jayfromcleveland

Being a new scouter myself, I'm probably very naive, but I seem to have read someplace that a scout promises to keep himself "physically strong." Maybe that's just some idealism for the boys? Perhaps adult leaders also don't need to worry about all that idealistic stuff about "mentally awake" and "morally straight"?

Hi folks, I'm a new scouter and have been trying to learn and understand patch placement on the uniform -- how to "read" square knots, and how to know what is and is not "GI" by BSA standards. Naturally, I see a lot of diverse uniforming, different from what's shown on the inspection guide at ScoutStuff.com. Most of the discrepancies I see are on the right sleeve. There's supposed to be flag and a Quality Unit patch. But I see a lot of scouters with patrol patches -- either their Wood Badge patrol, or their troop adult leader patrol or whatever. And there's one guy who has a region patch on his right sleeve. From what I can see, it seems that these folks are out of uniform. Is this the case? If not, is there another source for showing what exactly can or cannot be worn on the right sleeve (or elsewhere for that matter)? thanks, j

Bob insists: "My question for jay remains, what lawyers?" Gee Bob, I don't know, maybe the BSA's law firm, but I don't know the lawyers' names. I might be new to scouting and this forum, but I know how things play out in the real world. You can bet that the BSA's enemies like the ACLU will try to paint us all with this brush. Does that answer your question?

Hi folks, I'm new to this forum and a relatively new scouter, being my youngest son's Tiger Cub leader this year. We recently started a Boy Scout Troup for my oldest son, who just got his Arrow of Light. I've volunteered to be an Astronomy Merit Badge Counselor for our district/council. It'd be great to hear from anyone else who is also a counselor for this badge. I've been around astronomy circles, having published educational cartoons for many years. But I'm not sure what's entailed or expected of a merit badge counselor. Any greetings and/or sage advice would be greatly appreciated! thanks, jay

I also grieve for the children involved. But as a relatively new Scouter, this also angers me greatly. I've been defending the BSA against this sort of thing to those who make snide remarks about scouting. Not only that, our family has been selling (and buying) lots of popcorn, and I worked the Friends of Scouting campaign this year. We have NOT been devoting our time and money to fundraising just so the BSA can give those $$$ to some lawyers!