TAHAWK

If it's "geezer," I doubtless qualify. And I have been both "them," "they," "we," and "us" simultaneously for several decades. As most of us know, many advancement "rules" are quite vague: "Discuss"; "Describe"; "Explain." Still, if you don't even try to follow the rules, . . . . . Uniforms, as noted several times here, are optional under the rules of Scouting, That seems fairly black and white. Not that I do favor and encourage uniforming. Which is why I urge B.S.A. to adopt a uniform instead of merely clothing purchased from B.S.A.

No. Just a good reason to find another troop rather than expect a boy to take on intrenched, mistaken adults. He could look in the Handbook on page 33.

So, Barry, does it comport with the G2A to repeatedly retest a Scout in a "Scoutmaster Conference" and "fail" the Scout for the reasons stated by the OP?

You seem to be describing a troop where the Scouters are united in ignorance or deliberate non-compliance with the rules. That being the case, I join the suggestion that you look for another troop. Unfortunately, many troops are not Boy Scout troops, and this is knowingly tolerated by B.S.A. If you wish to do so, you might write your council and District Commissioner to calmly explain why your son left Troop 666 - a pattern of failure to comply with the Guide to Advancement. The notion that a boy will have a good, much less successful, experience taking on a group of adults about their

Not if other Scouts were available to do it, but otherwise, why not. Are ambassadors soemhow outside the pale?

On one of the committees, were you?

Discipline is a shared responsibility of leadership and Scouters. If you have not noticed, the video for YPT was corrected to reflect this arrangement. (The YPT video was previously in conflict with all other B.S.A. publications on the topic. Isolated "Bubbles" again - like indoor "lock-ins" to play video games being counted as a "campout" for J2E.). Scout Spirit has always been part of the requirements for advancment in the UK and the B.S.A. So if it is "BS," it is traditional BS and current BS - Boy Scouting from BP to Hillcourt to B.S.A. 2014 See: http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/G

Dumas a post. ?? Typical ambulance chasers. Skumoftheearth.

We had a BoR tell a Scout, Patrick, to come back in two months because he had gotten into a fist fight with his brother at a meeting. All accounts were that he was the aggressor and stuck the first blow. Blood and everything. His older, larger, brother had primarily tried to fend off the blows, with incomplete success. The BoR, felt he had not displayed "Scout Spirirt" (living by the Oath and Law), needed time to think about that, and needed to come back with a plan of how to avoid getting physical in the future. Determining if a Scout understands and is is showing Scout Spirtt was, and i

Raccoons all over this hemisphere are recoiling in horror !!

In this Huff and Puff is typical of today's media - left and right: Get past the bloodthirsty headline and the operative word in the arrticle is "might," as in Perry might be convicted. Many things might come to pass.

Would mailing a week from tomorrow be fast enough? They changed over time. Pre-1960, they were

In an adult-run unit, more adults means more adult control. But not all units are adult-run. Some are Boy Scout Troops. It is possible, as I have experienced as a Scout and an adult, for adults to stick to the adult role and let the leaders lead. Is some care required? Sure. As with other things.

That is a question of Texas law. I don't know anything relevant about Texas law. Any citations of Texas statutory or case law to bring to our attention ?

Oh yes! Books of dreams. It's a long wait after you order your Randall knife due to demand. As a result, existing knives sell on the secondary market for a significant premium over retail. Almost as good were the old Army Navy stores, perfumed by the odor of U.S.G.I anti-mildew treatment on everything canvas. One troop in our distirct used old Japanese bayonets, purchased at $.10 each from the Santa Ana Army Navy, as tent pegs. (I wish I had bought a garbage can or two of them, but we all "knew" Japanese steel was junk.)

Stosh, While I admit that its not without some wiggle room (which I find just fine), there is an official BSA job description for an ASPL: So we have some notion what his duties are, at least according to the B.S.A.

Helicopter or "dingle fan" chicken. http://boyslife.org/outdoors/1264/goofy-grub/ (A salvaged fan blade placed in line with the chicken on a freely-rotating pivot is driven by the rising heat and causes the chicken on the lower section of chain to rotate = "helicopter"[AFTER TRANSMISSION FAILURE]) Eggs in onion. Roast stuffed pumpkin. Pit roast. (The same carried to a wonderful extreme ) Chemical charcoal starters are, indeed, "prohibited" by G2SS. Liquid charcoal starter or kerosene are "chemical."

Stosh, I would agree that the distinction is clear if I agreed there was a clear distinction. I do not. There are still very directive, very power-over managers. In that, they are way behind even the military. What I got from Blancard almost twenty years ago is that accounts are managed and people are led, and they are led most effectively when an inner-group consensus is reached about what the goals should be and how they should be reached. Leaders, he said, first of all, are liked by their subordinates because they feel the leader treats them with respect, gives them what they

When I was a new leader, my Scoutmaster said that my job was summed up by, "Keep the patrol together and get the job done." He also quoted Eisenhower to the effect that "Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it." Ledership training was designed to help me learn how to accomplish these goals. Jump foprward deczdes. My company sent me, and others, to a Blanchard & Assocs. "Situational Leadership" course in 1995. Blanchard explained that the employees "you most want to keep" are both the least tolerant of "directive" leader

fred, what you relate sounds pretty bad. The label "merit badge mill," which I have used, is used publically by dozens of councils and also by B.S.A. What is insulting to B.S.A. and to those councils and their many thousands of Scouts and Scouters is the behavior of deliberately handing out unearned merit badges. It is a problem that B.S.A. is trying to figure out how to eliminate. B.S.A. wishes to insure that merit badges are going to persons who are not merely "good" or "young" but are also qualified as BSA defines being qualified. Pretending mills do not exist will not result in

Well, fred, it was one-sided, as it was directed to you. Unlike some, I have not found that name-calling advances discourse, including on those occasions when I have done it. In this case, the only camps I have identifed are those on the side of the angels - refusing to be advancement mills. The only specific unit I have referenced as an advancement mill is the one with which I currently work as SA. And calling someone who obviously has some mileage on them "old" is a very spiffy putdown as it is undeniable. Not a goat however. An Owl or Honorary Beaver, Eagle, or Bear. I tak

Troop option:

Spiffy put-down, but please eschew name-calling and tell us all why you view what the OP described above as "achievement." Maintaining average basal metabolism while in a POR? I think charmoc's position starts with a false dichotomy (either/or) and does not explain why there has been "achievement" much less why the only choices are to look bad (As if appearance is the be all.) or to hail what seems to be a lack of achievement. Are there not other choices?

I hold a different view. "achievement" ? What achievement? And why do we do what we do? To sponsor phony "achievement" as with the PC "Great job!" to encourage mediocrity? THAT will get them Ready for Life? Imagine this Scout's amazement when he finds out the world is not like Mom and Dad. He will find that university professors and bosses expect actual achievement and care little about "building self esteem." Try this af ew years down the road "Gee John, you did the absolute minimum at your job. I think that deserves recognition. You're fired." Alternatives have been suggested.