Merri

Sorry, I can't figure out how to respond to individual posts. Dan, I have confirmed with the SM that my son can wear his current official uniform pants and the new zip-off uniform pants when those come out. I've suggested that option be offered to all the scouts but at least one person in the troop leadership is pushing hard for all the boys to have the same pants from campmor. EagleinKY, those pants are khaki.

I appreciate all the responses to my question. I guess I should have provided a little background to explain why I question this policy. This troop has never enforced wearing a full class uniform to meetings or other activities. They asked that the boys wear neat khakis or jeans with the uniform shirt if they didn't want to buy the uniform pants/shorts. My son usually opted for khakis. The problem was that many boys didn't. There were boys who wore basketball shorts, flip flops, and even a baseball uniform to meetings. At one CoH, a boy wore bright red basketball shorts. The SMs addressed the issue many times but it kept occurring. I've seen boys show up for trips and meetings in uniform shirts covered with stains, uniform shirts with insignia hanging off or missing, and wearing pants or shorts that I would be ashamed to put in the Goodwill box. When my son was called out for OA, he was told he had to have a full class A uniform so we bought the official uniform pants. He's been wearing them to meetings ever since, as have many of the guys who went through OA with him as well as a lot of the younger, newer, really gung-ho scouts. My son doesn't like the uniform pants (who does?) but he is a good scout (despite having a mom who occasionally questions policies made up by hardworking volunteers) so he wears them. So this "policy" would seem to be aimed to correct a problem caused by a relatively small handful of scouts and was communicated via email in a manner that I found just a little bit highhanded. Add to that, it's not the first policy this troop has made up on the fly. We probably lost a few scouts over the attendance policy. I'd hate to lose any of the new scouts because they can't afford to buy another pair of pants after already purchasing a full class A uniform. Thanks again for all the responses.

Can a Boy Scout troop set its own uniform policy? My son's troop has decided that all boys and scoutmasters will wear identical zip-off convertible pants sold by Campmor. The troop will order them but scouts are responsible for the cost ($25). Can they do this? My son has the official uniform pants and I'm annoyed at being told I must buy yet another pair of pants.

>The Girl Scouts took the "God issue" out of the argument by doing away with that >requirement. I don't understand what you mean about the Girl Scouts doing away with the requirement. The first part of the Girl Scout promise is still to "serve God and my country". Perhaps the change you're referring to is the policy change which states: Girl Scouts of the USA makes no attempt to define or interpret the word "God" in the Girl Scout Promise. It looks to individual members to establish for themselves the nature of their spiritual beliefs. When making the Girl Scout Promise, individuals may substitute wording appropriate to their own spiritual beliefs for the word "God." (Source: Leader's Digest Blue Book of Basic Documents, 2003) Since the Boy Scouts of America policy is not to define God for individual members, the bottom line is pretty much the same, isn't it? > So the ACLU won. I'm pretty sure the ACLU didn't have anything to do with it.