Krampus

So if you cannot swim you cannot make Eagle? What about kids in wheel chairs that cannot hike 5 miles? The accommodations exist to allow all boys to participate regardless of handicap.

We have 42 packs within a 15 minute drive of each other. Most are separated by only a mile or so. Some are clustered where you have three or four schools within a one mile radius of each other. This model was built by council and perpetuated all these years. Since council does little forward planning on such issues, it has evolved in to this. The irony is that when the demographics change to such a point that packs need to merge, council swoops right in and tries to build a new pack where the old one left. The fallacious thinking on their part is that they (council) believe the reason the

But the GTA allows for accommodations for scouts with disabilities, so "do the requirement" allows the definition of "requirement" to be changed. There is no uniform definition of what that changed requirement is. That is left to the SM and the MBC. All scouts we have used accommodations for have required only slight modifications. In nearly all cases, they completed 96% of the program the other scouts did. In some cases, the modified requirements were done so painstakingly that it actually exceed what the other scouts have done. Example: One autistic scout was having problems with the

@@SlowDerbyRacer, interesting topic. In my area (Dallas area) packs are assigned to an elementary school. However, like @@meyerc13, the schools basically distanced themselves from all civic groups though some are still allowed to meet and recruit at these schools. Most charter orgs are churches, though there are some "Friends of" and civic group COs. Your "territory" is seen as your school and around your CO. With the drop in overall BSA membership, policy changes, demographic changes, etc., packs have been forced to look beyond "their schools" and to recruit elsewhere. We are just now

I miss "Skill Awards".

Our unit invites our flag program sponsor every Veteran's Day to discuss the role of being a US Citizen. This is done to address a few requirements for various ranks and badges, but more so to honor the veterans group which sponsors our program. These kids definitely know what 11/11 is about and the vets that come and talk love the opportunity to remind them that freedom is not free.

@@Hedgehog your perspective is appreciated. However, it conflicts with what my unit understands based on a six month effort by a pro bono tax attorney's advice. My cousin's unit went directly to the IRS (and we did as well after I got the contact info) to have them review our approach and get their approval. If they come at us after the fact -- and we were trying to play by the rules -- imagine the field day they'd have with other units that continue to violate the law blindly.

Hard to tell. This is like that Monty Python movie. Too many religious organizations with similar names.

We had a pack in the district that had to move because of the 2013 membership policy change and the CoC deciding to drop all units. In fact a troop had to leave too. From what I hear from those units, the CO was not really involved in the scout program all those years; treated the units like renters rather than as any part of the CO. I doubt this deal will affect these churches in my area. They generally do not charter units and I doubt those who left would go back now.

Agreed, but imagine the vein on the DE's neck exploding when these denied members start calling. BSA will not back such an action, so we settled on participate, get = share of money. Our inquiries to the IRS and tax attorneys have settled this issue for us and our COR. We consider it a done deal. Trust me, there was a lot of time and effort (pro bono) spent to resolve this issue to everyone's (IRS, CO and unit) satisfaction.

Again with icon hate? What's with you guys? The people complaining are so darn liberal about other peoples' feelings and rights, yet when someone has an icon (of all things) that is based on a cultural icon (pardon the pun) based on centuries of cultural practice it begs offense from these same people? C'Mon! You don't see me (or others) saying one word about anybody else's icon for Pete's sake. Give it a rest.

@@Hedgehog, and if someone going on the event says he does not want to participate in fund raising. How do you compel him to? BSA won't let you preclude him from attending if he's a paying member. So he gets the money you allocate to everyone else. There's nothing to compel him to participate.

@@Hedgehog, so if my troop raises $2000 that money has to go to ALL members, even those not going on the event for which the money was raised, as well as those who did not participate at all? Again, why would ANYONE raise money if that were the case? No one is going to participate if there's a free lunch. My troop has experienced this once and we eventually stopped the fund raising. As long as we have a piece of paper for the IRS saying we are good, we're good.

