gwd-scouter

Congratulations and great job on training your Scouts. So many posts on the forum are about things that go badly - it's wonderful to read a post about when things go well.

I guess I'm guilty of poaching. At least, I believe others would see it that way. We do not have a Cub Pack affiliated with our CO. I may be wrong, but I think we are the only Troop in our District that doesn't. In any case, we have deployed Den Chiefs to different Packs, so far only to those that do not have an affiliated Troop. I have invited Webelos Dens, even those with affiliated Troops, to join us for meetings and outings. This year we've had the most visits - fourth and fifth grade Webelos Dens from four different Packs. Some of the boys and leaders joined us at our District's camporee in October. This weekend, we invited the Webelos from those Dens to join us for a day hike on a new trail we checked out over Christmas. This Saturday's hike was planned especially for those Webs that still needed an outdoor activity with a Troop for AOL. Yep, we've got some guys going that are in Packs with an affiliated Troop. And, yes, some of these boys have already decided to join our Troop. The large Troop in our District shares the same CO with the very large Cub Pack for which I used to be Webelos Den Leader and Cubmaster. In those days, I thought it was automatic that Webelos crossed over to the Troop at the same place. It wasn't until I got a better look at that large Troop and when my older son almost quit Scouting after a year in that Troop that I realized the importance of Webelos and their parents having the opportunity to check out many Troops before making a decision on which to join. A couple of years ago we hosted the Webelos Den from that very large Cub Pack for a weekend campout. They all came, but in the end none joined our Troop. They didn't go to the large affiliated Troop either. After about six months, one of the boys transferred to ours and is having a great time. In some ways I think it was a wake up call to that large Troop that they needed to engage more with the Cub Pack instead of sitting back and just waiting for the Webelos to cross over. I feel the competitiveness of some Scoutmasters around here. Yes, there is a certain amount of ego in some being able to say they have X number of Scouts or that they just crossed over a dozen or more Webelos. For our small Troop, we are looking forward to welcoming our first Webelos crossover in March and, as it turns out, not just one Den but boys from two - from two different Packs. We worked hard to recruit over the years and it sure is nice to see all that hard work is finally paying off. I wish all the Troops in our District would do more to work with the Packs, not just the Webelos they wish to entice, but all levels of Cub Scouting. I think it would strengthen the Cub program and perhaps help stop the losses we seem to encounter every year with the Webs to Boys transition.

ScoutNut's post is right to the point - since your Webelos have not yet finished 5th grade or have not earned the AOL, then they must be 11 years old to join Boy Scouts. Perhaps they are all 11, in which case you don't have a problem holding a crossover ceremony. I know a lot of Packs hold their crossover and AOL ceremonies at the Blue and Gold. However, nothing says you have to. We have Webelos crossing over to our Troop, but the ceremonies are later in the Spring - one group in March, one in May. When I was a Cubmaster, our pack always did the AOL and crossover in February as part of the B&G. I must say I like the idea of having those ceremonies as separate Pack meetings rather than as part of Scouting's anniversary. Makes them more special to have a night of their own.

Buffalo - yes they can and ours have. Our older guys did their first backpack trip on their own without adults last spring. Everyone hiked in to the base camp area, the younger guys and leaders set up and did a fairly moderate day hike. The older guys set off on their own for one of the more adventurous hiking trails. Because of their adventure, the younger guys are asking when they will be considered ready to take on an adult-free adventure. This spring, those scouts that are ready will be taking about a 20-mile bike ride from our Scout Hut to our State Park. The leaders, new Scouts, and those that aren't up to the bike trek will be there setting up a base camp. Guys arriving on bikes will set up their own patrol site nearby. Can't wait for that. It is exciting when your guys start taking off on their own. Our biggest challenge was getting the guys to believe we'd LET them do this. Narraticong puts it well: "But once they start to believe...they have the world by the tail!"

