TAHAWK

"Bandanna or neckerchief. These are so common that every boy will recognize at once what is meant by a bandanna. The members of each patrol wear bandannas made in the colors of their patrol. These can be purchased at any local dry goods store at ten of fifteen cents each." B.S.A., Boy Scouts Handbook (1911) at p. 360.

Troop 22 uses paisley red/black "bandanas" as the troop neckerchief. The only problem is finding them lager than "normal." Troop 83 used 33" x 33" Wallace plaid. In both cases, the PLC selected the troop neckerchief.

It's an option. Why all the angst?

Does BSA supply the "Perfect Oval these days? What's the matter with the software. Will not keep making letters

We ran into this - and explained to the camp that we used them and required them from the camp. As nwe had 73 Scouts in camp and they wanted us back, they complied - with BSA's rules.

I have not being doing either, but they seem like a good idea.

This seems to be standard training for a number of companies and institutions. "MANDATORY COURSES FOR ALL EMPLOYEES (LAWROOM)Bridges: Building a Supportive Community This course trains faculty and staff on how to recognize, report, and prevent sexual misconduct against students, covering sexual and interpersonal violence awareness and prevention subjects required under Title IX guidance, the Campus SaVE Act, and the final VAWA regulations. Audience: All employees and supervisors Duration: 1.0 hr Checkpoint: Data Security & Privacy (EDU)"

The Internet didn't create hat sizes. Known Head Sizes of a Few Historical Men: Chester A. Aurthur 7 1/4 Winston Churchill 7 1/8 Dwight D. Eisenhower 7 1/8 Henry Ford 6 7/8 President H.U. Grant 7 3/4 Abraham Lincoln 7 5/8

SM can be registered as a Merit Badge Counselor. SM can also cheat in the same manner as the many Scout Executives who run Merit Badge mills. We should have a Merit Badge Mill thread.

The enemy of my enemy, Stosh. What fascinates me is that Stalin stopped at the border he had conquered from Finland in 1939 instead of rolling over Finland as he had Germany's other allies. Found the wool cap on p, 23 of the 1948 Field Book. The ear flaps tucked inside the hat. Still, better for cold weather.

Without applying any science, I suspect the Baseball cap is less objectionable for Scouts than the beret, Garrison Cap, or Campaign Hat that preceded it. BSA could come up with a more practical cap: (Finnish Field Cap) Maine Hunter's Cap

The Blue Card has a line for the Counselor to sign, confirming that the Scout "met all the requirements for the... ____ merit badge." There is also a line for the Counselor to sign attesting to the "completion" date. Signatures on those lines is all that is required. "A merit badge counselor—once he or she is satisfied a Scout has met all the requirements—signs in two places: on the reverse of the Application for Merit Badge (to the left) and on the Applicant’s Record (in the middle). These two parts are returned to the Scout." B.S.A., Guide to Advancement at p. 43. The spaces for individual requirements are for recording "partials" conveniently on the one document, rather than requiring a separate document. "If the Scout did not complete all the requirements, the counselor initials those that were fulfilled in the spaces provided on the back of the Applicant’s Record part. This is called a 'partial.'†Id. No one is authorized to require more without consent of the National Council. Specifically, save for a determination of a unit leader that a MB cannot, in fact, have been earned, once the card is signed by the Counselor, the MB has been earned for all purposes. "A Scout who has earned a merit badge from a registered and approved counselor by actually and personally fulfilling the requirements as written will have met the purpose of the merit badge program and the contribution to the aims of Scouting. The badge is his to keep and count toward his advancement." Id. at p. 52. Now if someone is will to work at the council or district level, work openly scorned by several on this forum, the Committee member in question might be trained to do her or his job properly instead of inventing invalid personal rules on the fly. "Our Scoutmaster was just discussing MB counseling the other day, lamenting on the days when Scoutmasters were automatically counselors for all merit badges. I'd never heard that before, and my Scoutmaster growing up was never a counselor for every merit badge by default, so I'm not sure the veracity of that statement." Lamenting past policies is of doubtful utility for the present and future unless you are prepared to work to make change. That also would require scouting outside your unit. Lamenting a past that never was is even more useless.

