Eagle92

As I said growing up the older scouts taught the younger ones. Once we mastered whatever skill to the satisfaction of the youth instructor, for basic T-2-1 skills, or adult instructor, if a MB for S-L-E, then we were expected to teach those skills to the Sc-T-2 group, and work with the 1-S-L group so that they could learn and practice. I found it kept the skills razor sharp. Now as we all know, retesting for rank is not permitted, whatever our feeling are for it. BUT retesting those skills for HA activities is not only reasonable, but should be required. I know that for 12-18 months prior to my expedition in the Canadian wilderness, we trained, trained, and trained some more. Our skills were tested, tested, and tested again. And we even learnt a few new tricks form al the training. I had a good bit of canoeing expereince, and I still had to prove that I knew the skills to the leaders several times. And I am glad I did as things happen. That happened with me and my patrol, and I am glad we were prepared.

That's why I'm an advocate of having the older scouts teach the younger ones.

Question, Can previous recipients of the Award of Merit wear it? agree with ya, why the redundancy

Folks, Venturing just lowered the Age to 13 this past may. I also believe Kudu is right on this one.

Lisa, Any registered member or leader of the BSA that has gotten into the OA can remain in the OA IRREGARDLESS of what unit they belong to. So a Venturer, if elected and goes through the Ordeal while in a troop, can remain active in the OA while registered with a crew. Ditto the Cub Scout leader who was an Arrowman as a youth, that's my case now. remember the OA si SCOUTING"S national Honor Society now. Even Sea Scouts can remain active in the OA while a member of the ship, they just are not suppose to wear OA insignia on their Sea Scout uniform. that's a hard one for me to do at the moment, taking off my OA flap, as all the "plankowners" of the ship I was associated with were Arrowman, and I believe the lodge was the CO for the ship as the ship's number was identical to the lodge's number. We're number 1...17! You just cannot be elected as a youth through a ship or crew, nor can a leader be nominated through the ship or crew. They got to be with a troop, district, or council.(This message has been edited by Eagle92)

Sea Scouts could join OA? Then why do the Sea Scouts currently have such an anti OA position today/

BP, Hey I'm just repeating what she told me. She was retired USAF, so she may have flown for the fun of it, and to get around faster.

Good question. That is up for the national chief, VC and the regional chiefs to make. IMHO they aren't listening to the youth though as seen with doing away with lodge numbers for registration at national events, which some think means there are no longer lodge numbers at all anymore, and the doing away with distinctive borders on flaps. Lots of upset Arrowmen wiht the lodge number thing, and a lot of youth protested the removal of distinctive borders from flaps by either not wearing the OA sash at all, or wearing them inside out so that it was a plain white sash, as protest to this decision. The folks who made out on this policy are the collectors as the distinctive border flaps are now priced high due to demand.

Gunny, Wasn't it Chesty Puller who wanted to stress the importance of a change of socks and footwear, that on one training exercise, he ordered everyone to change boots and socks, forbidding anyone from wearing the same pair. Lots of folks barefooted, sockfooted, and wearing boots with no socks.

Another reason would be that the exec board was fooled. There is now a system of verification that exists now, and it appears that if it is followed, it will prevent this problem. As I discovered, there were ways to skillfully cover up membership problems.

I hate to say this but national doesn't seem to be very good with deadlines lately. They publish an Insignia Guide for the new uniform 7-8 months AFTER the uniform came out AND still have not updated the online version of the IG over a year after the print version came out. Instead of introducing a new Venturing uniform as a complete set, they intro it piecemeal. And usually when National makes a uniform change, it's in August at the start of the school year, not in the middle and end of the school years as they did thithe pants and shirts respectively. They have major problems getting CS rank and belt loops out in time for the "Blue and Gold Rush" causing lots of ticked off parents and leaders. They didn't give out the "Official" requirements for the 4 historic MBs until April, allowing scouts to officially have only 9 months to earn these MBs instead of 12 months. And they don't have the new scout socks in time for folks to buy extra pairs for summer camp and Jamboree.

Pack Forgot to comment, some girls like a man in uniform Met my wife while between scout meetings in uniform. She digged the knee socks so much, 10 years later she got me a bunch for Christmas before national got rid of them.

St, From the IG, adult staff can wear it. Emb, Forgot about the regional/national office holders. they also get to wear the gold loops.

'2000 Forgot to add, find out the turnover rate for DEs where you are going. It was high prior to me coming aboard in my council, and during my 20 months as a DE, we went through 9 DEs, 1 FD, and 1FiD. 11 pros, including 2 career pros leaving Scouting all together does say something. Also my replacement left prior to going to PDL-1. Luckily the council took a 180 degree turn around with succeeding SEs.

