Ohio_Scouter

Hi oz, Our Venture Patrol went caving in the Great Saltpetre Cave Preserve in Mount Vernon, Kentucky. They had a blast as usual. http://www.caves.org/conservancy/gsp/

I'd like to see the post. It disappeared before I could read it.

I like the new switchbacks. They worked well at Philmont this summer.

OGE, More evidence that its worth it CENTENNIAL, CO - A local Boy Scout is glad his troop learned the Heimlich maneuver during first aid training because it may have saved his sister's life. Last Wednesday 8-year-old Jordyn Baker and her brother, 12-year-old Jackson, were at their family's breakfast nook doing homework when Jordyn started choking on a carrot. Their mom was upstairs, so Jackson took quick action to help his struggling sister. "I started to cough and I couldn't really breathe anymore, and then Jackson just did the Heimlich," said Jordyn. "I didn't really think, I just started doing the Heimlich maneuver on her and called for my mom," said Jackson. Their mother, Tracy, got downstairs just in time to see her son successfully do the Heimlich. She was both proud and relieved. "I was very shaken up. And I was so grateful at the same time that Jackson had the composure to do exactly what he needed to do to save his sister," she said. Jackson's patrol advisor, Marc Ginsburg, says he's working to get Jackson the badge for heroism. "The bottom line is that Scouts is just more than walking old ladies across the street, and doing good deeds. I mean, he actually saved his sister's life," he said.

OGE, Trust me, it's worth it. I'm reassured of it every time I compare the "before" to the "after" product, and every time a parent thanks me for all the time I spend helping their boys because maybe they can't or don't know how to help.

packsaddle, OGE, Looks like Merlyn_LeRoy posted the story elsewhere on these forums at the same time. He and Ed are already arguing about it. Let me know if I need to repost. Thanks

Congratulations, Its Me. I can't wait to hear some good Scout stories.

Talk about raising fees! Well, it looks like the City of Philadelphia has found a new way to raise fees. Check it out below. Posted on Thu, Oct. 18, 2007 City hikes Boy Scouts' rent by $199,999 over gay ban By Joseph A. Slobodzian Philadelphia Inquirer Staff Writer The Boy Scouts of America's refusal to bend its rules to permit gay scouts will cost the organization's local chapter $200,000 a year if it wishes to keep its headquarters in a city-owned building on Logan Square. Representatives of the Boy Scouts of America's Cradle of Liberty Council were notified that to remain in their 79-year-old landmark headquarters, they needed to pay the city a "fair market" rent, Fairmount Park Commission president Robert N.C. Nix said yesterday. Currently, the rent is $1 a year. The city decided on the rent proposal after it was unable to reach a compromise with the local scout council in talks that have gone on since May. "Once we know what the Cradle of Liberty Boy Scouts want to do, we'll probably want to weigh in with the city about how to proceed," Nix told the park commission. Barring a resolution, the Cradle of Liberty Council - about 64,000 scouts in Philadelphia and parts of Delaware and Montgomery Counties - must vacate the property at 22d and Winter Streets after May 31. "It's disappointing, and it's certainly a threat," said Jeff Jubelirer, a spokesman for Cradle of Liberty Council, referring to the rent's impact on the scouts' chances of staying on the site. Jubelirer said $200,000 a year in rent "would have to come from programs. That's 30 new Cub Scout packs, or 800 needy kids going to our summer camp." Nevertheless, Jubelirer said, scouting officials will ask City Solicitor Romulo L. Diaz Jr. for details on the real estate appraisals that yielded the $200,000 rent figure. Cradle of Liberty officials have said they could not renounce the scouts' long-established policy of not opening membership to atheists or openly gay people without running afoul of their charter with the scouts' National Council. City officials have said they could not legally rent taxpayer-owned property for a dollar a year to a private organization that discriminates. The land belongs to the City of Philadelphia but has been leased since 1928 for that token sum to the scouts, who built the landmark Beaux Arts building. That lease came into question only after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2000 in a New Jersey case involving an openly gay scout who was barred from serving as troop leader. The high court in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale ruled, 5-4, that the scouts, as a private organization, have a right of "expressive association" under the First Amendment to set their own membership rules. The scouts have long required members to swear an oath of duty to God, and their rules prohibit membership by anyone who is openly homosexual. For that reason, scouting officials initially greeted the Supreme Court's ruling as a victory. That mood quickly evaporated, however, as local government officials around the nation began reexamining long-standing preferential relationships with scouts. Unlike the scouts, public officials are also bound by a line of Supreme Court opinions barring taxpayer support of any group that discriminates. In Philadelphia, officials wrestled for months for a way to let the scouts remain at their longtime headquarters. At one point in 2005, the city and scouts seemed poised to agree on a policy statement adopted by New York scouts. That statement, while not renouncing the bars against atheist or gay members, affirmed that "prejudice, intolerance and unlawful discrimination in any form are unacceptable." But last year, Diaz wrote Cradle of Liberty Council officials to say the suggested policy statement could not be reconciled with the city's own anti-discriminatory fair-practices ordinance. Again, both sides began trading proposals. That ended May 31, when City Council voted 16-1 to authorize ending the lease with Cradle of Liberty Council. The resolution was introduced unexpectedly by Councilman Darrell L. Clarke and passed, 16-1, with no debate. Both Clarke, a Center City Democrat whose district includes the scouts building, and Diaz, a prominent member of the city's gay community, said they hoped the resolution would spur talks to resolve the dispute. Nix said yesterday that those talks had apparently failed, leading to the lease proposal.

