NWScouter

Hard to make the cut. I guess the six I that made the cut were because: one I earned as a youth, one was given on recommendation of youth in the unit I served as Scoutmaster, one represents the service I gave in what I think is the most important positions in scouting, and the last three because they were awarded to me based on total service I gave in Scouting. AOL Scoutmaster Award of Merit Scouters Key (UC & SM device) District Award of Merit Silver Beaver Lamb Award (Adult Religious) Had to leave off: Den Leader Award (Webelos pre 88) Training Key ( Boy Scout & Cub Scout(again pre 88) devices) Distinguished Commissioner

My understanding is the only ones in this state that has to keep strict records on hours and are paid by the hour is the dinning hall staffs the rest fall under some state rules for volunteers with stipends. The volunteer part would play havoc with them registered as employees. The crews that the camps staff are registered seem to turn out most of Venture advancement in our council and are quite active. See my post on young woman in camp Leah was president of the crew.

I can tell you guys arent from the west coast. I started to go as parent/ scoutmaster to scout camp in the mid 80s. My last as a youth was 69. I went to camps in my home council Evergreen/Mt. BakerFire Mountain, Chief Seattle Parsons, Portland Ore. Council Meriwether, and Northern Idaho Easton; all which had females on staff. The one Im most familiar with is Fire Mountain, my son served on staff there for ten years, starting as Staff in training 14 years old and end up for two years as Program Director. They had females on staff there back when he was cub scout and that was not only for cub camps. They registered then as Explorers then and now as Ventures. Yes there were are few that had boys on their minds but it was handled. But of the others, I remember most but the two Ill mention are Kristin and Leah, both of whom I would trust my life with the back country as I would most of the young people I worked with on that staff. Kirstin you would find in the morning running before breakfast. For she was on Idaho State cross country team, I dont know how many years she was on staff, but for a few years she was the climbing director and ended her time as Program director a year or two after my son. Now Leah is one of two daughters of fellow Vigil members, I saw her grow up. As Kirstin was runner, Leah was a swimmer, she avoided beach staff, but every week was in the lake leading the mile swim. I rowed a couple years her guard boat and almost got run over by her, she was fast. Now she only stayed on staff from 14 to summer before her senior year, she went off the Coast Guard Academy and now serving as Ensign. By the way both of the hold the Girl Scout Gold Award and Leah the Venture Silver and I think the Ranger. I dont know of any camp out in this area that does not have young women and staff and I would not change. By the way many of them show up at OA events and as soon as they turn twenty-one some unit elects them as adult to the OA.

Its been quite a few years since I took any Venturing training but I remember thinking I would have been in violation of the YP rules if Venturing had be around when I was first married and we had both been involved. I was 21 and my wife was three weeks short of her 19th birthday on our wedding day.. The rules as I remember say that an adult leader and a youth in venturing cannot be romantically involved. It is a sticky wicket trying to protect youth that age and accepting the reality of society.

Since a non-registered adult is one that has not been vetted, I would think that allowing a non-parent or guardian on an outing is a loop hole that you drive a truck through in youth protection. When I was a Scoutmaster we made uncles, moms boyfriend, older brother all register before we let them go specially on overnight.

Is it not like the rest of the BSA, the non-registered adult must be a parent or guardian of one of the youth members?

Just my understanding of how presidential campaign financing works from my spot as Precinct Committee Officer and Legislative District organization Vice-Chair. The great debate on signing on to Public Funding is who will be able to raise the most money The Candidates campaign or the National/State Parties. To effectively run a campaign you need money, you need organization in the local communities to identify, register and get out the voters (GOTV). Ads on TV are just a small part of it. It is not much different than The Boy Scouts. You hire people to work full time to recruit volunteers. You rent office space for them to work out of, get phones, PCs, copiers and other office supplies so they can work effectively. Where the money comes from to pay for this is what the choice of public financing or not. Four years ago the Kerry campaign went public so the National/State Parties picked up the tab because they could raise money. This year the money that Obama is raising from small and large donors would hard to turn off or redirect to the Party, so they are funding most of it. To answer a questions about how can people give so much money to candidate is technically they will not be giving to the candidate. If had the money, I could give to the candidate, the national party, the state party. Then I could give to my Unions COPE (Committee on Political Education) PAC, and any number of other of PACs. If you have a lot of money there are ways to give lots of money.

