perdidochas

BadenP, Do you, then advocate, that BSA go away from the Scout Oath that is pretty universal among WOSM? There is no way to obey the Scout Oath honestly, without recognition of God. Here is what the WOSM has for Scout Oath (Promise) and Scout Law: All members of the Scout Movement are required to adhere to a Scout Promise and a Law reflecting, in language appropriate to the culture and civilization of each National Scout Organization and approved by the World Organization, the principles of Duty to God, Duty to others and Duty to self, and inspired by the Promise and Law conceived by the Founder of the Scout Movement in the following terms: The Scout Promise On my honour I promise that I will do my best To do my duty to God and the King (or to God and my Country); To help other people at all times; To obey the Scout Law. The Scout Law 1. A Scouts honour is to be trusted. 2. A Scout is loyal. 3. A Scouts duty is to be useful and to help others. 4. A Scout is a friend to all and a brother to every other Scout. 5. A Scout is courteous. 6. A Scout is a friend to animals. 7. A Scout obeys orders of his parents, Patrol Leader or Scoutmaster without question. 8. A Scout smiles and whistles under all difficulties. 9. A Scout is thrifty. 10. A Scout is clean in thought, word and deed. http://scout.org/en/about_scouting/promise_and_law

Blancmage, Ending slavery and woman's suffrage and Civil rights for blacks, all came from the Congress, not from acts of the Supreme Court.

Jamis, In terms of the dismal DLs, you need to recruit a parent from those dens to step up. Otherwise, you would have the choice between a dismal DL and none at all.

IM_kathy, Have you actually discussed this with the DL, or only the mother/son? Remember there are always at least one more sides to any story than participants in the story. You may not have all the facts. Second, to all those criticizing supposedly getting around requirements. Would it be any different if this kid joined a different Pack to finish up? Sometimes kids and adults can get to a point that the adult does nothing but antagonize the kid (and vice versa). In a school situation, the principal would move the kid out of the adult's class. This seems to be a similar situation. Also, technically, an ADL can sign off as well. Kathy should sign up as ADL to do this. Basement, why are you such a stickler now? In the earlier thread about AOL, you let your 10 yr 4 month old son (who presumably hadn't had 6 months past 4th grade completion) get the AOL? That's as much of a violation of BSA rules as this is.

And if COs were forced to choose between allowing gay scouters or not chartering troops, many troops would lose their charters. The ideal thing would be to allow local option before Dale is reversed. If not, IMHO, BSA will die or be crippled even more if Dale is reversed.

Unless local option was allowed, this would be disastrous. Not many parents will allow their adolescent boys to go spend a weekend in the woods with an openly gay scoutmaster. Heck, it's already hard for some parents to trust sending their adolescent boys to spend a weekend in the woods with men who've had criminal background checks. Call it homophobic, or whatever else you want, but that's the reality of it. IMHO, if Dale were repealed, local option wouldn't be an option anymore. After all, that would allow local CO's to discriminate. If the overall organization can't discriminate, it doesn't make sense to allow the local groups to do it.

Beavah, I agree the law is settled, but my guess is that the schools in that area will soon not be allowed to charter Packs/Troops.

Heard that on the TV news this morning. My oldest son (12 yr old Tenderfoot) was very disturbed that anyone would sue the BSA.

While I agree with minor modifications to the staff for survival situations and for outdoor usage, I think most of us would be better off with our survival kit in our cargo pockets or in a belt pack. I'm much more likely to leave a staff than a beltpack.

I guess I'm living on the edge then. I let Webelos use lighters to fuse cord just last night.

Basement, Also, if you have a dynamic Webelos program, you're not going to lose the kids due to boredom.

Basementdweller, The first AOL requirement is: Be active in your Webelos den for at least six months since completing the fourth grade (or for at least six months since becoming 10 years old), and earn the Webelos badge. If the boys aren't at least 10 1/2 or 6 months past the end of 4th grade, they can't earn Arrow of Light. Your son, unless it was 6 months past the end of 4th grade, could NOT earn the Arrow of Light and hence could NOT crossover to a troop.

