sailingpj

Lol, I have talked to a couple satanists over the internet, and while I don't subscribe to their beliefs the ones I talked to were normal people.

I have no problem with satanists.

Hear it, See it, Do it, Teach it.

I think that could be part of it, but It probably has more to do with all the other options that people have of things to do now. I am ti young to know what it was like way back when, but I can tell you now that there are a ton of things to do and many of them are much more exciting than scouting.

Yeah, this is the only Sea Scout event in our area that ever even gives time for religious services. Everywhere else just at the most starts events an hour later on sundays. It is not at all part of our program. In fact it is so not part of our program that it wasn't until I found this forum a year and a half into my scouting career that I was even aware that the BSA had a religious component (no I did not read the application, I just thought of it as the TOS). For this specific event in question, myself and the other people who went for coffee really just did not want to be preached with watered down christian values and scriptures for an hour. It was not a big problem. All my scouts know that if they wish to do their own religious services during that time they just need to let Skip know and make arrangements to be back in time for competition. Nobody has taken us up on that yet.

I'm not all that worried about that. At least in my council, the few people paid people that interact with Sea Scouts on a regular basis already know who these people are and their beliefs. Where I live Sea Scouts is a very different community that the other scouting organizations. There are several adult leaders now that were basically born into the program. Their parents met as scouts, then grew up to be adult leaders and had kids that they brought around the program all the time. Those kids grew up and met people in scouts and are now doing the same with their kids. Then we have all the adult leaders that have been friends with each other since they joined in high school. The whole community is crazy tight. It makes for interesting political games within the area, but politics and religion are never brought into it.

Hmm, well perhaps in this area of things it is a good thing that Sea Scouts are not really noticed by anyone. If they wanted to enforce any of that with the Sea Scout leaders in my area they would end up losing units due to having kicked out most of the leadership in the Area. Now that may be a slight exaggeration, but I personally know of at least 5 adult leaders that don't conform to BSA's officially published policies, and are quite upfront about it. I could probably name another half dozen that are a bit more discrete. All of them are great scout leaders. I would not still be in scouting if I hadn't met at least 3 of those first 5.

I have been reading the posts about people getting kicked out for religious reasons and was wondering how often religion actually comes up in a scouting context. In my own unit the only time the topic ever comes up is when one of my scouts has to miss a meeting or a weekend event due to a church thing. Occasionally scouts talk to each other about what they believe and all that, but it is really just a certain pair that have quite different beliefs and they are both trying to understand the other's, plus the usual friendly joking (half my crew acts like they are siblings). Outside of my unit the first time I ever had cause to talk to someone about religion was at an event at the end of May. That was just a lighthearted couple of comments about how every nondenominational service we have been to was decidedly christian. Then a few of us went and got coffee during the services that sunday morning because we didn't really feel right attending a christian service. The rules of the event say everyone has to either attend the services provided, or make their own arrangements and return in time for competition to start. So yeah, my original question, how often does this actually come up.

Wow Khaliela, that is crazy.

What about units that are completely upfront about where the money is going? When we work crab feeds we always explain to person who asked us and is giving us the money that a portion will be used by scouts for cruises and such.

My ship has scout accounts. The reality of them is that they are nothing more than a notation on the treasurer's spreadsheet. The money is all in one of the ship's bank accounts. The majority of our fundraisers are cleaning up and serving at crab feeds, or other things like that. We occasionally get a small donation for doing a color guard. The money is split 50/50 between the general fund (pays for insurance, boat maintenance, slip fees, everything really) and the scouts that worked that fundraiser. Scouts can use that money to pay for any event the ship is attending, or any activity the ship is participating in. The crew bucks can also be used to pay for ship dues ($25 per month). When a scout leaves the ship whatever balance they have of crew bucks just reverts back to ship money. I personally paid my way as a scout working every fundraiser I could. If a scout works every fundraiser we do each year they don't end up having to pay fees for many events. We explain all of this to every new scout and their parents, and it is laid out in our welcome packet. As long as good records are maintained nobody complains. I have never met anyone who thought it was unethical. As far as I know every ship in my area does something quite similar to this.

Its working now. Yay

Well strike that. The Issues and Politics forum is doing the same thing as open discussion. I also cannot seem to post there. I keep getting "Empty Response" errors.