silasm

Jtex1234... This is preventing you from planning for the Blue & Gold Banquet??? Do you have a line of gay parents just waiting for the decision so they can volunteer? (Willing volunteers? Send 'em my way!) Or are you worried that some of your more mature Webelos may have a surprise for you? We'll probably lose a few units over this (American Heritage Boys?) The units whose CO has no problem with gays will be happy, and the units chartered by the more conservative churches can still set their own membership policy. As it should be, IMHO. The only down side I see, is that chartered orgs can't point to the National policy any more and may have to defend their own policies, legally and otherwise. I'm curious to see where our CO is going to come down on this. It's a Christian church, but we have some Islamic and Jewish scouts, so they don't exactly have restrictive membership policies.

This made the agenda at the next Committee Meeting? I must say that if I were called on the carpet at a Committee Meeting, or in any conversation rather than (maybe) a one-on-one discussion with the CM or CC, I would apologize for being untrustworthy and ask that that be conveyed to you. And I would reassure those present that I would avoid the situation in the future by never offering transportation to Scouts other than my own children.

I stand corrected about BALOO being required for Webelos camping. I certainly agree with Scoutfish that it doesn't add any value to Webelos Den camping, but I thought it was required nonetheless. It certainly wouldn't be the only BSA-required training that didn't add any value... Our council hasn't even offer OWL in the six years I have been with the Pack. Our Pack is blessed with plenty of experienced outdoorsmen, but it would be nice to have confirmation that we are doing it "right".

You said about half the boys have gone to a neighboring Troop? Then it seems reasonable to camp with both Troop and let the boys decide what they like. Tell the parents "I will be attending the outing with the other Troop, but now with 'our' Troop because they do not allow women on campouts." You are wrong, though, that a parent needs to accompany a Webelos on overnights. Webelos are allowed to Den camp without their parents. HOWEVER, someone must have BALOO training. You might want to warn "your" Troop that someone there will need to take BALOO if you (or another BALOO-trained Scouter) are not welcome to attend.

When I am hiring, having Eagle Scout on your resume will get a marginal candidate an interview. I won't ask about it in the interview, and the person hired for the position will be the most qualified; he will have to convince me that he is the best candidate for the job based on relevant skills. But when I have a stack of 10 resumes and I have to pick 3-5 to interview, there are always one or two that are on the bubble. Eagle Scout will help get you in front of my desk to present your merits. Edit: "Merits". No pun intended. So far, that has only led to one hire who probably would not have been interviewed otherwise. This was before I was (re-)involved in Scouting myself. That has worked out well for him, me, the company and the customer.(This message has been edited by silasm)

That's a military standard, Woapalanne. The section of US Code that permits a flag to be worn by "patriotic organizations", 36 USC 176j, doesn't specify which way the flag should face. So BSA (and, I believe, some other civilian organizations) applied the rule from 175i-- that the union should be to the flags right/observers left. The military is entitled (by 178, at the direction of the Commander in Chief) to establish variances from 36 USC. The US Army does this in Army Regulation 670-1, and I assume the other services have similar regulations. But those do not apply to civilians. Essentially, the BSA flag direction is not wrong for a civilian, but the "blue forward" flag might also be correct. I cut and paste most of this from a discussion I had with a well-meaning parent in our Pack. I offered him the opportunity to discuss the difference with our Cubs and help with the color guard and everyone went away happy. (Edit: Pardon my citations. I'm no lawyer, but I did want to address this veteran parent's issue with authority.)(This message has been edited by silasm)

Their database is bad, bad, bad. If I search by my login, I find all of my records-- both offline and online-- except for my Woodbadge. If I do "advanced search" by my last name, town and state my WIFE'S records come up, but with my first and last names at the top. If I search by her full name, nothing comes up. So either their search is broken, or their are two sets of records linked to my name and none to hers. This is the sort of things that is going to cause real grief when training is required for recharter. Heck, it may even be a problem this year if the database doesn't have her down for YPT.

Thanks Eagle92 and Kudu for the links. From the video, National wants to recruit 100,000 new Scouts who a) don't want to camp and b) are going to be accompanied by their families on their activities. In other word, 100,000 new Scouts who don't want to be Scouts. Which is fine by me, I guess, as long as they don't mess with MY program.

Eagle92, I don't doubt your accuracy, but do you have a cite for the CSE's statements? I would like to read them in context. Thanks.

Note that this thread had been sleeping for a year and a half before Cyed's post. Then note that his post simply restates the subject, tacks on a few words of praise and a URL. This is just a spammer who is gaming Google's search engines by having as many links to their site as possible to make their search show up higher in the listings. I searched for that company name and found that they have been doing that quite a bit. My favorite is this one; read the last comment. http://www.qbn.com/topics/570998/ I suggest a moderator delete the post, or at least edit out the URL so we aren't helping these goons. Their business ethics are clearly Made in China.(This message has been edited by silasm)

Good point, that people might think they need the new one. Sneaky devils, them National Supply folks!

I've got both the good ol' Webelos Leaders's Guide and the new and shiny Den and Pack Meeting Resource Guide in front of me here. Although there are a few minor conflicts between them (for example, the "suggested schedule" in the WLG does not match the order in the D&PMRG), the new book does not obsolete the old one. They are nicely complementary. So the old book remains, as part of the new delivery model. This kinda makes sense since the Webelos program already focused on advancement in the Den Meetings and so doesn't change nearly as much as the Tiger, Wolf and Bear programs. Scoutfish, I'm not sure why you seem disappointed to find out that the version you bought is not, in fact, obsolete!

Er, that should read "Tiger Cub Scout", that was not intended as a slur on their size.

New, bigger Cub Scout Leader and Tiger Sub Scout Leader neckerchiefs are up on Scoutstuff now. The Webelos and Webelos Leader neckerchiefs are still conspicuously absent.

Double-stake each loop. That means, put two stakes in each loop, slanted in different directions. Plus, as you said, tie out each attachment point. It's probably not going to blow away, with your family weighting it down. A bigger concern is poles snapping, but our cheap Taj Mahal style family tent has survived 15-20mph winds with no problem. Come Sunday, you will be laughing at the adventure.