Stosh

Let's hope so for the safety of the boys!

It would seem that other boys are luckier than those in our council. Like I said, one goes with the hand they are dealt. The ONLY contact I have ever had with the Eagle Rank process as an adult leader is what I have done within the troop with the boy. The project through EBOR is all the Council's baby. They did call me once and question the worthwhile validity of one boy's project. It was evaluating military grave sites for appropriate markers for the Veteran's Administration. Once clarified with that quick phone call, the issue was resolved. That was while I was an ASM. The only other contact was from the Council office requesting a SM's referral for one of my Eagle candidates.

My kid brother is immune to pepper spray. During a training session one of the instructors came up behind him and sprayed pepper spray behind his face mask and he thought the guy was trying to screw up his vision by spraying water on his mask. After that he was the guy responsible to stand in the middle of the riot and spray 360o's. He thought it was a pretty easy job when the rest had real work to do.

Not in all units. My CO wants nothing to do with the operation of the units it CO's. One of my new adults is the COR.

I would think that if a tree tell on your tent, it wouldn't make much difference if it was caused by a microburst, tornado or wind shear. Over the years I've been in too many bad situations camping to appreciate any of them. If one needs a chain saw to get the equipment back out of the campsite, it's been a bad night.

I find the path of least resistance is to ignore those who are intolerant. One doesn't need free speech to ignore someone.

Hmmmmm, the day is coming...... Christian worship services are open to anyone wishing to come... thus it can be defined as a public place. Christian pastor reading from scripture about such things as sin, will soon be held accountable for promoting hate speech and be arrested. This is how the intolerant work to silence free speech. Free speech in America is no longer a basic freedom in the Bill of Rights, the others will fall one by one after that is successfully implemented.

Didn't they teach you to read the fine print in Law School? or did one just focus on writing it? My ASM had pages of legalese paperwork just to get us to summer camp. I have an ASM dedicated to just paperwork. I'm thinking that if we did have an itinerary change she'd be on top of it. It's kinda scary at times.

They call them Senior Patrol LEADER and Patrol LEADER and ScoutMASTER for obvious reasons.... If one doesn't have Leader as part of their title, then get out of the way of those who do.

Welcome!

It's always important to be paranoid BEFORE the accidents....

One has to remember that the scout is the purchaser of the service provided and the customer is always right. Otherwise they will purchase service from one's competitors. This is something BSA simply chooses to ignore and the statistics show it.

The definition of a totally adult-run program? If not, about as close as one can get. But this confirms it.

I had a full sized Ford van with a 302 V-8 engine and automatic transmission that would overheat when pulling the troop trailer more than 50 mph. Even if the tow unit is large enough to handle the weight, it still does a heavy duty strain/damage to the tow vehicle if it isn't rated for the tow.

Lent out my canoes last week to a young family, Mom, Dad and 2 boys, 6 and 8. They said that night was quite exciting to say the least. Dad said that a small tornado passed within a few hundred yards of their site. They figured it might have been a tornado in that the area was tore up more than the surrounding forest which was quite damaged as well.

Somehow Thriving and Stabilizing don't ring true as synonyms. Sounds more like a PC spin with an agenda to me.

Being a very subjective issue, more often than not the sign off on this one in my units gets passed off to me. It's something that gets addressed in the SMC. Normally a boy's PL signs off on advancement for all ranks except where designated otherwise. The SPL signs off on the troop officers and a consensus of PL's sign off on the SPL. During the SMC, the question is posed: "How well did you do on this Scout Spirit thing?" The rest is up to the boy to answer. Often times they are quite hard on themselves, but I generally go with what they tell me they have done and/or not done in this arena of their lives. Technically then, I think the boys are signing themselves off on this one. They know how it works and whether or not they are trying.

