DanKroh

Merlyn, thanks for those links. Very interesting stuff, especially this excerpt from a letter to CoG from the National office: "Let me assure you that it was not my intention to offend you or anyone of your faith. After further discussion, the Boy Scouts of America still respectfully declines your request to become a chartering organization. Thank you for your interest. However, we feel that no useful purpose would be served by continuing this dialogue. Very truly yours, Donald L. Townsend, Director Relationships Division" Well, there it is.

edpalmer: Interesting that the BSA prefers American Indian. Personally, I tend to use whatever terminology those that self-identify as belong to that group prefer. Since most of the Pagans I know who self-identify as Native American prefer that term, that is what I tend to use. I doubt they honestly care what the BSA prefers to call them. TheScout: Yes, please, lets make things easier for the Judeo-Christians, by all means. If anyone else wants to earn an emblem of their faith and wear it on the uniform, too bad for them. Oh, sorry, is my cynicism showing? It has become painfully obv

Beaver and AntelopeDud, I'm so sorry to hear that the situation could not have a better outcome. The death of any young person is a difficult thing, and one by their own hand brings up many feelings of guilt in those left behind. I'm so glad to hear that you are having a professional counselor come to the troop. Be sure to listen to his/her words yourself. We think most about the lost one's peers at this time, but the adults are just as affected. I pray that everyone will find a peace within themselves about this sad tragedy. I hope the family finds solace in allowing the tissue

Hey Beaver, keep us posted as you can, would you please? I'm sure we'd all like to know whether the young man pulls through (while realizing things may be status quo for a while). Thanks.

Our pack is very big on beltloops. The boys really love getting them, and love showing off a belt full of them. That said, our pack does pay for each actual beltloop only once, although the boys can earn them more than once. Some of them, it's almost guaranteed they will earn more than once, since they may do the same sport every year, or have to earn some of them again as Webelos as part of the Webelos activity pins. But I agree that if you have a boy who is earning the same beltloop over and over again, it is time to encourage them to do a little more and earn the pin.

We have a "graduation" ceremony in June where the boys officially move up to the next rank. That is when we start counting activities toward the next rank badge. It also marks the end of when they can still get their previous rank badge. Most of our guys get their rank badges at the Blue & Gold banquet in February, however, if a boy doesn't get all the requirements done by then, he has until the June graduation meeting to finish them and achieve that rank. After that, he begins working on the next rank. If you don't have an official graduation ceremony, like Lisabob said, I've he

Prayers and healing energy going out to the scout, his family, and all those affected by such a desperate situation.

ASM915, gotta make this quick, as I have a meeting in 5 minutes. Yep, got your PM, sent reply, thanks. "Has the CoG, being Earth-Based ever had any dealings with the NA's?" I know that on some of the Pagan forums I participate on, there are NAs who identify as Pagan. But CoG is pretty much a Wiccan organization, and even as such, is still not acknowledged by more traditional Wiccan groups, because they don't have a "lineage". You would not believe how political Pagan groups can be! In short, I've never heard of it happening, but doesn't mean it couldn't. But not all Pagan r

ASM915, you'll have to refresh my memory on what the modest proprosal was. As far as marinated or barbequed, depends on your location. Definitely marinated in the north, but BBQ in the south is the way to go.

"Do you really think God wants the BSA to abandon their principles and admit anyone? Did Jesus abandon His principles? I don't think so." "The purpose of the second question was that Jesus never abandoned His principles so I don't think He wants the BSA to abandon Him." You know, Ed, I never considered myself someone who was easily rendered speechless, but you seem to have a knack for it. .... Ok, now that I'm over that, I've got a couple of questions regarding your posts: What exactly is the nature of the relationship between the BSA and Jesus that He might feel aband

Thank, Trev, that's what I thought.

Beaver, I agree with your point about membership on the Religious Relationships committee. I have no problem restricting it to the "major players", as long as those major players don't start making decisions about the religions of the "minor" players without including them in those specific decisions. However, the emblems are another matter. I don't see why having 25 units chartered should be a condition for my son to receive a BSA-recognized emblem from his religion. CoG has taken the time to put together a curriculum, they have shown a commitment to the program. Either the BSA thinks th

No problem, LH. My doctorate is in psychology, so I'm not an M.D., but a Psy.D. I did take a lot of pharmacology classes, and I know a lot about psychotropics because, well, it helps a lot in my practice to know what I'm talking about. Plus I have a lot of personal experience with these particular class of meds. I just wanted to put that disclaimer out there though, because I don't actually prescribe. I hope any info you gleaned from that was still helpful.

