TAHAWK

Welcome on behalf of the North Coast. ^___^

Wrong neighborhoods?

There are 1000's of troop websites. How about looking at some of them and, if you like what you see, asking how they did it?

If planning starts with one or more objectives, focus is not a problem. What do the leaders want their patrols to experience? Better, what do their patrol members want to experience? Sunrise on top of a mountain or at some location on an eastern shore? Sleeping in a field-expedient shelter? Building a bridge across a stream? Bushwacking? Orienteering? Fishing? Sledding? There are really far too many things than could ever be experienced in 24 days and nights a year.

First, the rules require the discussion as a prerequisite, not the signed card. That is clear by the specific provision for pre-card work to be counted towards earning the badge. The Scout should have had the discussion. We have one side of the story of why that did not happen. The SM has said he would have (tried to) block the Scout from earning the badge even if the discussion took place, though it is very clear that the SM has no right to do so. The SM wants to create his own, personal advancement system outside the ambit of the rules he is honor-bound to uphold. So the discus

36 mi round trip to one and 44 mile round trip to the other.

Local coverage of Ann case. http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/06/18/commentary-is-there-room-atheists-indonesia.html

Units I have been commissioned in have gone to the Sea Base and Philmont multiple times. They have also done troop high adventures to Canada, White Mountains, Rockies, Isle Royale, and several long trails in western PA. All good. The troop adventures, as noted, were much more economical and required more Scout planning. (Porkies? That makes me recall the camp raiders banging the pots and pans every half hour at one of our campsites on the Mattawa - where I finally met No-See-Ems.)

Have you ever encountered an adult who needs to hear "no" regardless of how firmly and sincerely he clings to his or her belief? I suspect the answer is "yes." An experienced Scouter with a decent relationship with the Scout can usually influence his decisions. I have talked Scouts into things - like taking Camping and Backpacking before taking Wilderness Survival (although the last is my favorite MB). At the end, if the Scout legitimately passed the MB, who was incorrect, the adult or the child? And if we say "no," and B.S.A. says "yes," what collateral damage may result

(^___^) Sometimes "Hanlon's Razor": "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." Or as my Scoutmaster observed after a fiasco of a Camporee: "They may just not be very good at it."

Brother, you are asking not about religions but about governments. The nation with the largest number of Muslim citizens is Indonesia. Indonesia does officially recognize Islam - and five other religions: Catholicism, Protestantism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Confucianism. Nevertheless, many other unofficial religions carry on. The percentage of Christians has increased in Indonesia since 1985. The Governor of Indonesia's largest city and capital is a Christian, but he is not the first Christian to hold the position in independent Indonesia. These are not simple issues and simple

Cluttered thoughts from a cluttered mind. It's a apparently a violation of the insignia rules, but , if so, surely a less significant violation of rules than violations that go to the integrity of the program, such as Merit Badge mills or an adult-led troop. Sorta' like a nameplate other than white on black, wearing a square troop neckerchief with the Uniform, or those foreign Scouter brushes that some wear on the Campaign hat. All are violations that no one seems interested in pursuing. If you make yourself a member of the Uniform Police, you had better follow the rules yourself.

This was new when the site locked up for me last night. Still . . . ​Merit Badges are a Council program to be run according to BSA rules The unit does not control the program or make the rules. The Scout is to discuss his desire to work on a Merit badge before seeing the Merit Badge Counselor. Neither the Scoutmaster or the Committee have authority to deny a Scout the opportunity to earn a Merit Badge after the discussion. No age or length of registration requirement may be applied. "A few merit badges have certain restrictions, but otherwise any registered Boy Scout .

But, as it turned out, there is a double standard. One for favored religions and another for a less-favored religion. As for Franklin Graham, we could establish a Chair of Demagoguery in his name.

BSA went the first twenty years without the Patrol Method. Many of the leaders of the "Golden Age" could not have experience TPM as Scouts. When it finally arrived at BSA, it had talented and convincing advocates, If it is true that BSA still supports the Patrol Method, the message is being poorly and weakly conveyed. However, the reality that the Patrol method was moved forward largely by people with no experience gives us hope that nit might survive, and even again flourish, despite the demographic realities that you point out. As for the changes of 2000 being due to women comin

So is the Crimea to Russia as Alta California is to Mexico? (No, because Alta California was taken from Mexico by conquest and the Crimea was given to the Ukrainian S.S.R. by the U.S.S.R. under Khrushchev.).

Barry, I am not sure what you mean. The article in Scouting clearly supports the Patrol method as an option. In the two councils in which I Scout, it would be an improvement is as many as 20% of the troops use the Patrol Method. B.S.A. will not even say what "the Patrol Method" means, although all the pieces parts are laid out here and there. Scouters routinely tell me that, so far as they know, the Patrol Method is "one way" to run a troop. What was once very clear is increasingly murky.

When Lord Salisbury objected to the carpet bombing of German civilians, he was reminded that the Germans did "it" first. He replied that such was the case but, nevertheless, "We should not take the Devil as our example.." "Human nature" is not always something of which we should be proud - or take as out example.

JoeBob, you can't seem to accept - or deal with - the reality that the vast, vast majority of the murdered are Muslim. Tens of thousands of women and children are among them. "Martyrs" seems a correct label for these victims to the lust for power of the terrorists. And those victims have families -- typically also Muslim -- whom you want to offend. I see no hint that intentionally giving such offense will reduce the violence or that you feel that it will. I gather it meets some other objective or need. I suspect ISIS and the like would rejoice over what you propose to say and

True, but his reading and comments reek of :"Christian Identity." Say that's not really Christianity? Leaders of Islam say ISIS and AQ are not really Islam. So we offend all Muslims? Even the families of the martyrs? Better to offend all politicians.

Volunteers are supposed to be in charge. Council execs are trained that they are in charge. Because their jobs are on the line, the execs accept that second view. However, they are usually bright enough and sophisticated enough not to rub our faces in it. The less sophisticated front line employees easily forget to pretend the volunteers are in charge. As a group, there's more talent among the volunteers. Not many NASA rocket scientists work for our council, but three work as volunteers in our district. I had a DC who had two Phds and was a bird in an armored cavalry regiment. A DE trying

BP B.S.A. Guide to Advancement.

Freedom of conscience, in all its aspects, is relatively new in human affairs. Many date its origin no further back than Breitenfeld (1632). It has certainly not been a steady upwards journey since. I hope that it prevails despite all the evidence of history that coercion (not to mention nonsense) often prevails. Murdering someone because he offends you is common, and monstrous. "Thou shalt not murder." A completely honest person, were he or she ever to exist, would be a monster of another sort.

Mocking one of the prophets of Islam, others being Jesus and Moses, is likely to do more harm than good. The Muslim policeman murdered by the terrorists in Paris would almost certainly have been offended. He of course, having given his life for civilization, cannot be offended. The Muslim store clerk who hid over a dozen Jews from Terrorist No.3 in Paris at considerable risk would likely be offended, as would Muslim members of the U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, and U.,S.M.C. You seem to hate Muslims with no discrimination, millions of members of a group of related religio