mashmaster

scrambling for a picture from Wilderness First Aid class...... 🙂

So you think we should get rid off all my female scout leaders? 1/2 of my ASMs are female. I work in the Software Engineering field and it is mostly dominated by males, it is something that will hopefully changed over time. Boys should have role models that are male and female, 25% of my sons teachers are male. Maybe your school district needs to hire more men?

From the Girls I know that got the Gold award and being part of that process, I hold that award higher than Eagle. The requirements are much more involved. I have seen many paper Eagles. Those Eagles are the one undermining the Eagle rank.

I am not why this is disappointing. I have never understood why Venture scouts with the camping and rank shouldn't be allowed to become members. They seem to have leveled the playing field by requiring similar rank requirements that are context sensitive to each program.

On Wednesday, May 23, 2018, the National Order of the Arrow Committee approved some exciting updates to the Order of the Arrow program! Beginning February 1, 2019, unit elections will be permitted in Scouts BSA, Venturing and Sea Scout units. The new Order of the Arrow membership requirements are as follows: • Be a registered member of the Boy Scouts of America. • Have experienced 15 nights of camping while registered with a troop, crew, or ship within the two years immediately prior to the election. The 15 nights must include one, but no more than one, long-term camp consisting of at least five consecutive nights of overnight camping, approved and under the auspices and standards of the Boy Scouts of America. Only five nights of the long-term camp may be credited toward the 15-night camping requirement; the balance of the camping (10 nights) must be overnight, weekend, or other short-term camps of, at most, three nights each. Ship nights may be counted as camping for Sea Scouts. • At the time of their election, youth must be under the age of 21, hold the Scouts BSA First Class rank, the Venturing Discovery Award, or the Sea Scout Ordinary rank or higher, and following approval by the Scoutmaster, Crew Advisor or Sea Scout Skipper, be elected by the youth members of their unit. • Adults (age 21 or older) who meet the camping requirements may be selected following nomination to and approval by the lodge adult selection committee. Read more about the election requirements and FAQs at https://oa-bsa.org/about/membership

I do enjoy district and council level training, I may just focus on that and have my son move troops.

I have been known to talk to youth outside of scouting to address rudeness before. I get some strange looks.

I heard many issues that happened at Jambo that made my blood boil. Swearing was the least of those, but it doesn't make it meaningless. Swearing in not appropriate in scouting. I do it more than I should (never around the boys) but it is something I work on. I do it much less than most people, but nobody is perfect and I try to improve myself.

Well, stepped aside and now through the grapevine, I hear the new SM is spreading rumors about me. I am trying to ignore it but I am infuriated that someone would attack my character. Especially when it is done behind my back while being nice to me in person......

If I heard of any of that, I would address it privately to the scout. We haven't had to deal pornography, but those in my issues are something that a SM or ASM would address with the boy. I would not call it out in front of the whole troop. For Pornography, it would be the boy, then the parents.

Understood. We have some scouts that are LDS in our troop and we respect their religious practices like we would others. So they go home on Saturday night for example. I would still suggest that as an option but make sure you have that discussion with troop leaders ahead of time to see if it would be a good match. Some troops may certainly work better than others.

Is there any reason why the boy couldn't be enrolled in a different troop to finish if he really wants Eagle, or is the the parent that really wants Eagle? Nothing says they are prohibited from joining a non-LDS based troop.

I wouldn't doubt it. I know Texas is very strict about the training rules.

agreed, it was 6 months until they were allowed

OMG, my son's first troop the troop guides wouldn't let them cook or light the stoves. We switched troops.

Actually, I did read his response. Venturing is not a separate unit in scouting it is integrated and has been since 1969 I think. It isn't like venture crews are parallel with one crew for boys and another for girls. Frankly, I am worried about scouting in general but that is related to boring meetings. I have seen a lot of boring meetings across several troops. Maybe the girls will make the meetings more exciting, but I doubt it.

Then I suppose he was very against Venturing as well?

Your troop does not match the experience of our local LDS troops. I wish they did what your troop does. I will say that there are a number of poorly run non-LDS troops as well, so it isn't solely an LDS thing.

Until I met a scout that was being openly held back from advancement in his troop and discriminated by both adults and youth in his old troop did it really hit home. He is a great young man, very giving, leads without being asked. On his own he sends helpful information to the troop like packing lists and meeting plans. Attends church regularly, his church doesn't care about his sexuality. And I don't either. He is almost an Eagle now. I am happy that we were able to accept him in our troop and watch this young man grow.

Enjoying it? no. As a Jew living married to a Christian, living in the Bible belt, I hear this stuff often. Many people pray for me because I haven't accepted Christ. I just try to take the high road by smiling and being courteous. I have a feeling if I were to say something along the lines of "you believe in a false prophet which is against gods teachings" they might have a different reaction. I believe in my faith and I respect others that believe in their faith. Being in the "majority" doesn't make you right/or wrong it is something outside of our judgement. I try to teach my scouts to be open to accepting others for the people they are and not their faith. The fact that he decided to bring up the issue so much after the fact has high risk and zero reward. He decided to come to a place where we have zero impact into the issue to complain about it so much later. I don't see the point. Kinda like going into local high school and complaining about the election results. Neither are effective other than causing a ruccus. As my grandmother would say "Oi vey, don't kvetsh!" Shalom my fraynd , shalom.

Thanks for the translation. My post came from my church so I am no expert, I appreciate the info

I do appreciate peoples beliefs, but I don't appreciate people telling everyone that we all should follow his beliefs. Scouting is interfaith always has been. I accept people having different beliefs than mine and am doing this for the youth. I do not see the value in chastising people for sticking with the program for the youth. If you can't follow it, then find an organization that you can follow without throwing stones.

How to wish your Muslim neighbors a happy Ramadan (May 16-June 15) and lots more info: “You can exchange Ramadan greetings by saying ‘Ramadan Kareem,’ which translates into ‘Have a generous Ramadan,’ or ‘Ramadan Mubarak,’ which roughly translates into ‘Happy Ramadan.’”

Agreed, I don't understand people that think the way he does.

Goodbye