Ohio_Scouter

gwd-scouter, Good luck with your yard sale. Our troop has one every summer which earns them about $5,000 per year--way better and much more fun than selling popcorn.

Not too bad down here in the birthplace of aviation. Weather seems to be exceptionally mild and pleasant so far this summer. Deal on the storms, but if you can, try to let the Alberta Clippers stall over southeastern Michigan. I just noticed that one of our scout bretheren/moderators in that area is threatening to start telling humorous Ohio jokes (oxymoron?) soon. Our troop just returned from summer camp, and as usual, they had a blast. Eagle son just finished his first high adventure trip as an Assistant Scoutmaster. The Venture Patrol cycled from Cincinnati to the New York state line (559 miles including side trips) along part of the Underground Railroad bicycle trail. Pretty successful trip--only 1 run to the hospital E-R when one scout took a fall and scraped his head and face up pretty badly. Thank God for bicycle helmets, Ashtabula cops, and the G2SS. His helmet was unusable after the fall, so the rest of the patrol chipped in and bought him a new one at the local Wal-Mart as a birthday present which they all autographed and clear-coated. Probably should go before the moderators catch me hijacking robvio's thread.

Hey, Old Grizzly, nice to hear from you again! How's things up North?

...and I have some recent moderator humor I'd be happy to share with you when appropriate.

You may want to consider Camp Falling Rock owned and operated by the Simon Kenton Council, in the central Ohio area. It's about 4 hours from your location. Our guys have attended there for the past 2 years, and they love it. Feel free to check it our at www.campfallingrock.org. Camp is located at: Camp Falling Rock 12637 Houdeshell Road Newark, OH 43055 Happy Camping

I volunteer because, as a boy, I loved Scouting. We camped out, went canoeing and fishing, and I loved everything about the outdoors. I wanted my son to have the opportunity to decide for himself if he loved the outdoors as much as I do. When he bridged from Webelos to Boy Scouts, I wanted to make sure he was safe because his new troop seemed to do a lot of high-adventure (riskier) stuff. I remember the first Boy Scout rappelling campout we attended. His first attempt at rappelling over the edge of a cliff on a rope resulted in him getting his finger caught between the rope and the descending ring and flipping him upside down and nearly breaking his finger. Fortunately, I was there to help him recover, and decided that from that time on I would supervise for safety reasons. It seemed to me that the best way to do this was by volunteering to become a scout leader. Well, he recovered from that experience, and went on to have many wonderful experiences in scouting, and made it all the way to Eagle Scout and is now an Assistant Scoutmaster himself. He has turned out to be a fine young man of whom I am exceedingly proud, and I attribute much of that to Scouting. I'm still here, though, because there will always be many other young tenderfoot scouts who can use some adult assistance, and in time, I'm sure that they will make me exceedingly proud of them, too.

Michelle, Sorry to hear of your resignation. You know, there are other Councils, packs, and troops to be served. Please let us know if we can help further.

Hi Lisa, Welcome from another Ohio Scouter who was a scout in the '50s and '60s. Currently, I'm an Assistant Scoutmaster in Dayton, Ohio, whose son finally made Eagle Scout. Like kbandit says, stay tuned because you'll learn a lot on this forum. Don't forget to have fun , and thanks for volunteering your time and skills for our kids!

gwd- Scouters are wonderful. People who volunteer their time freely to help other people's children are top-notch in my book. I don't think you'll find a finer lot anywhere.

Start planning some high adventure trips at future Troop meetings. Ask and answer questions like Who, What, When, Where, Why, How, and How Much, etc. Bring in some phototgraphs of places the guys would like to go and things they would like to do. Let the scouts brainstorm several ideas, and then take some votes. You'll be surprised how quickly a troop meeting will go when you have a detailed meeting plan. It will also pay off in better outings and better scout participation.

...when you ask the current Cubmaster whatever happened to the Lion rank, and he stares at you like you're pulling his leg...

You know you're getting old when...next to the water in your Platypus, your medication bag is the heaviest item in your Philmont backpack .

Knot Head, In addition to the usual scout popcorn and Christmas wreath sales, our big fundraiser is an annual summer garage/yard sale. Just completed one this past weekend. We raise on average about $5,000 per year on this one weekend event. Lots of work gathering/storing/pricing items throughout the rest of the year, but quite profitable for the troop.

dcopel01, I'm sure my fellow scouters will correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that if you itemize your exemptions on your Federal income taxes, you may deduct mileage expenses associated with BSA volunteering, e.g., trips to campouts, meetings, training, etc. under charitable contributions.

Hey Knot Head, We lucked out this summer. After several expensive high-adventure trips to distant venues over the past several years, this summer our Venture Patrol decided to do a 400-500 mile cycling trip. Great exercise, easier on the environment, and minimal gasoline expenses this time . Might have to consider more of these until gas prices decline or alternative energy sources emerge.

Knot Head, We reimburse our drivers on all campouts and high-adventure trips as a legitimate cost of the trip. We ask that they submit a receipt, and we reimburse them for the amount on the receipt. Now, if the drivers want to donate the cost of the gasoline to the Troop, we obviously do not object, and in this case they can deduct it on their income taxes if they wish.

Hi pixiewife, Congratulations on surviving last winter's camping exercise . BSA supply division is another alternative for purchasing camp cookware and utensils. Items are a bit pricey, but usually very high quality and last a long time. Here's the link, FYI... http://www.scoutstuff.org/BSASupply/default.aspx?cat=01RTL&ctgy=PRODUCTS&C2=CAMPING&C3=CCOOKING&C4=&LV=3

Scout salute to these two Eagle Scouts, and thanks to Eagle moms and dads everywhere for giving your sons to the world.

Too cool , gwd-scouter. Eagle training is tough to hide, you know.

Congratulations to you and your Eagle son, Dan . As all of us good scouters know, after enough campouts, cooking becomes a piece a cake for an Eagle Scout and his dad. I'll bet many of the world's greatest chefs are Eagle Scouts. "Gotta love this scouting stuff", eh Barry?

Boy, you think by now that Fort Lauderdale motels would be used to Spring Break antics like kids throwing furniture into pools. No sense of humor, I guess.

Wow, you know you've gotten old when a 1974 tornado that you lived through is now in the elementary science textbooks!!

Welcome back, Guy, from Camp Birch and the land of the Xenia tornadoes. Thanks for volunteering to help our young scouts .

Welcome, Wil Vickery, from us here in the Miami Valley Council of Ohio. Sounds like you've hit just about every Council in Ohio. Sometimes our guys camp at Camp Hugh Taylor Birch in Tecumseh Council--great Scout Camp. It must be tough, though, living in Chillicothe and serving the Tecumseh Council. Isn't that a ways out?

Welcome, Boris. Fearless Leader