If you post your starting point and route of travel, forum members will most likely have many suggestions on where to camp. My question is how much backpacking experience do your Webelos and parents have. I've been away from Cubs for a long time and don't remember if backpacking is an approved activity. In any case, hiking in to a campsite, whether one mile or four, will require everyone to carry everything needed on their backs: tents, sleeping bags, food, water, cook stoves if you plan to eat anything hot, along with personal items. That can become quite a heavy load for the parents, who would most likely wind up carrying the more heavy items for their sons. Also, if any of your participants have a bad experience with the campout on your travel to Patriot's Point, they are not likely to look forward to a repeat of that experience on your way home. You may want to reconsider the hiking in and find a state park or similar campsite along your route that you can drive into. Then you could take your Scouts on a short hike, go fishing, or any other fun activity once you've set up your campsite. Just a suggestion.

since the form does not include a height/weight chart for women, overweight gals are OK. Checking out the chart I see that it was a very good thing that my husband lost a bunch of weight over the last year. He did it because he wanted to be in better shape for the more strenuous backpacking trips our guys have taken and even more strenuous in the planning. He did it to feel better. He looks great and has much more energy. Younger son has some weight issues too, but is in OK range for Jambo. Hope he stays there - the boy could use more exercise certainly. I know many Scouts and Scouters that exceed the recommended weight limits - and not because of weight training making them muscular. I'm not sure how I feel about restricting those folks from attending Jambo or other activities. If BSA wants to restrict folks for health reasons such as being overweight, why not add that smokers cannot participate? How about folks with diabetes? Allergies to bee stings? The heat and humidity in summertime Virginia could certainly aggravate a person's asthma. Given time we could all probably come up with things that could be used as an excuse to limit someone's participation.

The Yorktown trip is one that several of our Cub Packs have done over the years. It is a great trip. However, I would rethink taking your Pack in the summer. Summer months here are very hot and humid and it doesn't cool down much at night when you're sleeping on the ship. If you have not already booked the trip, you should begin now working on making a reservation - the overnight books up months in advance.

Have you seen the Get Smart Movie? I thought it was OK, but not nearly as entertaining as Happy Feet - oh, yeah, that wasn't about a gay penguin at all. Never mind.

The Inquisition, what a show The Inquisition, here we go We know you're wishin' that we'd go away But the Inquisition's here and it's here to stay. From gay penguins to the Spanish Inquisition. Now THAT'S some good readin'.

Folks have posted that the SM Conference is not pass or fail. They are correct. KSscoutmom - I hope things work out for your son. My post is not meant to imply that your son is like the Scout I'm writing about, but merely to show perspective from the SM point of view about an Eagle candidate that didn't like me very much. He was what I refer to as a legacy Scout - earned his ranks up to Life with our much loved former SM. I came in and changes were made. My goal was to turn the troop around to a boy-led troop. A hard road that took about four years to achieve. The Scout in question was SPL during our first year in transition. He did a reasonably good job considering the former leadership had never required the boys to do much of anything in a POR. After six months and after completing the required time for rank, he stepped down and for the most part we never saw him again. Oh he'd pop in from time to time to see about finishing a few requirements on merit badges, but nothing else. He became, at that point, in it for himself with no regard to the Troop. Yes, he had satisfied being active and holding a POR. I couldn't require him to be there, but it would have been nice. He was never overtly rude, but I could feel a real dislike for me and for what I was trying to do with the Troop. Simple things like never wearing the uniform, not even our Troop T-shirt - he'd wear some other scout related T, but not the one the boys designed. He'd show up late for a Court of Honor, not in uniform, pick up his awards and leave. I prefer to be addressed as Mrs. B..., but he called me by my first name. Lot's of things like that. I approved his Eagle project, but when I emailed him to check on his progress he never responded. Then, suddenly the project was done. He showed me pictures of its completion and the sign off from the organization. I've never been excluded from an Eagle candidate's project. I know he does not have to ask the boys in the Troop to help, but I've never known a project to be done without some boy scout helpers. His mother emailed me several times about setting up his SM Conference. In the years he was a Scout she never contacted me, or even answered emails I sent to her, now she is suddenly involved. She said it's because she knows I didn't like her son and was afraid I would not pass him on his conference. Fact is I liked her son. I was impressed with his commitment to school and civic activities. I explained to her that it was not a pass or fail situation, but a final chance to talk about his years in Scouting, to make sure all the requirements had been completed for Eagle, that his application was filled out properly. I also told her that it was up to him to contact me to schedule the conference. He did finally get in touch, but turned down every date and time I suggested. Finally, he (with his mother) came to my office and we had his conference. Signed him off and congratulated him. I said I would get in touch with the District Advancement Chair to schedule his BOR and that they are normally held on the same night as our District roundtable, which would be coming up the next month. The next week the troop went to summer camp. When we returned, I called the Advancement Chair to schedule the BOR. To my surprise I found out that the Scout had arranged it himself and it was done. I was hurt. I always like to be there to congratulate the Scout on completing his Eagle BOR. Scout in question even took his application to the Council Office himself. Several weeks later I picked up his award. It was no surprise to me that he didn't want a Court of Honor. He simply came to my office and picked up his packet. Congratulated him once again and that was that. "I am just glad although he wants nothing to do with his troop when done he still wants to be active in scouting by continuing with a venture crew." If that is so, then as others have said have your son join a Venturing Crew now. He can have his conference as part of a Crew and receive his award and recognition from a group he enjoys.

