Oak Tree

buckytom, I certainly can imagine the situation you describe, where everyone else is convinced that yes, the mothers are breaking into Polish when they want to make some private critique of someone. It's not a scene that makes for anyone feeling welcome. Anyone have a smartphone? Record the conversation at a meeting - just set your phone on 'record' before you walk in and leave it that way for the whole meeting. Get someone to translate for you (there must be an app for that :-) That could at least settle the question of what's being said. Or heck, just bring in a big ol' tape record

This is not correct. You won't get your Tour plan approved just because some place has amenities. It needs to be on the Council approved list... they don't have time to approve new places just because that's where you want to go. I just about spit coffee all over my computer when I read this response. And I'm not even drinking coffee. Our council office will approve any tour permit we fax in, as far as we can tell. We pick any park we like, any distance we like. We've been to state parks, national forests, county parks, city parks, national parks, private land, military bases, parks

So there are multiple parts to this question, and SeattlePioneer, I'm not sure what your point is. You ask a simple question in the topic, people answer it, and then you tell them that they can't get the information they are asking for. The questions I would ask are: Why was he expelled? Here I'm looking for things like - dangerous behaviors, sneaky behaviors, illegal behaviors, or something else that I might want to take some action on ahead of time. What might you recommend I do to head off any similar problems? There might actually be some relatively straightforward answers here t

The most common place I've seen it worn is on the collar point. It is not officially correct, but it's not that unusual to see.

Packsaddle - I guess the thing I find "strange" about the BSA's religious beliefs is the incongruous specificity of one of the beliefs. It's not one of the ten commandments, and the BSA does not apply the same stringency to the ten commandments - the BSA does not ban "avowed adulterers"; nor does it have hard rules on the 'seven deadly sins' - the BSA does not ban the gluttons (those with BMI over 35, or alcoholics) nor the lustful ("avowed readers of pornography", maybe), nor those with anger management problems, nor the lazy, arrogant, greedy, or jealous. And yes, there is indeed some irony

My thanks to the moderator for moving this to Issues and Politics - I thought I was going to be asked which forum but apparently I'd already selected it somehow. I'm also not sure what the deal is with the links I tried to post - the forum software is doing some funny things automatically. At any rate, this poll has been asked with the same wording over a number of years and this is the first time it came out with a majority. Yes, I realize the percentages change depending on the exact wording. And yes, there are going to be many instances of states choosing not to allow gay marria

Just saw this article: "A majority now backs gay marriage." http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/slim-majority-back-gay-marriage-post-abc-poll-says/2011/03/17/ABhMc7o_story.html?hpid=z3 Five states and D.C. now allow gay marriage. http://articles.cnn.com/2010-03-02/politics/dc.same.sex.marriage_1_same-sex-chief-justice-john-roberts-high-profile-issue?_s=PM:POLITICS 77% of Americans were in favor of the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" which passed in December. The BSA is becoming increasing out-of-step with public opinion. Is there any other organization, except for

Why would you think that? (and I think you meant Venturing crews, not Varsity). I very much doubt it.

Well, as pointed out numerous times in numerous threads, the G2SS is a guide except where it is bold type and then it is BSA policy and rule. From the G2SS: BSA Rules and Policies Bold type throughout the Guide to Safe Scouting denotes BSA rules and policies. http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/HealthandSafety/Resources/Guidetosafescouting.aspx'>http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/HealthandSafety/Resources/Guidetosafescouting.aspx That would be "rules and policies" as oppossed to "guidelines". Yarrrr! And Beavah says da former practice of using boldface for "policies" in the G2

Once again, I find myself in agreement with TwoCubDad. I love the clever part of the solution. There is a "remarks" section on each Scout in TroopMaster. You can enter up to 400 characters there. You don't have to go into great detail - but at least provide enough information that the other troop knows they could ask more information. "BoR was held on XX/XX/XX. Scout was expelled from troop. Council was present and informed us they would consider revoking Scout's membership in BSA." If that's not enough to get them to ask questions, then they don't want to know. It's not libel if i

I can't imagine that the BSA has specific guidance on this topic, as it would vary greatly. The Cubmaster's argument is specious - this is not about what people are allowed to do by the U.S. Constitution. It's about not being disruptive. The general rule is that we ask parents not to be disruptive at den meetings. The den leader has every right to expect that. I'm not clear on whether the mothers are doing things that are disruptive simply by speaking (would it still be disruptive if they were speaking English?) Why is the language disruptive? There's another argument - w

QU is a unit award. It is associated with the unit number, as far as I'm concerned. So if you wear the unit number, you also wear the QU strip that says "this unit is a quality unit." We just buy ours at the Scout store. They always have lots.

moosetracker, what you're doing sounds great. I wish there were more like you. Thanks for your service. I don't really have a good answer for IOLS, other than doing it the way we do it with Scouts. Have each individual person demonstrate that they have the skills. Some of it could be with a computerized test. Some of it would have to be done in person. That assumes that you want to keep IOLS more or less with the same goal. When we were taking the class, though, we were commenting that what we wanted out of the class wasn't really so much "how to do the skills", but rather, "how to t

Yes. Exactly.

