Stosh

In America Child Protective Services would be all over that.....

If one ever does find out for sure anything on this poster, be sure to let us all know. I have my bet placed on the early to mid-1930's based on the World membership comment of 2+ million boys in scouting world wide. If I win send my winnings to a scout troop in central Europe that made his a fun thread for a change...

The picture seems to be a crude photoshp image of multiple layers of printing. So the engravers could be doing some fancy techniques for the era or printing on old stock of some sort. The two tones of coloring indicate it is not a photograph with printing superimposed over it. The style of the hat on the boy on the left is also unique. The crease of the hat should be centered over the ear if it was American and the "dip" if it were European. It doesn't appear to be either. The other scout's hat is a bit obscured with the logo, but if the shadows are correct it would seem to be a European style hat. I don't see this as an official BSA publication in that the logo is incomplete (no Good Turn knot). I don't know if that was omitted at one point and added later or not. But with all the questionable historicity to it, I'm thinking it was made by a local organization at one point to publicize BSA and give instructions on how units can be formed in the different areas of the country. Don't worry about your English, from where I'm sitting, it's spot on perfect.

Life lesson #1 - in America you can't get a driver's license until you're 16. Life lesson #2 - In America you can't join scouts until you are in second grade. So what's wrong with age limits and teaching our kids to wait until they are old enough? Even Pop Warner football makes kids wait until they are 8 years old and 65# before they can work on concussions and neck injuries and they don't have any family teams either.

I find it difficult that an organization of over 2 million boys that would not have a recognizable name. The founding of the WOSM did not necessarily mean organized scout movements throughout the world would join it right away and be counted in the WOSM's membership either. So knowing in 1922 the WOSM has lets just say, 1M scouts and there might be yet another 1M out there that aren't joined in but are part of BP's scouting principles,, what would you call the WHOLE of scouting in the world at that point? See the problem? There are still countries today that have scouting movements that have yet to join the WOSM. That would place it pre-1922 in that case, but then Who is the "chief" designated as recipient of the message? And to throw a wrench into everyone's thinking - the uniform shown in the picture is pre-1917. I know the world wide numbers in 1935 as 2.4M members, but what was it in 1917? from 1900 (Britian) to 1935 steady growth to 2.4M means the numbers only were 1.2m at the halfway point 1917. I didn't hear of any major numbers tapering off in the Great Depression to skew the trend. Maybe others have more information on that.

First of all, welcome to the forum. This is an interesting piece, but might not be as significant as one might wish it to be. Although it refers to 10-FEB-14, one also must note that it makes reference to the Boy Scouts of the World numbering over 2 million boys. That gives one the clue that it might be only as old as the mid-1930's. According to THE HISTORY OF THE BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA, by William D. Murray, copyright 1937, the active world membership in 1935 was 2,472,014. (p. 531) This would mean that the membership would need to be at least 2 million when these pamphlets were first being handed out. Therefore my guess would date this piece mid to late 1930's With the Great Depression taking it's toll on the program, they might even have been still floating around into the WW II era. It is interesting to note the boys needed to be proficient in semaphore, Morse and MEYERS. Most scouts don't even know what a Meyers flag looks like. Thumbs up to the mess kit cooking reference too. Try that nowadays with your plastic mess kits. Nice historical piece!

Welcome aboard, we'll try to keep up with you. At 65 years of age I try not to hit the ground running. Just running is a challenge now.

Naw, that's not how I use that term. There were/are boys that attain the rank of Eagle that might have all the boxes checked but their love of the outdoors just isn't there for them. They tend to find Holiday Inn camping more to their liking. Yes, they have jumped through all the hoops, but regardless of their skills, they will always be Parlor Eagles in their hearts. The Paper Eagles are the ones with the, I-got-the-box-checked-once-and-i'm-done skill level. Just yesterday I had to move furniture for my daughter. A lot of stuff needed to be tied down on the loads. Scout knife I've had since I was a scout back in the 1960's got pulled out of my pocket many times. My trusty bale of twine is always in my pickup. I have no idea how many knots I tied. ..... and I'm not even an Eagle. .... I wasn't even FC. I was having too much fun going camping with my buddies to get all the boxes checked.