"If you please, What is the "Rule of 25"? twenty five what?" Oh, sorry. It was discussed in the thread I spun this off of. The "Rule fo 25" is the BSA's rule that in order for your religious organization to be part of the Religious Relationship committee or to have a "BSA approved" religious emblem, you have to have at least 25 unit chartered to your religious organization. Which is next to impossible for any Pagan religion to achieve, since very few even HAVE a parent organization (Wicca being one of the few) and few formal organizations that would be able to successfully chart

Our pack meetings are held one Friday night a month, usually the third Friday. But our dens meet at different times at the convenience of the each den. My suggestion would be that if you have a schedule that works for all your dens, take one of those times each month for your pack meeting. In reality, most of our dens only meet about twice a month anyway, so as long as your dens are still meeting as dens at least that often, I think you are going well. Plus, try to get some sort of activity that is not a pack or den meeting once a month or so. Plan a pack hike, bowling night, movie night,

"If I get my son another uniform shirt so he can have one long-sleeved and one short-sleeved, how can I get a duplicate rank emblem? I can't just pick it up from the shop." When I made a second shirt for my son, I did just that. I just explained to the clerk what I was doing, and he sold me the patches. I was even able to get a second quality unit patch for him. I've also bought a couple of replacement merit badges when the culprit in losing the originals was, ahem, me. Maybe it's because the guy in the scout shop knows me at this point and believes I'm trustworthy (bwahahahaha...j/k

Ok, so as not to completely hijack the other thread, here's a question for folks who are familiar with the religious emblem program, and might know more about the requirements of their religion than I do. I've studied the instructions for the all the UU emblems (the UUA Cub and Boy Scout, and the UUSO Boy Scout ones), and I can see the differences between the UUA and UUSO programs that the BSA objects to. Not that I want this thread to be a discussion of whether it is appropriate for the BSA to object. My question is, not being familiar with the specific requirements for a bunch of o

"He can't handle any of them. The main three Ritalin, Adderil and Concerta are front end drugs. They cause an increased production of the lacking neural transmitter chemical at the front end to flood the receptors at the back end. Strattera is not a stimulant but a blocking agent at the back end to direct the the lacking chemical to the right receptors. Help me out here Dan." Yep, your analogy is a pretty good one. Strattera is a norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (for anyone else who would know what that means). The stimulants make the brain manufacture more norephinephrine, while Strat

"With some meds, and some people you can't cut down quickly or go cold turkey because of withdrawl problems. Doctors believe what the drug companies say. I've seen people weaned off of Paxil in a hellish 2 weeks, and a very comfortable 2 months." Well, SSRIs and other depression/anxiety medications are a whole different animal than ADHD medications. (Paxil is generally not given for ADHD, although sometimes it can be given for comorbid depression or anxiety.) No, stuff like Paxil should ABSOLUTELY not be stopped cold turkey, and even if they were, would not clear the system for 2-3

"I've got a question for Dan and other medical professionals. Is taking a child off meds for two days of any real value to the child? I took Ritalin while I could afford it and both my sons activly take Ritalin, I understand the long term concerns. I had scout in my troop that took Ritalin and his doctor took him off the drug for the summer months to give his system a rest. Clearing the system for 60 to 90 days I understand but 2 days? Does it...no let me rephrase...Can it really make a difference in combating long term use side effects?" Pretty much what ASM915 said. Depends on the half-

"If we want to discuss whether Dan and his Wicca groups should be allowed to charter units lets spin it off so we can finish discussing DRP and do Dan and his Wicca groups justice. Just a thought" Well, while I certainly appreciate the nice thought, I gotta say, HUH? I don't recall posting in this thread at all.

"My understanding is that the CoG was denied membership on the committee because of the so called "Rule of 25", which stipulates that a faith organization must be the chartering partner of at least 25 units nationwide to qualify for membership on the committee. Now, whether this was a clever way of excluding pagans or was a reasonable way to limit the effective size of the commitee to a manageable number is debateable." Ahhh. My confusion; I thought one had to be a member of the subcommittee to be approved as a Chartering Organization. My bad. I wonder if any coven has ever been turn

"I think perhaps we may be talking about two different things. The BSA Religious Relationships subcommittee does indeed pass judgement on whether or not a given institution is an appropriate Chartering Organization. I'm not aware of any applicants who have been turned down, but concievably there might be some religious fringe sect that say, glorifies violence, that might be denied as a potential sponsor of a unit." Actually, Trev, I believe that the Covenant of the Goddess has been campaigning for a while now to be on the Religous Relationships subcommittee and has been turned down becaus

Gonzo quoted: According to National's website, it says in part: "Virtually every religion is represented in the Boy Scouts of America, from Catholics and Protestants, to the Armenian Church of America and Zoroastrians. The Religious Relationships Committee, which includes over 30 religious groups represented in Scouting, determines whether a religion is an appropriate partner for Scouting, and reviews any duty to God material which is to be used in Scouting for consistency with Boy Scout policies." I believe this paragraph concerns who can become a chartering partner for BSA units, not

Yep, done it twice, the second time as a Tiger Den Leader. It's a great time. Advice: Get there a little early on Friday (edit: or Saturday, or whatever day you are planning to get there) if you can; parking gets *interesting* later on. Take a tour of the sub as well as the battleship. Down the street is a museum that you get free admission to with the Battleship admission. They have a slide show and talk about the history of the Battleship. Definitely worth the walk. Let the kids bring something along to entertain themselves (within reason). Much of the experienc