Curious

And he would be correct. As far as the BSA is concerned, he is the owner of the pack. This is one of the reasons why self-chartered organizations are frowned upon. You need to discuss the situation with your DE. Look into creating a new unit and then have all the parents fill out transfer apps. The whole thing will be a royal pain, with lots and lots of paperwork to create a new unit and transfer everybody, but it can be done. You might even be able to keep your same unit number ... maybe .... Good Luck!

"I guess the heads will bight you if you are not carefull." nyuk nyuk nyuk

Personally, I don't think it matters one whit what the uniform police think. The only thing that matters is what your son thinks of his uniform. If he takes pride in wearing it, you've made a solid choice. "Obviously the blue trimmed one is for commie-democrats like me and the gold-trimmed one is for the Imperial New World Order wing of the BSA." Hmmmm .... I may need to switch mine out ....

"I don't see anything in the US Flag code to support his teachings or yours. That's what I'm trying it find is what is right according to the US government." Keep in mind that a color guard is a military formation. You will not find military procedures in a set of civilian laws. Air Force Manual 50-14 (now known as 36-2203) and Army Field Manual 22-5 will both have information about color guards. There is also a Naval equivalent to the above publications, but since I'm not a Navy guy I have no clue what it is. Rest assured there will be differences between the Naval and A/AF traditions. To be honest, though, as long as the scouts are being respectful, I wouldn't worry about it too much. You do this 6 times a year and this is the first time someone has approached you? Sounds like the boys are doing a great job. Thank the gentleman and move on.

"But the Scouting.org is the second absolute worse search engine ..." Unfortunately, the absolute worst one is at scoutstuff.org "For example if you are looking for Bear den plans, you would type in the following bear den plan and "scouting.org"" Try the site keyword instead ... bear den plan site:scouting.org The site keyword will limit the search to that one and only website. Please note the colon following the keyword. And I would also omit the www and just use the domain name.

"Tilted forward to let the flag fall slightly. " The US flag is held upright at all times by the color guard. Sometimes a bit difficult to do by the younger scouts ...

"No ceremony or beads yet.....Just sayin......." In our neck of the woods, we tell the TG when and where we want the beading ceremony. Have you spoken to your TG about this?

When I'm doing district training, I usually like to ask the participants why they are there. Over the years, I've heard quite a few different answers. There are quite a number of leaders that decided to attended leader training because it was a requirement for the knot. I've never bothered to keep count, so I don't know the percentage. But if we get one more trained leader because there is a knot, then I say the program was a success!

Our council publishes the financials. But as the previous poster noted, check out www.guidestar.org ...

Definitely not normal. My response, once I realized he was serious and thus stopped laughing at him, would be to congratulate him on having enough volunteers .... "I'm not sure who you call about this." A reporter?

Please note that Java and JavaScript are separate options. With javascript disabled, it should speed up to that of an olympic tortoise.

I'm having the same issues. Not only those two websites but also yourpagestats.com and some website from Poland. I was not able to get access to scouter.com until I turned off javascript. A pain, as I need to reenable it for other websites.

My experience is quite a bit different from those above, especially where the adult scouters are concerned. For the most part, youth members tend to wear the flap that was the current flap when they did their ordeal. But you will also see a variety of flaps, usually purchased from ebay, that are considered "cool" flaps. I've seen no consideration of having attended the event, nor of even being a scout at the time. Only the looks of the flap matter. Interestingly enough, this also seems to apply to council CSPs. On rare occasion, I've also seen scouts wearing a CSP from a neighboring council. I must admit, I don't care for this practice; but I would never say anything to a scout about it, either. This phenomenon is even more apparent with the adults. There is quite the variety of lodge flaps amongst the adults. Much more so than the youth. The flap issued to those staffing the 2010 jamboree is a particularly nice patch. But if believed, then my district had more than a disproportionate share of staffers. Issuing and selling lodge flaps is quite the fundraiser. Anyone can buy a flap for any event. Some more pricey than others. I'm not a collector, yet I own quite the assortment of flaps. The one I wear was the current flap when I became a scouter and transferred my membership. I assure you, my dues are paid. I just see no reason to change flaps. I was particularly impressed with the flap issued to commemorate the BSA 2010 anniversary. Hard to describe, but it is some sort of 3D relief effect. It really stands out. I bought one for each of my sons, even though none are yet eligible for membership. I plan to present it to them when they complete their own ordeal. A bit of a long and rambling post .... sorry about that. I say let your son choose one of your flaps. I've no doubt it will be a source of pride for the both of you! And if anyone questions it, ask to see their official uniform police patch.

You might give national a call and see if they will email you a list ... 972-580-2000

"You must be a "leadership" word games expert." An ad hominem attack? Let's look at it from another perspective. How many students, after attending driver's education, never again exceed the speed limit? 1 in 1,000? 1 in 10,000? 1 in 100,000? Should we then do away with driver's education courses? Hardly, because even though they exceed the speed limit, the participants are still much safer drivers as a result. Just because WB doesn't meet someone's definition of perfect is no reason to condemn the whole course. The participants are in a position to be better scouters as a result of the course. Sadly, in the case of WB, for many scouters it is about earning a set of beads. Honestly Kudu, a lot of your ideas have merit. Your website is an excellent resource! Have you ever considered petitioning national about expanding this material on the syllabus? Or for that matter, even creating a separate course about the patrol method? In fact, you wouldn't even need national approval for a new course. That is something that can be done in-council or even taught at Univ of Scouting. Other councils will see it and it will eventually spread. Just a thought ...