perdidochas

I'm with basement on this. National needs to provide an easily usable membership database to keep track of the information that scouts and leaders need kept on themselves (contact info, advancement, training and medical info). Everything else can be easily handled locally or by commercial vendors. Pack/troop websites are on the way out. They require too much attention to maintain (I've been a Pack webmaster, so I know this from experience). Facebook is probably the next phase in troop/pack info sites.

Easy answer: It's hard to do it cheap, and it's expensive to do it the easy way.

In my council, the problem isn't the volunteer scouters. It's the way the volunteer scouters are treated by at least one of the council staffers. Honestly, in my dealings with him as a volunteer, if I weren't a true believer, I'd tell BSA to take a hike. This man is abrupt and rude, and if he treats "lay parents" the way he treats volunteer scouters, no wonder we lose a lot of scouts.. (and, yes, I have addressed this to the council in a recent survey).District staffers are ok.

I own about ten of those Harbor Freight LED cheapies. I've only had problems with one, and I threw it out--didn't feel guilty due to their low price. Don't worry if my sons don't return them either. Several of them are on their second set of batteries. They are a world better than those old 2-D cell flashlights.

I like one of those compact camp pillows when I'm in a hammock. It provides insulation in the winter. It also just feels better to me.

DLChris, With lifesaving, if you don't pass the prerequisites (one of which is the swim test), you can't go on.

The requirements don't specify a particular order, just that they do at least 50 yards of each stroke. Don't understand about not wanting him to try again. Might not be a bad idea to wait until next summer, though. Personally, I think a scout should do swimming merit badge first summer camp, and lifesaving second. I want as many boys competent in the water as possible. They may be saving me :-)

If they are not already doing it, have them help their parents set up/take down at family camps. When I was a DL, I saw too many cubs just playing around during those times. Their parents either didn't want them to help (the meticulous ones) or didn't think about asking their boys for help. My boys did what they could from Tiger Cub on. Sometimes their "help" made a task take a lot longer than I could have by myself, but it's paying off now. On uniforms, if the blue shirt still fits, don't get a khaki one. Wait as long as possible to get the khaki shirt, as this is an age of a lot of physical growth.

I like the el cheapo harbor freight leds. They include batteries, and are indestructible and it's usually either $3 or $4 for two (sometimes get a coupon for one free with a certain purchase). My oldest left one in his shorts pocket when he put in washer. I noticed it in the dryer, when about every cycle a bright light would flash. Flashlight is still fine. Can't say that about the cell phone he did the same with. Also like the LED headlamps with the red option. That said, I try to walk around without a light at night when possible. It's easy at many of our usual camping spots, because the trails are usually white sand, and easy to pick out.

The lifeguard requirement can be a local council or camp requirement. I don't propose watering down the test. I would just propose making it less high stress by having the younger boys practice it.

I've gotta admit, I've seen the camp swim tests to be stressful. What my troop is going to do this year is have practice swim tests before hand (unfortunately the camp won't take our swim tests, need to see them for themselves). Ironically, last year, the camp we went to let us do the swim tests. We had the boys swimming it in open water in a local bayou. I had not doubts about those boys ability to swim.

Whatever you want to make up is fine. You have a bone to pick with the Catholic church, and you view history through that filter.

The groups that ended slavery were fringe liberal groups, however, they were religious ones. The civil rights movement was led by the black churches. Yes, some churches were segregationist. I wouldn't deny that. However, the civil rights movement was spearheaded by religious people. Does the name Reverend Martin Luther King, jr. ring a bell. To call those groups non-religious, IMHO, is foolish and is close to being an untruth. (oh, and Catholic churches were among the first churches in the South to be integrated. The American Catholic Bishops (same group that you excoriate about the Girl Scouts) issued a statement in 1958 that declared segregation to be a moral wrong and that segregation cannot be reconciled with Christian views.)

Hmm, the abolitionist movement (that eliminated slavery in the U.S.) and the civil rights movement have roots in churches. I agree that in most things churches should be apolitical. But in terms of things that the church views as major moral wrongs, they shouldn't.

As a three year WDL (two AOL/Crossover groups), my opinion is that AOL is a Cub Scout thing and Crossover is a Boy Scout thing. Don't know about other troops, but our troop is happy to participate in any crossover in which we receive new scouts. This year, we had crossovers from two different packs at two different times.

