elitts

The biggest issues I've seen with hammocks and trees is when people use hammocks with strings or ropes instead of straps, or when they don't hang it right and the strap/rope is sliding down the tree during the night, stripping off bark. The next biggest issue is with scouts tying up to trees that are too small. The rule in our troop is that if you put the hammock up and when you get in, the trees move, the trees are too small. Obviously, 5"-6" diameter is a better guideline objectively, but "if you make the tree move it's too small" is more functional with tweens and teens.

Well, it could certainly help when it comes to the administrative end of things. If you have a bigger council you might have enough work and money to actually have a staff person dedicated to the areas that tend to be frequent problems with the work actually getting done. For example, getting MBC applications processed accurately and correctly.

This is really an inaccurate and unfair characterization. Any hammock out there designed with camping in mind is designed so that the sleeper lays nearly flat. Obviously some folks might still be uncomfortable in a hammock, but it's not because they are bent into the shape of a taco or banana or anything else like that. At least, they wouldn't lay like that if they actually read the instructions that tell you to get in the hammock and then shift your body about 30 degrees of the centerline of the hammock.

I would hope that ALL councils are looking into this. Having assets is what makes them targets for lawsuits. Since they don't have actual "Creditors" at this moment, just people who've filed suits against them, I'd think this would be the time to divest.

I keep waiting for this to happen actually. I assume that at some point some wealthy family will have a child get abused and they'll opt not to report it. Then the same abuser will harm another person and the 2nd victim's family (or rather the family's attorney) will decide to sue the wealthy family for their failure to "protect society" by reporting the abuser to the police.

Well, I'd have to argue that there wasn't much of any "covering things up" in the vast majority of cases; they just weren't advertised. And a big part of that was that the thinking back before the 80's was very different about "the best interests of the child". The general belief was that the social stigma that would come from a public accusation and arrest and trial would cause more harm to the victim than just "moving on". I mean, let's keep in mind that any of these instances that went unreported to the police could ONLY have gone unreported with the agreement of the child's parents.

All the Packs in my area use the 3xxx. My own son's pack was 3265.

In most states, the over-arching minimum wage laws specifically exempt seasonal work; which is why there are often separate, specific bills addressing field-worker pay. They also exempt seasonal workers from most overtime provisions.

Our Cubs are in large tents with like 6-8 people each. The adults get the 2 person tents along the perimeter.

Yup. Even kids are capable of calling "Bullshit" when they see a rules list that claims "safety requirements" say that a 12 year old can't put some shredded bark in the 4 wheeled wagon red ryder wagon they got as a 4 year old and pull it down a path.

To be completely honest, I was all set to sign up for Woodbadge, right up until I saw my first 15-20 minute long beading ceremony. Watching that, with the song and the fixation of the people involved was enough to make me question my decision. By the time I'd seen my 3rd ceremony (at kid's events no less) and seen the gleeful critter obsession and "I drank the koolaid" attitude of the people involved I was certain I wouldn't voluntarily spend my own time or money on it. Mostly because I don't think I could be around that behavior for 2-3 days straight without contemplating violence.

How does using 24 months make it simpler though? (Do we mean the same thing?) Because using 24 months instead of 2 years it means that if someone just turned 12 on the Friday of a camp-out, they are limited to tenting with someone no older than 13 because anyone who is 14 would have to be more than 24 months older (unless they have the same birthday). Whereas if you use "2 years" you can just say, "If you are 12, you can't tent with anyone older than 14" and you don't have to worry about specific dates.

I di put forward an interpretation of that rule that says "An 11 year old can tent with a 14 year old because their ages are only 2 integers apart", but I didn't get much buy-in. So instead I've had to content myself with insisting that if they'd meant "24 months apart" they would have said so. Which matters because when the rule first came out I had people arguing that we needed to start bringing the roster on camp-outs to make sure we didn't have a kid born in May 2004 tenting with a kid born Oct. 2006 even though their ages were still 14 and 12.

I suppose it's possible for someone to have some third or fourth meaning in mind when they past text after quoting someone. Just like it's possible that the guy walking backwards along the side of the road pointing his thumb out behind him is actually trying to be helpful and let everyone know which direction they are supposed to be traveling. However, that's not the way anyone is going to interpret his actions without some sort of explanation.

