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Last time I checked, TX is part of my country. So, if there's a pledge to be said while I'm on its soil, I'll gladly say it, if I can recall it.

Good news is he doesn't need to have his merit badge work in order to start a project. SMs can be temporarily confused for quite a few weeks. I know this is like forever for a boy. But, patience and persistence is the order of the day. To the SMs out there, why would you ever take a blue card without immediately signing it at giving the applicant his portion? I know summer camp may be one situation with hundreds of cards at once and any number of end-of-week interruptions. But during the year, isn't the whole point to make sure the boy has a record in case yours gets misplaced?

When scouts retire the massive flags at our HQ (Flag Plaza) they are told to fold it thrice, then fold either end over into the middle, then fold it into a rectangle. I always council my scouts that if they are having trouble with the triangle fold, for whatever reason, unfold the diagonal folds and refold rectangular. Or, ask a fellow color guard to take your place. Either way, no disrespect would be intended, and we will help figure out what the problem was later.

It seems that one can infer what one can known by the breadth of what could be written about a character. For example, in the book of Judges, nobody was beyond an ignoble caricature. Japheth was rash with no regard for life under his charge, Samson was impetuous and skirt-chasing, etc ... In other words, if someone had a motive that mattered, it got written. Ruth's designs on the owner of what was to her a foreign field were ostensibly to avoid offending so that she'd have enough food to fend off hunger. Like my feminist friends tell me, a girl means "no" until she tells you "yes." This criticism applies regardless of if you'd rather treat the stories as legendary narrative. You are bound to derive conclusions by what the writer tells you. If you'd rather conclude something differently, I'd recommend finding a different narrative.

Okay, CP, let's suspend Hebrew scholasticism for a moment (which IMHO is only tough for Americans because most don't make the effort to learn other languages to the point of fluency), which clearly lists a dozen words that all get translated to "kill." The English text -- any translation -- is chock full of killing ... some of it explicitly sanctioned. Merlyn has gone to great pains to point this out. However, only for some of it do any prophets condemn explicitly. Most passages give soldiers a pass -- even enemy warriors who took Israel captive -- some of whom actually receive miracles.It's not that hard to grasp that the Big Ten were an attempt at civil law: presented to readers as forward-looking to a time when the land would be settled, and having to contend with sworn enemies could be put aside.

@@afbrat52, welcome to the forum! I would definitely follow Stosh's suggestion and let the police or fire department in your community know what you are trying to do. They might show up with some "tools" hat would interest your boys. But they may have ideas on how to beef up your exercise. One I would suggest is that your boys try start with a search of a moving target. (Someone who panics and doesn't find a place to sit, but keeps moving in circles.) Then they should try and find a target who gets lost and acts the way a scout should when lost.

I attend to minutia, so yes your instructor is right; nevertheless ... Unable to resist, I put a mentor/parent pin on my shirt collar.

@@Scourge, it's like my daughter has an evil twin (except 7 years delayed and civilian family)! I've met a lot of GS with that kind of disappointment, but few have acted on it and some, like @ya lazima vumbi, tried but got discouraged by the lack of crews nearby. You deserve credit for taking action as soon as @@desertrat77 helped you find the opportunity. Now, some advice, - The disrespect you felt from those older scouts, it can happen in the BSA as well. Be on the lookout for it and work to squelch toxic behavior. Let your fellow scouts know how that made you feel, so that they can better lead younger scouts. - Right now you sound like you are at the "taking it in stage", and definitely you should get every outdoor experience that BSA offers and you can afford. Then look for challenges in acquiring new skills and practicing leadership, Why? Because there may be that Girl Scout mom who would love someone like the leader you'll become to help break the cycle ... Teach some outdoor skills, and get their daughters comfortable in the wild lands. Giving back is sometimes the best way to get even!

This is why the "shuttle diplomacy" between you the COR and maybe even the institutions organizational head needs to happen. You need to feel comfortable that you are sending the committee on a fruitful search that will not be repealed by the CO! A couple of one-on-one conversations will do that.

On tradition that I had from my scouting years, was that the boy selected three or four speakers to discuss the meaning of Eagle or the boys scouting career. (3 to five minutes each.) They were seated up front. Once the court was convened, the MC would take the Eagle award and ask each person to hold it as they spoke. Then hand it to the next person. Finally the MC would get the award and hand it to the boy's mom so that she may pin it on him. Needless to say scripts were kept to a minimum with this format.

Don't worry, you might get one or two back after they are so concussed they can't play sports anymore. We do have some excellent athletes in our troop. But, they also miss a lot of stuff.

