RememberSchiff

Hmm, I thought a troop needed a SM or ASM for outdoor activities but looking at the Tour Permit two adult (registered) leaders are required. Could the Troop Treasurer and Popcorn Guy take the troop camping if the SM approved and they had the required training? Seems so,

We had 4 boy scout troops and 3 Cub Packs in town. Each had a store window display during scout week. Our troop usually had either the Florist shop window or the pharmacy but definitely not the prime 4 corners 5&10 store. Catholics! All displayed their unit flags and neckers. Cub Packs displayed Pinewood Derby cars and den projects. Troops displayed scout craft (lashing projects were common), camping photos, merit badge books, and some merit badge projects (my Electronics Flip-Flop breadboard). We were permitted to paint (Tempera?) the inside of store windows. If the owner permitted, we added lights for campfire effects or Morse code signaling. Took some planning as we wanted to upstage the bigger troops in town, particularly the Catholic troop. Righteous battle. Only Christmas rivaled Scout Week's window decorations. Community Scouting what a concept.

Boy Scout Week in February. Celebrated the birth of Scouting within our local communities. - Placed on the program calendar and permission sought with store owners for window displays, write an article for local paper complete with photos. Publicity, publicity, publicity! Nope, not even a check-off on the lastest Most Excellent Unit Six Sigma Universal Annual Quality Award or whatever it is called. - Saturday the day before official start, set up window displays around town. Nope - Started on Sunday, Scout Sunday. Nope, nope. That's SuperBowl Sunday, nothing more Holy than Football and that's the Holiest Day of Football. - Wear scout uniform to school. Even Catholic schools would allow us! Nope, nope - Saturday, remove window displays and do some town clean-up service projects. The only remnant I see around here is adults arguing whether Scout Sunday, excuse me Scout Sabbath is on the weekend before Super-Bowl Sunday or the weekend after. Maybe the new tradition will be National asking scouts to wear their uniform while watching the Super-Bowl on Sunday? What if the Ground Hog came out of hole and saw Boy Scouts in the woods? My $0.02

I am stunned. What happens if after all this investment by OA, your Council decides to sell? Or is this camp in a land trust? Maybe OA should take over Council? Just stunned.

Thanks.

Here the OA sells candy bars and sugar drinks for their fundraising. We don't need that. I thought OA just provided the worker bees and maybe tools for camp service projects which were funded completely by the camp/council. Same goes for camperships.

Yeah, they know when and how to sell. Some "scout moms" lead them around troop camp sites during Sat evening meal which is running late... business is brisk.

So you are approached or maybe ambushed by some District people, "Heh, our scouts need you to plan the fall/spring camporee." You first thought is to politely say no with maybe an excuse of your preference - family, work, knee operation scheduled... But you reflect and consider if I'm in charge, we can finally get a camporee done right but first I need to make my conditions CLEAR to these micro-managing District-types. What would your conditions be to accept? Maybe - No one is selling anything at this camporee. I don't want to see OA selling candy/drinks (frequent) or girl scouts selling cookies (annoying). - Focus more on fun/challenges for older scouts rather than simplified games at Weebs level. - Yes to patrol competitions, no to merit badges. - Our SPL suggested a "dress down camporee" similar to school. I'm not sure how that would work. - Each unit is responsible for carrying health forms. We are not collecting them at event. - oh, uniform police need to pre-register. Registration fee is $150 which includes official camporee uniform police cap with jurisdiction limited to your own unit. Or other conditions? What would you require? Around here, camporees are dumbing down into merit badge college and/or Webelo recruitment weekends. Older scouts attendance is down even with fast-track merit badges, though admittedly it is a draw for younger scouts. Troops attendance is down too. Let's get back to fun patrol competitions and set aside fundraising, merit badge mills, and recruitment. Wonder why District hasn't called me back? My $0.02

Mostly rent for around $10/day. Some have made primitive (hemlock or balsam branch) snowshoes. We have not made PVC snowshoes and I am not keen on using PVC in frigid temps as in my experience, it can shatter.

Yes, Snowshoeing is also the AFFORDABLE snow option for my scouts.

Balonie. The revisions for 2016 are not all there and no response from e-mail. Snow Sports MB added a Snowshoe option but only usscouts.org had revisions which we need now while there is still snow. http://usscouts.org/mb/changes/mb135-16.asp Forward.

It came from Boy Scout Troop 514 in Monument,CO but read the rest http://www.9news.com/story/news/2016/01/28/american-flag-survived-challenger-explosion/79487138/

Gold Bond is my friend.

Follows down the chain of command, with frequent hiccups and repeats SPL ---> PLC,TC PL's ---> scouts scouts ---> parents ^ SM....: ........................> ()TC() <--> ()TC() yes TC wears earmuffs, SM has hearing aid

http://www.theeagle.com/news/local/former-defense-secretary-robert-gates-explains-leadership-as-a-matter/article_ab9df5ab-4f4f-5553-8060-04be58bb302e.html Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates said his first leadership role was as a patrol leader of a Boy Scout troop in Kansas many years ago. He said nothing teaches leadership skills like trying to get a bunch of 11- and 12-year-old boys to do what you tell them to do -- especially when you're only a year older than they are. ... Gates said there were two aspects to his book. The first is to give a practical approach on how to lead change in a bureaucratic environment -- how to delegate authority, empower people and hold people accountable for performance. The other side of the book, he said, are techniques for how to deal with stakeholders, community members, alumni, athletics fans -- all the people who have influence in the affairs of an organization. He also discusses the personal leadership characteristics he believes are necessary for someone who intends to lead change. Gates drew a distinction between leadership and management. He said education can make someone a good manager, which every organization needs, but it's hard to teach good leadership traits. "If you don't like people, if you don't respect people, if you think you're superior to other people, you're not going to be a good leader," he said. "It is a matter of the heart, it is how you look at other people -- can you empathize, can you motivate, can you inspire? I think those are hard things to teach."