Moosetracker: Boycotting the government? Please show reference to that sermon. Now, I have heard of sermons saying to express your displeasure as a Catholic to the new health care mandates, but what is wrong with that? Is it wrong to express displeasure with the government? Is that boycotting? Also, I haven't heard of where Catholic troops can't do exciting things? Do you have an example of this? Moderators, The rhetoric in this thread seems to be getting too heated, and I apologize if I've contributed to that. I won't be adding anything else to this thread. I hope you ask badenP to retract the insult of "you backwood hick." It is inappropriate for this board.

Our B&G was usually a lasagna/pizza feast. We would follow up the banquet with some kind of entertainment--we had a magician several times, and this year (post my time, but I've heard from current pack leaders), they had a "snake" show, where a man brought his snake collection to the meeting.

The Blue and Gold banquet is a celebration of the anniversary of Scouting. At least in the pack I used to be a DL for, Blue and Gold had nothing to do with advancement. In fact, most boys finished up their rank advancement the next month, or often were just finished on the last pack meeting of the year.

BadenP, As a lifelong Catholic, I can't recall being threatened with hellfire and damnation. The emphasis of the post Vatican II Catholic Church (which is the only one I can remember) has been on God's forgiveness and love. Most bigots claim that they have "friends" of the group that they are bigoted against.

Moosetracker, What in the world are you talking about, in terms of the examples of what Catholic troops supposedly can't do? Please stop making up strawmen. It's a weak form of argument. If you can show true examples of where Catholic troops haven't gone on trips due to boycotts, then you have a point. I've never heard of it. I'm Catholic, and I'm a committee member of a troop sponsored by a Catholic Church. We have never boycotted anything, nor not gone on a trip for any silly reason like the ones you made up. I think you have Catholics confused with secular liberals, who do such forms of boycotts (like the people who boycott Domino's pizza because of Domino's founders deeply Catholic views, or those who boycott Coors beer because of the conservatism of the Coors family).

nrant, Reading the letter of the law of the Longhorn council, it seems that you can only do two Pack family camps a year. That doesn't count the council family camps. They mentioned 4 council family camping activities.

On the whole subject, Locally, our diocese is "close to Rome" meaning fairly conservative. Several GS troops that I know of (and considering I only know of a few) meet in Catholic Churches. Sounds like the whole controversy may be local, and not something that the American Bishops as a whole are pushing. I'm disturbed at the lack of reverence (meaning tolerance) exhibited in this thread. It just isn't what I would view as scoutlike. Finally, Moosetracker, what do you mean by: "As for Boy Scouts they can tell their own BS units that they have to miss truely exciting adventures due to their issues that everyone must agree with them, or be kicked to the curbside.. But they have no authority to tell my unit that is not run by Catholics that.." What truly exciting adventures can Catholic Boy Scouts not do? Did I miss something? P.S. I stand corrected about the 60% stat. Not by a Catholic bashing group, but by a anti-celibacy Jesuit priest (which is close to the same thing). I don't doubt that the percentage of homosexually oriented priests is higher than the general population (my readings indicate 10-30% seems to be the reasonable figure), I do doubt that the percentage of practicing homosexual priests is 60%.

BadenP, Please either post or message me the article that supports: 3) The Catholic hierarchy has declared homosexuality a grave mortal sin, yet over 60%(conservatively) of American priests have admitted to being practicing homosexuals. I'm Catholic, and I think the above statistic is totally made-up by a Catholic bashing group.

Brew, I understand your frustration, but you have to remember G2SS is for all scouts, not just for those in more outdoorsy areas. In the pack my boys were in, the rules in terms of shooting were reasonable. We live on the coast, IMHO, the boating rules are too restrictive. If we were landlocked, I would think otherwise. That said, overall, they are reasonable, but on the restrictive side.

Neither of those are Scouting organized events. IMHO, you couldn't lead the Pack as a whole to shoot, but I can't see why parents can't take their kids to shoot. That said, nobody can get beltloops for the above either. In terms of the Webelos already shooting shotguns, well, that's a family thing, not a Scout thing. There are always going to be family things that Scouts can't do as Scouts. Scouting is not primarily about shooting. If you want that, join a gun club.