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Paperwork? I walked into the scout shop and grabbed them (maybe showed some Id for the Eagle, but didn't have to sign for it. The other one came with a venturing leadership award, I needed a spare, the DE got it for me. Having to complete paperwork is a show-stopper for me.

We don't make this too complicated. I tell boys if they are active to a particular level, their SMCs and BORs will be scheduled with a similar level of activity. We give the SM lots of discretion regarding this.

More carrots, fewer sticks. It could be as simple as special patches or ribbons for the hosting troop ... Or serious street cred.

Assuming that the crumudgeon wasn't your SM, I would ay you are on level footing, @@Oldscout448. You applied the EDGE method flawlessly. Which means you left the boys with inferior skills that will not enable them to reproduce the desired result. If only you had a reference that the boys could call upon in those times when your presence is not available and institutional memory fails ... As far as violating the patrol boundaries are concerned, that ship sailed when they came to you asking for your axe. You take my girls out for a spin, you're asking me for one eye on you until they're brought home on time and as pretty as when they left.

@, great suggestions. I have a NOAA weather radio ... couldn't find a station. Weather spotting skills were my best friend. Minimized panic. At least you can see what's coming. In PA and WV, we fly blind. Winds were below 50 ... I call it a good day.

So, the family was out hiking in Witchita Mts today, and once Mrs Q and I showered in OKC we drove back through a severe storm to Daughter's place in Norman. The kids are now on the couch howling at the weather report on channel 9. 1. There was hail, but the ground was not covered with it; however, someone sent a picture of what could have been an empty beer cooler of ice around a weather gauge on two square feet of ground by the edge of their house. 2. While the weatherman was jawing about resulting ground fog, I stepped outside and could see a couple of miles in either direction. Visibility had been bad during the drive back at times because of occasionally intense rain bands and WE WERE UNDER THE ANVIL where sunshine is unlikely to penetrate. 3. I'd reasonably say the car was pummeled with golfball size hail. On occasion. There is no reason to go on describing every other size ("not baseball, but some quarter, dime, and even pea...") If you see video of some northerners making a mock forecast with terrible drawls, please be kind to them, the do love you all, but they are so happy to be together again that they are chock full of the sillies ... We also saw some ruined houses and downed timber back where no news truck would go, so we're praying for the bad week some folks are having. All that to say there is a big difference between what a fella sees out his own back door every day for a week and what gets put in the record books. Don't let your Cubs think they deserve a rank for depending on someone else's news.

Writings about sexual expression in ancient cultures always seem to come from writers from other cultures. I once read a Roman description of Eutruscia that was in exactly the violent terms that you describe. (Sorry, couldn't find the source at my fingertips, but it had to do with how an aristocrat would treat his slaves.) The scholar I mentioned earlier covered the panoply of homosexual expression recorded in Ancient Rome, and it wasn't just limited to expressions of conquest. Furthermore, Paul, in his several epistles, and John in his gospel as well as the Apocalypse, elevates two forms of sexual expression: celibacy and heterosexual monogamy. It is a stretch to say that Paul in the letter to Romans was treating male and female homosexuality in anything other than a relational form: "consumed with passion one for another". The only effective arguments for requiring the Church to honor homosexual (or polyamourous or bestial) unions are ones that require the abandonment of two millennia of teaching for a new 5-decades-old orthodoxy. At which point one might ask, "So, now that we've concluded that everything was read out of context, do you mind if I hate on my neighbor?" BTW. Absolutely right about Sodom and Gomorrah that same-sex dalliances were the least of their worries. Boiling thier actions down to one sin (even to attempting to assault Angels) is reading more into the text than what is actually there. FWIW, I originally learned most of the Christian justification against homosexuality from a liberal pastor. Nice guy. Definitely one of those "It ain't necessarily so" types. But would bust a fella's chops if he found out the dude was shacking up with his gal.

Oops! 8th point. (Evidently I can't edit my post once it's been quoted.)

The only reason I'm not abandoning this thread on account of the incremental cussing, is that I have another tangent. Back in the day, in the church I went to in London, on the wall there was a list outlining which cousins could and could not marry. I guess it was a cheat-sheet if somone actually wanted to announce a reason to object to a marriage (or forever hold his/her peace). 1. Are those restrictions still in effect? 2. If so, would openning the door to same-sex marriage allow for closely-related kin to wed? Or will it apply in the other direction, and are bubba and bobby gonna have to check that family tree? 3. How 'bout polygamists and polyandrists? 'Bout time the clergy be forced to keep up with the muslims! 4. The guy who trained his parrot to say "I do"? The "Go Fund Me" sites are gonna be so much fun.

9th point says we should all be openly gay ... no room in this organization for the publicly morose.

You mean, like when Peter wrote this in his first epistle? "... our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness,…" It seems like the Saints don't give us much room to favor one over the other.

