scomman

If Texas calims special staus as a former nation then how about Califronia or Hawaii which are also former nations shouldn't they get special treatment also?

My trusty Hickory hiking stick not a scout stave but a homemade one and a cotton sheet for my sleeping bag for thereasons listed above and a bottle of Advil for obvious reasons.

We restarted a troop with 2 leaders and 3 boys. We receuited heavily and now have 8 registered adults and 8 boys. The offical answer from our council was this was adequate to start the troop as long as we had the support of our CO.

It's scoman not SctMom. anyway what we have done is to move the adult tents away from the boys and let the boys have their own campsite close by but away from the fire ring. That way the adults can stay up and talk as well as go over the program for the next day.

We do the night hike when the kids are still a bit rowdy and have even had to change of tent assignments once to get a rowdy tent to quiet down. But we have also recieved complaints of the leaders beng to loud.

My scout troop uses a permission slip that has a medical release form on the bottom for us to seek medical attention for the boy in case of accident and illness.We do try to notify the parents but sometimes we are several hours away from home and have all the medical forms and records with us but the form is just a reminder of date and time we are leaving and are kept in a folder in the GTSS. We are required to have written permission slips for any outing by our CO as part of a youth program they have called "Safe From Harm"

I always thought all troops met year round. At least all the ones I have been involved in have even as a Scout. We go to a reduced meeting schedule of every other week and meet at tother locations beside our regular meeting places. Then we concentrate on outdoor activities during the sumer and long term camping last year we got 20 days of camping in the summer. It was fun and our troop went to South Dakota and to Tennessee and enjoyed it. WE do take the month of December off because all of the leaders are involved in the Bell Ringing campaign for our charter partner.

I work for The Salvation Army as a jack of all trades and master of none. I primarily work as a office professional and coordinate volunteers for different programs including Christmas Kettles, Homeless Feeding and organizing speakers for various United Way campaigns.

Thanks I will give them a try

Anyone know where we can find replacement poles for Eureka 4xt tents. We have called campmor and they have them for $13.00 each we need about 8 of them and am looking for a cheaper price.

I put my answer as very supportive due to the fact that my troop is chartered to The Salvation army and they have in the past given us a donation every year for our budget in return for us doing several projects for them throughout the year. We are also a successful program for them to reach out into a very transient neighborhood to be a force for good. They appreciate us and we appreciate them

Lord Baden Powell said "that without faith you cannot become a good citizen." That is a qute that is used by the International Scouting Movment in a report on their webiste about religion in scouting. The basis of religion in scouting has been there from the beginning and is an intregal part of the scout movement. I believe that if a boy is searchingfor God I will not turn him away from thetroop just he is huntig for God. On the otherhand if a Boy stands up in a meeting ad declares that he cannot deal with the promise because of the Duty To God or part or the last point of the law Reverent then I would seriously ask him to consider what the point means to him.

We had a fundraiser in my Council last year when the Norman Rockwell exhibit came to town and several troops were asked to provide Honor Guards for the paintings. Anyway to make a long story short The Adults that were present from the Council Exec on down were drinking in Uniform and in front of kids. Several of the other leaders present did complain about the open cash bar while the youth were present. Of course the Council didnt do anyhing about it except to say they will investigate it of course it has been close to a year now with no response.Of course the Council Exec heard a lot about it at our fireside chat but maybe someone on the Council itself should read the GTSS. As for another point please be aware that their are organizations that are charter partners that do not drink and would prefer that no alcohol would be served at any event involved in Scouting.(This message has been edited by scomman)

I apologize I posted this in a hurry and didn't realixe lilbillie had already posted it earlier

