Fat Old Guy

"Why are you involved in scouting if you do not care about children that aren't in your charge?" I only have so much energy to expend, why waste it on situations that are beyond my control? There are free car seats available. There are free bike helmets avaiable. I see so many people doing stupid things that I could write a book. A parent who puts his infant in the passenger seat of his Z3 that has an airbag that can't be disabled. Why? He doesn't like driving the Honda Accord. The goofy mom who belts both kids in the front passenger seat because both want to ride up front. The cop who lets his kid lay on the tray by the back window of his car because "he likes it there." and many, many more. I think that they all are stupid. I think that they are all selfish. However, they are not my responsibility so I don't get involved and I don't worry about it.

Hopper, I know of more than a couple bike shops that sell inexpensive youth helmets at or below cost. Look at http://www.bhsi.org/helmetad.jpg Let me say that you are incredibly foolish if you don't wear a helmet, no matter how well you know the road. Knowledge of the road isn't often a factor in accidents. I'm not a big fan of helmet laws because I figure that if you are too stupid to wear one then you deserve what you get. The sad truth is that if you are injured, I wind up paying because after your insurance runs out and your parent's savings run out, the state pays and that impacts everyone. I used to have the attitude that "I didn't need a helmet when I was kid" but that doesn't hold much water. The roads are different. Inattentive drivers are everywhere. Traffic is much heavier. Do I wear a helmet? Yes I do. I have a Giro that normally retails for $150 but I got it on sale for $75. I'm curious, what do your parents think about you not wearing a helmet? Have they ever had to visit someone in the hospital who had suffered a traumtic head injury? Have they had to live with someone who had suffered a traumatic head injury and will never be "normal" again?

"Get a good size piece of tin foil. " Tin foil is hard to find. Most of us use ALUMINUM foil.

Just trying to avoid possible problems down the road. It would be a shame for "John" to get down the road to Eagle and have someone say, "Your name is Robert, all these cards say John." From your comments, it would seem to be unusual that anyone would care. For my part, I was surprised to learn that Eagle Boards only care about blue cards and that the "pocket certificate" is meaningless to them. Why then, does a Scoutmaster certify that someone earned the merit badge on the pocket cert? Why even give those out?

I like the elk idea.

How closely are the names examined on blue cards and advancement cards when a Scout goes for Eagle? For example if some say "Bob", some say "Robert" and others say, "Bobby", will the Eagle Board reject them? What if a Scout doesn't go by his legal first name? Let's say his name is Robert John Smith and his entire life he's been called "John" and no one ever thought to tell him to put "Robert" on his blue cards.

Works for me.

NJDude, you need to get more involved in your life. Maybe this experience will help the little girl realize how stupid smoking is because she see people burning up hundreds of dollars. In any case, it isn't my worry. I've made a concentrated effort to not worry about children that aren't in my charge. If you don't want to strap your kid into a car seat, I don't care if you don't care. If your kid doesn't wear a bike helmet, I don't care if you don't care. I used to care, get upset and even tell people that they needed to do this or that. I finally realized that they don't really care. The sad thing is, that if something happens to the kid, everyone will say, "That poor mother, her baby was killed because he didn't have a helmet." They won't realize that the kid didn't have a helmet because mom didn't get him one. Before anyone yaps about the cost (oooo . . .$10, that's two six packs or three packs of cigs) the fire department gives good ones away for the asking.

Gee TwoCubDad, how can I get my kid into your unit?

"I would have no problem w/ Show & Sell if we knew it was an option. Should it be available to all councils / units?" I didn't realize that anyone didn't know that "Show and Sell" was an option. Sales tax? I don't know if anyone does pay the tax on the sales. I know that as a unit, we are not permitted to collect sales tax because we don't have a sales tax license. Under state law, the buyer is required to report the purchase and pay the tax.

Do the school archives have no records? Pictures? Old Yearbooks with the troop mentioned? Have you tried the council records?

"Here's a good one. Somebody is selling popcorn on ebay" This has to the laziest parent or the laziest kid ever born. I just weighed a 12 pack of popcorn and it came in at 2.5 lbs. so I'm guessing that the new 15 pack will weigh about 3 lbs.. Mailing that Parcel Post in the same Zip Code will cost $3.40 and that ignores the cost of packaging. The pack gets roughly $4 per box so to earn the troop $4, this parent is willing to pay $3.50. Just get your butt out and sell.

I've thought of this in the past. The best solution is to go talk to a lawyer, not just someone who stayed in a Holiday Inn Express. I believe that there are varying forms of guardianship such as temporary and special circumstance. I had a friend in high school who wanted to go to School A but lived in School B's district but within walking distance of the district line. His parents gave the grandparents temporary guardianship and his legal address became the grandparents. Talk to a lawyer. Talk to a couple lawyers.

