TAHAWK

Our bats ain't vampires. The skeeters are.

But once you have the cave, it lasts and lasts. In Michigan, the noise of the lil' vampires was tremendous - and led to nightmares. Neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee ! You could here them thumping into the sides of the tent.

B.S.A says: "Lacking agreement [with the Scoutmaster as to a Counselor to work with], the Scout must be allowed to work with the counselor of his choice, so long as the counselor is registered and has been approved by the council advancement committee." "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." [emphasis added regarding how a MB is earned]

Any complete B.S.A. uniform from any period is still an official B.S.A. uniform.

Feed squirrels.

What was said included: "You would have to get approval from your local SE." Unofficial knots seem like a relatively minor issue, but the local SE, local President, and local Board all lack authority to approve squat when it comes to insignia.

Most of the slave sold in the western hemisphere were sold by Africans to those who shipped them west. Spoils of war and slave raids. They were also selling slaves east, headed for the slave markets of the Middle East.

Plenty of shame to go around. When the Han peoples crossed to Japan they began an effort to exterminate the aboriginal people. Then we have the wonderfulness of treatment of the original people of Australia. There's an island in Canada covered with bones from one tribe doing away with another. Bosnia. church basements, and gasoline. The Holocaust The Holomodor in the Ukraine in 1932-33 The Armenian and Greek genocide of 1915-1919 It's all about the "other."

All the council camps in the part of the world use the green, two-man canvas tents from B.S.A. Supply. No insect netting. Mist comes through in heavy rain (Bring the blue tarps!). Rot in a few years so they have to be replaced. I have an ancient Eureka Nylon "Cabin Camper" - an 8 x 8 wall tent. We bought it decades ago for family camping and when the coating started to smell sorta' organic, it became the Summer Camp Tent. I have recoated it twice. Still keeps the bugs and rain out. I use six pieces of 8" x 8" x 1/2" plywood to keep cot legs from puncturing the floor. Including the plywood, it weighs only a pound or two more than the two-man canvas floorless "Explorer" I packed as a Scout.

No Scouter, Council employee or Council can authorize departures from B.S.A. rules regarding insignia. If you plan on departing from the rules, don't bother getting void approval from the council Executive.

The goal of Scouting is to create good people and good citizens who are fit in mind and body. Hence, the level of attention to citizenship and to world brotherhood (incorrectly called "Citizenship in the World"). The most important tool to achieve these ends is the "Patrol Method," through which the Scout experiences representative democracy and has the opportunity to learn the skills and rewards of leadership. The adult-run troop Stosh mentioned in his satire is the antithesis of this approach. It keeps the Scout in a childlike state by robbing him of responsibility. The second most important tool is the "Outdoor Method," as the outdoors not only allows exercise but also helps teach respect for our natural world, respect that is important to informed citizenship. I guess I would urge that your nephew accomplish something of which he can be proud rather than merely getting the punch mark for his resume. Even on the solely materialistic scale, having been responsible for hiring professionals for a major corporation, I can relate that leaders were more highly regarded than other sorts of candidates since leaders seems to be in short supply.

Race as an issue and rationale for policy, practices, and laws has a much longer history than 1960 forward. Claimed racial inferiority was a rationalization for the asserted right of the "White Race" to enslave Africans from the first and the overt basis for the Jim Crow society from 1877 to ??? Virginia outlawed sexual relations between "whites" and all blacks (not just slaves) in 1691. Maryland followed in 1692. Those prohibitions were purely a matter of the perceived inferiority of the black "race" and the need to protect the "purity" of the "white race." Seven of the original thirteen colonies had ant-miscegenation statures in 1776.

I mistakenly used a length calculator. Thank you for the correction.

Study more.

80L = just under 3200 cubic inches. A pretty standard school pack is 1800 cubic inches Kelty "Kids" pack has just over 2000 cubic inches. (torso 9-14") Kelty Yukon 48 pack (13-19" torso) is 2900 cubic inches Kelty Yukon Trekker 65 (16-22" torso) is 3950 cubic inches All external frame so items can go below and above the pack. The Eureka 30 degree Lone Pine sleeping bag is slightly over 1000 cubic inches

YMMV Hiking in loose rock with footwear lacking a rand to protect the outside toes has given me many hours of service rendering first aid to feet. Lovely technicolor. Hiking on loose rock or surface tree roots with footwear without a stiff shank has led to injuries to the arch.

Perhaps voting for the best smile is not a good idea. Excuse me if this is a repeat. I had a 17-year-old in a Philmont crew. He cried every day. No skills. One night, I asked him out of genuine curiosity how he came to be elected a PL the previous year. Seems he promised a video game to every member of the patrol who voted for him. His mom (Yes; one of those) supplied the funds to buy the games. He won 7-0 (counting his own vote for himself). Shortly after we we got back to town, I was asked to train the leaders in winter camping techniques. Two of the learners were from the patrol that had elected my guy. During a break I asked them how he had worked out at the PL. Their responses were emphatically negative. He had been useless. I asked if it was true they had voted for him out of greed. After an examination of shoe tops, they admitted it was so. I asked what they had learned. They said they ;learned they should vote for the guy who seemed best able to do the job. We learn from experience. Some of the experience is bad experience.

Exactly. And if they elect the "popular" candidate and he turns out to be a bust, what may they learn?

