Pack18Alex

We ended up with two of them two weeks apart, that was freaking brutal… We are learning who stays and who goes. One camp that we had broken down early, with everyone helping, everything was done in about 10 minutes. Next one we had the boys doing activities and people broken down over time, and the last ones there had a 2 hour break down (in part from being tired). We had 3 Campouts last year, 1 Pack, 2 Council/District Activities, and that was a bit light. This year we have 6 Campouts, 4 Council/District Activities, 2 Pack, which is seeming excessive. The problem becomes what to skip… If we can spread the workload easier, which we hopefully will, this becomes a much easier process. Part of it is getting checklists, we have parents willing to help, they just don't necessarily know how.

Meetings with their superiors in BSA, reviewing spreadsheets, looking over reports, dealing with the antiquated IT of BSA to get information out. Our DEs are all at work at 9 AM and there until 5 PM, whether that time is productive or not I do not know. Add Roundtable and any Council Committees they advice, plus events, it's a ton of overtime.

A 60 mile commute, an hour each way sucks. However, if it's "normal hours" that's a big plus. DE is a management job, exempt, from overtime, and involves a LOT of overtime. You have a dual-role, with hazy metrics on it. Goal one, marketing/sales. In this role, you are out promoting Scouting, finding Charter Organizations to start up new Units, helping arrange recruiting at your district level. It sounds like you have a positive view of scouting from your youth and the background for this. Goal two, support role. The program is delivered by volunteers, so your job is to support them. This means committee meetings, liasoning to council, arranging whatever special treatment is necessary for units. Sometimes units need special help. It's a long job with long days, since you have 9-5 office time, where you are driving around, setting up meetings, etc. My DE is at District Events, Council Events, Day Camp, etc. So you need to work Sunday night (to prep for a Monday morning meeting), M-F 9-5, one night/week for meetings District/Council Meetings, one night/week for FOS type presentations, 1 weekend/month for activities. That's a pretty substantial commitment for a job, IMO. OTOH, if you take the time being a volunteer scouter takes and add it to your day job, that's about what you're looking at as a day job. If you have a good job, and it's a salary hit, and you think it'll be fun and cut down on your commute, I think you're out of your mind. My DE works 60-80 hour weeks, makes crap money, and has watched his personal life implode because of all the time Scouting takes.

I'm plenty involved in Council/District level committees. I'm mostly here venting, I'm normally a positive person, a pile of scheduling messes and budgets fell on me. The biggest issue is the conflict between the Camping Program "put all Council events at Camp Elmore" and the Activities Committees... Basically, there are not as many conflict-free weekends as you think... Our heavy camping season starts in January (the weather gets good in November/December, but holidays screw them up) and runs until March (we're stretching into April this year). Between Easter, Passover, Spring Break, etc., you really do start to run out of weekends to do EVERYTHING. So as a result, my District Cuboree might get actually trashed. Basically, it got moved back because of other events (and to accommodate my Pack), but the weekend we want is booked by a different district. We'd happily move it back to the County Park we were at last year, but Council wants ALL events at Council properties, trying to plug its financial hole. The weekend we're pushed to happens to be the weekend before Passover (which will essentially exclude my Jewish Unit) and Palm Sunday (which will essentially exclude the Catholic Units). Cuboree was a HUGE hit last year, and has momentum to be good, but our Council's short sighted policy may destroy it just as its getting going. Similarly, I'm working on planning a major Jewish Committee event. To include the Orthodox/UltraOrthodox Units, we picked a long weekend so we could use Sunday/Monday for activities. This happens to be one of the few good and open meetings, and the local JCC just scheduled their big January event that Sunday. It happens to be at a Park with a Campground (and last year, the Jewish Committee happened to use that particular park). So if it wasn't for the Elmore-only rule/push, we'd relocate to the Park where the JCC event is and just kind of have things staffed accordingly so we could use it for recruiting. So while I think it's great that we have these council properties, it's an albatross when it becomes a requirement, when sometimes extenuating circumstances warrant moving elsewhere.

