Fat Old Guy

Eammon's absoultely right. Those pesky rules just get in the way. For example, saying that you need to have your popcorn money turned in by December 1st is covered by the Scout Law under . . .. refresh my memory, which point? Of course, saying that all troop equipment must be logged out for use is also covered by . . . . which point was that? Scouts need to pay for all replacement patches falls under . . . oh yeah, that's . . . please refresh my memory. I'm sure that Eammon and Bob White will do an admirable job of shoehorning things into the Scout Law.

So OGE, you're saying that Heather Locklear wouldn't want to go out with me? As I said before, I think that I'm insulted.

". In Part One, both give the boys a "final exam" on the skills they were supposed to learn." No, we don't give a final exam although that might not be a bad idea, it isn't how the program is designed. In a BOR we ask questions to find out if the boy actually did the work like, "So what did you do for the cooking requirement?" or "How long did it take you to learn the bowline?" Quite often, the Scout will say, "I didn't actually cook anything, I just watched the ASM cook breakfast for us." or "Mr. Brown didn't make us learn how to tie the bowline, he just showed it to us." That's when you have the hard call to make. Here's a kid who's been told that he's completed a requiement but the adults or youth leaders have let him slide. The right thing to do is to send the kid back to really do the requirements and then strike the AMS vigorously about the head and shoulders whilst explaining to him the idea of "Never do for a Scout what a Scout can do."

God help those poor young Marines for whom the heritage of the Marine Corps becomes an important part of what they are. They know what the Marines have done and what they represent so they know what they have to live up to. No sports coach has any problem telling his team about past glory and how they need to win to maintain the school's honor. Tell Scouts about the heritage of Scouting? Tell them about the great deeds of Scouts? Nah! That's boring an irrelevant. Let's cut out the Scouting Birtday celbrations, they're meaningless in today's context. Baden who? Left hand clasp? Doesn't make sense and confuses the boys. Get rid of it. Wood Badge? That's a silly name. Oh, the name is steeped in heritage, lore and history. So? Call it Advanced Scouter Leadership, Management and Team Building Training. "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

The Fourth Point of Bob White's Law, "A Bob White is Snide."

The Scoutmaster Conference is an opportunity for the SM to sit down with a Scout and get a feel for what's going on with him and how well he's doing in Scouting. A Scout can neither pass nor fail a Conference but that's usually when the SM signs off on Scout Spirit and if a Scout has been a troublemaker or a slacker, he doesn't get Scout Spirit signed off. A Board of Review serves many purposes. One is to verify that the Scout did indeed pass the requirements. If the board determines that a Scout didn't actually do the work but was just signed off by a buddy, they can send him back to do the work. Another purpose of the BOR is to get an idea of the Scouts like the program and how things are going with the troop. The Board of Review, by the book, consists of at least three and not more than six registered Committee Members. The SM, ASM and parents/guardians/relatives of the Scout being reviewed may not sit on a BOR.

"Have you blokes seen the turtle scenes in Finding Nemo?" Finding Nemo is a Disney movie and since I don't care for Disney's corporate policies, I'm not giving them my money.

"How many Ford owners today have thoroughly studied the operation and problems of the Model T" How many Ford owners today even understand how an internal combustion engine works?

OGE, I'm not sure what you are implying but I think that I should be insulted.

"Don't hold me on this; I spent my week at 6,600 feet (PTC) ..." I never doubted it. I just made my comment to illustrate that above 8000 ft MSL, your body starts to suffer. I am astounded by the idiots brave men mentally deprived men who assault Everest without oxygen.

Oddly, they don't get tired of playing basketball every weekend. Why is that? There's a challenge because they get better every year and so do the opponents. I think that most Scout activities offer only frustration because the Scouts don't do Scout stuff on a regular basis so when they need to do it, they don't know how. I recently had an idea that I have yet to run past the PLC. Tent building. Give each patrol a tarp, some cord, a handfull of pegs and some poles.

So John, you've just proved the point that smokers should be banned as well. BTW, if memory serves, at cabin altitudes above 8,000 feet pilots are required to be on O2.

