ctbailey

He said they "ended up paying..." That could mean the insurance policy was paid-for using monies from the troop account. (Which, of course - the currency is an asset of the CO.) I suppose an insurance company would rather take a policy premium $ up front, and then during a claim the underwriting department would eventually find out who REALLY owns the trailer.

Yup. Like Stosh said - they (the BSA medalions available at the Scout Shop) are really soft aluminum. They are pre-rolled, but the diameter is not exactly for "their" (the BSA Staff available at the Scout Shop) staffs. You'll have to definetly "work" it to exactly conform to the staff shape. Liquid nails is a good option, but you'll want to figure out a good way to wrap the entire assembly to dry, to ensure the medallion holds the shape. I do both - nails and adhesive, and I've used the staffs and also "walking sticks" that were natural tree branches with good success. I will use wax paper and then "whip" around the glued medallion around the staff. Either way, the rolled shape of the medallions are never exactly the same as the walking stick it's being applied to.

Bob, you've said "the CO does not have any property..." You do understand that the trailer, tents, stoves, etc are the CO's property? Unfortunately, no matter the source of funding, if gear is bought "for the unit," it is owned by the CO. When a unit leaves a CO, a bill of sale needs to be written FROM the old CO to the NEW CO that indicates a transfer of assets. It's true that CO's typically do not like talking about this, or more correctly... the unit leadership does not like talking about this subject to their CO. This kind of discussion is sort of "icky" to most folks, and shows the hard business side of life and Scouting. Life is ugly, and when we all start talking about liabilities, and $1,000,000 aggregate occurrence coverage and the like... many folks' eyes glaze over, but insurance is a very important subject. BSA Liability coverage is ALWAYS secondary after all other partie's coverage has been exhausted in the occurrence of an incident. The National Council and probably your local council are also self-insured. This means an army of lawyers will be protecting the wallet firstly, and secondly (if at all) helping your poor unit or well-meaning volunteer driver after a mishap. Don't mess around with this stuff. the theft of the trailer and it's contents are the least of your worries. When the trailer decouples from the ASM's Dodge dart, rolls into the southbound lane, and all the LP cylinders ignite in the aftermath - that's what you're worried about. Or more importantly - you CO SHOULD BE WORRIED about. What's the CO going to do? shut down the unit. But they are legally on the hook for damages.

Huh. I'm surprised at how quickly so many people immediately got on the "That was a terrible idea!" bandwagon. It's true, that the CURRENT G2SS clearly lists liquid firestarters as prohibited items, SSScout didn't say when this cooking demo occured. It might have occurred in the 70's. But, to build an open cooking source big enough for 25 people, that will eventually smolder quite nicely and safely I thought was pretty good. And then to be able to simply wrap up the ashes and toss into the trash after out cold... how much more LNT can you get? The tin foil cooking demo is always a tough bit of the course to logisticate, and I speak from experience having instructed the outdoor cooking portion. To do something similar in accordance with the G2SS would require a bit more lead-up time to get the coals ready, and if prepared in the center of a gravel drive/parking area of camp... why not? Just be aware of the potential for wind, and be prepared with a charged water hose standing by. Sometimes a "backwoods" approach is the correct approach. But sometimes you simply have 25 or more participants who have absolutely no idea that a meal can be prepared in a tin foil pouch, and 5 (or more) traditional fire rings/lays are not possible or plausible for cooking. Done safely, I applaud those instructors who were so bold to think outside the box, and actually accomplish a mass cooking event in a Leave no Trace manner!

I'm surprised it took them thirty years to realize a $900 per month rental income wasn't worth the potential liability of a hands-off rental property. Think of the worst case scenarios... As a hands off landlord, they would never know if any unscrupulous activities were occurring "on scouting property."

Thanks everyone for the clarification.

I recall vaguely that the Venturing and Cub Programs were supposed to change the hand salutes, was that to happen on January 1st 2014? I understand there are some big changes just released regarding advancement, but I'm a bit embarrassed to admit I'm hazy on whether the hand salute has changed. I'm not crazy, right?

So, Kathy, How did this all shake out? Did your guys take the training? Did they staff it? Seeing as though its been almost a year since the initial post, are they fully functional & trained ASM's now?

I was there in June 2010, and let me tell ya: Bring plenty of allergy meds! The cottonwoods are in full "drop" in June, and my allergies, combined with the Altitude adjustment, combined with the extreme dry weather made for some serious headaches. Also, my down sleeping bag was WAY too hot. I ended up driving to Raton to buy some sheets, the nights only got down to the fifties, so a sheet was really all I needed. The Wi-Fi made communicating back home nice. The only thing I think I would do different would be to make the weight limits, because they prohibit you from hiking the Tooth of Time if you don't comply with the current BMI requirements.

Moose - that's good to know that BSA has allowed volunteers to make copies of the material. This might be different for some parts of the WB curruculum? Have I heard that the WB stuff is "licensed" by a 3rd party? ctb

Hey Moose: I'm currently in the process of doing something similar for work. I've been using "Camtasia Studio" to create movies of the computer screen for training purposes. Then - in order to present the material I'm developing a PowerPoint slide deck. One thing I've learned during this process - I've used every version of PowerPoint throughout my career, and only NOW in PowerPoint 2010 does it provide good results. Another thing I've learned is movie clips are humungous file sizes. You need to LINK to the video clips in PowerPoint - Do not embed them, or else the PowerPoint file becomes Ginormous, and performance is lost. Also, when video clips are linked, you need to keep all the clips with the PowerPoint presentation in the same directory, or else no clicky-clicky if you get my drift. Another potential gotcha - the resolution of the video clips may or may not look great "inside" a PowerPoint slide, so you'll probably end up going fullscreen anyways. But none of this is anygood unless you can capture the video. This is where Camtasia would be useful. But before you do any dubbing, the copyright of the BSA material needs to be reviewed. This may be un-kosher. My advice - skip it, and have an elf with you, sitting at the laptop and switching between Windows Media Player and PowerPoint. Yours in Scouting, Craig

Where did they go?

Abel, If you are "addressing" your council issues, how can we help you if you won't help us - help you? The people who can actually begin the help would be the Area and Regional Commissioners. These individuals have a direct line to the Area and Regional Director - who is a professional scouter you can trust.(This message has been edited by ctbailey)

Abel - what Council are you in? to answer your question - "Can a unit earn the CQU award without..." Apparently the answer is yes, in your council at least. So, answer my question - what council are you in? When we know that answer, we can direct you to the people who can actually help.