Eagle92

OGE, In reference to your Venturer turned pro, Gandalf the White says it best, "there's always hope...a fool's hope."

In reference to younger siblings, I agree with Shortridge, if you can say "No." In reference to non-scout friends, if they are a prospective member, as long as ll the paperwork, i.e. healthform and permission slip, is with the young man, he is good to go, and is covered by insurance.

After hearing and seeing, a few things about Tommy Tenderfoot misbehaving and the parents being unresponsive, I can understand the "contract" concept, and am very sad to see that this is what our society has come to. The worse incident I've seen (ok overheard since it was a phone call) is parents refusing to pick up their son from summercamp saying the "boys will be boys" excuse. CD played hardball and stated that if little Tommy wasn't picked up by x time, the county sheriff would be notified that they have a delinquent youth trespassing on camp property and they want him arrested. The parents did meet the deadline. Another incident I heard about, being toldby both the scout involved and the mother, was 91 NSJ the scout was asked to leave after the 2nd or 3rd day. Mom had to get there, pick him up, and bring him home n her own dime.

Go to Scoutstuff.org for store locator. there are 3 catagories now: Scout Shop ( nationally run) council Shop ( locally run) and Distributor

To avoid Charlotte, where the national warehouse is, call a nationally run scout ship directly. They do ship, and it may be cheaper due to the shop's location to you,i.e the further away from the shipper, the higher the shipping cost. Also if they do not have the merchandise, they will order it from other stores and send it to you in one package, saving you the cost of making multiple orders and multiple shipping costs. However it may take longer for you to get them. As for why the indiviual scout shops have some, but not the warehouse, soemtimes the shops order to much, get returns, or units don't pick them up. a former supply division weenie

Really, Gags?

Kudu gave an excellent tool to use: the scout sign. Game time caqme near the end of the troop meeting, and everytime the sign came up to correct someone, that took time away from the game. usually once a year, when the new scouts would come into the troop, we would lose a game time. After that we were good to go. Don't do what some folks do and scream "Signs up." A very simple thing to say in a calm demeanor is "Gentlemen I got all night."

Yep that's the knot. As for the training, got my card in the mail yesterday and can now teach the course Went to another site to download syllabi, etc to start planning a course in the fall, and noticed that it is possible to teach BALOO, IOLS, and OLS-W simoultaneously if you have enough staff to cover the differences sicne there is overlap. Me thinks it might be possible to do that, if A) I can get the council training chair to agree with it, and B) I can get enough staff. Why do I feeling I am going to be asked to fill the training chair vacancy for the district again? I got a crazy idea all of a sudden, if leader trainign is modular now, why not the outdoor skills?

FGoodwin The online insignia control guide doesn't mention anything about not wearing them at COHs, here's the link. http://www.scouting.org/media/insigniaguide/10L.aspx What I find interesting is that the ICG doesn't mention that the sash can also be worn with the proefssional dress uniform, per the OAHB. Also as I have mentioned previosly, read the second resposne, at one time COHs were specifically mentioned in the OAHB as Ok to wear the sash. Then some editing occured which left out COHs, but left it vague enough that COHs were still OK , AND left in the professional atire phrase, like you see pros do "cheerful service" in coat and tie.

Good experience: SM recruited and "trained" ASM for a 9-12 months prior to stepping down. Bad experience: "Here's the box (which had all the OA chapter's paperwork and info in it), you're in charge now." This was after just getting out of grad school and not being very active in the lodge for 2.5 years. Worse experience: SM's mother dies, then he loses job. Stops showing up to meetings and functions.

My condolences to the family, and to the troop. I know it'll be hard to do, but I would leave it alone. Most officials will use a standardized form. What may be a better idea is to possible have a photo montage of the Scout, and have people who influenced him and he influenced. You cannot make Eagle without makign a difference to someone. Get his project folks to come, get his mentor up there, and some scouts's he's influenced.

Offically BSA prohibits anyone from holding multiple positions in the same unit except for the following three positions: IH, COR, CC. basically one individual can hold two or all three of those positions. Now that doesn't prevent someone form performing additional duties beyond their official position. Heck I know of one COR/CC who would rather be an ASM. When I found out what he was truly registered as, I told him he's got the wrong loops on, (COR are district level scouters who should sit on the DisCom) and the wrong patch on ( again he needed a COR one, not ASM)

Yep it's a doozy. Our chapter chief was the guide for our Webeloree campfire, leading the Webelos from teh Assembly area to the campfire and the rest of the team. He raises the torch and begins his lines, when his roach headdress catches on fire in front of the Webelos. Luckily he wasn't hurt, and the roach was a BS fiber job with a hand made base. I would have been in tears if it was my 21" roach. Chapter chief became known as Torch.

You' re off to a good start. One thing you can do is start cultivating donors. hard to do, but once you have names of a few collectors, you may be able to talk them in to leaving their patches to the museum in their wills. I'm planning on doing that for Southeast Louisiana Council and Chilantakoba Lodge as my sons will not grow up in that council or lodge. You may want to talk to a lawyer as I beleive donations may be tax deductable. Another incentive for donors. Definately make sure all district and council activities "donate" a patch to the museum. Also get the lodge involved. My old lodge was in the process of creating a lodge museum, and my current lodge has 90+% of all thei patches in the OA reception center at camp.

