ehcalum

Ive receieved an email from the professional organization to which i belong asking for volunteers to go to Jackson and be part of one of two groups. the 1st ais to use GIS to map data from Katrina, the 2nd is a group with personal laptops and GPS with GIS integration to go out with SAR people to map out sites and gather data. Volunteers will be provided food and tent shelters and will be reimbursed for travel costs.

Why do so many people believe the Civil War was about slavery. It was a cause and factor of the war but not the purpose of the war. Lee was a great man, loved by all of his Army. Stonewall Jackson was a man of undying devotion to God and his family. These men were fighting for their homes and because war is their job. How is the Old Covenent not a means to salvation? I would highly suggest not telling our Jewish friends that the Old Testament and the Old Covenant has become null and void.

Thanks Ed, We gave our CD and SPL two wooden cantalopes on the last day with our course number and names. Our other yells include: CHEETAH! RUN!!!! (at which we all bolt in different directions) and "We Are the Antelopes" sung to We are the Champions: We are the antelopes...my friends, we'll keeep on grazing till the ennnnnnd.... we are the antelopes x2 No time for cheetahs cause we are the antlopes...... Of Gilwelllllllllllll

We're the CANalopes not the CANTalopes

Well this type of discussion always stinks, but I have a question. Jknhy you said that single male in a troop is a red flag. I myself am a bachelor scouter and have been an adult leader since my college years. Some of the parents were wary at first but soon warmed up when they see that the boys have someone they can look up to, and talk to as almost all of them have a mom or pop in the troop as committe or sm or and asm. In fact I've become a mentor to several of the boys. We have another bachelor scouter, also an eagle whos kids have long grown up and he has returned to scouting to help the youth grow and learn. I see the single male, and the single female scouter as a tool and advantage to the program rather than a red flag.

No memorial to Texas Ribs or BBQ? For shame! That is very ilksome.

Tis funny, they can't be on a courthouse, but they can be placed ona Capital/Capitol Building. What ever happened to Jefferson and the Doctrine for Religious Freedom and Seperation of Church and State? Looks like the Supreme Court is contradicting itself.

I would support the bill. Why? Because I believe in everyone should have a voice and that protest is a good thing. Burning a flag doesn't necassarily mean you hate the US but you are not happy with what their doing. My mother and her friends protested the Vietnam War, marched Washington and burned flags. They did this to protest and unjust war (like whats going on now imo). Its expression and a person should not be censored on his or her expression. Sides the flag is abused already. Just look at car dealerships, fast food joints and the like. Flags there are 3, 4, 5x the size of your standard flags and just destroy the meaning of the flag. Why not propose a flag display restriction bill while we're at it.

Let this be a lesson, Dont buy American Cars. Stick with Toyota or Honda.

Hmm my Eagle BOR was an little more than an hour long. It seems that your troop committee may be showing favoritism. Isn't there some kind of rule that sates a parent cannot be part of his or her son's BOR? Everyone on our committee except for our Activities Chair has a kid(s) in the troop. He sits in on almost every BOR and many times I have been called upon to sit on the Review being a "bachelor scouter" myself. You mentioned that your son wasn't quite up to snuff to be Life, so perhaps you could explaine in so many words that the other scouts shouldn't be freaked out. Training the committee is always good but that may not help as there are some committees out there who bend over backwards just to see their kids advance and ignore the rest of the troop ( i was one ofthe ignored boys). Perhaps a review of BOR procedures and a "cheat sheet" of questions will help as well.

I'm from the school of "theres no such thing as too much training" When I became a Committee member back in 99 I underwent the old Fundamentals training and the older YPT. I did this again as a Ventuering Associate Advisor 2 years later. After college graduation I joined up with my current troop as an ASM and I took the updated basic training and OLS. I'm also working my ticket. One of my goals is to serve on training staff. Some BSA traing is good only for a specific time period: Safety Afloat, Safe Swim, BSA Lifeguard. These are good for 2 years and need to be retaken after they expire. Case in point: I was a BSA Lifeguard and Red Cross LG back in high school. I let my BSA LG fizzle out my 1st yr or so of college and I became a ARC LG trainer. The council was shy on BSA Lifeguards and only had 1 instructor. I explained my creditials as an instructor and they still required me to take they offical training though I was still familar with the program. Good for them So anyways some training needs to be renewed after it expires, and if a training is significantly changed, would it kill you to take the new format or serve on training staff? Just my 3 cents. (why did they remove the cents key from keyboards anyways?)

Geeze, can it you two. Yes the BSA makes mistakes, Yes the ACLU makes mistakes, yes the Feds make mistakes. We all make mistakes. If we all realize the the world is not perfect, not everyone is going to be happy and that we all screw up every now and then, we'll all get along better. Can we please stop talking like 2nd year law students and really bad High School Debate teams and have some decent quality debates without flames and putdowns every other post? Thanks.

We didn't have any Venturer youth at our woodbadge or leaders for that matter. With the exception on two instructors and an DE nobody except me had a clue about Vent. or Sea Scouting. We did however have a Tiger Cub, Junior Girl Scout, Webelos, a Tenderfoot and 1st Class scouts, and a kid wearing a Lil' Scout shirt (pre tiger age) do the Scouts Own service.

