David CO

True. The council is not going to want to run a Christmas tree stand, but that is not the situation the OP describes. The OP describes a situation in which a fundraiser is taken from a smaller unit (Troop Z) and given to a larger unit (Troop X), with some revenue sharing involved. I could very easily see this happening. I disagree with CalicoPenn in regard to picketing the Christmas tree stand. No matter how mean and unfair I might feel the situation is, I would not picket a fundraiser run by another unit (Troop X).

I think it is very smart of you to consider all aspects of a potential fund raiser, including the possibility that the council might try to take it over. Well done.

We do. Our unit is largely funded from the profits made by the concessions stands at our school athletic events. We don't file a Unit Money Earning Application. I feel that there is enough of an "arms length distance" between the unit and the fund raising to make an honest and reasonable claim that it is not subject to council approval.

The council can deny a Unit Money Earning Application if it conflicts with a council/district fundraiser. So yes, the district can take your idea and deny your application.

While I also sometimes need to get acquainted with people, I am already antiquated.

Hi Noah. Welcome to the forum. I think you are doing exactly the right thing by speaking directly with the pastor. Be polite. Express your opinions, but don't argue. Listen to what the pastor has to say. There are a couple of things you should understand. The Chartered Organization doesn't just sponsor the unit, the CO owns the unit. All adult volunteers serve at the pleasure of the CO. I am assuming that the pastor is registered as the IH of the unit. The IH has the authority to accept or deny the membership of any youth or adult in the unit. Your unit committee members are correct. They have no authority to challenge the membership decisions of the IH. Unfortunately, I know next to nothing about mentoring eagle projects, so I can't help you there. Does the mentor need to be registered with the unit? Does the unit have the authority to approve and disapprove eagle project mentors? I don't know. Good luck on your project.

I'm sure that BSA would become a much better babysitter if we accepted both boys and girls. We would certainly attract a lot more families who would like to make use of an inexpensive babysitting service that is available to serve the entire family. This is what is happening to YMCA. The Y is losing their core mission and replacing it with more family friendly activities and services. I wonder how many scout associations are seeing an uptick in their numbers simply because they are becoming better babysitters? I am not surprised to hear that they have a waiting list for lack of volunteers. I wouldn't want to donate my time to be a free babysitter to families, many of whom may have little real interest in the program.

I have sometimes heard complaints from parents whose scouts were delayed in achieving rank advancement because they hadn't been elected to a Position of Responsibility. These parents often felt that there should be a combination of elected and appointed POR's so that all boys can advance. Yes, if a patrol continues to elects a popular PL to multiple terms, it could be a bit of a concern to other boys in the patrol.

Do I have any sage advice? Sure. Always use sage stuffing with your turkey.

My student teaching experience was an absolute disaster. It was one problem after another. I was miserable. If it hadn't been for my college professor's reassurances that my experience wasn't typical, and teaching is really a lot better than that, I might have left the profession then and there. As a result of this, I am really nice to student teachers, first year teachers, and new scout leaders. I know how hard it can be to make the transition. I think it is sometimes better to delay a young person's first experience as a scout leader. I would like their first experience to be a great one.

We have a school chartered troop, and we meet at school, so we do see scouts wearing BSA uniforms in school. Of course, our Catholic school uniforms are even dorkier than the scout uniforms, so that might have something to do with it.

Boys in my unit aren't allowed to call adults by their first names. ASM's are always called Mister. When I transitioned from student to teacher (during student teaching), this was the most awkward part for me. I wasn't used to having people call me Mister. It was a good thing though. I was very young looking for my age, and I really needed to do the name change. I could have very easily been mistaken for a student.

Is there a reason your son doesn't want to register as a merit badge counselor (a district position)?

Of course, the computer isn't making the decisions. It is the administration and school board who make the decisions. To some extent, the parents are indirectly making the decisions. Just like going from short answer and essay questions to T/F and multiple choice questions (which can be graded by a computer) can change the way we teach, going from face-to-face disciplining to computerized disciplinary reports somewhat changes the way we discipline. Our parents like the new system. They feel it allows them to respond more quickly when there is a problem.

