Oldscout448

Just remember ta old sayin " Ain't gotta outrun the bear, just outrun you"

I'm a little confused here is it a question of the feasibility of the project or a question of the scout not being active in your troop or a question of not having a leadership position? the one thing I do find troubling as the scouts priorities if he only has 5 months until he ages outhe really needs to drop pretty much everything else and get on the ball

My name is old scout and I have on camping problem at all. Denial is not just a river in Egypt. My boys are chasing my camping count, but at 450 or so I think I'm safe for a while. I did lose the elevation record last summer by about 5,000 feet when scoutson #1 went climbing in Tibet.

Yep, I've done one or two, and coached a dozen or so. As others have pointed out it is usually done when it is especially meaningful to the scout receiving his eagle. In fact I think the only one we have done for an eagle who had not spent years on the ceremonies team, he was the chapter chief.

I'm up near frederick md, but it's possible we might meet at Goshen sometime. Meanwhile, ask away!

Oh, I still have boxes of that stuff. Somewhere.

I have been making popcorn and reading this thread for days now. It's better than most tv shows. Although I must say the Beavers style of writing gives me a headache. But if you start another one I'm gonna need to run to Costco and buy a bigger box of popcorn

Well it looks like I gotta eat my words, I got a check in yestersdays mail for about $70 for what I spent on last months ordeal. That's a first. As it's my 34th anniversary I guess I'll take my wife to a fancier dinner than pizza hut.

It just took a bit over four centuries

Hmm, I would venture a guess that I spend $100-$150 a year of stuff for the ceremonies team. Arrows, belts, glue, an old bow at a yard sale, a couple of gallons of k1 ...My chapter advisor is a good guy and says he will try to get the lodge to reimburse me, but in 10 years of doing this I've not seen a penny yet. I also buy treats for ' my boys' whenever we do a ceremony, cookies, cokes,etc. Which is my treat to them so I neither ask for not expect any refund.

Have yet to see a green jac-shirt. The red ones are still spotted here and there, but are viewed by most as "old folks attire". Two scooters in my troop gave their sons the red jackets, the scouts thanked them ( a scout is courteous) then hung them in their respective closets and never took them out again.

42! Any other questions?

I thought hedgehogs didn't mind the rain!

A long time ago when I was 15 or so we lost a scout to a lighting strike at Phimont. We all wanted to do something anything at all for the family but we felt so awkward and helpless. For most of us it was the first time death had come so close. We had no idea what we were supposed to say or do. The family was very kind, even in their grief they reached out to us and asked if we would provide two scouts to stand beside the coffin during viewing hours. We had to do it in half hour shifts because every scout in the troop demanded a turn. Krampus from some comments you made in the past I think you are somewhere in the Washington DC area as am I. If so and if I or the local OA can be of any help whatsoever we would consider it an honor to be asked. Still praying for you all Oldscout448

Back in the dim ages ( '70s) my troop did a 50 miler on the AT every other year, during Easter vacation. In the VA, Md, PA. sections I tagged alomg with scoutson #4 on a 75 mile Philmont prep hike in 2015 so I guess I know something about the middle i\of the trail. never have hiked the southern or norther ends The thru hikers I chatted with over the years seem to think the trail in skyline drive is the best for nubies as well as very pretty. I would stay away from Maine until your scouts have a few hundred miles under their belts. OLd scout

The SPL has the job of overall coordinating the patrols, helping the PLs, and planning troop campouts. He may / should enlist the help of one or more other scouts, but the ultimate responsibility is his. Exclusive of medical forms, driving etc. These are the adults to do. It is understandable that the SPL. is happy with delegating that's the easy way,but the job comes with that three bar patch. If he wants to wear it he needs to do the job. He will most likely need you to walk him through this the first few times

In a situation like that I would also be utilizing the 12th point as well !

Ok for some reason my comments didn't stick with the quote. I wonder if you live on my neck of the woods, untill 5-6 years ago we had the same type of " scoutmaster" if he decided you were not worthy there was no way you would ever be appointed patrol leader, quartermaster, spl. Or anything else. Eagle? Shoot you would be lucky to get star even if you had two dozen merit badges, and a gold honor medal.

Salamagundi? Does that mean something? Swalihi perhaps?

A little off topic, but I was thinking that it serving at Jambo would be a cool way to "pay it back" then I saw the fees. No way I could afford it. Guess I'll just have to go to summer camp with the troop, or maybe do a 50 miler on the AT

Would have counted it an honor and privilege to have been there as well. We memorized all but vigil as well, as none but chapter chiefs were awarded that distinction in our neck of the woods

In the words of a friend who has been on the lodge vigil committee for decades "You are a vigil when you do what a vigil does, hopefully the chapter/lodge recognises it and gives you a sash with a triangle on it. If not,carry on.

