GernBlansten

I remember a winter cabin trip we shared with our sister Venture crew. They had two girls and an adult female. The cabin was dormatory bunks, no privacy. So they hung tarps around the bunks for the ladies. I slept outside in my tent as I aways do regardless of the weather. Not sure if that met BSA requirements but it was quieter and more comfortable under the stars that night.

I've seen it used three times. In one case, it motivated the scout to get his Eagle by his 16th B-day. Good kid, would have got Eagle by 18 regardless, but it motivated him. Second case, it didn't motivate the kid. He simply didn't get his license. He eventually got Eagle just under the wire but the DL wasn't the motivator, getting it on his college application was (mom demanded it). He didn't get his DL until he graduated from HS and needed it for a summer job. Third case, dad set the rule when he was 14. 16 came by and the kid still didn't have Eagle. Got his license anyways. Good kid, just like his dad. BTW, his dad didn't make Eagle because of motivation issues and he wanted to do something different. Now is facing 18 and aging out. I give him a 50/50 chance to finish. My son? I wouldn't make it a requirement. DL is dependant on his ability to demonstrate his ability to show proper respect and maturity to operate a motor vehicle. But we are rural and a DL is a major deal for mobility and lifestyle. If he gets Eagle before or after makes no difference to me. I'd just like him to make Eagle. Of course that's entirely up to him.

You're thinking of Man VS Wild fake Bear Grylls. He drinks his own pee. Survivorman doesn't. At least in the episodes I've seen.

Actually Calico, I think it was Survivorman that indicated that eating something before bed was good for generating heat. I think First aid for hypothermia also indicates giving food. Gives the body energy to generate heat. Stoking the furnace. Might avoid chili with beans though. Especially in a mummy bag.

Yah dat's da JLT. Indoor one day training with boring videos. By the book, just as the BSA designed it. Personally, I think its a waste of time, but who am I to challenge official BSA training materials. We do have a newly WB'd ASM who is taking on revamping our JLT (TLT or whatever you want to call it today) for his beads. Gonna do a weekend camping trip with the PLC this spring. We'll see how it goes. You are correct on the rose colored glasses of age. I'm becoming my father who was convinced my generation would amount to nothing. Comparing my generation to his, I think he might have been onto something.

I don't know the local ordinances here, but when people put things on the curb, they will put a sign "FREE" on it. Usually gone by the next morning, the stuff not the sign. I've recycled several computer monitors and TVs this way.

TLT? We do JLT bi-annually after elections. I don't know, we are definitely falling down and failing our scouts somewhere along the line. I come here and hear stories about how great troops are and the boys do everything from planning high adventures to cooking gourmet meals at campouts. The boys in our unit are nowhere near what I hear others have. Perhaps its the water. Perhaps its us. Perhaps my disappoint is misplaced. I should be disappointed in myself and the rest of the scouters in my unit for not providing the expertise in extracting it from them. Example: We (me and 4 other scouters) wanted to make sure our sister Venture crew didn't wither and die out. They only had 3 registered members and were not going to recharter. So we talked it up with the ten 14 and 15 yrlds in two separate troops, even had the council Venture exec come talk to them. They all said, Yeah! That's something we want to do. Well, its been three months and three venture meetings and none have shown up. My own son wouldn't show up if I didn't take him there. I'm done. I tried, but Venturing should be very youth directed and I'm not seeing one of them show the initiative to step up and lead it. I'm sure they'd love it if some adult did all the planning and scheduling. Oh well, we tried. I feel as though we are just banging our heads against the wall. When I was a kid, we made things happen. We didn't wait around for the parents to tell us what to do. If anything, they had to hold us back.

My comments are not directed at youth activities in the troop, but what youth do independently with their own time, outside the structured activities us adults create for them. Our troop does cool stuff and the boys seem to enjoy it. The coolest stuff is adult organized. Its not what I would like to see, but if we left it up to the youth, they simply wouldn't put it together. Trust me, we tried. We've mentored, we've guided, cajoled, coached, taught. But it never gets done, the older scouts just don't get it or don't care. How many missed deadlines, lost weekends, bad trips until you take the reines back. Maybe we need that special SPL who really is a leader and driven. He isn't in our unit, at least we haven't identified him yet.

So Ed, is the benefiting organization locked into the project as proposed or do they have the right to change their mind after the project is completed? If they do change their mind, should they be embarrassed through the media?

Eamonn, Ever go bowling?

Ok, perhaps my broad assertion that someone within the scouting organization ratted out this project to the press was, well, broad. But someone went to the media. I would suspect that person to be someone with an interest in the scout, not the town/parks. Family member, troop member, SM, scout himself, district advisor. This is the list of those who would have intimate knowledge of the controversy. Perhaps it was a disgruntled board member. If so, they clearly are working against the board. I'm not saying that its right or wrong to have the stone on display. But going to the press was way out of bounds. The net result is the town/park was embarrassed and will probably never agree to another scout project again. Other towns/parks may follow suit. Nobody wins except those with an axe to grind. Scouts lose big time.

The only way the media could be alerted is by someone in the scouting organization. The general public couldn't because they wouldn't be aware of it. The parks wouldn't have done this, its bad press. So the scouting organization embarrassed the benefiting organization by going public with it. How many projects do you think the parks will allow from scouts in the future?

