qwazse

This is a crap piece that judges therapy based on stereotypes. Discard it. The kid was in therapy because he was a sociopath. Folks just didn't realize how much of one he was. Sometimes you catch 'em before they start their spree. Sometimes (as my colleagues sadly experienced two years ago) you don't. It's the cost of doing business in the absence of institutions that can keep patients under lock and key for extended periods so that the only folks they eventually act out on are caretakers and fellow patients and the tools at their disposal are less efficient than firearms. On the bright side, society has benefited from the majority of mentally ill being in our midst rather than locked out of sight and out of mind. We've all become better "therapists." That counts for something, but it doesn't make the news cycle.

J. Are fleur-de-lis or "BSA" stamped on your shirt's buttons? Does not look like it from the picture.

I get the impression that the "universal spirit" phraseology is meant to identify lots of folks from Judeo-Christian persuasion who would rather treat God as distant and impersonal. Such surveys were never intended to quantify atheists who have a "closet belief." The crossing of categories is incidental to the primary thrust of the survey. My personal experience is that the overwhelming majority of folks who call themselves atheists do so because they don't believe God exists -- not because they believe that God is so remote as to be unworthy or unwanting of their worship. And the converts from athiesm that I know of spent very little time in some middle ground that could accommodate the "universal spirit" notion. They remained convinced that they shouldn't believe ... until they were convinced that they should do so with fervor.

Oh, let's see. Yep. But, you saw this coming. A year ago they said they wouldn't help you. They specifically said it was to funnel kids toward their (inferior, according to your estimation) event. You had a year to explain to parents that council is approving your neighboring district's event instead of yours and everyone will have to decide if they want to attend that event or do something other than shooting sports. You could have asked your charter organization reps to gather and meet with the SE and council president about the importance of having two similar events in the same month, how it is a hardship for some in the community to travel across council to get to an event in another district, and how it is insulting to your way of thinking that if multiple units in a district come together to hold an event that that event would be anything other than a district event. That would be playing politics with no clear end game besides pointing out a problem and maybe getting yourself on a committee that you would rather not be part of. So scramble and get the boys signed up for this activity (informing them of the location change), or do your own activity with non-BSA RSO, or plan a different activity, apologizing to parents that you were overly optimistic that council would reverse its opinion. This is something I would never bother discussing with a DE. Rather, I would bring this up with my district commissioner and other volunteers.

Yikes! Central supply changed the buttons on the standard issue field uniform from black to beige! (Can't tell from scoutstuff if the venturing shirt buttons have been changed to green.) When did that happen? For what it's worth, when the venturing shirt was revised, our female VOA officers refused to buy it because the buttons (also black) no longer had insignia on them.

All of your questions fall outside the "summer camp" category, but anyway ...

$55/year. But if we didn't count fundraising, our boys would probably have to toss in another $10-$15/month to cover expenses. (Campsite/cabin, reservations, gear maintenance, etc...)

Some Christian sects do not have professional clergy. I've kept company with a few such houses of worship. They have a lot going for them. They also have a lot of disadvantages.

We do this. Unfortunately so do a lot of other folks, so the return isn't all that great. I recommend contacting a producer local to your area. Ours is Sarris candies and they have sales programs tailored to fundraisers.

How is this a bad thing? Either you have just learned that your peers have found something lacking in your behavior, or - in the outside chance that you are God's gift to scouting kind - that your peers are idiots and instead of wasting your time in honor societies, you should devote the year to helping them be better scouts.

Son #2's buddy had Aspergers and scouting was a challenge for him. Bugs were terrible, homesickness was overwhelming, even when his older brother came with him, he admitted he wasn't a fan of hard work. He did give it a fair try however and even wound up taking his family camping. So some skills were transferred. I regret that we weren't the activity for this boy to really find his wings.

Oh, "tapping up" is what we call "hitting up"! It took me all day to get that!

Canvas drop-cloth + exterior stain = winning banner. However, we have a vinyl one that's held up nicely. (We raise it over service projects.)

Hoorah! Our troop loves patrol cooking. Steak night is AWESOME! Huzzah for the boys!!!! Well maybe two out of three ain't bad. Especially, if you are positive and maniacally enthusiastic about the boys to the nay-saying adults. Get beside these two adults in those new positions and listen to how they feel about everything. They may be able to leave the other adults' bickering along the trail like the remains of a head cold. Or they may need you to run interference for them. Follow their lead. If you think it would help, teach them useful sayings and maxims that may comfort consternated adults. Things like "I'm not about to be bothered by the burrs up anyone's butt, especially yours." Be open to the idea that this could be tough on the boys and nightly open-ended evaluation may be in order. Have your people learned "Thorns and Roses"?

