CalicoPenn

In Illinois, the non-profit corporation own's the Council properties - dechartering the Council doesn;t eliminate the corporation. If the non-profit corporation dissolves without having legally dispossed of its properties and assets, the State takes possession as caretakers and can dispose of and re-allocate to other non-profits in the State after a set period of years. National already tried this ploy in Illinois and the Attorney General slapped them down hard.

Since Pack is in "run silent, run deep" mode, I'll step in and just remind us all: It's Flavoraid.

I think we now know who has the eagle's eyes in this forum. I know that the rank patches (except for Eagle Scout) that have the eagle on it all used to portray adult bald eagles. For the 2010 centennial rank patches, the white heads and tails were dropped from the Tenderfoot, First Class and Life rank patches, but not from the Star rank patch and it appears that those patterns are still being used today. Were it not for the centennial rank patches, I might have thought the BSA still has a boatload of star rank patches to go through before they could eliminate the white head and tail on the patch but now I'm not so sure. I think it's a fair guess to say that the BSA has eliminated the white head and tail from the other patches to same money, but I don't know what they wouldn't have changed the eagle for the Star rank patch.

Sure, 300' is the ideal, but there will be a lot of times where you don't have the space to have a 300' buffer between the Patrols - does that mean you should throw up your hands and just declare that the Patrol Method won't work? Of course not - you still set-up by Patrols in the limited area you're in. Summer camp rules prevented your two small troops that were camping together from participating together? Did you talk to the Camp Director? If so and they refused to allow it, you got yourself a Neidermeyer of a Camp Director that needs to be replaced with someone that understands Boys and Scouting. Most Camp Directors I worked with would have smiled and said it was just fine for you to combine forces. I'm curious as to how the Patrol Leaders getting the information about the day's schedule from the Senior Patrol Leader, who gets that information from a daily SPL meeting is somehow anathema to Patrol Method Scouting. One of the tasks of the SPL in Patrol Method Scouting is to disseminate information to the Patrol Leaders. Does the SPL not have a meeting or phone call with the SM before a PLC to be able to pass along any information the PL's need to know or does the SM just srping the news on everyone at the PLC at the same time? If I'm at a PLC and I see the SM making the announcements directly, my first thought isn't Patrol Method - it's Adult Led Troop Method.

I'm curious as to why folks think that Councils should organize Summer Camp as Patrol Method - seems to me we're asking Councils and Districts to do an awful lot of things that the Troops can do on their own. There is nothing to say that a Troop must cook their meals as a Troop - sure, the meals may be the same but they can still be cooked by Patrols (and wouldn't that be an interesting experiment - we spend a lot of time on weekend trips with Patrols all making their own menus - wouldn't it be interesting to see how each Patrol does when given the same recipe and ingredients?). Other than room, there is nothing to prevent Troops from setting up camp as Patrols (and we used to do it that way at Camporees in smaller spaces than we would get for Summer Camp). There is nothing to prevent Troops from forming up as Patrols at Flag Ceremony. There is nothing to prevent Troops from running their activities in Patrol Method. My Summer Camp had an evening Water Carnival competition between Troops - nothing would have prevented a Troop from having Patrols choose the events they would do. Can only do one skit for all-camp campfire? What's to prevent a Troop from holding their own internal competition to see which Patrol gets the honor of representing the Troop? Summer Camp just offers a framework for each Troop to figure out the best way for them to participate in it. Other than Merit Badges, which is an individual pursuit, there is nothing holding a Troop back from using the Patrol Method at Summer Camp except lack of desire or lack of imagination.

Ok - what's haloumie? (yeah, I could google it, but I'm guessing I'm not the only one wondering). Bread on the bottom of the tinfoil packet to help keep the meat from burning.....ever have one of those moments where you see or read of something that should have been obvious for years? Perhaps you heard my hand slapping my forehaed just now!

