Fat Old Guy

According to something that I read in a BSA publication, psychologists say that children don't develop the idea of "the team" until they are 11 or 12. That's why youth soccer can be so hilarious to watch and baseball is a good sport for little kids.

Typos are things like typing "hte" instead of "the" or "str" instead of "are." I have problems with not knowing the difference between homophones. eight, ate two, to, too their, they're, there were, where, we're, whir not, knot know, no The egregious spelling errors that are seen on discussion groups such as this are far too numerous to list.

Hey! Don't knock class action suits. When Spint long distance got hammered I received a check for $21. Of course, the lawyers got millions but I got my chunk.

GSUSA may talk about but I haven't seen it. If it does work, remember that despite what Gloria Steinem (sp?) may say, boys and girls are different. Just look at the different ways that boys and girls play.

Makes me glad to be where am I even with the problems of being in a Large Council. We're growing by leaps and bounds. Of course that also means that the local population is growing by leaps and bounds which has its own problems.

" Powr 2 da peeples rite on !" Dood, lak thet iz sew sebenties.

Try this. I'm very hungry because I haven't eaten since breakfast. I am very justified in buying a hamburger at McDonald's.

Give it up, Ed. It's pretty obvious that Bob White will keep adding parameters to "prove" that BSA's policies work.

Sorry but that's a pretty lame excuse. If you don't know the difference between "your" and "you're" without a grammar checker then our tax dollars are being wasted.(This message has been edited by Fat Old Guy)

Getting the ax, no matter how nicely they do it, sucks. I hope that you do manage to stay in Scouting but . . . hey! take a job in industry getting twice a much money, donate half the raise to BSA, and do your Scouting as a District Commissioner. Actually, I'm only half joking. You'd be kinda like the guys who leave the Navy and join the Air National Guard to keep flying. "I am a bit angry with the units who do not attend council camps, do not support FOS, do not sell council popcorn or wreaths, and who shop at other council Scout shop." I'll agree with you there.

Gee Sturgen, you seem to think that the comments about camp staff are personal attacks and maybe they are but the reality of the situation is that we've all gone to camp and have expectations about what we are paying to get for our sons and the other scouts in our troops because we see that the merit badge material isn't being covered properly anyway camps really don't need to be nothing but merit badge schools even with COPE and things like that there is room for much more than just making baskets you could have day hikes, fishing tournements, pie eating contests, song fests, foot races, first aid drills, and much much more. How's that for a run on sentence, I thought about misspelling half the words but I just can't bring myself to do that.

" Just for the record, I have said that these units exist." Actually, what you said was, "I'm sure anyone who has spent any amount of time in commissioner service has seen units such as these. I would bet over the years DSteele has seen dozens of units such as these. "It is even possible for these to be the same unit at different times in its history."

"loudmouth, bullying, and bigoted" Loudmouthed? Maybe metaphorically. Bullying? Bullying implies that the bully is in a position of power. I have no power over Bob White, in fact he has the power based on his special relationship with the moderator. Bigoted? Still looking for an example of that.

yarrow, you're right. There should be some sort of celebration when an active Scout ages out, no matter if he's a Tenderfoot, Life or Eagle with sixteen palms (can 16 be earned?) We make a big whoop-de-do when a boy leaves a Pack. Why not do the same when a Scout turns 18.

Still laughing. They used to say, "Laughter is the best medicine." After reading this, I may live forever.

"Over time, there have been some advances in engine technology to reduce maintenance requirements. One of these is the replacement of old points/condenser/distributor system with electronic ignition." Sometimes these great advancements have their own list of problems. In 30 years of driving, I was never stranded by a car with points. On the other hand, electonic systems often fail without warning. Life gets very interesting when your car's brain dies at 3 AM when you're in the middle of nowhere. The same can be said for changes in Scouting, education or the military.