1. I distinctly pulled out Cubworld as a useful thing. Those are extremely useful. 2. Regarding Boy Scouts, to be honest, I think my council focuses way to much on that program. The troops won't/can't recruit, they won't/can't sell popcorn, they won't/can't help the packs including their feeder packs, and they have more manpower in terms of volunteers than the packs. It's the flagship program, but too much catering to them takes place as is, part of why they don't take responsibility for their program. We have designated Youth Group Camping options at State/County parks all over Florida. It's a regional thing, but here, I don't understand our much derided "Park Elmore" (it's called Camp Elmore) which is basically a small Park NEXT to a county park with BSA campgrounds. So they are "useful" for the Troop Level program in terms of safety... well, that's terrific, so let the Troops fund them. Stop forcing Cub Level events to take place at BSA campgrounds (which are useful for Troops, NOT useful for Packs, because G2SS doesn't let us use anything there) as a way of funding them. Packs are expected to provide their own programming while Council focuses on the Troops (every Saturday it seems is a Merit Badge Day somewhere, lots of events for them) the "Webelos Weekend" type events seem to get canceled because nobody is willing to put them on. Meanwhile, we have 1 Cub Fun Day and 2 Belt Loop Days/year... And we're 2/3s the Membership, 70% the Fundraising, and 95% of the recruiting... and our programming gets ZERO budget and is forced to subsidize the Troop level programming. None of ours are as large as you are describing, one is a small park with space for canoeing, shooting sports, etc... all things that we can't use as Cubs. The other two are unique but small primitive campsites. Everglades is 253 acres, it's just a primitive campground but a unique location, and Sawyer is 10 Acres but on the beach. We have two unique properties, Camp Sawyer (in the Keys) and Camp Everglades (in Everglads National Park). Those don't seem to be that expensive to maintain (viewing the 990s) and offer something Unique for us any anyone wanting a unique Florida experience. I guess my vent is with Camp Elmore, which is a glorified Park that is more expensive, harder to schedule (because there is 1 Elmore, and dozens of County/State Parks), and generally sucking the life out of our program. But, I think that consolidated to "exceptional" campsites makes sense, there is no need to run a private park system. Focus on unique things that only a BSA site can offer. Building BSA sites around (climbing tower, COPE, Cubworld, shooting ranges) and resident camp makes sense. Just having Campsites to have Campsites doesn't make sense to me.

I wish my Council would sell the camps. They are pushing to have all activities at a BSA Campsite... makes sense, they want the money to flow into BSA's facility coffers and not to the parks service. HOWEVER, there are limited "good weekends" and sometimes they are pushing us to move our weekends to accommodate. Two districts need to do a function the same weekend, and they pushed our Cub event off a week, where it will run smack into Passover (the weekend before, which takes my Unit out) and Palm Sunday (which will take out a Catholic Unit or two)... so to prevent us from returning to the Park we used when the BSA Site was being renovated, they are going to trash this awesome event. Camping at a Park costs us $4/person/night, camping at a BSA Campground is $7.50/person/night. The BSA has more useful bathrooms for us (individual bathrooms, wash areas, etc), but the Parks have more facilities, shade trees, playgrounds (for younger siblings), nature trails throughout the park. Down here, the Parks are cheap to use because the Taxpayers subsidize it and keep it cheap for "youth groups." I don't really get the point of BSA Campsites. A lot of money to maintain, so expensive to use. I get a few High Adventure places for olders Scouts, specialty sites like Camp Sawyer in the Keys (a primitive campsite in the Keys is really cool), places that can run Resident Camp all summer, etc. I get that. I also get the "Cub World" type locations which are awesome for getting Cubs excited. I don't get maintaining these locations all over the country when National/State/County/City Parks could server the purpose for normal overnighters. Clean up the balance sheet, consolidate Councils, more districts that are closer to the action, and recruiting/public relations help would be nice. Campgrounds? Only in areas that need them.

Becoming a Nova Counselor and planning some events. The Super Nova requires a real application that's poorly written and confusing. The book looks pretty easy, should be fun… It seems like Nova Day would be a cool half day program, because you do a few belt loops and have a few discussions.

I think people upset at these things didn't realize how draconian the old "policy" had become. A lad that thought he might find men attractive (even if he dating women) violated the old policy and could be kicked out. Attending a gay resort, despite no evidence that one engaged in any behavior was grounds for termination. Joining a high school LGBT tolerance group was reason for dismissal. It went beyond practicing gay youth, it was anyone who expressed any curiousity. Under the new policy, which is being clarified. BSA has no opinion in gay tendencies, and units can't kick a youth out for simply having tendencies, but they can make any rules they want on sexual activity, or any other activity. Now can we please stop talking about the sexual desires of teenagers. It creeps me out.

The vast majority of Scouts (and Scouters) cannot recite the Boy Scout Oath/Law, because they never learned either. The majority of the people in BSA are Cub Scouts and Cub Scouters. Given the turn over rate in Cubs, I'd say that the VAST majority of Scouters are Cub Scouters... The problem is NOt the Cub Problem. The problem is the Webelos->Scout Transition.