Don't quote me in this, as I don't remember details, but I believe that IF the unit is willing to pay the back charter fees and membership dues, then the can get tenure back. Again don't quote me on this, ask a current pro.(This message has been edited by eagle92)

Lots of good ideas, except the service project one IF the museum is council owned. can't do an Eagle project for scouting. Now an OA Workday is a different story. If you cannot have a museum shop b/c of the council shop, ask if they will sell merchandise on consignement.(This message has been edited by eagle92)

1) First Aid, I've been involved with three accidents as a youth and as soon as people knew I was a scout, even a brand new 11 yo one at that, they expected me to know first aid. 2) Camping 3) Cooking 4) Swimming I pick the above three as Scouting is Outing and these are three basic skills you will need 5) Personal Management. Picking the fifth one was hard as there are alot of good ones out there. I picked PM b/c it will help you prepare for planning not only your outings, but life.

One thing about charters, PLEASE MAKE SURE THE MONTHS ARE CORRECT. I was at an ECOH a few months back, one of the troops I started as a DE, and I saw their charter hangin on the wall. Their charter had the wrong start date, exactly 1 year later. Liek I said I know when the troop was staretd as I hand delivered the paperwork to the council office.

Funny thing about this thread, it has made me think, really hard. OUCH got a bad headache Seriously though, in thinking about the OA I has dawned on me that if we want to change the perception of the OA to non-members, then ARROWMEN must change that perception. If Arrowmen complain about it being to easy to be members nowadays, etc, then that attitude will spread. WE must keep the high ideals of the OA. WE must set the example to the non-members. And WE must change that misguided perception of the OA. The OA IS an honor society, dedicated to service and camping. WE need to set the example. OK gotta start packing for the ordeal this weekend.

THIS IS A FIRST: a scout shop doesn't want to sell you something . Ok question is this HOW many months or years is listed on you charter? It doesn't matter if you change COs, heck my old troop did that 3 times in 4 years, but we had been continuosly recharted for 25 years and got the 25 year vet bar when they made them. From http://www.scouting.org/cubscouts/awards/adults/unitawards.aspx Veteran Unit Emblem This emblem is a gold embroidered bar worn by boys and adult leaders of packs that have been chartered 50 years or longer. It is worn directly below the council patch, above and touching the pack numeral. And from the Insignia Control Guide Veteran unit bars, cloth, Cub Scout and Cub Scout leader, left sleeve, position 2a; 25 years, No.00133; 30 years, No.50006; 35 years, No.50007; 40 years, No.50008; 45 years, No.50009; 50 years, No.00105; 55 years, No.00194; 60 years, No.00195; 65 years, No.00196; 70 years, No.00197; 75 years, No.00107; 80 years, No.00198; 85 years, No.00138; 90 years, No.50010; 95 years, No. 50011; 100 years, No. 50012. Unit number with veteran bar, cloth. Unit number with veteran bar embroidered above the numerals. Special order. Two-digit unit number, No.10412; 3-digit, 10413; 4-digit, 10414. No where do I see anything CO affilaiation with veteran status. This really surpises me since when I worked in the scout shop, we usually knew more about program than the DEs. (This message has been edited by eagle92)

The OA is near and dear to my heart. When career Exploring and Sea Exploring did not offer the challenges I sought, I gave the OA another shot and the Order far exceeded my expectations. Why do I say another shot, because when I tried to be active the first go around, the chapter I was in was dead. I didn't meet anyone from my chapter when I went throug the Ordeal, and when I did attempt to attend a chapter meeting, no one was there. I also received no communications from the lodge: no info on conclaves, fellowships, other ordeals, nothing. I had to tag along with a candidate to know about another Ordeal, and that's when I found out about being eligible for Brotherhood. Fast forward 3 years and I am the troop's ASM at summercamp. I ran into an old HS friend who is lodge chief. His passion for the OA rubbed off on me and I decided to give the OA that second chance. I went to conclave with only a week's notice. The passion and enthusiasm I saw with the chapter members, it had been rebuilt, and at conclave infected me, and I have been hooked ever since. I say this because the OA is what the MEMBERS want to make of it, both youth and adult. If you have enthusiastic members, you will recruit enthusiastic candidates. Also enthusiasm is like an infectuous disease, you can spread it around. The only way that candidates can become enthused and remain active is if YOU are enthused and active. So get involved and be enthusiastic and passionate about the OA. Get a ceremony team, singers, or dancers going. DO SOMETHING FUN AND OUTSIDE THE BOX FOR A CHAPTER FUNCTION. While I think the changes to election process are faulty, the youth on the national level voted fo this, and the youth run the OA. Us old fogeys have to live with it. While this may have affected the membership of Order to a degree, our purpose and meaning has not changed. This is evident by the ArrowCorps5 project last year. And we will see it next year with the OA Service Corps at jambo. So be enthused, be active, and watch our order grow and improve.

OA ceremonialist in full regalia: "Don't worry, the canoe won't flip over"...SPLASH "This torch represents the Spirit of Scouting... MY ROACH!"

Kicking them in the buttocks is worse.

Why wasn't the Chief wearing shorts under his regalia?

For what it's worth, I prefer Xena,