Stosh

It's kinda remarkable how many things I had forgotten I still knew that I never get a change to use anymore. I know how to make gunpowder and ink, but I just don't find the need to do it anymore. Right now I sit typing this when I have a fountain pen made of deer antler in my pocket ready to go. My ball-point matching pen is on my desk in the other room. I still prefer the fountain pen.

My statistics class was taken using the Wang Calculator that stored one's data on a cassette tape. Hand held calculators were forbidden from being used in any and all math classes. Slide-rules could still be used. The college's computer was used for the computer science department which stored it's information on key-punch cards.

Insurance policies, gun-free zone policies, BSA policies, etc. have all kept things running smoothly without problems.... That's what Robert Frost was getting at. The one neighbor said good fences make good neighbors, but without fail every year they are back there mending the fence so that the one neighbor's apples will be kept from the other neighbor's pine cones. Robert Frost said that good fences make good neighbors. Perhaps good insurance policies make good scouters. Even with the Golden Rule in place, gun laws coming out our ears, policies created, 10 Commandments preached, people still are getting shot everyday. The "fences" are irrelevant. If the CO isn't going to file a police report, then they can't file an insurance claim either. And even then one does not need to file a claim even if they have insurance. Every situation is different. I have maximum liability coverage and an additional $1M umbrella policy on my homeowner's insurance. And yet I carry no life insurance, nor collision/comprehensive insurance on my cars. I'm not going to pay an insurance company for my stupidity, and if I'm in an accident and it's not my fault, the other guy's insurance is going to pay. The last time one of my cars was damaged, I put a claim on the other driver's insurance. His insurance paid up in full, no questions asked. Remember, one gets the name, contact information AND INSURANCE contact when in an accident. I don't have insurance on my vehicles except liability, so I just file on the other guy's insurance. It's surprising how slick that works.

@@SSScout is correct in that there are always a number of boys that need POR credit and there are a number of USEFUL ways of doing that. As I have mentioned previously, my troops have tended to be small operations and so there is no need to have a "full-time" SPL, but when it is needed, one of the PL's does the necessary work, like at summer camp or at a camporee. When the troop did grow large enough to warrant a full-time SPL, he was selected from the existing APL's to take on the task. They didn't want to give up their PL positions and a good supportive APL makes a great supportive SPL as well. When a boy comes to me and says he "needs a POR" I ask him what he wants to do. He needs 6 months experience in a POR. Does that mean 6 months as one POR or can it be 1 month for 6 POR's? Which will produce effective responsibility? (Notice I did not use the word "leadership" because it's not a position of leadership.) So the boy plans out a curriculum for teaching lashings to the NSP (1 month). Then he cleans out the store room and inventories all the equipment and marks it so each patrol's items don't get mixed up (1 month). Then he takes 4 weeks to do the opening prayer, devotion and closing prayer at the meeting's flag ceremony (1 month). The Troop's website hasn't been updated for the past year and a half. He updates all the names and phone numbers and puts on new pictures and updates the calendar (1 month). He researches all the scout camps within 200 miles of the unit, collecting up information on each and making a presentation to the older boys who would like something new and different from the same-old, same-old council summer camp (1 month). The older boys think it's great, so the scout registers the two older patrols at the camp of their choice, lines up their MB's, collects the registrations and lines up travel expenses and organizes a fundraiser to defray the extra cost associated with the further distance the boys need to go (1 month). One of the Den Chiefs is going to be out of town for an extended period of time and the boy fills in for him with the Cubs (1 month). Okay, the boy shows up for his BOR with all of this documented. What Board is going to question whether or not he has fulfilled his requirement for advancement? I have seen a ton of boys get buy on less than 10% of that amount of effort in the past by wearing a ASPL patch and doing absolutely nothing for 6 months. AS SM it's not my job to "assign" POR's nor evaluate their completion, but boys that serve in 2-3 different positions for those 6 months have never been penalized for doing so. As a matter of fact, there have been boys that have received positive comments for not marking time in a WebMaster position and when the work was done moved on to something productive rather than sitting around waiting for his time to expire.

When I was an administrative assistant for the General Manager of a major corporation that produced a huge and vastly complex piece of machinery, I was going through an old closet cleaning it out I found an old slide-rule. I put it on my counter by my desk as a "conversation" piece. It was kinda surprising how many of the corporate engineers came over and wanted me to teach them how to use it. They made jokes about it, but I always reminded them, this was the major scientific instrument that put man on the moon. None of the ever mentioned that the only one in the Engineering Building that still knew how to use one..... and he was a "secretary".

Okay, @@SSScout how's that car ever going to get to the bottom of the track if it keeps hovering over the starting line?