BETHLEHEM, Pennsylvania (AP) -- Parents of a 7-year-old boy admitted scamming neighbors of nearly $700 by dressing their son in a Cub Scout uniform and going door-to-door seeking donations for a nonexistent pack. Anthony M. Herman, 46, and Sally Ann Gombocz, 45, of Bethlehem knocked on more than 150 doors between January 7 and January 18, collecting $667 as their son silently smiled, police said. At the couple's arraignment Wednesday, Herman said they perpetrated the scam because the family landscaping business was failing. "What we've done here was a desperation act," Herman told the judge. "I'm not trying to minimize what I did. It was stupid, very stupid." Bethlehem police arrested the couple after receiving tips from neighbors. Both were charged with theft by deception, corruption of minors, criminal conspiracy and related offenses. The charges carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. No plea was entered and a preliminary hearing was set for January 31. The boy is not a Cub Scout, though his parents convinced him he was when he put on the uniform, police said. He remains in the custody of his parents, who were released on $5,000 bail each, authorities said. "That's awful ... using the child like that," said Sharon DeAngelis, who donated $5 Friday. "The little boy had a smile on his face. He didn't talk, though." The couple told donors they were raising money for a camping trip for Cub Scout Pack 351, which does not exist, police said. Herman and Gombocz acknowledged spending the money, authorities said. Michael Stempo, who has two sons who are Eagle Scouts, became suspicious when his wife said the boy's neckerchief was knotted -- not held together with a Scout slide. Stempo also said Boy Scouts do not solicit for money door-to-door, though they sometimes sell popcorn or other items. http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/01/23/cub.scout.scam.ap/index.html

Just my Two cents worth. The newspaper here in Des Moines is called The Des Moines Register by everyone except some conservatives who call it Pravda. There is a media bias and there will be until the media starts reporting the news and nottrying to skew it one way or the other and many people are not smart enough to have their own opinions but are fed their opinions by the media. They don't think for themselves.

My scout troop marches in two parades a year and what we do is line them up on the white lines and make sure they keep up. We carry a banner on a pole telling our troop and Charter Organization and the boys rotate carrying it with the ones that get done carrying it moving to the back and so forth it works for us

Twocubdad I agree with you on your latest post on this. Everyone show me in any article that they are asking for money every time I read both posts it doesn't say anything about money just recognition from the Universities.

Firstpusk before you get your liberal shots in. I am not a conservative or any other title you want to say let me say this I believe that any group has the right to establish their own standards of leadership like the Scouts do. If a group claims to be Christian and is forced to have Non Christian Leaders then that group has effectivey shortchanged. But hey lets see if the Clinton News Network will report on this story. I don't think so.

Firstpusk, I think you are missing the point of the post yourself. If colleges and universsities are allowed to dictate a diversity policy to the students and to the groups that are on campus it does violate the Constuition and is therefore illegal. Also, many Christians have tried to stop the enforcement of mandatory fees that go to support organizations that they would not normally support such as "Gay Lesbian Straight Alliance" Once the feei s collected it should be made available to all groups regardless of the groups views. Also the article it self doesn't talk about fees at all it just talks about how the diveristy police are trying to froce their views on certain groups.

