st0ut717

You don't think a evangelical scoutmaster could take the position that now with this new reg. any scout that doesn't follow my faith is now not morally straight?

How can a Buddhist comply ?!? Or can a Hindu pick all the gods or can they pick one ? As to how I a non Christian can feel threatened by this... I was at a youth baptist camp as a kid. It's 15. My friend invited me. As they where talking about satanic backwards masking and how evil rock and roll was... I raise my hand. I will never forget this. "If the devil has as much power as you say that he can put this on a record and you will be immediately be affected. Doesn't god have more power and give you the will to ignore it. Even if it does exist?" Two adult speakers one female one male The female takes the mic. "Jim I believe that child is with the devil"

As a non christian this terrifies me.

you are not limited to popcorn. you can fund raise anyway you can..

STEM is and has been a part of BSA. We just didnt call it STEM. I work in IT most of my colleagues do not have the knowledge required to pass the digital technology merit badge.

Radio Merit Badge you have to understand and comprehend the electromagnetic spectrum. understand schematics, that is some serious Science and technology.

Personal management. (Eagle required) Accounting = Math, ROI, Compound interest calculations.

Environmental Science ( Eagle Optional) SCIENCE botany, biology ecology.

Orienteering as noted before how does a compass work? Why. If your a SM and a scout asks you how does a compass work. Is your answer based on science? if it is your teaching STEM. Follow up GPS how to they work. why did GLONASS start up and why is the EU building Galileo ? leads into Citizenship of the world (Eagle required)

I do not think we need a separate program to BSA for lab class room only scouts. That's what school science clubs are for.

I totally agree that BSA should be scouting first with STEM as part of merit badge / advancement.

A few years ago the US Navy ran an advert that i particularly liked. the ttag line was.

US Navy - Because rocket science is a lot more fun when you have rockets.

That's what BSA does now. or could do within the existing program.

If your position is that BSA should not have STEM at all; then you are not preparing your boys for the men that will need to be. They will not be prepared for life outside scouting.

And isnt that the goal preparing the next generation to lead?

While I tend to think in terms of what would be considered "old methods or materials"' date=' I still believe in the premise of character building, leadership development and self-reliance. STEM projects benefit the knowledge base of the individual and can do so without the inference of anyone else other than the instructor. How does science, technology, engineering and math develop one's moral compass, duty to God and country, helping other people could conceivably be stretch and torqued to fit a bit. What about servant leadership development? I guess I just don't see those premises promoting what made the scout program what it was and now seem to be stretching even further into a lab/classroom development program that for the most part I would think experimental life lessons of the boys would want to shy away from. Sure we can stretch these basic learnings into the scouting program, but why? They will get a lot more of that in the academic education setting. One does not need character, leadership and self-reliance to be a good scientist, technician, engineer or mathematician. It would help these people to have a non-academic program that would enhance those developmental dynamics to make them more well-rounded, like maybe scouting. Stosh[/quote'] Because you are focusing on the morally straight more then the mentally awake park. And this program neglects the physically strong aspect.

OM ( insert deity here). I agree with stosh

Frack teach botany while your in the woods. teach astronomy at night rifles, shotgun and arrows make GREAT physics experiments

STEM is definatly something that should be stressed IMHO. but as part of the existing program not as a separate program. There are LOTS of opportunities include STEM into the program as it is. Too many to list here. But some examples:

Digital Technology

Programming

Robotics

Welding

Environmental Science

Weather

Nuclear Science

Chemistry

These can all be leveraged into an event in one way or another during the year.

There is nothing associating this to BSA as far as i can tell

As to the original post. BSA has a link for Buddism within scouting. I think this will help any scouter.

http://www.scouting.org/About/FactSheets/operating_orgs/Buddhist.aspx

As to myself and my son We follow a moral code much along the line of Zen Buddism. Ironically the teachings mirror the scout laws and oath almost exactly.

I think Judas Priest said it best "There I was completely wasting, out of work and down all inside it's so frustrating as I drift from town to town feel as though nobody cares if I live or die so I might as well begin to put some action in my life Breaking the law, breaking the law Breaking the law, breaking the law Breaking the law, breaking the law"

Sounds like this is somthing others are doing ... I think i'll try to implement somthing with the SPL and SM.

thanks for all the feedback and ideas.

I liked all of them paticualley the patches. and staff medallions

I have an idea kicking around in my head. Based on the National outdoor awards. Is it allowed that troops create awards based on a specific troop determined criteria? E.g. Red aiguillette for a scout that earns shotgun rifle and archery, blue for a scout that earns hiking swimming and cycling etc.

For the record i would not have a problem with a GS teaching skills if the troop didnt have a scout with the required knowledge.