Simply put, 'skip, sacrificial laws about food, etc ... were replaced by the the celebration of the Eucharist. Laws of order were left largely unchanged. (E.g. Romans 1 includes approbations against homosexuality, and gossip. The Apocolypse asserts that the sexually promiscuous are not welcome in the kingdom of heaven.) Punishments of violations of law and order were reduced (e.g. "let him who stole steal no more" and Paul's letter to Philemon to not treat Onesemus, a runaway slave, harshly) until Christianity became the imperial religion. At that point, there was a little mixing of principles. The Day of Worship was moved from the 7th to the 1st, Passover was outlawed, punishments for violations of order became harsher in some circumstance, less so in others. Throughout this, the vision of how people should comport themselves sexually remained largely unchanged. So, what we are trying to do with normalizing sexuality in this modern era is new, but calling it Christian is a bit of stretch to many. If anyone really wants to read the rationale for the traditional Christian stance on the matter, I recommend the scholarly works Robert Gagnon. He does try to put the point-counterpoint of both sides in decent order.

When the crew needs outside-of-the-box ideas, I ask the boys. When they need to implement them, I ask the girls.

I've certainly had boys tell me they were sick of hearing about it. At the same time, it's the issue of the day in nearly every sector of life in our divided country. (A very long day, starting in the 80s when so many young men -- not just the stereotypical homosexuals -- started dying of AIDS.) Although some see an inevitible trajectory, others see a backlash.

Nothing triggers a guy's hair-raising-on-the-back-of-the-neck flight adrenaline like a petit venturer dropping three throwing axes in as many seconds square into a stump from 10 yards out.

Those cogs are just what a district needs. By next year they'll be 13. I'd say put together your two-troop outing in the summer or fall, ask them if they are up for running something bigger, and if the answer is affirmative call your district commish and say that against your advice, four boys have an idea that they want to implement for the district for spring.

K. No stripping bare and bludgeouning one ahother to death. Got it. (Finally. We can only hope.) What you carefully omit, Moose, is that Jesus did not offer this woman a leadership roll in his movement. And it wasn't a sexist thing, because there were other women noted for their prominent roles in Church history ... after they cleaned up their act. It's the attempt at equating dispensation of mercy to granting ecclesiastical authority and the predictable reaction (a.k.a., "Love vs. Truth") that drives most post-modern rifts. We can have no doubt that this compilation of debit card transactions to be performed on a future date (a "fund" is not quite the right term) will grow. The membership losses would unlikely be that great. But strident conservatives will make no bones about scouting without the BSA. (In a sense, I see this happening with youth in western PA who go camping independently.) The net effect may very well be a local option of sorts.

I vote for "just grumpy". This is where an SM's responsibility to educate really has to kick in. As modern Americans, we seek to honor the greatness of the land's occupants from coast to coast ... not just those who may have been on the dirt we currently stand. That's why a day hike to the museum or historical society should be part of the scouting experience.

Ok, next time I have a kid diagraming the scientific method, I'll make sure he draws an additional bubble for "publication." Hopefully his teacher won't dock him for being cynical. So, say all the boys show up for a few meetings for your suggested pencil-whipping, then at pack meeting stand pretty in the picture sporting their newly awarded belt loop. ... What do you award the one boy who actually reads the requirment, goes home, and comes back with a page of readings (on ratty paper, terrible penmanship, clashing colors from grabbing whatever crayon was on top of the heap each day, no bar-graph, ... but compliant to a literal interpretation of the requirements)?

The cheap strategy is to print for each scout the Adventure Requirements and Insignia (link found here http://www.scouting.org/Home/programupdates.aspx)relevant to their rank. Have their parents put it on a wall or head board someplace safe from the usual 8-10 year-old's mechanisims of destruction. (Alternatively, the online scoutbook might be cheaper if everyone in the den already invests in internet connections.) Then, keep one or two book so the boys could read up on how to accomplish what they need to do during the den meetings. The DL keeps a paper chart, and colors in boy's progress. With the money saved, the boys can buy notebooks and that pizza. (Or, maybe the pieces to a window-box weather station that monitor on a daily basis.)

Oh dear. Another mine field! Nothing silly about it at all. "This month we learned how to compile weather data. Those were fun meetings! Maybe soon some of the boys will get awards once they collect their own data." Boys look cute. Everybody applauds. And they are all on notice to "observe and report!" That's journalism. A noble field. Our weatherman's a great guy and does a great job. Turns that NWS data into short stories 5 times a day. The boys love him. But, scouting -- the very definition of the term -- implies observation. It is by no means something to be read about. It is something to be practiced. A week's work, imitated by an evening activity: paper belt loop.

More importantly what color is it?

Let me add: Once again National is listening to the voice of marketers and printing full color materials that should be produced in black and white for a fraction of the cost. Increased cost -> raised barriers -> reduced involvement.

Parents always bought the books for our Cubs. Regardless, someone's out one party! I foresee a lot of dens figuring out how to share a book or two. For something like that to work really well, the boys would have to live in close proximity.