Since it was asked, and with no idea who the "uniform Police" are in any area: The normal BSa practice is to couch advise in terms of "should" and rules in terms of "shall. But "normal" does not mean universal, and BSA often is poor about communication. "The following pages contain our uniform policy as taken from the Rules and Regulations of the Boy Scouts of America. The chapters contain applications of the regulations to each program area. Neither the Rules and Regulations of the Boy Scouts of America, the policy, nor the program applications may be added to or changed in any way unless approved by the National Executive Board of the Boy Scouts of America through its Program Impact Department." ... Official Uniforms Clause 2. The official uniforms authorized as evidence of official relationship to the Boy Scouts of America shall be those approved by action of the Executive Board of the Boy Scouts of America from time to time, as illustrated and correctly described in the handbooks, catalogs, and other official publications of the Boy Scouts of America. ... Clause 4. Prohibition of Alteration or Imitation. (a) No alteration of, or additions to, the official uniforms, as described in the official publications, or the rules and regulations covering the wearing of the uniform and the proper combinations thereof on official occasions, may be authorized by any Scouting official or local council or any local executive board or committee, except the Executive Board of the Boy Scouts of America after consideration by Council Operations. ... Clause 9. All badges and insignia shall remain the property of the Boy Scouts of America subject to recall for cause by the Corporation or its duly authorized representative. ... Eagle Mentor pin, gold tone, No. 14123; sterling silver, No. 14127. For non-parent who was instrumental in the Scout earning his Eagle; nonuniform wear." Fairly clear by BSA standards, and I strongly disagree with the rule. Imagine the intended recipient running away from the Eagle Scout yelling, "Don't pin it on! Don't pin it on." That is right up there with hanging up on a Scout who calls asking if you will counsel him on a Merit Badge. After all, one-on-one telephone conversations are expressly prohibited.

SIZE 13 !? 7 7/8 is the largest size I can find- 24 7/8" circumference.

Camps are closing due to lack of campers. The merger here resulted in all three camps being kept open as the traffic is there to justify all three. Two are in great shape and one needs $50,000 to bring it up to great shape. The money is there,

"Outfitter" is like "authentic," "genuine," "heavy duty," or "special." Words that sound good but have meaningset by regulatorsd or the industry. 1000mm rated coating is the least that passes as "waterproof" by law. It wears down over time and use so 1000mm is not much. Look for better. I just bought a clearance tent with 3500mm coating on the floor and 2500mm on the fly. A "ground cloth" outside protect from sharp and abrasive objects. One inside protects the coating from the grit the kids track in. Result = tents last longer. 1.9 oz nylon is about as light as I would buy, We now check tents before summer camp because several times boys showed up with $19.99 junk. No ventilation or waterproofing to speak of. 3/32" fiberglass poles that break when hit by loud sounds. 11 stitches to the inch or better. Eureka has historically been a good value, but most tents are made in/by CHINA these days, so ??? Polyester is more resistant to solar radiation. A cheap blue polyester tarp protects from sun and rain. Pitched with a gap between it and the fly, it keeps the tents cooler when it's sunny.

EmberMike, on 02 Mar 2017 - 6:10 PM, said: How often do you run into scouts from other countries? Might be just me, but I have yet to meet one myself. I have Scouted in Mexico four times and Canada eleven times. Scots Scouts visited our museum a couple of years ago. Norwegian, Japanese and Scots Scouts visited our camporee on the was to a Jamboree. Then there is the Internet.

That may be a LNT issue in such a heavy-use area.

If "that far" is a mere 200 yards, It seems completely appropriate for most Scouts and, therefore, appropriate for B.S.A. In fact, I can find is no BSA regulation or even suggestion to the contrary. Adults are merely to be "on the trek." Of course, judgment is required regarding individual boys. But that judgment is for unit Scouters and leaders with a goal of fostering independence as a preparation for life, not an individual NT staffer all full of himself or herself. The NT literature says nothing I can find to support a requirement of any particular distance between adults and Scouts or Venturers. Adventure is what a boy thinks is adventure. As you suggest, building a "fort" ("expedient shelter"), building a fire, and going to sleep in that shelter, or a tent, may seem like quite an adventure to a urban kid - probably explaining why BSA always did much better recruiting in urban areas than in rural areas (a fact missed by the theorists who temporarily steered BSA away from the outdoors with the "improved" and "urban-centered" disaster of the early 1970's). If the kid can handle it, the adventure is greater in the patrol setting in which BSA says the Scout is to primarily experience scouting. There is no "Troop Method."bearess, on 01 Mar 2017 - 9:04 PM, said:

