Kahuna

There seems to be a perception arising somewhere that patches for Direct Service Council, BSA, particularly CSPs, are ceasing to exist. I realize that Direct Service Council itself is somewhat ephemeral, but there were patches as recently as the last National Jamboree. Can anyone clarify this for a friend in Australia who is about to make a big investment in these patches? Bottom line question is: has anything changed as to the status of Direct Service over the last couple of years? Thanks in advance!

Sounds like things haven't changed a bit since I was a DE in the 1970s. I also left because of impossible goals set by National for local councils. I've thoroughly enjoyed being a volunteer ever since and seldom have had to call on "council" for any help.

Well, you can't fight it but you can't win. The smartphones will assimilate us, Resistance is futile. Best bet, as the man says, is to find sensible rules that can work in your troop environment. They just have too many features that are useful to rule them out because they cause some problems with game playing an texting.

Thanks for posting that, armcomm. I wasn't aware of the museum and some of the details on the museum page.

Both Taoism and Buddhism emphasize unity with the forces of the Universe. As a Buddhist, I see "God" as the spirit that guides the Universe. It's not hard for most kids to make that connection. Both groups try to avoid defining God. In fact, one of the prime tenets of Taoism is that the Tao that can be described is not really the Tao. Much of it is beyond human definition. If Scouts are making an effort to understand the spirit of the Universe, they are (IMHO) doing their "duty to God."

Having lived in Florida for many years, I've had the opportunity to see HOAs and Condo Associations in action. The leaders of those receive no remuneration in most cases and are doing it only for power. Some of the worst battles I've seen came at association meetings. It also helps to understand why, under Communism, the only reward you can earn is power and privilege. The extent to which people are motivated by those are indicative of how unlikely we are to see successful societies based on the assumption that power will ever be surrendered or used in the best interest of all.

I don't know if anyone has actually read this, but yesterday at the Sunshine Trade-O-Ree, I got this answered. Two expert patch dealers recommended not selling these as a set. Only two of the patches are worth anything: Denmark and England. They suggested putting one of those on eBay with no reserve and let the bidding begin! I'll follow up if he decides to sell them.

From a fellow attorney: Well said!

I would take exception. You can argue socialism, but Communism is just plain BAD! It has never worked anywhere it has been tried and in the Soviet Union, Cuba and North Korea, it has resulted in catastrophe after catastrophe. I confess to being a capitalist pig, but I've just not seen any case of good coming from Communism, whatever dictionary definitions you care to use.

This is the reason I always had a non-profit 501©(3) corporation to specifically own the unit gear. By law, such a corporation can only dispose of property by giving it to another non-profit, which is what we did when we finally closed down our unit. Several Scout units benefitted. We also always provided our own storage space for the gear. It's nice if the CO has a place and many do, but I liked to have it under my control. I had a garage full of troop gear for about a year.

Interesting! I've never heard that before, but it would be typical of a guy like Seeger. He was a lover of the outdoors and simple living. However, I don't think Seton was a Communist. There's a big difference between appreciating the American Indian way of communal living (which can be described as tribal communism) and the ideals of the Communist Party, which Seeger embraced at one time. And during that time, the Communist Party was represented by the Soviet Union under Stalin. I'm not dissing Seeger or standing up for Seton, just making an observation.

The whole purpose of Scouting since 1907 has been building character, citizenship, and fitness. We accomplish that essentially with outdoors, advancement, ideals, patrols, uniform, association with adults, leadership development, and personal growth. Sadly we must also follow a lot of guidelines in the interest of safety and liability, but the purpose hasn't changed. Anything else said that appears to confuse or contradict those goals is irrelevant. Baden-Powell and many others have and do wish for world peace and other things, but we as Scouters can only do what's in front of us to do.

Several States are moving in that direction. Of course, the main stream media is oblivious to the whole thing. I guess it's going to be up to me to write an op-ed to my local mullet wrapper about the process and send out emails to my state legislators.

I don't think I would want Scouts following me on Facebook, but FB, instant message and email are all trackable media. If you are carrying on a one-on-one conversation with a Scout, the records will back up what you talked about. Texting is not retrievable (or at least not easily), so I would avoid that unless necessary in an emergency. Seems to me that Troop websites or FB pages would be the place to communicate directly with Scouts. I don't really see the point in the requirement to copy another adult on an email directly to a Scout, but it can't hurt.

Merlin, the amendments are proposed at the convention, but the convention is called only for the purpose of voting on amendments which are proposed by the states.