Eagle1993

You guys are thinking about this all wrong. Finally, a council has found the solution to all of their financial woes. However, they haven’t gone far enough. Each year they should auction off 15 Eagle Scout rank advancements to the highest bidder. I bet some desperate parents would fork over $1k each. Could you imagine what the first female Eagle Scout would go for if Nationals took this idea? I’m thinking six figures. You could sell lower ranks and other advancements as well, MBs, Eagle Projects, etc. $120 for Eagle is a bargain... But seriously... I have a real problem with thi

Have you reached out to your local tribe(s) to invite NAs to work with the OA? From what I can see, the Seminoles did work with the local OA chapter.... but which others? I wonder how widespread the support is from various tribes and if they truly see this as honoring them. If the support isn’t widespread from NA tribes I wonder if it is worth the effort to fix that or to simply create new traditions as some have suggested. If it is widespread then perhaps it is simply correcting the areas that are not working with NAs.

I went over and read a lot of forums on powwows.com. There are several threads about OA and Boy Scouts imitation of Indian culture. There are mixed opinions depending on poster. Some are against any non NA group depicting NA culture. Others defend OA and Boy Scouts who show honest interest in learning about Indian culture and working on accurately working on dance and regalia. One hot button issue appears to be ... pan Indian presentations. There is no single Indian culture... there are tribes. So, if you want to do this correctly you should wear the regalia of the tribe accurately

Actually there is something called global dimming. It is the impact of aerosols in the air reflecting our the sun’s energy back into space. It actually can help offset global warming impacts but the trend is reversing as countries get more strict about particulate pollution. There is is even some belief that contrails actually help lower earth temp. Some limited studies of this occurred during the days post 911 when commercial aircraft were grounded. I’m not sure if that is what the 70’s scientists were talking about.

I would add... if possible... to perform this outdoors with a bond fire. You captured the key parts, especially the symbolism of leaving the parents to a patrol.

Correct. German and Irish decendants are part of those parades and support them. I’m of Irish decent and my wife is primarily German. If NAs are part of the ceremony or if the OA works with them on a ceremony then no issue. The issue is when a population that was nearly killed off by another race has their customs taken and performed without their permission and against their will. Just think if Germany scouts danced around dressed like Hasidic Jews. Sure, it has been generations since that genocide and the German scouts could be doing that in honor, but if the Hasidic Jews stated i

Over the past 20+ years I’ve come to the belief that NA culturally representation is owned by NAs. If an OA lodge works with a local tribe and comes to some sort of agreement to honor them through ceremony I’m all in favor. If NA tribes in the area are not in favor then it starts to feel like a blackface play... even if well intentioned. I will say my experience in OA and with any NA cultural experience within BSA was done with respect and we discussed NA history in full context. I would certainly hate to lose this as it is a great opportunity to keep NA history, culture and customs

The same reporter broke the news of the Girl Scout letter back to the BSA. She has a source. What I learned is that BSa leadership are clearly struggling with how to create a Boy Scout level parallel program and read scouter.com. *whistles quietly* *opens profile* *changes location to Alaska*

None at this point, but will watch for this. Our attrition rate has been fairly low so increases should be apparent. That said, no family has complained. I think the separate dens help during the transition plus girls have unofficial been tagging along for years so seeing them around won’t be a big change. Having them attend overnights and participate in meetings will be new and will watch for friction.

Week 1 We are up to 9 girls now, 4 Lions, 1 Tiger and 4 Bears. The Troop has caused some issues with the charter renewal so we haven’t been able to sign up online yet... should be fixed by next week. We expect a few more Tigers to join as well. A couple of the parents are interested in becoming den leaders. One is a current GSUSA leader and the other an Eagle Scout and former scout leader. We have den meetings set up and several of the girls will be part of our upcoming PWD. We haven’t figured out the Be A scout flag and our DE told us not to worry about it. In our

A new Where’s Waldo game! 10 up arrows to the first post who finds a Girl or Coed Pack!

That is true; however, early adopters should be updating them. We haven’t been able to update ours (my understanding is COR has to setup first). I haven’t found any Packs showing up as anything but boys.