At least some DEs have been told in writing that they are is charge: "...to recruit, train and lead a staff of volunteers in your district." I fear I would have smiled, told the DE "no," and acted accordingly. In fact I did, and still lasted two more terms as District Chairman, during which period nine DEs passed throuh our district. (They do come and go, as has been observed.) We led the Council in every district metric all three years, including FOS (I did all the pitches, ditching the official script due to its, shall we say, difficulty with the truth. A shame as the truth worked just fine.) However, in the end, I did not retain the beloved "Good Scouter" designation. See "Kowtow." They had no better luck with the DC, a Bird in the 107th Armored Cav. and duel PhD. He ended up Scouting in Switzerland while working for the WHO.

No PC issue. "Sampos" not "Samoan." Here is GSUSA's "explanation": "Why did the Girl Scouts rename Samoas? Those are the only two companies licensed to make official Girl Scout cookies, but each owns its recipes and cookie names. So the cookies formerly known as Samoas— vanilla cookies coated in caramel, sprinkled with toasted coconut and laced with chocolate stripes — are now Caramel deLites.Jan 14, 2011." "So" ???????????? Does this really mean they dropped the company that owns "Samoas" and "so" can't use it anymore?

Not sure what this means to mthe discussion, but thus sayeth the G: "May a charter school be religious in nature? No. As public schools, charter schools must be non-religious in their programs, admissions policies, governance, employment practices and all other operations, and the charter school’s curriculum must be completely secular. As with other public schools, charter schools may not provide religious instruction, but they may teach about religion from a secular perspective. And though charter schools must be neutral with respect to religion, they may play an active role in teaching civic values. The fact that some of these values are also held by religions does not make it unlawful to teach them in a charter school. Furthermore, as discussed below, faithbased and religious organizations can be involved with charter schools in many ways, and religious expression by students is allowed in charter schools to the same extent as in other public schools. See also the Department’s guidance on Constitutionally protected prayer in public elementary and secondary schools of ESEA, available at: http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/religionandschools/index.html. May charter schools enter into partnerships with religious organizations to provide secular services? Yes. Like other public schools, charter schools may enter into partnerships with community groups for secular purposes, such as tutoring or recreational activities. Religious groups may be partners for these types of activities so long as charter schools select partners without regard to their religious affiliation, ensure that no public funds are used for religious purposes, and do not engage in or encourage religious activity. Charter schools may not limit participation in the partnership to religious groups or certain religious groups, and they may not select students or encourage or discourage student participation with particular partners based on the religious or secular nature of the organization." And it's SOME avowed atheists who are excluded. Not all. BSA's policy is, for pragmatic reasons, clear as mud.

Scoutstuff only has the "custom" models fro sale. I some countries, the necker IS the uniform.

Topic?

Who chewed you out? An NT staffer? A Philmont staffer told a crew in my contingent that they needed only one canteen and no insulation layer on their trek, which included 29 hours with no source of water in an 18-mile segment with a 3400 foot climb, sleeping dry at 9000 feet. A Sea Base staffer told one of our SAs that two of the four adults on the trip "always had to be present." "One adult with the boys is OUT!" A Council adult employee on camp staff told me last Summer that I could not meet with four MB candidates without another adult present. I was told by a DE at Roundtable two months ago that adults had to present on an in-town, three mile day hike to a park and back to eat lunch and do a bird survey (The route having been surveyed by the SM and a dad.) Satan has been sued - in U.S. District Court. That is also reality. Sometimes you get chewed out even when following all rules. What you do then is on you, not the chewers. You can minimize encountering the wrong-headed and ignorant, but you cannot insure they won't happen. They are part of the environment. The most likely occasion for a lawsuit is a motor vehicle accident. I take it you drive kids to camp. It's your decision, but I thought you had some experience that revealed an unacceptable risk of harm to the kids. Sure it a matter of balance, but one could be run down by a car within reach. ________________________________________ The best revenge is good program.