SWScouter

Okay, now that John-in-KC acted in behalf of all the beloved Bobwhites, I'll continue in Gilwell order and sing for us Eagles (even though Huntr already did - I think he was just overly excited after finishing his ticket the day before) I used to be a Eagle, and a Good Old Eagle too, But now I've finished Eagling and I don't know what to do. I'm growing old and feeble, and I can Eagle no more! So I'm going to work my ticket if I can! Back to Gilwell, Happy Land, I'm going to work my ticket if I can! SWScouter

A fellow wood-badger Craig Idso, is the Chairman of CO2 Science. It hosts another web site about increases of CO2 in our atmosphere and its impacts. I think a lot of its funding/revenues may be from industry. See http://www.co2science.org Ignoring climate changes, plants tend to thrive in our higher C02 environment. It the CO2 is there, the plants will take advantage of it. SWScouter

Gern, I certainly hope nobody would think the little baby is a sin! Perhaps the sexual act, having been performed while not married is a sin, but the little baby is a miracle given to us by God. Earlier I mentioned how I think we should discuss these topics with the scouts, and that we are actually tasked to as adult leaders in scouting. How I meant doing that, I think Eamonn explained really well in the Working with Kids forum in the Do We Know Too Much thread he started. We as leaders hear and see things and at times we need to take some kind of action. Eamonn's examples of the actions he took with the drinking scout and the scout with porn on his computer go along with my thoughts there. Oh, and Eamonn, I bet at her age Betty Ford has better knees too SWScouter

I justs turned 47 about two weeks ago. Early this year a SM about my age died in his sleep. He was a great guy. A bit later one of Grand Canyon Councel's DEs died. He was close to my age too. Around February, a CM was killed in a car accident. He was about 36. Last month a District Commissioner was killed in a motorcycle accident. Scouting is starting to seem dangerous; I might need to change my avocation. Seriously, it is amazing the impact the death of someone actively involved in scouting can have beyond the circle of friends and family. Our efforts do touch a lot of people, more than we may realize. Hearing of people my age dying tends to bring my own mortality into a clearer focus. I may not be here to hug my wife and children tomorrow and tell them I love them. The troop meeting I am attending may be the last time I'm able to see the scouts, parents, and scouters. What I say and do today may be the last memory of myself I give to another. It seems more important to try to ensure that that memory is a good one and that there are no hard feelings between us. I think I'll make sure my family knows how important they are to me tonight before bed. My prayers are with this scouter, his family and others impacted by his death. SWScouter

Steve, I read your blog sporadically. I don't subscribe to any. I subscribed to the National Commissioner's podcast. It's rarely added to. SWScouter

LisaBob wrote, "No I think that goes way too far. Looking at it from the perspective of working with youth, it is the parents' or guardians' job to deal with youth sexual behavior - NOT the BSA leaders' job. Looking at it from the perspective of adult volunteer leaders, the BSA can darn well keep its nose out of the bedroom. This is a volunteer organization, not a religion and not a cult, and the BSA doesn't/shouldn't expect to regulate these most personal aspects of people's lives." I guess I don't understand nor follow this. Here we are, as volunteers of the BSA, tasked to "prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Law." How can we do that if we completely ignore the aspect of human sexual morality? Especially when its the one aspect of human morality where, I believe, there has been a huge lapse! Our youth are bombarded with examples of immoral sexual behavior. Why shouldn't we be a voice speaking out against that type of behavior? Shouldn't we, as leaders be forthright in our beliefs and how this immoral behavior has consequences such as uz2bnowl states? Speaking out about these hard topics wouldn't be new to scouting. BP is known to have had talks with scouts about sexual relationships and masterbation. These are topics that can be confusing and stressful to young men and women. Perhaps we should take his lead and help the scouts when warranted. SWScouter

Trailblazermom brings up a good point. A lot of glues are oil soluble. I suggest trying baby oil, as it won't have the solvent that WD40 has and will probably work fine too. SWScouter

