BrentAllen

I was going to add Roseanne Barr to the list, but calling her an entertainer? A Scout tells the truth...

Our method is pretty simple. This past Tuesday, we handed out a sheet to all Scouts that listed both the types of trips we have done in the past (canoeing, rock climbinb, caving, backpacking, etc...) and the locations (AT, Cumberland Island, Tumbling Rock, etc...). Below each of those two lists are blank lines for write-ins. The Scouts fill them and turn them in to the PLs. Scouts are encouraged to come up with new ideas and list all of them. The PLs look over their patrol responses and present that information at the PLC Annual Planning Conference this comnig Sunday afternoon. The SPL and PLC members bring any calendars that are important to them - school, athletic, band, - and they try to mesh it all together. They use a couple of big dry erase boards and throw everything up on them, sit back and look for problems, and work out the final details. It usually takes around 2 1/2 - 3 hours. Usually I am the only adult in the room, sometimes there may be one ASM join me. If we see a real problem, we ask if we can make a suggestion. The boys are in charge and it is up to them to produce a complete calendar. I have some parents, mostly mom's, who would like to get in there and rule the roost, but that doesn't happen. If you want to have older boys active in your Troop, they have to be given real ownership of the Troop. The PLC Annual Planning Conference is one of the best ways to show them that it is their Troop.

When we were backpacking on Cumberland Island a year or so ago, I started hearing the boys say "36 HUCK" and later "24 HUCK"... After hearing it enough times and not being able to figure it out, I asked, what in the heck is 24 HUCK? One of the Scouts replied - 24 HUC is "24 Hours Until Chick-Fil-A! Our trip was over a holiday weekend, meaning we were driving back on a Monday, which meant Chick-Fil-A would be open! CFA is the unanimous choice of our Scouts, when they are open. Our SPL is currently working at one of the local CFA's. If anyone here still thinks there isn't a God, watch the video and read the story here: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/totally-heterosexual-anti-chick-fil-a-tough-guy-fired-for-bullying-drive-thru-girl/ This idiot got exactly what was coming to him - along with his free water. Smooth move, X-Lax!

Lisa, but do they smoke? eolesen - I heard George Michaels say he was content as a hetero, until he tried the other team. Is he an anomoly? Could he have stayed happy as a hetero if he hadn't experimented with same-sex? Me, I'm ready to get rid of all the ugly Scouters. I'm tired of hanging out with a bunch a ugly mugs that only a mother could love. Yeah, that goes for the women, too.

Lisa, The announcement was sort of in response to the petition that was delivered asking the BSA to change positions on homosexuals. Since the BSA accepted the petition, some took it as a sign that BSA was about to change. The BSA then made the announcement that they were not, in fact, changing. It was more of a clarification than anything.

"In my world, people whose personalitys allow them to think discrimination against other people is ok and/or that "tea party" politics is goos are unacceptable BSA leaders." So Calico, when are you resigning from the BSA? That is, unless you are willing to let the local illegal drug dealers, prostitutes, gang members, mentally ill, pedophiles, alcoholics and porn stars be leaders in your Troop. You don't discriminate, right? Right... Of course, in your own sentence, you indicated that you discriminate against Tea Party members. You might try a little more bleach on your white robe.

Well, if that is your real goal, I suggest you become a Mormon and direct your efforts toward changing their view on homosexuality.

shortridge, the real question is why do you belong to a group that you feel is so immoral? Since BSA policies are so strongly against both your moral and religious values, how can you stand to be a member? Maybe your moral and religious values aren't that important to you? Maybe that is why you can't understand why our's are so important to us?

"Yet your morality and religious doctrine outweighs my morality and religious doctrine. How is that right?" Easy, First Amendment, the right to associate. BSA sets the standards. The standards are set, but some of you don't want to accept them.

shortride, one problem - your "mainline protestant" numbers include the huge decline in the Episcopal Church and Presbyterian USA church. Take those numbers out, and the amount of deline decreases significantly. Conservative churchs aren't losing members nearly as bad as liberal churches.

shortridge, I'm amazed at how you continue to fool yourself. None of what you wrote matters. What matters is which organizations are chartering the most units, and those organizations are conservative Christian. They hold sway at BSA national. It's like presidential candidates in the election - they are interested in winning the big electoral vote states. The big chartering organizations aren't changing anytime soon, and neither is the bible. When the huge majority of institutional heads and CORs are members of religious organizations, I don't see how you can just push aside the religious aspect of the program. Those IHs and CORs are the decision makers for the vast majority of BSA units. You don't think they are watching what is happening to liberal Christian churches, and they don't think the same thing would happen to the BSA? Would that be your argument before the BSA national board? Good luck with that. North Carolina was a population vote, not a legislature. And I'm surprised you would even bring that up, since the only states that have gay marriage had it forced on them through the courts. No state has actually voted in favor of gay marriage. Every state that has put the vote to its citizens has voted against it.

