Stosh

Kinda makes me happy that I spent my youth BSA career pre-1970's. Like a lot of things, the Golden Age of Scouting has passed. The really sad part of it all? I do more camping, kayaking and getting out hiking now that I'm no longer with a troop. I hadn't realized how much it was holding me back. This year I have plans to camp in both the Rockies as well as the Appalachians. From what I've seen over the past 40 years, this thread does not come at any surprise. What's really sad is now that I'm a UC and going out and listening to units, the biggest complaint is the adults holding back the scouts. At least in my part of the world. Your mileage may vary, Stosh(This message has been edited by jblake47)

Or, it's a boy that thinks bugler POR is a blow-off and figures to wear the patch and not do the job. I hope the issue comes up at his BOR.

Must be a really old picture, the boy is in full uniform and necker... Stosh

Methinks that any troop that has 58 pages of rules and regs is probably an adult-led program and needs a complete overhaul according to BSA policy and procedures. Stosh

Why not just find a camp where tents are optional. If you don't want their tents, then it's no big deal. If you do, they're there rolled up ready to be put up. The one camp I used to attend, there was a quartermaster request sheet the boys filled out. They needed X number of tents, X number of floor pallets, X number of stoves, X number of chuck boxes, X number of dining flies and they were all stacked in the middle of the site when we showed up. At the end of the week, they were restacked and we went home. If you had your own gear, the X's above were entered in as a 0. When we got there, nothing was stacked in the site. We set up camp with our own stuff. I can't figure out why this would be a problem to have a camp tent vs. troop tent set up. Maybe if one were to make it complicated enough, they could in fact charge a $30 fee to the process to make a few bucks. Stosh

Moose: Don't think harder, think smarter. I use my cramped little tent and at age 60 getting up and dressed in the morning is getting to be more and more of a challenge. I went out and bought a camp shower for $35 (no plumbing stuff, but has 4 walls and a roof), and now I have a dressing room where I can stand up. If it's raining, I suffer through the struggle, but otherwise it works out great. Your mileage may vary, Stosh

When the troop I used to be involved with would retire a flag, we went out in full uniform and performed one last raising of the flag. It was tattered, torn and faded from use, but we ran it up the pole and gave it the pledge one last time. It was taken down and folded the best we were able. Then it was taken to a bonfire and placed folded in the flames. The troop stood at a salute until the flag was no longer recognizable which could take quite a few minutes. After one such disposal, one of the boys commented his arm got quite sore holding the salute for such a long period of time, but he then added, that it gave him a long time to think about what he was doing. The next time we had a nylon flag and he was kind of disappointed it burned so fast that he didn't have much time to ponder the situation. The protocol or process by which it is done is no where near as important as what goes on in the hearts and minds of those doing the task. Your mileage may vary, Stosh

Best one I had was when I was doing a Civil War reenactment. I was wearing a blue uniform. Two female spectators (aka 'taters') approached me and the younger (mid-30's) asked me if I was with the north or the south. I answered politely. Then she asked me which side won and I politely answered that too. The elder of the two (her mother) was upset with her daughter, said, "For heavens sake, Mary, you should have known that, you're a school teacher for crying out loud!" It's always good to listen to your mother the first time. Stosh

I'm assuming this term is referring to the wolf pack mentality of an alpha male and female that hold the pack together. If applied to the BSA I can see a number of problems arising with the analogy. Alpha male and alpha female run the pack by dominance. I often see this as a genuine problem with SM's in an adult-led program. Transition of leadership occurs only after a challenge to that position, again another analogy to the political dynamics of problem units. Alpha males do not "train" any of the others in leadership. Obviously no one is interested in abdicating anytime soon and no one is going to teach someone how to do it either. I think the term in psychology that fits better than Alpha dog is Type-A personality. Even if one were accept a bastardized version where an alpha male were to take some time to actually teach, or at least demonstrate, leadership as an alpha male, I'm thinking it quite a disservice to teach our boys to lead by dominance and intimidation. Sounds a bit harsh, but I see these dynamics all the time in our culture. If one reads carefully the Scout Law, many of the laws do not have a correlation to any form of alpha leadership. Yes, I do spend a lot of time in self-evaluation to see if I exemplify any such alpha characteristics... Your mileage may vary, Stosh

http://www.freelandleslie.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=frontpage&Itemid=79 My boys unanimously vote to go back to this camp each year. It is an out-of-council camp for us. Stosh

One must be vigilant that the traditions of the military and civilian are not the same. There is no "correct" way to fold the flag although we traditionally fold it in the same manner as the military protocol, i.e. the triangle. The triangle fold is specifically designed so as to not have to unfold the flag prior to attaching to the lanyard. Military flags tend to be a bit larger because they are displayed on full flag poles on government installations. I have never seen the military unfold a flag before hoisting. Both grommets are handily available while the flag is still folded. Simply attach correctly, the lanyard will unfurl the flag upon raising. As mentioned a nylon flag will have problems with this, but the nylon flag is an all-weather flag and is displayed appropriately 24/7. Flags that are assumed to be raised and lowered daily are cotton and will not have a problem with unfurling correctly. Is is only when inappropriately applied do problems arise. Your mileage may vary, Stosh

It seems like a lot of scout camps are designed after the space camp concept. Spend a lot of time talking about it, and then actually going into space isn't part of the program. It's a really sad state of affairs when the kid comes home and when asked what he did at camp all he can reply is, "I took up space." There are camps out there that specialize in the "old ways" of doing things. There is nothing in the rule book that says one has to go to the council camp. A scout can go to any camp he wants to. Get on the internet, I was surprised when my boys went looking they found their ideal camp only an hour and a half away! Stosh

