Tampa Turtle

I do not think a lot of Webelos is boring. For Forester take them for a walk in the woods, Athlete is neither academic nor is Aquanaut. Naturalist needs a field trip to a zoo or animal sanctuary, Craftsman is pretty hands-on...

How a big paracord "survival bow-tie". In case of a life or death situation and you need 8" of cord.

Yes I would say that having the Govt in charge of a large segment of the economy has unintended consequences...however there are many different governments involved...I am amazed at how much influence the TVA has in the Tennessee area for example. That said we tend to imbue "private enterprise" with many unearned virtues; we like to think our economy is a lot of mom and pops. However it seems that the economy is largely being made of up larger and larger corporation and they are controlling the national and state government agendas...often to our detriment. I think we are heading into another era of corporate monopolies.

Gee whiz folks. When did we imbue private enterprise with the mantle of super-efficiency? Law firms, insurance companies, phone companies, etc they are all models of low costs and super cheerful service? If someone doesn't like the road project I supervise, guess what I get harassing calls at my house when they put my personal phone number in their front yard. Does that happen to "bill" at the call center. If I am rude to a member of the public who swears at me --guess what I get fired. I am doing 5-count em-5 jobs right now as government as shrunk. Pay frozen for third year in a road but I do not complain because I am grateful to have a job. (and by the way really no pension at all anymore). I know when I talk to my scouts I teach them to respect their elected leaders, understand how government works, and -if they do not like it- work to change the system. I discourage cheap shots...

I may be off base here... I guess I am old school. I think the traditional Outdoor skills/boy-led Patrol develops leadership...up to a point. It is more like (what I have read) of how the Israeli infantry used to develop leaders...you worked your way up from corporal to sergeant to officers if you were good enough. Your men knew "you could do it" like them or used to at one time. If a guy washed out at least you had some really good non-coms. Seems like the modern BSA models itself off the traditional British/US officer-gentlemen model...a lot of training and schooling to develop leadership skills. Sometimes works...sometimes doesn't. Patrol leading will develop leadership skills but not all to the same level. Nothing wrong with that. I would be happy if some boys ended up as darned fine Patrol Quartermasters. I think the emphasis on the "ultimate" Eagle rank kinda skews some thinking.

Ann, I made my 1st Tigers suffer so with my slavish adherence to the Tiger manual.

Ah contare, I worked for Fed, State, and Local governments and have known folks who are Libertarians who rail against all government (yet manage to pick up their paychecks). True enough it is a minority but not as much as you think. I usually tell them to stop being hypocrite and quit. But they never do.

Lisabob, He is not calling you a racist, he is calling you an ageist.

I do not think the 50% number is correct--it does not pass the smell test. BDP about 13-15% of the workforce works for the governemnt (Fed, State, Local, Schools, Armed Forces, Post Office) lets be generous and say 20 million. There was in 2004 about 50 million registered Republicans and 70 registered Democrats...that is 120 million. To help lets not count Indys. Not 50 percent. But lets say who actually vote in National elections. Roughly 90-120 million in a presidential and 65-80 million in a big congressional year. Still not 50 percent. I can be off here or there but it does not make it. I would agree that it would be logical if government workers vote more than average. However in my experience they vote against their own interests a lot too.

This is from 2004 so it is a little out of date. US Census: -------Begin----------------------- Majority of Children Live With Two Biological Parents Nearly 45 million (61 percent) of the nation's 73 million children younger than 18 lived with their biological mother and father in 2004 regardless of the parents' marital status, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report released today. Of these children, 42.7 million lived with both parents who were married to each other. Another 4.1 million lived with a biological mother and stepfather, according to Living Arrangements of Children: 2004 [PDF]. An additional 19.3 million children lived with one parent, with the majority of those (88 percent) residing with their mother. There were 12.2 million children (representing 17 percent of all children) who lived with a stepparent, stepsibling and/or half sibling. Among children in these "blended" families, 71 percent lived with at least a half sibling, 46 percent with a stepparent and 10 percent with a stepsibling. -------------------------- That said both my kids are adopted.

jBlake those numbers just dont "feel" right. Can you source it or am I missing it somehow?

Yes, I remember's this years newbies' 1st camp-out. As 1st adults are getting up they have their patrol box set up, stove going, and breakfast for 6 well under way --sausage, pancakes, milk, OJ, and eggs. Figured out who was cooking and who was cleaning. A few older boys came over to poach and they circled the food and started deal-making. One of the boys from the established patrols looked sadly on as they ate their pop-tarts...