In twenty years I have yet to see a MB college or midway or whatever you want to call it, live up to the scouts' expectations. My son refuses to attend them. He calls them a waste of time; that he'd learn more watching the Discovery Channel. That should tell you something.

So where exactly does it say that if Tom, Bob, Bill and Fred raise $1200 for Philmont that Zach -- who didn't sell anything, but is going to Philmont -- must get an equal share of that money? According to our inquiry to the IRS, as long as Tom, Bob, Bill and Fred get *equal* shares of the money raised it is not a private benefit and Zach is out of luck. Otherwise, Stosh -- who is neither going to Philmont nor raised any money -- would be due an equal share of the $1200 just like Zach, and that just defeats the purpose of enticing Scouts to raise money. Who is going to bust their hump selli

@@skyfiiire that's an example of the Nanny State in action. Somewhere they forgot the Constitution and that, when you reach 18, you're an adult and can make your own decisions.

@@Stosh, we don't disagree much but I will here. I think WFA does cover some great scenarios; mostly those are are very dangerous but maybe not as critical as the example you use. I would agree in those scenarios (heart attack, severe bleeding, intense venomous snake bite, etc) the vic has even less chance of making it in the back country. I would also agree that prevention is a key training too. But overall WFA does help with triage and situational awareness. It helps with less critical situations or events that could get worse if not treated fast. Does it have a place in BSA training

@@MattR we have the same issue with shooting sports. Some parents just can't let go. We invite them to come and see everything in action. Oddly enough, a few of these parents are the ones that let their kids play near busy, 45 mph streets where their kids wear headphones and skate down the street with traffic.

Yes, it was an answer to the original post. However, I will say that you *can* BBQ ice cream. In Texas we even fry it. On the subject of BBQ (not barbecued or barbecue), as a Texan I tend not to get involved when people "talk through their hat" about this subject. Y'all may have your ways you *think* are real BBQ, but its just a fancy way to say your grilling something. As far as sauce goes, that's just something you put on bad BBQ to allow you to choke it down. Come to Texas and we will be happy to show you what "low and slow" means. No self-respecting pit master would cook ANYTHING w

According to BSA the role of the MBC can be found on slides 22-24 here. I think you have it partially right, in that the boys should be doing some reading and research. I think in the last 20 years or so the way scouting has been implemented has been more adult-to-scout than scout-to-adult. Meaning: We seem to be laying things out for kids more than we did in the past.

Here's one my son found. Made him a rock star with his patrol. Imagine being in Texas in the summer and conjuring up ice cream...on a camp out...in a Dutch oven no less.

I usually send the SPL or PL over and have them invite the parent to go back to the adult area and enjoy the adult activities. After having that done 2-3 times during their first or second camp out they get the idea. I have only had one parent not take the hint. They left the troop because, and I quote, "The boys were just too hands on for their own good." I am not sure what that means, but I think it means we were doing something right. I did the same. I taught him to pack as a Tiger. Checked during Wolf and Bear years (think old fashioned shake down). After Bear I left him to it. H

@@Exibar, Section 10.2.0.0 (Advancement Flexibility Allowed) in the GTA spells it out. Just like everything we do in Scouting we should have the boy strive to reach beyond his grasp. Our unit usually meets with the parents to determine how we are going to proceed for each rank. We set goals and boundaries, identify how we will evaluate the scout and move forward. We remain flexible. We will have another scout with autism get his Eagle this spring. We only made a few accommodations for him during his 7 years in the troop. I will stack him up against any Eagle I know.

We only sign off on cards where we know the counselor. If someone comes to us with a new MBC our coordinator contacts them to find out who they are, how they will teach the class, etc. We then send an educated parent (try to find someone with that interest or background) to "audit" the course while one of our scouts takes it. If they are good, they go on our list. If they are not, we don't use them again.

I think I may have discovered a new type of parent: Drone Parents. These are parents that pay lip-service to wanting their son to have all the learning experiences of boy-led, but are secretly in the background doing everything they can to help him with nearly every aspect of scouting (e.g. packing for them, researching MBs, etc.).