Eagle92

Let me add details as i'm part of the committee that Sctdad is on. 1) It is actually two council CS family campouts at two different camps on two different weekends. 2) Yep it's kinda last minute planning. Don't know what happened and don't want to know, just want to "git 'er done" 3) On one of the weekends, the OA is having their Fall Fellowship. Only Arrowmen at that famcamp will be the ones with CS like me. 4)One camp has dining facilities, the other doesn't. Every unit is for themselves, and the local Hardee's will be getting alto of business I bet. 5)I know, I know the planning process should have been started last year, not 3 months ago, but once these famcamps are done, the planning for next year will start very soon thereafter. TRUST ME ON THAT!

If they want to equate knives as "weapons," Fine it's a Second Amendment issue then and they can pry my knives from my cold dead hands. makes me want ot go out, but the $500+ anniversary knife, and wear it on my uniform to camp! What idiot in the UK came up with this.

Galvodog, national does recognize a 'Class A uniform now. Just look up either the new shorts of bathing cuit and read the description!

Scoutnet will not allow it to be put into the system as the age requirement hasn't been met yet. I say relax and have fun since the work is done. Make sure you go shopping for a troop so that as soon as you can join a troop, at age 10.5 AND having earned the AOL, you are ready to go with them to summer camp. START SAVING MONEY NOW!

Since your family campout isn't the same weekend as the OA's Fall Fellowship, and you knwo how I feel about mine being the same weekend , OA is a very good source. Pack level leaders, i.e CMs, Pack Trainers, etc, are another good source. Venturing crews and Troops, especially Troops that don't have feeder packs can be good sources. One challenge we will have is the parking at Charles, and I've suggested using a Law Enforcement Exploring post. grant you we are not as big as the SE Loisiana Council's encampment, with 10K+, yet at least , but they had the 4th MARDIV assist in logistics. Kinda helps when a 2 star with that pale blue ribbon sits on your council's executive board.

I am a scouting addict. I admit it. I actually made a promise to myself that I would not join a troop as a ASM while I worked supply division, and that lasted 1 week. I love working with youth, love going camping, and just being in the outdoors. So I don't mind the training. I was fortunate in that I copmpleted all the basic training, save Venturing, back in 1998, and I know enough about Venturing to teach the course as I was a DE when it came out and had to learn all the stuff. Now there are some folks out there who do not have the time or resources to complete all the training. Some of that I lay on the my council and district. On the district level we need more trainers. On the council level, we need to meet more than once/per year AND need to get a schedule of all trainings and post it for people to see. Those are just a few ideas for improving training. They are probably a bunch more out there. At the minimum, I would mandate YPT, as it's short,sweet to the point, and can be done online. For adults on a trip, I would give them a breifing before hand that 1) They will be assigned duties as they will be consider part of the Adult or Old Goat Patrol (OGP). 2) They will be doing activities with the OGP, and make sure they are fun and KEEPS THEM OUT OF THE SPL's HAIR. 3) They will be kept busy, busy, busy., agian ti keep them out of the SPL's hair. 4) make sure that they knwo that any questions or concerns they have goes through the ASM or the SM. They are not to have contact with the scouts until formally trained. Good luck. I had some good experiences with adults, and I've had a nightmare expereince that I would not put on my worse enemy.

My troop had both good and bad experiecnes with parents on campout who were not leaders Good: Definitely provided drivers Was able to add to the camp out experience. One gentleman was prior military, and we were going to an air station he was very familiar with, being part of the teaching cadre at one of the schools there. made the tour VERY interesting. Used as a recruting tool to get more leaders. The yearly family campout and canoeing instruction. Bad: One set of mothers refused to let their sons go on a hike in the rain, despite the scouts not only being prepared for it, but also wanting to complete the hike after a 7 hour drive to get to it. No one was happy, and the little brothers that tagged along as well caused over $1000 worth of water damage to the facility we were sleeping in. It took about 4 years before we tried that again.

