goodoldeagle2

That's super....now if we can just get the kids to pick up needle and thread...:-) Goodoldeagle2

FOG, I guess I just never got too attached to my uniform shirt. I was a real grower in my adolescence, and my body liked it so much it decided to pass the trend along to my waistline. My whole goal with that post was to maybe, possibly turn the tide of the discussion more toward solutions rather than pointing fingers or beating chests. But I also realize that people just like to argue for the sake of arguing. I just never believed in it much. Good Scouting to all!

I've read this thread from beginning to end, and it seems to me that there's been a lot of talk about policy and very little dialogue about how we might best go about the method of proper uniforming so that ALL our boys (not just the ones who can afford it) can proudly wear the uniform. So in the interest of being part of the solution... Does anyone have uniform banks anymore? If not, I'd say to put an item in the community section of your local paper calling all former scouts and former leaders to donate their uniform parts. Not everyone in a unit will need this service, but if parents who can't really afford the full uniform know that a troop or pack has a uniform bank, they may feel a little less intimidated about enrolling their child in scouts. eBay is another tremendous resource for uniform parts. Thanks to eBay, for a little more than what Supply Division charges for one long-sleeved shirt, I now own two short-sleeved shirts and a long-sleeved shirt. This is a viable method for parents and troops to purchase uniforms for less than retail price. And for an added bonus, sometimes the uniforms you get on eBay have council patches or lodge flaps, or other collectable patches on them. Lastly, I believe we need to encourage our boys to learn how to sew their own patches on their uniforms. When I was a youth, my mother made it abundantly clear to me that if I was going to see the program through to Eagle, the I would be the one sewing the merit badges on my sash and the patches on my uniform. The result was that I cared more about proper placement and how the patches looked in relation to one another. I have even been known to sew a patch on, look at it, and then cut it off and resew it just because it didn't look straight. I've mellowed out a bit since then...mostly. I encourage the same for adults too. Our wives and our kids moms may mean well, but ultimately its scouts and scouters who know best where to put the patches. Trust me. You'll get a lot of happy mothers, and a lot of happy wives! That's it. I hope this cools things off on this thread. Probably not, but I'm curious to hear anyone's response. Goodoldeagle2

KoreaScouter, I'm going to write that one down and use it whenever I can! So true, and so concise. VentureScoutNY, I'll get a rain cover ASAP. I imagine that also might be a good way to keep it from getting dusty too. Eagledad, that's another good piece of advice. I'm in central Kentucky, but I know of one or two hat shops where I might get some help. Thanks to all for the advice. I suppose we should be chatting about Youth Protection, or the program, or Wood Badge or something besides this. But it's stuff like this that usually comes up around the cracker barrel. I'm proud to have been able to "meet" y'all! Goodoldeagle2

I think it's relatively new. It's very stiff at any rate. I read on the other forum some folks suggested saturating it with water and wearing it around for a few hours. I don't know how confident I feel about that, but if I hear it from enough fellow scouters, I'd probably jump on that bandwagon. Four campaign hats?! That is quite a collection. I've sometimes thought of getting a baby-sized one if my wife and I ever have a son, but I think I'll stick with the one for now. What I'd really like to do is make interchangeable hat bands for it. Right now, I'm working on a jig for wood badge beads, and I'm going to make "hat acorns" out of wood badge beads. What can I say? My wife says I need a hobby.

Shame on me. I guess that would make sense. That darn hat must be cutting off my circulation.

Hi, folks. Just received a campaign hat I won in an eBay auction (I sincerely hope I didn't beat any of y'all to the punch to get it. If so, I'm sorry). I thought I'd toss it out to you fine folks to give me a few ideas on how I might get this rigid thing to conform to my melon. Also any tips on getting and keeping the brim as flat as possible would be great. I've got a particle board hat press, but I've heard multiple rumors about saturating the thing with Aqua Net hairspray. Please let fly with the suggestions! Good Old Eagle Too!

sm41: It's always nice to read about a new troop forming, and I wish you the best of luck with the troop you serve. Does your council sponsor a Junior Leader Training week or weekend? Also, has anyone in this forum "harassed" you about Wood Badge yet? If not, consider yourself harassed by me! Again, congrats! Good Old Eagle Too

In addition to new Eagle Scouts, does anyone write up items to submit to the newspapers about adult achievements (Woodbadge, Silver Beaver, Silver Buffalo, Distict Award of Merit, etc.)?

Laura: That puzzles me about your paper too, but I think the paper is just trying to cover its collective rear. E-mailed or faxed items can "disappear" into cyberspace due to rare glitches. A hardcopy piece of paper that is hand-delivered is not going to get lost in cyberspace. Hand-delivering an item also gives you the benefit of becoming a familiar face at your newspaper office. I don't know if that will make a difference where you live, but it can't hurt to get on a first-name basis with the folks who work up front. There are a few explanations for why they won't take scanned or digital photos: 1. They can't. This may sound funny at first, but there are still some papers that haven't made the jump to digital. I used to work at one of them, and if I had a dime for the number of eyebrows I raised when I told people they couldn't e-mail photos to us, I'd be a rich journalist. 2. Digital images not at a high enough resolution. When most of us take digital photos, we like to get the most bang for the buck, so we set the camera on the lowest memory setting to get more images on our camera's memory chip. The result are 72 dpi (dots per inch) images that look great on our computer screen.....but that unfortunately don't translate well when we try to print them. Ask the folks at the paper what their specifications are for the digital images they use. They are likely using images that are 200 or 300 dpi. 3. They prefer scanning images using their own scanner. The price of scanners has gone down to the point where a lot of people with home computers can afford to bundle in a scanner with their system. But newspapers and magazines spend big bucks on scanners with a lot of bells and whistles. Some can scan prints, color and b/w negatives, color and b/w slides, etc. And these higher-end scanners produce better images than most of our home models. Just my opinion of course. :-)

Sturgen: Does your local paper take items you submit to them that you've written or photos you've taken yourself? That might be worth investigating with the owner/editor of the paper.