No the simplest and bestest solution would be for the scout to follow the wishes of the benefiting organization. Even if he had the God stone in the proposal and after the project the organization requested he remove it (changed their mind or missed it in the review), he should remove it, no questions asked. No running to the local press, no complaints. Just remove the stone as asked to do. That would be the scoutlike thing to do.

I thought I hit the Philmont jackpot when an ASM gave my son a pair of very nice boots that fit him perfectly. He did all the prep hikes in them with no problems. 3 weeks before the trek, he grew out of them. Luckily, he became the same size as me so I went to REI and bought a real nice pair of boots for me and let him break them in at Philmont. He has grown out of them now and I have a very nice set of broken in quality boots. HoooRAH!

Look Ed, We are trying to appease you and make everything as unobjectionable as possible. Its hard work. Its messy. It ain't pretty. It would probably be best if you just step out of the construction zone until we are done. Please stay behind the yellow tape. Thank you for your help.

Kids might not have changed, but what entertains them has. Big time! When I was a kid, back in the 70s, I literally wore out the tires on my bike. I wore out skateboards. I wore out sneakers. We created our own adventures. Come home from school, grab the BB gun, jump on the bike and head for the gullies where we would meet the rest of the kids. Weekends were the bomb. Spend all day outside. Never, NEVER spent a day watching the tube. Mostly because it was boring, unless the 6 Million Dollar man was on. Or Wonder Woman! I blame these new video games. They are incredible. The games give them the adventure, the stimulation and the entertainment we had to create as kids. There's no need to do it for themselves. Its easier and better to just withdrawal into the game. I can still get my kids (with some initial complaints) to go sledding, skiing, biking, hiking, climbing, swimming, fishing, canoeing, but the minute we get back, bamm! they are back at the video game. I'm part of the problem too. My son got straight A's this semester and is working on his Eagle and all he wanted for Christmas was a PS3. How can you punish him (in his mind) for doing everything we ask of him? I just wish he asked for a new set of crampons and an ice axe.

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.

Although I can't quote verse, I was under the impression that the SM was expected to attend most if not all outings. That's why I pulled my name from the pool of possible replacements for our current SM. Work keeps me away too much. First off, if I was in your position, I'd buy the SM a cup of coffee and explain my concerns. That's just common courtesy to let him know how you feel. Following that, I'd let him, the CC and COR know that I would be moving to another unit unless my concerns were appeased. Not a threat, but a heads up. I would not create a mutiny of other scouts, but I would tell the others the reason for our leaving if they asked. I would not make any effort to destroy or disrupt the current troop. I would then quietly transfer to another unit and get on with life. The only reason to start a new unit is if you cannot find one that meets your needs. I wouldn't start one unless I was willing to give 150% of my time and have a deep passion for it. I've seen a few units where disgruntled parents leave in a huff to start their own units only to have them wither and die.

But 111 days a week sounds better than 110. Ooh i need your love babe, Guess you know it's true. Hope you need my love babe, Just like i need you. Hold me, love me, hold me, love me. Ain't got nothin'but love babe, 111 days a week.

Going with that thought OGE, perhaps we could encode some information into the name string then encrypt it. Every citizen would be given a decoder and public key and private keycode. You could share that keycode with those who you wish to interact with. They enter it and your public name into the decoder and all of the information becomes available. No more awkward moments at reunions. Of course, simplicity should rule. If going the numeric path, binary rocks. Days could be labeled 0, 1, 10, 11, 100, 101, 110, 111. 111 day week. My daddy always said there are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who understand Base2 and those who don't.

Realistically, we should be looking to the future. Zefram Cochrane, will develop the warp drive in 2063 ushering in the new StarDate which are decimal numbers, usually rounded to a single decimal place, which will replace absolute Gregorian calendar dates. By converting now, our children will be very adapt at time conversion when the Vulcans make first contact and we won't look so stupid.

But numerologists might take offense. How about colors? Everyone loves colors. We could have a rainbow of colors for the days of the week. Of course we would have to eliminate pink (so gay), and the racial tones of brown (Hispanic), black (enough said) and white (not really a color anyways). But that still leaves a few of the primaries. Throw in a couple of blends to fill the gaps. Oh wait, color blinded Americans. Well, we could just ship them off to some other country.

Wouldn't it be easier and more efficient to just round up all the liberals and athiests and those who don't look like us and send them to some other country? Like France?

Our unit implemented FCFY the same year my son crossed over. To our troop, it means that the program is designed to give a dedicated, active scout the ability to achieve FC by the anniversary of their cross over. That was the case for my son and a couple of his mates. But not all scouts made it, but those that did, had every opportunity to meet or exceed the requirements. But now our committee and parents are expecting scouts to be FC in one year. This has transformed the program to steering and driving the scouts through the gates. They measure the success not by what the scouts learn, but by how many get through to FC. I'm not sure I like the results. We have a lot of FC scouts who really aren't mature or skilled enough to lead other scouts. But our numbers are up and recruiting is going well. Success?

Yeah, I'd never want my photo on the cover of the mag for fear of the same nitpicking. If I ever was offered a photoshoot, I'd get a bunch of multi-bead woodbadgers to do a "What Not To Wear" session with me.