Back to the original question - you could do what I did - get a degree in it (and yes, in many of the classes, I could have taught the subject, thanks to the skills I learned as a Boy Scout). Boy-led, Adult-led - thats just a sideshow to the issue - how do we train adults who haven't had a lot of outdoor experience (not only so that they feel comfortable on outdoor adventures, but also so they can make sure the Scouts are being properly trained - yes, older Scouts should be teaching younger Scouts how to tie knots, start campfires, cook, etc. but the adults better have a good handle on it so that they know the Scouts are being taught the correct stuff). A two weekend skills class offerred once per year isn't enough - and is certainly not going to reach most of the leaders out there. A full day Baloo course in a church auditorium isn't very effective. So what to do? To start, we should be emphazising that Units needs to take some responsibility for training up their own leaders - other than "time", is there any reason why an overnight camp-out just for current, new and prospective Troop leaders can't be done where everyone gets familiar with the equipment, and learns from the experienced leaders the skills that the Scouts will need to know? Any reason why two or three Troops couldn't get together and do this on their own? I believe we need to start by ending the insistence that this is the job of the District or Council to do. Does your Summer Camp still have a Commissioner's Camp Site where the Commissioner staff offers informal training throughout the week on outdoor skills for adults? Where the staff may be ofering up dutch oven cooking lessons one morning, with lunch served and knot tying lessons that afternoon? One of my fondest memories of Summer Camp was being invited as an older Scout to the Commissioner's Site for a lesson in punching up meals with herbs, spices and minerals other than salt, pepper, cinnamon and oregano. At Camporees, is there an opportunity for experienced canoeists, kayakes, backpackers, rock climbers, etc. to spend a few hours in the morning or afternoon presenting an overview of those sports and the equipment? At Roundtable - can 15-20 minutes be set aside as a skills component? Topics could be on tent selection, backpack selection, and since it's likely indoors, digitial/video presentations on star watching, plant identification, etc.?

These things can happen but it needs people who want it to happen to make it happen. When I was a Scout way back in the dark ages (1970's), camporees began with a Friday night cracker barrel for the Scoutmasters to get the schedule for the weekend. Scoutmasters had asked in the past if they could bring their SPLs and were always told no - grand poobahs don't like change. It even said on the schedule that the Friday night crackerbarrel was for asult leaders only. That changed because some people who wanted it to change made it happen - the Scoutmasters of the 3 largest Troops got together and decided they would bring their SPLs to the cracker barrel - the poobahs running the Camporee told them the SPLs couldn't stay - the Scoutmasters told the poobahs that they would treat the weekend as just another campout - not participating in the Camporee and would do their own thing - and told them if any District folks tried to enter their campsites, they would be escorted out. Since the three largest Troops had more boys at the Camporee than the rest of the Troops combined, the poobahs relented and allowed the SPLs to stay but when they tried to start the meeting, the Scoutmasters insisted that the other Troops be allowed to get their SPLs. From that point on, the Crackerbarrels were for SPLs and Scoutmasters (and if you didn't have an SPL, you could bring Patrol Leaders). It changed because people who wanted it to change made the change happen. Sure, it caused a bit of a controversy for a short time - some of the District folks who had been away from Units for a while threatened to leave but the Troops came up with folks who were ready to dig in. This "new blood" started taking control of the District events and training - 16 and up Scouts were brought in by the training folks to teach the pracitical skills for Scout and Cub leaders. Den Chiefs with a lot of experience (and who had earned the Den Chief Service Award) were brought in to PowWow to teach Den Leaders about the Den Chief program, and to teach Den Chiefs how to be Den Chiefs (Our council added a Den Chief training track to the annual PowWow training for Cub Leaders in the fall and that was a very popular move as the Den Chiefs would join their Den Leaders in game and craft sessions and attend their own leadership sessions while their Den Leaders attended their own leadership lessons). We even tried to put together an SPL Roundtable on the same night as Roundtable (thinking that Scoutmasters are coming anyway, they could bring their SPLs but it never was a very popular program so that died after the second month). The point of this is that it has been done, it can still be done - it just needs people who want it to happen to make it happen.

