________________________________________ Hi Andy, I’m the Chartered Organization Representative for a Scouts BSA troop. Unlike the prior person in this slot, who was an “in title only” sort of guy, I’ve been pretty involved with the committee chair and Scoutmaster. Currently, the three of us are updating the troop’s “discipline policy” documents. Up to now, when […]

________________________________________ Hi Andy, I saw that stuff last week about that district that was insisting on holding their own boards of review for Star and Life ranks. Boy, they must have a whole lot of volunteers sitting around twiddling their thumbs for them to have enough time for such a non-essential (and completely “illegal”) job! […]

________________________________________ I’ve been thrown a lot of curve-balls in the past 19 years, and this one sits pretty near the top… But it’s sure a winner when it comes to the reply, which I usually omit but I’m making an exception today. I think you’ll enjoy it, too! Hi Andy, I’m one of the trainers […]

________________________________________ Hi Andy, My son has started his first year in Scouts. So far, four troop meetings have gone by and no requirements have been done yet for being a Scout in the troop. When he asked about doing merit badges—he had picked three pretty easy ones to start himself off with—he was told not […]

________________________________________ Hi Andy, In your column last week, you helped an Eagle Scout straighten out the real date of his board of review. I’m also glad to see that the board of review member who was blatantly wrong was taken away. The reality is that a huge proportion of Scouts these days reach Eagle rank […]

________________________________________ Dear Andy, Last night was my board of review for Eagle. It went okay and they told me that I’m an Eagle Scout, but the date they said it’s going to be is last week and not yesterday. That’s because the man who was the chair of my board of review said that, because […]

  ________________________________________ This was supposed to have been a Christmas issue, on December 25th. Obviously, that didn’t happen—the result of a family tragedy from which we’re not yet fully recovered. Thanks for your patience. Here it is, as originally written for you. The story that follows is an excerpt from the manuscript of a full-length […]

________________________________________ Hi Andy, The “position of responsibility” requirement for Star rank states: “While a First Class Scout, serve actively in your troop for four months in one or more of the following positions of responsibility…” One of our Scouts was Assistant Senior Patrol Leader (“ASPL”) at summer camp for a week this past July. Then, […]

________________________________________ (Here’s another column that was delayed while we fixed our glitches…) Dear Andy, Unfortunately, our troop’s Committee Chair has been bullying our Senior Patrol Leader over our planned orienteering project for “Webelos Woods.” He just sent our SPL an email (yes, he copied others too, which is how I came to see it) that […]

 ________________________________________ (Yes, I’m up and running again, thanks to our fabulous USSSP “team”! Here’s a November column I couldn’t post until now. Others are right behind this one!) Here are some comments on troop-level merit badge “classes,” merit badge fairs, and such, from a few weeks ago… Hi Andy, At a recent troop committee-and-parent meeting, […]