CalicoPenn

Perhaps it's some kind of ladder? Please let us know what it is when you find out. Calico

I checked out the list of notable Eagles and was surprised by a couple of folks on the list - not that they were notable, but that they are Eagle Scouts. Danny Pintauro, the child actor that played Jonathon on Who's The Boss, is listed as having earned his Eagle - When did he find the time?? Mike Judge - co-creator of Beavis and Butthead. Calico

How large would this list end up being on Wikipedia? Wikipedia prefers to have articles of no longer than 32KB which is between 6,000 and 10,000 words, though they aren't very clear on whether this applies to lists. How will we make sure every Eagle is listed in the list? What about verifiability too? Wikipedia is a platform that allows any user to edit an entry - how will entries in this list be verifid? Who will do so? While it sounds like a good idea, the practicalities of such a listing seems a rather large hurdle to cross. Lists of notable, distinguished, famous a

MinnSM - First, welcome to the forum. Does the lad still have copies of the e-mails from the District Advancement Chairman stating he could go ahead with his project with the changes requested? I hope so - if he does, get them printed up and run to the Council Advancement Chairman to appeal the decision of the DAC. Despite the lack of a formal signature on the form, an e-mail approval from the DAC to start his project would certainly seem to me to be all the approval he needs and suggests that the DAC was willing to sign off on the form. Don't get discouraged yet - talk to the folk

Baden, I had a thought (which may be my limit for the night) brought on by your post about summer camp. Sure, she showed up to camp midweek, but she also held firm that she wasn't bringing her son home early. While she may come across to some as a kind of uber-mom, I'm starting to think she may also be very curious and engaged. My thought? Have you spoken to her about possibly becoming an ASM and getting her trained? If she's willing to drive up to spend a few minutes or hours on a campout seeing what's going on, she may very well be willing to spend a whole weekend camping and helpi

OGE and Ed have hit the nail square on. Like any tool, My Space can be good or bad. I have an account on My Space which I started only because local school districts in my area started making a big issue out of what kids were doing on the site and I wanted to do my own investigations before making any snap judgements. I found a number of alumni of my college on My Space and chatted with one who is a National Park Ranger and got information about what to see and do there (and an invitation for a "back stage" tour when I do come by). Immature kids will do dumb and stupid things on it - a

Doing nothing is not an option. At the very least, the CM should have been told that parents who saw or heard about this were upset by this action. It may have been an unintended lapse in judgement, perhaps brought on by a familiarity with his neighbor, but it was still an action that should not have taken place. It was the correct course of action to notify the SA, and perhaps he sat in on the meeting not doing anything to see how the CO and Unit would handle the issue. In school situations, giving wedgies is considered a form of hazing and/or bullying. It is no longer acceptable.

If the Troop planned and ran it, and it isn't a troop meeting, it should count as a troop activity. I would respectfully disagree with EagleinKY in one aspect of his reply, which I agree with almost in total. I would think if a patrol decided that they would work together on meeting merit badge requirements with an MB Counselor as a patrol activity, that it should count as a patrol activity, especially if we're willing to accept the same for a troop activity. I certainly think some of the merit badges, though still earned individually, lend themselves well to working on together as a pa

What does the Camping Merit Badge book say about what counts as camping? (I don't have a copy). The merit badge book is not just a book with the requirements. The book tells the lad what to do to earn the badge. If the merit badge book lists sleeping in a lean-to as a means to meet the requirement for number of nights camping, then the boy should get credit for sleeping in a lean-to. Has anyone read the latest Camping merit badge book? I think most counselors would accept work done prior to being contacted as meeting the requirements but if someone insists that the boy be signed of

If you weren't listening to the game around the campfire on Saturday night, what would you have been doing? Once you start making rules for situations like this, whether it be a ban or a once a year "treat", it becomes easier to make rules for every little thing that upsets someone. Are you prepared to make a rule banning pickup football games because "little Johnny's mommy doesn't want him to play football" or other such things? It sounds like you have a well-run BOY-run Troop - in fact, I'd praise that Patrol Leader who saw a challenge with attendance, polled his patrol to see if

The issue isn't if the rep from the Scout's lied or not, or even if the Scout's can discriminate - the issue is was the school a party of the discrimination and the court said no. The court correctly separated the issue of the mandatory recruiting session from the membership requirements of the Scouts. I'm much more interested in the press-reported footnote of the case. The court seems to be suggesting that if another, less savory, group decided to make a play for claiming equal access under the equal access statutes, that the school would have no legal means of preventing it - if the

Ever hear of the American Composites Manufacturers Association? Me neither, until I typed in Composite Materials Merit Badge on my search engine and this group popped up - they even have a committee formed to help councils to spread the word and teach the badge. I've always thought that some merit badges are somehow sponsored by various professional associations. Some merit badges that seem innocuous at first glance, like Plumbing, Auto Mechanics, Journalism, Law, and Veterinary Science certainly have the potential to be sponsored. Others, like Architecture, Dentistry, Landscape Ar

