FScouter

Suggest to the DE that you'll have the nominating committee "get right on that". It may be that they won't be able to recruit anyone just now.

That must look real sharp on your purple shirt.

Our council will no longer accept a charter for a "parents of" group. Why? Because they always flounder and fail. Every time.

A Scout troop is not a legal entity. It is a program for youth used by the chartered organization. As you found out, your CO may or may not be a charitable organization. And even if it is a charitable organization, it may or may not have a determination letter from the IRS granting the 501C(3) status. No letter, no status. I'd say it would be much to big a hassle for the CO to go through the application process just to get a donation for the troop. Easier to have the boys earn their own way.

A response of gobbledygook says something about character or ego or something, and its not flattering. A Scout-like response would have been Gee, were glad you asked about why we denied your tour permit. We did some checking and research and decided we were just being a little too cautious. We apologize for the confusion and hope you have a great time with your boys!

As a boy, I had a friend once that had a big sheath knife. It was really cool. I don't ever remember him using it for anything, but it was a really cool knife. When he was about 25 he bought a .44 magnum handgun with a 12" barrel. He thought that was really cool too. Then he grew up and figured out that it really had no practical use. "Cool" wasn't so cool anymore. Moral of the story? I dunno.

For information about the Philmont OA Trail Crew program, contact Philmont Scout Ranch. Here's a secret link: http://www.oa-bsa.org/programs/tcrew/ Warning: Do NOT view the multimedia presentation unless you have no plans for the summer and $125 burning a hole in your pocket.

There is nothing magic about 6 months. Depending on the particular situation with the patrol, or the boy holding a position, 7 or 8 or 9 months might work better. And I don't see any particular need to have all the patrol elections at the same time either. Whatever works best for each patrol is the way to go.

They require a BSA uniform. You require a purple shirt and plaid pants. You want to make a Federal case of it?

With the proliferation of clandestine meth labs, those chemicals are hard to come by.

Den Chief is an all day training. If yours was only 4 hours its no wonder it was fast paced. What did you think of the lunch activity?

Try this link: http://www.scoutorama.com/skit/

The award was designed for troops and Boy Scouts. The camping log form and award application #33690 is available at the Scout Shop. This topic has come up before: www.scouter.com/forums/viewThread.asp?threadID=50565#id_58252

Here's another thought ... The rate of advancement is self-limiting. A boy that does not attend meetings and does not attend campouts and other activities will not have the same opportunities to complete advancement requirements. Think about it. How can a boy that stays home possibly complete the requirements toward first class? He has limited himself. After an extra long period of sparce attendance, he has finally completed all the requirements, the committee wants to step in and say "NO"?

You could punish him by making him wash all the dishes on the next campout. That might make him want to participate in the next hike. Or, it might make him want to stay home and not participate in the campouts at all.

Thank your committee for wanting boys to stay active. Maybe there are other ways besides creating a roadblock. Perhaps they have some other ideas that would help the boys want to be more active. As for the rule about withholding advancement, ask if they could help clarify the logic behind that policy by explaining how a roadblock makes boys more active. Ask them to point out the Scouting publications that support that policy. Troop policies should have some clear justification in the official literature.

Any of the Jack London short stories are great. One that comes to mind is "To Build a Fire", a story about a man traveling alone by dogsled. He has a hypothermia accident and builds a fire to get warm, when all of a sudden ... Another, "The Law of Life" is about an old man that has trouble keeping up with the group as they hike across the wilderness. He stops to rest as the others move on. The long howl of a wolf is heard in the distance . . .

"Listen to a story about a man named Jed ..."

We pointed out that the main thrust of the training was to cover the commonalities of the Cub, Boy Scout, Venturing, and Varsity programs. The unique aspects of the Varsity program would be covered in the Varsity Coach Specific training. In New Leader Essentials, leaders in the other programs learn a little bit about each others programs, but they learn nothing about Varsity.

I helped out recently at a New Leader Essentials training. One of the participants was a new Varsity Leader. When the training was over, he asked why the training included no information about the Varsity program. Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, and Venturing were all covered, but there was no discussion of Varsity other than a brief mention in one of the video segments. New Leader Essentials training is required for trained Varsity leaders. Why is the program missing from the training?

Oh, the great oracle and grand pooh-bah of Scoutodology mr. Fog-Between-the-Ears has spoken. How grateful and indebted we are for your gifted visions. We can only hope that someday, after years of studying the lessons you offer, that somehow we can learn to achieve the aims of Scouting, as you have, by ignoring the Scouting methods because they arent requirements. You seem to be hung up on requirements. Something in your childhood perhaps?

Since in the world of fog, the uniform is "not required", why would you be concerned with patch placement? I daresay their uniforms look a whole lot better than your purple shirt and plaid pants uniform.

Bob, I'm totally in agreement with you. How to get the SM to back away from his position is the question. Going straight to the council advancement committee or the DE would be likely to be met with defensiveness from the SM. I don't think continuing a dialog with the SM about his position empowers him. The hope would be that he might think a little about how his position is indefensible and back off. I might say something like "Do you think the council advancement committee could help me better understand why we need to hold up potential 13-year-old Eagles?" Of course the council would not support that idea and the SM should know that and might then back off to save face. A little guided persuasion is sometimes better than a direct confrontation.

Bob's got a good point. The SM conference took place when the SM asked "Where's the fire" and told him to slow down. I'd ask him to point me to the BSA age requirement for the Eagle rank.

Like any other business, profits are used to build and support and perpetuate the business. All the "profits" from BSA operations stay within BSA. There are no cash dividends to the stockholders of this corporation.