Fat Old Guy

"On our last day at wood badge we were informed we were no longer in Troop 1 (sigh)" Many years ago, I ran across a Scouter who was wearing a "1" but the rest of his troop had another number. I asked about it and he said that all Wood Badge graduates could wear "1". Was he giving me bad gouge?

"I teach GPS knowing that some of our scouts will eventually serve in the military." Isn't it more important to know how to read a map than to use a GPS? I view GPSs and calculators with the same jaundiced eye, the underlying fundamentals are more important than knowing how use a fancy gadget and the gadgets are usually pretty easy to learn to use.

"Im surprised on how many troops have troop tents" When my son joined Boy Scouts, I went out and bought two new tents. A couple months later, the troop bought 15 new tents for the Scouts and leaders to use. :-(

"Gee FOG, with all your talk about the weeniefication of Boy Scouts, I was surprised to see you say that only wrong with cooking was it couldnt be done in a week. "Unless it was tongue in cheek, which I could have missed." Yep, that was tongue in cheek. One of my pet peeves is that so many Scouts and parents seem to think that merit badges need to be completed in a week or less. For example, at least 50% of the Scouts in my troop play a couple sports. Soccer, swimming, wrestling, basketball, etc. But only two have earned the sports merit badge in the past two years. Why? Because it can take nearly a year to complete it and "thaaaaat's tooo long."

"at the meeting." That has to be during the meeting because once the meeting has ended nothing can happen "at it."

Voaygeur, you suprise me. I thought that with your love of times gone by that you wouldn't use a GPS.

" The only unit height standard for pioneering is the height standard for Monkey Bridges that is in the G2SS." Even that is only a "should" and not a "must." I'd like to get some 'gators, dig a pit for them and then build the bridge across the pit. That would give some motivation to build it well. :-)

"It's in the Scoutmaster handbook, and in the Scoutmaster Leader Specific Training." Since the Scoutmaster doesn't conduct the BOR's, I'd be surprised that directions for conducting one would be in his handbook. However, I did look in my Scoutmaster Handbook and all I could find was a line on the "troop meeting plan" for AFTER the meeting, "The troop committee conduct a board of review." That isn't during the troop meeting. In any case, I guess that we need to reword our policies. Right now, the Scout tells the SM that he want a Conference for advancement and gets pointed at the Advancement Chair who lines up the committee members for the BOR, the Scout and the SM are informed of the date. The SM holds his conference and then walks the Scout down the hall where he is turned over to the SPL. The SPL does an inspection on the Scout and then introduces him to the board. I suppose that we should change it to the Scout requests a conference and that is scheduled with a BOR to follow if needed. The result is the same, just the words will be different.

"The Scoutmaster Handbook, and Scoutleader training recommend that BORs be done at troop meetings on a regular basis." I don't see anything that says that they should be done at troop meetings. Holding them concurrent with troop meetings pulls Scouts out of the program and is counterproductive.

All of our BORs are on Sundays, if a Scout wants to request a BOR he must do so by the preceeding Wednesday, either by phone or in person.

"We have the Scout Law. Do we need to add to this? " We have the Ten Commandments but we still have volumes of laws to cover specific situations. One says "Thou shall not steal" but then we have laws to say that robbery is illegal as is burglry, theft by conversion, theft by fraud, embezzlement, etc.. So Hopper, are you telling us that your troop has no rules other than the Scout Law? Being a child, you probably aren't aware of half of what goes on.

" but I know for a fact I would have a hard time selling a patrol campout with no adult supervision to the parents of my troop, especially the 11 and 12 year olds (an I'm sure some of the older scouts as well)." For me, it would depend on the Scouts. We have one patrol of young Scouts that I think would do quite well on their own. On the other hand, my son's patrol might be found 20 years from now wandering the desert in Morrocco.

Of course, the charter org is free to solicit donations and then donate money to the troop.

"Troops are free to set rules of conduct" Where does it say that? Better yet, where does it say that they cannot? That which is not prohibited is permitted by inference. "As Bob White has not posted in this thread, I fail to see the need for your snide mention of his name." Snide only in your mind, it was similar to statements that Bob White has made many times in the past to others.

We must wonder how many Scouts have plunged to their deaths from a signal tower. I guess that makes our big monkey bridge illegal since the "X" of the shears is over my head and I'm 6 feet tall.

That's at a camp. What if they decide to build a 30 foot tower on the local football field?

"They made cooking WAY too complicated and long - when a badge ends up with 3-4 pages of requirements, it's time to cut it into two badges - say, home cooking and outdoor cooking? " It doesn't look that complicated. It's only eight requirements. The big problem is that it can't be completed in a week or less.

"But no one with out a court order over rules my being a parent." Sure they do. It happens all the time, you just don't think about it. What if your son was visiting a friend and the friend's parents insisted that he leaves his cell phone in the car. Are you going to punch them out? Rant? It's their house and they can make the rules. You'd probably have some pretty big problems with me. I don't allow Game Boys or Walkmen (Walkmans?) to be used in my car. I might expand that to cell phones. "My actions as a parent are not subject to some set of arbitarary rules" All rules are arbitrary. If you can't abide of the troop, maybe you shouldn't belong. What if your son's Scoutmaster said, "Okay guys, I don't want you carrying knives to troop meetings." Troops are free to set standards of conduct and if you can't deal with that maybe you don't belong in Scouting (oooooo, I sound like Bob White there don't I?) (This message has been edited by Fat Old Guy)

"Alas, the days of the 30 foot tall signal tower are gone." The safety freaks are going to take all of the fun out of the world. Soon, if you want to bike you'll have to wear not just a helmet but chest protector, shin guards, and knee and elbow pads. Canoes and canoeists will have to be to tethered to shore just in case they get into trouble. Campfires will be banned. Camping will only be allowed to take place in a fenced in enclosure of less than 1/2 acre to avoid trouble with bears. Just curious, what is the penalty if my Scouts build a 30 foot tower?

"Yeah, I've been trying to get a crank starter for my truck, 'cuz that's what B-P had in his lorrie" I drive cars with standard transmissions just in case the battery goes dead. Can't push start an automatic. You zoomies are gadget freaks. The Navy still teaches things like semaphore and using a sextant because they know that high technology will fail, it is just a matter of when. Navy ships still use sound powered telephones for communciations during GQ. Why? Because as long as the lines aren't cut, they are going to work. I believe that they are so primitive that EMP won't affect them.

"I think we have to be careful how we say this" Nah, I can say it sitting, standing or even while standing on one leg.

Awfully hard to make an eyesplice in kernmantle. :-)

"I really fail to see why a Scoutmaster would want to over rule a parent." Simple, the parent is in charge at home but not at the Scout meeting. We haven't had the issue of Scouts with cell phones at meetings come up but they are prohibited on campouts and at camp.

" Land Navigation for the wilderness travellar with a focus on GPS" You guys and your gadgets. What do you do when your batteries go dead? :-)

"According to BSA National Standards for camp, scouts can not have their feet off the ground higher than six feet without being belayed." That must make it hell to fly anywhere.