I don't... The Tiger->Wolf->Bear transitions are fine. Apparently between Bear->Webelos->Webelos 2->Scout there is a TON of drop off. But I have lots of Cub families that simply will not camp. The families do not want to. The boys might try it in Den camping down the road. But pushing the program to be more outdoors in the cub level is a recipe for dropping out.

I'm concerned in general with the direction of changes. It looks like a move away from uniforms. I see my Webelos are starting to look for excuses to wear Activity Shirts instead of Uniforms, I have no doubt that at the Scout level, the uniforms are a problem. However, with the Cubs, they are generally stoked to wear their uniforms, its part of the excitement of scouting, the uniforms, patches, badges, belt loops, pins, etc. I think that national is ignoring what makes Cub Scouting work. The problems are in the Webelos Program. The boys are disappearing in the Webelos and first year Scout years. That isn't a reflection of problems in the Cub Scout program, it's problems in Webelos which is way too much book work for the age. The Tiger year is a total blast. Wolf has a lot of book work and a lot of fun work... it could use more fun... but a lot of the "book work" people groan about are integrate to the Scouting program. I don't care that the schools do a nutritional component, I like that we reinforce that eating healthy is part of being a scout. Given the love of kids for all manners of junk, being able to do a craft project on healthy eating and reinforce it with the Scouts, and the same thing with chores, etc., is part of reinforcing that part of being a good scout is being a good part of the family. It seems that after YEARS in the Troop program, the leadership totally ignores what makes 6-9 year old boys tick. Since BSA's entire recruiting premise is on Cub Scout programs, they would do well to stop sacrificing the Pack for the troop. Honestly, our program is too outdoorsy if we do the various Camporees, etc., it terrified suburbanites, and at this age, the families need to go. We need to focus on the crafts/values with the Cub Programs, focus on independent advancement with Webelos, and revisiting the lower Scout ranks so we stop losing the boys in 5-7th grade. The problem isn't the 2nd/3rd grade levels, it's the 4th-7th grade levels with the drop off, focus there.

Even in affluent areas, we have over-extended families. Families with houses they can't afford, families that consider parochial school a REQUIREMENT and can't afford it, people with large families stressed for time and money... Also, people that had businesses/jobs that lost them and are sinking. Look, I charge decent sized dues and cover our main costs from that, but we're fundraising for extras. Also, when you deal with suburban kids, giving them a chance to "earn" something (popcorn prizes) is a BIG deal and a big positive. There are families that would happily pay $500 in dues/year to never hear me annoy them about a fundraiser again. Most of my families would blink at that. Others spend that much a month on extra curricular activities. There are reasons we are fundraising. Also, affluent packs need to spend more money to keep the boys entertained. Our family campouts (cubs) need slightly more food options than yours do, and we need the gear to do it. We all have costs. The nearby suburb's city ordinance sucks, but they have a right to run their city as they see fit. Good luck, hope you find something that works.

Peregrinator, Catholic practices have certainly maintained their Judaic origins in a way that Protestant ones have not. My Catholic friends used to all complain that the post Vatican 2 Catholic Church was pretty much anything goes. Sorry, I should have grouped Roman Catholics with Jews and Muslims and their fixed prayer books. Anglicans/Episcopalians are pretty High Church as well and have fixed liturgy in the was Protestants, especially the non-denominational evangelical variety, seem to have a lot more spontaneous prayer. In that regard, it's Protestants/LDS vs. Jews/Catholics/Muslims... But in terms of scheduling, it's Western-Church (Protestant/Catholics) vs. everybody else, since everybody else is on a different schedule. KDD, very cool, the stories I hear of people in dangerous situations that started saying the Shema (prayer of God's Unity and Divinity) amongst the most inspiring of Jewish stories. It's utterly ironic, given the history of religions, how cooperative Catholics have become with Protestants on matters of religion... When our Catholic Scout Executive has the JCoS Shofar Award for his work helping the Jewish Committee at a prior post, you get that "only in America" set of goosebumps...

