WoundedFox

I have been to Ross as an adult leader of a Webelos Den, and I have hiked through all of the camps as part of Trail Camp. I will add a few more details. 1) PMI always seems to fill up before Ross, so SOMEONE clearly likes it better. 2) PMI puts you within potential walking distance of Swinging Bridge and Viewing Rock for Webelos. From Ross, you need a vehicle to drive the first part. I strongly recommend visiting both during your stay. We started at 5 AM for Viewing Rock and we almost caught the sunrise, but not quite. Unfortunately, it wasn't a "see the sun burn the fog off the la

5yearscouter: "If you believe that the pat downs make us any safer, then why not full strip searches or body cavity searches?" The TSA has publicly stated that they have the authority under current law to subject every single airline passenger to a full strip search. I believe they would be doing it now if they thought they could get away with it. Personally, I don't fly when I don't have to for my job. The "need" would have to meet a very high bar before I would put my wife or kids on a plane, and I certainly will not be responsible for taking scouts onto a plane these days. (Oth

I have to agree with the folks who would encourage them to keep it within the bounds of the uniform specification. The way I learned it, it went something like this. A Scout is Obedient. A Scout follows the rules of his family, school, and troop. He obeys the laws of his community and country. If he thinks these rules and laws are unfair, he tries to have them changed in an orderly manner rather than disobeying them. I totally agree that there are appropriate times and circumstances for civil disobedience. I don't see this as being one of them.

Very interesting... our camp was asking for 3 targets, 10 arrows each, one score at the closest range, one at the midrange, and one at the longest range. The required scores went up slightly for compound bows. I guess it was a version of one of the progressions that was described. I didn't measure the targets or the distance, but it was a challenging (but achievable) progression.

Alabama Scouter: To you, what are the "Hard 3"? My son is still an improving "non-swimmer" after his second year at Boy Scout camp. Swimming is going to be one of the hardest merit badges he ever earns, but he is determined to get there eventually. (He has been at it since "Aquanaut", which was the one Webelos Activity Pin that he couldn't earn.) For me, Swimming was not so bad, but Archery and "Rifle and Shotgun Shooting" (remember when it was one badge?) were so hard that I never completed them despite earning 52 others. Good thing they were not Eagle Required. Some scouts cou

shortridge, you misquoted me slightly, so please let me explain. I was not asking that councils be required to register AHG leaders in courses. I was asking whether there was any direction from national regarding registration for courses. As with most large organizations, if something is a good idea, it is often required and if something has a possibility of misuse, it gets banned. (See the Paddlecraft Safety Course, and homebuilt alcohol stoves, for instances of this.) Some people here clearly don't like it, but there are *many* BSA units that incorporate a specific faith into their

I agree that the Memorandum of Understanding does not, by itself, create the opportunity for AHG leaders to take BSA training courses, but clearly such things are being done in parts of the country. I guess I am interested in knowing how much national level BSA support there is for this, and how this got set up in individual councils.

Another user stated earlier this year: "The memorandum of understanding allows AHG to utilize BSA training courses and BSA facilities the same that any BSA unit can." I am interested in more details on this. I am a BSA leader in a large BSA council that has only a few AHG troops. Our Chartering Organization runs a Pack, Troop, Crew, and an AHG Troop. I have asked our district training chairman, and our district wood badge coordinator about whether we can register our AHG leaders for training courses, and the answer so far is that no one knows. (Note, they have not been opposed to the