MrBob

My popular culture IQ being as anemic as it is, I don't get the reference. What is that? Or don't I want to know?

Its a quote from the movie "The Sandlot" (1993, PG), and I don't see the issue with it...  its not a reference to Biggy Smalls, from Notorious B.I.G., if that's what someone was thinking.

Let's put it this way. If it is a re-test, are you having the BoR in a swimming pool? May the scout light a fire in your meeting place? Is he first blindfolded, dropped off five miles away with map and compass, and required to hike to the BoR location?

Assuming that your BoR location doesn't have the facilities to randomly test any of the skills accorded to a 1st class scout, what makes you so sure your "re-test" will provide an unbiased evaluation of the metal of the man?

 

The best way to find out if a scout has the skills: ASK HIM, "CAN YOU ACTUALLY DO THE STUFF LISTED ON THIS PAGE?"

8.0.1.1 Not a Retest or “Examinationâ€

Though one reason for a board of review is to help ensure the Scout did what he was supposed to do to meet the requirements, it shall become neither a retest or “examination,†nor a challenge of his knowledge.

Nope, can't do that, Q.  "can you actually" is challenging his knowledge.  The sign-off is all the "proof" you need, according to the procedures outlined.

Ok, so my son asked my husband and I to keep track on a chart the things that we purchase. I've been doing that but now he has to say whether the items are essential or desirable. Kind of some gray area there. 

1. Would items purchased for possibility of emergency (like bug out bag stuff) be essential or desirable?

2. Would items purchased to maintain house be essential or desirable like air/water filters or new knob to replace broken ones?

3. What about new fence to keep in dog?

4. What about new socks for son? Probably could have kept wearing the ratty ones, but they didn't look great.

Certainly, we could survive without these, but they are not really in the category of desirable like the CD they gave in the example, where clearly that is a want and not a need.

1. You are, right now, in no danger of the scale of disaster that would require a "bug-out" bag - desirable

2. You can boil water to disinfect and learn to love the taste of iron/sulfur/chlorine (desirable) and you can live with a broken doorknob (desirable)

3. Get rid of the dog, its not essential (unless you live on a farm, and its a working breed that actually works)

4. Teach son to darn socks; replacing them is desirable (as is washing them occasionally)

The goal of the exercise is for your Scout to come to the realization that our consumerist capitalist society is destroying the planet while we fulfill our unbridled desires.

Do we really need two threads on the same topic?

Sounds like ASM KillJoy needs to take off the campaign hat and be reminded that BSA Summer Camp isn't USMC Boot Camp.

Beavah - then don't you think the "powers that be" should change the wording of the requirement to "While a ### Scout, actively participate in a Board of Review" instead of "Successfully complete..."?

If a Boy can't ever actually fail, then success is a given, and that requirement is just something to pencil-whip away, no?

I think what he'll find out is that 90% of the items purchased are "desirable" and not "essential".

I thought we weren't afraid of breasts anymore?

Playing cards and dancing is immoral too.

So is eating pork.

Yeah, its comical how many people think Hooters is a topless restaurant.

If my Scoutson has a schmart phone, and I have a schmart phone, how close to each other do we have to be for me to be "supervising" him?

 

 

Depends on the curfew ordinance of whatever municipality you and he happen to be in at the time.

The "apology" was purely for political purposes, as most public apologies are these days.

...capped by the SM waddling across the stage with the 'union', displaying a rather (ahem) unflattering profile.

- Image matters (the out-of-shape SM).    The public is watching.

While I'm sure everyone that posts here has less than 5% body fat, can do pullups until the Sun burns out, and run a marathon at the drop of a hat, its hard enough to get volunteers these days and the last thing we should be doing is shaming those who DO participate.  Unless you want only those in top physical shape to be adult leaders, in which case good luck finding enough to staff more than a handful of units nationwide.

I don't particularly like Dairy Queen, but if they volunteered some cash and manpower, I wouldn't throw a hissy fit over it.

Of course yeh can!  And yeh should!  Just not as a BSA activity.     

