BartHumphries

Well, a kiss on the cheek is basically the only kind of sexual harassment that a six-year old knows about (usually, hopefully). It's wrong. Yes, about as wrong as punching someone. Leaving a bruise is not the sole definition of physical harassment. Violating someone else's personal space, not just smack talking and "getting up in their face" but physically grabbing them and doing something is something that should be nipped in the bud. Now, for a first offense, what's appropriate? Usually just a reprimand. For a second and third, what's appropriate? Well, it depends on whether or not verbal reprimands work. Counseling? Grounding? Having to go talk with a principal? Suspension? Suspension is probably wildly inappropriate for a first offense, presuming that someone just didn't know better. Sometimes, though, the thing a person is punished for is the straw that broke the camel's back. Maybe they were dropping ice cubes down people's shirts, maybe they were "sycing" people out and making the person flinch or smacking them on the shoulder or back "playfully" hard enough to cause pain and finally, finally, verbal reprimands every day all week for just being a mean kid in the school classroom just haven't seemed to do anything and the thing that ostensibly they're being "harshly" punished for is just the straw that broke the camel's back. I've seen that a few times before.

Well, the uniform will probably remain in the stores for another year or two (with no new centennial uniforms being made) so that the surplus ones can be sold off without having to dump the prices, while gradually phasing back in the regular uniforms to replace sold stock. I do want to know the new (?) requirements for the Quality Unit patch (or whatever it will be called next) as, again, my unit has been around for many years but hasn't ever bothered with filling out the paperwork for it. I'd really like to change that this next year. We are a small troop, though (right now we only have 8 boys), so hopefully the requirements will be variable enough to be challenging (yet doable) for both small and large units.(This message has been edited by BartHumphries)

Yes, of course National cares. The real question is not whether they care, but whether they care about the same things that you care about and whether they have the same priorities that you have. I found the application for for the National Outdoor Challenge Award to be particularly straight forward. I'm not sure what you found confusing there. It's a series of Yes/No boxes -- you must be able to check Yes to get the Challenge Award. The National Outdoor Badges are something different from the Challenge Award and have different requirements. Again, I saw nothing confusing there. As to the Geocaching Merit Badge book, who cares -- I rarely ever buy the actual merit badge books. If I want a book explaining something, I can usually find better books in the local library. For instance, the shotgun merit badge book -- why would we use that when the merit badge requirements are available online and we have professional shotgun instructors to teach us? I hope nobody is teaching a boy that the be-all and end-all of a subject is wholly summarized within the thin walls of a merit badge pamphlet. There's a whole lot more to any subject than can possibly be printed in one small book. The merit badge books are more like basic guidelines that tell you where to start when you're beginning to learn about a subject. Anyway, let me sum up. Yes they care, but maybe not about what you care about. I don't see what's confusing about the websites you linked. I don't see the bloody point in buying any of the merit badge books except as a starter pamphlet for a subject so I really don't see a problem with no geocaching merit badge book.

Is there a number of hours you have to hit to order the patch, because I'm not seeing anything like that? One hour? 20 hours? 100 hours? 1000 hours? Just put some part of our service hours into the system to cover ourselves and buy the patches? Any service counts, right? Like, raking pine needles for a widow (houses up here must have a 50' cleared area around each home, to help prevent forest fires in populated areas) or doing similar things counts as well as service to the community at large?

What's a segment patch?

So... apparently this patch is still available? We've done a lot of service, but the http://www.goodturnforamerica.org/ website basically seems to be pretty defunct. Was there ever a limit for how many hours of service were required to earn the patch? It looks like we can still buy the patches -- may we?

Make sure you get signed permission to post the boy's photos and information online. The thing about Facebook, like about any online content, is that there really isn't a way to control the content. Whatever is shown, whatever images you see, whatever music you hear, there is always a way to rip that onto your hard drive and do whatever you want with it. So make sure the parents are ok with that. I know I've seen permission forms somewhere -- a quick Google search turned this up: http://www.bsatroop137.us/upldDocuments/Unit123/PublicityPermission.pdf

Hunh. My 40+ year old unit has never earned a Quality Unit Award before -- nobody ever really looked at it. I though that, just over a month from now at the beginning of November, the Scoutmaster and Unit Committee Chair would chat and set goals for next yet. I do hope they change the first line, since all leaders must be 100% trained now. It would be nice to know sooner rather than later what type of goals we'll have to be working towards. This'll affect the Scouter's Key, as you have to be a quality unit two out of the three years. Setting unit goals seemed like it would have worked well, as it could be adjusted for small and large units. If a unit has 60 boys, recruiting 5 more isn't that big of a deal. If a unit has 5 boys, recruiting 5 boys is pretty huge. Well, I guess it's just a waiting game now to see how it all turns out?

Tell them that they have to be Youth Protection trained. Just go to myscouting.org, register, take a 20 minute class, print out the certificate and you're fine and dandy and ready to go on on a campout or to a summer camp or whatever or wherever with the troop. Seriously, with time spent registering for myscouting.org, it might take up a whole 30 minutes of your life and there's absolutely no cost associated with it, not to mention nobody can complain that you're giving anyone a free ride or not enforcing the rules. It's so short, simple, cheap, and easy, just do it. Now, if they wanted to wear a scout uniform while with the troop, they'd have to register as an adult scouter and wait for the background check, etc.

So, we'd really like to be a "quality unit" in 2011. Is the Centennial Quality Unit Award going to change back to the 2011 National Quality Unit or maybe just 2011 Quality Unit?