By pasting the section of the GSS along with a quote from another user, the implication is that the pasted material either answers a question and provides data, confirms the post or rebuts it. Since the comment you quoted wasn't a question looking for an answer and there isn't any question as to what the acutal wording of the guide is, logic then indicates that you were either confirming their statement or rebutting it. PaleHorse was asking which it was. To be honest, I've seen you do the same thing in other threads as well, as though somehow simply posting the text of the guideline sh

Well, that's not entirely true. If the MBC and the scout had good reason to think the MBC was a bona fide, registered MBC, the cards must be accepted. I just saw somethign on this somewhere, but I know it was an issue in my council a year or two ago because they suddenly decided MBCs needed to re-register annually without actually announcing it publicly. So there were a bunch of concerned Eagle Candidates freaking out because I and a few other MBCs in my troop had signed off on Blue Cards for them not realizing our registrations as MBCs had been dropped. They were later assured that if

The way I always explained this to parents when I was Cubmaster was: On any council or pack camp-out, every scout (past tiger) must have a parent or guardian along who is responsible specifically for them. If the child's actual parent or guardian can not attend, they can be placed in the care of some other parent or guardian, but at all times there must be some adult along who is specifically responsible for them. So your scout can be here with mom or dad, or they can be here with Timmy's mom or dad, but they can not just be dropped off for "whoever" (Cubmaster) to take care of.

Are you actually worried about monitoring scout behavior, or are you just trying to short-stop arguments from paranoid parents? I mean, in my linked troops there are perhaps 3 girls (out of 18) and 4-5 guys (out of 45) who actually think of the opposite sex as anything other than slightly confusing classmates and they are already part of the venturing crew where no such rules apply anyway. Besides that, any sexual or romantic behavior is already against the rules in scouts entirely. So if you DO happen to have kids looking to canoodle at summer camp and they are willing the break the r

Personally, I think you are over-estimating their ability to actually pull together credible data, but that might be my cynicism shining through.

Yeah, some first aid stuff just seems prone to bystanders wanting to do exactly the wrong thing because of their emotional response. People wanting to dunk extremities in warm water to deal with frostbite when the person is hypothermic, pulling out whatever caused a puncture wound, pulling stuck on fabric off of severe burns... I watched a work first aid seminar once with a role play before the training. I just had to shake my head and walk away when one group of ladies insisted on lifting the unconscious person's head up to put a small folded up blanket under it for comfort before they

I mean, they are like 1/2" x 1.25" in size. It's not like they are individually ostentatious, it's just that some people go overboard. But the fact of the matter is that the existence of long term, dedicated and trained scouters is where BSA varies significantly from most other youth groups and keeping those people is pretty critical to keeping things running. (Just witness the average lifespan of a girl scout troop to see the difference) And when you are trying to keep and motivate a volunteer workforce, small bits of bling and visible recognition are absolutely critical for a number

For cubs, my preference for particularly grimy hands is: Some clean wet sand in a tub of warmish water. Cake some on and grind it around in your hands for 10-20 seconds; Then swish them back in the water to knock of most of the sand; Then a quick dip in a second bucket of rinse water to get any residue off; Then hand sanitizer. This is good if they are about to eat burgers and corn on the cob after playing in the dirt all day. The really nice thing about it is that it's much easier to get 6-10 year olds to play with mud for 20 seconds than it is to get t

I'm fairly sure it would be unreasonable to expect that job to be a 40-hour a week job. I'd expect it to start at about 55. Expectations like that are one of the reasons why I've never been willing to accept a cell phone paid for by my employer.

How to manage parents that won't step back and let the cubs "Do their best". Give them a whole series of steps and who to go to when they need support.

You are conflating 2 points that Jsychk made. They clearly stated that they had strong male and strong female leaders of different dens, as well as one weak male leader. Thus "strength" clearly wasn't being automatically associated as a "male" trait. Then, in another point entirely they stated that the "strong male leader" supported by a bunch of moms was their opinion of "the ideal" arrangement for a den. Now, I would argue that the army of support, whether moms or dads, was probably a bigger factor in being able to maintain a den of 19 scouts, rather than the gender of the leader, bu