I'm glad this thread has been resurrected - I've an additional thought on the attitudes expressed by the boys. They weren't developed in a vacuum. I think all of us have horror stories of parents who saw no value in camping, or who had a lot of fear over their sons staying out in a tent overnight. I'm just surprised that it's taken so long for those attitudes to trickle down to an entire Patrol instead of the ocassional boy here or there. It also ties in, I think, with something disturbing I just read about the closing of Camp Lakota in Woodstock. For the longest time, this was a primitive camp close to the Council that was usually book every weekend in May and October for District camporees and a great place for individual Troops to spend a weekend - there were often 3 or 4 Troops on the property on any given non-camporee weekend. It was a great place for Patrol only camping too - there were even some Troops that would reserve 4 or 5 campsites and assiged each to a Patrol with the adults in their own site. When Webelos were allowed to camp out, a section of the camp was reserved for webelos camping, complete with their own activity shelter. Later, a winter cabin was put in which was rarely unused on winter weekends. It was a popular camp - and no one minded the primitive facilities. Now that the vote has been taken to close the camp, the Council shared with the media some of their reasoning and results on their evaluations. What struck me is that the best point of the camp is apparently the new swimming pool that was installed 5 years ago. The second best might be the climbing wall. The evaluations gave big negatives to the primitive nature of the campsites, with no running water at each site and with primitive facilities (outhouses) in strategic locations outside the sites (and shared with other sites) and to the marsh. With attitudes like that from the volunteers and national engineering staff who came up with these evaluations, is it any wonder that Scouts don't want to camp anymore?

Except the Girl Scouts camp more often than this Patrol did

November 11 is known as Veteran's Day in the US. It got it's start after WW1 as Armistice Day but after the Korean War, was changed to Veteran's Day to honor the veterans, both living and dead, of all wars that the US have been involved with. Still later, not by any official act but by silent societal agreement, Veteran's Day has become a day to honor all veteran's, living or dead, who ever served in the five US Armed Forces and their reserve units, as well as state guard units, in war or peacetime. We still "celebrate" it on November 11 (after a short period of time when it would be celebrated on the nearest Monday). Now we can all try to come up with some kind of lofty traditions but the truth is that for most people in the US, Veteran's Day is a day that the mail is not delivered, that most government offices are closed, that some (fewer than ever) banks close, that people go to work (except the aformentioned government employees) as if it's just another day, and where mattresses go on sale. Some cities and towns throughout the US might do a short ceremony at the municipal flagpole with the VFW and American Legion present, but for most people, including many veterans, we aren't even aware that it is Veteran's Day unless we witness someone saying Happy Veteran's Day to a veteran, or if someone says it to us if we're a veteran. Traditions in the US? Nothing that's really universal. We have other day's of rememberance as well - Memorial Day started as a day to honor the dead of the Civil War and is now celebrated as a day to honor all of our war dead. This actually has some tradition to it starting with placing US Flags at the gravestones of veterans. Many Scout Troops and Cub Scout Packs join in on this activity, especially where there are national veteran's cemetaries close by with a lot of graves to cover. There is often a big ceremony at the municipal flag pole following a parade, or at least some speechifying. Unfortunately, it has also become a 3-day weekend to memorialize the "start" of "summer" so big traditions also include the ceremonial lighting of the first official BBQ Grill of the summer, to be christened with hamburgers, hot dogs and bratwurst, heading out to a state park to camp with hundreds of your closest strangers, and the wearing of red, white and blue clothes. Oh, and mattresses will be on sale again. Flag Day is meant as a rememberance of the Stars and Stripes - it means mattress sales again (to catch those folks that didn't buy them when they were on sale just 14 or so days earlier on Memorial Day weekend) and people putting up their US Flags for the day (if people think to do so). Independence Day, about 20 days later, is a rememberance of our little tiff with a former King of England that resulted in the US becoming independent - traditions include parades, carnivals, festivals, fireworks, flags put out along residential curblines by realtors, red, white & blue clothing, grilling of hamburgers, hot dogs, and bratwurst, and in lucky parts of the US, the first sweet corn of the year, heading out to state parks to camp and more fireworks. Oh - and some more mattress sales. Labor Day, at the end of August, is a rememberance of the labor movement where we celebrate 40 hour work weeks and a couple of weeks of vacation (if we're lucky) with another 3-day weekend, celebrating the ceremonial end of summer by grilling (yep, you guessed it - burgers, dogs and brats), some more festivals, maybe a parade or two, heading out to state parks, pulling boats from the water, closing up the summer cottage, and....shopping for mattresses again. President's Day - where we remember our Presidents - it used to be we remembered the brthdays of Washington and Lincoln, now we just remember all of the Presidents - and this time no one pretends President's Day is for anything other than.....mattress sales. So tradition wise, this is a country whose most widespread traditions around our remembress days are mattress sales - I wouldn't worry about insulting us.