I'll see if I get get PM to work. HOWEVER, in terms of "Scout's Own" that's back to my Western-Church lens. Nothing in Scout's Own is objectionable, it's all (around here) Old Testament stuff, but that entire structure of prayer that BSA uses simply is foreign to how Jews worship. Traditional Jewish Prayer Service (used by Orthodox and Conservative Jews, with local community tweaks), on Shabbat Morning Prayers (silent, said daily) Morning "Communal Prayer" - read silently than repeated, there is one for the "week" (Sunday - Fri), and one for Shabbat (Sat) and a different one on holidays. Weekly Torah Reading Weekly Haftorah Reading The Musaf Prayer Service: silent and then repeated by the leader: Mussaf is on "special" days (Shabbat, holidays, beginning of the month) to commemorate the special offering in the temple Each community had minor additions over the centuries, but that's the Jewish prayer service going back at least 1500 years. On a Sunday of a campout, unless it's the first day of the lunar month, the prayer service would end after the morning communal prayer (there are a few ending prayers that we do, but short and not a major point of this). Reform Judaism uses a prayer service that has more Lutheran influences, has room for innovation/sermons, etc., and drops the Mussaf service, but because of Reform's anti-BSA position, you'll have plenty of Reform Jews in BSA, but you won't have Reform Clergy in BSA. The service is very structured, with portions for you to insert private prayers during the out loud repetition. But, the idea of a free ranging "prayer" to open a meeting, or in an inter-faith service is simply foreign to Judaism (with three fixed times to pray) and Islam (with five fixed times to pray) and a fixed prayer book. So you can do a Scout's Own service with no references to Jesus and simply talking about the Almighty in a generic sense, and think you're being inclusive, but the very nature of the prayer service is Protestant. If we hosted a Scouts Own service, translated the service into English, took out passages that might be deemed offensive to anyone that wasn't Jewish, and invited you guys to join us, it wouldn't make it non-sectarian. If your boys were there, listening to proclamations of God's Unity, followed by reading a few pages of thanks silently, listening to it repeated, then from the Torah/Haftorah, then doing the silent/repeated prayer again, none of you would find it non-sectarian, because it would still be a Jewish service. When we do Grace before/after meals, it's not someone winging it, it's the blessings over wine, hand washing, and bread, followed by the after-meal prayers. When a Jew invites someone to lead "grace," it's the few lines at the beginning "inviting people" to join, it's not an opportunity to share your thoughts. I say this not to give you an education on Jewish prayer, just wanted to explain that BSA's "prayer service" is non-sectarian Protestant. It removes things that might offend non-Protestants, but it's a Protestant service. You might invite a Muslim to read a Islamic prayer (or a Jew to read a Jewish prayer), but you're not going to follow the Jewish Scouter in feet motions and silent prayers to be repeated by a Cantor, you're not going to prostrate yourselves on prayer rugs when led by the Muslim Scouter, you're just inviting us to participate in a non-denominational Protestant Service. I say this not to complain, I LOVE how inclusive BSA is, and how we use that in our program to teach our boys how to weave their Jewish and American identities while learning to be good Americans AND good Jews at the same time. But 9 Protestants and 1 Catholic, whose religions share a history until a few hundred years ago, sitting around a table deciding to be inclusive is how you've created a very odd dynamic. You are certainly welcome to bring my thoughts in, that's why I'm here. I learn so much from everyone here, especially Basement Dweller when he's not "kvetching" (it's a Yiddish word, there is no English word that quite captures kvetching). When I was the Tiger Den Leader, our "faith" component was the Weather one, where we talk about the weather, things seen/unseen, and how that's like our faith in God. It was a fun exercise, but not really one that I would pick for Jewish youth. Jews focus on our service to God through deeds/Mitzvoth (observing commandments), NOT through "faith." We don't really talk much about faith per se, we talk about serving God, and assume that faith comes. A little more faith talk might help keep Jews within the fold, so it's probably a good thing for us... but regardless, if I were running a Synagogue Youth Group for 1st Graders, we'd be learning the prayers before different foods, they prayer when you see lightening, etc., NOT "faith." That's my Protestant Lens comment, you don't even REALIZE that it's a Protestant Lens, because you assume every religion worships God like you do, just with different wordings and languages. We don't, we serve God entirely differently. And, as the Jewish Scouter here, may I wish everyone a Shabbat Shalom, a wonderful Lord's Day/Sabbath, and a great weekend.