Scoutldr, Everytime I've had back problems I've noticed it is because I was negligent in keeping my core strength up. When you're able, I recommend working up to a morning regiment of 30 proper sit-ups. Chin glued to chest, arms behind head (but no pulling), knees bent. Sit-ups are a series of three, 1st straight, 2nd right elbow to left knee, 3rd left elbow to right knee. Try some ankle weights draped over your ankles to help keep your feet on the floor. To start, you may want your arms crossed in front on your chest instead of behind. This will strengthen both your abdominal and lumbar muscles and they will actually support your spine once again. Also, throw in push-ups. Work up to 25. A daily dose of 25 push-ups and 30 sit-ups will do wonders for your core strength! SWScouter

I'd go with something really simple, such as a wooden nickel with the pack number painted on it. Use 1/4" slice of 1/2" PVC hot glued on the back. You could even stamp the pack number on instead of paint. Something like that can be whipped out pretty darn quick. One thing though, if you give these out each year, what are you going to do to make the slides different each year, or are the cubs just going to get the same thing each year? Will a Webelos scout want yet another of the slide he's received for the past several years? Now you're back to the same problem you're trying to solve, a different slide each year. What about the Tigers in the Fall, will they be given a pack slide too? Perhaps the slide would be better given as part of a joining ceremony instead of part of the crossing to a new level ceremony. SWScouter

Camp Raymond, of Grand Canyon Council in AZ has an OA night. Basically, if you wear your OA sash to the dinner assembly, you get called to the chow line before the rest of the campers. I'm still trying to decide if that's a good thing or not The camp also has OA reps available for unit elections and there is a call out ceremony during the week. SWScouter

Yes, "that's no bull," uttered Tom (Probably was in Boy's Life as a Tom Swifty)

Touche Merlyn. What an idiot. Scouting really is for wooses now that those morons got rid of skill awards. Now I feel better. Oops I didn't mean to click on submit...

John-in-KC, you are correct that the, "National Council Advancement Literatures says nothing about a limit on the number of merit badges a Counselor may choose to support." However, as Ed points out, it also says that councils can stipulate what qualifies a person to be able to counsel a merit badge. There is nothing stopping a council from disqualifying a potential counselor based on how many MBs that person is already a counselor for. You can decide whether this is contradictory (as Ed once again mentioned) or not. Personally, I think that this gives the council the authority to decide who can be counselors and for how many MBs. I don't think this says anything about how many MBs a scout may earn from any given counselor. SWScouter

Ed, I agree, 50 mile road and dirt rides are hardly comparable. I for one would welcome a Mt. Bike option for the Cycling MB. ASM915, a day may contain 24 hours (or not, remember March 11) but a 24 hour time period isn't necessarily one day. Day is dawn to dusk as opposed to night, or midnight to midnight as defined as civil time. Look it up in a dictionary. It seems that defining words a la Clinton to suit our needs instead of following the spirit of the requirement is not doing anyone any good! I may also go so far in saying that it is not showing very much scout spirit either. Packsaddle, backpacking activities may count for Hiking MB, however they may not count for both Hiking and Backpacking MBs. You are correct, there is no overnight or backpacking requirements for the Hiking MB. Kbandit, welcome to the forum. I'm curious, did those scouts that didn't like to swim earn 2nd and 1st class? If so, how? My feeling is if a scout can pass the BSA swimmer's test, there is very little reason why that scout shouldn't be able to earn the Swimming MB. Perhaps this goes back to what Scoutldr suggested when he wrote, "IMHO, the "swimmers test" is seldom administered the way it is designed."