Many troops assign PORs because a boy 'needs' one for advancement. This, in my mind, leads to the impression of easy PORs. Any POR can be considered easy if the scout merely wears a patch on his sleeve. If your troop doesn't have a library of handbooks or merit badge books to check out, then there is really no need for a librarian. If your historian is not documenting all your outings, then he doesn't really have a job to do. In other words, do not assign a POR if there isn't a clear definition of the job requirements and, more importantly, an understanding between the scout and the SPL/SM that those requirements will be fulfilled. At one time, our Scribe POR was considered easy. Take attendance - that's it. Now, our Scribe collects money for all the outings and makes sure everyone is paid up before giving the money to our Treasurer. He takes notes at the PLC meetings and then sends me an email with an outline for the upcoming month. Yep, real work to do. I think a lot of times folks think that because a guy isn't in one of the out front leadership type PORs (SPL, PL, Troop Guide, Den Chief), that his job is easy. Some guys are well-suited for those up front jobs and make them look easy, but perhaps do not possess the skills or desire necessary to do the more organizational type PORs. I know a lad in our Troop that was a wonderful SPL, but he would have been a disaster as Scribe. A POR can be as in depth as any other. You just have to set clear expectations of what the job is, train your scouts, and then require those holding a POR to live up to those expectations. As a side note, both of my sons served in many PORS but Den Chief was by far their favorite.

The local newspapers in our District are very supportive of Scouting. We also have a local news website. All publish every picture and article sent in by our Packs and Troops. About once a week the papers and website have an article about Scouts at camp, Scouts helping the community, a new Eagle, etc. They will also print informational items such as roundtable meetings, pinewood derby, scouting for food, leader training. All this helps tremendously in spreading the word about Scouting in our community. I'm curious - how supportive are the local papers in your areas?