BP, Some of the Western Region's districts are very large I am told. One of the DE's in my PDL-1 class told me she actually flew her Cessna around her district because driving would take to long. I think, stress think, she was in Montana or ND. I know of one DD who had his district, and two others he was covering, for about a year. In 11 months, he put over 90K miles on his brand new Prius covering the 6 counties in the territory. Pack, Like BP, I too wanted to give back to Scouting. Scouting did alot for me, and I wanted to pay it back. lots of folks in my PDL-1 class were the same way. Others viewed it as a second career after getting out the military. We had one guy who was a "retread," i.e. former pro who came back after working for UW. We did have a few folks with no scouting expereince whatsoever, and viewed it as a job. I noticed that about 1/2 my PDL-1 class were not at NLTC that was held 4 months later. First council I interviewed for had a great SE, who I wish I would have served under. The person selected for the job was in my PDL-1 class, and we had alot of the same credentials. He had one advantage over me: he grew up in the council and knew folks already. Like BP the council I worked for had some "challenging" leadership. As mentioned already I was warned by an SE to "watch your back with [sE]and [DFS]." I did take some precautions, and when I went to work for Supply and questions about my performance as a DE arose, I had copies of everything I did, as well as notes from staff meetings, performance evals, etc that I took. during this time. That documentation and the notations I put on some of the charters helped out tremendously. Unfortunately I too see little repercussions. SE went on to work for national, and the DFS went on to become an SE. Although I've heard that the DFS left his SE gig early and was demoted to a FD. But I doubt it.

Per the Insignia Guide, Venturers cannot wear regional insignia, but Venturing Leaders can. I know that one my Venturing shirts and Sea Scout shirt have them on still from my time as a DE as when I tried to take it off, it was very obvious that a patch was worn their. http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/Media/InsigniaGuide/10P.aspx Regional Insignia This insignia is reserved for regional officers, regional committee members, local council professional Scouters, and national staff with a regional responsibility and is worn on the right sleeve in position 2. Adult regional world and national jamboree contingent staff and leaders may wear the insignia only during their assignment at the jamboree. The same rule applies to specifically designed regional insignia for a national event.

Just what ever you do, do not have your scouts run around a campsite with the firehose chasing after the reluctant bather. Some tents will have flaps open.

BP and anyone else who may know, If scouting is not known among Hispanics, then why are there scout associations all over Central and South America? Also Didn't Chile hold a WSJ? I think scouting works across the cultural divide, as evidenced by Scouting being a world wide movement. In addiiton to BP's questiuon that we should ask what the Hispanic community wants, why don't we also look at some of the things done in Hispanic countries. I'm willing to bet it's based upon BP and GBB.

Avid, I must respectfully disagree as BSA is trying several approaches. Most widely known is the Soccer and Scouting program that was big in the Western Region. Don't know how successful that was, but it was suppose to blend Soccer and Cub Scouts. Also Baltimore Area Council is sampling an alternative, "Action Uniform" that when announced sounded as if it was a possible replacement to the field uniform and was geared towards those populations not familiar with Scouting.

Stosh, May I recommend a 50 gal water drum, aka your fire bucket filler, and Dawn soap. Add soap to water and DUNK. LOL

Buckets? BUCKETS?! We don't need no stinking buckets. The Brownsea washing machine consists of the scout with his dirty clothes on and going into the shower. He then scrubs the clothign while on him to clean them, then rinses. Remove clothing clean clorhting and repeat with rest of dirty clothes. Once out of clothes, repeat on self.

I do believe that changing socks often is in the current BSHB. I know it was back in my day. Changing clothes is also a hygeine issue which is also in the book. Also Socks are listed as an item to carry on campig trips. I do wish they would talk about the "Brownsea Washing Machine" in the book though. i had to go to BA22 to learn that one.

Are they the 100% cotton? I think, emphasis on think, they also did not have the snaps, btu don't remember exactly. Old age is getting to me.

Like everything, there is a time and a place for 'slowing down a scout" if he is not truly meeting the requirements, that's one. If he is not living up to the Oath and Law, that's another. If the parents are pushing, pushing, pushing advancement, that may be another. I went through the T-2-1 ranks rather quickly, even with the time requirements back in the day. I got 1st Class within 13 months of joing the troop, the hold up being FA MB as my SM wanted me to use 1 particular, and very well regarded FA MBC. If you have a troop that is truly a "hiking and camping troop," that is in the outdoors at least once a month, save December ( and even then we had a few scouts goign to winter camp) adavancement to First Class will come along nicely. S-L-E are the hard ones because it demands more form the scout. While a troop's program will help some, most of the work is on the scout. My advice has always been to get to Life before HS, because once HS hits it get harder to do things in Scouting based upon my personal experience and observations. However once you hit First Class, do start to take somer time to enjoy yourself and not focus on advancement. My first year in Scouting was intense and I had a blast. But more importantly it prepared me for better journeys in the following years: BA 22, NSJ, 50 Miler in the Canadian Wilderness, etc.

Actually in his youth BP and two or three of his brothers would go boating by themselves in one boat. it's in GBB Bio of him.