I believe that what is being sought here is a definition of scope. if the scout is expected to do park K as agreed upon by the beneficiary, once that's done it has no further expectations of any other criteria. The scout did what was expected of him. I know of a lot of scout projects that were "just a part" of something far larger and find nothing wrong with the scout's work in doing just a part of it. I once had an Eagle evaluate military graves to make sure the stones were readable, present, damaged, etc. in the local cemeteries and submit applications for new ones that needed replacement. His project encompassed 5 cemeteries comprising about 25% of the total scope of cemeteries in the county. He had 19 stones placed in the cemetery. Okay. That was 25% of the cemeteries in the county. What about those in the rest of the state? And what about those in the next state and maybe even in the nation? The boy did more than what was necessary to show leadership by doing just 25% and that was more than not doing anything. His work made a nice article in the local as well as state wide newspaper. Could more be done? Yep, but that's up to the next scout that wants to prove his leadership. Will the job ever get "completed"? Well I have been working on it as a personal project for 15 years now, the part the Eagle scout did was a big help. I'm not done yet, but the work continues on. Oh, if anyone thinks that this Eagle did a project for his ASM (my position at the time) guess again. He did it for the County Veterans Administration was they were totally elated the boy took the time to do this work. The people who place flags every year for Memorial Day do not report back when they can't find a grave for a veteran that's supposed to be there, is damaged, etc. They have hounded me ever since if there's going to be another Eagle project coming their way!

Of course they are, it offers an unfair advantage to the gravity fed cars whether it be Pinewood or Soap Box.

One needs to review their Robert Frost. That line is the entrenched stance of a man who has no real excuse for having a fence in the first place, after all my apples are no threat to his pine cones. But...... "good fences make good neighbors." In other words, the insurance isn't really going to make a bit of difference for those whose intent is to do wrong anymore than hunters climbing and knocking down fences in pursuit of their prey.

Yep, and if the police have the proper paperwork they can come and see the lettuce, radishes, beets, carrots that I'm growing. I don't think the loft would work as well as 2 4'x4' raised beds in the basement. Next month is set-up time for all the early start plants. One of the things that "greens" growers often forget is that darkness is a good thing. My lights are on timers so as to not waste electricity. 12 hours on 12 hours off, on a timer, works great and uses only half the energy consumption. I'm beginning to explore the possibility of rabbit hutches down there as well, but with all the travel I do, that might not be feasible. My daughter is pushing hydroponics for my next endeavor. Feeding fish can be done automatically and with lights that I already have, I should be able to have fish for dinner as well. Trout is the preferred fish of choice in our area, tilapia isn't as hardy.

If one were to read some of the early literature of the BSA one would conclude that the role of SM is significantly less than it is today. The boys would head out for summer camp (which would last most of the summer) and the SM would come out on the weekends to check on how they were doing. It is remarkable how much we have "progressed" over the years.

I assume you didn't look at the link. What was in this library one couldn't Google.

Welcome to the forum. I as well have never heard of a scout rep at a committee meeting. I don't think I would want one in my troop either. Basically the unit committee is responsible for making sure the unit is following the prescribed BSA program so that the scouts actually get what they paid for. I just started a new troop a few years back and my troop committee is there to support the work of the boys and therefore insure the Boy Scout unit is run as boy-led. Cubs would run more of an adult-led program in that the boys really can't handle the job of running the unit. It would seem that you perceive the committee as being controlling and would suggest to me they are "running the show". If one were to read BSA policy this is NOT the way a Boy Scout troop is run. It is to be boy-run/led by using the patrol method as prescribed in the BSA literature. The structure of order in my troop is the PL's are at the top of the org chart. with SPL the person that supports them in their leadership with the patrols. The SM is under him supporting the work of the boys in the troop. The committee is at the bottom doing anything and everything to insure the boys are successful in the operation of their troop. Of course whatever the structure one uses in the troop the #1 concern is having the boys run the program. If one has over zealous/controlling adults trying to run the show, then there's no need to burn any bridges, it's simply time to find a troop that respects and supports the boys in their program. Just remember, BSA is a program for boys, not a program for adults. They need to be standing in the wings helping the boys be successful.

Probably not, they are still with Scouting.......

Well, I don't know much about kids today, but when Iwent to college, we would spend most of our time at the Library. https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-library-la-crosse?osq=Bars

Anyone that is in a position of trust can be bonded. It's like an insurance policy for those you think will screw up or do something stupid. I think my wife has one of those policies on me.

