________________________________________ FORMATTING’S BEEN PROBLEMATIC HERE. I THINK I HAVE IT FIXED, SO THAT THIS IS NOW EASIER TO READ — Thank you, one and all! Frankly, I’m shocked and delighted to hear from so many readers asking for a year-end installment of THE MANTOOTH BONE. So here you have it, with my apology for the […]

________________________________________ Dear Andy, Last week (December 22 – Issue 466), in response to a 14 year-old Scout who’s been getting into fights, with punching Scouts in the face, kicking them in the shins with steel-toed boots, and threatening Scouts with a knife, you ended by saying, “…since you also mentioned that he may be going […]

________________________________________ Mary Tomchuk, of the Patriots’ Path Council in New Jersey, educator; Eagle Scout Mom; Silver Beaver and Silver Antelope, St. George and Bronze Pelican recipient; Scouter extraordinaire, has too soon Gone Home. She touched, it’s safe to say, thousands of lives including my own. She’ll long be missed by so many. ======================================= Hi Andy, […]

________________________________________ A fine Scouting friend, and true gentleman, Kendall Brown, has “gone home.” Thank you, Kendall. It was my honor to have known you. To your family, please accept my profound sympathy for your–our–loss. ———————————————————————- Dear Andy, One particular Scout in our troop, who’s been with us for a couple of years now, seems to […]

________________________________________ Dear Andy, I have a question about one of the Q&A’s in your December 1st column about the relationship between chartered organizations and the Scouting units they sponsor. This is the reference point I’m using: www.scouting.org/About/FactSheets/operating_orgs.aspx Your advice about the service projects for the chartered organization was great, up until your “by the way” […]

________________________________________ Dear Andy, I have a question regarding the relationship between a troop and its chartered organization—in our case, a church, which provides us with meeting and storage spaces. In return, the Scouts of our troop devote between 20 and 25 service project days a year for the church. As a result of this heavy […]

________________________________________ Dear Andy, I just read your last week’s issue (November 19th) regarding adult leader training. I may have missed reading it in your reply, but I thought Youth Protection Training was mandatory for all adult leaders who have contact with youth, and I thought this was a BSA-wide thing, as it is in our […]

________________________________________ Dear Andy, I’ve searched your past issues, and couldn’t find an answer to this question, so maybe I’m the first… I recently returned from the first of our two Wood Badge weekends, at which we were all given patrol emblems. My patrol later discussed whether or not we should sew them on our uniforms […]

________________________________________ Here’s more on the idea of parents tagging along on every possible Boy Scout outing… Hi Andy, “Amen” to discouraging continual parental accompaniment! Thanks for discouraging continual parental accompaniment on overnighters and outings. In addition to interfering with peer-to-peer relationships (Senior Patrol Leader, Patrol Leaders, and patrol-mates), as you pointed out, here are a […]

________________________________________ Dear Andy, I usually agree with most everything you have for us out here in the field, but I disagree on the point you made in your October 22 issue (No. 458), when you said, “One of the saddest things I ever heard was just a few years ago at an Eagle court of […]