Mark said, "FOG, you do realize that one is likely to boonerang on you, right?" Nah. Last time I smacked a soccer ball with a 2x4 it went pretty straight. Not too far but straight. Sturgen opined (amid hundreds of spelling errors), " . . . im sure all are highly involved in the adult leader robot program" Thanks. I haven't had such a good laugh for days. . . . . . . Still chuckling. Dang, you're funny. . . . . . . . . . Gotta tell this one at Roundtable. Har!

" Sturgen essentially admits that they use judgements on Scout Spirit to hold back advancements--this is not something boys should be voting on, in my opinion. " Don't know about that. A few years ago, one of our ASPLs was caught egging a house, an ASM's house to make things even more interesting. The SPL wanted to kick him out of his position which would have kept him from making Life and prohibit him from going on any special trips until summer camp. However, the cool heads of the adults intervened and said that it would be unfair to make his behavior outside of Scouting have a negative impact on his advancement. Go figure.

"the boys don't have the maturity to judge each other fairly" What's being judged at a BOR? I'd view it more of an exercise like grading each other's papers. Did the Scout complete the requirements?

" false or nonexistent facts is worthless" How can a fact be false?

" thats like 100 days of work," If you have 15 guys who put in three weekends, that's 75 days (450 hours). Let's add in all the planning and prep time and 500 isn't that much of a stretch.

"im sorry to say but none of you are real scouts, or campers for that matter you forgot that all problems can be solved with a role of this wonderfull stuff called..... duct tape...." Nah, duct tape is too expensive. The best wrapping is to stuff the gift into a brown paper grocery sack, crumple over the top and when you give it to your wife/girl friend say, "I'm sorry but I didn't have time to wrap it" and look really sad.

Ah Sturgen, you can't use extreme examples with Bob White because his standard reply is "that isn't likely to happen." As for rights, at the risk of sounding like Bob White, a Scoutmaster no more has the right to change the program than a soccer coach has the right to tell his goaltender to whack the ball with a 2x4. (In retrospect that sounds nothing like Bob White). When you signed up in soccer, you and your coach agreed to abide by the the rules of US Soccer, FIFA, NFHS, or another sanctioning body. In soccer, you can bend some rules and you can stretch the rules but when you get caught you pay penalties. When your SM and you signed on to play the game of Scouting, you agreed to abide by the rules and rights really don't enter into the question.

Aw gee LauraT7, my feelings are hurt. I'm now going to have to go lay down and have a good . . . . laugh!

Sturgen asked, "why discuss the scout when hes out of the room?" For the same reason that a jury's deliberations take place outside of the courtroom. We talk. We discuss. We say, "We need to talk to the SM . . ." Much is discussed that the Scout and often no one other than the board needs to be privy to. After a decision is reached, the Scout is brought back in and given a summary. "You didn't pass because you said that you didn't actually have to do any cooking. You need to re-do requirement X and come back." You've now seen one the of biggest problems that happens when Bob White gets involved. He is a zealot who worships the word from Texas. Right now he rants against the idea of Scouts on a BOR. However, if National handed down a change that said Scouts should do BORs, he'd back that idea 100%. He'd never say, "Boy that was a stupid change but we gotta live with it." Discussion isn't in BW's vocablulary. "What if . . ." and "why don't we . . " are unacceptable unless he is trying to prove his point. You see, ideas different than BSA's official policies are only supposed to come from specially annointed Scouters who have been admitted to the inner circle. Regular unit Scouters and, heaven forbid, Scouts have no place daring to have ideas and, if they dare to have ideas of their own, they shouldn't dare to utter them or discuss them with others. Bob White rambled, "First aid, blah, blah, butter, blah, blah. . . " You really love that first aid thing don't you. What's this, the third or fourth time that you've trotted that out. That seems to be the only example that you can trot out but the funny thing is that I've gone back 50 years in BSA handbooks and I can't find a reference to butter on burns or a reference to tournequets that is significantly different from what is taught today. (This message has been edited by Fat Old Guy)