airborneveteran

"We want the BSA to take an Evangelistic Christian bent on membership? On behalf of the Jewish, Muslim, Buddist and other non-Christian scouts No " Way to ****falsely**** restated my position. You fit in well with most of those pushing this leftist agenda. Don't let facts stand in your way. I asked which growth path was preferred? You falsely restated what I said. If you win have fun following the Girl Scouts' trend line.

CalicoPenn You are 100% right. If this happens I won't be around a year from now to have someone ask me about a piece of tape or anything else. The BSA embraced my family's values so my son joined and we volunteered. When they run contrary to traditional values there are other places calling for our family's time. Align with the Girl Scouts' view point and the BSA numbers could follow the direction of GS's numbers. American Heritage Girls is enjoying tremendous growth. Which direction would we like to see BSA numbers move?

My uniform protest. The scouts/scouters in our family be wearing a piece of tape over "Boy Scouts of America" on our uniforms until this bad idea has been discarded as a silent protest. I will write "morally straight" on mine to be clear why I'm not "uniformly" supporting this decision. If BSA adopts a policy such a liberal radical policy we'll leave. Friends of Scouting donations have ceased until those responsible for pushing this forward resign and this proposal is abandoned.

Thanks for the input. I'll go with the consensus and respect the boy's privacy since authorities were already involved and this was something that happened outside of scouting. As the boys are in the process of wrapping up Cub Scouting and moving to Boy Scouting I do think I'll encourage the parents to extend the benefit of the info they shared with me to their son's scoutmaster once that decision is made. Tragic. He's one of the nicest kids we have and plays exceptionally well with the other boys. He's the Webelos II I guess will make Eagle first (just based on positive attitude and general competency) if these crimes don't cripple him. Oh, Beavah got it right. Seagull posters swoop in drop a mess and fly away. (This message has been edited by airborneveteran)

The boy's mom wanted me to know as a friend and a den leader. He's going to be a Boy Scout in just a few months. **Not** by anyone in scouts past or present. **Not** by anyone under his roof. Mom said Child protective authorities **ARE** involved. What are my obligations as a scout leader: 1. to the boy(s) there are brothers who were abused by a relative not living with the boy(s)? 2. to the program? As a leader, I want to know this from parents and am glad they trusted me enough to tell me. I imagine that as a boy I would only want those who need to know to be told so I could heal and get on with my life without everyone treating me differently. I'll read all the YPT stuff again when I get back in town but hearing from experienced scouters will help me frame my approach to handling this information. ***I'm going camping now*** but this is heavy on my mind. I'm heartbroken for the boys. I'll look at this when I get back in town. Please don't think I abandoned my posting after dropping something like this into the forum. I'm not normally a seagull poster.

Thankfully this is not going on in our council. If it were going on, and some of our better (though perhaps less affluent) volunteers were held back from scout activities without people from our district being afforded an opportunity to "scholarship" them it would **rapidly** become penny-wise and pound-foolish for the council.

I don't know that legislator or that columnist but I hear an abundance of ideological spin from *both* of them in what you posted. As someone with a GS daughter, I am very skeptical of GS given what I perceive as a leftist ideological drift and a drift away from basic scout/life skills. Given both of those drifts, if American Heritage Girls finds someone with a vision and the cash to build an endowment GS could stand a real chance of moving into second place during their second century.

I genuinely despise the United Way for the pressures that the "100% participation goals" of the employer put on people with differing principles and priorities. And, yes, job reviews often are impacted by the lack of bowing to the pressure to give generally to charity because the CEO's (and their wives) are too stupid or lazy to know how to identify some quality charities and give to them specifically. My wife is pressured to do this in her job. She usually designates $10 to the least objectionable United Way organization every year expecting that they reshuffle the money so that the abortionists get the same amount they were going to get from United Way in either event. This time of year serves as an additional reminder to give an additional donation to a local pro-life group. We give generously to specific charities that we care about and we prefer to skip the middle man and their skim off the top so that 100% of our donation goes to the charity. I thoroughly hate the United Way and the soulless corporate "100% participation types" they suck in to their web.(This message has been edited by airborneveteran)

I actually appreciate the info since I often deal with people I know only a little bit. So no problem with all your titles. I'm bad with names so it helps me remember you. Just tell me in the email which crew/pack/troop/committee this is referencing to be clear. For example: Do you want me to help your Crew 123 or Troop 123 shoot shotguns in April?(This message has been edited by airborneveteran)

Ask the Cub's parents (since they are also Akela for him) if he wants to do the Wolf stuff over the summer with them to earn that rank and be a Bear when school starts. It will be easy to do over the summer with the type of parents you typically find behind a scout capable of skipping a grade. We've had this happen before. Also if you're in a District/council with a District Day/twilight Camp and a Council Cub resident camp it's hard NOT to make rank over the summer for Wolves and Bears attending both camps. In either event since he is by himself now, I'd have him as a Bear on June 1 or September 1 at his family's option.(This message has been edited by airborneveteran)

"IMHO, the real question is how to celebrate this scout's achievement before he moves out of town." This. With a couple of adults unhappy but a decision that has been made, try to get the point across that the boat is moving. It's time for everyone else to help row or stay on the shore. Hopefully, the scout is acknowledged with *only* smiles and handshakes before he moves. Adults unable to be a good sport and smile need to quit *now*. Period. They don't stay for awhile and be a PITA only to leave later. It's not about them and it never was.

Be assured that there is almost always turnover when there is growth. Companies, churches, packs, troops all have this common element. You did the right thing. Train your new advancement chair to follow the rules while showing grace and I'm sure things will be fine later down the line. Honestly, once someone threatens to leave it's generally time for them to go. Help them land softly elsewhere if you can. You know you did the right thing in an imperfect world. That's all you've got. That's enough.

