Stosh

Faith, I did a quick cursory survey of the profiles of a number of the members. Of all the active moderators they have gender marked. (active past 24 hours) Of all the active members they do not have gender marked. I looked at a bunch and NONE were marked. You can draw your own conclusions from this.

Like it says, adults do not have to take responsibility for scouts with food allergies. Well, I'm one of those that won't. Sounds kinda harsh, but I as SM bring my own food and take responsibility for feeding myself. All the boys know this and if someone has dietary/health concerns, they simply can do what I do. Take responsibility for feeding themselves. Harsh? Nope, these boys do this dietary routine every time they eat, when they are at home, at restaurants, at school, out with friends, etc. Why would Scouting need to take over that responsibility when no one else does except maybe the parents who are teaching them how to cope with this? So they feel a little left out. Well, when the go to the pizza joint and hang out with their buddies, they're going to be a little left out anyway. They understand this and so does his buddies.

In Wisconsin it's 2.5"

It isn't so much the loss of common sense in our society, it's the zero-tolerance, zero-diversity culture that seems to be taking over. G2SS is out there because people need strict rules and regulations to insulate themselves from litigation. Add to that a narcissistic moralism that everyone seems to think they have a right to decide for themselves what's best, and you have a basic recipe for social decline. One sees it all over the place.

99.9% of the time everything is above board and no problem at all. Unfortunately it's the .1% that is the problem. With that being said, I can guarantee 100% of the time that the .1% don't give a rat's patoot about G2SS and what it says in there. It's a bit like the gun laws. How many of those laws have been successful with keeping the guns out of the hands of criminals? And how many of those laws have caused confusion and problems for the law-abiding people that are trying to do it right in the first place?

The really sad part about all this is that I was in my high school rifle club. The school had an indoor 22-cal range. Yes, we could bring in our small game hunting rifles in to sight them in but we had to have them unloaded and cased in our locked locker during the day. Oh, how things have changed.

At least your superintendent showed some common sense in light of the school's intolerance stand. There have been kindergarten kids expelled from school because mom packed a table knife in with the 9 X 13 birthday treat so the teacher could cut up the cake. One has to be more careful about rules of the tools, than they do about the safety of the tools.

50 years ago we as scouts used to call the SM on the phone for information all the time. I guess that's now out of the question?

Depending on the state/location there are certain legal limits on blade lengths. Once the blade gets beyond X" then it becomes a concealed weapon. Take your standard fillet knife. Blade 5-6". Usually comes with a sheath. You buy it, clerk tosses it in a bag along with your receipt, out the store and into the car. You head home. Bag is on the seat next to you. Yep, you are illegal at that point. Depending on the mood of the officer, you can be in a heap of trouble. For example: In Wisconsin any blade over 2.5" is a weapon for conceal carry purposes. Drop that little sucker in your pocket and you could be arrested or lose your job if there's a no weapons sign on your employer's front door. Technically the boning knife the Mrs. packed in the picnic basket to cut up some fruit for the picnic belongs in the trunk, not the passenger compartment of a vehicle. But in Wisconsin, you can strap on your 9mm Smith & Wesson and walk down the street no problem whatsoever. So here's the scenario: Your local Cub Scout pack invites you to do a presentation for the Blue Gold and you show up with your rifle, unloaded, in a case, in your trunk You take it out, sling it over your shoulder, it's illegal. The gun is concealed in a case. Now, take that same gun out of the trunk, take it out of the case, load it, now sling it over your shoulder. No problem, you're legal. Hey, I can't make this stuff up. Only people who have inconsistent and stupid rules can make this stuff up. Before recommending knives to boys, it would be good to check the local laws concerning knives and where and when you can carry what size. Yes, an Eagle Scout had a 1" pocket knife in his survival kit which he accidentally left in his in his truck on school property and he was suspended for 5 days. The size of one's hand isn't specific enough. Just take the time and make sure what works for your boys to keep them safe.

testing..... this worked 12:24 pm CST Editor works too. Forum Server is up and running. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful TAHAWK

And then you tell the boys, 1) if it's instant mashed potatoes, "READ THE LABEL! If you can't read, have the nice lady next to you read it to you. Then apologize to her for your paying attention in school and thank her for her time." 2) if it's fresh mashed potatoes you're making, "go to the white potatoes and pick out one for every boy on the list going. Write down a description of each potato and put each boys' name next to it so he knows which one is his. This is important to remember this when you mash them after cooking. My boys never ask me to help with their menu planning, food lists, or shopping.... I have often wondered why. Don't get me going on how to make sure all the boys get the same number of kernels on their corn-on-the-cob.

When in doubt read the manual? Works for me. If you can't double register on the same computer, let me know and I can keep the moderators informed of what the users see. With all the various platforms and browsers and their combinations, support is going to be a nightmare anyway.

When to the forum HELP page, did a search on Gender and it came up "no results". That's encouraging.

So sheath knives are not recommended. Fine, no problem. How many GrubMasters out there prepare food with a non-sheathed kitchen knife thinking that this is safer? Sorry, just because one carries it on their belt instead of tossing it in the chuck box does not make it less safe. And yes, one can open a can of beans with a sheath knife. Done it many times. And furthermore, I have cleaned fish with a pocket knife. One year I accidentally left my sheath knife in the trunk of my car (pre-permit to carry days) and had to dress out my deer with my pocket knife. It can be done. When I see all the boys preparing food in the kitchen using only multipurpose pocket tools, I'll reconsider my opinion..