In Israel, 12/25 is a work day, but Jewish holidays you've never heard of are national holidays. America is a Christian country, and our calendar follows the Western-Church calendar that is mostly the same between Protestants and Catholics. The "traditional" Spring Break schedule in my district is Holy Week. Whenever they move it to accommodate testing schedules (and I think it's to punish parents that overwhelming support testing programs, so they punish us and blame testing), there is screaming and yelling with a fight between the elected school board and they professional staff. There is NOTHING wrong with this. In Israel, they have a fall Holiday Break for Sukkot, and a Spring Break for Passover. Israel is a Jewish country, it follows the Jewish Calendar. America is a Christian country, it follows the Christian calendar. Egypt is a Muslim country, and follows the Muslim calendar. There is NOTHING wrong with this. However, BSA is a unique institution. It is religious, but non-sectarian. As a result, we are beyond "religious-friendly," we require religion and encourage you to be involved in your family's religion. Now, for people in many parts of the country, Religious = Christian (Catholic and non-Catholic Western varieties), so that is built into the program. In other parts of the country, LDS is a large religious community. In some parts, I'd imagine Eastern Christians form a chunk of the Units, with their schedule. For the Cub Scout monthly core values, November, which includes election day and Thanksgiving, the core value is Citizenship, because that is the most american centric month of the school year. April, with Holy Week and Easter has Faith. For January, filled with "New Years Resolutions" based upon the Christian-centric calendar, we do Positive Attitude. There is nothing wrong with these things, but BSA is Christian centric because it is America and Religious, and America's calendar is Christian and its religious communities are Christian. So it would be nice, if in a BSA context, SCOUTERS are aware that there are minority religions, we participate in BSA, and we do our best to participate. Insulting LDS units for breaking camp Saturday night, Jewish Units that won't attend Saturday functions (and MANY/MOST observant Jewish units don't camp over the Sabbath, my unit is unusual in that), Eastern Christian Units with their holidays, Buddhist and other eastern religious groups. BSA's faith approach has a protestant lens. Religious invocations are very Christian, our talk of "Faith" in the Cub Scout program is VERY protestant and isn't how we talk about service to God in Judaism. But we all make it work because we believe in this program and think its great for our youth. I don't understand the outrage, but a little religious sensitivity training would be good for everyone involved. My Council in South Florida is based in Miami, with the population concentrated in Miami-Dade and Broward counties which are "majority-minority" counties. We have Latino groups, Black groups, a Jewish groups, PTA groups, LDS groups, and of course LOTS of Catholic and non-Catholic Christian groups. We all work together, try to be inclusive. My wife is involved in Girl Scout leadership. Their Service Unit wants to include them in some activities, so they agreed to relocate to Sunday. Now as a Jewish group, we would do Sunday activities in the morning, because it leaves people free for family time in the afternoon. Obviously this create a problem for Church attendance, so they found out when the last Church services of anyone involved were over and set the even for 2 hours later. Now, if they had LDS Girl Scout Troops in their Service Unit, that would exclude them, and they'd move back to their original plan of a weeknight evening. It is REALLY REALLY hard to make non-sectarian work, plus the reality that youth are in school Monday to Friday. Friday isn't good for Muslims, Saturday isn't good for Jews, Sunday morning isn't good for Christians, Sunday all day isn't good for LDS. Yet if you want to be non-sectarian and inclusive, you make it work. My council/district is AWESOME, and is bending over backwards to include us. What makes a difference is that we got involved, showed up to meetings, and are volunteering to help. So bigotry = bad Inclusive = good But inclusive is really hard, and leaves everyone a bit unhappy. You have to ask yourselves, do you want the LDS/Jewish/Muslim units involved. If so, you're going to be a little unhappy in the accommodations necessary. But the sign of a good compromise is that everyone is a little unhappy. We have a full Unit program, having 2 District, and 1 Council activity to include us is a great addition. Making every event accommodate us would leave the other scouts unhappy, but we all make it out. Some of the anti-LDS is straight bigotry. Some of it is NOT wanting to be inconvenienced at all. If your district is non-Catholic Christians, then including Catholics is pretty easy, the rest of us are hard. Do you need to change to accommodate our small groups? Of course not, but you can't refuse to accommodate LDS's religious values then complain that they don't show up at stuff.

I think it's great that LDS has adopted Scouting as a youth program. They might do things strangely and torture the leaders, but Cubs is a good program, and a large chunk of BSA Scouts are LDS. So while the Catholic Units mights hit the Scouting ideal more, LDS exposes more boys to the benefits of Scouting than other groups, despite being a very small religion. As a result of LDS's process, they have a LOT of programs, whereas relying on the traditional process might have better programs, but they'd be much smaller.

