Krampus

Nothin' to say Pat Green ain't already said.

I think a UC uniform would be great. Given the current focus and longevity, here's my suggestion:

ROFL....they were never a problem when I was there (late 80s). Locals would run them over if they saw them.

Good old boys know BBQ. Chances are the more run down a place looks, the better the BBQ. As far as Mexican food goes, if it is a chain, forget it. That's not Mex food. That's like saying Speedy Gonzales is indicative of Mexicans and their culture. In Texas we go to the little haciendas. Those mom and pop places are pretty good. You get the real peasant food that is the basis for much of Mexican cuisine. I don't eat Mexican north of the Red River, east of Texarkana and west of Phoenix.

Guys, not to defame my Texas brethren, but this is Clyde, TX we are talking about. This is a rural farming community smack dab in the middle of Texas. They go to Abilene as their "big city" fun. Sure small towns are hard to keep secrets, but law enforcement in those parts is more speed traps and investigating porch light shoot-outs. I suspect it took the police a while to find out simply because there's likely three guys who are the force there. It took the country sheriff's office to break the case.

Actually, In my district we have 1 UC for all of our units....on paper. In reality we have no UCs. Ask for one you will hear silence.

So to fix this problem we have UC's wear campaign hats? Or did we just chase a squirrel here?

I have friends in New Orleans that thinks Shreveport is a "damn Yankee town", Texas is "the west" and anything east of Biloxi is "back East". I guess it is perspective.

Maybe it is not UC's that are broken so much as it is that councils and districts have their priorities mixed up. The emphasis at those levels should be in keeping units viable, not making fund-raising numbers, recruiting goals or other crap like that. Helping units stay alive and thriving will feed those goals but at a more personal level. Sure, Mary and John won't get Silver Beavers as a result because the success goes to the unit, but isn't that the point?

I suspect it has something to do with their organizational model. Too much autonomy in the councils and districts, lack of longevity in many positions, the burden of the workload, unreasonable expectations, lousy mgmt, etc. Take your pick. I don't think advice that does as I suggest would be irrelevant. I suspect many units would find true help of that nature beneficial. Need fund-raising ideas? See this BSA toolkit to help. Struggle with recruiting ideas? He's what I've done as an SM in the past or things I have heard worked for colleagues. BSA pays lip service to these things rather than giving concrete ideas and plans. I always laugh at their teaching templates. For TLT they have a slide that literally said "Insert comments about why leadership is important and how to develop good leaders ehere" rather than to actually GIVE an example and concrete plan. Quite possibly. BSA needs to help these folks understand that helping people with less knowledge is not beating them over the head with what they did wrong, rather showing them how to do it right. It is not making every unit fit into their idea of what a unit should be doing. Templates are a start, but customized, real examples and help are what many units need. If the old goats cannot avoid being pedantic then get rid of them. Or better yet, revise the criteria for some of these old goat and silver jackal awards to directly tie to giving decent help to a unit in need. Make it measurable and quantifiable, don't put limits on the award and make sure folks are trained. Nope. I put in one report that our shooting sports even include AR-15, AR-7 and .38 service side arms training. I got an email back from council that said, "Sounds like fun! Good job!". It was from the RSO from the council. You never kill your tax collector...unless he's skimming. Why did national allow NY to hire gay scouts? There's your answer.

By "northern" I meant anything above TN. Is there BBQ north of TN?

I support law enforcement, but we have laws and a Constitution for a reason.

I agree with a few that have said the UC concept is broken.

Don't you guys have cheap pork butt (shoulder) in your area? Why the heck would you even think of eating rodent when there is no gun to your head? Heck, you won't hear Texans talking about how rodent tastes. We'd sooner eat bad (northern) BBQ than eat rodent. Just sayin'.

Hmmm...not according to this specific section of the statute. It is written to actually say state and local laws have equal weight providing they don't diminish the baseline set in that section. Article 6 of the Constitution is pretty clear on when federal law supersedes state law.

Who says the goal is Eagle? Not national. They say as much in their mission statement. I think we all agree that scouts should learn along the way (development) and to have fun (growth), but no one I know here thinks the goal of scouting is making Eagle. I think we would all agree. My unit (and my cousin's unit to a greater extent) experienced the same thing. We are not an Eagle mill. We focus on fun, growth and development. Rank advancement is a means to that end, not the end in and of itself. I agree. Be prepared to have some helicopter (or lawn mower) parents challenge you on that.

@@Stosh and @@qwazse are correct. The goal of scouting in individual growth and development. This is supported by the BSA Mission Statement: "The mission of the Boy Scouts of America is to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Law." Eagle is a means to the end. If less than 10% of scouts make Eagle, and your primary objective is to get the to Eagle, you are failing to reach and affect 90% of the boys in your program. Just sayin'.

@@RememberSchiff, that the quoted statute has a nice section that says existing state law shall not be superceded or limited by this section. Our Dads know that there's little chance they will need their service weapon while hiking in a canyon.

So how often are law enforcement officers required to carry firearms off-duty? The answer we get from our such ASMs, "Not often...if ever." I suspect most of these guys like to carry them, not *have* to carry them.

You don't have to live through your children in order to step in at times to show them how to managed an unreasonable coach, teacher or adult. There are many things which come with age. Wisdom is one of them. I knew it all when I was your age too....until I got older and realized I didn't.

ROFL...that would take planning. Remember of whom we speak. This is BSA. I am just glad the "mid-January" of which they spoke was in 2016 and not 2017.

Exactly where is this written? We have law enforcement guys in our unit but they all put their side arms in a secure, vehicle-based lock box (unlike some secret service guys recently in the news who think Jeep Wrangler glove boxes are secure) and never touch them. If we go in to a state park (where weapons are not allowed) they have to fill out oodles of paperwork with the ranger. I have just never seen a BSA policy that allows for guns to be carried by off-duty personnel regardless of their job function. If they are off-duty they abide by the same rules I do.

I thought all UC's did was bug you for your JTE form, email you incessantly about your recharter and hound you about participating in FoS? Seems anyone any age can do that and requires little training. Perhaps they should hire more wives for that role?

BSA and conceal carry? Did I miss something? I thought BSA policy was no weapons except for on approved firearms events and then limited to those allowed firearms.

Yes...leave fund-raising to your troop committee and the PLC. The best way to be successful AND make sure you have time for family is to do your job and not the job of other people. Delegate, delegate, delegate...and teach the boys to run things. If done right you should be working more in the background and saying less than anyone. The best SM says little and is rarely ever seen. The boys should be leading, doing. The adults are in the background making it work for the things the boys cannot do. If you don't delegate you will burn out in a year or two.