When I was in the market to buy a new house a few years back, my realtor told me we were going to visit a lot of houses. We would not be spending a lot of time looking around inside, just walk in the front door, breeze through and out the back. He told me that when I walk into a house that is right for me, I'll know it immediately. Unless I have that feeling, no house will have that "just right" feeling no matter how long I live there. I did what he asked and I found the perfect house. It was at that point, I went back for a second more in-depth look. I'm thinking this advice would be good for your boy. If he has "reservations" about a troop he visits, he will always have those reservations for as long as he participates in that troop. The decision should not be difficult at that point. "Mom! this is the troop I want! It's not perfect, but I'm going to be happier here than anywhere else!" Best of luck with his decision. It sounds like whatever troop gets him is going to be better off because of it. Stosh

Promise them adventure and give them MB's... Promise them adventure and take the outing out of scouting... Promise them adventure and... (fill in the blank after pondering why the older scouts quit) The boys I've met generally join scouting for adventure, what we give them is programs encapsulated with regulations. Your mileage may vary, Stosh

Vegan cupcakes - round hardtack. Stosh

OMG IDK what UR talking about. Kids 2day write better bcuz they have a ton of chances 2 txt thR BBF's ATT. Stosh

I'm not at all familiar with the Jehovah's Witness program, but if they don't celebrate birthdays, it is proper for the child to have a cupcake or cookie in his buddy's honor? Is participating in one's own birthday forbidden or is it for all birthdays? I would think it very appropriate for this boy's mom to instruct his school teacher, that when birthdays are celebrated with treats from the birthday-boy's home that her son not be tempted by receiving a treat.... Yeah, like that's ever going to happen! Your mileage may vary, Stosh

A 4-H gal raised a turkey for a project and when done, donated a 45# turkey to a troop in our council. It wouldn't fit into any oven so they built a tripod cooker at camp and barbequed it whole in this thing. Took all afternoon, and when all was said and done, the troop treated everyone in camp for dinner. It was excellent! At a Civil War reenactment some civilian brought a half dozen chickens for the soldiers to forage over the weekend. In the Federal camp, most of us knew what to do with these live chickens, but those in the Rebel camp pretty much had a bad experience that lasted throughout the whole next week. No many moderns know anything about food processing. Scouts seem to be the only program that makes the effort. Hunting and fishing isn't just for sport. You caught it, you clean it, you cook it. Stosh

The part of processes like these is that one individual makes a choice and then unilaterally expects others to automatically do the same in their choices. Everyone should have equal opportunity to make their own choices. Maybe you don't celebrate birthdays, but others do. If because of your beliefs choose one way, it would be a inappropriate to expect everyone to give up their beliefs to adhere to yours. Thus we have freedom of religion/speech/etc. for all people - equally. Harsh response on my part? Harsh against whom? The one individual or harsh against the concept of majority rule/freedom of religion? Maybe you don't celebrate your birthday, but we as a group do... celebrate your birthday. If you think it's wrong, pass on the cake. But I'm going to have a cookie in your honor because I believe it's important... to me. Your mileage may vary, Stosh

I'm thinking the chickens were a learning tool of convenience because most MB counselors wouldn't want to wait 2-3 days for the boys to catch something in their dead-fall traps. And after all is said and done how much training is there being done with edible wild plants? Surely a boy can collect enough stinging nettles and cattails faster than he can butcher a chicken. But, alas, it's not as much fun to cut cattails in knee deep water than it is to whittle away at a live chicken with a belt knife. Your mileage may vary, Stosh

Science: Something that can be conclusively proven, reproduced, and independently verified. Meteorology is the scientific study of weather. Ever wonder how conclusively proven, reproduced and independently verified the weather report is? Some of these guys would be better off conclusively proving, reproducing, and independently verifying by looking out the widow. Global warming is another one of those can-of-worms. Psychology and sociology - OMG, where does one begin? Stosh

Science: Something that can be conclusively proven, reproduced, and independently verified. If you don't believe me, ask any meteorologist, psychologist, sociologist, etc. Stosh

Mike, he's going to take a look at it, play with it a few minutes, figure out how to put it on and say "Thanks, Dad!" and the whole thing will be over and done with! Stosh

jrush, we're pretty much on the same page. Maybe it's just semantics, but I do see a major difference between management and leadership, even within the military structure. To me most in the military do both, but separately. A sergeant is tasked to accomplish a mission with his squad. He knows the object and what is necessary to accomplish/manage it. However, at the same time he has to lead others or he isn't going anywhere with it unless he just wants to do it himself. Managers manage tasks, but Leaders lead people. A scout can accomplish a project (task) without ever doing any real leadership. Directing others, telling them what they need to do to accomplish the task isn't really leadership, it's just a form of using people to manage a task. On the other hand when an Life Scout announces that he's going to be doing a project and everyone wants in to help out and will self direct towards different aspects of the task just so the potential Eagle for sure get's his rank, somewhere along the line that boy has shown some real leadership. Officers who take care of their men and demonstrate such leadership, will find their men will follow them into Hell if necessary to do what's necessary and even die trying. Real leadership has a very small component of it we know as management. He knows what needs to be done, but who will follow is what leadership is all about. Your mileage may vary, Stosh

Best one I saw was a few years back on a hoodie sweatshirt. Full school logo with "University of Iwoa" on it. Buy 'em a book, send 'em to school, and this is what you get. Stosh