molscouter

Nah. The endless appeals would take too long. This KKK Nazi ought to get along well with the gang population found in most correctional facilities; 3 life sentences in one of them should suffice. Given the nature of the crime, federal civil rights charges would appear to be in order, conviction for which might merit a trip to the Federal Pen at Leavenworth.

A strict reading and enforcement of that school district's Code of Conduct would result in the suspension of any kid who rides a bike to school (bike chains are named on the banned list) and should result in the suspension of any high schooler who drives a car to school (more than likely has a tire iron in the trunk).

jet, To be fair, the original post said the kid would turn 10 on October 14. I don't know how it is in your neck of the woods, but around here, the cut off date is Sept. 1, so if you are just starting out in kindergarten and you turn 5 on Sept 2, you wait a year until you are almost 6 and are 6 for most of your kindergarten year. So a 4th grader with an October birthday would turn 10 as a rule. I loved your "My-parents-didn't-start-me-in-school-like-normal-kids-so-that-I-would-always-be-older-than-anyone-else-in-my-class-and-I-would-have-the-illusion-of-being-special" line though. Far too many of my sons' classmates should, if you go by the cut off date, be a year ahead of where they are in school but aren't because they have summer birthdays.(This message has been edited by molscouter)

If your area works anything like ours, the answer is likely to be it depends. My son's Scoutmaster has been around for a long time and knows a lot of people. He has been exposed to Scouts from many troops in our area through Eagle Boards, OA, etc., and has formed opinions on the standards of those troops and how they do things. I am quite certain that if my son were to have gone camping with certain troops, the Scoutmaster would have said no problem and signed off almost immediatly. There are other troops that there is no way that this would have happened, there would very much be a show-me attitude.

This could prove somewhat interesting for the new First Class requirement on practicing LNT on each of your 10 outings unless they give some sort of grace period. Are they going to require a kid who has been on any of the required 10 activities to go back and recount how he practiced LNT on them or does he just have to do it for the last one(s)? I'm sure guidance will be given, I just hope they've though that out. (This message has been edited by molscouter)

eisley, I've seen both in my time. For the current First Class recruiting requirement that came ib about 3-4 years ago, there was a grace period (six months?). For the bullying stuff put in a couple years ago at T-2-1, there was none.

Is the fact that the council seemingly did not follow procedure an additional appealable point? Get a look at what was/is being forwarded ASAP (hopefully it has not been forwarded already). They are stacking the deck against you at National.(This message has been edited by molscouter)

Re. counting things prior to getting the blue card, at the very least, I would not count anything done prior to joining Boy Scouts. A kid who took a school trip to the state capitol in 6th grade I would likely count towards Cit in the Nation, that same trip in 4th grade no way.

The answer to your last question is no. The BOR (with the possible exception of Eagle) is a troop function. One of the purposes of a BOR is to see how the youth views how the troop is doing. That cannot be done via another troop. In the case of an extremely small troop, I could see times where a Scouter from another unit may be asked to sit in (I know it's not by the book, but I said a very small unit who may not have 3 committee members available), but the BOR must be as fully unit based as possible. 80 kids and quarterly BORs make absolutely no sense whatsoever, either from the boys' view nor from the committee's. You say you are on the committee, at the next committee meeting, push for a monthly schedule (on demand would be better, but one step at a time). With 80 kids, you certainly should have enough committee people to set up some sort of rotating schedule. One final question, does the Scoutmaster only do SM Conferences once a quarter as well?

In one of your first posts you said something along the lines of the SM hold 3 positions in the district/council. Given that, I am not surprised at the outcome of the district appeal level. I would also not be shocked at a similar result at the council level. There are insiders and there are others, and your SM apparently is an insider. They are protecting their own. The participation percentage aspects are going to net them nothing at the national level. The troop/district/council (should they use the same reasoning) is plain wrong on this one, and will be told so. The spirit part may be a slight issue; should the council level appeal fail, you may wish to quietly gather some statements (in writing) from a few of the more mature scouts involved in the incident for use in an appeal to National. I say quietly because I could see coercion coming into play if it's done too overtly. And as someone said, I would definitely be looking for a transfer for son #2, and I would be looking at a troop that does not currently have "insider" leadership.

We didn't do anything at the May Pack Meeting specifically for the new Webelos IIs, but we did do something at the Boy Scout crossover ceremony in March. We had had an arrow mounted on a stand, then had the "graduating" Webelos present to the Webelos I den as a reminder to keep their eyes on the Arrow of Light and as a symbol that they were now the Boy Leaders of the Pack.

"I disagree; the bible is not clear on the issue, and difference Christian sects have widely different opinions." Merlyn, not every court decision is unanimous. While in case of the courts, majority rules, it still could be interpretted to mean the various rulings are not clear either. Interesting that you seem to want to pounce on disagreements about interpretations of the Bible, but accept majority rules in other cases when it suits your purpose. (This message has been edited by molscouter)

Ed, Reread what I wrote. I said I understand why BSA is asking for it, because they are conducting credit and background checks. My point was there numerous entities that ask for it as a matter of practice for no good reason and those are the one's who I object to giving it to. The doctor's office I mentioned is one example. One of my local grocery stores asks for it to obtain their discount card (the grapes are $3.00/lb, but if you have this card they're $2.00/lb). They can't tell me why, just that they need it. Is my money any better if they've checked my credit. They will accept my cash/check/credit/debit card either way; it's not affecting my ability to shop there.(This message has been edited by molscouter)

evmori said "Yeah pack, us bankers are dangerous! If it's required, ya gotta supply it! Plain & simple! There are 1001 ways for people to steal your identity! But you have to have something worth stealing!" Ed, who's to say it's required. In this case I understand, BSA is doing a background check and that's how credit agencies and government agencies track things. But most of the time, it's not necessary. Every time I go to the doctor, they ask for my SSN. They say the insurance company requires it. I say, no they don't, just submit it. And you know what, the insurance company processes the claim every time with no problems. Many states used to have your SSN as Drivers License number; they don't do that anymore. Why should private entities be allowed to?

The only concern I would have is moving on without his peers and how he would feel about that. That's a call we can't make. Does he know the current Webelos IIs well, so that he'll know people in the troop? Bob, I think by early, SC_Scouter meant early in relation to his den level.