Vicki

scoutldr, thanks. scoutldr wrote, "But we'll have to agree to disagree. " But it's not about you and I - we don't necessarily disagree, as I see it. But then, I'm not WELS, either. "If the BSA were to presume to tell me what my "duty to God" was, I would hand them my resignation in a heartbeat. As long as I don't declare myself to be an atheist, they are happy to take my money. WELS could add additional membership requirements if it so chose." I think you're still seeing it from the BSA perspective, not the WELS perspective. As far as WELS is concerned, associating thems

No problem, BDPT00, thanks. Local1400 wrote, "Bless us O Lord for these thy gifts we are about to receive from the fruit of thy bounty through Christ our Lord, Amen." I was paraphrasing the part that makes no sense. Sorry it made no sense to you. Try this: the "Bless us O Lord for these thy gifts ... " should have the word "and" instead of "for." If I substitute "and" for "for" it changes the meaning - the meaning is "Thank you God for this food which you have given to us out of your abundance through Christ our Lord, Amen." Putting "and" in changes the meaning to "Bless u

Scoutldr wrote, "Just because the BSA accomodates Jews and Muslims, doesn't mean that the WELS would be abdicating their faith by chartering a unit. " But they would be abdicating their faith..."Our basic objection to scouting was that the required promise and law contain religious elements which imply that the Scout can do his duty to God regardless of what religion he belongs to." They have a very basic and, in their eyes, not unreasonable view here. As an organization, the BSA does promote the viewpoint that a Scout can do his duty to God irrespective of a scout's religious belie

On another, more positive note, I would comment that Luther also had prayers for after meals in his catechism. I always thought that was just downright practical - eat it while it's hot and thank God for God's grace and blessings as it warms your belly and fellowship warms your soul. Now that's not just good scout theology. Vicki (edited for typo)(This message has been edited by Vicki)

OK, BDPT00, John-in-KC wrote, "Come Lord Jesus, be our guest And let these gifts to us be blessed. Amen" Local1400 wrote, "Bless us O Lord for these thy gifts we are about to receive from the fruit of thy bounty through Christ our Lord, Amen." Skimming the thread, the two quotes above are the only ones I find which would relate to your possible misquote, "Bless us for these gifts"? You are correct, that doesn't make sense, but then I don't see where anybody but you wrote those words. The two quotes above do absolutely make sense. Also, as a Lutheran, I would stand up

regi, I believe you're on the beam - especially the part about not reading too much into what may have been left intentionally vague and leaving adults to ride herd on adults. Youth are left in an untenable position when adults run amok and unfortunately, we adults sometimes let "politeness" take over when we should step up to the plate and do what's right. Vicki

The OA team runs it - in fact, I'm the OA troop advisor and I work with the Chapter advisor who accompanies the election team. If he/she has to run herd on the SM, I'm there to help. The SM isn't even involved except to hand the ballots to the team. Either the SM or I talks to the Chapter Advisor and mentions that we'd like each candidate to speak prior to the election. I've never heard of him/her objecting. I have heard horror stories at Lodge meetings about ugly adults, usually non-OA Scouters. Vicki

Ballots are handed out, one per scout. As for campaigning - I interpret that as an attempt over a period of time to influence voting, not 60 seconds in front of the troop describing your troop service. To each his or her own. Vicki

We use ballots with the names preprinted on them. We get a lot more consistency that way and less chance for error. We also have each candidate say a few words about why they should be in OA. Vicki(This message has been edited by Vicki)

My favorite is apple with cinnamon and raisins. Warm w/vanilla ice cream. Next up - pumpkin. But, to be honest, I really just like pie. Any kind. Well, OK, I've eaten a lot of humble in my time and that's not very good:

Ed, I think John put "approval" in bold because you wrote, "a SM Conference isn't a pass/fail requirement. All the Scout has to do is participate," It's not that a signature isn't required, it's that approval IS required, which would seem to indicate that it is indeed a pass/fail requirement and a scout needs to do more than just participate with the SM, the SM must approve him. Vicki(This message has been edited by Vicki)