First: who's asking for a venturers-only summer camp? Like @@Stosh, my crew never asked for a summer camp experience. I offer them some isolated location for five or six days, give them a map, and some phone numbers of potential guides. They don't make the calls, we just drive to the site and wing it. Sometimes they just want to hang at a camp and help the ranger dig ditches. The venturers who want to go to a council camp usually want to do so in conjunction with when their troop is going to camp. They do their thing, then meet up with the boys one or two nights. The importance of social time cannot be underestimated with this crowd. In fact, half of my hike plans involve getting these guys away from cell phone reception so that they can have the most uninterrupted meal of their young adult lives.Second: have you talked to your council's venturing officer's association? Don't look to advise, look to be advised by your leading youth. That social time bit I mentioned? Not my idea. A VOA President told us "we need plenty of structured unstructured time." It is no adult on council's responsibility to plan anything for venturers. So if that's what you're doing STOP NOW. Find those venturers who are willing to commit their time to something bigger than their crew, and walk them through your resources and the weeks when you have them. Direct every adult in council to act only under the authority of the VOA, and in a year or two, you will have a youth developed program that taps into what folks like best about where you all live. Oh, in working with VOA's you might want to set aside an ample pizza budget.

Sounds like you're heart's in the right place. What you need to grasp is "scope creep". How many other WB patrols will be there with folks who will have finished their ticket? Each of them gung-ho to stamp and tramp and caw (or in my case, go "oooh shiny")? If you have it at your troop campsite maybe with the adults while the youth are doing more important stuff, you'll get what you're asking for. But these WBers love to swarm and be indignant that you wouldn't have it with everyone in camp, because after all we want to get the "outsiders" thinking that this is a great fraternity, etc ... Someone might want to do it at one of the boys' campfires, which suddenly gets hijacked with a song and their leaders acting stupid . That's why your winter-camp director would be top on the list of people to talk to.

Extended weekends seem to be the best we can do. Summer's just heartbreaking with all of the vacation-schedule conflicts. (Yes, I know. Enjoy the ones who came. Stop fretting over the ones who didn't. Blah, blah, blah ... I'll put on a good face, but am still irked!) I've known other crews to have great success on winter break. I'd love to give it a try ... but it is categorically off the table in my hood.

While the moderators attempt to bill you for advertising, here are my answers ... 1. Yes. These old bones have been needing to stay off rocky ground more often. I enjoyed that aspect. However, the trees get in the way of stargazing. 2. A "K-mart" brand light rope double hammock is just perfect for the job. Price-point maybe $10 or less. Kevlar hanging straps, and biners maybe $25. Throw a 24" matrress pad in for stability and minimizing wear on the bag (which this old hid would do anyway) and we have ourselves a bed. Scouts have let me try their nylon models, but I've found them a bit stifling. Definitely not worth my expense. 3. Tent? Who said anything about a tent? Ever since that first Seabase trip ... I sleep topside -- deck, ground, picnic table, etc ... I've only got a few years left to count meteors. Lately, I've rigged an 8'x8' tarp on the diagonals. When with a hammock, that involves a double length or rope between hammock rings on a pulley system a la Venetian blinds.

How about after the ball-game, but before the dance? Bring the date so as to avoid 1-on-1 contact. Count on you asking her for verification of the "morally straight" clause.

Well, that depends on if you think all the chances to run those trials is a grant from the Beneficent or a result of some natural gyre of matter heeding no particular command.

Fortunately, Hebrew scholars have gone to great pains to document nuances for us ... So, for fits and giggles, I decided to pull down Strong's Exhaustive Concordance. (Took me a while as I had misplaced it beside Al Mawrid instead of Josephus). Anyway ... The commandment's "kill" does, in fact, mean kill. But, this is the first time that particular word choice (ratsach) is used in the Bible. This term seems to be chosen because it's removed from the method that death is brought about. E.g., in previous chapters of Genesis and Exodus the word-choice for what got translated as "kill" included a sense of hitting, attacking, or offering up for sacrifice. The word was later to describe honor killing (by "the avenger of blood") and accidental death, and not any specific means of doing so. Thus, some English translations use the word "murder" to capture the sense that here the writer is not merely discussing death by fisticuffs, but rather death by careful calculation and systematic scheming. Understanding the word makes the "don't even think about it" theme of Jesus seem a little less original, but then again he claimed he wasn't teach anything that wasn't already etched in stone.