"BSA then took an action that advanced no person's view, doing nothing to break the impass - but only dealt a special limitation against UU boy scouts. I characterize that as cowardly - BSA venting its wrath at UU boy scouts unable to defend themselves. If you disagree, then you must think it was a courageous action. You can't have it both ways." Sorry packsaddle but if an action isn't cowardly it isn't automatically courageous. To continue with the baseball analogy, it may be an act of cowardice for an umpire to not take action when a coach is abusing him but it isn't a courageous act to throw that coach out of the game. It is simply enforcing the rules and maintaining order.

Let's see . . .what answers have been put forth to this question. We don't need to see the secret documents be they aren't needed for unit operation. We don't need to see them because they'd confuse us.

"dude is an amorphius term used to refer to any noun, male noun." Huh?

"Based on the logic that people who are overweight may have a higher risk of heart attack, they should also automatically disqualify all smokers." Heck, disqualify all men over 40.

I'm sure that it is published in one of BSA's secret document that volunteers aren't allowed to read. The explanation is that the knot simply states that you earned the religious emblem for your faith. The fact that you cannot wear the medal is irrelevant.

All the young dudes Carry the news Boogaloo dudes Carry the news Mott the Hoople or something like that? Puh-leeze, they were from your side fo the pond. By the way, that song was written by David Bowie. "Dude" has meant many things over the years. At one time, it referred to a city dweller who was out of his element in a rural setting ("That dude don't know how to set a horse"). It also meant a sharp dresser ("Bob's such a dude, he gets a new hat every week"). It also came to mean simply "a man" ("Some dude was looking for you.") Within recent history, it followed the usage of "man" in many instances. Whereas we oldsters would say, "Man! That's a snazzy car" youngsters might say, "Dude! That car is sweet!" Dude is also used as an expression of appreciation or that something is, as we used to say, "Cool". For example, if I said, "Hey, I have a date with Heather Locklear!" my buds might respond with "Dude!" However, my local expert on youth speak tells me that "dude" is falling out of favor. Now that I've rambled on about "dude," in the context of the song, "dudes" are simply men, usually cool and hip.

The discussion about Philmont health requirements made me curious so I went off looking for some more information. I find it interesting that they evaluate "overweight" Scouts on a case by case basis but adults who exceed the weight are automatically excluded. This makes little sense to me. Although I do fit the weight requirements for my height, I am on the heavy side but (with just a little bit of bragging) I can outlast all but the most incredibly fit youth. We also have a dad in the troop who is roughly sperical in shape but is a hiking fool. He's always looking for 50 mile treks to go on. He carries his own gear and is usually in front because no one else can keep up with him. On the other side of the issue, I knew a sailor who exceeded the Navy's weight requirements for his height but he had a very low body fat. He was a power lifter and had muscles on his muscles, making him very heavy. Every year, he needed to go through a big hassle to get a waiver for his weight. Would Philmot just reject him out of hand? Just seems like age discrimination is going on here.

To throw another log on the fire, according to the infamous Mike Walton, if a UU Boy Scout earns the UU religious medal he may wear the purple and silver knot on his uniform but he may not wear the actual medal.

Gee, our selection process consists of asking, "Who wants to be Scoutmaster?" and then grabbing the slowest person heading out the door.

"Like it or not your Scoutmaster has been selected by the Charter Organization and they and only they can ask her to step down." Not really, I could ask her to step down but the Charter Org can just fire her. "Except that the Committee can't fire the Scoutmaster, only COR can." I don't have a Committe Handbook handy but I thought that the CO selected the CC, who then selects a committee with the approval of the CO, and the Committee selects the SM. In a corporation, the stockholders don't fire the CEO, the Board does.

We had a group of new Scouts a couple years ago who had never heard of the Scout Oath or Scout Law. It seems that the AOL was just handed to them.

"Why a DUCK? from the Holy Grail.... witch hunting 101." I got that. That's why I said, "Monty Python meets the Marx Brothers." "Why a duck?" is a famous Marx Brothers routine.

" I just think scouting should be asexual in nature. No ands or buts. If someone was homosexual and started preaching their lifestyle or even mentioning it, I would feel it to be appropiate to terminate them." Would you then prohibit normal, heterosexual people from mentioning their lifestyle? If the Scoutmaster says, "my wife and I went on a cruise . . ." would he be terminated? What if a young ASM announces, "Hey guys, I'm getting married!" would he get the boot?