Put the shoe on the other foot... Would you let you TF's be taught cooking by a ambassador?

My daughter is now a junior and has been a girl scout since daisy. From what i have seen of girl scouts it is very much about girl empowerment and not needing to rely on a male to do X. The fact that the girls have to ask help from a boy could be seen as undermining their program.

It will never make it here in the US. It would defiantly need to me a very senior coed venture crew to meet the level of Friday the 13th.

This looks AWESOME!!!!! Camp fire story on the big screen

Someone went to a whole lot of effort to put up a spoof website. What kinda surprises me she gets away with using the BSA logo in her advertising. I'm thinking the BSA can actually go after her for that. I"m with TAHAWK on this one' date=' just an ambulance chaser. She's just using the public record files to promote herself as a child abuse specialty lawyer. Stosh[/quote'] Just posted that question on there google + page

This seems to be a small law firm in Oregon. They are posting some fairly negative things on social media google+ .It could lead parents to think their kids are not safe in scouting.

https://plus.google.com/+Dumaslawgroup/posts

Honestly we held a courtb of honor on Mother's Day one time due to scheduling

In order to make it simple for the boys, I have only 3 rules I operate under. I have surprisingly little discipline problems, but I would be foolish to say I don't have any.

 

1) Safety first

2) Look and act like a Scout

3) Have fun

 

I never react to breaches of these rules in a way the boys would normally expect me to. Screaming and yelling is what they expect and they figure once the tirade is done, they are off the hook.

 

Bullying for example. I approach the picked on kid and ask him if it's fun getting bullied? Obviously the answer is always NO. So he gets a lesson on breaking rule #3. If you aren't having fun and you didn't report it to anyone, you're breaking the rule. One boy said he didn't like tattling on the others, and I simply reiterated, the fact he wasn't having fun and he was breaking the rules.

 

The bully gets a dose of rule #2. Is bullying scout behavior (quote A Scout is Friendly)? and then HE defines the punishment. Often times they inflict more punishment on themselves than I would have dished out. So far no boy has dared to get off easy by suggesting a slap on the wrist. I had one incident where an older boy said something not very nice to one of the new boys while they were sitting at the campfire. He intended it to be a "harmless" comment, but I heard it and first of all asked the young boy what he felt about it and he said, "It was a hurtful" comment. When I asked him if he was having fun, he said, "No", to which he got an earful from me about not saying something IMMEDIATELY to an adult. He was breaking the rule! Then the older boy got an earful about respect and if he wanted the younger boys to look up to him he had better change his ways. Then I asked him what he was going to do about this incident. All of this occurred in front of all the other boys. He sat there in front of all his peers and didn't say a word for a moment. Then he got up, went over to the younger boy, apologized and asked if he could be his buddy for the next 6 months so that no other scout does what he did to him. The younger boy hesitated, but said okay. They became close friends after that.

 

I was really surprised by the older scout's reaction because I was more using it as a learning experience than really applying any kind of punishment. I had assumed the older boy was thinking it harmless fun in the first place. However, it would seem that none of the other boys participated in that kind of harmful joking for quite some time.

 

I caught a boy on a cell phone and asked who it was he was calling and he said his mom. I asked if I could talk to her too. He handed me the phone and it was his mom on the other end, much to my surprise. I did tell her how harmful it was for her son to have a cell phone because of the other boys who see him talking, especially those who are homesick would want to call their moms too. After our conversation I handed him back the phone and said he mother wanted to talk to him. His mother had a little chat with him at which when ended, he handed me the phone and asked me to keep it until after the campout. He never brought it with him again.

 

A lot of times when being creative, it is far easier to deal with the scouts when treated on a peer-to-peer basis with them. With punishment it is a top down negative type of situation, but when one deals with the boy as a respected peer, they more often than not will take ownership of the situation and make appropriate corrections on their own.

 

I guess after 40 years of working with youth I have never really had any serious situations because I constantly try to head them off before they get serious and I do so by dealing with the minor infractions in ways that the boys participate in the discipline long before they have become normally accepted traditions of bad behavior in the troop.

 

Of course if any of these rules were written down in some policy book somewhere it would have been lost 5 minutes after being handed out.

 

Keep it simple and apply it constantly. Like safety, one can overlook it only so long before someone gets hurt. Never let it get to that point in the first place.

 

Stosh

That is on par with the islaimic tradition of stoning a girl because she was raped.

This is wrong on so many levels.

1 you blame the victim first.

2 you administer punishment of the victim publicly.

You are very lucky I am not one of your adults.

Does that include Texicans?????

Eagle is but one measure. It is a step that say i did something. It is not much different than a high shcoold kid that make state championship football.

I actually started to wear my fish to scout meetings to keep the eagles quiet.