Khaliela

SCOUER 99: why would they send a spy to an event where they will already have a representative? The reason that my son doesn't want any adults to speak is that your traditional ECOH runs like this: A district Scouter takes the podium and talks forever about needing more money to support district activities; then the DE takes the podium and talks about the necessity of funding FOS; then the Council guy takes the podium and talks abut the necessity of everyone to donate to the capital campaign; then you are directed to the back of the room where a basket is conveniently placed for each of thos

I'm for keeping the merit badge focus; high adventure can happen the other 11 months of the year. We've taken the boys Kayaking and white water rafting; gone caving; taken week long backpacking trips; gone to ropes courses and used zip lines; all outside of the summer camp experience. We tell our boys that camp is for merit badges, the rest of the year is for fun!

KDD: We were also planning on going out of Council next year. The boys voted in June to go to Camp Pioneer (Cascade Pacific Council) but at our August Committee Meeting we were informed that we had to be in council next year. Is this some new requirement? Since council has two camps we are supposed to go out of council no more than once every 3 years. Seems to undermine the "boy lead" aspect of the program to me . . .

Is there anywhere to find information on Venturing? Not much is mentioned here and there doesn't seem to be much information on it period.

My son has already decided that absolutely NO ADULTS will be speaking as his ECOH. One of the guys from the troop will be leading the prayer, they just have to come up with one that Council approves of. The ceremony will be held at the Public Library since that is where he did his project, so it's not 'hallowed grounds.' (Except to those of us who visit the library religiously, LOL!)

It's not an issue with the CO; they're Methodist and don't really care one way or the other. It's an issue for Council. The guy my son has to meet with regarding his project said he has to use the Eagle Court Workbook. It list many prayers in it to choose from, but they are all Christian. I found a good one from Wales, but it's not BSA approved (You've got it here: http://archives.scouter.com/Archives/Scouts-L/199511/0057.html) and my son doesn't like it because it rhymes. We've been unable to come up with anything that both he and council can agree on.

Wow I feel Deprived now, Since Every place we go we have to stay on the Paved parking Areas..and Our State Parks don't afford Off Roading Experience. Granted Texas does have a few potholes You should get off the beaten path with your scouts more. Our state parks are mostly big RV parking lots, so we don't take the scouts to those except way once in a while. I don't like camping in a big gravel camping area with the sound of generators all around. Dispersed camping areas, national parks, even private land around someone's remote cabin can make for some great scout outings. Most of

Out of curiosity how did everyone find Scouter.com? Were you looking for something specific or was it serendipity? I was looking for a non-sectarian prayer for my son's Eagle Court of Honor because we are not permitted to use our own prayers. (Apparently you have to use an official BSA sanctioned prayer.) I googled “Scouts+Nonsectarian†and ended up with a thread in the Issues & Politics area. (Not quite what I was after, LOL!) PS We still haven't come up with a prayer that we like, so I'm open for suggestions...

Wow I feel Deprived now, Since Every place we go we have to stay on the Paved parking Areas..and Our State Parks don't afford Off Roading Experience. Granted Texas does have a few potholes You should get off the beaten path with your scouts more. Our state parks are mostly big RV parking lots, so we don't take the scouts to those except way once in a while. I don't like camping in a big gravel camping area with the sound of generators all around. Dispersed camping areas, national parks, even private land around someone's remote cabin can make for some great scout outings. Most of

KDD--Our community does not have Police or Fire. (Population is 738 people, so there isn't a tax base to support those services.) The Sheriffs office responds out of the County seat (45 min response time) and if you have a fire you'd better call the forest service because they will respond if it's brush/grass/trees; otherwise you'd better have insurance. I work 75 miles from home--we have better internet here. (Unfortunately it's in the opposite direction from the Council Service Center The council covers are area that is 350 miles long by 420 miles wide.) I check the forums when I'm st

SCOUTER99: 15 entries, but 5 of them were the same species. (White Fir) So in actuality they only had 10 species ad didn't meet the requirement.