Can I point out the MINOR issue that to invoke Cloture, the Democrats in Massachusetts bypassed the required public notice period to pass a new law letting the governor appoint a replacement Senator (most states do this as normal, when Romney was Governor, the Massachusetts legislature changed the law for special elections). The legislature let the governor appoint a replacement, he voted to invoke cloture, and the bill was passed. It was then "fixed" via reconciliation after Brown was elected. But the Massachusetts Democratic Party passed a law in Massachusetts in violation of the legislative rules for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to send a temporary Senator to DC to pass the ACA before the elected official, elected by campaigning as the 41st vote to stop ACA, and they rammed it through anyway with reconciliation. Nothing about how ACA was passed was "normal" or "got the votes," it was all with parliamentary trickery. Which is part of why there is so much anger. I'm actually impressed the GOP is not making it about abortion, that's what they normally do in these situations.

"When I was growing up our public schools had off on certain Jewish holidays (Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah). I believe this is still the case in that school district. On the other hand, "minor" Catholic holidays (e.g. Ascension, Immaculate Conception, Ash Wednesday, etc.) were never school holidays despite the large number of Catholics among the student body." Rosh Hashana is a two day holiday. The first day was off, but we all took off the second day. Meanwhile, Sukkot and Passover are major week long festivals (with major restrictions on the beginning and end of the holiday), with restrictions on where you can eat (Sukkot) and what you can eat (Passover). I'm using Christian as short-hand for non-Catholic, non-Mormon Christians, because Protestant is a more loaded term. In terms of "holidays off" let's see: Christmas Eve Christmas Day (national holiday) New Years Day (Feast of the Circumcision) Good Friday (state holiday here, schools closed, normally Spring Break) Easter (is on a Sunday, Spring Break usually accomodates being able to travel to family for Easter) The entire week of Christmas to New Years, with Christmas Eve off as well, is off and the country is basically shut down. America's National Holiday of Thanksgiving is the kickoff to the "Christmas Season." I absolutely LOVE how accommodating American society is to our melting pot of cultures. However, if you are in the 80%+ of Americans from a Western Church perspective, you don't realize how Christian-centric the American culture is. The country is VERY Protestant in its culture. Catholics and Protestants have tremendous overlap, so Catholic accomodations are minor in comparison. Contrast that with Jews (with our Solar/Lunar Calendar) or Muslims (with a Lunar Calendar), and you'll see how different things look. This past summer Olympic Games overlapped with Ramaden, so you had competitors from Muslim countries fasting and trying to compete. You'd NEVER schedule the winter Olympic Games to take place on Christmas Day.

NeverAnEagle, well, it seems daunting, but we do it every week at home, the only difference here is: 1: propane instead of electric, and 2: no open flames. Last year with Camp Card Sales we bought ourselves a Camp Oven that we're excited to use this fall. Basically, we'll precook a stew on Friday at the campsite (brown the meat/vegetables, add seasoning, fill with water), then transfer to covered tins to put in the oven. The oven will be adjusted to run at around 250-300 degrees and run over night. In Yiddish, it's called a Chullent, in Hebrew, Hamin (hot food). In our house, we put food up in a Slow Cooker/Crock Pot. It is customary Jewish practice to serve hot food on Shabbat. Previously, we had a big "oven" called a Pig Roaster, where we through all the warm food on, covered it in unlit and lit coals, and it slowly burned over the night and stayed hot. This is fine from a Jewish perspective, but created a BSA safety issue, so we bought the oven. Our Campout meal schedule is generally: Friday night Shabbat dinner, Saturday Breakfast, milk/cereal/berries (cold breakfast), Saturday Lunch - Shabbat Lunch (stew, vegetables, fruit), Saturday Dinner - Shabbat Seudah Shlishit (cold meal, usually tuna fish, egg salad, etc). Saturday Evening: Malava Malka (hot dairy is ideal, we end up with a snack + hot chocolate), Sunday morning Brunch (french toast, scrambled eggs/omelet, cereal, berries, etc). Break camp. If we add a Sunday lunch, we'll do American Grilling (hotdogs, hamburgers, chicken breast). What makes it "easy" is that we have Shomer Shabbat leaders who are problem solvers, so we've worked out the issues. For the kids from non-observant homes, other than the candle lighting on Friday, and the Grape Juice/Challah on Friday night/Saturday lunch, and Havdalah (spice ritual ending Shabbat), they don't really notice much going on, because we plan activities around the Shabbat schedule. Sports, hiking, nature walks on Saturday, we do our lashing/knot tying Friday afternoon, and if we want to go Fishing, etc., we'll do it Sunday morning. There are rules governing carrying on Shabbat, but we stay in fenced in parks for our Campouts which means our Rabbinic approval for fenced in. The observant moms freak out about the lack of electricity, the non-observant families find the whole thing terrifying, then we go and have a wonderful time and everyone is thrilled. Oh, and everyone either uses disposable dishes for dairy (to separate meat from dairy), or has two mess kits (like my family does). I was VERY proud of the three bin washing station I built with inter-changable tubs for meat and dairy. If you have a Crock Pot (or pick one up for $20-$35), try cooking a stew one week. Friday afternoon, brown/season everything, throw it in, cover it with water, and cook it on low overnight. Technically for Jewish law you remove the crockery before serving, but I think you'll find that you can make a delicious meal. There is something EXTREMELY relaxing about waking up Saturday morning, feeding my kids a healthy but cold breakfast, taking them to Synagogue, then coming home to a meal that requires no more work than chopping up a salad. We learned to do it for Shabbat, but my wife and I slow cook meals 3-5 times a week. We both work, and it was great to come home and have nothing more to do than put up a pot of rice (or get a rice cooker) and chop a salad and have a serious family dinner on say, a Tuesday!

