Khaliela

As a Personal Management MB Counselor I would reject it. (And have rejected it for Scouts who show up to our first meeting and say here's my 90 day record, sign me off.) Item #1 is to PREPARE A BUDGET. The whole point of the MB is to teach them financial responsibility. Simply showing how you spent the money has nothing to do with planning, budgeting, or resisting impulse purchases. The boy needs to prepare his budget BEFORE he starts spending and tracking his money that way he has a better understanding of when, where, why, and how he spent it. It also gives opportunity to talk

I think you ASM needs to do some deep breathing exercizes. The make-up of your patrols will change every year as boys move in and out of the troop. What the patrol looks like today is not what it's going to look like next year or even 6 months from now. Not only will boys come and go, but the boys who stick around will change as they grow older. Remember, you're still only 12 boys strong. That means that on any given outing you are only going to have enough boys for 1 patrol anyway. They are a Troop and need to act as such.

Or you can skip patrol meetings and just make everything a troop meeting. We have a Troop meeting every week. The boys open and do planning as a troop (30 min.), then break into patrols for advancement (30 min), then come back together as a troop for games (30 min.) A lot of the time advancement is helter-skelter with the patrols co-mingling based on what each boy needs to advance.

When a group of us left (kicked out, whatever) the Catholic Troop we were in, we started again with just 4 boys. Now we've grown to 20. We didn't have a lot of elected positions because we didn't need a lot of positions. We have an SPL and 1 PL for each patrol. Small troops don't need as ASPL or assistant patrol leaders. If someone wants a position they are free to run for any position they want; there are no appointed positions. Currently we have: SPL, 2 PL's, a QM, and a Librarian. In yeas past we've had a scribe, an OA rep, and a webmaster. The boys should be perfectly comfortab

Jews have a God; Wiccans have both a God and Goddess. Jews are theist not atheist; Wiccans are polytheist not atheist. I'm not sure where you are getting your information.

Scouts is only "uncool" if the scouts let it be uncool. It's up to them to make the program "cool." I know they boys get lots of comment when they are in the newspaper for something "cool" like building a pioneering bridge across a 25 foot span of a local river, or taking a 30 mile backpacking trip in the bottom of the Grand Canyon, or white water rafting, or going on a 500 mile bike ride. When my son was still a Weblo he helped out at the FOS Breakfast and had to attend school in his uniform. When I dropped him off I saw him taking a little flak until he looked the other boy in the ey

I took my troop on a backpacking trip in the Grand Canyon over Spring Break and had a blast--your cubs will love it. I guess the big question is: which rim are you on? We were on the South Rim and visited a geology museum/visitor center. Also, near the center is a "geology walkway" along the rim with some great vistas. It includes information on how old each type of rock is and viewing stations to show where each type of rock is found in the canyon. It's been awhile since I worked with cubs, but I'm betting they have a geology beltloop.

So I wanted to send a PM to another person on the forums, but when I clicked on the PM icon this is what came up: New Message Sorry, you are not authorized to view this page What does it take to be authorized to send someone a PM?

The documentary, Farmingville, is very good. It shows both the people who support and those who oppose the hiring site, as well as the types of organization necessary for a group of people to bring an issue to their County Legislature. I also recommend showing, A Day Without a Mexican, at the same time. It's a little slapstick and kind of silly, but balances the heaviness of the other movie and is a good conversation starter.

They choose Pioneer for 2014, but are keeping an eye on Parsons for the future. Seeing as our Council just logged one of the camps they boys aren't interested in ever attending camp in council again so we will be looking for camps in 2015 as well. One Scout brought a picture of the logged portion of camp and said that since our council can't manage their resources we shouldn't be wasting time there.

Every Camp has a differnt price tag. Parsons: $310/scout Pioneer: $285/scout Melita: $235/scout (AND was totally AWESOME!)

My OA Application was rejected twice. The first time was back in 2007, when they still thought I was Catholic and had just presented me with the Skillin and Extra Miler Awards. The second time was in 2010 BEFORE the Wood Badge Event in June of 2011. In the decade plus that I have been in Scouting I've only known of two adults who were accepted, each from a different unit. The reason being is that our OA rep says that they are only allowed to forward two adult applications per district, based on the needs of the Lodge. Assume the district only has three units who complete elections and t

We have two Boy Scout camps in our council, but our Troop is fairly adventurous and likes to try new things. We have been to the Camps owned by the council, but have also been to Camp Meriwether and Camp Melita Island (which is the best camp I’ve been to so far; I strongly recommend to everyone with a hankering to try a camp in Montana Council.) Tonight the boys will be deciding on which camp to attend in 2014. (They are looking at Pioneer, Cooper, and Parsons.) The trouble is that we catch a lot of flak at District and council events for not attending the camps in council. Man

I would suspect that the reason you are seeing parents instead of SM’s is that after the SM’s OA application has been rejected he’s not too interested in taking the boys.