The uniform mean different things to people. Some like it because it shows they are a member of a group, others hate it for that same reason. Some don't wear it due to the pants, shirt or what have you. A Uniform was created to unify people. Individualism (sp sorry) is a great thing, and can still be expressed when wearing the uniform. The BSA is funny with its uniforms, it doesnt demand uniform wear but its pretty darn hard to advance without one. Yes the uniform is overprices, I can buy sea scout whites for about 35 bucks. National does need to do something about the price, but hey thats what comes when you make stuff in the USA and sell to the lowest bidder. If people looked more into the meaning of the uniform and its history then people, might be willing to work with what we have. Sides, I hate the bsa cap, web belt and socks. Cant wear cotton socks unless you want to smell my feet 4 counties over. Instead I wear green smartwools that look similar to the ones the scoutshop sells and are 10 bucks cheaper . I wear a leather belt I made at the 1997 Jamboree, and my wood badge hat that my patrol embroidered an Antelope, a stars and stripe Flur de Lis, and our slogan "Catch us if you can"

http://jim-diana-hart.home.att.net/ballista.html All ballistas must appear to be stock, you have 7 days, on the 1st day you plan, on the 7th day you fling. Bonus point for hitting unannounced targets, the ref, spectators. Enjoy!

Whats in your wallet? I'm partial to some of the Geico commericals the rip off Reality Shows and Soap Operas. "I saved, I thought that ment something to you!" Really hate Old Navy Commericals the have horrible redentions of oldies: Eg Fame-I wanna Live Forever: Burmuda Short things and Superfreaks now super skirt.

So your running 3 half days correct? I would like to offer atleast 3-5 Merit badges, including Disabilities Awareness. I know that there will be partials but i feel that the scouts can complete the partials, as I will also provide a list of MBC contacts. We have a plan-o-ree coming up the Sat after Memorial Day so I wil recurit some team members and bring your suggestions up. Summer camp for us is the 1st camping week, so my goal is for Sept or Oct. Thanks again for the advice!

LPC, Thanks for the input! I will definatly use the access database for scheduals and locate back up counslers. I like the idea of a 3 saturday thing, but as this is the 1st time offered, what do you think of a Saturday and a Sunday? I am hopeing to hold this outside with a contegiency plan for indoors. With the exception of MBC's, location will be the hardest to find. Any suggestions? UVA is located here, as in a community college and an education center that hosts our district RT. Thanks again for your help!

Afternoon all, For my Wood Badge Ticket, one of my goals is to plan, develop and run a Merit badge College featurein Disability Awareness MB for the Troop and/or District. Does anyone have experience with planning MB Colleges? If so please let me know of any tips and advice that I could use. Thanks!

SR-679 ended yesterday evening. I 'd have to say that the pratical weekend was more fulfilling than the 1st weekend. While I did learn some, alot of the course was a review of stuff that I had already known either from other scouting training or workplace training. Our staff was great and full of characters, both comical and serious. Was also nice that a Staffer and a Bobwhite were also members of my alma mater (I attened an out of council WB). I liked they way movie clips were integrated into the presentations, really gave a good all around feel to the material. Jeopardy was a blast, we Antelopes scored the councils highest score ever and we all stunk The Game of Life. The problem solving games were great, how do you balance 48 nails ontop of a nail head anyways? Our closing was an emotional one. We marched in patrol coloums, shouting WB related cadence, and left after all the staff shook are hands, then lined up in rankes and saluted as we left (by nature of being an Antelope, yours truly was the last patrol member to leave Gilwell Field). I think the course could use some revamping of the material: eg high performance teams, they were just overly technical like sitting through and engineering siminar. Will be working on my ticket and have a goal of completing it by April 06!

Doh! I sit corrected my friend from the outdoorsy state of Washington. I got lenstatic confused with the sighting mirror variety.

Ahh what type of comapass to use in Scouting. It depends on the activity. A lenstatic, a quality one at that such as a Sylvia Ranger or Sunnto MC-4, will give you the 2nd most accurate reading and is great for multi uses of slope angle, heights, fire starting and flashing signals. They also feature declination adjustment to have the compass speak true north, but then I prefer to have the map speak mag north. I would use a lenstatic compass for surveying trips such as trail building. Your basic orientering compass: four fold, simple base plate, rotateing bezel with 2 degree markings is great for all around scouting. Its fairly accurate as long as you follow the bearing, and is good for taking bearings of mtns, trees, and the SM's tent and where you want to "transplant" said tent. Its also a great teaching compass. This is my most widely used compass. Lastly theres the thumb compass. This is the orienteering toy. Not much more than a color coded bezelm thumbloop and finger plate, its great for getting bearings fast and running Orienteering courses. I only use these in Orienteering. Whats the most accurate compass you ask? Its the optical compass i use in surveys, things good to 1/2 a degree, take a bit o time to learn how to use it and runs you about 300 clams. But lets not forget about global needle compass's, GPS compatable compass's....ect. Have you guys figured out I'ma Geographer yet? Have fun not getting lost!

Not trying to start anything here, but techinally humans did not evolve from apes. We both has a common ancestor. Also by stating that because it is not mentione din the Bible, it didn't happen, so doesnt that make you a Bible literalist?

Vicki, Tis was the Wood Badge participant necker pre 21st Century sylabus. Our CD and Guide said wear the participant necker all you want until you are beaded, then you can wear the taupe necker when you like but highly reccommended only for special occasions. We're the CANalopes not the CANTalopes.

Ed: What is good about being gay you ask. From observations and talking to some friends who are gay (both make and female)heres what I got: 1. They tend to have better outlook on life 2. Tend to be more friendly to all people 3. They have their own clubs where they feel belong and hang out with peers 4. They accept who they are and accept people for who they are and put difference behind them. 5. They are gay in the true sense of the word:Showing or characterized by cheerfulness and lighthearted excitement; merry.