The new Parlor Eagles are titled that for a reason.

Hmmmm, isn't that the case with reality especially WB? There seems to be a lot of long looks down one's nose at those WBer's that haven't taken the new program. For 10 years I taught Webelos Overnight, I've been SM on SM Fundamentals many times, I have my beads and because all my training is "old" stuff I haven't been asked to be on staff (including U of Scouting) for the past 15+ years.. With that being said, there is a good side to this in spite of the prejudice..

Gotta remember that we are all human. That might be a good thing and it might be a bad thing. If we all agreed and got along together in a Pollyanna world, there would be no need for a forum.

Currently I have 34 eligible Webelos II boys poised to get AOL and cross over. So far only about half have taken us up on it. That means either the other half don't care, are planning on dropping anyway or the parents don't want to bother with weekly meetings. In any case, if the boys don't get AOL and cross over it's not my fault. I made the opportunity available. If they didn't get the award they need to have a little sit-down chat with the folks. Boys need to know how this stuff all works. If boy needs to get something done, parents don't help, then blame the DL???? I look at it this way. The boy needs to get something done. He doesn't take responsibility for that and parents don't teach him to take responsibility either. Then everyone blames the DL??? Any boy looking to cross-over into my troop will need to keep looking because he won't be very happy there.

Depends on what one teaches the boys. While it wasn't a BOR I have overheard boys tell their parents that boy led means. The best answer so far was a 11 year old TF who said Boy Led means they have to take care of each other and make sure everyone has fun. That pretty much sums it up for me.....

That's a canned question that gets the ball rolling..... Not really, the chatty boys have been known to rattle on for a half hour or so. Some of the newbies take a while to come out of their shells. I pretty much prime their pumps before they go into the SMC with the idea that they take any question they ask and carry on about it until the Board stops him. That way they only ask a couple of questions. Hundreds of uncomfortable questions can be avoided if all the answers aren't just "Yep" and "Nope".

The only time I have ever used P-slips is when someone else went through the hassle of getting them. We have the medical records of all the boys with us with all the contact and medical information on it. If it changes it is up to the parents to let us know. If their boy shows up on our doorstep for an outing and the parent does not want us to take them, it's up to them to lock them up at home. If there's a last minute change of information on the medical form, i.e. mom and dad are out of town, Gram and Graps are the contact, it is the parent's responsibility to let us know. All the parents are told up front that by signing the registration form, they are giving permission for any and all scout activities unless they notify us in writing the boy is not allowed to go they don't show iup in the first place. Little Johnny got hurt? Shouldn't have sent him in the first place. But parents didn't know he would get hurt, and as scouters we didn't either. Of course the boy was breaking the rules when he got hurt, that counts in court too.

As long as the boys have a name, yell and flag, they don't need a patch. It's nice, but not needed.

Never gotten a comment from BOR members about any issues that affected any adults. At most it was more just personality conflicts between scouts. I figured if BOR turned over any major concerns they would say something. None of them ever has.

My idea of the ideal BOR? Boy walks in, sits down BOR MEMBERS are sitting in a circle, boy's chair is part of the circle. One BOR member asks the question, "Well, how's it going?" The others just listen. When the boy is done talking, the BOR is over.

Hmmm, I went through the Ex situation and like good governmental judicial system in it's quest for fairness "allowed" me visitation with my daughters. When Daughter 1 graduates HS, she goes off to college, gets job and stays a loooonnngg way away. When Daughter 2 graduates HS, she goes off to college, gets job and stays a looooonnnnnnggg way away. (she moved even further away) Then they both get married. Then they both have grandchildren. When the Ex retires and moves to Arizona. They both quit their jobs and move back to town where Dad is..... The whole process of politics is who's ox is getting gored on what day of the week..... Fair is only when I win and I get my way. It's a simple enough rule, I just can't figure out why everyone doesn't know it...... I must be a bigot, I hate hypocrites.....

