Stosh

The only real palpable reason for the uniform in my book would be the boys tend to take scouting more seriously while in uniform. They pay attention, they do things safer (don't want to wreck the uniform) etc. It's kinda like when people used to dress up for church, going out, dates, theater, etc. Now it's all blue jeans and flannel shirts and not only does it look like the person doesn't care, they act that way too.

I was a licensed base radio operator and was responsible for the welfare and grid search of at least a dozen aircraft at one time. I was 16 years old at the time. Like you said, handing out water is all the Scouts ever do. So, now my volunteering for Red Cross disaster relief? I don't just hand out sandwiches and water.

And the ultimate kicker is..... wait for it..... Made in America means just that. All the components for the finished product can be made in China or wherever, but if it ships incomplete, i.e. a radio with no handle and the handle is put on in America, it can be marketed as Made in America. Ford trucks are not necessarily made in America, but some Toyota cars are. Go figure. We live in a global economy, buyer beware.

I've always referred to it as Banana Republic Generals. All show, no go. I think if we were to go with the fur coat and knickers, it would get Americanized to trench coat and pants, and that would not be good.

There's an art to dealing with controversial issues. I try and use them here on the forum, but obviously it doesn't always work. None needs to be "in person" for a lot of the subtleties. Jeopardy - phrase everything in the form of a question. Always speak in the third person. If somebody's going to get hung, make sure it's the jury. "That's not what I heard. I wonder which story is the truth?" Mention the platforms of the non-dual party candidates. The Peter Principle is your friend, rely on him.

Twine, string and sticks.... make rope. Not that hard, everyone gets to take hope a short piece of hand-made rope.

They've memorized the names of every Pokeman character ever created. Memorizing things requires a desire to learn, not just get credit for taking tests.

50 years ago, I was involved in real state-wide search and rescue missions through the Civil Air Patrol. BSA's program is exploring aviation as a career. Big difference.

Statistically it has been proven that it is far riskier for children to get to today's playgrounds than play on the equipment they have there. I'm sitting here right now with a brace on my knee because of a playground accident that happened 50 years and 2 surgeries ago. I still got in my 110 miles of Philmont without a problem. How many of us out there have football knees?

I'da paid good money for that show.

It's never been the topics or the sub-forums that have concerned me about this forum. I have reported issues in the past and nothing is ever done about it. I have had to decide between Ignore feature or leave. That is always an open choice. While April 1 is always fun, there are 364 other days that aren't. By the way, what are the warning points we see on our profiles and why with all the concern aren't any of them above zero?

Oh, man! A gal after my own heart! That is priceless! You GO GIRL! Ahhh, by the way, now that the smoke has settled and things are back to normal, did you ever figure out why she had a pg test kit in the first place? Just happen to be lying around?

Aww, C'mon @@desertrat77 I thought everyone knew what that was! You definitely had a deprived childhood.

There used to be BSA Air Scouts to go along with BSA Sea Scouts. I wonder how long before BSA thinks boats are as dangerous as airplanes?

Yeah, but after a year, I'm still mad at him! I was hoping it was just a bad dream. Miss him a lot.

For my next S.T.E.M. project Bat guano, sugar and rotten eggs! C+KNO3+S

I'm not so sure I would go so far as to balance them out as equals. I know a lot of people who are terrible about organization, know very little about problem solving, yet have a knack of knowing who to talk to and who to seek help from to somehow miraculously "get the job done." Terrible task managers, but fantastic people person leaders. Good leaders that lack management skills can always find good people to fill in their management shortcomings. Good managers that lack leadership skills generally end up doing it themselves, "because if ya wanta have it done right, yas do it yaselves!" (aka "Ya just trust 'em to do it right the first time")

I've never tried to demonize management, but I don't put it in a category of where it can totally operate in a vacuum. Unless one is managing a task that doesn't require assistance from other people, there has to be a strong leadership component or one will end up doing it by themselves anyway. A good manager needs to be a better leader than they are a manager. If all one is doing is teaching management skills, organizing, prioritizing, persuasion, Theory X and Y, etc. then they might get the job done and people kept their jobs. But if one wants those people to be around for the next project, they had better figure out what people skills are needed or the people won't be there when they are needed. Teaching management skills is far easier than teaching leadership, so leadership gets doled out to a secondary role in the whole process.