The same cannot be said for this area. Most camping is done on State Lands or in National Forest, which means logging roads. The engineers don't use a lot of culverts here, so logging roads mean Kelly-humps and fording creeks and rivers. We also have good mix of snow and mud on the roads well into June; I don't expect your bus will handle well in wet, sloppy snow. We don't "off-road" either, but a bus wouldn't be able to get you to a camping spot given the condition of the roads and if you could get to a spot you wouldn't have room to turn that bad boy around! If you want to do your ca

I'm voting crazy. A passenger bus cannot ford a river of make it over "kelly-humps." In fact it can't go a lot of places. Do you really want to limit the boys scouting experience to places with pavement because that's only as far as the bus can go?

KDD--It was just a random thought about Blue Cards and partials, not directed at anyone. QWAZSE--While I agree that it is important for the boys to actually learn the skills required; I think denying the blue card w/o going after the inept counselor is unreasonable. If you are going to deny the blue card, then you must also go after the person who signed it complete. I was just trying to point out that the lack of learning is not always the boys fault; sometimes you just get a poor teacher. SCOUTER99--The boys who filled the book with 5 samples of the same tree didn't know any better

The Library and City Hall both have dial-up. The Council Service Center is 99.8 miles away. What part of RURAL didn't you understand?

Why are you punishing the boys because of an issue with your council??? If the council does not train it's MB Counselors properly and ensure that the requirements are fulfilled at camp the backlash should be directed at the Council and the Camp Director, not the boy. By holding the boy accountable and doing nothing about the poor quality of MB Counselors at Camp you are only perpetuating they system. I spent many hours with a lad working on the Forestry MB at camp this summer because the camp staff in charge of nature couldn't identify 5 trees, let alone 15 & know their uses! A

Council even manages to loose electronic copies. I had to re-send an email with the Honey Sale attachments 4 times because someone at council kept "loosing" it.

Do I like national? NO Do I like my council? Nope Do I like my Unit? Yep. You can run a good program for the boys; you can make it better by ignoring council and striving to achieve what Baden Powell had intended.

Are you kidding; 1.5 hours for training??? I live in a rural area we do not have high-speed internet; last time I took youth protection it took 2.5 hours, then timed out. I tried again the next day and was able to complete in a mere 3 hours that day. We've had some leaders that have spent several hours a night for a period of weeks trying to get youth protection.

Where the heck are you coming up with 2 or 3 to 1???? In Cub Scouts possibly because cub have to have a parent with them. Why shouldn't we allow parents to come to events? If we excluded them they may never see their kids. Just look at a typical week for a 13 year old during the school year. 6:30 AM Weight Room Opens for Jocks Lifting 7:30 AM Study Hall opens for Jocks Study Hall 8:10 AM School starts 3:10 PM School Dismissed 3:15 PM to 6 PM After school events (Music, Sports, Drama, etc.) 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM Scouts/4-H/Private Lessons/(Youth Group for Christians), etc depe

I watched the video and saw very little information on a unit level position. I fully understand the need for a Unit Level Position though. When I was a Den Leader with the Catholic Pack all the boys were required to earn the Light of Christ and Parvuli De. As soon as I was CM I made of point of allowing each boy to earn the Religious emblem of THEIR faith (provided an emblem actually exists for their faith), which wasn't always the Catholic one. The Protestants had "God and Me" or "God and Family" and the Mormons had "Faith in God." In addition there are a number of religious emblems

The joy of the paper blue card; and every other card we give a boy, is that when council looses all record that it exist the boy can always bring in HIS copy! This happens every year--Someone is turning in paperwork for their Eagle and council says something ridiculous like, "Oh you never earned the tenderfoot rank, therefore you are not eligible for Eagle." OR "Oh, since joining Scouts 4 years ago you only earned 19 Merit Badges, so you're not eligible for Eagle." The Boy has his copy; the troop has it's copy (our troop actually makes a copy BEFORE turning it in to council); the MB

Troop Motto-- HYDRATE OR DIE! Seems to work for us, no color coding necessary.

This certainty seems to be the case in my area. 1st DE was a good guy and worked hard to include everyone on information about changes in policy, events, you name it. He left for a "real" job where he would actually be able to see his family (as luck would have it, he produced two daughters, not son's and BSA kept him away from all their events.) 2nd DE was also really good and working with everyone IMO; unfortunately she was a "she." The district committee and camping committee wouldn't allow her to attend any of the meetings which made it very hard to do her job. The good old bo

Thanks Packsaddle; Biology never was my strong suit, LOL!