I have always felt that the speed limit was set for a reason. Those that follow it are not impeding traffic they are doing what is prudent for the situation. People who feel the need to speed are setting safety standards that take into account no one but themselves and their importance. They are the ones that are a danger, not those doing the speed limit. There is no such thing as a hazardous moving road-block. If everyone drove the speed limit no one would even notice those driving it. I always drive the speed limit on clear, nice days, rain, snow, sleet, blizzards, etc. will get me to go slower. I haven't had a ticket or accident now for 36 years.... If there's accidents going on around me, they are probably caused by 5 guys trying to pass me all at the same time. Of course it also helps to drive beater vehicles, too. No one in a brand new Lexis or Beamer is going to cut off an '04 pickup truck that has it's side bashed in. No, I didn't have an accident with the truck, I bought it that way. Great price reduction and accident deterrent all in one package.

I guess to answer that question, one just deals with the cards they get dealt. I would think that if one doesn't understand the dynamics of another person's situation, I for one, would defer placing any judgement on how which one is appropriately dealt with. I guess in the long run they tend to be "appropriate" for each council in that's how they have chosen to process EBOH's. There's a lot to be said about a scout working with familiar faces and those that have EBOR's with all strangers. The nervousness levels can vary quite a bit between these two options. I've been in this council for over 30 years and even then I do not recognize any of the people that sit on these EBOR's in my council.

Gee, Hedge, you're gonna make a good Heretic really quick like if you're not careful. (By the way, the smiley face doesn't mean "Just kidding" it means I'm please you have made good progress!) The boys will eventually see the value in your efforts and the results will come out at the Eagle COH speeches if not before. If your SM sees the results be sure to share the credit as a team effort on the adult's part. He'll appreciate it and eventually may have a "Come to Jesus" moment, too.

Okay let's look at it this way. 1) The boy has fulfilled all the requirements. He has already passed. 2) The boy goes in for what purpose other than getting the last requirement signed off? None. 3) What are they going to ask that will "flunk" him? Nothing. 4) What kinds of questions are they going to ask? Irrelevant. This is the time for the boy to go in there and brag about all he has done. Regale them with his stories of adventure. Impress them with his confidence and maturity. Show them they are looking at a brand new BSA Eagle. I have had boys come out of this experience, feeling excited and pumped. I have also had boys come away with wondering whether they "made it" or not. Something like this shouldn't end with a big question mark. It should be an exclamation mark!

I think the "professionalism" of the UC is the fact that he has a conflict of interest in that his son is a member of the unit he is assigned to. That would never happen in my council. As a mater of fact the conflict of interest turned into just plain conflict in the long run. It might have kept the hounds at bay had the UC not been the SPL's dad. Sometimes this arrangement works, sometimes it doesn't. In this care it didn't.

It would seem that every council does it differently. No troop involvement at all at any EBOR except the SM is invited to observe and at the end the Board maybe will ask a question or two of the SM with the candidate not present. They do have quite a number of candidates in that they hold EBOR's monthly for one evening, so scheduling is strict and the more the boy talks the less questions he will get. It's not like the guys tend to be adversarial, it's just that they will probably not be asking the kinds of questions the boys were used to with troop personnel involved. I always remind my boys that this board is THEIR EBOR and they have a right to control what's going on during the session as much as the adults.

@[member="meyerc13"} You are not being overly paranoid, you are being prudent. My former SM that I was ASM for would take the 24' double axle troop trailer, fully loaded pulling it with 4 boys in his Dodge Durango, averaging between 5 and 10 mph over the speed limit. I always drove the speed limit and arrived way after he did. How he got away with it all those years is beyond me. I slept easier at night after leaving that troop.

....and this is why BSA says no caravaning! ...and was the SUV sufficient to haul a troop trailer? The CRV's tend to be a bit on the light side and a high center of gravity. ...As one who has pulled a lot of different trailers over the years, I can assure you, there's a lot more to it than just dropping it on the ball, putting on the chains and plugging in the lights. Did they weigh the full trailer and check it against the tow capacity of the vehicle? Before I put any boys in the vehicle (which will add even more weight to deal with) I would have made sure I could handle the extra weight.