perdidochas

Answer to the first--as long as you have at least two scouts in the car you are ok. Answer to the second--as long as you have at least two scouts with the adult, you are ok. That said, ask your DE or SE to confirm.

I read a lot of bushcraft stuff, but I don't particularly go for it myself. I believe in using the best technology (which doesn't mean the latest) in the outdoors. Wool socks are great, but I prefer synthetic wicking shirts. I like synthetic bags, but I would get down if my budget allowed. I'm with T2Eagle, I like modern camping.I like having a floor to the tent.

I think 1943 is the end of the Silent Generation. Silents are those born in from the late 1920s to the early 1940s.

Sounds chaotic. We used to do ad hoc patrols on campouts. We are now going to try the patrol will be a patrol if there are at least two patrol members present on a campout. We do think that patrols need to be changed up on occasion.

Most of our BSA parents are still Gen Xers. We have a few that are Boomers. Haven't yet had millenial parents yet.

I do agree Eagle shaming can't work. That said, I do a bit of Eagle boosting (and I will grant there is a fine line between shaming and encouraging sometimes). I have told more than one of my Star and Life Scouts that they are definitely Eagle Scouts, they just need to prove it to the rest of the world.

We have. I'm about to be the next Troop Eagle Advisor, as I've been with the troop longer than anyone else (my oldest son finished his Eagle, and my youngest is in process of writing his project proposal). It's needed, because somebody needs to know the rules. For example, about a year and a half ago, (September 2013), I warned three of the four boys we had working on Eagle that they needed to finish their paperwork before December 31, or they would have to do Cooking Merit badge. Two of the boys heeded my advice, and were Eagle Scouts by the end of January 2014. The third didn't, and was delayed by six or seven months because he had to complete Cooking Merit badge (which wasn't one of the 50 or so MBs he had).

I pretty much agree.

Your scenario is far-fetched. It is not easy to do all the steps necessary to go from a bit-torrent image to a DVD. You have to be tech savvy to do it. This is an important issue--it's basically being TRUSTWORTHY and OBEDIENT to the law. It's simply not a good example.

That's what I tell boys in my Cooking MB classes. I told them that most of the quality men I know cook for their family (a few exceptions, but most of us do), at least part of the time.

Run away if there is another Troop available..... Unless a new SM is in the wings, there is no hope for the above.

A few miles per hour over the speed limit is not punishable in most jurisdictions (a few miles per hour over, IMHO, means 3 or 4). A speeding ticket is maybe $150 fine. The fine for illegal pirating of movies is from $750 to $30,000, and is a federal offense. The main point is that it's not an example that a Scout leader should be setting.

There is almost no chance that if the movie really was Big Hero 6 that it is not in violation of copyright. It's called common sense, and based on knowledge of the world. I wouldn't suggest calling the cops on it, but questioning is in order. Do you and NJ seriously beleive that, or are you just being devil's advocates.

My worry isn't the actors. It's all the other countless people who work on a movie. They all have mortgages, utilities, etc.

It's a Disney movie, and Disney rarely gives permission to show their videos in a public setting. I've known of schools that sent off for written permission to show videos, and invariably Disney does not give permission for free, they require joining some kind of service that gives permission. It's a matter of ethics--a Scout is Trustworthy. Buying or making an illegal copy of a movie and showing it to an audience is illegal and more importantly immoral.

Talk to the Pack Leader or whoever was in charge, and talk about setting a good example, and the legality of the thing. That said, technically, unless you get written permission, you aren't allowed to show any copyrighted videos in a group setting. The after school care my kids went to, had a prominently displayed letter giving them permission to show works from certain companies. Interestingly, they didn't have permission to show Disney movies.

A specific task for 4 months and a week to count as a POR? Two weeks isn't that much of a delay. That said, slowing him down just to slow him down isn't justified. In our troop, we do have boys that "fail" at their PORs, and have to start fresh or do a Scoutmaster approved leadership project.

I pretty much agree. Both of my sons got Lifesaving merit badge at their second summer camp--age 12 for both. My older boy got BSA lifeguard a few years later. Lifesaving does not equal lifeguard (as you said), and if BSA thought that it was necessary, they would have age limited Lifesaving MB.

It's on the adult application.

We usually do travel in a caravan, meaning one behind the other. That said, we aren't slavish about it, and meet either at teh campsite or at different rest stops. We text this to each other--set up a group mms, and I have my shotgun passenger (usually my oldest son, as I have a general rule that the highest rank scout gets shotgun, and he is the only active Eagle in the troop) do the texting.

As T2Eagle said, if they can stand each other's snoring.... Most adults in our troop like to sleep alone, although we occasionally have some who tent with their sons or with another adult leader. Our troop has a policy that you can tent alone if you're an adult or at least Star Scout rank. Most of our older Scouts choose to tent alone, and most have backpacking style tents to do this.