Last night we had a visit by yet another Webelos Den (the fourth this fall). Nine boys and their parents/leaders. Fantastic! The Den Leader called me only last week and asked if they could come. Our guys were preparing for our campout this weekend, so they broke into patrols, split up the Webelos and went off to plan menus. Our adults met with the parents and leaders of the Webelos Den to talk about our Troop. It went very very well. We talked about our boy-led Troop and tried to give them a clear understanding of the differences between Cub Scouting and Boy Scouting. They seemed to like what they heard. On the drive home older son said that something happened while I was talking with the adults. I was explaining the boy-led thing and that our older Scouts train the younger Scouts when our SPL came into the back of the room with our the new PL. I had my back to them so didn't see or hear them. Older son said he couldn't hear what they were saying either, but it was obvious SPL was explaining something to the PL. The parents noticed that. We had extended an invitation for them to join us for the day during our upcoming campout. I explained that while we would love for them to stay for the weekend, the cold weather may be too much for the Webelos. If they have a miserable time the boys may decide they don't want to be Boy Scouts. Ultimately, it was their choice. We are going to our Council camp and it is a fairly long drive, so most opted out of coming for the day. One father for sure is bringing his son for the whole weekend, and possibly another will be coming. They both camp with their families in the winter and say they are prepared for it. The Den Leader asked if we are having any other outdoor activities that the Webelos can do in order to complete their Arrow of Light requirement and finish up requirements for the outdoorsman and forester pins. We will work with them to plan a daytime activity in January for that purpose. Yes, we've been burned on this before - planning activities and helping a Webelos Den only to have them join other troops. Have to keep on trying though. I talked about how we've always been a small troop, but over the past few years we've been acting like a large troop in preparation for the time when we would attract crossover Webelos. I mentioned that we had another Webelos Den crossing over in March and how we will use the new scout patrol method for a few months. The den leader asked, so if you get those six Scouts from the other Pack and then our nine join you too, what will that do to your Troop. I said we would become the perfect size for a Boy Scout troop - it's what we've been working towards. The folks seemed to like that. In the end, I figure they will (and should) visit other Troops. I believe we made a good impression and will put together the activity for them in January. It would be wonderful if some or all of these Webelos joined us. Best of all, the word is finally out about our Troop. Folks are coming to visit, some ultimately to join.

I enjoy the winter camping topics. Winter camping in the north is not the same as winter camping in the south. Northern troops can quite successfully camp in below zero temperatures - something I wouldn't dream of doing with our troop. Then again, cold around here is anything below 40 . Yes, Beavah, it's all about proper clothing and preparation. One of our biggest challenges to get these guys ready for the cold weather is helping them understand that the hoodie they wear every day to school in winter just to get out of the bus/car and walk into the building, simply won't do when they are out in the cold weather for more than five minutes. We start that preparation by continuing outdoor activities on our meeting nights even when it's cold. So, it's 40 degrees and windy on meeting night and the guys are practicing compass bearings in the parking lot. Sheesh, they know they are going to be outside and yet they show up - no hats, no gloves, only a jacket or the ever-present hoodie. Kinda opens their eyes about 'staying' out in the cold. They wind up better prepared for the December campout. In November we always go backpacking. Daytime temperatures are usually very mild, but it can get very cold in the mountains at night. On last month's trip it dropped into the 20s at night. We knew that going in. We always check the weather forecast for where we are going. It is a training moment for the boys to learn how to be prepared for cold weather. Every year we go to our council camp in December for our "winter" campout. We don't use tents, but stay in the camp's adirondacks - three sided wooden structures with bunks built into the walls. Arguably colder than staying in tents, but the guys like it. We are leaving this Friday for this year's annual trip. Activities always include a couple of older scouts setting up a very long orienteering course that will take the buddy teams of younger scouts all around the camp - over the river and through the woods so to speak. They go over wood tools safety and new scouts earn the totin' chip. Patrols have a cooking competition for Saturday dinner. The boys usually retire a few flags that we've collected during the year. Star gazing, navigation at night, in the meadow if the sky is clear. Since we live in a drought zone and cannot build campfires through most of the year, the guys really look forward to building the fire on Saturday night. They always look forward to this trip and it is one of the first to go on the calendar when they do their annual planning. We are not in it for bragging rights about how cold it is when we camp. The coldest we've experienced was 19 degrees with and icy drizzle. Quite frankly, that was lousy. Of course, the story of the frozen pancake batter always comes up. Another time it started snowing the first night. Pretty one inch blanket of snow on the ground in the morning and the guys loved it - snow is a rarity around here. Younger son is the only scout in our troop now that went on that trip and always talks about the barrel races they did - guys got inside the large plastic trash barrels used at the council camp and slid down a snow covered hill. Every year as we prepare to head out for this trip, he always comments that he hopes it snows. On the flip side, being in the south, we've had our "cold weather" trip when the temperatures reached 70 degrees during the day and a mere 50 at night. Personally, I prefer that.

