Kaji

Eh, it's only a waste of money if they're not going into Boy Scouts afterward, no? If nothing else it can help excite some boys about moving into the new program. I remember myself being excited at finally being allowed to sport a pair of blue epaulets like the leaders wore (and seriously, if they continue on then the blue epaulets would be the only extra expense, at all of about $2.35 or so...).

It varies from religion to religion for both the youth and adult knots. The youth religious emblem program has a set of clearly-defined requirements for each level, and usually a prescribed program within which to complete them. Adult religious emblems, on the other hand, are a good deal stickier. Some religions have specific requirements as they do with their youth emblems. Others, such as Catholicism, have them set up as awards that the parish should surprise the scouter with after an extended period of outstanding service towards the religious emblem program (and even states that the limited pool of available awards is not to be handed out every year. So even if you're in a parish that is really aware of the existance of such an award, chances are still quite slim of getting it). Best course of action may be to talk to your priest about it.

Eh, to each their own. Personally, I'd welcome its return. I enjoyed it in my day, as did everyone else in my unit. As I said before, I'm kind of the opinion that a baseball cap has no place on a uniform, as a general rule.

From what I've seen, it really depends on the unit leadership in the end. I had a friend who was just about to make Eagle, but when an ASM (who was the founding SM for the troop some 30 years prior, for reference) was giving him his scoutmaster conference, the fact that the boy was Unitarian came up. Said ASM considers Unitarians to be tantamount to atheists, and so as a result basically had the boy thrown out of the troop (he ended up disappearing from day to day functions within the troop afterward due to the backlash, though). If your current unit becomes hostile to your beliefs, then so long as you don't have a mandate from your SE saying you've been expelled, you can always move to another unit.

Not necessarily the case right now, but just a question this post raised for me. Let's say that during a year someone uses to get his DL training knot he creates an activity book detailing things that can be done in the area, the cost of doing them, etc., but doesn't use it towards the knot he's crediting the year of service towards. Is it all right to therefore count it towards the Cub Scouter knot, or would he have to revise it/do it over for the other award during the years of service being used for it?

Go ahead and send an e-mail to Baptist_Paul@yahoo.co.jp and I'll see if I can't work out a trade with you if you want. I'm getting ready to head out of town for 10 days on Wednesday, but if a trade doesn't get sorted out before I go then we can just mail them when I get back if we both have something the other's interested in.

Man, I wish I still had my Cub Scout uniforms. Still have all the badges and everything, but the shirt went to my little brother, and then somewhere I don't remember, while the scarves and hats went to the boy down the street. At least I've still got my Webelos book...hehehe...

Eh, think they have a time and place. I remember one man who went to my church that had a shirt with a few spoof patches (Old Goat, Brooklynese, and Potty Trained) that he would break out for camporees and such. Also had another shirt he maintained with the proper insignia for more formal functions. Worked as a District Commissioner or something to that effect, if I recall...

I got turned down by a board once. Got told they didn't believe I was demonstrating leadership by serving as a den chief, and so they made me keep a journal of what I did in my job for 3 months. Got it on the second try. Little brother (who made Eagle in the very end) went up for his Tenderfoot board 3 times due to the fact that he had trouble remembering his knots after he got them signed off. If he hasn't actually completed the requirements to the satisfaction of the board, then they have the right to ask him to improve and come back.

emb: Do you mean scouts? Scouters technically aren't supposed to wear their sashes, although you'll sometimes see one break his out for a son's Eagle COH or similar event.

The handbook should mention the possibilty of earning them past the silver palm in a footnote. As to tracking requirments, you just have to set your own method up for doing so. But yes, it is possible to earn them again (Silver + Bronze for 20, Silver + Gold for 25, 2 Silver for 30, 2 Silver + Bronze for 35, etc.). Most I've ever seen is 5 or 6 silver on one ribbon before.

Seconding John here. I'm half as old as his sash, but I do the same thing with mine. It's probably the most unique part of any boy's experience in scouting.

I joined tiger cubs in 1989, so I'm hardly middle aged, but this should answer the question about badges: http://www.sageventure.com/history/cub/diamonds.htm Short of it is that yes, Cub Scouts have always had badges to show their accomplishments

Pardon the male ignorance about female fashion for a moment, but what exactly is the difference between a culotte and a plain old skirt?

One of my personal irks about my own uniform is when I feel a patch isn't completely sewn on, so I sewed my OA flap all the way around and never had any problems getting into the pocket when needed, even with the arrow charm hanging from the pocket. Just took a bit of extra playing around is all, really. If the boy doesn't mind just a quick run across the top of the patch and it's done well, that works too, though. I've also seen some people stitch 3 sides of it so that just the bottom edge where the button is is left open, which is probably the best of all worlds when you think about it.