Oh, by the way, every Moderator should have a second account in which they can log in as a regular user and see what everyone else sees. That's standard protocol for moderators, admins and develoopers. In the case identified with this software, it would also be feasible to have Firefox, IE and Chrome (CM on mobile) all loaded on your PC/mobile as well. You all went cold turkey changeover without proper, extensive testing. I understand why, but one needs to be prepared for a major fall out because of it. By the way even the way the website looks varies between browsers. When people are told that the latest forum responses are listed at the right, that is correct for IE and Chrome, but they are listed at the bottom in Firefox. Hope these suggestions help

Two issues running here. 1) As a moderator you have access to more features than the rest of us. At least that's the way it is on other boards I have moderated. What you see is not what everyone else sees. 2) I have Firefox, Internet Explorer and Chrome all loaded on my PC (Dell running Windows XP). I do not see Gender listed anywhere in my Profile under any of the different browsers.

It's a bit like the little kid that hated anything with a sauce on it. On the other hand she loved frosting. So when it came time for spaghetti supper. Everyone at the table got spaghetti sauce with meatballs except the little girl. She got spaghetti frosting with meatballs and she loved it.

Totally agree, I use the cork screw and bottle opener on my Swiss Army all the time. In a survival situation, the can opener has got to be the greatest thing since sliced bread.

On the rare occasion where this is an issue, the PL makes sure there are two menus prepared. It's all part of the PL leadership requirement of taking care of his boys. If the boy doesn't like or can't have bacon with his bacon and eggs, the GrubMaster (also doing his leadership requirement of taking care of his boys) will make sure the boy receives his eggs separate to scramble separately. Mountain Man breakfast CAN be made without any meat in it as well, so some recipe modifications can be worked out as well. For the most part, boys with allergies tend to want to bring their own food and eventually do very well with mess kit cooking techniques. That of course is their call. The PL and GM are responsible for not forcing a boy to feel "singled out" because of his dietary situation. There really are some nice lessons to learn from having boys with dietary concerns. It increases the diversity of menu options, it gets the boys thinking seriously about the food being purchased, and different techniques of meal prep are implemented. I for one have never seen food allergies or dietary concerns as a negative thing.

It's videos like this that give sheath knives an undeserved bad reputation. I have a large Bowie knife, but find it rather useless for camp work. Disciplining unruly boys?... well that's another story. True story.... going into a 2-man wall tent at summer camp to break up a knife fight between two boys, unarmed is not a good idea. Be Prepared. Never show up for a knife fight without a knife of your own.

I have carried a folding pocket knife pretty much all my life since receiving my first one at the age of 7 in Cub Scouts. Like any tool the more you know about them the safer they are. Yes, I have cut my fingers on folding knives, but never had one fold up on me while using it. I have cut my fingers on lock blades and on fixed blades. So the style of knife is irrelevant. Sharp vs. dull... here is where your input to the youth will be very useful. Stainless steel knives always look good but the metal is too soft to hold an edge. They get dull and dangerous quickly. Carbon steel knives generally look like crap, but they are the best for holding an edge because of their hardness. For this reason I carry only older knives that have carbon steel blades. Most folding blades, whether they lock or not, have hinges that wear out and get sloppy over time. Not good! Damaged hinged knives need to be thrown away. (Not literally, just put them in the garbage) And the #1 reason I do not use a lock blade anymore is because I have had and seen times when the lock does not hold and the knife folds anyway. For those that trust the locks, this is not a good assumption to be making. Luckily I did not get cut, but I did get educated. For this reason I carry a sheath knife, but I also carry a belt axe that is sharpened to a knife blade consistency. It is way sharper than what is recommended for axe work, but to make tinder shavings it is the best. Because I have a conceal carry permit, I can wear it under my coat, poncho, whatever, and be okay. I had one camp director "comment" on the fact that I wore it at summer camp and the camp had a "policy" to ban them from the boys and strongly discourage sheath knives for the adults. I smiled and pointed out that the snaps that hold the knife and belt axe in place say BSA and have the little first class emblem there too. So for safety reasons alone, and not convenience, the knife I trust the most is the sheath knife. I know where the blade is at all times and I don't have to worry about it collapsing on me, When it comes to fire-building competition, a sheath knife/belt axe combo will beat out any scout with a lock blade buck knife. "Age and treachery will win out over youth and exuberance any day."

Statistically an unsafe behavior repeated 130 times will result in 100 times nothing will happen. 29 times that activity will produce injury, and once it will be fatal. The safety speaker that presented that information had a jar of candy with 130 pieces of candy in it. He then said that there are 100 pieces of candy in the jar that are okay. 29 that have a massive amount of laxative in it and one is poisonous. He offered it to everyone listening. No one wanted any. But as he pointed out, other activities won't be so obvious.

I think in California, they don't worry much about gender anyway.

We have a template of menu items that the boys have broken down into ingredients, amounts, and costs. Once they do this, all they have to do is pull the sheet from the loose leaf and take it to the store. When it comes to the new boys working on their menu prep for advancement, we have them bring in their favorite recipe from home and they break it down into ingredients, amounts and then they shop for it to get credit for meal planning. This new sheet then goes into the loose leaf along with all the other recopies. They continually get new food choices and the boys generally get at least one meal they like to eat. As a rule of thumb, any recipe that calls for a 9" X 13" pan can be split in half and done in a #12 Dutch oven. I don't know if it would all fit into one deep #12 or not. Maybe the middle wouldn't get cooked very well.

I'm guessing here, but maybe if you put your birthdate in the software, it calculates your age that on your birthday it updates your profile automatically.