A 1 ' by 20' strip of land between the southside of the house and driveway was my first gardening attempt. I was about 8 or 9 years old at the time. I bought a package of strawflower seeds and have been working in the dirt ever since then. Over the years I have learned how to produce a lot of vegetables with a very little effort. One of the gardens I grew in Iowa was turned over each spring by a farmer friend of mine who had a tractor and plow. When I retired I bought a 9 acre hobby farm that is on a hill facing south. My youth group at church started a garden next to the church, they hope to provide enough harvest to sustain the garden and provide fresh produce for the local food pantry at the end of next summer. It's not just vegetables, I maintain the Scatter Garden at the local cemetery for people who haven't the funds to be buried in a standard grave or mausoleum. The county maintains a Potter's Field, but this one takes up a lot less space and still is a nice place for an indigent's ashes to be scattered. I was never an Eagle scout, but I try to do a personal "Eagle" project every year. Just yesterday I turned over 2700 pages of historical/genealogical research I have been working on to the archives department of the local library. The project started out 15+ years ago as a half dozen file folders of a few names. Now their stories are forever kept at the libraries archives. This year's project is an indoor garden in the basement under grow lights so I can have fresh greens and root stock year around. The Mrs. and I spend about $100/month on groceries we need beyond what we produce ourselves. I may not be "off the grid", but if the grid goes down, I'm not going to have much of a problem.

What people fail to realize in all this mess is that the unit fund raises under a tax exempt number for that CO and the money given is designated as for the program under that CO. There is no way a group of people can take those funds and assets from that CO without constituting theft. That's the ethical basis for the "new" scout unit. Not much of a legacy to start out with. Let's see how that works out. A church is having problems with their pastor. As time goes by, the minority of members who have taken the pastor's side, all decide to start a new church with their pastor. The pastor and followers take with them the pews, all the tables in the fellowship hall and all the desks in the Sunday School rooms. Basically everything that isn't nailed down. Does anyone see a problem here? If not good luck with the new church and the message it plans on promoting.

There's a couple dozen of them for sale right now on Ebay. Between Google and Ebay, there's no longer any reason to come out of your parents basement anymore.

I remember "back in the day" of the Soap Box Derby, there was a boy that used a magnet to pull a jump start off the retaining gate at the top of the hill when it dropped. I guess boys will be boys.

Welcome! Hope what you are seeking here is something you can use to help your boys. 95% of the stuff here, even if it appears to be contradictory is useful. Not all units operate the same and what works for one might not work for another. Seeing both sides of all these issues should be beneficial to your specific situation. Don't lurk, jump in, the water's fine.

The reason they call all these organizations secret societies is because they don't what people to know that they exist....

1) I have a garden which I grow 75% of our vegetables and potatoes. 2) Dropped 2 deer, 12 rabbits and a couple dozen squirrels last fall. That accounts about 80% of our meat. Even if they did shoot wild game would the average person know what to do with it to clean it for consumption? 3) I know how to tan hides and I know how to piece together scraps of material, repair and maintain clothing. 4) Wild rice and cattails are 2 grains in our area that are quite plentiful. 5) Dairy comes from more than cows. And with all the people that are lactose intolerant, one will come to the eventual conclusion that milk is not something intended for adult consumption. Raising rabbits and chickens is quite common in our area. A ton of people mow more food each day in their yards than they can consume in a year. One ear of carried over shoepeg heritage corn produces enough sweet corn in my freezer to last all winter long. Had some for upper last night. I don't eat much local fish (high mercury content), but I do have all the equipment to supplement the meat in the freezer and they can be harvested 365 days of the year. If one knows the techniques, one can grow and harvest year around even in the snows of the upper Midwest.

Except in the woods where one might lose it, what scout activity would it be inappropriate? Personal choice - 100%

This sort of "stuff" happens on a routine basis in far more units than those getting the publicity. For years the adults complained about the school CO for one of our feeder Packs. 4 organizations met on meeting night one after another and the Cubs were last in line. The place was a mess when they arrived and everyone had to stay extra long to get the place leaned up or the school janitors had a fit all the way up to the school superintendent. I had just started my troop with my current CO and so we worked with the Pack to get them switched over to our CO. Everyone was happy for 2 seconds. With the new CM, who doesn't like the meeting place...the church BASEMENT!... they are now working to go back to the school CO once again. The church "basement" was not a storage dump. It was the church's fellowship hall, with stage, carpeting, plenty of tables, soda machine, nice bathrooms and a full church kitchen and plenty of storage for Cub equipment. I wonder how much drama has to occur to get them back to the original CO? I was the UC for the Pack, but I got switched out when I told the District Commish I didn't need that kind of hassle in my life and someone else can mess with it. There seems to be a lot more people living at conflict levels 4 and 5 nowadays.