With all the military talk about "getting the mission" done, every officer knows that taking care of his people is vital in successfully doing that. Which comes first? The mission priority or the care of the soldiers? If one were to seriously consider that, without the people the mission is doomed. People come first! #1 Rule of Servant Leadership. The Army Manual on officer training I read did use the term servant leadership in the book.

Like fire building. You can gather the tinder, kindling and wood, know all the dynamics of wind, but you can't light it on fire. You can play all the bubble ball you want, you just can't get in it.

IMHO, This is why one is to teach leadership instead of management. Pure and simple. Teaching the boys that bossing people around is not taking care of them and sooner or later that whole process is going to come back and make life miserable. Obviously one can see this happening in this situation. If this is the "leadership" that's being taught in the troop, the problems one is identifying simply aren't going to go away anytime soon regardless of how mix and match the adults and/or boys scramble the patrol memberships. The really sad part of this whole process is that the BOYS are blamed for poor adult leadership instruction. All these discipline problems, these attendance problems, these whatever problems are most often the result of poor adult leadership. The adults aren't taking care of their boys nor are they teaching the boys to take care of other people at all times, instead they are teaching them only to take care of jobs and solve the problems that they have created for themselves because of poor leadership training.

Murder rate/100,000 of North Dakota - 3.0 Murder rate/100,000 of Wisconsin 2.9 Murder rate/100,000 of Minnesota 1.6 Largest city in ND - Grand Forks, population 55,000 Largest city in Wisconsin - Milwaukee, population 600,000 Largest city in Minnesota - Twin Cities, population 3.2 million Total population of urban/rural ND - 740,000 Total population of Urban/rural WI - 5.75 million Total population of Urban/rural MN - 5.45 million Looks like statistically ND is a terrible place to live.

I always enjoy these conversations about patrol designations. There is no such thing as a "mixed-aged" patrol in the BSA. BSA has identified New Scout, Regular and Venture patrols. So, the new guys on the block are in the New Scout. This shouldn't come as any big surprise. After the calendar has rolled around one full cycle and a new group of boys comes in from Webelos and/or recruiting, This first group is not the new guys on the block anymore and without any changes in membership or alignment, they automatically become a regular patrol. The TG's work is done with this group and he goes and starts to focus his attention on orienting the new, new boys coming in that are now designated the New Scout Patrol(s). Once this group has been around for a year they, too, become a Regular Patrol. No where does it say the adults have to step in and do an apple-cart up-side-down to make the name designation or membership changes. No where in BSA literature do I find all these boys from the first year have to merge into existing patrols. No where does it say that ANY patrol has to dissolve into another patrol unless the boys decide it for themselves. So this group hangs together until they are 15 or 16, whatever they decide and they have "been there, done that" for a few years now and want to take on some bigger challenges so they go out and buy some Venture strip patches and now call themselves a Venture Patrol. No harm, no foul, and NO MEMBERSHIP changes unless attrition has taken it's toll over the years and two of the shrinking older boy patrols decide to merge into one and call it a Venture Patrol. From where I sit, about 99% of the hassles that are being identified here on this subject are borne out by adult interference and false interpretation of what the patrol designations really are. Of course feeding the boys this false information doesn't really help either. 1) NSP - A patrol that is formed when the new guys come into the troop. 2) Regular - The designation of patrols that have been oriented after a year and haven't yet gotten to the "we want a challenge" years. 3) Venture - Older boys that really don't want to go back to council summer camp for the 4th time in a row. If a scout coming into the troop doesn't want to hang with his Webelos buddies and wants to join a patrol where is older brother is, no problem. His older brother can be his personal "TG" to get him up to speed. No big deal. If a boy in one Regular patrol isn't getting along with another boy, he can ask the PL of another patrol if he can move over there. No big deal. If a boy in a regular patrol is getting bored and wants to hang with the super cool older scouts of a Venture patrol, he can ask to join up with them. Otherwise maybe everyone in his patrol are getting bummed out and they just announce their switch over to the Venture patrol and will be going to BWCA instead of summer camp this coming summer. To me these designations of the 3 patrols established by the BSA are merely indicators to let everyone know that 1) the new guys might need some special attention, 2) the regular guys should be able to sail along pretty much on their own, and 3) the older guys are needing some special attention, too, to help keep their interest in something more exciting other than babysitting some new guys at council summer camp yet one more time.

Mom's worried that the boy isn't going to get his 9th palm? Really?

Yo! Moderators! If the language in the movie is inappropriate, then the discussion of this movie needs to move to I&P.