If 30 states is cherry picking, then so be it. Believe what you want, but the BSA is watching other groups that have gone left, and all they see is failure. Look at the Episcopal Church and others that have followed their lead. Can Liberal Christianity Be Saved? http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/opinion/sunday/douthat-can-liberal-christianity-be-saved.html "Yet instead of attracting a younger, more open-minded demographic with these changes, the Episcopal Churchs dying has proceeded apace. Last week, while the churchs House of Bishops was approving a rite to bless same-sex unions, Episcopalian church attendance figures for 2000-10 circulated in the religion blogosphere. They showed something between a decline and a collapse: In the last decade, average Sunday attendance dropped 23 percent, and not a single Episcopal diocese in the country saw churchgoing increase." "Practically every denomination Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian that has tried to adapt itself to contemporary liberal values has seen an Episcopal-style plunge in church attendance." Is liberal Christianity signing its own death warrant? http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/19/12811129-is-liberal-christianity-signing-its-own-death-warrant?lite "I see other mainline denominations that are fairly liberal, like the Presbyterians and the Methodists, just really being very careful about jumping over this hurdle," David Hein, Hood College historian and co-author of The Episcopalians, a history of the church, told NBC News, "because it really wreaks havoc with the denominations for the national headquarters on down, the institutions, the seminaries, the parishes when you start to lose huge numbers of members. Is The Episcopal Church Near Collapse In America? http://www.theblaze.com/stories/cross-dressing-clergy-these-are-the-reasons-the-episcopal-church-could-be-near-collapse/ The accelerating fragmentation of the strife-torn Episcopal Church USA, writes Christian author Charlotte Allen, in which large parishes and entire dioceses are opting out of the church, isnt simply about gay bishops, the blessing of same-sex unions or the election of a woman as presiding bishop. It is about the meltdown of liberal Christianity. Anyone here thinks the BSA wants to follow that model?

It's not going to happen anytime soon - as in 30 years. The folks in Irving are looking at national trends. North Carolina recently became the 30th state to pass an amendment to their state constitution banning same-sex marriage. It passed by a huge margin, and the other side actually thought they were going to win. Liberal Christian churches are losing members in droves. Where is the successful business plan that would encourage the BSA to make this change? Go back in this forum and you will find posts where people predicted the change in 5 years made 8 - 10 years ago.

Most of the guys in our Crew run cross-country, swim, play soccer, run track, mountain bike - they are very active. And tall. Check out our picture, in the local paper. I'm 6' tall - remember that when looking at the height of the rest of crew compared to me. http://www.thecrier.net/news/image_f4095b18-d017-11e1-a6fc-0019bb2963f4.html

We like to say "Boy run does not mean boy-run-off-the-tracks!" :-) I'll counter Josh's statement about adults not liking NSPs with: Troops that use NSPs generally do so because they don't have strong, developed Patrols who can handle brand new Scouts; the Patrols don't have the skills nor the leadership development to teach T-2-1 to the new Scouts. (I have no idea if that is true - I just threw that out as the other side of the coin) We don't use NSPs because we believe Scouting is all about older boys teaching the younger boys. We like teacher to student ratios of 6 to 2, instead of 2 to 6. The whole Patrol has an interest in teaching the new Scouts. Dean, from the situation in your original post, I would have assisted my son in sending a nice, short email to the PL. Something along the lines of "I am new to all this, and for this weekend's campout, I'm not sure about who is buying the food and who I'm tenting with, or if I need to bring a tent. Can you help me out?" Then see what happens. (You are also teaching your son to follow chain of command) The best lessons for Scouts are when they see a NEED for something. Scouts can learn all about duty rosters, but until they have patrol members complaining about who has cooked and who has cleaned up, and "Johnny hasn't had KP all weekend!", they won't see the real NEED for one. They can learn all about knots, but until they see a NEED for a bowline or a taut-line hitch, they really won't learn them. Same thing with first aid. Use scenarios on camping trips (surprise scenarios are great) to teach first aid. Add a little fake blood and some moulage, and you have the recipe for a camping trip that will be discussed for a long time after they get home. That safety net we provide is there so Scouts can learn lessons through experience and the need for them. Those lessons learned from need are much more likely to stick with them than lessons learned from just being told or instructed.