Stosh

Every day I went to work and the flag was half-masted out front I would stop and ask the security guard at the front desk, he could tell you exactly why the flag was half-masted. Not all businesses are the same.

Maybe BSA ought to come out with a new Boy Scout sash that has a blue stripe along one side so that all the Cubbies can continue to wear all their bling up until they are Eagle.

My vote would be the number of registered years. I don't think playing elitism of Eagles always being scouts is any difference than any other FC scout that spends a lifetime of working with Scouts, helping out in their churches, doing community projects, and maybe even having a career in the outdoors. Of course there are a few of us out there that have no idea who many years they have racked up in scouting. I lost count many years ago and never wore the service stars anyway. Next thing they'll be asking is if it's possible to double count when dual registered....

Welcome to the forum!

It's gotta be tough for the scout units that are chartered by businesses.

Let me get this straight. "Someone" asked the scouts to do a flag ceremony. BUT everyone tosses in their 2-cents worth of trivia. 1) For-profit business vs. not-for-profit business. It's okay for McDonalds, but not Chick-fil-A? It's okay for Target with it's "anything goes" bathroom policy, but not Hobby Lobby who closes on Sunday so families can have time together? Has to be a not-for-profit like Planned Parenthood to be okay. 2) Alcohol served on premise? It's okay for the American Legion to CO a scout unit when it serves alcohol off to the side of the large room where the scouts meet every week, but one can't accept volunteer help from "certain" people who work at "certain" places that serve alcohol. I think the boys should not be doing flags for anyone, anytime, anywhere except at unit events and BSA facilities. The next thing to hit the fan will be when the boys are asked to do the opening flag ceremony at a 49ers game and the players refuse to stand for the honors or even more politically incorrect when the boys are asked to do the flags at a Washington Redskins opening. It's time we get with the politically correct crowd and toss "help other people at all times" out of the oath or at least bring it up-to-date with wording such as "help other people at all times as long as it is doesn't cause angst for .0001% of the population. “You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the timeâ€.†― John Lydgate Recently I was a shelter manager for the American Red Cross and rode out Hurricane Matthew. The 150 people I was responsible for were without power and basically stranded for a week until the National Guard could cut their way into the small town where I was and then it took more time to restore power and get things back in order. One of the first things I got help with was acquiring a carton of cigarettes through the help of local law enforcement personnel. The smokers had run out and I would regularly go out to the smoking area (it was a school and state law prohibits smoking on school property) and let people "bum one from me". These were the people who were first to volunteer to help prepare MRE's for the shelter clients, they kept the bathrooms clean, and helped out with the medical needs of those in the shelter. After a week, these were my "go-to" people for anything needing to be done..... Yes, I was politically incorrect, broke a few rules along the way, did some "illegal" things, but in the long run, everything turned out okay and everyone eventually was safely returned back to their homes. "Help other people at all times." And by the way.... I don't smoke. If I worried about what other people thought about my helping others, I wouldn't get anything done.....ever.

It is a known fact that certain organizations want to be associated with the BSA brand, but not have to adhere to the franchise expectations. This isn't just with BSA I have seen it with other organizations as well.

It sounds as if the boy's parents are fully aware of what is going on. There doesn't seem to be a problem within the unit. What is being expressed is occurring at non-scouting situations. The boy is 17 years of age. If the adult wishes to circumvent the YPT guidelines, he does so at his own risk. The BSA rules of 18-21 still listed and treated as youth membership is an arbitrary rule created by BSA but has no bearing on any legal definition of adult vs. minor. The boy's parents are legally responsible for his welfare. I would defer to their judgement and stay out of it.