What the BSA says about the groups like this: Statement from the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America Regarding Solicitations Scouters and others have been receiving letters from various nonprofit organizations claiming to support the Boy Scouts of America and seeking contributions. Some of these groups refer to Scouting in their name: "Save Our Scouts", or "Scouting Legal Defense Fund", and some do not. All of them claim to be supporting Scouting's legal activities in some fashion, but none of them are authorized by BSA to be seeking funds. Most importantly, no contributions to these groups go directly to Scouting. The Boy Scouts of America does not solicit funds in this manner and you may be assured that no names or addresses are ever sold or given to anyone outside the organization. These groups generally use mailing lists purchased from commercial organizations which compile such lists from magazine subscriptions and other sources. We regret the confusion and misdirection of contributions that these solicitations cause and we are taking appropriate legal measures to deal with these parties. Under our federal Constitution these groups have the right to solicit funds and to express their support, but they do not have any right to mislead or confuse people. Some of these organizations have provided support to BSA through "friend-of-the-court-briefs" or published articles, but we would prefer that they did not seek to profit by these activities through soliciting funds in the name of Scouting. Their activities have resulted in confusion and frustration for many of the recipients of these solicitations. Anyone who wishes to support the Boy Scouts of America should make their contributions directly to local Scout Councils. Councils may be listed in your telephone directory under "Boy Scouts of America" or you may find a council by searching the council locator at http://www.scouting.org. Online contributions and additional council information may be found at http://www.give2bsa.org. My thoughts: Just as always, one must be careful where you give money -- Many of have been hit up by groups that claim to be supporting firefighters, law enforcement, disease of the week, religious groups and other such groups which tug on your heartstrings or have names very similar to well known national groups. Most of these will only use 10% or less of the funds donated for the cause they promote, the rest for overhead or to the pocket of the promoter. Be careful give only to group you know and check out.

A few years backs I was on camp staff and we had a young man who kept coming into my area, crafts and saying he had to finish up his MB because he would be going home early. He spent much of his time in the medics office. When at 10pm she was called to treat a sprained ankle out at the troop site. She had him sent to town to be checked out. I went as the second adult with an ASM from the troop into town to the hospital. It wasnt until 2:30 am (due to an lady dying in the ER) that we found out that the Scout was on medication for depression and his parents had decided to give him a vacation from meds. I sure enjoyed watching the doctor calling and waking them to give approval for him to prescribe. The scout made it through the week and had a lot more fun on Meds than the first few days. Scoutldr, just the tree hugger in me hopes that your wife isnt flushing meds down the john. There a great problem in getting meds into the water system that way.

I got this request in email from a den leader I met while I was visting the pack Im commissioner for. I have a question, do you know where I can obtain a good diagram as to where all patches, pins and insignias are to be placed on a Leader as well as a Cub Scout' uniform? I found this one: http://www.scouting.org/forms/34282.pdf but it is visually not very clear. What do you recommend? I not having much luck. Any ideas? Thanks, Curt

I'm so confused now. What are you calling the loop? Looking at my palque (from 1993), the interwined line to make the knot is on top and what I would call the loop is down. This is the way I have it on my uniform also.

When I was a Scoutmaster, our Scouts put the pressure on the boys with camp partials. It all had to do with our Fall Court of Honor. The PLC would set the date late in September or the first week in October with liberal announcements that it was so anyone who had a partial from camp would have time to finish. No one seemed to want to look like a slacker when all the families were there to see the all the work that had been done since the last COH. The call to me from Scouts wanting to know where they could find a counselor would get hot and heavy as the date loomed. I remember many a blue card turned into me for a signature and pleading to our advancement chair, Mr. Stanley, would you be able to have the merit badge for the COH tomorrow night? The big softy made many a last minute trip on the afternoon of COH to the Scout Office. Of course there was a Scoutmaster who always seemed to find time to do last minute Scoutmaster Conferences and with his buddy, the advancement chair, seemed be able to gather the committee members for a board. But what really worked for our troop was the PLC setting a date for the COH and the internal pressure that the Scouts put on themselves.

