Pale Horse

Just go to the public park and squat in the pavilion.  Rental fees ensure you have the space guaranteed and available for your sole use.  Just be flexible; sure someone may have rented it and you'll be stuck on the grass, but more likely than not the space is unrented on week day nights for the hour that you need to use it.

Just be courteous and clean up after yourself.  

17 minutes ago, qwazse said:

Sounds like your issue will be with the camp. Call the camp director and let him/her know that your troop has home-made activity shirts. Ask if there are any guidelines.

Frankly, if they are not for sale, nobody should be bothered.

Not bad advice, but still more effort than it's worth. Can anybody seriously tell me if they can tell the difference between an activity shirt purchased from Class B, one made up by the local screen printing shop, or one that is made at home on the Cricut?  Absolutely nobody has ever gone around checking tags and receipts to ensure our shirts were made by an "approved" vendor.

Trademarks do not apply for personal use, because to infringe a trademark, you need to "use" the mark, and "use" in trademark law generally means selling an item that has the mark on it.

You're making your own shirts for your unit. You are not selling them, nor getting anything in return for this.  

You told the Scouts they weren't going to Summer Camp? Why didn't the PLC make this decision?

It's even easier to complete all the adventures as a Webelos/AoL than it is for the other ranks since you have 18+/- months to complete them all in.

Barring any Youth Protection issues, your District folks will more than likely not get involved. If you have a Unit Commissioner, you may be able to persuade him/her to be the "bad guy" and have the heart-to-heart discussion.

 

What does everyone have engraved on the bottom of your Pack's Pinewood Derby trophies? I' think the general format is as follows, but am am running to the trophy store after work, so don't have my son's previous trophies at home to go off of.

1st Place

Pack XXX - Tiger Den

2020 Pinewood Derby

Am I missing anything?

8 minutes ago, fred8033 said:

  ... BUT ... if an adult did go with them, two should be planned.  

Why?

Let's not confuse 2 deep with no one-on-one.  1 adult can be with multiple Scouts at a given time.

11 minutes ago, TAHAWK said:

If the adults are back "in camp," is he or she "at" the hike"?    I submit that, at the very least, the further the Scouts are separated from the adults, the more likely YP is being violated and the hike is a "prohibited activity." 

Now we're getting into grey areas with subjectivity. No, they aren't at the hike, but they're at the campout which is the primary activity. I'd do a risk assessment and determine if it was really necessary for adult(s) to be needed on every sub-activity. 

How old are these Scouts, estimated time/distance of hike, familiarity with the trail or area, maturity, etc. Just as I wouldn't expect adults to necessary to chaperone Scouts down to the Trading Post, I would make allowances for Trustworthy Scouts to take a short hike without adults.  That said, I enjoy hiking and would probably ask to tag along for fun but would hang way back in the rear as I always do. I'd still be within eyesight though, since no matter the pre-plotted route, my Scouts always seems to find a different path to take.

23 minutes ago, David CO said:

Advertising would invite parody.  If BSA put out a commercial, the entertainment media would immediately come up with parody sketches about scouting.  Many of them would be certain to include allusions to sexual abuse.  The so-called comedy shows are very clever about this.  They could take any positive message that BSA PR people might come up with and make it look sinister.

If the scout uniform is used in the commercials, fair use rules might allow them to be used in the parody.  The more visible the PR campaign, the more vicious the parody.  If BSA bought commercial time during the super bowl, for example, the resulting parody would be merciless.  Do we really want that?  

And how is this hypothetical scenario different than what's currently being done by the media?  

Correcting false information, and pushing back on hit stories currently out there is better than letting the opposition control the narrative. 

12 hours ago, SSScout said:

Well, who/what are "our" competitor(s) ?   BP Scouts (BPSA)?    Royal Rangers?   Campfire?  Vanguard Scouts?  I do not see GSUSA as a competitor, as such.  Their program is complementary, not so much competatory (word?).   Cookies and entrepreneurial training, officially, so it would seem.  Ours is outdoorsy,  not so much sell as survive. 

