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 becom

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

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,

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

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

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 f

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

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

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/Musl

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 ho

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. T

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 legisl

"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 restr

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 foo

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, peop

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 authori

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 lis

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

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