offers twelve or more functions a month), unless having received a prior dispensation from the Scoutmaster or other registered adult leader. A Scout is allowed one instance where this is broken sans leader approval, then he is considered non active.

kwc57-

I think it was you who missed Youngblood's point.

He was not wanting total commitment to the exclusion of other activities, just saying that participation in Boy Scout activities should be at a certain level in order to consider oneself an active Boy Scout. If other activities get in the way on a more than consistent basis, that should not be considered active. The expectation to advance rank is based upon active service and leadership.Why do people feel they have a right to advance even if they've only been to one or two meetings and an outing in 9 or 10 months?

Youngblood did not say nor imply that other activities should be excluded. He said, however, something eminently sensible--that boys who expect to advance should be reasonably active in Boy Scouting.

They should put the Scouts first and practice innovative methods of instructing, in a sense making the merit badges come alive. Early morning bird hikes, building a bridge for pioneering, search-and-rescue of a dummy for emergency prep or orienteering, etc.

yaworski,

Even though I agree with you, I feel your remarks might be a better subject of debate in a new thread.

A couple of comments on some previous posts...

First of all, OGE, your troop members should not be doing your troop election. To my understanding it must be done with some representative from the outside.

Secondly, I believe it was evmori who is going out of council. You need a letter from the chapter or lodge advisor in order for them to be called out out of council. As far as I know, it is very difficult or impossible to allow your scouts to take their ordeal out of council. You'll need to head to a Fall or Spring Fellowship/Conference.

Not to my knowledge. You can earn just the silver.

I think Rooster's point was not that using binoculars correctly is a criterion for being President, merely this:

Bush cares more about the people of the United States. He is honestly concerned with the safety of its fighting men and women, honestly concerned about North Korea and national defense (not seducing interns and getting overseas campaign contributions).

Working on a camp staff, you get to see a lot of stuff like this.

A couple:

A mother once asked us to make Lifesaving "easier" for her twelve-year old son.

A mother once asked us to let her son into a merit badge on the last day because her son dropped out of life saving. No prereq's, nothing, just wanted to get in when everything was done.

A scout turned in an EVS report that (1) had writing that didn't look like a child's, and (2) was using words of four syllables or more (turns out his dad wrote it for him).

Oh, what a tangled web we weave....

Merlyn said earlier, "Of course, I think you're a good example of how the BSA encourages bigotry against atheists, just as Restricted clubs encouraged bigotry against Jews years ago. Good work."

Slontwovvy, with no small amount of sarcasm..."Yep, that's the first thing I learned in all levels of BSA training--Gotta be bigoted against the atheists."

I think you're looking for connections where there are none.

Ditto to all. Scouts should not be shoo-ed in for anything. Sadly, too many Scouts get into OA as soon as they get first class (wrecking a fine organization with a fine purpose) or get honors and awards they are not prepared to get.

Here's some things that can help:

Interim BORs-Every three or four months, take your Scouts aside and ask them how they're doing. Look over their requirements and talk about their next step.

Don't let parents sign off--We have a rule in our troop that parents can only sign off on five requirements per rank. Any more, and another adult has to (often just by hearing the Scout describe what they did and how they did it).

I believe in both creationism and evolutionism. It is possible!

God created the universe (where do you think the energy to start the big bang came from?). Then God facilitated the beginnings of life. Evolution (guided by God) continued the work.