Oak Tree

Neil, Right. I can appreciate that there are some individuals in government offices who have a customer focus, and I'm sure that a number of agencies have conflicting goals (e.g., keep taxpayers happy but collect all the taxes). However, the thing about government that bothers me most is the lack of competition that drives any change in behavior. I'd like to see the government open two DMV offices, one run by private enterprise and one by the government. Maybe even use the same examiners. I'd like to see the private one offer longer hours, guaranteed time slot reservation (for a fee

I think I'm going to have to side with Neil on this one. Any good customer-serving business will try to provide services when they are most valuable. Since Neil has observed when people mostly attend meetings, it seems entirely reasonable to schedule the meetings when the most people do attend. (As an aside - government agencies aren't focused on customer-serving - it just amazes me at how unresponsive they are to consumer demands.)

Various marketing activities - being featured in Boys' Life, or various other places - can require the uniform. Our summer camp requires the full uniform if you want to participate in the flag ceremony. NAYLE does require it, I think, Beav. "As a NAYLE Participant, I will: [...] -Wear my full, official BSA Field Uniform or proper clothing as required" I can imagine any number of specific instances where you might be required to wear your uniform in order to participate in some specific activity - "report to the governor", or local town flag-raising, or teaching a class on Scout

"At present, the knots devices are: Cub Scout, Webelos Scout, Boy Scout, Venturing, Sea Scouts, Varsity Scout, Commissioner, and District." As Eagle92 referenced, there are more. There are also two devices that can be attached to the James West knot. The 1910 Society ($25,000) and the Founders Circle ($100,000 via will/trust/life insurance). http://usscouts.org/awards/jameswest.asp#1910 Philmont Training Center has a device that goes on the PTC Masters Track knot. http://usscouts.org/awards/Philmont.asp You can also wear Eagle palm devices on the Eagle knot. There are br

There are various places in Scout literature that explain that you should file a tour permit and why that is the case. In none of those places that I've ever seen is the word insurance mentioned. Our council will routinely approve tour permits on the spot. Our normal policy is to fax it in, then call the office and ask them for the approval number. They always give it. I don't know that they even glance at them. They appear to feel that the purpose is to give the unit leaders a checklist to go down, and that's how we treat it too. But it definitely doesn't take any time to get them appro

The first time I heard "fail" used as a noun, I believe it was from kids. As for who decides these things, the answer is "no one" and "everyone".

I had three ACMs for most of my time as Cubmaster. I wouldn't think of doing the CM job again without that kind of help. Worked out great. Just try to give each one some clearly defined role.

This particular phrase in the guidelines allows for a bit of parsing - "Scouters should neither seek awards designed for youth members nor wear them on the Scouter uniform". There are a number of awards that can be earned by either a youth or an adult. As such, those awards are not really "designed for youth members", but rather are designed for everyone. The historic trails award, the jamboree patch, and many knots fall into this category, for example. The guide specifically lists the five knots that can *only* be earned by youth, but there are roughly seven other knots that can be ea

Brent, Thanks for the tip on un-archiving. Just tried it and it works. It's not ideal from my perspective, but it's good to have. I'd like to be able to look at these Scouts in the archive and see what they attended, and I'd like to be able to see what our event attendance was for events in the past without having to un-archive all of the Scouts who were in the troop at that time. But the information is there, which is more than I knew before. Thanks! As for attendance varying throughout the year, I checked. We've had nine Scouts join our troop this year at some time other than cro

TroopMaster

I've asked this question at some of our leader training sessions. The majority answer I received is that the boys are in Scouts because they like the chance to hang out with their friends while getting a chance to participate in some cool activities. I try to remember that when we discuss how disciplined, how organized, how much advancement we want to do. We work all that in, because just "hanging out" with no purpose quickly goes astray, but I also don't try to push too hard to make sure they all get Eagle, or drill them repeatedly on Scout skills, or worry about having some idle t