Sounds like Roger McCabe has a pretty good relationship with the newspaper where he lives. And he hits on an important point: sometimes you have to do your own reporting. In a scout troop, something like this can be delegated out by the SPL to the troop historian. In scouts or cubs, if you have a parent who is a photography enthusiast, try to coax that parent into accompanying the troop/pack/den to whatever event you want publicized. In a pinch, though, a disposable camera carried by you will do just fine. Good discussion and ideas out there!

Thanks for the welcome! A lot regarding coverage depends on the size of the city in which you live, and therefore the size/circulation of the paper that serves your particular community. Sometimes it's harder with bigger papers in bigger cities to get anything in. This is getting better where I live. Tell me some things about the paper where you live, and I might be able to help you with a strategy or two, or three, or four.

Thanks for the welcome! A lot regarding coverage depends on the size of the city in which you live, and therefore the size/circulation of the paper that serves your particular community. Sometimes it's harder with bigger papers in bigger cities to get anything in. This is getting better where I live. Tell me some things about the paper where you live, and I might be able to help you with a strategy or two, or three, or four.

Way back in 1998, when I wrote my WB Ticket, I included in it a goal of training the leaders in the district I served to be more media savvy. I've been an inactive scouter for about three years now, but I found this forum, and figured I'd try to continue "delivering the promise" and extending my ticket to the folks here. I'm an Eagle Scout and career journalist, and I constantly mull over ways our leaders can get recognition in print in their various communities. So if y'all have any questions for me, please ask. Or if you have found ideas that work well for YOUR units, chime in.

Laurie: It's good to hear that from someone who's had Cub training. I sometimes secretly pray that when my wife and I have kids, we have all girls so daddy won't have to go through any more training (kidding, of course). I'm heavy on scout training, but I've got nuthin' in the Cub department, save what I can remember from my youth. What are the major differences? Maybe in finding those we can agree on a good way to help leaders make the transition from one level to the next.

It's been a while since I did Fast Start or Scoutmastership Fundamentals, but I was wondering if anyone has any thoughts on a transitional-type training for the leader who is going from Cubs to Scouts. I've seen former Cubmasters and Den Leaders make the move up to Scouts, but they retain the "adult-led" methodology of Cubs. Any thoughts?

Journalist, freelance writer, merry prankster.

I guess the biggest problem I've had is older scouters being somewhat condescending to me, given my relative age. I'm 30, which isn't young, but it does put one on the lower end of the average age at summer camp. I think I was the second-youngest participant in our Wood Badge course. Anyhow, I've learned to resist the temptation to point to my Eagle square knot when older scouters try to get a little preachy about the program, and have just tried to exercise the Scout Law (especially that one about being courteous) the best that I can. The important thing to keep in mind is that us younger scouters will one day be older scouters...and when we get there, hopefully we'll have the wisdom to listen to what some of the young bucks have to say. Not so sage words from a Good Old Eagle Too!

Let me add my congratulations, ManyIrons! It's good to know so many people continue to discover the Wood Badge experience. It's something different for everybody. I've been inactive for a few years now, unfortunately, but the lessons learned in Wood Badge will never be lost on me. I participate in this forum to stay somewhat fresh, so thank all y'all for caring so much about this wonderful thing called Scouts to actually start a forum like this. Kudos again, ManyIrons...from A Good Old Eagle Too!

Hi. New to the forum. Figured this would be a good place to start. I've been a former scouter for about four years now. Aching to "re-involve" with the program. By trade I'm a journalist, but also trained as a musician. I sing in a local group, and try to support the arts whenever and wherever I am. I collect scout items, books on writing, and have recently ceased collecting Star Trek stuff. That ocurred, not coincidentally, after I got married in December.

Just a quick introduction: I'm an Eagle Scout and former scouter who is chomping at the bit to get re-involved once I get a day job again. That said, sometimes the protocol something that predates your own affiliation with a troop. The last time I was involved with a troop was This is not to say that I still don't prefer to be called Mr. Musgrave. I'm only 30, but "I have a dream" that one day it will actually happen. about four years ago. At the time I was single. With no kids, the only ties I had to the unit I served was that I just loved to Scout! The norm for this troop seemed to be that adult volunteers were referred to by first name. At first I was a little put off by it, but eventually I got used to it. It's probably a generational thing (I was 26 at the time), but I never felt the slightest bit disrespected by any of the boys or their parents. Protocol is great to have. I still can't bring myself to call my old Scoutmaster by his first name....even when he was serving as course director of the WB course I attended. I may even get used to being called Mr. Musgrave eventually. Good Old Eagle Too!