Having seen the trees, would it be useful to consider the forest that they make up? Is the whole more than the sum of its parts? I fear that if you tell someone they are, in your definition, "unimaginative, uncreative, unadventurous, narrow-minded, small-minded, short-term, shortsighted," they may, apparently incorrectly, think you are talking about them personally. Attacking the "sin" but claiming that you are not attacking the sinner is not always seen as impersonal. And you have, in the past, acknowledged that rather than being "correct" vs incorrect, they may just be different. In fact, you just did again.

Using adjectives does not give us a free ride. "unimaginative, uncreative, unadventurous, narrow-minded, small-minded, short-term, shortsighted" How about just explain and skip labeling fellow Scout enthusiasts with adjectives? I'll bet quite a collection could be assembled, and not a one courteous or kind. Then we could work on the "clever" sarcasm. Entirely up to all y'all.

Let me try again. You did tell someone that. Today. In so many words. "myopic" Yet you are still a good guy. I wish labels were not so important. Don't tell me it's myopic -- or management or telling. It amount to a can of ideas with a label, and everyone disagrees about what's in the can.

I have often heard it said that Scouters stand "in loco parentis" to Scouts attending Scouting events. When I have asked why that is said, I am told "because we are like the Scout's parents," an argument that assumes its own conclusion. Are we like the Scout's parents? Do we assume the role of a natural parent, including the obligations of support for and rearing and education of the child to the age of majority? In State v. Noggle (1993) , the Ohio Supreme Court held in its syllabus: "1. The phrase person in loco parentis in R.C. 2907.03(A)(5) applies to a person who has assumed the dominant parental role and is relied upon by the child for support . . . The term in loco parentis means charged, factitiously, with a parents rights, duties, and responsibilities. Blacks law Dictionary (6 Ed. 1990) 787. A person in loco parentis has assumed the same duties as a guardian or custodian, only not through a legal proceeding. A person in loco parentis was grouped with guardians and custodians in the statute because they all have similar responsibilities. The phrase person in loco parentis in R.C. 2907.03(A)(5) applies to a person who has assumed the dominant parental role and is relied upon by the child for support. This statutory provision was not designed for teachers, coaches, scout leaders, or any other persons who might temporarily have some disciplinary control over a child. Simply put, the statute applies to the people the child goes home to." The Ohio decision was followed by the federal Court of Appeals in cases that did not rely on Ohio law: Powledge v. U.S., 193 F.2d 438, 441 n.5 (5th Cir. 1951) (analogizing persons in loco parentis to natural parents) and U.S. v. Floyd, 81 F.3d 1517, 1524 (10th Cir. 1996). In the Dale v BSA case, the New Jersey appellate court held as a matter of New Jersey law: "Boy Scouts does not assume those responsibilities or those duties [in loco parentis]. It does not maintain or rear children. A Boy Scout leader may function as a supervisor of children for limited periods of time; he does not have "the responsibility to maintain, rear and educate" children such that he stands in the place of a parent." The reversal of Dale by the U.S.S.C. did not touch on the New Jersey holding on the doctrine of in loco parentis. IF a Scouter were, in fact and in law, in loco parentis to a Scout, there would be no LEGAL need for permission slips of permission to obtain medical care. Try that argument on the local hospital. As always, I welcome information to expand my understanding. Feel free. As for advising people to violate felony laws becasue the prosecutor may not want to prosecute, I avoided that course when it was professionally unethical and I avoid it now.

"So when a "servant leader" observes someone using the wrong approach, say a myopic approach, does he correct that person? How does he correct the myopic one? If someone has to TELL someone to do something, they are generally in a management role. If they have to TELL someone to follow, it means they weren't following the leader in the first place. If no one listens to the "PL" (as we hear many times on this forum) then that PL is leading NO ONE! So the choice that needs to be made is: Is it more important to have people follow or more important to get the job done?" Stosh, read the question again. You tell constantly. Here. Today. Yesterday. Tomorrow. You have passion for the topic and try to tell us what we are doing wrong in your opinion. I find nothing wrong with that. Is the job more important than having "followers"? It's not a dichotomy. Leaders get the job done with the team they lead every day. "Keep the group together. Get the job done." The "job" may very well be each member developing into the best person and best citizen he can be. Oh, that would be Boy Scouting.

The rule at some camps that only adults or camp staff carry prescription meds has a couple of problems. 1) When meds are needed in seconds, adult or staff may be minutes away. 2) It's against federal law for anyone other than the patient to possess prescription meds prescribed to that patient. Parents get a pass under an unwritten exception because it has to work that way for young children. We are not parents or in loco parentis, unlike the schools. BSA forms giving camp staff or adults the supposed right to possess prescription meds are void - dead on arrival. Parents cannot change federal law.

If a Scout never eats what the rest of his patrol eats, I would wonder how the patrol plans meals. If a Scout does not eat with his patrol-mates, I would wonder why. Smaller eating groups than a patrol may be dictated by equipment. Many backpacking stoves hold only small pots safely. Safety is a nondeligible responsibility of adults in Scouting. Scouts act as a force multiplier - watching out for each other and learning self-discipline - but adults cannot escape their responsibility. You agree to that when you become a Scouter, right along with no alcohol and no illegal drugs. I have been around Scouts who were more mature than adults they have been around. However, for whatever reason (probably lack of experience), young people are statistically more likely to get into accidents than older people. Insurance companies have little sentiment. It's all numbers. So the B.S.A. mandate has reason behind it. Maturity, including developing the ability to make good benefit/risk analysis, seems like a process, not an event like joining Scouts or becoming 18, and further is a process varies from individual to individual. I have experienced "accident-prone" persons of various ages. As with many things, it is not either/or. You need enough adult attention and not more. There is too much of a good thing - both ways.