My deepest condolences on your loss, and to our loss as a community. Moosetracker was such a great person and will be sorely missed. If there is any one thing that was most memorable about her postings on this forum, it would have to be just how proud she was of you and of all her family. Her love and caring really shined through.

We all suspect that Northeast Illinois Council made the decision not to join the merger because they have some of the wealthiest suburbs in Chicagoland in their council, full of CEOs and other corporate executives and didn't want to upset their own gravy train. The old Northwest Suburban Council did ok for itself funding wise as well. Chicago Council has been struggling for years, and a good part of the reason was the corporations in downtown Chicago that was their natural base also had corporate mission statements that would preclude them from being big donors to the BSA as long as the BSA is perceived as a discriminatory organization. When the Chicago Public Schools closed their doors to sponsorship of BSA units (and if I'm remembering correctly, Chicago was one of the first large city school districts to do so), that was a major blow. While the Council had some units in minority areas of the city, there weren't many, and many in the large black and hispanic community saw the Council as a "North Side" thing (for those unfamiliar with Chicago, that's code for "White and With Money"). Not much more than 7 years ago or so, Chicago Council was preparing to sell Owassippe (the camp they're now going to try to use part of for Cub Scout Resident Camp) because of the expense versus use dynamic, as well as declining revenues. Look far enough back in the archives and you'll see lots of discussion about that. It's also probably one of the few times that a Council and the BSA didn't get it's way, partly because the local folks in Michigan were strongly opposed to any re-zoning of the land (which ultimately failed and helped doom the potential sale), partly because of a very vocal group of local Scouters who wouldn't let go and challenged the Board and National, and partly because the Illinois Attorney General reminded National's attorneys, who were threatening to shut the Council down, that under Illinois Law, that would mean that all property and funds would become property of the State of Illinois, to be held in trust - including Owassippe and their headquarters in Chicago. They've stated that they won't be starting any investigations into selling any of the properties until next year. I don't see the properties in Wisconsin bringing in a lot of money - Lakota is probably worth more than both of those properties combined, just because of where it sits. I'm not sure, though, that the real issue is money - I think it's about bodies. There just isn't the numbers of Scouts in the area that there used to be.

The swamp is the best part of Lakota - I spent many a weeked there hiking into and through that wetland. My Troop put together an orienteering course at least once a year at Lakota and one of the points was always the abandoned and rusting away old truck in the marsh. Not so bad to look for in September, a real challenge in May (which was buggier and wetter).

No deviation at all unless it is for someone at the severe end of the spectrum and it has been vetted through Council first - The Troop won't make the changes but we'll work with th boy, his parents, and the Merit Badge Counselor to move things through Council.

So let's review: The term Field Uniform is not used much in current BSA literature - only a single reference in the uniform guidebook in reference to OA sashes and in the OA handbook, so field uniform seems to be an official usage limited to the OA. Official Uniform = Field Uniform = "Class A" = "Dress Uniform" Activity Uniform (apparently no longer used) = "Class B"

BBQ comes from the Carribean barbacoa which traditionally is smoked goat, not smoked pig so I think we can safely say that the type of meat is not as important in BBQ as the process. Heck, in eastern Kentucky, the choice of meat for true BBQ is mutton and in Kansas City, as famed for BBQ as Texas, the South and Chicago, is quite cosmopolitan about their meat choices for BBQ accepting pork. beef, chicken, turkey, smoked sausages and even fish. For those down in Texas and down South now fighting off high blood pressure for the addition of Chicago to that list, it is there because BBQ Ribs is more of a Chicago tradition than anywhere else. It's the process that's important. In the US, BBQ refers to meat cooked slowly over indirect heat on a BBQ Grill or meat that is cooked by high temperature smoking. Grilling is cooking directly over coals on a BBQ Grill (though in England, what we call grilling is what they call barbeque but since barbeque is a new world cooking process, we can just smile at them and say "bless their hearts"). BBQ sauce, while certainly an important condiment to serve with BBQ does not make barbeque BBQ. Meat cooked via the BBQ process served without BBQ sauce is still BBQ (I realize this will be controversial for many BBQ lovers but there it is). Other than the meat, there is only one other flavoring agent that is required for something to be BBQ - it is not the sauce, it is not a rub, it is not herbs and spices and salt and pepper. The only other flavoring agent required for something to be BBQ is...Smoke. Smoke flavoring is why we often add chips of hickory, apple wood, cherry wood or mesquite to our grills.