If I could +50 @@MattR, I would. SPL should be a "coasting" position ... one that a boy would be thrilled to move into because it's easier than PL, but requires a notch more maturity ... and one certain boys will hold for consecutive terms, if their peers let them. But, the fact is that elections don't always get you that boy right out of the gate. It can take consecutive weeks of attempts, fails, dust-offs, after-action review, and resets. I don't know if other folks have seen this pattern, but SPLs seem to take the opposite tone of their predecessor. E.g., the drill-sergeant takes over from the chill-dude. So a lot of what gets done on the adult end is helping a boy to take charge as himself rather than the opposite of the previous guy.

@@Eagle94-A1, just a thought about your friend. Apply @@Stosh's modified Peter principle in his name. "Guys, we have this SM who is going to be tied down quite a lot. He'll be great for conferences and such, but you all are gonna need to kick in a little more muscle to get things done around here!" If your oldest patrol is 13-14, you have time to win them over. If someone in your district is fielding a solid venturing crew, you might wanna suggest that. They might be spending less time with the troop. But that's less time with them being a drag. And there's the odd chance they'll come back with an idea or two for the troop to try. If you like the O/A advisor and lodge chief, you might want to challenge the arrowmen to participate at a district or council level. Same principle as with venturing, with increased odds that they will have more boy-oriented ideas. For the ILST lock-in, let the older boys be your instructors. One or two of them each take a chapter. Don't mess with their climbing? Okay, up the ante`. Challenge them to call your local Explorers club or someone else with serious mountaineering/spelunking experience. Any Eagle projects in the pipeline? In other words, don't treat them as if they don't understand boy led. Don't treat them as if they might not buy in -- even though they may not. Treat them as if you expect them to succeed even though they may not.

Yep, my friends helped me sell some of Mamma's hard-tack candy so I could do Jambo (and some other things). Just to flip @@Stosh's argument around, you might have a boy who sees his expenses as an extra burden on the patrol, and works his job and personal life to pay for his junkets. One of our Eagles had an established lawn care business that payed for HA's, tech school, and employed a few other boys. Sometimes, I lent my (scout/non-scout) buddies a hand doing their jobs. I wasn't thinking of the "end game". They had a job to do, I had time. Still see it happening, although employment regulations make it a little less likely. If you want an iron-clad financial system that fairly accounts for these random acts of kindness, look elsewhere. A boy's sense of fairness hinges more on who you will or will not allow to have a scoutmaster conference.

While we're asking ... I always looked at all of the Palm requirements except BoR as SM sign-offs (usually at the SMC, but as in the case of a boy who didn't develop and demonstrate leadership ability since the last Eagle/Palm, maybe afterword). Does anybody out there (e.g., an SM whose troop is swarming with Eagle scouts) do it differently?

Yep, with older scouts, step away from the "we are a youth-led movement" lectures. It's more like: "Hey, any chance you all can cook something really awesome to show 'em how it's done?" Or spread the map out on the table and say "Okay, where can we take these guys that they'll enjoy?" And "That little guy was just talking big about <insert adventure here>. Any chance you can show him how it's done?"

I'm of a mixed opinion. The only person who I ever felt that a boy should talk to about scheduling an SMC is ... the SM. Advancement chairs, coordinators, etc ... don't have much say until BoR. Now, I don't recommend the boy ask for one the day after he accomplishes his previous rank. But, if he has a couple of things still to complete, that might be the ideal time to conference. Especially if scout, SM and an ASM or two happen to be on a trail that passes through a bed of pine-needles overlooking a ridge at sunset while the rest of the troop are out on a water run. Now, you may want the boy to follow-up after he's accomplished those requirements ... dotting i's and crossing t's before the BoR or whatever. Put that date in his book if you think you need to. You all know when the real conferences happen.

This may be tangential to @@griffsmom's original post, but the other noteworthy aspect of the requirement is that it does not specify "in your troop or crew". How many of you have your boys consider things a little beyond scouting. Like: Specific training like BSA guard, EMT certification, or Wilderness First Aid? Tutoring for academically challenged students. Joining or increasing responsibilities in clubs like Toastmasters, Athletes in Action, or Junior ROTC? Helping facilitate another organization's activities (e.g. a GSUSA camporee)? Studying up on what it takes to be an officer in one's place of worship? Serving as an officer? Attending town council meetings ... possibly in preparation for running for office when eligible. These are things that I've seen 15-17 year old scouts/venturers do. And if I understand correctly, the kinds of things that we're looking for in Palm SMCs and BoRs.