It depends entirely on which “supreme being†you believe in AND what unit you are trying to be a member of. Every unit has the right to reject members for whatever reason they choose. We have a Catholic Pack that only allows Catholic boys in the unit, provided they attend the local Catholic School. If you’re Catholic and don’t attend the Catholic School you aren’t “Catholic Enough†to be a member of their unit. As far as National is concerned just because your application wasn’t accepted because you believed in the wrong god (or be

I wonder if this was another reason National rejected the Covenant of the Goddesses submissions for a Pagan Religious emblem? Instead of "Duty to God" our book was titled HART & CRESCENT AWARD and included requirements on "Duty to Goddess." http://www.cog.org/index.php?p=content/CoGWeb/About.html We were told the reason they wouldn't accept it was that there weren't any Pagan Organizations that chartered a unit. Of course being pagans, we'll never be able to charter a unit because of the requirement that we have a building. We meet and worship in nature so we don't have buildings;

As far as "selecting" adults go, we have the opposite problem. The units know how to go about nominating an adult, but the OA advisers reject them every year. I know this has happened in our troop two years in a row as well as it happening in another troop also. Just because you send in an adult application doesn't mean that adult will be selected for OA.

Not so fast qwazes; Teen birth rates are higher in red states and for Christians in general. Christian teens are more likely to engage in risky behaviors, less likely to use contraception when they do have sex, and Christians are more likely to divorce. I've heard a lot of pastors tout the opposite, but when you look at the data from the Centers for Disease Control and the census bureau it's a whole different story. Teen birth rate by state: http://www.thenationalcampaign.org/national-data/NBR-teens-15-19.aspx The gap between pledgers and nonpledgers for high-risk behavior was st

Trustworthy: I can trust that when my son has sex he will use protection and respect his partner. Loyal: Loving someone is not a breach of Loyalty. Neither is having sex for the sheer joy of sex. There is no shame in not remaining abstinent until married; and frankly I question the sanity of those who push that agenda. Clean: Wearing a condom can insure that he is disease free. Reverent: My religion believes that sex is a wonderful gift. In fact our creation myth involves a sexual interlude that last for 9 days culminating in a giant orgasm. Contrary to the Christian view

Curious position from my perspective. If a scout was caught cheating on tests in high school would you consider that none of your business or is it a reflection on his trustworthiness? What if he was hazing other youth on a HS sports team? Not in scouting so no worry about friendly, courteous, kind. Smoking cigarettes and yelling obscenities at a village holiday gathering with young children around? No biggie, it's not a camp out, clean mind and strong body only count in the woods. Character is what happens when nobody is looking. Isn't that what we're trying to teach? Packsaddl

I can think of one "exception" we used as a recruitment tool. We handed out applications at the Kindergarten graduation. They were no longer kindergartners, but had not started 1st grade yet. The draw was that if they enrolled in the summer their brand new Tiger could attend Day Camp in June. It seemed to work for us.

Curious position from my perspective. If a scout was caught cheating on tests in high school would you consider that none of your business or is it a reflection on his trustworthiness? What if he was hazing other youth on a HS sports team? Not in scouting so no worry about friendly, courteous, kind. Smoking cigarettes and yelling obscenities at a village holiday gathering with young children around? No biggie, it's not a camp out, clean mind and strong body only count in the woods. Character is what happens when nobody is looking. Isn't that what we're trying to teach? A scout h

A Scout is: Trustworthy, Loyal Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean, and Reverent. Nowhere in there am I seeing the word abstinent . . .

I did not mean to appoint them permanently; just for the outing. We had an SPL who was routinely absent. When the younger scouts started grumbling and stating that THEY needed to replace the SPL with someone else; the SPL got the message and started to take his duties seriously. You need to let the boys lead. That means giving them all the tools they need to succeed AND providing opportunities to fail. They need to work out the pecking order on their own and if you give them enough time and space, they will do just that.

I don't see this as a conflict of interest. It's no different than if the boys were missing because they choose to go to a soccer tournament or other event. Just appoint someone to take over the SPL and PL duties. You can choose the scouts with the next highest ranks or Scouts elected to other leadership positions. If the boys routinely skip events that will show up in a Scoutmaster conference and may result in a board of review being pushed back. Or they could face the ultimate from of rejection and have the peer vote them out of the position; nothing sweeter than mutiny in the ranks!