LeCastor enjoy your Wood Badge course. There is much useful info to be learned there. Nothing is perfect but it is a good course. Meeting your fellow scouters and sharing the good and the bad of how to make this program work for boys was one of the best things about WB21C. Get contact information from everyone you can while you are there (not just the staffers) and make a note of what they know that's unique. Some of here speak as if they "know it all" but one thing I learned at WB21C is that almost everyone in the course knows at least one thing that you may one day be able to use to help make the program work out better for the boys. When you encounter problems know who to email.

Look up the Communist Manifesto and look at the 10 Demands in that document. It seems to me we've already had a bit of a revolution. Most people seem o.k. with it. I'm not o.k. with this "silent revolution" we've had, but I'm older and I agree that U.S. demographics don't favor any active change in our system.

SeattlePioneer I was **not** a Special Operator or anything like that. But I was one of their MI guys for a time (that's why I went to jump school). Those guys are MY heroes. It would suck to be told "no markings" for a mission with them and miss a chance to do my job because of something stupid. Maybe I over-thought things with tattoos but it's better than the alternative.

I decided not to get any tattoos while in the Army. I was, however, really tempted to get jump wings on my bicep after finishing parachute training. Having a TS/SBI/SCI security clearance and a really fun job made me decide not to do anything that might ever even potentially keep me from getting assigned to any unique missions. It turned out that it never was an issue, but I would have been way more disappointed in myself for losing a great mission than I ever could have been for NOT getting a cool tattoo. As for civilians with normal jobs. I don't want visible tattoos on people who represent me or my company. At a minimum it makes me wonder if your decision making process is limited to "the now" vs. long term, big picture thinking. I'm not the only person who has this concern and makes hiring decisions, so be careful in what will be on display for a future employer 20 years from now. To the OP, once you're fighting for your life you fight that fight however you want with my best wishes. Just make sure that if you ever get a visible one you volunteer that info during your job interview. Fighting cancer is a justifiable reason to live only "in the now". You get positive points for being committed to your fight.(This message has been edited by airborneveteran)

I don't understand what requirement he didn't satisfactorily meet. My first thought would be to allow his work to speak for itself rather than expecting him to speak more eloquently than he may be capable of doing.

Next time my family visits Northern California I'm looking up AlFansome so our daughters can have a "girl's day out". Real American 12y.o. girls actually being *girls* and doing something *outside*. What a concept! Even in Texas Girl Scouting, mine has to hunt for that type of running buddy.

I have only been doing this Cub Scout leader thing for 3 years now but unless I'm completely missing the point, if the standard is "do your best" and families can do the missed activities with the cub, I really find nothing other than summer day camp that a cub and his family can't make up if missed. Really, even day camp (twilight camp for some of you) can be substituted if your district offers a cub overnight camp as ours does and the scout is trying substitute to earn the CS Outdoor Activity Emblem. But I would not make others wait for an earned award due to the absences of others or other scouts' late start. However, I do try to make sure that the scouts not making rank with the others were given an opportunity to earn a belt loop/pin etc. in the weeks before the others get rank. That way all in the den have the chance to be recognized for the work they are doing now during the same pack meeting. That may help distract from the lack of rank recognition and if not I've "done my best" and can live with it.

My son and three others in his den will be awarded centennial Bear rank tomorrow night to go with their centennial Wolf ranks earned in the Spring. Other than that most of our guys earned their regular ranks and got a centennial date on it. We didn't have many centennial badge chasers. However, the guys in our pack that built individual rockets for the centennial world record mass rocket launch of 3200 rockets our council (Sam Houston Area Council- SHAC) put on this fall at SHAC Jam are most excited to get their world record holder patches awarded and have their rockets returned tomorrow. That's our guys' noteworthy centennial activity/patch. I think you may be reading about the world record launch in Boy's Life this spring (Feb.?) if you haven't already heard about it.(This message has been edited by airborneveteran)

Well then you better keep him away from here until he's committed elsewhere, 'cause once he spends some time here you'll lose him forever. Again, congrats to all!

I'm in the "we can always hope" camp. This should be good for web layout. Maybe he can have things fixed so that when an *adult* logs in to myscouting **print a YPT certificate** is the most prominent tab. Sorry it this doesn't apply to all but having just finished recharter this is very much on my mind. Varying levels of computer skills with our adult leaders but one thing they all have in common is someone telling them, "BSA can't recharter you if we can't verify YPT". The *print certificate tab* can't be buried like it is for a *must have* item. /rant

Congrats to your son! BTW, if your son is looking for a very Eagle Scout friendly university, we have a fine one down here in College Station, TX. $$$ info is on the NESA site. Again, congrats to him and to you!

I am one of two ACM's. I am also the one that is not the designated successor. I'm the floater. I cover when the CM can't make a roundtable and chair a couple of the events we couldn't find chairs for (Space Derby, Raingutter Regatta). The past 2 years I coordinated the Cubs overnight summer camp while the CM and other ACM handled the Webelos camp. When parents ask I am clear in my support of the CM and the other ACM when that change happens. I like to think two of us as ACM's are better able to help the CM from burning out and give the CM permission to take time off to love on his new baby without feeling he's letting down the pack.

BTW, In our pack I had already bought my own adult leader uniform (mistake) to save the unit the expense (I really didn't understand that in my son's unit they really don't want me to buy stuff because some of our leaders can't afford to do the same). So me *not* paying for Wood Badge was about me finally getting on board with the way the pack committee wants things done.(This message has been edited by airborneveteran)