Hey hop_scout, Chill out! Best I ever did in Scouts in the 1960s was make second class Scout, yet I consider myself pretty successful. I got a good education, a wonderful family, a great job, and I''m an Assistant Scoutmaster in BSA (adult leader--that''s even higher rank than Eagle Scout, don''t you know) in a great Troop who gets to work on all the exciting eagle stuff with a bunch of pretty cool Scouts and Scouters. We''ve been to Northern Tier, Seabase, Philmont, and numerous other high adventure trips. So don''t worry about rank; rank isn''t even mentioned in the Scout Oath, Law, and Motto. It''s your character that counts.

eisely, Yes, the title is Bear Attacks: Their Causes and Avoidance, Revised Edition, by Stephen Herrero, Lyons Press, Guilford, Connecticut, an imprint of The Globe Pequot Press. Copyright 1985, 2002. ISBN 1-58574-557-X. I bought my copy in the summer of 2004 during our Troop''s high adventure trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks through Grand Teton Natural History Association, P.O. Box 170, Moose, Wyoming 83012, or Telephone 307.739.3606, www.grandtetonpark.org, for $16.95 US at the time. Let me know if you need anything else.

dan, Steven Herrero''s book, "Bear Attacks: Their Cause and Avoidance", has a lot of good information about bear attacks. His book analyzes bear attacks in the US, Canada and Alaska for over 100 yrs. Even though there are many anecdotal bear attack books, such as Larry Kaniut''s books, Herrero is considered the premiere work because he analyzes patterns and types of attacks and how people survived or why they didn''t survive. He separates Black bears from Grizzly and Brown bears since the behavior is so different. A very helpful hint is how to tell the difference between a defensive attack and a predatory attack. Most experienced bear hunters know that there are two types of attacks, but what is surprising is that Black bears who are predators do it almost always during the day and Grizzlies do it at night. Predatory bears are aiming to kill and eat you. Defensive bears who attack are guarding territory, cache, kills or cubs. He gives vital instructions about dealing with Defensive attacks. But with predatory bears, he insists that if you lay down and act submissive that you will be killed. The only thing to turn back a predatory attack is to fight. But you have to know the difference. Another surprising statistic is that black bears rarely attack in defensive of their cubs (Grizzlies fiercely defend their cubs). Black bears will usually run or protect cubs and not attack humans while defending cubs. Most daytime Grizzly attacks are defensive. Most daytime Black bear attacks are Predatory. No one who is riding a horse has ever been attacked by a bear. Horses have thrown riders in fear of a bear, and the bear hasn''t attacked the thrown rider either. Black bears have a higher rate of predatory behavior during low berry production years. Berry crop failures are significant factors for Black bears who need to fatten up before hibernation. Every situation is different, but the valuable help of this book is the analysis of hundreds of attacks by both types of bears and clearly giving you an understanding of how to react to aggressive behavior.

