Trevorum

fling beat me to it. Neither of those stories holds water, Eamonn! Both are urban legends.

scarey, welcome to the forums! Thanks for that link. Never having seen a green jac-shirt, I am confused. I thought all jac-shirts were wool? This one looks like a explorer green light jacket/windbreaker, not wool.

Welcome bolin! I've never understood why the Brits call 'em biscuits and we call 'em cookies. To us, a biscuit is best served with warm gravy. I wonder what the Brits think a cookie is? Maybe a tart? No, a tart is a cheeky lass, eh, Eamonn? Not that that had anything to do with scouting. (except maybe warm biscuits from a dutch oven. I wonder what folks from Holland call a dutch oven? ...)

Excellent advice, Fred. If the Scout's family belongs to an active religious community that would like to develop a Sikh religious award for Scouts, either Fred or I could put them in touch with people on the BSA National Religious Relationships Committee. There should be a religious award for Sikhs, and all it takes is one dedicated person to start the ball rolling.

OGE - My lovely bride has recently decided that we should eat healthier and so she has been buying organic food. Last week I pulled a little bag full of white powder from the spice cupboard and asked her what it was. She smiled at me and said, "It's sea salt. It's organic!" I looked at her strangely but decided not to argue the point ...

sa, doesn't the BSA adult leader application request "Religious Preference"? I always assumed that was for Last Rites (or equivalent), in case we didn't survive a campout...

oops! I didn't welcome you to the forums (how rude of me!) We're glad you've wandered into our campfire. Pull up a log and share your Scouting stories and experiences!

Unless your Chartering Organization has a policy of accepting only families from a particular faith, what does it matter? I would proceed on the assumption that the unit is diverse and not spend time trying to identify the one Jewish Scout or the one Buddhist or the one family which doesn't fit into a traditional faith category. In other words, for invocations and services, use non-sectarian prayers. Trevorum

What FScouter is trying to say in his curmudgeonly way is that if it isn't distributed by BSA, then it ain't an official uniform part.

OldLegos, Welcome to the forum! In my opinion, the best fundraiser is one that is run (at least mostly) by the scouts. One that they want to do, not one that is selected by the adults for them. What they actually do needs to be fun. Percentages and margins and such are important but should not be the deciding factors. Our troop participates in propcorn (mostly to support the council) and has had great success with occasional garage sales, but our annual fundraiser is a big-ol' Texas BBQ. Our older fellows and the Venture Crew smoke the meat and the younger fellows slice onions, scoop beans and potato salad. They always have a blast. Costs are usually about 50% of sales, with 25% going to the troop treasury and 25% being credited to individual scouts as "Scout Bucks", redeemable for summer camp fees, etc. We also award cash prizes as incentives for top sales.

Hello Kwilde! A worth quest! I grew up in Mission Hills and remember "Operation Preparedness" which was disaster preparation with simulated victims needing first aid, etc. I remember all that fake blood! It was cool! I think it was 1968 which would have been a bit before the time you're thinking about. Don't remember any unit sponsored by an ambulance company, but chartering organizations were pretty incidental to us kids. I think your best bet would be to contact the local council and make inquiries there. The Los Angeles Area Council is still in existence by the same name (goto http://www.boyscoutsla.org/), but the old San Fernando Valley Council (which served your current location of Northridge) merged and is now called the Western Los Angeles County Council (goto http://www.bsa-la.org/). Good luck!

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is that the quality of the documentation (and of the project itself) should be commensurate with the abilities of the individual candidate. Specifically, a 13 year old should not be expected to perform at the same level as the 17 year old who had his EBoR last week.

Welcome to the forums, Caleen! All of us here love Scouting and we're glad you've joined us!

Gosh, how about the planning budget was based on last years actual expenses while this years event staff did an extra dandy job of keeping expenses down.

AvidSM, Yes, in retrospect, the DE instructed us to include a 15% contingency line item in our budget. If we did a poor job of planning the event, we might well need that cushion. If our event went according to plan, we wouldn't spend those funds after all and they would revert (where they might cover other events where the budgeting did NOT go according to plan). Eamonn, with respect, I'm not understanding your problem here. Are you implying that someone was unethical and pocketed the after-event balance? What do you propose event organizers should do when expenses are less than income - should we issue $2.27 refunds to all participants? Or should we use those windfall funds to help out other activities?

2,839 US deaths and 44,779 US "non-mortal casualties" later.

Geocaching is a lot of fun! There are lots of variations, but it combines orienteering and hiking with the thrill of treasure hunting. Our troop has done this as a campout event and it was great. I don't know of any local Crews with this theme, but I'll ask at the next Roundtable.

I think I support - in principle - the DAC. Our job should be to challenge Eagle candidates to strive for excellence, not rubber stamp the first rough draft effort of every candidate. I agree that not every kid is a wordsmith and we shouldn't expect perfection in grammar, spelling, syntax or any other aspect of the write-up. Certainly no insurmountable obstacles should be erected for the candidate and if he does not have access to a word processor/printer, neatly handwritten is fine. However, I have no problem with a DAC or the SM requesting a revised draft IF he thinks it will help the candidate (1) do a better job, and (2) give an important lesson. I think this particular DAC knows this from his career in education.

"Talk reasonably to people whose views differ and actually listen to what they have to say. Don't accept or perpetuate a caricature of the other side." Spoken like a true Democrat. We had an interesting thread along these lines some while back (maybe election 04?) Anyways, one observation was that people on the right side of the political spectrum tend to see issues in absolute terms, while people on the left side tend to see things in shades of gray. A vast oversimplification of course, but with some truth perhaps. I do believe that people on the right are more inclined to accept information on faith alone while people on the left are more inclined to doubt and question the wisdom of others.

More soberly, The irony of your request is excruciating. Go back and re-read the link at the top of the thread. Your republican leaders in the White House are trying to make it ILLEGAL to provide the details you request. If I had the information you request, and if I gave it to you, they would have me arrested. {shiver}

"Give me the details, precise descriptions." I would, but then I'd have to kill you too...

Our event had slightly more than 500 campers. Early registration was $8, but most units registered late at $10; our planning budget was $4.5k. I wasn't on the logistics team, but from what I remember of the budget, insurance ran about $1200, patches, awards and shirts were about $1000, sanitation was $800, rental of other equipment including water buffalo maybe $300-500, misc costs were probably $200-400. I think we returned about $1,200 to the district; they were VERY happy. I'm not sure what would happen if we returned less than the 15% target; they probably just wouldn't allow us to host a camporee again. (hmmm ...) The district is a non-profit, because no individual makes any profit, of course. Income in excess of costs are used to pay for other district activities, like training, rather than being paid out to owners or shareholders. That said, I have not seen the district budget; I trust the committee to spend our $1200 wisely. Trevorum

Welcome to the forums, itchy! OK, I won't suggest it. However, I will relate that I was able to replace some of my own cherished boyhood patches (traded away in ill-concieved swaps, some 30 years ago) and at very fair prices. If you get desperate, you should be able to repace your Philmont arrowhead for $15-25.

Our DE informed us that our camporee had to return a minimum of 15% back to the district. With our $5k budget, that meant $750.

This is the first election for my 18 year old daughter, away at college. Last month I asked her if she had requested an absentee ballot yet. She started to mumble something about inconvenience and I stopped her right there. I want her to develop the habit of voting and so I gave her "Father to Child Lecture #23: Our Responsibilities in a Participatory Democracy". She got the message. Later, she called back to ask what I thought of the candidates ...