A CO can choose who it wants for leaders. If they've got a plentiful supply of volunteers they have the luxury of rejecting people for religious reasons. My CO (a Catholic Parish) is not that way. Only three or so of the 10 or 11 adult volunteers we have are Catholics.

Clemlaw, Whipping and fusing are both Tenderfoot requirements now. Scouts still need to learn to whip the ends of ropes (not all ropes fuse).

I'm with NJ on this one.

Go to the Badge Magic website: http://www.badgemagic.com/faqs_front_end/index.cfm?cat_id=3&nav=1 They give the dry cleaning idea as well as goof off.

Bear Dad, Isn't a patrol just a group of boys eating and doing things together? Sounds like that troop is a patrol.

Sounds unnecessary to me, but if your CO wants it, do it. Most kids in a district know what troop is associated with which CO. I remember knowing that as a kid.

I'm with dscouter. Don't quit the troop altogether. See if they need a committee member.

Twocubdad wrote: Second Thought-- I can't think of another program where the expectation is for boys who join in the first grade will stay fully involved through high school. (Okay, I guess by definition we have that expectation of SCHOOL, but I'm talking about outside activities.) Take any sport. Think about the huge numbers of little boys who play tee-ball. What percentage of those boys play varsity baseball? In our area, I bet we had close to half the kindergarten and first graders playing tee-ball. Now, out of 3500 high school students there are maybe 25 boys on the baseball team? Why do we expect Scouting to be any different? Part of the process of growing up is learning what you enjoy and what you are good at. Why are we disappointed when boys discover they enjoy and excell at activities besides Scouting? Membership in any program like Scouting is going to be a very broad-based pyramid. I would expect the numbers of Tigers to 18-year-old Scouts to be similar to the tee-baller to varsity players. I agree with the above. My boys tried tee-ball, soccer, baseball and basketball (and are about to try competitive swimming). They have already given up on baseball and basketball, but have stuck with soccer. They chose what they liked best. I've always asked them the same about scouting. Every year in Cub Scouts, I ask if they are having fun and want to keep doing it. About to do it in Boy Scouts for my oldest who crossed over last March. So far they have chosen scouts. They might not always. I've kind of felt the same as a leader. The current group of Webelos II I'm working with, I lead when they were Tiger Cubs. Only 5 of the 10 I have have remained in Scouts. Two of them took a year or two off. In between there have probably been 20 Cubs that participated for a year or three.

You were right. There are exceptions for a pool with lifeguards, so you could probably get away with shallow end/deep end, instead of swimmer/beginner/non-swimmer. That said, SSD is not that hard. Take the online course, and print out the G2SS.

Your new CC is right in that his son can earn his Wolf Badge over the summer. However, unless he meets the age/grade requirements, he will be a Wolf this year. From Scouting.org: If a boy completes the Wolf badge early, may he begin working on the Bear badge? No. In the Cub Scout program, all boys in a den work toward a badge that is geared to their level of development. If the Wolf badge is completed before the end of the program year, a boy may work on electives to earn Arrow Points, but he may not begin working on the requirements for the Bear badge. His work on the Bear badge will begin the next program year, when he graduates into a Bear den. To be a Bear you have to be Third Grade or Age 9.

I don't think young people have deteriorated. I think older people always think that. I'm the father of a Tenderfoot, and I'm very impressed by most of our older scouts. They are a great group. They are fairly patient with the younger kids, respectful to the adult leaders, and just good kids.

Moosetracker, The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.

Some of us Gen Xers (the early side of Gen X) had Silent Generation parents. (Silents were in between the Great Generation who fought WWII and the Boomers--they are the only generation in a long time that hasn't had a President (GHW Bush was a Great Generation, since him we've had Boomers (even Obama is a late Boomer)). I don't think Xers are without structure. I actually think we are more structured than Boomers (and that is part of the reason some of us hover over our millenial kids.