mashmaster

I just had to tell someone. :-) As of today I finished my tickets. Now to figure out where and when to get beaded. Any suggestions or customs?

The amount they pay is tiny. I would force them to community service in the park service cleaning toilets.

Any better solutions?

"I am not a tax professional so most likely everything I say is wrong" I'd actually like to know what the correct thing is. My understanding is that you can't put a dollar amount earmarked for the boys. But you can assign an actual voucher for the boy. For example, sell $1000 in popcorn you earn a trip to super camp. So you can earn vouchers that have only value to do a scouting activities but they retain zero monetary value. Kinda like old disneyland E-tickets. This campout requires 1 voucher, another requires 8 vouchers. I don't think this is skirting the issue, but still ach

cool! I would put them in a shadow box at the charter org or meeting place.

Being morally straight is subjective. Scouting accepts almost all religions as far as I know. only a subset of them say anything about homosexuality. And some christian faiths accept gays as well, for instance the United Church of Christ. So I guess I have trouble wrapping my head around why morally straight has to be of a particular religion.

How is GSA fighting for it's life? I'm just not aware of that. My daughter is a girl scout and the program seems to be going quite strong in our area. I don't see it as a conservative or a liberal thing. I think faith is important, I just think that we should be receptive to all faiths.

All you can do is make sure they know where all the events are. If you tell them they have to make a choice they will take the easier of the two options. For cub scouts, I would encourage them to come to the events and welcome them, whenever they show. Since they love Pinewood derby, maybe ask the dad to help plan the event next year. How does it screw with the den leader planning? The den leaders plan the schedule and make sure everyone knows when stuff is happening. Just let them do their best, the boy and his dad may have to complete stuff at home.

well we shall see. I think BSA and GSA will weather this storm.

As a Jew married to a Christian, I am sure I have a different perspective than most Christians here. Living in the south I am reminded daily that I live in the bible belt. Groups like Trail Life and AHG that are "christian based" don't make sense to me. We live in a multi-cultural society and it is important that our boys are brought up in an inclusive environment with people that are actually different from them. I have not had any complaints from anyone in our unit about our interfaith services because it is a learning experience for them. I we lock ourselves in a room with only peo

I'm sorry to hear it. It is not easy because people are always going to be unhappy. We had ours this last weekend and it was awesome and cheap. We rented the school with costs us only $100 and we had a chili cookoff western theme. It was easy to put activities together without formal seating and the boys got to vote with tickets for their favorite chili. Total was around $400 for us. We charge $5 a person or $20 per family. profits go to Friends of Scouting.

so sad

We are in Texas which is just as hot as Florida, and my son wears his patches on his vest. But my wife makes vests for the pack because BSA vests are made of fleece, which might cause kids in 105 degrees to burst into flames.

I concur, with all above, I never understood why some many people are so focused on the uniform. I've heard the arguments but I think too many make it the begin and end all to the program. If people push you on it, send them to us :-)

BTW, this is a great discussion. I love the open exchanging of ideas and feedback. It is so much nicer here than on other forums where people go rabid when their idea isn't chosen as best.

Like I said, I am not a lawyer. This was how our group including the Key 3 interpreted it. Obviously, we all have to do our best for the boys. They are guidelines not laws. Therefor we should use them as a starting point for our actions, we as leaders make decisions to best run our unit. They are there to help us attempt to do the right thing and protect all of us.

Wow, that is such a sad state of affairs. That is horrible. We have a FB page that is closed and private, we haven't had issues with that. We do get people asking to be members that are clearly spam that I can deny access.

I've done research on this topic and recently presented a class on it at U of S. I am not a lawyer, so all my info is just my opinion. BSA has their guidelines here: http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/Marketing/Resources/SocialMedia.aspx Basically think of YPT working on the internet as well. You should never email, private message, or instant message a scout directly on a one on one basis. If they contact you via this method, I recommend replying back with another party on the thread like their parent or another scout leader. This protects you, and you should mention that com

In our pack we present them to to the boys at the Den meeting, they are announced at the pack meeting. But it is a more personal presentation at the den level.. If you follow the requirements for the pins they should be much harder to earn. I'm the CC so I do my best to make sure that they are earning pins for actually doing the requirements. I think the pins help the boys transition to the Boy Scouts where they have to prove they know the material to earn the Merit Badge. I also think that the Tigers and Wolfs really enjoy getting bling, the webelos are too cool for loops :-)

​What don't you like about scouttrack other than the 1990's interface? As a den leader, I like having an online place to keep track of the status of the boys progress and use it to discuss with parents what still needs to be done. I don't understand the homework part of it? I don't think that I change how I work with the program with my son, den, and pack based on scout track.

I'm not a fan of them going away altogether. I thing there are too many of them and the pins are too easy. I think they need to reduce them to things like Archery, BB, Hiking.... get rid of ones like Video Games.

Thanks, those are great ideas! I have had it go out via the email blast and got signups but no posts. I'll mention it at roundtable. I really like the idea of getting event coordinators to use the forums.for Q & A prior to the event.

Oops wrong forum, I'm not sure how to move it.