Why does one need canned questions? No two boys are alike, canned questions will result most likely with canned answers. If one really would like more of a conversational approach to BOR's why is one seeking canned questions? I've never been anything other than a SM or ASM so I never sit on BOR's. So I can't help out there. On the other hand my SMC's don't have any canned questions. So I can't help out there either. If one really wants my advice, start with the premise that this is the BOY'S POR, not some panel of adult's. Get the ball rolling and let him lead you through the process. In my SMC's I am prepared to talk about anything the boy brings up as important to him. We all jump through hoops talking about BOR's are a time for adults to find out about how the boy's scouting career is going, what he likes, dislikes, what's wrong with the troop/patrol, what's good about the troop/patrol. With all the questions, the adults are tossing out there, who's doing the listening? Hmmmm, if one has a whole series of canned questions, can BOR's fall prey to pencil whipping?

Let me get this straight. Once a group of guys pick a name they have to live with it forever.....check If a boy goes to a different patrol he has to take the new name of the patrol....check If the adult put together an ad hoc patrol for camporee they don't have a name anyway....check Okay, works for me. The only question for me is, why are the adults all that worried about it? This is elementary grade school playground politics here. Get another cup of coffee. I had a patrol that changed their name more often than their underwear.... Patrol patches can be switched out just as easily as rank patches or POR patches. If anyone thinks my rantings are stupid, not to worry, losing sleep over patrol names ain't too smart either.

If I paid persona money in as a down payment that money is merely being held in trust and then I lose it, it would be like my buddy with the car and it would be worth it to challenge the bankruptcy courts on it. But if my boy goes out and fundraises for an activity, that is something different. For the sake of argument, lets say a boy has an "account" with the troop. If my son shovels a walk and takes his earned $15 and puts it into his "account" with the troop, it is no different than my deposit for summer camp money. It is held in trust and does NOT belong to the CO. Ethically I have a right to that money in that I have to pay taxes on it. On the other hand if the troop is fund raising to subsidize the boys going to summer camp and my boy raised $15 for the cause and then decide that that money which was fund raised under the CO's non-profit umbrella is really mine, there's a whole different ethical mindset that I personally find inappropriate for scouts to be taught. Let's go with a different approach A church needs a new $1000 piano. I'm the first one that knows about it so I write a $1000 check give it to the church, take a $1000 tax deduction, the church owns the piano Same scenario, but I take that $1000 check and buy the piano on my own and move it into the church to use and take no tax deduction, the piano remains mine. In one of my former units when it came to large holding accounts for major activities we had the parents simply write a check that we wouldn't cash until needed. Duh, a holding account. Time came to pay, we simply cashed the checks, and we were done. CO held no cash value in the accounts. So, once we got burned. Check bounced. Parents said too bad, so sad. Unit took them to small claims. They didn't show, we refused the settlement and asked the judge for a desk warrant for their appearance. They never showed, they were arrested, too bad, so sad. We never got the money, but they got criminal records,,,too bad, so sad.

Okay guys, here's the obvious, elephant in the room, snake oil solution, to your problem. If you make it obvious you are lousy with bank statements, they will never ask you to do the treasurer job and you don't have to say NO in the first place. If you make it obvious you are lousy with paperwork, they will never ask you to do the secretary job and you don't have to say NO in the first place. See a pattern here? When they get desperate and ask you anyway, make sure that because you are obviously really bad at it, you will need some help. Okay, they get another person who can't say NO to help you. Problem solved. At least you have someone to share your misery with. But remember that if push comes to shove and you have to take the job alone, do a nice job with a few minor oopses along the way. Otherwise if you do a bang up job, you're going to be in that position well after you're dead. HELLO BURN-OUT!

When it comes to competition.... I NEVER LOSE! I either win or I learn.... but I NEVER LOSE!

Yeah, I agree, I don't think he has the heart or energy necessary to be a UC for another unit. His love is for the unit he's in.