Krampus

I've lived half my life overseas. I've spent years in various countries doing my tour of duty. I respect other cultures and customs. I have never lived anywhere, even where my parents are from, and expected them to assimilate to my customs. I would never go to Saudi or Afghanistan and expect my kids to NOT assimilate in to their culture...even though I would hope the locals would respect them. When I come back to my country I expect those living here to assimilate to the American customs. At very least I expect them NOT to apply their customs to me or my family. They can do what they want to in their homes, but outside of them don't expect others who live here to avoid eating pigs, drinking or wearing skirts with boots. If they're offended by that stuff stay away from Walmart. I treat ALL women with respect. They want to wear a hi-jab, that's fine. Don't expect me to conform to your cultural standards if they are not American standards.

Beavah, you are missing the forest for the trees, which is odd for an animal that spends it's sole existence WITH trees. Extending your logic, if they are doing everything right except YPT they should still be a "Gold" unit? Seriously? Let's forget JTE. It is nothing more than a way for districts and councils to woefully account for a perceived "quality" of a unit without really measuring anything of substantial value. The adults of this troop are missing a CARDINAL rule of BSA's advancement process: They are ADDING TO REQUIREMENTS. Much like other things within BSA, there are certain things that -- if done wrong -- are essentially "penal fouls" of the process. Adding to requirements is about as bad as you can get. When that happens to a kid in the process of aging out, that makes it even worse. These leaders are not breaking ONE rule, they are breaking SEVERAL!!! There's no reason the SM cannot sign the proposal or final report of a completed Eagle project unless the requirements stated in the workbook were not done. Not signing and adding an attendance requirement for signature is making up rules. There is no reason the SM needs to compel a Scout to "attend more camp outs" unless the unit has a well-defined level of activity policy. The GTA is VERY clear on that point. Doing anything else is the unit making up rules. You said it yourself, "The troop is doin' what it thinks it should be doin'". They THINK they should be doing...but they could READ what the SHOULD be doing and to that instead. Sure the kid could go to another troop but that takes time, and at 17 his clock is ticking, so he's using the established dispute resolution procedure. Good for him. Hopefully council wakes up and sees that this unit is off doing something it should not be. Ask yourself this: Why don't these leaders have this kid's best interest at heart, huh? Why are they making road blocks when they should be helping to clear the path for this kid? Where is their honesty and loyalty to a kid that has served their unit? I get your points but I have to say I think you are dead wrong. This kid has done NOTHING wrong. The adults, on the other hand have failed to communicate their expectations to this kid and are now holding him accountable for THEIR mistake. Cooking MB: Don't get me started on this. BSA told folks LONG AGO that this was required. Gave units over 18 months prior notice, allowed the 2010 requirements for the MB to extend a full year before the new requirements kicked in. Any adult or Scout caught by surprise on that one deserves the consequences. And no, I wouldn't let them slide if they missed it. It was announced WELL in advance of implementation. Ironic that you will let "older Scouts" needing cooking MB a "pass" but you are siding on the adult's side with regard to this Eagle Scout's problem. I wonder if you really read for consistency what you write sometimes.

Yeah, but the buzzing in @@Stosh's basement get annoying.

In the event this is helpful... http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2016/04/21/6-resources-working-scouts-autism/

Bryan on Scouting does a great blog on such projects. That kid from Texas had an awesome project.

I was going to say something else but my Scouting filter kicked in.

@@Beavah, you couldn't be missing the point more if you tried. In the example of the student accidentally bringing an aspirin to school and getting suspended, he's trying to comply with the law but made a mistake. In the case of the Boy Scout denied his SM's signature, he complied with the law but the SM (and other adults) changed the rules. So in your example, it would like the school board making up their own zero tolerance rules and applying them to the student. The two situations are not remotely similar. In the case of the student he is trying to comply with the law and made a mistake. In the case of the Scout he IS complying with the BSA rules but is being punished anyway. There's a HUGE difference in both cases. With the Scout, the adults are making things up. I would have no more tolerance for adults making things up in a Scouting program than I would for administrators making up policies in the schools.

Nope. This guy was going off on the burqa rant and how women here show too much...and how girls here should be modest and show literally nothing. The kid was wearing regular jeans, a hoodie (hood down) and Converse All-Stars, no make-up and her hair back. More covered for an American teenager she could not be. Trust me, as a father, if she were dressed provocatively I wouldn't let her out of the house. She was a normal American teenager. This guy was off the hook. You don't tell a kid they are improperly dressed UNLESS they are breaking a law OR a stated dress code. She was doing neither. If this guy longs for the way things are in his country I am happy to buy him the plane ticket back, but don't come down on my kid for nothing!

Clearly the adults don't see the problem. We do five year forecasting in our administration of membership. If our inflow *ever* dropped below our outflow we'd know there was a problem and would be working to correct it ASAP. These guys must really have their head in the sand.

My bad. My good turn was rewarded with a very large margarita and the satisfaction of having raised a human being who cares more about what is right than "what's in it for me?". I always reward my own good turns. I am selfish like that. [Going to go get a Sonic shake now]

I know a few MLB pitchers who cannot find the plate this season. Their dads should step in and help them.