Sometimes I just don't understand the Boy Scout advancement requirements. For example, a scout has a choice of earning one of the Cycling, Hiking, or Swimming Merit Badges for Eagle. Looking at these three merit badges and considering the swimming requirements for Second Class and First Class, I don't understand why any scout would ever earn Cycling or Hiking for the requirement. Here are the requirements dealing with doing each activity for any distance: Cycling: 8. Avoiding main highways, take two rides of 10 miles each, two rides of 15 miles each, and two rides of 25 miles each. You must make a report of the rides taken. List dates, routes traveled, and interesting things seen.* 9. After fulfilling requirement 8, lay out on a road map a 50-mile trip. Stay away from main highways. Using your map, make this ride in eight hours. Hiking: 5. Take five hikes, each on a different day, and each of at least ten continuous miles. Prepare a hike plan for each hike.* 6. Take a hike of 20 continuous miles in one day following a hike plan you have prepared.* Swimming: 5. Swim continuously for 150 yards using the following strokes in good form and in a strong manner: front crawl or trudgen for 25 yards, back crawl for 25 yards, sidestroke for 25 yards, breaststroke for 25 yards, and elementary backstroke for 50 yards. So, for Cycling, a scout must go on a ride on at least seven different days and essentially spend several hours cycling. For hiking, a scout must go on a hike at least six different days and spend several hours of hiking. For Swimming, the scout can complete all the requirements in one day and really doesn't have to spend much time swimming at all, the longest swim being only 150 yards. It just seems like the Swimming MB should have some distance requirements added such as: 2 1/2 mile swims, 2 1 mile swims, and 1 2 mile swim to make it even begin to approach the level of activity as the Cycling and Hiking MBs. Even there, I think the hiking MB is much more demanding than the Cycling MB. I don't think there's too many people that would plan on completing a 20 mile hike in under 8 hours as required for Cycling's 50 mile ride. SWScouter

In 1979 I dove head first into the world of competitive cycling. Cycle racing pretty much consumed my life and was my passion for many many years. I met my wife cycling and my best man and I raced the day after my wedding. I haven't raced since 1999 but cycling is still a big part of what I am. I no longer ride as much, as far, or as long as I would like but I still ride frequently. I don't know what the numbers are for registerd bicycle racers. I have a feeling that the numbers are dropping just like they appear to be in scouting. If they are not dropping, I think they are shifting to an older group of cyclists. Many of the local teams are masters teams (30 and over). Looking at the race results there are very few juniors racing (under 18). This certainly isn't healthy for cycling in the US. So I was out riding a few weeks ago and a light bulb turned on. I was thinking of racing and how to get more juniors involved in the sport when the inspiration to combine my love for cycling and scouting into a Venturing Crew developed. Of course my thoughts immediately turned to the more romantic side of this like imagining the kit the crew would wear when they were cycling and travelling around the country flying the crew flag at cycle races, and the feeding crew wearing the Venturing uniform in the feed zones, but hey, it was fun! I see a lot of advantages for a cycling team to also be a Venturing Crew. Besides the BSA mission and insurance, there is also all the youth protection rules that would need to be followed. I think a parent would be much more comfortable letting their sons and daughters travel following the BSA youth protection rules than otherwise. In reality, I know this would be hard to pull off. Finding junior races is hard enough, let alone finding enough to start a crew. Then there's the mix of cycling genres - Road, Mountain, Cyclocross, Track, BMX - that further dilutes the equation. I'm not sure if I really have a question or not. I'm going to mull this idea around for awhile; I really have no time to pursue it right now anyway as I'm busy being District Commissioner. I would love to hear your comments on how things have worked out with Crews that have a sports emphasis though. What sport it was, and how the crew participated/competed in that sport. Thanks, SWScouter

FScouter, turn the page for, "the rest of the story."

Okay, I am now all crittered out That was so fun I think I'll shout No raven or crow It's time to go And hopefully catch a big brown trout SWScouter

There once was a big old buffalo It's fur was so shinny it did glow What a big beast It liked to face East and just stand there'n watch the grass grow

There once was a hibernating bear The fox patrol walked into its lair With crap in pants They fled like ants That bear really gave them a scare

There once was a nervous antelope Earning it's beads there's no hope Don't just lick it Finish the ticket Instead it ran off and did high COPE

There once was a decrepid old owl It's stench, oh how terribly foul It needed a pink pill and some metamucil Oh what a pain, its aching bowel. Absolutely no disrespect was meant to those wise owls among us

There once was a grand old Eagle Watching it soar was truly regal It liked warm fleece It was the uniform police But it's uniform was barely legal (I used to be an Eagle)

There once was a skittish bobwhite. Neither here nor there, what a plight! In front is a fox. Behind is an ox. The only thing left to do is take flight.

There once was a feeble old fox. He looked but couldn't find his scout socks. He looked in the drawer. He looked on the floor. But for some reason he didn't look in the box.