As an adult, if I were attending this campout, I'd be getting in my car and finding the nearest restaurant, pub or supper club. Grilled cheese and hot dogs? Obviously catering to the boys and their siblings without much thought to the parents and chili is just not enough to hold my interest as an adult. What time of year are your family campouts? Fall? I'd be cooking up a big pot of stew, or a hearty spaghetti or pasta dish. No grilled cheese (that's a lot of work for 70 people or so without a restaurant griddle). I'd still keep hot dogs for the finicky kids (though if their grilled until just blackened, I'd snatch one up as a snack - don't want anyone to think I'm too good for a dog). Spring/Summer? BBQ - pulled pork or chicken, hamburgers, hot dogs, brats - there are times of year where grilling up hot dogs makes a lot of sense, but you still need to add something for adults - Pulled pork or chicken, grilled chicken, hamburgers, bratwurst - these are things that are more likely to please the adults in the group.

A few thoughts: Thought one: it's unlikely that any CO, unit or individual will be investigated by the IRS for the use of ISA's - the IRS just doesn't have the resources to investigate every unit - it's only likely to happen if your CO is being investigated which might trigger a look at their unit's operations, or in the case of someone filing a complaint with the IRS (perhaps by a parent ticked off that Johnnie Scout got $2K from fundraising dollars to go to Philmont while their own son got nothing (and no, the IRS doesn't care if Johnnie worked hard at fundraising and Billy did nothing). Thought two: if your unit is investigated, the "But it's not against BSA rules or policy" won't be an effective defense. Thought three: I'm always leary of "work-arounds" to IRS rules and laws - they tend to make things worse for people if the IRS does come knocking. Thought four: don't rely on the precentage game as means to determine if an inurement is substantial or not - there are cases where it's been found the percentage can be as low as 4% for something to be considered an illegal private inurement - and it's not necessarily 4% of a great deal of money that triggers a violation - in once case, 8% or $875 was enough to be considered a private inurement. Thought five: Be careful as you try to parse what the IRS means by "private individual having a personal and private interest in an organization" In general, the IRS considers that any individual member of an organization meets the definition of a private individual with a personal and private interest in an organization. In addition to the teamwork that comes with working with his Troop and Patrol and working towards the benefit of all that comes in the Patrol structure, a Scout simutaneously has their own personal interest in Boy Scouting through the earning of ranks, up to Eagle Scout - desiring and earning Eagle Scout, or Life, or First Class, is not a group project - it's an individual goal and project. Thought six: Despite the poor direction from the BSA (really, how difficult is it to just flat out state that ISP's are allowed in a "banking" sense, where a Scout can deposit their own money with the Troop to help save up for camp or Philmont, etc. - like an old fashioned Christmas Club account - but that dollars raised in fundraisers are not allowed to go into ISP's at all, though a unit may provide funding help for camp and Philmont provided that all Scouts are given that equal opportunity) it should be pretty clear that ISP's are simply more trouble than they're worth. Thought seven: In regards to thought one - having said that it's unlikely a unit will get caught, there is a more important principle here at work, and I'm reminded of it in a resurrected thread about Win All You Can and the takeaways from this Wood Badge activity - one of those takeaways is that living the Scout Oath and Law is neither limited to Scouting only nor is it limited to the youth. We're Scouters, we should be modeling the Scout Oath and Law to our Scouts in our everyday lives, and especially in our Scouting life and should not be trying to find work-arounds to IRS rules or ignoring the rules altogether because "we probably won't get caught". We should eliminate ISA's completely, simply because it's the right thing to do. All that being said, and knowing it's an imperfect solution, I agree with Qwaze here in that making the transition shouldn't be abrupt where past promises are no longer honored. Honor the past promises but eliminate continued private enrichment from fundraising dollars starting right away.

