Oak Tree

if you do an unapproved activity with your unit and an accident happens, BSA insurance will not cover it. Note that this refers specifically to the list of "Unauthorized and Restricted Activities" and not to other violations of the rules. So there is no insurance for ATVs, boxing, karate, chainsaws, abandoned mine exploration, football teams, fireworks, hang-gliders, hot air balloons, parachuting, go-carts, motorbikes, hunting, jet-skis, parasailing, bungee jumping, water chugging, technical tree climbing, paintball, and laser tag. See the G2SS for precise wording - my paraphrase co

I'd go with Troop Guide.

I want to keep my butt out of hot water also. As long as you are using a plausible interpretation of the rules, there won't be any problem. Well, you could always have problems - kids can get hurt on any trip - but the problem won't be because of the interpretation of the rules. I look at it this way - if everything goes fine, no one's butt is in hot water. If things go wrong and a kid gets hurt and the parents blame you, they will blame you whether or not you were following their exact interpretation of the rules. Go out, follow the rules as they make sense the best you can,

The Guide to Safe Scouting's wording on this is really terrible. I don't understand why they break out "Family Camping" without clarifying what context they are talking about it in. At any rate, the above interpretation is not what I'd come up with. But I'd just say - hey, the whole pack is invited if they want to come. If no other dens show up, not the problem of the den that does. But if you just call it family camping and say that that's ok regardless, then you're good. Really, it's hard to see a problem here other than just trying not to intentionally break the rules. Sounds

Seems to me the debate is really over what the other groups can call themselves. There is no doubt that other groups can spring up and offer outdoor adventure and mimic most all aspects of the Boy Scout program (or whichever aspects they want to.) See Royal Rangers, for example. I think a good analogy would be whether you are allowed to sell ping-pong tables. You can sell the tables, you can make up your own rules or use existing ones, but can you call it "Ping Pong"? Feels to me more like a trademark issue than a monopoly issue. The trademark issue could exist entirely apart fro

Based on my experience at the jamboree, "and more" means exactly one thing: iPods. That's all we charged, cell phones and iPods. We had a giant array of solar panels and we couldn't keep up with demand.

The adults have lusted after a shower. The Scouts don't seem to care about that option. A shower seems entirely workable. We've also mentioned a portable satellite dish for providing parents with a live video feed, although that was more tongue-in-cheek - I don't think I actually want that.

I review resumes regularly. I've received lots of advice and training from HR. There are hot issues to avoid - you don't ask how old someone is, or whether they plan to have children, or what visa they are on (there is other approved wording), or whether a woman is pregnant. Essentially, don't ask about things that aren't related to doing the job. But I've never received any advice to disregard leadership positions in religious groups. Clearly I would not ask what religion a person is, but someone's leadership and paperwork skills could certainly be job related.

Of course it has to be a whole day-hike, like 6:00 am - 6:00 pm Is there somewhere that I can point to where this is specified? That is, day hike is like day camp, not just a "hike during the day."The mumbling you hear is Stosh who has his tongue firmly in his cheek. He was, in my interpretation, poking fun at those who seem to have an overly aggressive interpretation of requirements from time to time. He did actually give you a clue by saying "if you actually believe this you don't deserve being a Web DL.):-)"

Our council program is similar to infoscouter's, except that ours is only once a year. From our course catalog it looks like the council offers perhaps slightly more classes but has a few less attendees. It's a huge event to put on. It looked like around 198 instructor/classroom combinations.

They are Explorer posts, which are LFL units.

Gern, I'm not sure that a racial nondiscrimination statement is permitted by Dale. My understanding was that a group can override state interests when the group has a basic core belief that speaks to the choice. That's why Scouting declared that it was a religious organization. The Jaycees, though, were not able to exclude women, because there was nothing about what they did that was exclusive to women. So while the KKK can presumably voluntarily select racially based leaders (and I would presume, so could the NAACP), other groups that do not mention race in their mission stat

Good story, SR540Beaver. I hadn't really factored that in to my thinking. :-) The two times that I can immediately recall about adults putting on unscoutlike displays were both in cases where the parent was at a troop meeting and felt their son was being treated unfairly. For now I'll trust my committee to behave calmly and see if I can find a way to have no parents at all at my troop meetings :-)

