Fat Old Guy

" I asked my 13 year old Boy Scout if it mattered to him whether the adults thought the DE worked for the volunteers or the other way around." He probably doesn' care who's on the School Board either does that mean that it shouldn't concern you?

" What kind of a unit in the USA would object to wearing the US flag, or think it was less important than a CSP?" I don't remember the specific religions but I recall reading that there are religious based units that object to wearing the flag.

"I've yet to meet any scouter who could be a poster child for the BSA." I know a couple.

" all professionals of the Boy Scouts of America are required to pay their annual registration fee" This is pretty cheap on BSA's part. I know people that work for other larger organizations and they get their memberships for free.

Isn't there another council within an hour's drive of your current home that could use your services?

"First of all, to FOG -- all professionals of the Boy Scouts of America are required to pay their annual registration fee out of their own pocket each year." So? That just means that you work for yourself. Think of it working for IBM and owing 1,000 shares of Itty Bitty Machine Corp.

" By in that sense, I mean that in the way a waiter at a restaurant works "for" me." Nah, the waiter serves you. Other than ruining your dinner, he has no impact on your life. One of the folks that work for me at Symantec works for me because I have an interest in the company. What he does effects the value of the company which has an impact on me. Dues paying members of an organization are the organization, each and every one, for without them, the organzation wouldn't exist. Hence, the employees of that organization work for the members.

"And there is no internal affairs department of the BSA -- I made that up." Sure you did. Gotta go, there's a black van outside my house.

"I agree with you, but technically the troop and pack sites are supposed to be run by an adult." Where do you get this?

Eamon, you bring up an interesting point. Why do we give awards for things that we should be doing anyway? Why do we have "Cub Scouter Training Award," or "Scoutmaster Key" or any of those things that recognize us just for doing our jobs? If we all were doing what we were supposed to be doing, there'd be no need for special recognition for anyone for just doing their job. Unfortunately, most Scouters don't go to training, many unit don't send someone to Roundtable. There's a unit in my district that hasn't sent anyone to Roundtable in nearly a year, their mailbox still has stuff in it from January.

Ooops . . . I said, "pantheon of heroes" which is redundant since pantheon usually refers to a group of heroes. Please forgive me.

My pantheon of hereos has long included people like Audie Murphy; my uncle who survived the USS Ben Franklin fire; Joe Foss; and my friend who was a Corpsman in Vietnam and was shot 11 times and despite that continued to do his job of tending to wounded Marines, for that he received the Silver Star, a limp, and a lifetime disability pension. Hey, Hopper how about starting a line of t-shirts with the pictures of Medal of Honor winners?

"I can't help thinking of the parable of the Prodigal Son." The Prodigal Son didn't try to strangle his brothers or set a tent on fire. He just went away for awhile to play soccer and be in the marching band.

Bob White said, " No other persons have the authority to make this decision within the unit." but dsteele said, " If the Scoutmaster decides that the boy should no longer be a Scout in the troop, the scoutmaster can remove the boy from the troop." Obviously, Bob White doesn't understand the Boy Scouts and is operating on the fringes, not following the rules, even making them up as he goes along.(This message has been edited by Fat Old Guy)

Ah, Bob White the Two-faced. First he chastises me for making rude comments about him and then he makes rude comments about me. Once again, Bob White shows that not only does he ignore the Guide to Safe Scouting but he also ignores the Scout Law.

I may not be your boss but you work for the membership. Just as a guy on the assembly line in Dearborn (do they still make cars there?) works for the stockholders. Just as the GS-7 in the bowels of OMB works for the taxpayers. I am the BSA as is my son, as is Bob White and Ed and KS. Unless you've paid your ten dollars to be a member, you ain't nothing but an employee and you work for us.

Here I've avoiding using my troop as a recruiting center for my crypto-fascist skinhead group. Now that I know that it is okay, I'll encourage the troop to stop going to Camp Wunk-a-puk-a-tuk and start going to "Den Lager des Ausgenflugleheimsturmverband."

I have a GI air mattress and a cheap swimming pool air mattress. Both work wonders for keeping me off the ground and warm.

"But that's who works for whom." That's a very pleasant delusion to have.

" They work for the BSA. " I am the BSA, hence they work for me just as they work for you. Who signs their time cards is irrelevant.

" Now as a volunteer, some may say it is none of my business." I'd argue that it is your business since you are the member and they are the employee. You are the organization and they work for you.

" Or you just think it's not worth talking about because nobody is doing it? " Bob White never thinks anything is worth talking about unless BSA has an official position either for or against. "Hypothetical" isn't even in his vocabulary.

You still are having trouble with simple words, aren't you?

"Individual History Report" from Troopmaster; sorry for the abbreviation." That's okay. I avoid Troopmaster when possible.

"Does anyone really believe that another boy would think that getting a girl pregnant out of wedlock is "cool" and want to imitate it?" It happens. There are segments of our society in which boys want to get their girlfriends pregnant to show that they are "men." The girls want to get pregnant to give them income and status. Very foreign to our way of thinking but that's the way it is.