Camp Mach-Kin-O-Siew is in Langlade County, Wisconsin - about 7 to 10 hours from the Council, depending on where you're driving from. It is not convenient for weekend camping and only has enough units using it as a summer camp to open 14 days (2 weeks) per year. The staff from Shin-Go-Beek closes Shin-Go-Beek at the end of July and comes here to staff the camp. From a business point of view (I know, I know - the BSA is not a business - get over it) - it's just not worth it to open and close a camp for two weeks and to maintain it at national and state standards for summer camps (think the National camp inspections are brutal? They're pikers compared to the state and local health and safety departments). Camp Shin-Go-Beek is a nice little camp that had a robust 8 week program back in 1977 when I was staffing at nearby Napowan. Like Mach-Kin-O-Siew, it too is down to a 2 week Boy Scout summer camp period. For the past few years it's been home to Cub Scout resident camp in late June but that's only 4 resident camp sessions at the end of June, another 2 weeks. From a business perspective, again it's hard to justify maintaining an operating a Scout camp for 4 weeks, 2 of which are regular Boy Scout camp weeks. There is also an issue with their lakes - South Twin has dried up and North Twin is losing water depth. By the way, I mentioned the staff closes Shin-Go-Beek to open Mach-Kin-O-Siew - so it's understood what that means, the last week at Shin-Go-Beek is the middle of July (around the 15th) - the first week at Mach is at the beginnng of August (about August 1). It takes a week to close Shin and another week to open Mach - 2 more weeks where staff is being paid not to interact with Scouts. The surprise to me was Camp Lakota. That's a short term camp in Woodstock, Illinois that was also reconfigured to host Cub Scout resident camp for the Northwest Suburban Council. It's only about 2 and a half hours from the farthest part of the new Council and that's just because of traffic. It had been a pretty popular place for district camporees and for units looking to camp out on weekends until they reconfigured the camp for resident camp and added a swimming pool - some units decided that was too much like a Jellystone Park campground. I think it's interesting that they aren't committing themselves to closing it until after the 2017 resident camp year and suspect that they are either hedging against the possibility that the attempt to configure a part Owassippe as a Cub Scout resident camp isn't going to be as successful as they hope or believe that the potential for new development out in Woodstock will be stronger in 2018 than it is right now. But I think there is an even bigger picture that is being missed - this is a new council made up of four councils - and thay are closing 3 camps completely effective essentially immediately with another one in 2017 says something about the numbers - Scouting is whithering away in Chicago and it's suburbs - and this isn't something new - it's been slowly dying for a long time now.

Only one thing to say: Well bless their hearts.

"Khaki" became more than one color: tan shirt + green pants/shorts. Flashy indeed, in that mundane, muted sort of way. Epaulets! And from the start we were all baffled why Explorers weren't also tan, but with green Eps. For the same reason that Cub Scouts didn't start wearing the tan - different program. But we Explorer's were wondering why the Boy Scouts didn't switch to the much neater and flashier dark green instead of that ugly tan. I'm telling you - those red loops would have looked fantastic against the green. Collars ... they came back! I remember them coming back before DLR (ODL?? Doesn't make any sense) Those red berets. Pre DLR - got my first one in 1973 - it wasn't until I got the dark green Leadership Corps/Explorer's shirt that it looked really cool - and the Dark Green shirt with the "khaki" pants outflashes even the DLR's. The quaint red stripe "pretend garter" at the top of your socks. Is that what that was? I was an Explorer by that time - we wore blue jeans Yes, more colorful council and lodge patches seemed to appear. Malibu Lodge (OA) had a very flashy lodge patch in 1974 or so - I'm pretty sure the old CSPs starting going away about 1972 or so - also pre-DLR I think the flashiest thing about the whole DLR uniform was the epaulets - made me want to burst out in song: In The (French) Air Force (sung to the Village People song In The Navy)

