SMMatthew

I have a Scout in my troop who was elected into the Order of the Arrow in 2013. He completed his ordeal that year and paid his $10 dues to the lodge for 2012, but he didn't remain active much afterward getting his sash. He didn't attend any OA events in 2014 and he didn't pay his dues to the lodge for the year. However now he's older and he has some new friends who are in the Order and so he'd decided that he wants to become active in the lodge again (maybe even go for Brotherhood). So this Scout went to pay his dues for 2015 to become re-active and the lodge told him that he has to pay

I think this is a situation, like many in Scouting, where a black-and-white, hard-and-fast policy or rule can't just be handed down from on high and applied universally... you need some situational common-sense and individual assessment to find a solution that is fair to the individual person and circumstances while keeping in mind the ultimate goal of supporting the three aims of Scouting. And treating two people or situations "fairly" doesn't always mean treating them "identically."

As a Scout, I wouldn't want to take credit from something I didn't actually earn or deserve. I wouldn't want to encourage a Scout to do that either. Becoming a member of the OA merely due to a clerical error made during a call out ceremony is meaningless and should not be what that honor represents... but sending a Scout back to his campsite humiliated, disenfranchised and in tears due to an adult's mistake is hardly what the Scouting program should stand for either. In such a situation, I would explain to the Scout what happened (off to the side, to avoid any public embarrassment), and I'

As Homer Simpsons once said: "Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true! Facts schmacts."

I'm an associate advisor for a Venturing crew. This past year we did a Pinewood Derby as a crew. Our group of 16-20 year-olds built their own cars and we raced them using a track borrowed from a local Cub pack. The one added rule that differed from Cub Scouting was that no one but the Venturer could touch their car or contribute to the design/building... it had to be done 100% solo. Now many of the Venturers in our crew were Cubs in their younger days, but they wanted to do a Pinewood Derby where (as they put it) "we actually get to build the cars ourselves." They now have an understandin

Thanks, LeCastor. I'll be sure to take a look at that book, I think my local Scout Shop has a copy or two in stock.

12 hours! Did you specify AM or PM when you told them the pick-up time? Maybe they just misunderstood. My troop generally provides home drop-offs after outings. It takes the stress off us on the event to try to be back at a specific time (either we'd be a few minutes late and the parents would be sitting there waiting around for us; or we'd be a few minutes early and we'd be stuck waiting around for the parents) and it takes the stress off the parents having to come pick up their kids after they've spent the weekend in the woods. Given the area that the Scouts in my troop are from,

I am working to put together a Scouts Own service and would like to include a responsive reading of religious texts corresponding with the 12 points of the Scout Law. There is an example of one here: http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/Media/Relationships/ascoutisreverent/ss04.aspx and there are two examples here: http://www.macscouter.com/scoutsown/Readings.asp However I am looking for a version (or versions) that includes texts from a wider variety of religious sources, not just the Judeo-Christian Bible. I've seen such versions before, but sadly didn't keep the programs from thos