NeverAnEagle

Which of these isn't real? 1. Bodhi Dayâ€â€December 8th, the day of Buddha’s Enlightenment; 550 BCE 2. Boxing Dayâ€â€December 26th, A day to give to the poor; Bohemian, 10th Century. 3. Chalicaâ€â€Week long holiday starting the 1st Monday in December centering on Unitarian vales. 2005. 4. Donghi Festivalâ€â€Chinese Winter Solstice; celebration is as old as the sun 5. Dzon'ku 'Nuâ€â€December 22nd; West African Solstice Celebration 6. Feast of Winter Veilâ€â€December 26th thru January 2nd; World of War Craft (gamers have holidays too!) 7. Festivusâ€â€D

Sorry to hear about what happened to your wife. It is unfortunate that such behavior is so common place is a month when we are supposed to be spreading "peace on earth and goodwill toward men." I've never understood how one can be offended by not being able to hear the greeting of their choice, but never stop to consider how offensive it is to the one who is expected utter a greeting for a holiday they don't believe in.

Ya knowâ€â€If a good many christians in this nation would stop and think they'd realize that most people don't have a problem with “Merry Christmas†per say. The problem arises when I'm expected to wish Christians a Merry Christmas, even though I don't celebrate Christmas and worse, that I cannot wish Christans a “Blessed Solstice†of “Joyous Yule,†which happen to be MY holidays because it offends them! No one is trying to “tear down your traditions.†Rather, they have simply recognized that others have traditions that are different than your

We don't use cots, summer or winter. They are generally just extra weight to drag around and any lad sufficiently exhausted will happily sleep on the ground. As far as winter camping goes I would think that a cot would have a serious drawback when it cam to offering warmth as only one boy could sleep in the cot at a time. Generally when winter camping we find them in a heap just like a bunch of puppies. If it's really cold we tell them to bring their summer bag and their winter bag, but we've don't have serious cold like some other areas of the country. The coldest it ever got over ni

My boys are looking to leave the troop as soon as the little one has his ECOH. The older one has no intention of becoming Eagle and only wanted to be in Scouts because it was fun. This new group of parents has made it decidedly "not fun."

To be totally honest I've never seen the boys discuss the philosophy of anything they listen to. Typically conversation about where to ride go like this; Scout 1: "What's lord of the flies about?" Scout 2: "A bunch of boys who get stuck on an island." Scout 1: "Do they shoot each other with guns?" Scout 2: "No they beat each other to death with a conch shell." Scout 1: "I TOTALLY dibs that car." Scout 3: "What's Ashes about?" Scout 4: "An EM pulse fries all the kids brains and the go around eating all the adults." Scout 3: "COOL!"

No idea--I've never done it, just seen a patrol do it at a Klondike. You don't have to knock the traffic cones over; just hit them. Our boys got in on the bowling and smelled the eating later.

Moosetracker: Council is trying to show the remaining scouters that nothing is going to change. Groups like the PTA (previously) wouldn't charter units because of the discriminatory policies. Now the other church groups are worried that "liberal" groups might be willing charter units because the ban on gays was removed, then they would have to interact with them at Camp O'rees and things. Council is hemorrhaging boys to Trail Life and they are desperate to stop the flow.

Moosetracker: oops wrong spot

Qwazse: Since no one can agree on a radio station we listen to books on tape. The problem was that there were 3 drivers and none of them were listening to Christian fiction. The choices were: Ashes, Lord of the Flies, or The Ice Bound Land; all YA, but not specifically Christian. Unfortunately, I'm not SM.

Field Bowling: You will need a fairly decent hill to keep the bowling balls rolling. We aim for 5 gallon buckets. If you have access to a frozen lake: Turkey BOWLING! Traffic cones make good pins and you use a frozen turkey as the "ball." Afterwards you cook and eat the turkey as a patrol.

I'm all for brining the younger son. I did it for two years and it motivated my younger son and made him ever more eager to join the "big boys." In fact my youngest has his eagle board of review tonight; my older son is still star. Go and have fun. After all, scouting is supposed to be fun.