Let's first straighten up your own house first - you are not the Committee Chair and Assistant Cubmaster - they are mutually exclusive positions - choose one (never point out the plank in someone else's eye when you have a plank of your own in there). The only positions in a Pack (officially) that can have one person doing two positions in a Pack is Committee Chair and Chartered Organization Rep (and that would be each other's position). My suggestion is Committee Chair - I'm only guessing that you are the ACM to back-up your CM husband in case he's got to be away but the beauty of the Pack Committee Chair role is that this is already one of the duties of the Committee Chair so there is no real need for you to also be ACM, Next, the elephant in the room - as someone else has already stated, the Den Leader's husband is the Chartered Organization Representative - unless you have a very good relationship with the person who assigned him that role, then your meeting tonight with the District Commissioner and the District Executive and any other poobah that might be there is already, forgive the term, trumped. The Charter Organization Rep has some real power if they know how to use it and has the backing of the "Institutional Head". Get this guy's back up enough tonight and not only is it possible that you will no longer be part of the unit, it can be possible that none of the Cub Scouts will have a unit to go to tomorrow - and the DE will have a lot of groveling to do with his boss over how he let a unit just dissolve like that. The District Commissioner? Let's be frank here - even if the husband was not the COR and the COR was not going to be there, the District Commissioner, the Unit Commissioner, the District Chairman, the Council Commissioner - none of the grand poobahs except the Scout Executive has any real power over a unit - they can advise but that's about all they can do. They can try to mediate, but that's all they can do. If this Den Leader and her COR husband are determined not to change between now and February, the very best thing you can do is to do what you have been planning all along - ride it out. I'm curious to know more about those complaints - where did they come from and how did they get to the District Commissioner? Most parents have enough trouble keeping track of Pack leadership let alone knowing who is in District leadership - if they are members of the Pack, why haven't they come to you first? If they aren't part of your unit, why are you even worried about them? Let the District Commissioner and DE rant and rave all they want - stick with your plan - I can tell you want to do the best thing for the Cubs - and you have a plan to get there - it's not going to happen overnight and you know that as well - the important thing right now is to know that your goal is within sight - there are Scoutmaster's still struggling after 3 to 5 years to get their Troops operating at boy-led - you've only got 5 months to wait it out. My suggestions then are three-fold: One - If you don't know who made the complaints, find out and see if it's something you can handle within your Pack (with complaining parents - and be prepared to steer them to a unit more their liking) or if it's coming from outside which you can then promptly ignore (if they're outside your Pack structure, it's really none of their concern). Two - cancel tonights meeting - tell the DC and DE thanks for the thought but you've got things planned out and are working that plan and you don't need them to muck things up. If they insist, let them show up and gab at each other while they wonder where you folks got to, or if you're not feeling particularly charitable, direct them to the nearest sandbox and tell them to bring a mallet. Three - Leave the new Web 2 in the Den but work with them separately to make sure they are getting the advancement and recognition they deserve - If the other members of the Den earned their Webelos Badge before June 1 and are still working the old program, the new Webelos can have fun with them but won't earn the Arrow of Light - but none of the requirements in Arrow of Light are that onerous and the families can work on most of them separately and still give these boys the chance to earn the Arrow of Light - let them work on the requirements under the auspices of the Cubmaster and let them be active in the existing Den. The current DL is not doing anything wrong in regards to her past Den - if those boys earned that Webelos Badge before June 1, they can keep working the old program to earn Arrow of Light. The new boys can't work the old program for advancement (but they can for fun) and it is a bit of a burden to expect a Den Leader to plan for two different advancement programs in one meeting - easily solved by having the CM handle the advancement portion of the year for those two boys. The BSA itself says it best, I think: Do what's best for the Boys.

This single reference in an official BSA publication (which is the current edition as well) is about the OA Sash and how to wear it. It specifically states that the sash is to be worn under the epaulets - and the only BSA shirt I know that has epaulets is the Official BSA Uniform Shirt, which would seem to suggest that the Official BSA Uniform is also the "field uniform". I've not had a chance to look but I wonder if the OA Handbook references the "field uniform"

My only objection is that it's a 48 star flag being portrayed and not a current flag