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InquisitiveScouter

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Everything posted by InquisitiveScouter

  1. @SSScout, The PA requirement (for those that delved into the link) is actually three background checks: 1) A PA State Police Criminal Record Check, 2) A PA Department of Human Services Child Abuse History Check, and EITHER 3A) An FBI Background Check with Fingerprint Record OR 3B) IF you have been a PA resident for 10 years, a sworn affidavit of not having been convicted of a whole list of child abuse related crimes. There is no cost to volunteers for these checks, except in the case of 3A, the FBI Fingerprint check. My question is, if PA requires the volunteer to obtain these
  2. Welcome!! Get to know your local registrar by name...talk with them often You both can save each other a lot of frustration! As far as other people not doing the job they are supposed to do (or have agreed to do), this usually stems from ignorance about what their actual tasks are, then a lack of knowledge on how to do them, then from fear of being found out that they don't actually know what they are supposed to do or how to do it. It usually is not a result of laziness or lack of diligence. This is where a good Committee Chair comes in, with a detailed list of expectations and
  3. A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyse a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. Love that quote...I still need to learn how to set a bone Of course, my computer programming skills have perished, too, since college with BASIC, COBOL, and Pascal...dang I'm old...
  4. meh...been to one, and not going to another. Recommend a National Leadership Seminar (NLS) over a NOAC, if you (and he) have not yet attended one... https://oa-bsa.org/training/national-leadership-seminar-nls
  5. No one at National will touch this... And since you said it was a couple of years ago, no one else will touch it either. Here is the sad truth: it is EASY to lie, cheat, and steal your way to an Eagle rank badge (and certificate). I see it happen on numerous occasions. One of the biggest dirty secrets in Scouting is the sham of a merit badge program most summer camps put on. But, ultimately, what we hope for is that the values we seek to instill will take root and grow into a way of conducting your life. For example, when a Scout asked me to be his Eagle Project Coach, I wa
  6. You can set the example by getting (if you don't already have one) your own Scout Handbook, reading it, and practicing the skills and knowledge in it. This helps you understand what the Scouts are going through as well... Go to the source...
  7. Correct, on paper and in theory, but that is not how it is playing out in reality in many cases. I think that is what @mrjohns2was referring to. Esse quam videri
  8. Welcome! Is there a female over 21 who is willing to sign up with the G-troop??
  9. She has to say that...whether the facts are otherwise or not. Notice, no stats or raw numbers in the article...
  10. This^^^ The only reasons we cancel trips is if the roads are treacherous (ice storms) or we have a hurricane blow through There have been many times we have changed destination at the last moment and camped in the field behind our church.
  11. Agreed. I find it extremely difficult to believe that, over 50 years, not a single month was without camping. Record keeping, weather, unit leadership, what constitutes camping (was it in one night in someone's backyard just to keep the record going??)...too many variables, with too much possible human error, bias, and stretching, to get to something like this. Knowing what I know from 35+ years of Scouting experience, I glance sideways at things like this...much like a Scout earning (actually, "being awarded") every merit badge.
  12. Lone Scouts with an itinerant Scoutmaster working on a grant, if the parents are unwilling/unable to be the Lone Scout Friend and Counselor.
  13. I like the idea, and believe you should scope the idea first by defining the problem. What, exactly, is the problem you are trying to solve? And then explore the question as to whether Scouting is a solution to that problem. The way to have phrased your OP, it seems like you are putting the cart before the horse. That is, you have a solution (Scouting) that is looking for a problem (some sort of public health issue that can be addressed by a youth program, and the crafting of a policy to implement your personally desired solution.)
  14. Naw...every time they rehearse and prep, they gain a deeper understanding of what the Order of the Arrow is... "You need seek no rocky summit. These high places are within you. All the natural world around you shows you clearly your reflection. This Ordeal is but a pattern for a journey whose directions are the whispers, urgings, promptings deep within your hearts and spirits."
  15. All those rules should be in your service's leave regulations.
  16. P.S. Over my 26 years in the Air Force, my commanders awarded me 3 MOVSMs... Did you know your unit commander can authorize 10 days of Permissive TDY for a military member to support volunteer efforts like Scout Camp, so they don't have to burn leave? And the first O6 in your chain can authorize it up to 30!
  17. Yes, use the whole time they are there. Even while sleeping, you are on call as an adult leader.
  18. I wish that was my experience and perception...sadly, it is not. I could change my perception, but then it wouldn't be based on my experience.
  19. @vol_scouter, very glad your experience, in general, has been positive... But, help me please... on the one hand you say and on the other, you say... Those two assertions seem to be at odds. Our entire district program is planned and run by volunteers. We haven't had a DE in I don't know how long... Council program is non-existent, other than Summer Camp...there has not been a council program event here for units in over three years... (But there are at least five council fundraisers per year...golf outings, skeet shoots, silent auctions, popcorn, camp car
  20. And here is the essence of Kosnoff's stance...see in his tweet, "BSA has forfeited the moral right to exist." https://twitter.com/SexAbuseAttys/status/1359252870462205954 Has it?? Only individuals can be moral agents, not corporations. But, when the collective decisions of those individuals in a corporation tend toward objectives that seem, much of the time, to be in opposition to the beliefs/mission/ideals of the program they exist to support, then does the corporation take on the embodiment (which is what incorporation means ) of a moral agent? That's the question I strugg
  21. Another great resource... http://www.thedump.scoutscan.com/scouts.html
  22. @SiouxRanger, you are scaring me only because it is like you are inside my head...perhaps I am schizoprenic, and you are just one of my multiple personalities exposing some of the demons I face in this council... Well...expose away But do tone down the rhetoric a bit, please...
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