BD: I'm not seeing a lot of adult intervention. The boys crossed over in April. In September we had one lad who wasn't working well in his patrol and was moved. Problems continued in that patrol until November when anxious parents wanted to remove the PL who is Star and replace him with their boy who was a tenderfoot. We have been trying to prevent that from happening, but also need to help the PL keep the patrol functioning because he has more on his plate than he can handle with this group of boys. Offering help to someone in need is a good thing. Letting the patrol flounder because a

quazse: The meeting was a disaster. The parents had issues with nearly every troop rule. First Class or shut up was interoperated as: "you're deliberately hold OUR BOY back" Everyone eats the same food was interpreted as: "your making OUR BOY starve." Driver gets to choose what we listen to was interpreted as: "infringing on OUR BOYS religious rights." While the parents were in the other room complaining about troop rules James and Jacob worked Dylan and his mom into a tizzy by saying that she was a "welfare momma" and that "no Christian man would want her because she won't live a

We use the green pants you can get at Army Stand-downs. They're nearly the same color, better looking, and far more durable than scout pants. They also work great for hunting too. No need to feel guilty for finding something that is better quality and cheaper.

Everyone needs manhood/womanhood rituals. The problem is not the rituals, the problem is that society has removed the normal routes for such rituals to occur. Healthy Manhood rituals: Hunters Education/First Kill Learning to Drive (in the snow, on a logging road) First Job First time to run the Chainsaw/fall 1st tree Rejoicing in manhood and recognizeing and celebrating comming of age rituals will reduce the incidence of unhealthy rituals.

We seeded reasonably amicably. The Catholic troop does not allow non-Catholics to join, so when they learned that some of their members weren't Catholic we were shown the door. Some of the Catholic families left too. Of the 5 families that left, three of us joined a Methodist troop that was down to two boys (there was a mass exodus when they hired a woman pastor.) When the catholic troop realized that they just lost all of their active members, they approached us about being a "sister troop" and we do fundraisers, etc. jointly and split the profits.

Troop Meeting Tomorrow promises to be light. The CC sent out an email stating that parents who show up will have an opportunity to learn the reasons behind the troop rules and traditions, AND why it's never a good idea for a brand new scout to be PL. Wish us luck!

I hope by "rank" you really mean his title/position of PL, and not his BSA rank (2nd Class, 1st Class, Star, etc). Once a BSA rank has been awarded - no one - except the BSA National office, has the ability to remove it. Certainly not your Troop's committee. Talk to your Scoutmaster - NOW. BTW - what was done with Alex for his multiple incidents of shoving, and (especially) Jacob for shoving, stabbing, tripping, stealing, and punching? James might have incited the incidents, but these boys were the ones to actually demonstrate, CLEARLY, what it means to NOT live by the Scou

Oldscout448: Around here Methodist are not considered “mainline.†They are considered very liberal because they allow women to be pastors. In fact the current pastor is a woman. It seems the new parents wanted their kids to be in an “active troop,†they just don't want all the hassel that comes with an active troop. moosetracker: Council is trying to prevent anymore people from joining Trail Life. We've already had a couple entire units make the switch and those units that remain have lost a lot of boys. Alsoâ€â€At the time of the other thread I th

Our CO is Methodist. The CO wanted to keep the leaders, but Council said that if their names appear on the Charter, they will revoke the Charter and there won't be a unit at all. We used to have a really strong unit; we were the misfits who were kicked out of the Catholic troop, or not allowed in the LDS or protestant troops. We have taken 10 day backpacking trips in a couple national parks, took the boys for a week of sailing on 25 foot sail boats, gone white water rafting, etc. But above all, we allowed the boys their quirks, so we have some odd traditions. We started attending even

We do a movie night in December, I'll see if I can find this.

perdidochas: Two of use were removed when it was made public that we aren't Christian. One was removed because she was teaching a sex education class for the teens at the local Unitarian Church. (Fortunately, Council hasn't figured out that Unitarian's aren't necessary christian, so as it stands now her only transgression is teaching a sex education class.) The last was a teacher at the Local Catholic school. One of the students brought a gun to school, showed the kids in the class, and threatened to kill him because he was failing history. He's a former Marine, so when the kid put him

I hope by "rank" you really mean his title/position of PL, and not his BSA rank (2nd Class, 1st Class, Star, etc). Once a BSA rank has been awarded - no one - except the BSA National office, has the ability to remove it. Certainly not your Troop's committee. Talk to your Scoutmaster - NOW. BTW - what was done with Alex for his multiple incidents of shoving, and (especially) Jacob for shoving, stabbing, tripping, stealing, and punching? James might have incited the incidents, but these boys were the ones to actually demonstrate, CLEARLY, what it means to NOT live by the Scou

Unfortunately, our SM is in name only; he doesn't even show up 1/2 the time. Council removed our most active leaders and they have been replaced with parents from this new crop of weblo's. We keep hoping that they will give up and go away, but so far only one boy/family has left.