Eagle92, you're right. I was mistaken because those in the trading post at our Council wear gold loops and they are the only folks I see in uniform. Ours is a national shop (Blue Ridge Council).

I don't know who their Committee Chair is and the SM only comes to roundtable if he has a Scout doing an Eagle BOR. Besides, raising defensive hackles would certainly occur if I made any kind of remark or criticism or even asked a question about his program. So I won't go there, as the kids say. As for the Scout. He and his Den Leader Mom went with us to summer camp in '07. As I mentioned, they had joined the other Troop but wanted to go to our council camp for his first time and their troop was going somewhere else. I had some difficulty with Mom, getting her to step back from her son and let him do things on his own. She had problems with our boy-led ways. She thought it ridiculous that we wore the full uniform during those times that camp requested it (their Troop is shirt only). Our poor SPL got quite an earful of complaints from her (about me mostly). When we returned from camp, one of the Scouts from the other Troop that went with us said to me - I really want to join your Troop. He transferred to us the next week. He tried to get his friend to transfer too, but to no avail. Mom is registered as an ASM with that Troop and maybe she likes the adult-led type of Troop. I don't know. My husband has run into Mom a couple of times this year and she has made the comment that she thinks she made a mistake staying with their Troop. Perhaps it's her pride that is keeping them there. Again, I don't know. I'm not saying our Troop is perfect. It is not by any stretch, nor am I. It's just that I see our Scouts having such a good time, showing up for everything, getting the most out of their program, that we must be doing some things right. I am disappointed when a guy quits Scouting, maybe because he's just not into it, but it really angers me to hear about a guy quitting Scouting because of adults behaving badly.

Our Advancement Chair told me a story of a Scout in another Troop and his First Class BOR. This particular Scout was in a Webelos Den that visited our Troop and went camping with us almost two years ago. His mother, the Den Leader, and the Scouts decided to join another Troop. They were dismayed after joining to find out that their Troop was not going to our Council camp for summer camp and she, her son, a Dad, and two other Scouts went with us during our week. One Scout (his Mom is our Advancement Chair) decided after camp to transfer to our Troop. The others continued with the Troop they had joined. Now the story. Our Advancement Chair (AC) was talking with Mom (the former Den Leader) of the Scout in the other Troop. AC mentioned that her son had just earned First Class rank. The other Scout's Mom said sadly that her son had been turned down, for the second time, for advancement to First Class. She said his BOR lasted an hour and a half. Said he failed a few of the retests. Mom of the other Scout said he was ready to quit Scouts. She is making him stay until he gets First Class and then he can quit. Oh how I wish he had joined our Troop.

A quick point - silver shoulder loops are for District positions, gold loops are worn by Council staff. The staff at our Council camp all wear the Venturing Uniform. In the past, they've worn the green shirt with the green Boy Scout shorts, but a couple of years ago they changed that to requiring the staff to wear the gray Venturing shorts. The staff are considered part of Venturing Crew 1.

I watched the new episode last night. Very funny. Sadly, I recognized a couple of my fellow scouters in the over-protectiveness of the Arrowmaster.

Eamonn, no apology is necessary since my response was not meant in any way to be a criticism of your question. Your post was spun from my thread bragging about our Troop, so I took it as a valid query about the boys' response to female leadership. Frankly, I am always happy to answer such questions. I've asked myself similar questions over the years.