I would not have selected your son to be an ASM until he finished high school. The transition is tricky enough for an 18 year old who is a recent graduate. I can only imagine how awkward it would be for your son to be a classmate during the school day and an adult leader in the evening and on weekends.

I suspect that some people on the forum might not understand how school disciplinary procedures work now days. Our system is very computerized. When a student breaks a rule, the teacher goes on the computer to file a disciplinary report. The disciplinary report lists just about every type of infraction. The teacher checks the box next to the infraction. Sometimes the computer will automatically assign the corresponding consequence, as predetermined by the administration and school board. Sometimes it will give the teacher a menu of consequences to choose from. The disciplinary report will ask for a brief description of the offense, and when/where it took place. When the disciplinary report is complete, it is automatically emailed to the parent, who can respond to it in real time. Many parents have the disciplinary reports sent directly to their phones. There is very little room for creativity. Teachers cannot create their own individualized consequences. The computer won't accept it. I am pretty old fashioned. I like the old way of doing things. But most of our parents, particularly the younger ones, really like the new system.

Our janitor has a really neat machine for washing the floors. It looks like a small Zamboni. It scrubs, rinses, and waxes the floors in one pass. It is not like the old days when the school hallways were cleaned with a mop and pail. I would guess that this has changed in Japan as well. The training can be expensive. It is well worth it to have a properly trained janitor, but I wouldn't use it as a punishment for students.

Absolutely. OSHA regulations have a lot of age based restrictions. Some of the regulations have to do with training as well as age. Janitors have to take classes and be signed off in order to be qualified to do any sort of hazardous clean up. You might be surprised at how much training and skill some of our janitors have. I don't think BSA offers a janitorial merit badge. Too bad. It might give our students a little more appreciation and respect for what our janitors do for us every day. I might be a little bit biased, though, since I am very good friends with our school janitor.

The school has to follow OSHA regulations. The administrator made the right call. We get that all the time, particularly with broken windows. It is often the parents of the vandals who ask us to have their kids fix it themselves. While I totally understand the appeal of this sort of restorative justice, we simply can't do it. It is against the rules. We would send the parents a bill for the cost of repairing or cleaning up the damage.

I was on a (public school) school board, and our school board attorney told us the exact opposite. None of our expulsions were ever overturned. I suppose it might vary from state to state. The middle states can be a lot more conservative than the coastal states.

I suppose that zero tolerance policies do, to some extent, take thinking off the table. At least it might from a unit leader's point of view. So do the advancement guidelines, merit badge requirements, and YP policies. I think we see a lot more push-back when it is the Chartered Organization who imposes the limitations on the unit leaders' use of personal judgement and discretionary authority. Much more so than when BSA does it.

I'm not a big fan of using merit badges to remediate the the failures of our school systems. I agree with you that the failures exist, and I'm not happy about it either. I'm sure they did have this topic in school as is a required part of the middle school curriculum. Whether or not they actually learned it is another matter. With grade inflation, students can get good marks in school without actually learning the material. Parents see passing grades on the report cards and assume that their children are being educated. Good grades make happy parents. On the other hand, a good merit badge counselor won't give the scout a merit badge unless he has actually earned it. The merit badges do have some value, if only to teach boys the novel concept of having to actually learn the topic in order to receive recognition.

Boy Scout units in the United States are owned by Chartered Organizations. This creates a very different dynamic when talking about major policy changes. I'm not sure the reaction to scouting policy changes in Europe can accurately predict how they would play out in the United States.

The acceptance of a sincere apology does not automatically follow with a forbearance of the consequences of the misconduct. A boy who offers a sincere apology should understand that he will still have to take his lumps. If he considers this to be a waste of breath, then it is not a sincere apology.

Yep, that's the attitude I was talking about. A sincere apology is offered without any ambition to get something in return. It is an acknowledgement of wrongdoing and an expression of regret. Anything else is just manipulation.