One quick update that I’m not sure if anyone else noticed. The Be A Scout search now shows if packs are Boy only, Girl Only or mixed. I haven’t found any that are listed as anything but Boy Only but something to watch for as this ramps up...

Expand the Morenci mine in Arizona. I also have problems with environmentalists who seem to believe food, products and electricity can just magically appear. There are definitely trade offs that must be made and risk/benefit analysis should be considered. That said, I believe protecting water is especially critical as no mine or drill site can be 100% clean or operate without error. My grandma had an oil well on her land in southern Illinois. There were spills (relatively small). The good news is that it wasn’t near a water way so to clean them up you dig out the containment

I don’t believe the copper market is at a shortage crisis to the point that we should risk the BWCA. Damage to waterways is long lasting and extremely difficult to repair.

Thanks. I figure I would post weekly updates on progress/findings/etc.

Signed. There are some decisions and changes that can have lasting damage and cannot easily been undone. BWCA is one of the few purely wild areas we have left in the Great Lakes.

I think reporting in this case could be more about protecting the leader vs really a concern that something nefarious occurred. As the leaders of this Troop created separate sleeping areas and s leader left the area to sleep with the youth he did open himself up to possible accusations. What if one of the youth accuses him of crawling in his bunk during that night six months from now? Now you have a situation where an adult has clearly been the only adult sleeping in an area with youth. That would be bit of a mess. Hell, if I did this I would send a report to my COR and DE. I’d e

I wasn’t there when it occurred (it was prior to my time there). Pizza guy came... started talking... ended up discussing jet fuel. He volunteered his car (and only source of income) up for the experiment. Needless to say it had a good short run before car death. As was explained to me, he may have been smoking something that is legal in a few states. My short stint at a refinery gave me more stories than nearly twenty years at my current employer.

I will add that the oil change places that recommend changing oil every 3,000 miles is a scam. Your owners manual is sufficient and even then probably a bit conservative. I worked at a refinery for a short time and with a few engineers who were responsible for blending and delivery of motor oil. They had measured oil out of engines after various mileage’s and indicated there was no noticeable degradation in performance until starting at 10,000 miles. They said one could probably simply top off oil and replace the oil filter until 20,000+ miles. No one had the guts to actually implement th

@blw2 I’m a member of several Reddit groups and keeping on point is most critical (at least for me) on non political threads. For example, if you start a thread on ideal process to change brake pads on a 1997 Porsche 911 Turbo and someone starts discussing why you can run 13,000 miles between oil changes on a 2015 VW Passat it is not helpful. First, those who are interested in VW Passat’s oil change interval will almost never find that interesting discussion buried in the original topic and second those interested in brake pads on a 911 Turbo now have to read through ramblings on VW.

Thread hijacking is not good internet decorum. IT IS SIMILAR TO NOT TYPING IN ALL CAPS ALL THE TIME. It is a consistent and common rule across nearly all forums. I know I violate it from time to time and have no problem when called out. It is simple enough to create a new topic.

The tent vs other (bunk house, sub, cave) has been discussed by our leadership regarding YPT. In many cases (outside tent) you have no choice but to have youth and adults sleep in the same area. However, our focus was no one on one, female leaders separate as much as possible, two deep leadership when near youth, arrange sleeping arrangements as close to YPT tent policy as possible. The violation is this case is the two deep leadership and the fact the Troop has found a way to keep leaders and scouts separate. I can completely see a leader, at 1am, groggy thinking to hell with th

There is always a cost for training for any organization. The question is who should pay. Natonal, council, unit or individual. If training is a priority I would expect the expense to be covered by someone other than the volunteer. Clearly training is not a priority for nationals or council so it is coming down to the unit or volunteer. How many non profits charge you to volunteer and to be trained? BSA is the only one I have been part of who charges a fee. The training charges are minimal in our council and our Pack covers them for any volunteer willing to take the time to be trai

My council only charges minimal fees for training, to cover basic costs. $5 for position specific... and you get the Trained patch. $12 for BALOO to cover some handouts and lunch. I don’t hear complaints about cost only content and time (frequency and length).