ML has a point. And, looking empirically, which is BSA's fastest shrinking program? The co-ed one. That said, boys and girls take a little getting used to each other. But only a little. And adult expectations will need to shift. When most of us talk about co-ed, we're thinking about inviting girls in to be part of that pioneer spirit that we are trying to engender in our boys ... not about the boys fitting in to another classroom-type setting. For each point on our "If I were Bob" list, we need to think about what this country really needs. I personally think it needs 14-20 year olds experiencing physical challenges with both sexes helping each other through. Thus, I advise a co-ed crew. Some of my fellow advisors think that this nation needs 14-20 year olds doing the same thing without being burdened by the needs of the opposite sex, thus they advise unisex crews.

Hey a_e, welcome to the forums! My guess is someone felt sorry for the other youth having to move, didn't trust that a unit where he was going would help with continuity, and figured they should cut him a break. Unfortunately, anytime adults cut corners like this, they usually do not consider how it makes their other youth feel. So, yes, you should ask the SM for a conference and let him know how you feel about this situation. Depending on how much adult hemming and hawing you can stomach, you can ask the advancement chair to be in on the conference. If there was nothing else that the boy did before becoming ASPL (e.g. an SM-assigned service project), then you can explain how demoralized you feel. I'd skip the drama about asking to repeal the rank.. We're talking about 2 months on the clock, and maybe the committee didn't think they'd be able to arrange a BOR in July. Lame, I know, but again from an Old Fart's perspective, sometimes 8 weeks in the summer doesn't mean as much. I mentioned to a parent in another thread that in high school, my best friends were the ones who called me on the carpet for getting away with something. It's time for you to be a "best friend" and tell him that you think what he did was wrong, and even if adults were letting it slide, you think he should have stood up for playing by the rules.. Again, that might not result in a rank being repealed, but a boy might know he's got a friend out there that he can count on for "straight talk" when he needs it.

I take it that 18-20 year olds will still participate as venturers. I'm warming up to the idea of having the older youth in my crew registered as adults. Proper scouting should be preparing these young adults to manage packs and troops (BS and GSUSA) and other youth programs, and getting them to feel the spotlight we're trying to put them in is the first step to them stepping up. It's about time we started treating them as adults. Which is why the independent hiking and camping is such a linchpin to all of this. When you tell a youth he/she can step out like that, you are literally handing them the keys to their own country. Like, SG, I'm not seeing the co-ed thing as a game changer. There are boys who are quite happy to have their "man time." And likewise the girls ask for something similar. The only reason I am okay with extending it to younger ages is that right now it takes a special young woman to come into the program at 14 and find her place among us good-old-boys. There are plenty of those out there, but I feel that more girls were acquainted with us at younger ages, the more "average" young lady would be less intimidated by what we're offering.

Impatient, much?

I'm not sure you're quite at the "95 Thesis" stage yet. I'd dicker with the age designations. There should be a place, as in UK, for a young adult network. APO could fill that on college campuses, venturing is kinda filling that for the non-college-bound of my crew. Somehow, that formal designation needs to be there to distinguish the young-adult scout from the fella who grabs a few cold ones and goes of to the national forest with his/her buddies. But that leads me to the one "opportunity area" which you've omitted ...: (Re)Establishing a culture where the vision of The Pinnacle Scouting Experience is not "high adventure" per se, but Hiking and camping independently with your patrol. Other "big ticket" events must exist to support a boy (and his adult leaders) learning how to do that and taking that "adventurer's swagger" back home to their units. A good example that I hear from many scouters coming back from Philmont is how the rangers address issues with the youth crew leader, NOT the adults. Until that vision is instilled at every program level, ultimate scouting adventures that any determined youth could and should enjoy will continue to be held outside of the auspices of the BSA. I'm not Robert Gates, but that is what I do, and will do in whatever position I hold. Not to disrespect all those other aspirations, Frank. I think most of them are good ideas. But, they are pretty much nail polish, and don't cut to the quick of where scouting needs to be for boys and girls to feel that they are indeed growing into great young men and women.

For a while they sold "all-abouts", shortbread cookies stamped with the GS ideals on them. I really liked those cookies.

I don't think it was scouts who were to be in attendance. It sounds like council representatives (President and SE, maybe?)