srisom

Blue Ridge Mountains Council - Virginia has been interviewing for at least three DEs.

Good Luck on the job. Had an Eagle Scout who joined the Air Force and after basic training was assigned to a base. After he had been there about 4-6 weeks, he was summoned to the Base Commanders office. Of course, he was trying to figure out what he had done wrong, especially since he had been there such a short time. The Base Commander was also new at the base and had been going over personnel records. Turned out he was also an Eagle Scout and was calling in all the other Eagle Scouts there to chat with them. They apparently chatted for almost an hour and the young Eagle Scout left feeling a lot better than when he went in.

Just pointing out the different info in different places. Not a real problem. As to the adults, yes the 50:1 ratio has been there. Now that is changed.

National OA just introduced a Lodge Advisor Handbook. It includes the guidelines for one adult per unit per year. That's the way it's been for a while. However, the OA issued an Operations Update on 7/16/12 which changed that to allow for more than one adult per unit per year: "The number of adults nominated can be no more than one-third of the number of youth candidates elected, rounded up where the number of youth candidates is not a multiple of three. In addition to the one-third limit, the unit committee may nominate the currently-serving unit leader (but not assistant leaders), as long as he or she has served as unit leader for at least the previous twelve months." Apparently, the new guideline is to try to get more adults into the OA, similar to the move years ago to chnage the youth guidelines to get more youth into the OA. Looks like they should proof their own material, but having these differences are nothing new.

Just gotta be careful where you have the snipe hunts. In the mountains, it would be hazing. On the coast it would be seen as endangering wildlife, unless you were hunting the Common Snipe.

My council has just recently announced that in order to purchase Rank Badges ot Merit Badges, you will be required to turn in an advancement form. This to purchase them from a National Scout Shop. They stated that this was the policy from National. Not sure how they will handle the need to purchase badges for additional uniforms.

I remember when it was a requirement. Still have my BSA Morse Code Kit. Maybe work it into Scouting Heritage MB. As for the meaning of SOS. Does not really stand for anything thoufh there have been many interpretations. It was chosen simply because it was an easy code to send.

What we found in our council was this - as long as the Scout Shop was operated by the council, you had to submit an Advancement Report in order to purchase badges. Once it became a National Scout Shop, the shop did not require any report. The shop and the council were separate. At most National Scout Shops, I have found that they will sell most anything to anyone. They want the money and don't care about any reports. Sometimes they do encourage and remind you to submit a report.

BasementDweller, True, the link provided does not show a Unit Copy, but a Council Copy. As others have said, your link has a card that has been modified. In my council, the card we use has the three parts and the Application part is the one that goes to the unit. The council cars nothing about the actual card.

The unit copy of the blue card is handled by the Advancement Chair. If a boy then transfers to another unit, he has his copy of the blue card. Along with this, he should be given a filled out Transfer Form that lists all of his advancements. This is the only form that flows from unit to unit. This form and $1 gets the boy transferred. If the unit wishes to give up their copy of the blue card to the other unit, they can.

As a MBC on several badges, I try to encourage the Scouts to use what they have learned or done in school to help with a badge. One good example is Reading. Most of the work is being done in school, so why not give the Scout credit. No reason for him to have to do it again. By informing the Scouts of the possibilities, it sometimes encourages them to go after badges they might not have considered.

Around here, Scouts and leaders used to be used as victims in sccident scenes for drills. Even had them involved in a terrorist plot with one of the leadrs, a minister, playing the main part of a terrorist. They stopped using the Scouts a few years ago saying it was a potential problem with insurance. Not sure that was the real reason. The Scouts and adults had great times helping with the drills. Maybe we can get them involved again.

Less color on the shirts. Seems that's the way National is headed on the uniforms. Don'e want to show that there is a uniform, too much like the military. Look for more changes. Perhaps to like the Girl Scouts and no uniform, so no one would have to worry about knots.

Looking at The Summit site, it appears that visitors are being contained in a small area. Also, it states that there will an appropriate fee. It also looks like visitors will have to pre-register. Lots of changes for everyone for this Jamboree. Says they are going to be more like the World Jamborees. Does that mean we can expect other changes in the near future concerning other aspects of the BSA to match up with World Scouting?

Sometimes COs are not directly involved in a unit, but be sure that a member of the CO has a key to the storage area. Several years ago, we had a trailer that was stored on the CO property. However there was no one from the CO that was involved in the unit. We tried to get the COR more involved but no luck. One weekend the trailer was broken into and most of the unit equipment stolen. The CO submitted a claim with the insurance company and it was denied. A lawyer on the unit committee took it to court. The judge ruled in favor of the insurance company and the claim was denied. The unit had to raise funds to replace over $2,500 worth of equipment. The jusges' statement was that he wanted to rule in favor of the unit, but because no one from the CO had access (a key) to the trailer he could not. Lesson learned. Key was accepted by the CO, but the trailer was also moved.