I think it depends, do you sign up new Tiger Cubs in the Spring? If so, then you want to award the Summertime Pin then. If, you're like the rest of us, don't really get Tigers in the Spring, then you do it on the prior year so boys that are active in the program can do each year. The boys don't care, they get a pin, it's exciting, who cares if they get two Tigers, two Webelos, or never complete a set... but parents whose boy might be "deprived" the Tiger one will care. Our solution, I'm doing it on the prior year, since we don't get new Tigers... we tried a summer program last year, people didn't show up. I have one or two Tigers that may sign up in the Spring, with older siblings in Scouts. If they earn it, I'll let them earn two Tiger pins. The policy was arbitrary, we'd never done the award before, and my son finished Tiger and is having fun picking them all up. Neither "makes sense." As of June 1st, they are onto the next program year. However, that would also mean that Tigers couldn't earn the Outdoor Activity Badge in our district, and boys at camp wouldn't necessarily earn it without us tracking the program all year... much easier to hit the objectives on the year, and award it to everyone that goes to camp. It's not really a huge deal... do whichever pins help you run a program that gets the boys excited to participate more.

Good luck. You're violating BSA rules with this one. If you are family camping, then non-leaders may attend. If you are Webelos Den Camping, then non-leaders shouldn't be there. Now with BSA eliminating the Scout Parent designation, it's a little more complicated. However, I would see if someone can draft you a temporary (48 hour guardianship agreement). Designate the girlfriend as a temporary guardian of the Scout (signed by BOTH parents) for the time and duration of the campout, limited to the proximity of the campsite. If the kid is rushed to the hospital, the girlfriend has no authority, but this will result in the Scout not being in the tent of a non-guardian. I would also collect an Adult Application from her, register her as a 91U Reserve Scouter, and require Youth Protection from her -- this is what we do for parents that for various reasons can't register as Adult Leaders. In terms of the non-married leaders tenting together, explain to them in person the policy, send a notice/reminder out to the Unit. It may be with a wink and a nod, but your responsibility is to the boy, NOT them. Your BSA obligations are to keep him from tenting with a non-guardian. In terms of the couple tenting together, the policy is no, they will break the policy, and there will be no consequences to it. If something goes wrong and bad things happen on the Camp Out, BSA will kick them out as SP / Reserve Scouter for violating the policy, but since you didn't break Youth Protection, you're likely safe. I mean, we normally assume that the parents that live together with the Scouts are married, but I've NEVER asked for a marriage certificate. For all I know they had a religious wedding (AKA a Church Wedding), but I've never asked for a marriage certificate.

Pretty much. BSA considers itself non-sectarian, and partners with just about all religions. That said, with the turn towards religious involvement of the last 30 years, it's been a defacto Western-Church organization (Protestant and Roman Catholic). There is limited tension between Protestants and Catholics in this, because they are on the same schedule and the Catholic Church is so large that it can run it's own groups for anywhere there is tension. For smaller minority religious groups, we participate in BSA, but we are definitely second class citizens. The Jewish Scouter mailing list was aflame with local counsels that planned things on Yom Kippur this year, things like OA elections that would basically prevent Jewish youth (including relatively non-observant ones) from participating that year and in reality going forward because they missed the election. For the Mormons, I think that that is a very apropro statement. The parents are sending their children to the LDS Youth Program, that happens to run the BSA program. They are signing up for (well, signed up for) their Church Youth Group, not BSA. So when others are upset that they aren't hardcore BSA people, they aren't BSA people at ALL, they are LDS people. Many of my parents are just happy to have their boys in a Jewish after school program. They have more Jewish friends, they have fun, maybe do the religious medals, go into Synagogue for the meetings, etc. The BSA program is incidental to their interest. For Christian Americans and Catholic Americans, there is NEVER this tension. Their schools are already a mix of Christian and Catholic students, their friends are all Christian or Catholic, their major holidays are national holidays, their minor holidays are often school holidays. They don't have the need to engage in programming to maintain their religious identity. Minority groups in BSA, including LDS, Jews, Muslims, etc., may have alternative reasons for participating.