Perhaps there is something to be said about long, cold Minnesota winters. CP

It might be a bit obscure to some but it would be fun to have a whole patrol decked out in Star Trek Original Series red just like Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott - they could even call themselves the Scotty's (or the Engineers). I saw a similar group to the Rogues at the Bristol Ren Faire in Wisconsin this year - the Tartanics. After checking both groups web sites out, I have to ask - is there some kind of connection between Texas and Bagpipes I haven't heard about? Both groups sure do a lot of concerts in Texas. CalicoPenn

The Standards and Requirements of the BSA are met when the merit badge application is signed by the Merit Badge Counselor. What the unit is attesting to is that they received the application signed as completed by the Merit Badge Counselor - as long as the application is signed by the MBC, the standards and requirements are met - the unit is not attesting to the accuracy or completeness of the work done between the MBC and the Scout - only that they have received a signed merit badge application. Would I sign the advancement report? Yes - because the standards and requirements were met - re

Short answer: It is completed Long Answer: Interesting diversion in ethics aside: It is completed. In the BSA program, the Merit Badge Counselor is the ultimate and only authority on when a merit badge is completed - if the Merit Badge Counselor has signed the application as complete, the badge is complete and the boy has officially earned the badge - no matter what our second guesses are. The Scoutmaster's role in this process is three-fold. First, to provide intitial guidance on finding a Merit Badge Counselor, thus knowing that a Scout is working on a particular merit badge. A

Even after an official US Flag is "retired", it is still considered a US Flag and may be flown at any time just like the current US Flag (provided it is done within the guidelines of the flag code, of course). Should you choose, you can fly the 13-star "Betsy Ross", you can fly the 48-star flag, you can fly the 21-star flag (etc. etc.) without special government permission. It was once, and always will be, considered an official US Flag (kind of like "Once an Eagle, Always an Eagle"). The exception would be units of federal government - I'm sure a military post or national park would nee

My understanding of the Merit Badge program is that once a Scout begins a merit badge, he may continue to use the requirements of the badge as they were when he started if the requirements change or he may choose to use the new requirements. He may not pick and choose between two sets of requirements - he must complete one or the other. It's not very clear if the Scout must complete a requirement a second time if he switches to new requirements if the requrement is the same in the new set of requirements as under the old requirements, though I doubt any merit badge counselor would make a Sco

Not to pick nits (or maybe I am) but most of the stuff "developed" at Sony wasn't developed at Sony at all. Sony only developed a system to mass produce the stuff cheaply - much like Henry Ford did for the Automobile. No one claims Ford developed the car but they certainly deserve credit for mass producing it and making it a household neccessity. Inventions often attributed to Sony are remarkable in that most were developed here, in the US - with the exception of the High Definition Television. What is even more remarkable is that we tend to view these inventions as having been develop

Why would it have pained AP to print something positive? If they were really as opposed to the Boy Scouts as supposed, they could have simply left off the fact that these boys were in Scouts - they could very simply have said "Two boys swimming at the State Recreation Area beach saves a toddler from drowning" without ever mentioning they were Boy Scouts. No matter the news - postive or negative, being a member of the Boy Scouts adds an additional dimension of interest to the story - it really has nothing to do with the Boy Scouts (except for the Jamboree stories - that was all about th

Does anyone know where "Johnny" is? Calico

Did the Belief-O-Matic. Says I should be a Neo-pagan. Or a Universal-Unitarian. Or a Liberal Quaker (can't say I've ever heard of a Conservative Quaker. Orthodox Quaker, yes - but not Conservative Quaker). Oh well, I guess I'll stick with Wiccanism. Oh wait, that IS Neo-paganism. Well go figure. CalicoPenn

Chicken Gumbo with Venison Sausage and Dirty Rice? My mouth is watering. Can I volunteer to be a judge next year? CalicoPenn

Packwife, I agree with you that the issue should be done and over with. It was handled at camp, and that should be the end of it. You tell us that your son is now considering leaving the Scouts. The big question for you to find out the answer to is "why?". Is it because he feels humiliated over the punishment? Is he feeling persecuted because the leaders aren't moving on? Is he feeling harrassed and bullied at this unit and if so, by whom? I've witnessed instances before where a Scout who has been "razzed" by members of his unit, including some of the adults, eventually snaps at an

"Ssssssssssssssssssssssssss" Which can be one of a number of things but the four I thought of are: 1) The sound an air mattress makes when punctured 2) The sound a rattlesnake makes when you get too close 3) The sound of flesh searing on a hot pot/pan/dutch oven 4) The sound a rubber raft makes in the middle of a river when punctured. CalicPenn