J-Stroke

Every time I start thinking I know it all I get a good dose of humility. I have a blue card issue and thought I'd see what folks on this forum had to say about it. I saw this thread and thought "this is silly, there is no unit copy of a blue card". To my surprise, I was wrong - again. As District Chairman I guess it is better to learn here than while in front of my full committee (though I'm sure to prove my ignorance in some other way. In my council the portion of the blue card that doesn't say Applicant's Record or Counselor's Record must be turned in to council. Otherwise the merit badge won't be recorded and you can't buy the corresponding merit badge. It has been this way since the earth was molten and is so engrained in our system I never thought about the sentence that says "Applicant will turn in this portion to his unit leader for record keeping purposes." So, I dig out my standard issue BSA Advancement Committee Policies and Procedures manual, go to the Record Keeping section, and sure enough, there is no such requirement that council receive, or even get to peek at, any portion of the blue card. The language is clearly unclear on the specifics of what must be done, leaving enough flexibility for a council to require this procedure or not. Perhaps that is why it is the only portion that has no title. It is a "Unit's Record" in some places and a "Council's Record" in others. Just scribble in the words best suited for your council.

I have and love the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS1 which has since been replaced with and improved upon by the DMC-TS2. It is waterproof, shockproof, dustproof and freezeproof. It also does HD movies in AVHD Lite. I understand the TS2 has added a stabilizer for movies which is the only complaint I have with my TS1. Last spring it went surfing and snorkling in Maui. This summer it did an 8 day Boundary Waters canoe trek. It's survived 3 summer camps and 4 weekend canoe training courses. I even use it to do underwater movies for our high school swim team for training purposes. For Boundary Waters I spent $20 for an extra battery and I bought a spare 8GB sd card. I shot 4 hours of movies and innumerable 12mb photos and still had power and memory left at the end of the trip.

I logged on today to get some info on TLT but, as an attorney, was drawn to this thread. And of course, as an attorney, I have to put my 2 cents in. First, as to the McDonld's case (and many others like it), my response has always been that the "broken legal system" did not award that woman any money; you did. Maybe not you personally but someone just like you. A citizen ... a neighbor ... a peer; in other words ... a juror. Somehow the plaintiff and her lawyers convinced a group of regular folk to make McDonalds give her money. The fact is we weren't there. We don't know exactly what they heard. We don't know all the evidence. Second, addressing the subject that started this thread, here's a real life scouter situation for your consideration. I recently took a group of scouts to Boundary Waters for an 8 day wilderness canoe trek. The boys who wanted to go had about a year and a half to get in shape. Nevertheless, one boy was 15 pounds over the BSA's height/weight maximum allowable weight when the time came for me to make the final determination of who was going. I called a meeting with the boy, his mom and our scoutmaster and said he couldn't go. Long story short, after much crying and debating, mom and scoutmaster convinced me to let the boy go. The morning of Day 3, on the second leg of a 1/2 mile portage, the scout didn't emerge. I backtracked to find him collapsed unconscious on the portage trail. Again, long story short, it turned out not to be fatal and we continued on our trek. Of course, the rest of the trek the other scouts had to portage his packs and his canoe but that's another story. So, assume the scout had died. I'm the adult leader in charge; I'm the one trained in CPR, Wilderness First Aid, Paddlecraft Safety, etc., etc. And I'm the one who signed the National Tour Permit avowing that I had all the Health Forms which were in order. What would you do if you were the scout's mom? Or, what if you were the scout's dad who had joint legal custody? Also, if I did get sued do you think I would or would not be covered by the BSA's liability insurance?