Our scouts don't e-mail. Texting, Xbox live, face-to-face (troop meeting), handouts. Face-to-face at troop meetings appear the most effective communication. Even our adults rarely read/respond to e-mails, they prefer texts or phone calls. YMMV

Provisional crews organized by Philmont. Minimum age: 14 or 15 depending on trek. Duration: 6-21 days. Cost: $300-900 depending on trek (does not include transportation) . Two adult leaders provided by Philmont. Transaction between individual scout and Philmont, no troop or Council middle-men. http://www.scouting.org/~/link.aspx?_id=E2D2654CB05840F79E53AA1F29149456&_z=z Something a couple of our free-spirited, thrifty scouts are considering.

^---This. Like any job know what you are walking into. Review http://www.scouting.org/filestore/financeimpact/pdf/Fiscal_Policies_and_Procedures_for_BSA_Units_March_2015.pdf

1. If you can in your state, move your council camp(s) into land trusts so neither Council nor National can sell it. 2. Vote NO to merger. 3. Most of scouting is local, keep control local. Good luck, resistance is not futile. Some councils have voted NO.

Well supposedly a Snowshoeing Option was added to Snow Sports MB this year but I can find no info online. National Merit Badge Maintenance Task Force, General Quarters

Needs an Executive or Blue Ribbon adjective to be taken seriously. It amazes me that rank and mb requirements are in such a constant flux. They are like Adobe software, in that you have to download an update before you can start. Local scout store still has a dozen 2015 Requirements booklets on the shelf.

Might as well put the whole merit badge booklet too. Have you seen how thin the pamphlets for Citizenship in the Community and Nation now are? A Girl Scout Thin Mint is thicker,

http://www.vicksburghistory.org/battle-of-sunset-lake Between 200 to 300 volunteer reenactors from the North West Territory Alliance (NWTA) will kick off the event with a Fue de Joie on Friday evening at dusk, when all of the reenactors will fire their guns into the air to signal the opening of the two-day event. A Fue de Joie is a rifle salute fired by soldiers on a ceremonial occasion, each soldier firing in succession along the ranks to make a continuous sound. The feu de joie - literally, 'the firing of joy' - began with companies discharging their muskets one soldier at a time, going from right to left and back to front, hundreds of years ago. ...(more details in source links) Joining in will be an estimated 400 to 500 Boy Scouts from Southwest Michigan who will be helping out during the weekend activities and will camp out at a nearby church, Moore said. They will be "runners" providing water, ice and assistance to the re-enactors and their families. They will be led by the Vicksburg Boy Scouts of Troop 251 who got the village thinking about the Battle of Sunset Lake when re-enactors from the 84th Scottish Highlanders regiment of the NWTA attended a Vicksburg scouts' 75th anniversary camporee last April at the Historic Village. ... The idea for such an undertaking began with the 75th anniversary camporee that the Boy Scouts in Troop 251 celebrated in April in the Historic Village. Stefan Sekula (co-commander of 84th Scottish Highlanders re-enactors) was invited by Troy Smith, a Boy Scout volunteer, to come in costume and help educate the campers about the Revolutionary War. He brought two other members of his unit, Ric Hansen, and Larry Hengesbach. The scouts were enthralled with the gear, the clothing, and the historic aspect of the Scottish Highlanders Sekula was representing. He was asked if they would come back again with lots more of his compatriots. Thus the idea was hatched for a full scale re-enactment. Sekula and his larger unit of the 84th Scottish Highlanders regiment have volunteered to be the host unit from the NWTA. This means he and his helpers will make decisions about staging the mock battles, recruit the re-enactors, and plan for their participation. The sponsors of the event will help with the expenses, promote the two days of activities, and provide the venues. http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2016/01/vicksburg_to_host_revolutionar.html http://southcountynews.org/2015/08/05/battle-on-sunset-lake/

Unfortunately in this book, he makes no statements of his experiences as BSA president, but perhaps we can infer from his stated experiences as president of A&M University. When interviewed for A&M, he made it clear he was not a maintenance guy but rather an agent of change to make the institution better while preserving core values and traditions. I suspect when he was interviewed for the position of BSA president, he stated the same to the Executive Committee and expected their support for his changes if they selected him. My guess anyway. As democracies go, the BSA is not one of them but it is definitely a bureaucracy and Mr. Gates did change it.

I should have given Mr. Gates quote its context from Chapter 1 where Mr. Gates talks about the problems of bureaucracy (with examples). He states bureaucracies are everywhere, getting worse, and how a leader can change it. He is particularly concerned that as government and industry become more bureaucratic, more young smart people turn away from serving government and working for those companies. IMO, his advice applies to changing a troop to scout-run, changing a summer camp away from being a merit badge factory, ... Another quote that he cites from President John Adams to his son Thomas "Public business my son, must always be done by somebody -- it will be done by somebody or other --If wise men decline it others will not: If honest men refuse it others will not." So when we say (pick an organization) is too hard or too much hassle to change, then we allow the fools or crooks to win there. Which yes is true, but there is also wisdom in picking your battles for the time and resources available, e.g., maybe it is better to join another troop than try to change your current troop. Thought provoking.