The council does not assign UC's, the District Commissioner does. If a unit does not want a UC, they can always say so and the UC will be placed with a unit that would like to have access to the UC's experience. One of the primary reasons why units do not know who their UC is, is because there seems to always be a shortage of volunteers for that position and the resources of the UC's the District does have go toward units having problems. We have a few units in the Council that tend to go their own way with the BSA program. They really don't want BSA to come in a see what they are up to and the UC is the standard link between District and unit. With no UC, then there is no "spying" going on. But if the unit ever gets into difficulty for whatever reason, they tend to contact the DE to come in and solve their problem. Basically that's not the DE's job, it's the job of the UC. Of course, at no fault of their own, the UC isn't going to know what's going on with the problem until it has escalated beyond the ability of the unit to handle it. Even with all my experience in psychology, counseling, youth work, small group dynamics, business management/leadership, I wouldn't touch this issue with a 10' pole. Why? By the time it has gotten to this point, it is basically pretty much unsolvable so it's going to be a no-win situation anyway. That means my psychology training, counseling, youth work, etc. are all telling me that staying home and watching TV or playing on the computer is going to be far more productive than walking blindly into a hornet's nest. I would politely decline getting involved with that situation. However, if I was a UC with constant contact with the unit on a regular basis and the unit leadership kept me up-to-date on the welfare of the unit, if something hiccups, I will know what went into leading up to the issue and would have had an opportunity to nip it in the bud early enough to keep it off of everyone's radar in the first place. What it all boils down to is how the unit wishes to handle it.....and how much the UC is willing to get involved in the escalated levels of conflict when things eventually boil over.

There are good UC's and there are bad UC's. There are good DE's and there are bad DE's. There are good SM's and there are bad SM's. ...etc. Speaking in sweeping generalities is not really a productive forum endeavor.

I have been a commissioner for a number of years and never had the council give directives that I was expected to toady up to. If that's the expectation of the council I haven't been involved in. If units are perceiving this, I have never heard it expressed. It would be interesting to know how extensive that is in scouting.

Or..... Contact the council office to see if YOU are registered. If not, notify the "leaders" of the pack that as soon as it becomes official, you would be happy to take on the position of Den Leader. Until then, one is not officially in the system, are not covered with the liability insurance, don't need YPT, don't need training, and could have your scouting career abruptly halted for any reason with no BSA backup to support you. I wouldn't recommend tight-rope walking without a net to anyone. Make sure you're registered, otherwise you are just another parent chaperon.

This is why it is forbidden to put protective sheaths on kitchen knives in the chuck boxes. It's better to just throw them in the bottom of the box and dig them out as needed when the time comes. If BSA were to incorporate appropriate fixed blade knife handling along with folding knife handling, the boys would be a lot safer. Most of the knife injuries I have seen over the years happened in the food prep area where safety circles and knife handling techniques are routinely ignored.

As a unit, what the pack does is pretty much irrelevant to the general operation of the den. If the pack activity sounds like your boys would like it, go for it. If not, ignore it. My boys just got back from an out-of-council activity that sounded like more fun than what the council was offering. No big deal. If the council doesn't like it, improve the program and my boys might reconsider next time. Run your den the way you would like, if the pack comes up with something that sounds like fun for your boys..... go for it. Otherwise if one is going to put a lot of energy into some activity, make it a den activity and let the pack committee worry about the big pack activities. If one signs on as a den leader, then be a den leader. Period.

I wear a sheath knife/belt ax combo all the time when I am in summer camp and I have attended a variety of different councils over the years. No one has ever challenged me on it's appropriateness. I have had some ask about it, but because it is BSA official equipment, I get some oohs and aaahs, but no bans.

He is "official" the minute the CM's registration form is turned into the council. The "Old CM's" position officially expires when he is removed from the BSA for some infraction or his registration expires at recharter time. I don't know what happens to his pack registration during a $1 transfer which may have occurred when he moved from pack to troop. Someone with a pay grade higher than mine might know what the policy on that is. My "guess" would be on a transfer, the registration from unit A ceases when registration to unit B is finalized in the council office. As far as training goes, that has no bearing on a person's registration. If one needed to be trained BEFORE their position was official, then a large number of scouters around the country would be in a heap of trouble.

