packsaddle

I'm with you on this GAMom. Your first priority is to your family. Your son sounds like a great guy.

Hello, hello, calling Rangoon! I'm still curious to know what thread was closed and who did it? Hello?

JC, I agree with you. The bully is not the victim. This is a topic that OGE and I used to agree on - in opposition to (dredging a memory out of all those tangled plaques now) Beavah and a few others. The real victims who may need help with healing are the boys who are bullied.

Scouter99, I remember the first of many times that I was invited to leave and form my own organization. I merely expressed disagreement with a membership policy. For some reason, based on the content of the Citizenship merit badges that we claim should be understood and followed by scouts, I was under the impression that it was proper to express opposing views and that BSA supports this application of the 1st Amendment and the duty of citizens to express their views in our society. On the contrary, the opinion was expressed to me that as a private organization, those principles do not apply. It seems that you agree. And I must also be a "starry-eyed 'progressive' agents provocateur". But I like your association of the stars-n-bars with the KKK. I agree...they do go together. So if some former scouts and scouters who still have uniforms, or even if some current scouters in uniform decided to march with the KKK in uniform, flying the flag, protesting its rejection by BSA...well it isn't a perfect analogy but we'll just have to work with it....the idea that you are expressing is that anyone who expresses sympathy with the protesters should leave BSA. And for that I must disagree with you. I cannot advocate that someone should leave and form their own organization merely because they expressed an opinion. If they meet the membership standards they should remain members. Unless there is new standard which states that no member can express an opinion in opposition to BSA policy. When I see that, or something to that effect, written in the membership standards, I'll rethink things. That said, I'm also curious to know what thread was closed and who did it?

OK, someone tell me what fast food has to do with any of this. (one more thing in a long list of things I don't 'get')

I have to say that I would be honored to have GAMom's son in this unit. He has every prospect of growing into an outstanding young man, just as much as anyone else if people will give him the chance. In this community, for the most part, the bullies at school stick with sports. I'm not going to lie and tell you I'm sorry for that...I'm glad they're not involved with the unit.

Scouter99, is that the standard we apply now? Anyone who disagrees with some aspect of BSA policy is invited to leave? Really?

"singled out" isn't necessarily unfair treatment. It could be the individual attention that is most needed for an individual. I have no problem with 'singling out' someone if that's what is needed.

To me it depends on the climate. I like cotton but I'm a neo-Luddite, lol. The synthetics are good for hot or wet conditions. I just have some kind of visceral dislike for polyester though. I'd go for microfiber, like Perdidochas wrote, if you're going to be doing stuff outdoors. If this is strictly an indoor uniform, then I'd go with cotton for comfort. I also enjoy ironing, lol.

Twocub, this problem seems to be established deep within his family interactions and what you're getting is an outcome. There's not much you can do with an outcome and so I like your idea of suspension until his mom says he's interacting well in the family.She and dad need to confront this within the family first and then perhaps there can be a return to the unit. At this point, I doubt that improvement is going to happen quickly either. One other suggestion, find some way to make the boy who was bullied feel good about something. Any kind of friendly positive feedback or praise that can help put a little shine in his life would be good. But it is important to get that bully out of the presence of victims.

Good question but in this case they ARE former scouts who are, I suppose, no longer bound by any BSA rules since BSA has dismissed them. I guess they figure that since they own the uniforms and have the ability to poke this stick in the BSA eye, they may be able to 'get away with it' with minimal risk of further action from BSA. Really, what can BSA do about it? I can't think of anything offhand. Seems like the only 'leverage' BSA might have had went out the window when they were ejected from membership.

I've tried to read all these posts so I apologize if I've missed this, but are his parents aware of all this? Are they involved? What do they say, how do they react? I've seen similar personalities but they don't normally gravitate to the troop (thank goodness). Their fate isn't very good most of the time, no matter what they're involved in and it's too bad that they make things miserable for others as well.

You forgot 'enlightening' and 'uplifting'.

NJ, I suspect it has progressed exactly the way LeCastor envisioned.

I agree with JoeBob. OTOH, this unit has abundant tent camping nights so this is really a non-issue for most boys.

I agree regarding the advancement report. Someone should check, though, to make sure everything that is supposed to be there IS there and make sure the unit has a copy. This council in the past has had some serious errors in our record and it was only because we had a correct set of records that we were able to correct the record for the council at the time of rank advancement for some of the older boys. In some cases they had scouts from other troops in our list and some of our boys were missing, or were more than a year in error regarding age, not to mention the morass of switched, missing, and mixed advancements among the boys in the unit. DO NOT take for granted that the council will have your records for you. They might be correct. Or they might not.

AZMike, other than an unflattering comparison of eagles to vultures, who exactly is expressing angst or surprise?

"Vultures are found at higher altitudes than eagles!" Maybe so, but both eat carrion.

So....all looks great so far. How's the food?

Welcome to the forums. I think that spirit is not something that must be quantified. One either has it or not IMHO. How one identifies it might depend on the scout or the circumstances presented to the scout. In the past there has been extensive discussion about what 'active' means and many of the ways you suggest for 'spirit' overlap with ways that have been suggested to detect 'active'. And in those discussions there has been quite some effort to try to provide quantitative 'guidelines' for being active. As you might guess, there has been considerable disagreement on the issue. 'Spirit' is likely to be just as difficult. My approach has been to 'know' the scout. The better you know the individual the better you will understand how they describe their idea about spirit.

Just try to keep remembering the old joke that "it's only one hour a month", LOL. Seriously, if you can explain the benefits of each change, why it's good for the boys, and how it helps everyone, they'll probably go along with the changes. My vote is to move ahead with these things and give them a try. The budget, annual plan, things like these are all good and you really do need them. As for summer events, you can break into that with summer day camp for the boys and add whatever others want. When I was CM, summers were held sacred for family outings so outside of summer day camp or similar activities, we were mostly inactive as well.

Make some Cartesian divers in addition to the above materials and explore the wonderful world of physical properties, Bernoulli's principle, Stoke's Law, etc. Test the idea that Coriolis effect works at small scales. There are lots of cheap and easy ways to do STEM. It doesn't all have to involve Lego kits and computers.

GAMom, Please convey this to your daughter: I teach a course in which I have a broad mix of majors, all just starting out in college. At the beginning I ask them to identify their majors and it's usually a fairly even mix of sciences, engineering, and various so-called 'liberal arts' majors like history, sociology, psychology, etc. I admit that I'm just a little mean to them at first (like to trim the class size to something manageable) so I ask them what the essential question is for their field, using no more than 3 -5 words. The scientists struggle but eventually get it. The engineers get it right away. The others stumble around in a random walk of aimless thoughts. Then the mean part: I ask them what how they will greet each other if they actually complete their degree and find a career in their field. They struggle with that too so I provide the answer. To the engineers I say, "you will greet the scientists with "hello professor", the others with "hello teacher". And then I tell all the others that they will address the engineers with.................... "Hello, Boss". It's the simple pleasures that are the best.

Talked with the current CM about this. Says the families from the CO might be ok with it but about 80% of the pack is of 'other' faiths. He expects to lose families...it's not as if there aren't alternatives, plenty of them. When I was CM I tried to impress on the troop and the council the importance of the cubs to the overall program. They seemed to just shrug me off. Perhaps BSA really IS going to become the niche religious organization that they claimed to be years ago.

I really like KDD's sense of humor.