Joni4TA, Our troop is a bit larger (about 35 scouts), and we have determined, after a lot of trial-and-error sales projects, that an annual Troop garage or yard sale works best for us. We generate anywhere between $3,000.00 and $5,000.00 per year to help fund our Troop''s operations and equipment needs just from this one activity. We collect donations from the surrounding neighborhoods all throughout the year, and early in June, just before summer camp and high adventure trips, we conduct the garage sale which lasts the entire weekend. Our scouts and scouters camp out and are on hand to staff the sale bright and early each day. We work in shifts and feed the workers with normal camp food all weekend. It works well for us. Good luck to you!

Congratulations, meamemg, and job well done.

GoldWinger, Try this site; it''s loaded with Philmont icons and clipart: http://www.pineapplefish56.net/Scouting-Fun.html

Congratulations, Kudu. You''re obviously having too much fun! Now, if we can just find a way to help LisaBob with her recruiting.

Hi luv2b, I''ve seen John Wayne''s interpretation of the Scout Law in print, but I don''t think I''ve ever heard of an audio version. Sorry.

Lisa, I have to agree with John-in-KC. It''s well known that if you want young boys to show up somewhere, just exhibit some high-adventure "gear" like backpacking, climbing, caving, canoeing, sailing, mountain man activities (blacksmithing, knives, guns, tomahawks, etc.). Cool-looking cars with the hoods up and the engines exposed works, too! We converted our Scout meeting place into a climbing and rappelling facility with several different climbing walls built by our older scouts and adults. All the Scouts practice climbing up and rappelling down the walls. They practice their cave ascending and descending by walking rope riggings from floor to ceiling. You ought to see how many unsolicited boys show up from the neighborhood and from other troops looking for something exciting to do. We also have photos and mementos of all our high-adventure trips posted all over the walls. They talk about it constantly. I''m convinced the high-adventure angle works best! If you want more specifics, let me know. Better luck next time.

In addition to the normal campout reports from scouts, rank advancement, and merit badge distribution, we have a meal for all attendees. After dinner, we have a slide show with selected photos of all Troop activities and campouts that have occurred since last COH. The slide show is set to our SM''s extensive collection of 70''s or 80''s rock music. The scouts, scouters, and parents love it!

Every fall, our troop has a father (or mother)/son mountain man competition which includes scored cooking contests, rifle and shotgun shooting contests, knife and tomahawk throwing contests, corn-hole contests, spear throwing contests, blowgun competitions, and frisbee golf contests, to name a few. Our guys love these competitions each year, and the judges have a great time judging the cooking contests, plus they eat free. Good luck and have fun.

It cost me over $1,000 and some pretty serious backpacking to earn my 2007 Chinese-made Philmont arrowhead patch. It''s the only one I have, and it may be the only one I ever get. I''m pretty proud of it, so I''m gonna wear it over my right shirt pocket, but I''m not gonna eat it. Like Gern says, if they want my lead based made-in-China Philmont patch, they''re gonna have to come and get it. I''m also convinced that it doesn''t matter where the item is made; BSA will raise the price anyway. If I''m not mistaken, they''ve already raised the price of a 2008 Philmont trek $50.00 over last year.

That''s a tough one. I know that if my current troop wouldn''t let me camp out with my son, I''d find another Troop in about 2 nanoseconds, and I''d try to convince all his pals to come with us to the new Troop. Maybe some of the other members have a good idea?

Yeah, it doesn''t make much sense for a Venturing Crew which is coed to begin with. Are there no other crews or troops in the area with different policies?

CrewMomma, Why is single mom not allowed on campouts with her son?

Welcome, neighbor. You''ve come to a good place. Let us know if we can help.

Oh, they probably wonder about the meaning of life, or if really good cheese comes only from happy California cows, or maybe they just wonder about.