 

Beavah

Probably varies from state to state...  in Wisconsin, no unsupervised juveniles can be on state property (e.g. none of the state parks) overnight and there isn't a single county park or campground in southeastern Wisconsin that allows minors to camp overnight without at least one adult per 10 juveniles present.  The Chequamegon National Forest (federal land) may or may not allow unsupervised minors to camp overnight, but the closest campground is a three hour drive away.

Doesn't matter whether its a BSA activity or not - city/county curfew ordinances and state/federal regulations trump BSA program guidelines.

Yes, that's true. All of us adults are clueless. Just ask our teenagers.

That's very true.  The day my eldest was born, my mother's IQ jumped 200 points.  Suddenly, she was a genius.

Given the following excepts from the Guide to Advancement - http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/GuideToAdvancement

8.0.0.1 Purpose and Timeliness of Boards of Review

After a Scout has completed the requirements for any rank or Eagle Palm, he appears before a board of review. Its purpose is to determine the quality of his experience and decide whether he has fulfilled the requirements for the rank

8.0.0.2 Boards of Review Must Be Granted When Requirements Are Met

A Scout shall not be denied this opportunity. When he believes he has completed all the requirements for a rank, including a Scoutmaster conference, a board of review must be granted.

8.0.1.1 Not a Retest or "Examination"

Though one reason for a board of review is to help ensure the Scout did what he was supposed to do to meet the requirements, it shall become neither a retest or “examination,†nor a challenge of his knowledge.

8.0.1.5 After the Review

If a board does not approve, the candidate must be so informed and told what he can do to improve. Most Scouts accept responsibility for their behavior or for not completing requirements properly.

4.2.1.2 The Scout Is Tested (sidebar)

Once a Scout has been tested and signed off by someone approved to do so, the requirement has been met. 

... then ASSUMING that all listed requirements for a Scout's rank advancement have been signed-off by an appropriate party (f.ex. by the Scoutmaster), under what circumstances would a Scout not "successfully complete" his Board of Review (aside from simply not showing up)?

Curious what your thoughts are.

edit: formatting

Ask "mommy" which is more important to her - that her son not miss a band practice, or that her son earns Eagle?  He's liable to miss a whole bunch of band practice to pull off his Eagle project.  Is she aware of that?

It also sounds like he hasn't successfully completed his tenure in a position of responsibility.  Does he have sufficient time left to do so?

In fairness to those who make the rules on your side of the Atlantic I guess it may be worth bearing in mind that we are talking about entirely different territories here.

 

Maybe so, but here in the 'States, we can't even let our boys camp overnight unattended at a 10 acre county park.

 I figure it this way, how is it any different than those new fangled printed paper books?

 

When the Smartphone has been around for six hundred years  I may agree with you. 

 

 

Looking at how to tie a knot on an app is no different from carrying a book on how to tie knots. The knot is not going to tie itself. 

 

 

Why do you need to carry a (separate) book on how to tie knots?  Do you (k)not already know them?  There's only five: taut-line, timber, sheet-bend, bowline, clove.  I don't count the square knot or (two)half-hitch, because they should have learned that by heart as a Cub.

What kind of a service project uses wenches anyway?

Who else is gonna fetch yer Ale after a hard day sloggin' stones out in the field in service to the King?

In the words of my dear friend, Obi-wan Kenobi:  You must do what you feel is right, of course.

$15 ($17 for 2X and above).  4-color silkscreen emblem on the front, 1-color silkscreen on the back, Gildan heavy pre-shrunk cotton (maintains size under normal washing for-freaking-ever, and wears like iron).  We order every two years, and keep a small number of common sizes in storage.  I still have one that's almost ten years old and is only slightly faded.

Get yourself invited to the next committee meeting and pitch your idea.

 my thoughts exactly.  The problem is though, that most all dates are arbitrary to some degree or another.

If the place you're going needs the forms submitted say this friday.  They will almost certainly accept them Monday.  

Meanwhile, The volunteer doing the paperwork might want them my the week prior to have a little time to process the stuff and get it through the mail... reasonable perhaps, but it's arbitrary.  and The parents will know it.

It's really a no win as I see it.

That's why you go to an out-of-council Summer Camp - if they miss the deadline, they don't have someone to whine to.  Let 'em sign up for an in-council provisional week on their own, on their own dime.