My younger son's tent buddy has a twin sister. She keeps making goo-goo eyes at #2 son and he is clueless. Funny to watch.

Did not break that out. I only spent 5 minutes on looking...

Alas you need a neck to wear a Bow-Tie.

I do dogs too, Shepherds, and some of the information is transferable. Yes it seems that a newly formed Boy Scout Patrol is like a den of young dogs --full of energy, short battles for dominance, and they want to play all the time. However my oldest acts different than the others; oh well. Talked to my wife this weekend about the Personal Management MB idea--she liked it a lot. So that may be the next step; not that he is likely to master anything but maybe a baby step in the right direction. Yeah, Middle School is kind of a shock but observing the boy-girl interaction is priceless.

JustAnother, I think we all make too big a deal on knots. When I was a DL I wore them because it meant a lot of work and increased creditably with parents and boys. Scouting seems more based on developing ongoing relationships and skills...it some ways my old worn uniform shirt represents a lot of experience as well. Maybe one giant knot we can wear as a bow-tie.

JBlake, I was As a Census geek I thought 7-10% of kids today seemed wrong. I checked US Census "Americas Families and Living Arrangements: 2011" and the numbers are more like (for Ages 18 and under) In sample households. ..Living with both parents 69% ..Living with mother only 24% ..Living with father only 4% ..Living with neither parent 4% (For comparison purposes "living with both parents hovered around 80-82 percent 20 years ago or so) As for Biological parents...the numbers are not radically different. Apparently 1.8 million children in 2007 were adopted out of 74.8 million total. Not enough to skew things much... Statistically race, income, etc cause the numbers to skew. So a Scout Master (before accounting for scouting self selection) may have to deal with 20-40% of single family parents. Yes this produces some challenges. And it may seem where you are almost everyone you know is single parent but that may be due to "demographic clustering"--that is birds of a feather flock together... Fun article by the way...

I guess you are correct; it is usually the first year parent/homesick kid problem.

When someone stole the car our Pack awards were in (and got in the news) George Steinbrenner called up and offered to pay for the replacements. We found them and did not need the money. I know he had sponsored a number of scout families over the years. ALMOST made up for what he did to the Yankees. Seriously, if you put the word out there usually is a way to outfit some kids with gear. We have approached a few sporting goods stores and got some creatively packaged gifts. Also if you are so fortunate to have a NFL team many of the players these days have their own small foundation (in Tampa a legacy of the Dungy-era Bucs) that may jump on something like that. Be careful of not "double-dipping" on the Team which likely is doing something with the local council--but the players can do what they want. There are a lot of small non-profits out there that have a hard time funding large projects but a few hundred to a thousand dollar amount they can swing and helping some deserving scouts can be a feel good thing. Also people are much more likely to donate for tangible goods (tents,uniforms,gear, trailers) than intangible (fees, dues). Summer Camp costs are pretty doable. You need to find the donor sweet spot or niche. Obviously approaching the charitable arm of Bank of America will run you afoul of BSA National, Council, or District.

The UK has imposed austerity measures as well and their economy appears to be stalling...

I love the show and we watch it on DVD. Also read Hamner's website which I highly recommend. But it is a bit overly-nostalgic, even Hamners real-life family was not as cheery as the show. The back story about Will Geer, who was black-listed at one time is pretty interesting. Hard to believe Hamner's family actually had MORE kids. I know as a young lad I thought Michael Learned was pretty hot. However my family experience was not the same as the show. I suspect there were many dysfunctional families then also; I know my Dad's mother drank a lot, slept around on her husband and ran off for a few years. Other family members said that in this neighborhood in the '30's this was not that unusual. Also while people remember neighbors helping each other I remember reading the crime and murder rate was pretty high. My dad said he recalled the depression as not such a good time.

I just saw some brownies and girl scouts ringing bells last night. I do not recall the world ending; just seemed like they were doin' a good deed and having fun.

I am teaching EM MB now for the first time. How much collaboration between individual scouts would you think is appropriate? If I have 6 boys working on it about the same time does the Troop really need 6 individual mobilization plans? Or am I missing the point (i.e. teach the boy not the badge) and focusing on the finished product?

For some reason our Pack scout closet never caught on like our Troop one. Too bad since the Cub Scout shirts were the old sturdy made-in-USA ones.