Just reading the information in the news article, I am speculating that there are two reasons for the husband to seek the ruling. The first that pops to mind is avoiding prosecution for statutory rape. He is in his thirties and she is or was in her low teens. The second is to their rights to benefits that they may have due to him serving time, they may be spousal visits and welfare type benefits. It would be interesting to know why the issue of the marriage ended up in court. Child support and visitation rights seem to be not dependant on marital status.

1962 for me

Just to get a little controversy going for Scout Sunday. Who is going to win, the Seahawks or the Steelers? For this Blue (Seahawk blue) Stater from the far Northwest I pick the Hawks 28-14. How do you see it?

And as for what units expect from their councils all I can say is that I expect them to do their job -- as they expect me to do mine. If processing paperwork competently and on time is a burden then they're not doing their job. That portion of their responsibilities should have nothing to do with popcorn money or FOS. It has a great deal to do with FOS and popcorn and camp fees and scout store prices. It what pays for the salaries of the people who make their living working for you and your unit. It pays for the building and supplies and the upkeep of camps and the program. If not for FOS and popcorn and there wouldnt be people to do those things. ManyIrons think of that next time you fill out your FOS pledge.

I hate to say this guys but the MBC in with in his rights to not sign off on the card. The grid on the back of the card is entirely optional. It can filled out or not. As a partial it can be accepted by a different MBC or not. He may retest or not. The MBC is stating by signing the blue card that the Scout has completed the merit badge requirements. The MBC is the final judge. If you believe that MBC is adding or subtracting to the requirements the only final recourse is to have the district advancement committee remove him from the list. Now weather or not this MBC is wrong in this instance in going back on his word is a different matter. But only he can put his name on the card.

I've seen the arrows decorated with narrow and wide stripes for dots and dashes to spell out the scout's name in morse code. (corrected -- I couldn't get the edit feature to work)

I've the arrows decorated with narrow and wide stripes for dots and dashes to spell out the scout's name in morse code.

He should wear it on Scout Sunday/Sabbath and whenever he is at presentation of a religious award.

Another knot that a youth may wear is the James E.West Award. In fact the first time I saw it , the knot was on a brand new Boy Scout at summer camp back in 1995, he proudly said to me "I got that because my grandpa gave money to the council" The Jame E. West Award is given to anyone giving or has given in their name $1000 the a council endowment fund.

On which charter you are listed? The COR is listed on the unit charter therefore wear the unit loops- red if is a troop, blue pack, and so on with unit number. If your charter organization has more than one unit chose your color or wear the color for the unit you are with at the time. Never wear a different color on each shoulder. I wore red and unit number on my Scoutmaster shirt and when I wore the one with my district position patch, I wore silver and no unit number. Now some read the uniform guide that you wear the color of your primary registration. I find this confusing.

Most camps would be glad to let you recharge. I know my batteries for Nikon D70 only take two hours to be fully charged. They also last forever it seems. Helps that you don't and can't use the lcd screen to compose the shots. I just had to send back one of my batteries to Nikon, they had issued a recall on some the batteries for SLR D cameras. They may short out, overheat and melt. Check the Nikon site, search for battery recall (the web address took up 8 lines).

The unspoken reason for the creation of Ventures and Learning for Life is the ability to change the membership requirements for both youth and adults. The governments sponsored posts in Exploring had to be nondiscriminatory

There are two types of Eagle Board of Review one set up and staffed by the district advancement committee and the other set up and staffed by the troop committee. It is the council decision on which type. The district run board members are recruited and organized by the district advancement chair or person he delegates to be in charge. They members are drawn from a cross section of the scouters from the district (including some SM and ASM) and community leaders (mayors, councilpersons, police chiefs, judges, bussines owners and other community leaders). Members of the candidate's unit (troop, team, crew) do not sit on his board but his unit leader or designate (not a parent) introduces the candidate and stays as an observer. Our district last month had three boards sitting at the same time and six candidates going through them. The troop run boards are selected by the troop and must include one district representative. I have sat on both kinds (invited to be on one in council just south of mine), I prefer the district run board. Generally just a higher quality control.