My husband has commented a time or two that the boys in our Troop try harder to please or impress me than any other leader. I say it is simply because I am the Scoutmaster. He says it is because the boys know I expect more out of them. Many years ago I was the Troop Advancement Chair. I went on a few campouts with the guys and received very little respect from either the boys or the adults. I was called the Troop Mom. Perhaps it was because at that time the boys (and adults) saw me more as a mom than a scouter. Remembering that time, it was important to me when I became Scoutmaster to foster a different image in the boys' minds. It was tough in the beginning, especially with the older or what I called 'legacy' scouts. I never did win them over or gain their respect. Sure, they did what I asked, but they never bought into our move to a boy-led troop. It wasn't until those legacy scouts aged out and I had gained some experience as a Scoutmaster that I began to see the road ahead and what our troop could be. Looking back, my effort to dispel the boys' idea that I was somehow the Troop Mom was actually the biggest mistake I made. I thought it was important to be a Scoutmaster like my male counterparts. I thought then that what made a good Scoutmaster was being an outdoors expert, a tough guy, a manly man. After all, I was modeling the Scoutmasters I knew. Boy was I wrong! After I went to summer camp and stayed the full week for the first time as SM and met and watched other Scoutmasters, I began to see what I was doing wrong. I had to go with MY strengths. I had to be myself. I am a Mom, a parent, trying to raise two sons with the best foundation to enter adulthood. Aren't those the same things we try to do with Boy Scouts? Of course. Duh! So, it was with the same high expectations and rules of the road with which I raise my sons that I became the Scoutmaster our troop deserved. I am the quiet Scoutmaster. I observe. "How did you know that?" is a question I hear the most from our scouts. I have talks with a guy when needed. I do not lecture any more. Instead I ask questions. The guys used to refer to those lectures as Scoutmaster moments, as opposed to Scoutmaster minutes. The minutes were good, the moments were bad. Now I just have teaching opportunities. Much better. To Eamonn's question about the challenges female leaders face that males do not. As IM_Kathy posted, campouts can present a few. The biggest challenge is overcoming the short-sightedness of some folks that a female just can't be a good leader. When a man steps up to be a SM or ASM, he is accepted immediately, no questions, no need to prove himself, welcome to the brotherhood. At least, that has been my observations. The mistake I made early on was thinking I had to prove myself by being just like them and that was never going to work. A few months ago I received a marvelous compliment. We were at our District Camporee and the OA chapter made a pancake breakfast on Sunday morning. The line was long, so I helped to pour juice with one of the adult OA advisors. He was one of those men early on that felt females had no business being Scoutmasters. We were talking about the OA and he said "you should be inducted." I was stunned. I said I had already infiltrated the mens' ranks and should leave the OA to the guys. I don't remember his words exactly, but he said essentially that I was not a typical woman and was doing a great job with our Troop. High praise from a former skeptic. Are the boys better behaved because I am a woman? I don't think so. We have both male and female ASMs. I don't see any difference in boys' behavior around them. They are better behaved because they know my expectation is that we live by the Scout Oath and the Scout Law. They are better behaved because I am the Scoutmaster.