If memory serves, and it's been 10 years since this happened, we had the son of a CM "earn" the AOL prior to their 10th birthday, and CM wanted her son to go ahead and join Scouts. Long story short, the paperwork was rejected by SCOUTNET and no troop would accept them.

Hal, Not to digress on healthcare, but according to EMTALA, which is federal law, if you show up to an ER, even if you have something as minor as a headache, they must see you and treat you, so that cannot just kick you out. People do abuse the system, like the homeless alcoholicI believe the NY Times reported on, that knew exactly what words to use to get a free ride to the ER and a free stay overnite. He's on a first name basis with the ED staff, as he averaged 3 times a week over a 5 year period. The paper estimated that over the 5 year period, he wasted over $1 million in ambulance, medication, staffing, and room costs, and he never paid a dime. Also let's not forget the hospitals in CA that have closed down because of the large illegal alien population using the hospitals without paying for services. Even charging those who do pay extra couldn't cover the expenses, and they had to close. We have a large illegal alien population in NC, and they do use the local hospital's ED as if it was a physician's office. I could tell you some stories as I do work in a hospital. Trust me illegal aliens do cost all of us.

Hal, Anyone goign to an emergency room, irregardless of nationality or ability to pay, gets healthcare. Then they are sent a bill to the address that they gave. Most of the time they either ignore it or they have moved. That's why most hosptials are non-profit and have a "charity case" expense in their budgets. Part of the reason why healthcare is so expensive is that those wh do pay their bills are also paying part of the bills that others are not paying.

A few comments. 1) Some fear that it will turn political. One example was the school district in UT, if memory serves, last week that showed a video of celebrities pledging allegiance to Obama, not the country, not the office of the president, but to a specific person. Also in the past, many politicians have used children as props for speeches, and that is another factor. 2) The idea to do this originated in the White House and not in the Department of Educations. While this may not be a bad idea, it's been reported that several documents in references to the speech to children do not show the presidential seal, but the campaign logo, which reinforces the assumption that this is political 3)Several of Obama's mentors and peers do view education as a way to influence poltics. 4)While the timing may be designed to make the most of a new school year, usually the first month of school is one of the most hectic and some feel that the timing could have waited until things settled down in school

Check out this site http://www.powderhorn-bsa.org/

OGE, here here!

Hopefully as other have posted, hwen he comes back he may have some ideas for improving the troop. Heck my old troop did joint activities at times with other troops and while there was freindly competition amongst us, as long as it didn't get overboard and unscoutlike, as one troop did tend to get, it was all good. Infact we learned from each other atthese activities Now I've seen the attitude of "stealing scouts," "Spying on the troop," etc with leaders mostly. Heck I saw it last nite at RT 'cause one of our former DLs was asked by his church to restart their Pack and eventually troop. While it's been known for a year by some of the pack leadership, others didn't know and it hit hard that we were losing him. Especially since the new CM is an outstanding leader, and in fact I was hoping the troop would recruit him to be SM when the time comes instead of me as I will still have about 5 more years of cubs left The leader is new adn doesn't understand that it isn't just about the pack, it's about the Cubs, or the scouts in the OP. that's what we need to focus on: What is best for the Scout!

I tried to do the SM Specs at a camporee and only two people showed up. No one wanted to do it then as they wanted to watch their scouts compete.

From my experience, the only patches on a national level to have any value would be those patches that are, for lack of a better word "standard," namely CSPs and OA flaps. Unless the temp patch is from a special national/regional event, i.e. NOAC, a section conclave, a temp insignia from a NSJ, etc temp patches do not gain value on a national level. I tried trading temp insignia at a NSJ and NOAC and no one wanted them HOWEVER on a local level, they could be worht something to a participant who traded or lost their patch, and the patch has meaning to them. I knwo that I lost a bunch of patches my mom had stored for me b/c of Katrina. Some items were saved and/or replaced, but most are gone. So I am sacnning EBAY for them, and have purchased one or two I've found. See ya tonite.