If we want to sit around the campfire here and tell tales of how it was in the old days ( for me 1974- 1982 ) I will gratefully listen and hand out the coffee and donuts, I loved being a part of something special, something hard, we did the difficult work, the dirty work, and we were proud of it. jpstodtexas you would have fit in well I think. We did much the same thing, a few differences of course, but the whole point was to make being tapped out something that the candidate would remember the rest of his scouting days. And the Ordeal the rest of his life. I remember watching a Vigil tapout a summer camp that just left everyone in awe. One second class scout at his first summer camp told me the next morning " That was just amazing! What is this Order thing all about anyway? Thats when I knew we were doing it right! It took huge amounts of work ( as well you know ) but we all counted it as well worth the cost. We were adding "sticks" to the "fire" one by one. Keeping it going for the the next generation of scouting. Now just wonder if all that even mattered, I hope in my heart it did to someone, But no one even seems to remember that it was once different. I can not even get the district to consider having the Ordeal Ceremony after sunset. " To much work for the cook crew " they cry " a lot of us need to go home at 7:00pm ", "we have a ballgame/band practice/ hot date/ track meet....." In vain do I point out that the ceremony is much more impressive in the dark and therefor more likely to impress and keep new brothers active. they just dont care." Just get the right number of new members this year and the chapter gets a gold star from the Lodge. If we run late our numbers might drop" O the horror ! The order was never supposed to be about numbers! it was always the few, the proud. ( apolgies to all jarheads) Hendrick ya that was me, and one of the scouts was my son who had arrived home from school about one in the morning, he and the chief deserve a flipping gold medal or something. I am still trying to think of something suitable that I can afford. Who was the draftee who did Meteu? Grab him quick! for only half an hour of practice he did a stunning job I was told ( two weeks afterward) that the reason excuse was that not all the paperwork had gone through for all the adult candidates. So it would not be fair to give a public call out to some scouters and not others. I just about exploded. It is Not about the scouters!! It is about the scouts! and for this you were willing to have 20 or so scouts drive ( or be driven by their proud parents) for miles only to be told " sorry you arent important enough for us to go to the effort of doing what we promised" What in .... This is hard to type without using unscoutlike words I can not think of a better way to make sure those 20 scouts never ever come back. In fact I would bet on 100% " sash and dash" assuming they even bothered coming to the Ordeal. I have no plans of quitting the Order, but I have been assured by several other chapters that I would by most welcome and I must admit I am giving it a lot of thought tonight WWW Oldscout

So brothers, can you tell me if I am overreacting? Last chapter meeting our chief reported that we had received a rather desperate request from a neighboring chapter for belp on their callout ceremony in 11 days. Their team was down to 2-3 members, and their adult advisor had taken the job only few weeks earlier. So the scouts decided we should help, and have a joint callout, and if anyone from our chapter couldn't make it we would do another callout at our camporee four weeks later as was our original plan. All this was published in our district on line news letter as well as our chapter website. So I met with the other advisor, rewrote the ceremony, texted and called back and forth with our ceremonies vice chief, agreed to all meet at their campsite at 1:00, and at noon having spent three hours loading drums,stands, torches, from garage attics we hit the road. At 12:23 and email was sent out that we were canceling our callout. As I was driving I didn't look at it. Got there about 1:00 and started setting by 2 o'clock we were wondering why no one from our district was showing up for rehearsal. By 3:00 we started calling asking where are you? They said "umm it's cancelled right?" It was only then I remembered that my phone had beeped in route. I had figured it was just another sale email ffrom harbour freight or something. Even if our district HAD canceled the other one was still relying on the help we had promised. One of the four changed his plans and hot footed it up, two others couldn't make it the last one said "not my chapter so not my problem" So we ended up drafting two brothers who had never done a ceremony before, and managed to salavage something. One thing for sure we didn't impress anyone very much. Frankly guys I'm still pretty angry. I'm tempted to wait untill four hours before our district's callout and send them an email saying " we decided to cancel. " I sent off an email asking what the heck happened? last Saturday. No reply yet. My ceremonies vice chief worked 10 hours straight trying desperately to make a disaster into something just barely acceptable. Now he tells me he has had enough, he plans to step down right after the ordeal. Can't say as I blame him much. Right now Im tempted to join him.