If the "former CM" is no longer registered as a Cub Scout Leader in the pack, he/she shouldn't be signing anything. I would check with the DE to find out what's really going on with the pack and who signs what. It's not going to be a good thing to get down the trail a bit and find out one isn't even a registered scout leader and you're driving kids around on a regular basis.

Welcome to the forum. And thanks for helping out. I have found out over the years that many times, what appears to be greener grass on the other side of the fence still needs as much mowing and if it's greener probably has had more intensive work to keep it up. With that being said, I would focus on the boys one has been given responsibility for and let the others tend to their tasks. No. It's not idea, but it can be for the boys in your den. I have been a commissioner for a Pack that has a CubMaster.... period. He holds a pack meeting once a month and has other adults work with him to get the boys out of an activity of some sort. No dens, no awards, nothing but those two meetings. The parents seem to like it because it is no commitment on their part and their boys seem to be having fun. I'm thinking that what people want is what they make of it. If one is going to rely on others to make it, they need to be able to accept it as is, or work to make it what they want out of it. I was gone 5 weeks this summer with another commitment. I run a boy-led, patrol-method Boy Scout troop. I have 8 boys so it's only one patrol. When I left things were running pretty smoothly, but when I returned the ASM's had basically turned everything around. The boys were told to take 10 minutes after flags for their "patrol meeting" then come back over to where the adults were for the troop meeting that the adults would be running. It took a few glaring stares on their part, but they all seemed to accept the consensus of the boys that the "troop" consisted of the one patrol and the SM says they are to be running the show. At the end just before closing flags, the adults were given 5 minutes to make their brief announcements. I know that as soon as I step down as SM, the troop will revert back to adult-led, but until then, we're boy-led. Have I had people not want a boy-led program for their boys? Yep, they transfer out to high-profile adult-led programs all the time. What boy in his right mind wouldn't want the adults to cater a high adventure experience at no effort on their part? This is why boys from these kinds of troops can't start a campfire.

They stopped shipping strike anywhere matches in large quantities in that when the semi-truck hit a good bounce or had an accident, the matches in the cases often times started on fire. I don't know how they get around shipping in small quantities other than the fact that one or two boxes might not cause as big a fire as a whole case. It is a bit more sane than the fact that the old match books had the scratch pad on the front and now, for safety purposes, it is on the back. No more one-handed match lighting....

Shirt, pants/shorts, socks and belt are official uniform, necker and hat are troop optional. BSA literature explicitly says no blue jeans with Cub Scout uniform. When BSA was/is selling blue jeans, the fine print states they are not to be worn with the scout uniform shirt.

Ask your boys what they want to do, get them involved, maybe they have better ideas than the adults. And as a last resort, if they plan it with what they think are fun things to do, they might even show up for it.....

In recent years the basic BSA uniform, whether it be Cubs, Boys, or Venturers has become obsolete. It's now a free-for-all approach and units just make up their own rules as they go along. The problem goes all the way up to National. "Back in the day" when scouting was at it's peak, full uniforms were a common practice. Today's full-uniformed troops is an rare exception.

Rank is no guarantee they know the material. Being SPL/ASPL/Troop Guide isn't either. A Tenderfoot patrol leader knows fully-well whether or not one of his boys in his patrol served as patrol cook for the weekend and whether or not he slept in a tent he himself put up. If one is the PL, then it is assumed he is to be trusted with all the responsibilities associated with that POR, regardless of his rank. It always amazes me the "message" we give to our boys when it comes to POR's. We trust you, but only to a certain point. Scout spirit? Well, we don't trust you enough to sign off on that one. If you're not FC, you can't be trusted with all the responsibilities given to the position of PL. Sounds like adult created rules..... Your mileage may vary....

Not just parents but everyone from CPS to government schools bends over backwards putting some imaginary safety bubble around the kids. "Don't play with matches!!" When was the last time anyone saw a "book of matches"? With the campaign against smokers, even the BIC lighters are becoming a rarity in today's world. I don't smoke, but I do carry a lighter. It's called "Be Prepared."