There was one petite lady at training who was wearing an actual Cub Scout shirt. It took me a minute to realize that something about her uniform looked wrong. I'm assuming she just had trouble finding an adult BSA shirt that fit well enough. I liked her solution.

The part I like about training is that you get to meet other Scouters, here their ideas, and maybe pick up a little enthusiasm. At this point of my Scouting career, I don't expect to learn anything from any BSA course. I have really enjoyed University of Scouting classes and I really liked Wood Badge. The Scoutmaster-specific course and IOLS were just absolute, complete wastes of time. In fact, it's hard to imagine how this wouldn't be the case, since they appeared to be geared for people who didn't know anything about Scouting. I understand that you might occasionally have someone

In general, I've seen that Scouts with dads who are ASMs tend to stick with the troop longer and are more likely to earn Eagle. But it varies a lot and there are certainly many kids of ASMs who drop out. Give your son space, whether you register or not. As far as your son goes, you could join or not join, either way. As far as your wife goes, you should not join. You need to have your wife's support. She probably knows better than you in this case anyway, but even if she didn't, I'd still recommend going with her recommendation. You want her goodwill. I'll repeat it (and not just b

Is it proper for the COR to meet with someone who has volunteered to be CC and turn them down? It can be, sure. Many IHs would delegate that responsibility to the COR. The IH has final say on everyone, even if a signature is not required. He or she can turn down a choice for treasurer or den leader, or could appoint someone as Scoutmaster over the objection of the COR and CC. I'd suggesting treading a little more lightly, though. The COR works for the IH, and serves at the pleasure of the IH. The COR and IH really need to be on the same page.

My last post may have been a bit one-sided. I think Lisabob captures my actual position. I don't object to advice that says "depending on your CO, you might want to run this by them", or something like that. The advice statements that I find less useful are the ones that presume the CO is taking an active role in the leadership of the pack. Or as SeattlePioneer puts it, "No harm in asking about where the chartered organization is". Yes, there are times when the official answer has to be the one you give. If you want to remove a CC, you have to go to the CO. And as Beavah points

I'm with SeattlePioneer on the base premise here, which is that the forum often directs people with problems to go talk to their CO, despite the fact that it's a minority of the time that the CO would be a meaningful place to go. We have a good relationship with our CO. The church gives us space, signs all our forms, sometimes helps out with religious awards, works with us on Scout Sunday, lets us do service projects for them. Even so, I don't think I'd ever expect to go to the COR or CO with a problem like not being able to find a Cubmaster. In fact, I'm hard-pressed to think of a situat

There's no reason the district couldn't communicate the information via email. You shouldn't have to physically appear at Roundtable just to get information. There's no way I would change our troop meeting night if district changed Roundtable. People have joined the troop knowing that it meets on one particular day. They've adjusted their other activities to accommodate that. Our facility is used by other groups on other days. I'm with SMT224 - it may not be literally carved in stone, but it might as well be.

A Lad who has never used illegal drugs might upset the Board when he says that he is in favor of legalizing them. How about the Lad who might agree with the Supreme Court ruling that funeral picketing is free speech? I would personally be fascinated with that discussion. If the boy has well-articulated positions, I'd love to listen. But yes, it's possible there might be a board member who could take offense. Those positions are relatively mainstream alternatives - one could imagine far more inflammatory positions a Scout could take on current events. Most of the boards I've see

And most important get training dates out on the council calender early I couldn't agree more with this. As pack trainer, I really wanted to encourage all my den leaders to get training. But I would really want to have all the training on the calendar for many months in advance so that I could promote it, I could ask them which training they were planning to attend, we could avoid conflicts, etc. It's common for these things to show up one month in advance, and that's just not enough time. I don't want to be constantly checking the calendar.

This happens regularly in our pack when someone joins at the beginning of their fifth grade year. Most of them earn both Webelos and Arrow of Light by March, although it requires some focus. If they complete the requirements, that's definitely the way to go.

The CO has always been responsible. The unit leaders are agents of the CO. Liability has always rested with the CO.