From www.ifeminsts.com and www.foxnews.com A column I happpen to agree with pertaining to this issue. A federal lawsuit filed on Dec. 30 will determine whether Rutgers University can de facto ban Christian student groups. It may set national policy. On campuses across North America, Christian student groups are being ordered to either accept leaders who violate their beliefs or lose the official "recognition" that allows them access to university funding and facilities. The universities say the groups' exclusion of gays and non-Christians from leadership roles is sexual and religious discrimination. The groups reply that their membership is open to all but their leaders must hold certain beliefs or the group will cease to be Christian. Civil libertarians add that the non-exclusion requirement violates both freedom of speech and freedom of association. Moreover, the universities are targeting the leadership of Christian groups while allowing gay, feminist and minority groups to determine their own leaders as well as membership. One student commented that his university's "Women's Resource Center" holds "a vast array of events" from which he is explicitly barred from attending. "I was asked to leave meetings ... because my presence as [a] straight white male was unwelcome." In recent months, the debate has heightened. At Tufts University near Boston, a Christian Fellowship was placed on probation in October. At the same time, Central College in Pella, Ill., debated whether to strip InterVarsity Christian Fellowship of official recognition. In both cases, the proximate cause was the group's refusal to allow homosexuals to serve as leaders. At Harvard, a grant to the Harvard-Radcliffe Christian Fellowship was postponed while administrators assessed the group. The associate dean stated that requiring leaders to share the Christian beliefs was discrimination. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill agreed. In December, three Christian organizations were ordered to remove discriminatory language from their constitutions or have their recognition revoked. In the wake of national criticism, the University backed down. Rutgers is standing by its suspension of the InterVarsity Multi-Ethnic Christian Fellowship (IVMECF). The Christian group isn't budging either. Its lawsuit against Rutgers is being financed by the Alliance Defense Fund, which supports religious organizations who conflict with government policy. David French -- the attorney representing IVMECF -- bluntly states: "You can't have a leader of a Christian group not be a Christian. That's nonsense." Given that Rutgers is a state university -- as are most of those involved -- its actions may also violate its responsibility to respect the constitutional rights of students. Several court precedents have found that freedom to exclude is part and parcel of "freedom of association." Although that phrase does not occur within the Constitution, Supreme Court decisions have protected freedom of association as an aspect of the First Amendment's protection of speech, assembly, petition for the redress of grievances, and the establishment of religion. The protection applies especially to "expressive" organizations -- that is, to groups dedicated to a specific message or point of view. For example, in the 1984 decision Roberts v. United States Jaycees, the court found that the ability to determine membership was essential to "expressive" organizations. Otherwise, black rights groups could be shouted down by white members, Jewish anti-defamation groups could be disrupted by Nazis. Freedom of assembly and free speech would be de facto denied. But does the First Amendment protect groups with open memberships, which impose leadership restrictions? The most relevant case is probably Dale v. Boy Scouts of America, decided by the Supreme Court of New Jersey in January 2000. This case addressed whether the Boy Scouts -- an organization with relatively open membership -- could terminate a gay scoutmaster. By a narrow margin, the court found that groups should not be forced to include people who would significantly damage "the group's ability to advocate public or private viewpoints." Being forced to include non-Christians in its leadership would certainly affect IVMECF's religious mission. Indeed, French claims that universities are conditioning access to campuses "on compliance with an anti-discrimination position that essentially tears the heart out of the religious nature of the group." Ironically, a victory for Rutgers might be more devastating to its politically correct policies than a defeat. If Rutgers successfully argues in court that no organization with "discriminatory leadership" can be officially recognized, then it may be required to impose that same standard on every organization -- especially those with discriminatory membership as well: Feminist groups on rape and sexual harassment might have to admit males. Gay groups might have to welcome straight members. And, as many males and heterosexuals have discovered, a significant number of those groups viciously discriminate in both membership and leadership. The key difference between such groups and IVMECF is honesty. Every group must submit its bylaws and constitution for review before being officially recognized. Politically correct groups include the standard non-discrimination language of the university, and then act in an exclusionary manner. Christian groups are refusing to lie. And, so, they are "derecognized." If Rutgers wins, all student organizations may have to apply the non-discrimination standard not merely in words but in deeds as well. Or be disbanded. Simply by going to court, the IVMECF has won ... whatever the verdict turns out to be. Wendy McElroy is the editor of ifeminists.com and a research fellow for The Independent Institute in Oakland, Calif. She is the author and editor of many books and articles, including the new book, Liberty for Women: Freedom and Feminism in the 21st Century (Ivan R. Dee/Independent Institute, 2002). She lives with her husband in Canada. (This message has been edited by scomman)

Do you mean the requirments or the paphlet itself? If you want the rquiremnts try www.meritbadge.com I use them quite a bit

Does anybody remember the fieldbok that was a companion to the Scout Manual? I just got my new catalog and was looking to get one and couldn't find it.

Working with a urban emphasis troop in a low income area I would say give it to the troop to use as part of its program to help the boys. As a donor you can ask for a report on the money and how it was spent.

I give to the United Way and use it to fund the groups I choose to support. I don't see it as dictating their policy I see it as supporting groups I believe in. The diffrence between that and the United Way frocing groups to change their systems to what they want is called "Bullying" Like the school yard tryant of days gone by the United Way controls the purse strings and so they think they can tell other groups what to do or they will be punished.