I don't know that the training of the SM and ASMs really has anything to do with the ability of the parents to read and understand the handbook. We have three Wood Badged ASMs but we still have guides. There's a two page handout about merit badges covering who gives out blue cards, how to find a MB counselor, who gets the blue cards in the end, and much much more. We have a similar handout about Scoutmaster conferences and BORs. I don't have a handbook handy (old or new) but I don't recall anything in the official handbook about what night of the week BORs are conducted.

"This year we promoted more, but we only had 2 new boys at our roundup, and we had 13 boys return." You lost 32 Cub Scouts over the summer? How did that happen. My old pack ran into recruiting problems but over the four years that I was involved, we only lost a handful of boys (We had about 40 Cubs until my last year when my son's den crossed over and we got virtually no new Scouts). We lose them during the first summer of Boy Scouts. The troop had 20 Cub Scouts cross over and nearly half bailed after Summer Camp.

Let me understand this. United Way is concerned that contributions will diminish because a bunch of Cub Scouts are out selling popcorn. I can see Joe Businessman saying, "I was going to donate $10,000 but since I bought popcorn last week from the Scouts, I'll make it just $5,000." Then there is Bob Bluecollar who gets hammered at work, "I was going to give United Way $5 per week but since I bought popcorn, I'll cut it to a buck." Either I don't understand the process or people are goofier than I previously thought. For my part, I haven't given to United Way in nearly 30 years. I'd rather give my money directly to the organization.

Eamonn, I know what you mean. Not many years after I was graduated from college, I went back to visit the campus with a good friend. Our favorite pizza joint had become a record store. Our favorite bier stube was out of business but the sign was still there to taunt us. Sometimes the changes are heart rendering like when a park has been turned into a condo development. A few years ago, my father-in-law went to Europe to re-trace his wartime path across the continent. He had taken enough snap shots during the war that he was able to locate many places that had memories for him. Good and bad memories.

Many have forgotten that "record albums" were originally just that, a book with pockets for multiple discs. This dates back to the 78 rpm days. With the advent of the LP, an album became a single disc. Most CDs are albums but marketeers have convinved the public that albums are vinyl LPs and nothing else.

A google search on "Posture rating chart" turned up a couple sites. http://www.mhhe.com/hper/health/personalhealth/labs/PhysicalActivity/lab-16b.html http://www.hperd.swt.edu/pankey/3320/post.html

JimmyD, sounds like a good idea. Let's you identify who someone is from a distance. I do like the idea. The PLC of my troop is kicking around the idea of a troop cap. I'll run the idea past them. FYI: Standard military and naval slang for oak leaves on the bill is "scrambled eggs." The Air Force uses clouds and lightning bolts instead of oak leaves, I've heard those called "darts and farts."

"I guess it was deemed unnecessary for the lower levels (i.e. packs) to know it was okay for packs to have an option on tan or khaki shirts." It may well have been done because one or more units pushed the issue but BSA doesn't want to encourage it. " How many wear their uniform EXACTLY according to policy?" I don't because I don't have official pants. However, all of my patches are within 1/8" of where they are supposed to be. My son is uniformed exactly to spec. My troop has three ASMs that could be models for "How to wear the uniform."

Have you tried the web site of the Jamaica Scout Association at http://jascouts.tripod.com/ ?

Bob White said: "I am pretty sure that NJ is correct, the brimless envelope style hat was called the "overseas hat". " The name "overseas cap" is an old Army designation, the Navy and Marine Corps call that style of cap a "garrison cap," implying that it is to be worn in garrison but not in the field. The Marine Corps calls the Smokey hat/Montana Peak hat/campaign hat a "field hat." According to my 9th edition of the Scout Handbook, the BSA name for the flat hat is "field hat." The Scouter from the Garden State said: "I also thought I saw or heard of the BSA again producing an official campaign hat" I don't know that BSA ever stopped making them. I have one. It is in the current catalog as item WW501 for $81.15. Most "Army-Navy" stores have cheap campaign hats for about $30. Nowhere near the quality of the BSA hat. I did come across a suplus store that is selling surplus Marine Corps "field hats" (see above) for about $30. There are some minor differences between the USMC and BSA hats. The USMC hat has a slightly higher crown and a grograin ribbon hat band which the original BSA hat had. However, very few would know the difference. The USMC hat may not be official but it looks better than the unofficial jeans and "Nike" caps that I see so many Scouters wearing. As for berets, they are cool now. I wear mine to troop meetings and Scouts are always saying "that's neat. I wish we wore that." I tell them to bring up to the PLC. I'm for anything (almost anything) that builds troop spirit.

"I am not sure if I agree with that or not, only because I have no idea what it means" That doesn't surprise me in the least.

Once again, Bob White demonstrates that the Scout Law is meaningless to him. Bob White, the difference is that I know that there is much that isn't in your precious books. Much information flows in the upper levels of any organization that is inaccessible to most of the membership unless they really need to know it.