There's a lot of organizations that are our competitors. Sports, Band, Robotics League to name a few. Parents and Scouts have limited time; any extracurricular activity that competes for that limited resources is competition.

We need to be selling Scouting and showing that Scouts BSA is the best use of someone's limited and valuable time.

2 minutes ago, skeptic said:

Yep; I just found out that our local council does not even have a PR person on the board. 

We had a professional marketing rep on staff, but fired her about 2 months ago.  I guess it makes sense. If we're not going to advertise or talk to the media, what do we need to pay a PR person for?

BSA doesn't advertise. It doesn't ever get in front of a news story, or correct mistaken information.  It's frustrating.

We had a local marketing firm who donated time and created a series of recruiting commercials, filming real Scouts doing real Scouting, and our executives bumbled around until the firm said enough and walked away.

1 hour ago, yknot said:

This is a great idea and with a little more context, such as including an educational component, it could be a great project. Insect biomass is plummeting. There is a valid conservation message in a project like this and if some education were provided about what it is, why it's needed, and how it could be replicated on a smaller scale elsewhere, it could be a really cool feature of a local park. 

With the additions suggested by @yknot and some additional research into the underlying problems, this could shape up to be a good William T. Hornaday project as well.

If you're not backpacking and just looking for something to get from the parking lot to the campsite, a collapsible wagon works really well.

I guess a question first of all: If a Scout is dual registered as both a Venture and Scout BSA (or Boy Scout at the time), do they earn a Service Star for each program for the same year?

If not, do your current Green Stars overstate your number of years as a youth in Boy Scouts, which should be reflected as Red Stars?

Camp Hiawatha is in Munising, about 15 minutes from Pictured Rocks.

https://baylakesbsa.org/your-camps/camp-hiawatha/

No.

8 minutes ago, Eagledad said:

I don’t know who you are, but I think you are already in scouting. And my posts aren’t about where you found your morals, my position is if god isn’t the source of our morals, then who is?

A reasoned understanding that the world is a better place if we're good to our fellow inhabitants.

For a more thorough answer, check out: https://www.atheist-faq.com/where-does-morality-come-from-if-not-god

6 minutes ago, David CO said:

Correct.

It's more than clear which side the intolerance and exclusion are coming from.

@Eagledad Let's for a minute take your belief as fact that in order to have morals you must believe in god, since all morals are derived from god.

How do you reconcile when 2 opposing religions have differing moral beliefs?

Religion 1 says abortion is a sin, Religion 2 allows it.

Religion 3 says homosexuality is a sin, Religion 4 allows it.

Religion 5 says eating shellfish is a sin...or premarital sex is a sin...or being in a room alone with a member of the opposite sex...or allowing a non-relative to see your hair...

But it doesn't matter, for you right? As long as they believe in any god it's fine. 

But people like me who simply believe we shouldn't take actions to harm others and should treat others as we would want to be treated have no place in Scouts because our morals aren't derived from a believe in a god?

45 minutes ago, Eagledad said:

 "I promise to do my best for Bob the SM and who ever he deems worthy". Hope Bob is in a good mood on the next campout.

Without god, a scouts promise is tied to the mood of the adults that day.  

 

Your argument would be much more persuasive if you didn't keep referring (intentionally incorrectly?) to morals being tied to someone's particular mood.  

Surely you don't imagine that atheists go around "Welp, I'm in a bad mood today, so it must be ok to steal that candy bar from the store..." or "gee, this week has been going terribly, I'm justified in pushing this little lady out of my way..."

The crimes are NOT alleged. The abuser has admitted to it, apologized, and been convicted (although undoubtedly too leniently). All that's being disputed and as-yet  unproven is the level of involvement by upper echelon BSA and Mormon Church leaders.  The fact the perp got such a light sentence to begin with and that the court case subsequently disappeared is more than coincidence and indicates someone with power had a hand in the case.

1 minute ago, David CO said:

Poor definition.  

You might want to let Google know, since it's the first listing when you type "Reverent".  I don't think we get to define the points of the Law for other people though.

4 minutes ago, David CO said:

Reverent.

Disagree.

I don't need to believe in a god to be respectful to others.