The kid is raising money to go to college. It is tough enough these days since he won't qualify for financial aid nor any scholarships. He will have to fight hard to get in because he does not not meet any of the preferred groups getting priority these days. He's got 1350 on his SATs and killed his ACTs. B student (yeah yeah, under achieving in the grade department) but has already been told, due to quotas, he may be wait listed at most colleges he's interested in. So yeah, he still basks in his Good Turn...dad basks in his ability to help his kid.

LOL...already done. The other middle school in town had two similar issues. One was the Don't Tread on Me shirt being worn, the other was an NRA shirt that simply had the words of the Bill of Rights on the front and Second Amendment on the back. Also popular is the t-shirt below. In all cases nothing happened to the students. Same cannot be said for a few hours south in Austin. Student wearing same shirt -- during Texas Independence Day -- was suspended for not being "culturally sensitive" to the Mexicans. Same day a kid wore a t-shirt with this design below and was allowed to keep it on all day.

Well, "unofficial" in that it did not come directly from BSA supply at any point. Agree it is a reproduction, ergo not "official" per se. Still classy and cool.

The guy has been here 25 years. The last thing he needs to do is lecture a 15 year old girl on what would happen to her if she was in "his country". I spent 4 years in "his country". I have seen how they treat women. He is not bringing that crappola here. As a child of immigrants I know the routine. I've felt the backlash. My family embraced being here and conformed while bringing the best their old country had to offer. They didn't walk around requiring people in their store to conform to how things were back in their old country.

Camporee a few weeks back they (district) had 40 people, two dozen doughnuts, cold weak coffee (no creamer or sugar), water and that was it. Lunch was baloney, white bread and mayo...water to drink. $40 per person. Our troop TLT we do BBQ, beans, water/Gatorade/sweet tea, sour dough rolls, cobbler for dessert. We do it for $10 and usually get 30-40 people attending....many just for the BBQ.

Good point. I agree with @@Stosh that the Scout should have done this without as much fanfare as what happened. Personally I would have accepted the thank you of Thor and declined to go on TV. Had Hemsworth insisted on a reward I would have donated it to a good cause. Showed this to my Scout and he thought it was cool but commented, "I wouldn't have taken any money for the good deed." He *DID* want one thing: A signed picture with Hemsworth...in costume!!! Scout son went for burgers two nights ago. Came home with a bag extra with three meals worth of fries he did not order. Took them back and, for obvious reasons, the burger joint could not take them back, told him to keep them. He felt bad he didn't notice the error and paid for the extra fries. Good Scout. Dad immediately electronically transferred the money secretly in to his account. He works hard for his money. The lesson was learned and the good deed secretly rewarded.

I would bet in my area that few, if any, COs see the units as part of their church. We are mostly seen as tenants. It would take some significant training to teach COs in my area that they actually own the units and are responsible for their operation. When we need their signature they are usually dumbfounded saying, "Why do *I* need to sign Boy Scout stuff?".

I sent this to my neighbor...the local middle school principle. He noted that, while our district is very strict on most rules, administrators and teachers are allowed to exercise discretion. He told me of a similar instance where a new 6th grader had a gun patch on his backpack. Turns out someone put it there (thank you video cameras and attentive teachers) so the student was not responsible. Even if he had put it on the punishment was to write a 500 word essay on why putting the sticker on was a bad idea. He noted they have a "zero tolerance" policy on firearms and such, but are given latitude to use their brains. Side Note: Daughter was in driver's ed class (private company) sitting in a chair, feet off the ground. Teacher comes and tells her she needs to put her feet on the floor (agree with that entirely). Then tells her that it is a Muslim-owned business and, if she were in a Muslim country she would be imprisoned for wearing what she was wearing and sitting like that. Daughter had the presence of mind to 1) apologize for not sitting with feet on the floor (house rule and the respectful thing to do even in AMERICA), and 2) reminded the teacher that a) there is not policy about how to dress for this class and she was dressed within the local school district's dress code, b) that this is AMERICA and that she can dress, sit and act any way she wants as long as it is within established school rules, local laws or published business guidelines (i.e., no shirt, no service). I am going to have a REAL nice talk with the owner tonight about making statements to young girls about what they can and can't do in the United States!

A troop I know in AZ adopted the old BSA 60's style uniform. Had the pants made to the right color, Shirt were surplus. The bling and patches are modern day but they are trying to get the old-fashioned patches online when they can. Hats were custom made garrison covers.

...and they money they get for appearing on TV.

...unless you bring reverse discrimination in to the picture. Then the media doesn't want to hear about it.

Great way to start that process flowing.

Doesn't the district have camporee planning meetings? Aren't the scouts invited to attend, participate and help manage? Sounds like the SPL should have known this stuff would be on the district website or FB page at some point. At very least they should have attended the RT the month before. Our SMs provide this *links* to the information and meetings to the PLs and SPL. The rest is up to them.

I'd love to see the details on that issue. I know in our areas this was implied by an out-of-state group looking to cause problems. When the details were analyzed the end result was happenstance that the minority student were not exonerated as often as non-minority student. The facts of the cases were such that the rules were correctly applied. The previous year it was dead even. I hope in this day and age administrators could apply discretion without bringing race in to it.