The Blancmange

Just adding this without comment, other than to direct your attention to the identity of the person who started the campaign. https://www.gofundme.com/blythe-vs-bsa-logan

Why? It's been working well for years. Why should it be changed in response to one council and/or unit who did not follow the process?

If I'm parsing that sentence correctly, one of the reasons you believe BSA "left its values" is because it created the Disability Awareness merit badge?

Have your COR make a phone call and find out why. It's your money that they're spending.

While much of the event and statements probably fall into a grey area, the information above about the ad does not. It is way over the line.

Are each of them allowed to vote at council annual meetings? That would seem to give that particular CO disproportionate influence.

My Hennessey has tie outs on the side of both the hammock and rainfly to minimize this. Never been through a severe storm to test the limits of this, but my guess is that such a storm would be bad enough to affect anything less than a 4 season tent as well.

While I know this was posted with nothing but the best intentions, keep in mind that this is a wilderness area; none of those are things you should be doing on your own.

Angleworm and Nina-Moose, respectively?

Prior to the EBOR, the council registrar has to certify that all of the advancement details, including MB's that are noted on the application, are accurate. So it's unclear why the EBOR would want to see them. Seems like a waste of time for the Board to be bogged down in reviewing things that have already been certified when they should be focusing on the candidate's achievements and experiences.

Professionals' salaries.

I'm curious why you wouldn't consider it such?

Did you look at other units? There may be other units in your area that are a better fit.

If you believe that is the most important question here, then your priorities are quite skewed. I'm more concerned for the scout who was dismissed without rational explanation. Your speculation about whether recording was permitted is a red herring. It doesn't appear to be a surreptitiously recorded video; i'm guessing she was sitting there recording with her phone. If the leaders had an issue with it, they would have asked her to stop. I see videos of pinewood derbies and pack awards posted all the time.

This has now made the national news. BSA and councils are keenly aware of their image and wants to avoid public relations debacles like the plague. That's why they employ people like the "marketing director" who is quoted in the story. I feel fairly confident that if there were a more rational explanation for this incident, it would have been put forth by now.

This is straying pretty far from the original scope of the thread, but again I have to ask, where?, what laws? There aren't any that would apply, except in the very limited area of Youth Protection disclosures.

Where? Show me a BSA rule that says if I, a registered volunteer, am falsely accused in the media of something improper, I cannot respond publicly to set the record straight. I think you're confusing scouting with a school or medical provider, who do have statutory privacy obligations.

I didn't; I took the mother's word in the absence of any contrary account put forth by the unit, the council, or anyone else. The only account of which I am aware to judge the event is the mother's (other than the video of the actual exchange with Sen. Marble, which corroborates what was said). To continue your line of speculative "maybe's," maybe the den leader is a racist knuckle-dragger who agrees with the senator's "chicken & barbecue" comments and retaliated against the scout because of that. His or her silence certainly leaves the door open for that conclusion. The lack of a substantive response is quite conspicuous. If there were a defensible explanation for this, the reputation-conscious folks at council would have been all over it.

Well said. I agree.

Why would you presume that the mother is being anything less than forthright? If her version were incorrect, one would think someone would correct it in order to save face. The second story linked above makes more sense and also makes her story seem even more credible.

I saw this article today: http://www.denverpost.com/2017/10/18/cub-scout-kicked-out-questioned-senator-vicki-marble/ Is this even possible? How can a den leader remove a scout without the consent of the pack leadership? or maybe the writer confused scouting terminology?

Do you know of a discount code, or do you call to make the reservation? Incidentally, I am looking for a van rental for our troop trip next summer and came across this: https://boyscouts.purchasingpoint.org/ Does anyone know if this is something that individual units can use?

I don't see a single post in this thread that suggests the scout's proposal was deficient. The OP provided minimal information about what was in the proposal, and more importantly, how it differed from what the beneficiary was demanding in the end. That is important information in order to provide any useful guidance. It's possible that the beneficiary is being entirely unreasonable by demanding something that is clearly outside the scope of the proposal. It's also possible that the proposal was vague and lent itself to two different reasonable interpretations. We have no idea.

How did his proposal and plan describe the scope of the project? That's the most important piece of information that's missing here. The beneficiary had to sign off on the proposal.

I wish I had this problem. We struggle to make sure we have enough adults there throughout the week.