In referecne to the Gnomes, I say the BSA's BS and CS ones at a camp in the UK. The Warden's wife ( they call rangers wardens over there BTW) colelcted them and she had a small international collection as international staffers had sent her ones as gifts. In full disclosure, I used to work for supply

BP, Different councils, different situations. In my council, volunteers were great, but the pros were a different story. We had a very high turnover rate.

My old troop cleaned up a parish (county) fair. The youth did the actual cleaning and that money went to our accounts. However the parents did sell hot dogs and tea. While "sales" were involved, a troop I heard about "sold" snow insurance, i.e. if it snowed the scouts would clear out your driveway. Not much snow in SE Louisiana.

Actually if memory serves, the KGB memo has been out for some time. When the SU fell, one of the first things that came about with capitalism in Russia was that Soviet archivists were selling their documents for a time. Lot of good info came out of that time frame, until he Russian government put astop to it. Some of the things that came out was yes Alger Hiss was an agent of the GMU or military intel if memory serves, and not the NKVD ( predecessor to the KGB, the Rosenbergs were spying for the Soviets, and there were intelligence operattives in State and Treasury. If I can find my syllabus and class notes, I'll give you some very good reading on the the Cold War. Also if you get the chance check out this website http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=topics.home&topic_id=1409 Basically the scholars in the Cold War History field contribute a ton of info to the link above.

It sounds as if you have a very young troop. I'm going to do my KUDU impersonation and suggest getting a copy of the 3rd. edition of the SM Handbook, both volumes. In it is a very plan for training your leaders. While it may need to be modified to today's standards, It is an excelletn resource. If the troop is a young one, you may need to be the PL of the PLC for a brief time to train them, just as the 3rd. ed. says. I always liked the Socratic method of teaching,and use in when I do MBs. You can apply it to the SM situation to a degree. When your SPL and PLS come up to you for advice, ask "what do you think?" if they leave anything out, then ask "Anything else you might have overlooked?" If they have and cannot think of one, ask them a question that would give them the correct asnwer, without being obvious. You want them to think for themselves and think through. Good luck!

Every council does things a little differently, as well as each presenter. I know that when I did FOS, I used some stats to show show where the money goes. I'm fortunate in that we have one of the council camps in our district and can see where some of the moeny is going. As for the CEB, again every board is different, and it usually reflects on the SE. I know that in my council, several board members have some type of summer camp connection to the SE. Nice to have a "local boy" as SE. Also I do see some CEB members at OA functions.

I had to take an order for M2M uniform and for CS I do not recommend it. here is the link http://www.scoutstuff.org/BSASupply/images/pdfs/mtm-form.pdf Why do i not recommend it? First off two of the items needed are required, i.e. two shirts need to be made, two pants need to be made, etc. Why deos he need two uniforms for only 9 months? Second it is expensive. While the form doesn't include prices, if I remember correctly it's about 20% more expensive PER ITEM,so it adds up fast. Again I've only seen this done 1 time, and the indiviudal was assigned to work jambo and needed 2 uniforms minimum.

As the Doctor would say, "Run for yoru life!" Seriously the council is correct in that they cannot step in until some criminal ot YP related happens. COs own and are responsible for the unit. It definitely sounds like a soap opera in the making. I would definitely leave. In reference to the "SEAL," there is a wonderful museum and association in FL that keeps a list of everyone who has been part of Navy special forces, whether 'frogmen" of WWII-Vietnam's UDTs, the predecessors of Navy SEALs, or SEALs proper. I also believe, again stress belive, they also keep track of members of the Special Boat Teams. The 2 SEALs I met don't really talk too much it, and you wouldn't know it unless asked.

Quick clarification on teh Vigil question. Not only can any Arrowman nominate someone for Vigil, any member, save one eligible, can be selected to serve on the Vigil committee voting in new Vigils.