Pack, I figured as much. Couldn't disappoint a gentleman, now could I? Vicki

(sigh) Pack, hi! Vicki

Hmmm. I think I like the idea of an outsider who thinks positively of your son at that meeting, especially a trained individual like a school counselor. I would let whoever is chairing the meeting (presumably the Committee Chair) know that this individual will be there (rather than asking permission). Maybe the day before if you're concerned about sabotage. There really aren't any rules about a meeting like this unless your troop does this regularly enough to have a policy. Might help keep folks civil and honest, although hopefully they wouldn't gang up. Vicki

Well, there ya go then, Sakima. That was the point of my caveat. I take it by your name that you're a member of a team? Congratulations and thank you - that's a lot of work and a great contribution to your lodge. GWD, do you know that your lodge doesn't do elections at summer camp? Vicki Brotherhood, Shawnee Lodge

Crossing e-mails, just read your most recent post. I believe, as someone else posted, that you must have everything BUT the EBOR and following process done prior to his 18th birthday. That means the SM conference. It's my understanding that you NEED to have that resolved prior to his 18th birthday. Vicki

mdsummer, please don't get distracted by my reply, which was to JoeBob. Note that I was specifically saying NOT to contact the COR (Chartered Organization Rep), because it's beyond doing anything about the SM (Scout Master). It's about getting your son his Eagle. With seven weeks and counting, I'd do what others have suggested in terms of the district chain of command. Now. I believe someone suggested the DAC (District Advancement Chair) or the DE (District Executive). You might want to have a list of these acronyms handy. We Scouters tend to use them, assuming other people know

I don't think I'd do that, JoeBob. First, and it's that sexist thing, any male bigot in the distribution is going to say, "Oh, yeah, right, woman goes running crying to the internet with private business. I hate it when 'they' whine." Second, if you go anywhere with complaints about an SM's performance, it's the COR. If we keep our eye on the prize here, it's about mdsummer's son wanting his Eagle. We seem to be beyond coercing his SM to actually do his job (assuming the facts are as presented). Third, I don't see the point, other than driving the SM into a corner and helping the

I can't speak to how every council does it, but unless you're going to summer camp out of council you can hold your election while you're at summer camp. That said, the three councils where I've had the privilege of going to summer camp have all held elections during summer camp. That would solve your problem of newbies not knowing the guys. Vicki

DE = District Executive. Vicki

Assuming that your CO is a 501©(3) organization, it is absolutely kosher for your CO to route donations to you - as an example, in Son 1's troop there are two adults who work for large corporations that do matching grants (and have large legal departments who track such things). They do it every year. When I was treasurer, it was worth several thousand dollars to the troop on an annual basis. It is also kosher for your council to route donations to you through your CO. I'm with Beavah on this one - somebody's makin' stuff up to make you go away. I do sincerely hope they aren't taking

You know, as I re-read the last set of e-mails (Gunny's and Eamonn's specifically) I was reminded of a situation during NYLT when I was in charge of the waterfront exercise we do. The NYLT troops rotate through for Safety Afloat and Safe Swim training, at the end of which they get to get wet (in water appropriate for a learner-level swimmer. I had up to 60 scouts at a time whose swimming abilities were completely unknown to me. This was fine until the troop came along which only had two TGs who knew anything about the finer points of water. That troop probably perceived me as unreasona

Gern, not sure what you're getting at? Both those instructors were obviously way out of line, others had made that point so I saw no need to go there - I was simply pointing out that one was also out of position and, thus, leaving part of the range unattended. Not commenting on the scout at all...other than to comment on his apparent neatness in wanting to retrieve his spent shell. I thought that's what I was saying, anyway. Vicki

Nasty, mean thought - TWO instructors came down on your neat scout? I wonder which one was out of position? Vicki

Eamonn, you should know better than to wonder how a thread wandered off: