DancesWithSpreadsheets

If they were wearing togas, I should hope so. Regards, DWS

I'm with Twocubdad on this. Especially since there is virtually no evidence that specific clan tartans existed before the mid 19th century and the scam perpetrated by the "Sobieski-Stuart" brothers. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vestiarium_Scoticum) BSA could quite easily register its own tartan, many states have a registered tartan, ditto universities and businesses. I did a search and was suprised to find that BSA apparently does not have one. Regards, DWS Edited to correct time frame, it was later than I thought. (This message has been edited by DancesWithSpreadsheets)

Thomas54 wrote: "Ever seen a rec league marching band? NO " Ever heard of Drum Corps? www.dci.org Regards, DWS

Welcome to the forums! Speaking only for myself, I feel that there is plenty of room on this forum for your point of view, especially as regards disabled or differently abled scouts. I'm sorry you were did not get the full benefit of the scouting program as a youth, but I'm glad to see that you seem to have come to terms with it without bearing any grudges. Regards, DWS

Welcome to the forums. This question has been discussed extensively before, most recently at: http://www.scouter.com/Forums/viewThread.asp?threadID=269484 Happy reading! Regards, DWS

Actually there are two forms: Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project Workbook (512-927) and Eagle Scout Rank Application (512-728) Both are available at www.nesa.org. Both are in Adobe PDF format and ARE fillable. Regards, DWS

Stone Cold, if a scout entered your campsite with his arm hanging down at a funny angle and a bone protruding through the skin, screaming in pain, would you "get rid of him" for distracting from the game of scouting? How about the boy lying in his tent with a high fever and complaining loudly of abdominal pain? Just another trouble make to be excluded? We should not practice medicine beyond our training or in violation of licensing requirements, but that does not mean we should just ignore obvious signs of physical or mental illness or injury. Advising the boy and his parents to seek qualified medical attention strickes me as the most responsible way to address this situation. And a scouter who is setting an example to his charges by following the Scout Oath's injunction to "help other people at all times" and the points of the Scout Law mandating loyalty and kindness IMO would not kick a boy to the curb for something he may not have any control over. Regards, DWS

One small correction to the generally good advice you received above; all tax exempt organizations are now required to file an IRS Form 990, if you are a small tax exempt (gross receipts less than $25,000) you can file electronically using Form 990-N, which is a very short "postcard" type return. See http://epostcard.form990.org and http://www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=169250,00.html Regards, DWS

Thanks for double checking that for us Stosh, at least we're all pretty well agreed on what the flag code says on the subject. One minor quibble, the flag code is law, but there are no penalties for failure to follow it. I can see why a church might want to give precedence to a symbol of faith over a symbol of nationalism in its worship space, and it is certainly their right to do so. But what about when the worship space is being used for other than a worship service? I've been to about half a dozen ECOH's in the past 5 years, and all of them were held in churches. Not in the fellowship hall or other space, but with the presentation made in the sanctuary and the audience seated in the nave. In that instance, if the usual practice of the church was to display the church flag to the minister's right, U.S. flag to the left would you: a. leave things as they are b. move the national flag to the place of honor and put the church flag on the left, restoring them to their original position after the ceremony c. put the church flag away for the duration of the ceremony and put the U.S. flag on the right. or d. something else? Regards, DWS

ALPS Mountaineering offers their 45% scouting discount on their self inflating pads (www.scoutdirect.com). I have an old Thermarest (not sure of the model) but I ordered an ALPS one for my son. My son decided he liked the color of my Thermarest better so we traded. The ALPS is every bit as comfortable as the Thermarest, comes with a nice carry bag and repair kit too. Regards, DWS

Boy Scout Handbook, Twelfth Edition, page 75: "Displayed from a staff in an auditorium or place of worship, the flag of the United States of America holds the position of honor to the right of a speaker as he or she faces the audience. Any other flags should be placed on the speaker's left." Growing up, I spent most of my Sundays serving as an acolyte (altar boy) in an Episcopal church. We actually had 4 flags on display in the sanctuary, U.S., Canadian, Episcpal Church USA flag, and a diocesan flag. The national flags went on the right, U.S. in rightmost position) and church flags on the left. The Canadian flag was ostensibly there for the benefit of our areas large annual migration of snowbirds, but I think it was mainly used for symmetry. Anyway, during large services where we had a bunch of acolytes, all four flags would process in. The flags were in the procession in two ranks of two, national flags on the right. When we got to the altar rail the two files would split and stand at the rail on either side of the rail until the clergy went through. Then the U.S. flag would cross in front of the church flag and the Canadian in front of the diocesan flag and then were posted at their normal locations. For the recessional, the flags first cris-crossed to turn around and line up at the rail to wait for the candles to be extinguished and final prayers, and then cris-crossed again to walk down the aisle to go out. As you might have guessed, this was a military community, most of the vestry were retired officers and they were very particular about flag courtesy, even if it meant some complicated choreography. Regards, DWS

Stosh, this statement has me a bit confused: "If the flag is within the the railing of the altar area, if it is present, the religious flag is on the right of the officiant/clergy, not the US flag, it is on the left." So if the flag is within the railing, and at floor level (i.e. not on a raised platform) then it should be to the officiant's left, the congregation's right? My reading of the U.S. Flag code says it is always on the speaker or Clergy's right when the flag is in front of the audience or congregation. Can you direct me to a source for your statement? This came up in the context of an Eagle COH recently and I really would like to have the correct answer. Regards, DWS

I think quite a few of the 90% are hesitant to step forward for fear of becoming one of the 10%. Regards, DWS

AlFansome, that's the tip I needed, thanks for your help. Regards, DWS

Has anyone had any success editing the contact information for beascout.org? I can get to the admin page on myScouting, but the only thing I'm able to edit is the other information field. The contact information is stuck with the Council's phone number etc. I looked around and I can't find any other pack in our area that has updated their contact info, so just for fun I ran a query using my old address in another council (small gripe, you have to put in a full address, rather than just zip code to do a search) and all the listings there had council info for contacts. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but it sure looks like either a widespread problem, or like nobody knows or cares about this facility. Anybody had any luck with it? Regards, DWS

Yep, I was at the '79 one as well, working the first aid station with my explorer post. Regards, DWS

Most of the "mess kits" I have encountered were not particularly well designed for cooking in the outdoors, at least in my mind. They are usually too thin and flimsy, with a very bad tendency to produce hot spots, too small to cook for more than one person, and generally a pain to work with. I recall that the first campout I took one one resulted in my losing the wingnut that held the handle on the fry-pan, making it mostly useless in that configuration, and somehow melting a hole in the plastic cup. In my troop we cooked in pairs mostly on a propane or butane "grasshopper" style stove. I had a butane model, a 2 or 2.5 quart aluminum pot with lid, a set of pot holder type pliers, and a spoon. That setup got me through a lot of backpacking and canoe trips, as well as the odd static camping weekend. These days I've downsized to a "White Box" alcohol stove, a 750 ml titanium pot a 500 ml ti cup, a silicon bowl and a ti spork. I've yet to give this collection a real test like multiday trek, but so far it seems to meet my needs pretty well. Of course, your milage may vary. Regards, DWS

Back in the day, we used to have Council Encampments about every 4 years, a camporee style event for the whole Gulf Coast Council. I don't know if they still do that. Buffalo Skipper, did you attend the Bicentennial Encampment in '76? All I remember is that is was a miserably hot weekend on a big open field, possibly a disused NAS flightline, with no shade anywhere. Oh, and Chappy James spoke to the assembly. Regards, DWS

I think the BSA needs to get rid of those intolerent scouters who wnat to expel other scouters due to their personal flaws. Uh, wait a minute...nevermind. Regards, DWS

I couldn't get it to work with IE 8, but it ran just fine with Firefox 3.6.8 Regards, DWS

mpaull, LS is short for Long Sleeve, ODL=Oscar De Larenta who designed the shirts for the circa 1980 Boy Scout Uniform. And Eagle92 is correct that there were s/s shirts with collars available in the mid 70's, but not as early as '72 as I recall. They became an option in about 1975, but until the ODL shirst came out the collarless style remained available. Regards, DWS

I can't add much to Beavah's excellent post on why torture should not be condoned, but I am remainded of a favorite bit of dialog from Robert Bolt's "A Man For All Seasons" that I can't resist sharing: Wife: Arrest him! More: For what? Wife: He's dangerous! Roper: For all we know he's a spy! Daughter: Father, that man's bad! More: There's no law against that! Roper: There is, God's law! More: Then let God arrest him! Wife: While you talk he's gone! More: And go he should, if he were the Devil himself, until he broke the law! Roper: So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law! More: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil? Roper: Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that! More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down (and you're just the man to do it!), do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Regards, DWS Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!

Coming at this from the other direction, as I am currently invovlved with my son's cub pack, I thought that being an MBC might be a good way for me to find out a little about the BS troops in the area and make some contacts. So about 5 months ago I approached the DAC at roundtable and let him know I'd be interested in volunteering to counsel Personal Management and American Business. He essentially told me that most troops stuck with their own MBC's and if I wasn't affiliated with a troop I probably wouldn't get any referrals. He took my business card and told me he'd get back to me, but so far not a word. So around here anyway, it looks like its troop only MBC's all the way, and the DAC is pretty much resigned to the situation. Regards, DWS

Skipper, I think you've got a great idea, and a wonderful vision. My only suggestion (and it's only a suggestion) is rather than split off the older boys to go on a backpacking trek, keep the patrols together with an eye towards getting everyone to the point where they would be confident enough to tackle a multi-day outing on the AT (and you would have enough confidence to take them!). I understand you have some great adult resources who can serve as instructors, but IMO that opportunity should first be offered to your older boys. Give them all a taste of "high adventure", give them the tools to pursue it and see what they make of the opportunity. And if at all possible, make them think it was their idea. My opinion, for what it's worth. Best of luck to you however you decide to approach it. Regards, DWS

OGE, I'm not sure that duplication of leadership would necessarily be that much of a problem. If BSA were to require two completely seperate units, i.e. seperate charters for male and female units then yes, but what if they did something along the lines of the British model, have a Scout Group umbrella organization with single sex sub-units, all under one charter. One committee, one GSM, and leaders of the sub-units that can back each other up as needed.