December will mark the end of my fourth year as SM for our Troop. I've shared the ups and downs of our Troop restructuring on the forum and received thoughtful advice from its members. I've written most about our efforts to become a boy-led Troop and troubles we've encountered along the way. We are still a small troop with nine boys. We just signed up two new Scouts and will be crossing over six from Webelos in March. I've always had a vision of our Troop having about 24 Scouts and we will be close. As a self-indulgent "atta girl" I will say I've devoted a great deal of my time in building relationships with a couple of Packs in an effort to recruit new Scouts and it's finally paying off. Back to the boys. Two weeks ago our guys held their monthly PLC. They always have it on the Monday following a campout. While it's true we really only have enough Scouts to have one patrol, our guys split into two patrols last Spring and have shown remarkable patrol spirit. The PLC has come a long way and now is very good at planning for meetings and outing. Their meeting two weeks ago was what any SM could hope for. They did a marvelous job! The only input I had was to remind them of the COH and Holiday Pot Luck in December before we take a couple of weeks off for Christmas. At the end of their meeting, they had come up with plans for the following four weeks leading up to our annual campout at Camp Old Indian and then the COH. They even decided to have a Troop Christmas Party with games and secret Santa gifts. I was impressed. Last Monday's activity was to be on orienteering. Our annual December Camp Old Indian trip always includes a couple of the older Scouts setting up an orienteering course and the others buddying up to complete it. A lot of fun and great learning experience for the guys. This past Monday it was raining so the guys decided to switch weeks in their plan, do orienteering next week and work on patrols this week - they decided that it was a good time to restructure the patrols in anticipation of the new scouts coming. The PLC arrived early and talked about patrol restructuring. What impressed me was how thoughtful they were about the future, when the Webelos cross over. They had much discussion on whether to have a new scout patrol and assigning older scouts to be PL and Troop Guide. Then, after about six months, disbanding the new scout patrol and having two mixed aged patrols. I asked them a few questions to get them thinking about the pros and cons of the idea. What they came up with was two patrols for now - the PLC as one patrol (four boys) and a patrol of the other five. When the Webelos cross over, they will be a new Scout patrol for a few months with two members of the PLC guiding them during that time. It was amusing to hear our new SPL mention some concern over the patrol of five picking a PL who would be young, immature, and maybe not leadership material yet. Amusing because a year ago SPL was the same age and rank when he ran for SPL as two of the scouts in the patrol of five he is now concerned about. He didn't win SPL last year, but was selected to be Troop Guide - a position he had trouble with, mostly because of immaturity and a hard-headed approach to leadership. When I mentioned that, he smiled. He took some hard knocks and a few fairly harsh words from me, but has matured so much this past year. Yeah, the guys have to step into leadership at some point. Don't you just love it when you finally see the light bulb go on in their heads, when they finally get it? So, this past Monday, SPL announced the new patrol plan after opening the meeting and the guys got to work coming up with patrol names, yells, and designing their flags. Everyone seemed excited about it. All the while, I just wandered around watching them in action. Never had to do a thing. I was, quite frankly, very bored. At last, they are truly running the show. When did THAT happen? Almost always, the nine boys we have show up for everything - every meeting, week after week, and every outing. They are energetic and enthusiastic about their program. They are proud of their Troop. Boy Scouts are, in their words, AWESOME! After opening the meeting, SPL asks if any of the adults have something to say. The adults always ask permission to speak. I just love it when I raise my hand to make an announcement and I hear "give it up for Mrs. Buchanan" and they applaud. We have so much fun. They are a great bunch of guys and lift my spirits whenever I'm around them. Reflections on being the SM of this Troop. I started out thinking I would just serve as SM to hold the troop together long enough to find another SM. Now, I think I'll stick around for a while longer. We've had a roller-coaster ride these past four years and I wouldn't trade those memories for anything. To borrow Barry's phrase - I just love this Scouting stuff!

Older son will graduate from Clemson with a degree in industrial engineering. Hears jokes from people about graduating from Cow College. Of course, those jokes come mostly from grads of U. South Carolina.

If you had purchased $1000.00 of Nortel stock one year ago, it would now be worth $49.00. With Enron, you would have had $16..50 left of the original $1000.00. With WorldCom, you would have had less than $5.00 left. If you had purchased $1000 of Delta Air Lines stock, you would have $49.00 left. But, if you had purchased $1,000.00 worth of beer/wine one year ago, drank all the beer/wine, then turned in the cans/bottles for the aluminum and glass recycling REFUND, you would have had $214.00. Based on the above, the best current investment advice is to drink heavily and recycle.

I was five years old. My father was sitting in the big green leather rocking chair watching television. I was sitting on his lap and for the first and only time ever saw my father cry. "Was he a good man?" I asked. "Yes, honey, he was."