It's a Youth Application (the Adult Partner), just turn it in. If BSA kicks it out, deal with it then... Especially if it's for the mom... my momma taught me to NEVER ask a woman her age.

KDD, caveat, I'm happy to try to explain things from a lay perspective, but I'm NOT a Rabbi, if you have questions regarding Jewish law, you should consult your local Orthodox Jewish Rabbi. That said, from a practical how we live side... In general, actions prohibited on Shabbat are permitted for the purpose of saving lives. The IDF does NOT lay down arms, though different Rabbis will justify it for different reasons (saving the lives of your comrades, serving in a Jewish army as per written Torah, etc). In practice, the defense of the Jewish state requires violating Sabbath prohibitions. However, there is extensive work in Israel with a group that develops Shabbat-friendly devices... basically designed that they don't violate a Biblical prohibition but merely Rabbinic prohibition (you can't break either, but the leniencies are more common for Rabbinic restrictions). There is a "Sabbath pen" for example, which has "temporary ink" that lasts about 25-30 hours, so that people in critical but non direct life saving roles are able to be "temporarily writing" -- the Torah prohibits writing permanently, the Sages all writing to prevent accidentally permanently writing... so an ER doc could use a normal pen, but taking notes during rounds, they could use a Temporary Pen, and the notes are transcribed after Shabbat. So Doctors are permitted to work, since their work involves saving lives. At a power plant, you can work, since the power is necessary for life saving medical devices, etc. OTOH, working in the power company's call center might be more problematic. Regarding water, the running of water is fine, the pumping of it (think old fashioned well+pump) is a problem. However, since it is unlikely that my particular use of the water will trigger the electric pump to turn on, it's permitted. In the diaspora, where these things primarily operate for gentiles (and repaired by them), it's considered a non-problem. In Israel, there are groups that won't go on the power grid over the Sabbath, because while its permitted to leave the AC on, if the power failed, a (presumably) Jewish technician would repair it. I am not an expert on these matters, I'm not a Rabbi, I'm not a particularly learned Jew, I'm a Computer Programmer by training. It is a VERY restful and completely different day from the rest of the week. Since most Orthodox Jews use the Ashkenazi (European) pronunciation of Shabbos, and most non Orthodox Jews will use the Sephardic/Modern (Middle Eastern/Israeli) pronunciation of Shabbat, I often joke that we keep Shabbat on camp sites, we don't keep Shabbos. There are no leisurely long meals of drinking wine and relaxing on a Scout function. We obey the restrictions of Shabbat, but it is NOT the "Shabbos environment" that we have in our normal community experience. If you have more interest in medical devices, medical practice, etc., there is a lot of interesting discussions on it at the Yeshiva University Rabbinate the past few years... discussing if medical practitioners have abused the leniency for saving lives into a general leniency to work as normal. But not one of my 6 - 11 year olds are Medical Doctors.

Yes... At the Troop level, competitions are often problematic. Knot tying is a problem, lashing is a problem, etc. Things like BB Guns/Archery I left to each parent to decide. There were a few shops and stuff at the big Camporee that we couldn't go to. Cuboree had an adult Iron Chef competition last time, I love cooking and would have been in. I need to fix any registration problems on Saturday night, or I've verbally dictated them (can't write). Council Functions are in some ways, easier than when we do our Unit camping. Certain things we can't do, certain things we can't derive benefit from (but at a Camporee, where the purpose is primarily for gentiles, it's easier to gain indirect help). A bunch of things are complicated... but technology is helping a LOT. We can't turn on/off lights, but with the new battery operated LEDs, we can have small lanterns in our kitchen area. We can't water plants, so we can't dump our wash water out, so we dump it all in a trash can to remove after Saturday night. The real bummer, we can't take pictures of all the fun stuff going on. Now that I've made friends with other Scouters in the area, they'll help us out there. Generally, if the prep work is done by us before Shabbat, or is done by gentiles primarily for gentiles, we can participate. We're planning an early Sunday morning fishing time for our Pack Campout so we can do that. We normally do some nature hikes and sports on our Campouts. I actually don't know what the troop does.