The number of knots that will fit on a uniform varies dramatically with the size of the uniform, the particular style, and the number of other badges one wishes to wear in that space. In addition to the world crest, the centennial ring also takes up space here, as do the service stars. Even on an extra-large shirt, this can significantly limit the number of knots that can be worn unless you move the world crest up. If you have a shirt that has ten inches or a bit less from the pocket seam to the shoulder seam (my XXL shirts range from 9" to 10"), and you wear a World Crest verticall

Eagle732, You don't need to send someone to NYLT to be a gold unit. My unit has sent someone one time, I think, but it looks to me like we would qualify for gold every year even without that. I can't see how it's wrong to encourage NYLT. If we don't want to encourage it, we shouldn't put it on. Brent - one of the problems with TroopMaster is that when you archive someone, you lose the history of the events that they have attended. I agree, with 14 Scouts it isn't bad (but even then, membership can vary from month to month as two Scouts leave at various times and two new Scout

My initial reaction to these goals is that they are pretty good. The old idea of setting your own goals was useful for making progress, but was pretty useless as telling you anything that would let you compare one troop with another. I like the more balanced requirements - adding in camping, service projects, etc. I really like doing this measurement at recharter time. The old system produced some very strange calculations. Here are some specific comments: 1. Advancement - This is a reasonable requirement, although it gives more benefit to younger troops that have lots m

In some states its a crime to simply have someone elses medication in your posession unless you are the parent. Really? Can you point me to an actual reference on this? I don't know it to be wrong, but there just seem to be so many situations where you might want someone other than a parent to hold on to someone's medication, that I find it hard to believe.

We do ours four times a year, at the beginning of March, June, September, and December. I view it as a chance to build support among the parents by giving them a chance to be proud of their son's accomplishments.

How would this change anything? If your statement still outlaws homosexual behavior, groups will still very much object to it. I don't think it buys you anything in terms of good will. You would now welcome people who openly said they were non-practicing homosexuals. Is there a large pool of those people to draw from? I don't think you would actually see benefits 1, 2, or 4, and I don't see how 3 is a change or a benefit. I think that such an open "Declaration of Family Values" would accelerate the perception of Scouting being a right-wing organization. There is inev

So how do you protect yourself and gear from becoming infested?????? Don't camp in cabins.

From the G2SS: "Pointing any type of firearm or simulated firearm at any individual is unauthorized." My interpretation of this is that they are talking solely about devices like paintball guns and laser guns, where the device is actually intended to resemble (simulate) a firearm. I don't believe this refers to sticks or fingers or completely pretend weapons. Later in the paragraph the G2SS states: "The use of paintball guns, laser guns or similar devices may be utilized in target shooting" - again emphasizing the type of simulated weapons that they are talking about.

Hard to imagine how I could agree more.

I agree that troops are all over the place on this, and there is no "right" answer, nor is there something a troop "should" do, but different styles will work for different troops. What we do: Annual registration fees - troop covers these for adults cost of facilities on campouts - youth and adults each pay their share cost of food - adults pay for their food cost of gas - this gets split among the Scouts training fees - covered by the troop Are the rules for summer camp the same as weekend campouts? - the camp itself offers a couple of free adults and the rest pay a discounte

Scoutfish - that's how it's supposed to be! Fun! Good work.

We camp every month. Sometimes we'll even have an extra event. We probably offer 15-16 outings per year on average.

Gary: We sure would not like the boys to have us time, where they can bond, stay up all night tell stories and Jokes, make lots of noise, or just have some fun playing games. Its all a matter of knowing your YM and trusting them to make good choices on their own. Well, I have an award for people who put things in other people's mouths. All I did was relate my experience, but hey, feel free to mock me all you want. Do you always trust all of your young men to make good choices in all situations? Never have to ask any of your Scouts to quiet down when other Scouts are trying to get t

We found that larger tents tended to collect Scouts in them, kept them up longer, made more noise, and allowed for more secretive activities (what kind of card game are you playing in there?) Hence, we do all two-man tents with two zippers and two vestibules. Works great for us.