GWD - You're on the mark, I just went over the rules for when you can and can't wear the uniform with a Webelos den a couple weeks ago. If the BSA picked them out and sent them that's one thing, but you're not allowed to yourself decide to wear your uniform to a political function of any sort because the views expressed may not necessarily be those of the BSA, and they don't want to deal with any backlash from misrepresentation. (And if Mike Walton's correct, then it could very well be construed as a federal crime in a sense for violating the BSA charter, but I don't think it'd get pressed that far for anything shy of a gay-rights rally, frankly...)

5 years in Cub Scouts followed by 7 years in Boy Scouts for a total of 12 consecutive years, but that's as a youth. For adult time I got one year in when I was 20 (took some time to find a new unit), and then went to Japan for a year, and am now back with the same unit for a second year. So for consecutive adult years I'm at 1 right now.

There's a case to be made for either one, really. My troop left it to the boy to plan out, which was really nice in many ways when planning my own ceremony because it meant I could have the details as I wanted (we were sponsored by a church, so we could use the sanctuary for the place, I could pick my own priest to say the blessing and benediction, and I could ask those who were most meaningful to me on the way to earning my Eagle to do things such as MC, give the charge, present the award, etc.). Personally I don't see something wrong with either one, and I kind of like how some people have been saying that in their units the troop usually does it, but the boys have the option to plan their own ceremony if they choose to do so. In the end what it boils down to, really, is that it's the boy's achievement, and it's important that he be allowed to celebrate it how he sees fit to do so (so long as he's not doing anything illegal/conflicting with the Scout Oath and Law).

With 30" of snow, is ANYONE going to be able to make it there? Might be better to reschedule the meeting, in all honesty...

Amen to the comment about efforts to make GSUSA co-ed! If anything is all-male these days it's seen as sexist, but if something is all-female people accept that women have different needs from men. Fact is, men have different needs from women as well, in spite of how much society may want to teach otherwise. Kudu: Where's this monopoly? The ratio might be like that of Microsoft to Apple, but I do beg to differ about there being one. If you don't like the BSA then you've got the option of the Campfire program that someone else has mentioned already, the Royal Rangers, or even that Spiral Scouts program that someone mentioned in another thread (all of which are co-ed). If you don't like the fact that they don't have the prestige that the BSA has attained, then perhaps that's a sign that people in those programs need to go out and do great things as well, and not be ashamed of their associations with the program. While I agree that returning to more of an outdoor focus would be good for the program as well, it's not like it hasn't been making progress in that direction. In 1972 they revised it so that the Camping merit badge wasn't even on the required list, you could do everything without even setting foot outside your city limits (this was also when Backpacking received its spot as a separate merit badge). 1979 they made it required again to try and rectify that problem and made hiking a required part of Second Class again. 1999 rolled around and they added Hiking and Cycling to the list of required merit badges, strengthening the outdoor requirements (granted, I'm not happy that they took Safety off the list as part of the trade, personally...). I'm sure that with time we'll see it come back even stronger. As EagleDad has been saying, while the program isn't perfect, it's quite good at what it does and what it is intended to do. While there's nothing wrong at all with having female leadership in units, and I agree that young men need to learn how to appropriately behave around young women, making the BSA into a coed program will only water it down, due to the aforementioned (if often denied) separate needs of men and women, and more particularly boys and girls in their teenage years.

Personally, I've found that there's no good method for applying patches that doesn't destroy the patch other than sewing. Annoying/time consuming as it may be to sit down and sew a number of patches, I encourage taking the time to do it, because a well-sewn patch isn't going to come off unless you want it to, period.

As I mentioned in the uniforms forum, I picked up a shirt from about 1960 and have all the insignia I need to outfit it properly to reflect what my current uniform would have looked like at that time (with the exception of a khaki Webelos/Arrow of Light award knot). One question that comes to mind, though. Looking at the shoulder, I'm noticing that there is no flag on it. I've seen a number of things in my old books over the years and recall seeing it placed where the jamboree patch would be on some cub uniforms from about that era, but I also know that the first sets of Webelos ribbons were designed to be at the top of the sleeve. Not so sure about leaders' uniforms, however. Does anyone happen to know (preferably from experience, but researched answers are fine) whether the flag was worn at all at that time? Thanks for the help! Kaji

Likewise. Thanks for posting them!

Almost forgot, also trying to find a 3-star National President's Honor Award patch as well. Got the 0, 1, and 2 star ones, just need to complete the set now...hehehe...

I picked up a lot of 10 of them, and my general principle in collecting is that I hold onto two, and the rest become trading stock. So I've got 8 to offer up, and I thought I might try to fill in the holes in my collection. My list of what I'm looking for is as follows: Honor Unit 1985 Quality Unit 2003 Quality Unit 2004 Quality Unit 2005 Quality Unit 2006 I also need all of the 100% Boys' Life variants. I'll 1:1 trade for the 1985 (up to two), anyone wanting to offer any of the Quality Unit patches on the list let me know by either posting in this thread or sending me an e-mail at Kaji_sensei@mac.com and we'll see what we can work out. Thanks for dropping in to have a look!