CalicoPenn

Can I borrow your crystal ball? I'd like to get the winning lottery numbers for next weeks Megamillions and Powerball.

It costs about $15 per person to do an e-mail survey, $30 per person to do a mail survey. Do you want to sell Philmont or Seabase?

I think I can help you with a bit of practical advice. Two bits of practical advice actually. First: Don't read more in to the requirement than is already there. Just about every "problem" with a requirement is caused by people reading more in to the requirements than what is there. Let's take a look at that requirement again: Jump feet first into water over the head in depth, level off, and begin swimming. Do you know what it doesn't say? It doesn't say Jump in to water over your head in depth so that your head is underwater... It only requires on to jump in to water deeper th

First: The Boy Scouts of America does NOT define what "Duty to God" actually means. They leave that up to each individual Scout. The BSA only states that in order to advance, you must believe in God (or any other higher power) and that you are Reverent. Brian - I guess you missed my earlier post. Maybe I need to be clearer. NO ONE CAN DEFINE WHAT DUTY TO GO MEANS TO YOU. I'm going to tell you a secret - it's really not a secret but no one wants to tell folks this. God doesn't care if you go to church or not. In fact, it was God, speaking through Jesus, as told by Matthew (6:6) who

Why should they? Why can't the "girl troop" recruit their own Scoutmaster?

If you double up on dens, you potentially double up on recruits to lead those dens. Would you make the argument that a all-boy Pack shouldn't try to recruit and double the size of their pack because they won't be able to find enough leaders? Utter nonsense.

We had a Hodag stalking us when we did a night hike to the bog at Makajawan one year.

I know a Scoutmaster who will fill in the parents name on a blue card when the parent asks for one for their Scout. It usually results in a sheepish Scout bringing it back to the next meeting and asking the Scoutmaster for a new one.

I met a bunch of Venturing Scouts a few weeks ago at a community fest - all female and all in full uniform - not jeans and a uniform top - full uniform. Some of them worked at Owassippe for the summer, some at Napowan - all of them love Venturing and were proud to wear the uniform. In fact, thinking about it, its just a little disturbing that the female venturing scouts were much more proud of the uniform than the Boy Scouts at the same fest were.

In the late 1970's and through the 80's, a number of Councils ran a program called "Scouting in Schools" - it was an after school program that provided Scout skills without the trappings of traditional scouting - and was open to girls as well. In 1991, the BSA created Learning for Life which was essentially the same program with a different name - partly to prevent confusion between traditional Scouting and "Scouting in Schools". From the beginning, LFL has been a character building program. In the late 1990's, LFL absorbed the career-based Exploring Posts, including police and fire posts,

"The best example of this is that it is no longer required that a Scout learns how to swim to advance to the rank of Eagle." Really? Sure, Swimming Merit Badge maybe an optional required badge (meaning you can earn swimming, hiking or cycling) but in order to become an Eagle Scout, you still have to pass the BSA Swim Test. "I still remember getting blasted at summer camp when a few members of my pack and our leaders went out to canoe at night. Full moon, no wind, we were all in life jackets and all passed the swim test. It was an awesome experience and when we canoed in the waterfront

Interesting choice of words - "scout age boys and girls" - not boys who are Scouts and girls. Have you ever asked them why their boys aren't Scouts? I wonder if the whole "girl ghetto" comment could be a clue. This is illustrative of what the BSA is seeing out there that volunteers on the ground may not be paying attention too - more and more, parents are avoiding groups like the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts because they are segregated. If you are only paying attention to your Troop and having been humming along at 35 Scouts and not seeing big drops in your numbers, you may not be paying

A Den Leader can remove a Cub from the Den - but not the Pack. The Pack would the be responsible for finding a new Den for the boy. If it were the Cubmaster, the boy would stay in his Den with a new Den Leader.

They already are. There is a common misconception about the Friends of Scouting campaign and that is that it just asks families of Scouts to give. What most Scouters know of Friends of Scouting is the presentations that are part of the family enrollment campaign but the Friends of Scouting campaign has other prongs to it as well, such as asking local businesses for money and local philanthropists (aka the rich guy in the corner house that seems to have a brand new car every other month). Want to be on the Council Executive Board? While it isn't necessarily pay-to-play, the Councils run lik

The first thing you need to do (and yes - the Scout needs to do but you are involved too as the advocate for your son) is sit down with the Scoutmaster, Eagle Coordinator, and/or District Eagle guru and discuss this. Review the plan - it may be ambiguous but that might not matter. You need to engage in some help to work with this beneficiary. I would be really curios what the role of the person is who doesn't like the primitive look of the chinking on a primitive structure. It sounds to me like your son did quite a bit of research to re-chink the building in keeping with a historical bu

What does it mean to be a man? A Man is: Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean and Reverent. What does in mean to be manly? I have no idea. There are too many converging opinions out there on what it means to be "manly". People who hunt with civilian versions of AR-15s think they're manly. People who hunt with shotguns and rifles often think they're the manly ones and that the AR-15 wielders are children. Of course, people that hunt with bow and arrow often think gun hunters of any kind are wimps So tell me, what is manl

No. This is a Board of Review - key word here is REVIEW. You are reviewing the Scout's Scouting career - his path to Eagle. This issue has nothing to do with his path to Eagle. If you want to ask in conversation after the BOR - once the BOR has made their decision, that would be ok - but not in the BOR where his answer may trigger a negative response from someone sitting on his board who decides to fail him based on his opinion. This is still a political issue in a lot of ways - and that does not belong in a BOR.

Are you sure he doesn't have a clue how to tie a two half hitches? I know adults who tie clove hitches all day that don't remember the name of the knot. I know Scouts that shrug when you ask them to tie a bowline but know immediately what knot to tie if asked if they can tie the rabbit knot. People tend to remember the things they're interested in or that they're exposed to a lot. They also often file away things in their brains under their own labels. What is the context of this Scout having tied two half hitches many times? Is it in the context of learning how to tie the knot, or is

I'll bet he had everyone giving too.

Its interesting how this thread is playing out. A lot of people are up in arms about the whole thing are still wringing their hands over how its going to affect people in the field and here it is, less than a week after the announcement, and there are already people in the field thinking about the practicalities and getting ready to do what they need to do to make it work. If one looks at the fact sheet and faq, it makes clear that the options for Packs will be to remain an all boy pack, create all girl packs, or have co-ed packs with single gender dens (it also makes clear that there wil

From the BSA website: The mission of the Boy Scouts of America is to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Law. Before anyone tries to claim that the BSA must have changed their mission statement this year to admit girls, I have found references to this very mission statement back to 2011 and that's just a cursory search - it likely goes back much further - possibly to a time when girls were admitted to Exploring. I see nothing in this decision by the Boy Scouts of America that changes thei

I guess you have to ask - what is more important, a Librarian of a Senior Patrol Leader. If the QM, Scribe or Librarian is elected, they can always appoint someone to their old position.

Typically, the ASPL steps in to the role. If the ASPL does not want to do it, I would hold a special election for any boys that are interested (did you have a field of candidates last time?). The one thing I would not do at all is have the Scoutmaster/Committee appoint someone - that is not their job, or their responsibility.

We'll probably be able to keep all-boy packs and troops for another 50 or so years until a newer generation decides that separating the genders is just stupid. No girl wants to be a BOY Scout? Never use an absolute - there are people in this thread telling you how excited their girls are to get the chance to be a Boy Scout.