Gern - I am guessing that non-discrimination on the basis of race is the order of the day. Here are a few supporting pieces of evidence: "The BSA Foundation is committed to ensuring that no person is excluded from, or denied the benefits of, our services on the basis of race, color, or national origin." (http://www.scouting.org/filestore/bsafoundation/nondiscrimination.pdf) "Membership in Scouting, advancement, and achievement of leadership in Scouting units are open to all youth without regard to race or ethnic background and are based entirely upon individual merit." Youth Appl

"If the local option (as some of you call it) was instated gay activist groups would just move to the next level the CO, with the same arguments about discrimination." Since most of the COs are churches, good luck with that. Gay activists are free to go pound on the churches right now to get them to open up all of their other leadership position, but not a lot of denominations seem to be appointing gay leaders. Churches have an established right to choose their leadership based on religious beliefs. They can choose only men, for example. Some of the non-religious COs might make fo

So many people misspell words in the subject that it's always refreshing to see a topic that not only is spelled correctly but also uses a superscript font. Well done, Kudu.

I think there are two reasons this became a news story: 1. They had their leadership revoked after having it first approved. That somehow seems more noteworthy than just denying them in the first place. 2. They denied them essentially by saying that Mormons are not Christians. Jeffrey H says "The only limits a CO has is when they approve someone that is clearly not allowed to a member of BSA." Is this really, literally true? Could a CO discriminate on the basis of race in the choice of its leaders? I think the answer would be no.

I don't think this is end-running any of the requirements. The Scout is still going to complete all of the expected work. What it is doing is getting around a personality conflict. Since it appears that everyone involved is happy with this method of dealing with the issue, I don't see the problem.

Same as 'Schiff and CA_Scouter

Essentially, what you are asking to do is to create a second Webelos II den where there is one Webelos Scout in the den and you are the den leader. You're going to have to bring the Cubmaster into this discussion. If he's ok with it, I don't see any real problem - but you'd have to know the parties involved. Would the other den leader also be happy with this solution? Would she be happy not to have this kid in her den any more? If so, she may be happy to go along too.

I know that by the book there can only be one Scoutmaster, but I think it's entirely possible that the committee and the Scoutmasters all believed that having two Scoutmasters was ok. Both could even fill out an application and indicate on each one that they were both Scoutmasters. This might only get rejected at the council office, and it seems entirely possible not even there. So let's say they were co-Scoutmasters. I agree with ScoutNut - you really need to talk to your CC to understand what's going on.

Well, that must feel terrible. I'm sorry that happened to you. The institutional head (IH) of the chartered organization (CO) has the ultimate responsibility for leader selection. They may effectively delegate that responsibility to the COR or to the CC or committee. They do not actually have to give a reason, although I'm sure they have some reason in their own minds. There are not a lot of materials available that describe the detailed process for removing a volunteer, but my expectations would be that it should be handled professionally and courteously. It is certainly not ide

Yeah, there are always gray areas for some of these requirements. The person responsible for signing off the requirement gets to make the call. The part of this requirement that I usually had to fudge on was the "with your den" part. We'd often have one Scout who couldn't make the scheduled activity and would go to some other troop activity on his own. That seemed to meet the intent of the requirement, which as I read it would be to have the Webelos meet with some of the troop, see that Boy Scouts isn't all that scary, and see how the troop runs. I think that in order to count it

It currently takes at least 17 months to earn Eagle. If you cross when you are 10.5 years old, you could earn Eagle at age 11. My take, JMHawkins, is that you have overly high expectations of an Eagle Scout. The requirements simply do not require excellence at anything. Mostly they require perseverance, some organizational skills (sometimes provided by parents or leaders), some opportunities as provided by the troop program, and a reasonable attitude about participation and learning. This actually is one of my hot buttons - although the way you tell the story is not at all offensi

I think I'd start by talking to the CC and seeing how he wants to handle it. You can get your real volunteers and have them do whatever jobs you want them to do, and whether you call them a committee or assistant Cubmasters, they can do the same work. The guy gives you no benefit from what he does now, but you'll have to decide how you want to spend your energy. If the CC is happy to hand it off to someone who wants to do the job, then fine, have him do that. But if he likes things the way they are, I think I'd just let sleeping dogs lie.