Bob White

If you follow the BSA program then the only appointment to a POR by a senior patrol leader that requires the consent of the Scoutmaster is the role of juinor assistant Scoutmaster and no other. That is if your intent is to follow the program.

Hi OGE I do not think it is realistic to think that he would stop on his own regardless of the outcome of your poll.

As usual GW you have personal difficulty with truth. This information came from open conversation with no expectation or request of confidentialtity. The people who gave me and others this information either work for the BSA or serve as volunteers on the national committees that make these decisions. I choose as a matter of my own preference to not use their names and to share the advance info with the other scouters as they shared it with me. Once the information is officially announced who said it first is of no consequence. The many things I have been told in confidence will remain private. If you do not like that choice then you are free to ignore the information. It seems you have no positive use for it anyway.

July 1st through August 31st is monsoon season in New Mexico. This is when they get the bulk of their rainfall so be sure to bring rain gear. The most likely place for your tent to leak is the top seam along the ridge pole. Just like at jamboree we found that a good thing to do is to bring a couple of sheets of plastic that are about 8ft x 6ft that can be draped over your cot in case it rains. We had quite a bit of rain last week, mostly at night. The good part of that is that the camp is lush and green, and looks fantastic. The conference rooms are now equipped with projectors, which is both good and bad. I noticed that many fascilitators have become far too dependent on PowerPoint and tend to overuse it. Temperatures in August at PTC average in the low 80's. If you have folks in your family who do not sleep well when it is warm and humid consider brining a small fan for the tent. The tents have electricity. Just like on a any campout keep smellables out of the tent, there are creatures far less entertaining than deer who come around looking for meals that you do not want in your tent. Drink water. High altitudes cause dehydration, High altitude sickness is very unpleasant and spoil your visit. Drinking water is the solution. Watch your speed limit. Cimarron business folks love the business brought in by visiting scouters...so do the Cimarron police. They are serious about their speed limits and do not hesitate to write speeding tickets for the slightest infraction. The buy new SUVs about every other year, guess where they get the money from? Bring a camera, it is a gorgeous place. Be more receptive to learning Scouting methods and policies then people are on this forum. I enjoy using a night scope and taking quiet walks near the open fields behind PTC after the camp has quieted down. That is when the animals begin to wander closer to camp. You can see an amazing amount of wildlife. (remember to always take a buddy with you) Unless your conference asks you to bring something then there is no need to bring anything with you. However, if you have something related to your conference that you would like to share by all means bring it with you. If possible have enough copies for the others in your conference as well. Each conference operates a little differently depending on the style of the facilitators on your faculty. Ideally they are there to meet your expectations and informational needs. Be open with them about your learning goals and they will do the best they can to meet your needs. (This message has been edited by Bob White)

Relax GW these are not huge issues or confidential ones. Many of these things I have shared were shared with a few hundred of us at a time. Again it seems you just want to try and start arguments rather than just talk about things in an adult way.

Cost-wise it is not that much more costly to do color instead of black and white due to digital printing as opposed to four-color offset which used to be the only way to get a full color image. The reason for the change is they are more attractive and more pleasuarable to read. As far as the delay, there are some content changes in some of the books, and it's not that unusual for there to be some distrubution back ups when new products are released. The books will be available soon. (This message has been edited by Bob White)

Doin' stuff at PTC.

The phone number for the Central Region office in Naperville, IL is 630-983-6730

If the unit has BSA accident insurance, (whether provided by the council or purchased through the council) its coverage extends to all participants who are registered members or to those being recruited to join. You can address specific questions regarding BSA health and safety, and risk management questions by going to http://www.scouting.org/Applications/hsquestions.aspx

The next printing of merit badge pamphlets will be in full color. There is no plan at this time to put the pamphlet contents on-line except for the requirements. Merit Badge Counselor training will be soon be on-line on the BSA on-line Learning Center

I suppose that is true if your goal is for power. I shared the news not for power but because I found it interesting and thought others would too. I heard it from a BSA national director at PTC but since it is not his role to announce the change then I respectfully did not use his name in sharing the information. It is unfortunate that anyone would find fault in extending such a courtesy.

There are thousands of troops. I would think that they each have their own reasons for the custom apparel they choose.

Anarchist, I am not sure what poosts you are reading in the thread but I find very little of your summarize to be in ANY post other than your own. Group 1 from what I have read includes perhaps 1 poster who simply put forth a question. Group two does not seem to exist, as no one has called anyone names except you. And no one has said tat all adults do this. Group three seems to have two members noeither of which have provided a single example of how the current BSA Eagle Project rule, requirement, or procedures are unclear or cause barriers to the scouts advancement other than stating the required elements that must be completed. and Group 4, help me out because I can find no post that suggests that no adult be involved. You seem to have manufactured your summarry without accurate regard to any of the posts in the thread. Lastly, what you think personally is is conflict with the stated policies of the BSA and I know of no time in the BSA when they were not in conflict. As for your friends observations they seem to have as little substance to support them as your four groupings. The Eagle project is the culminating application phase for the leadership skills learned and practiced by the scout to this point. Do not expect the BSA to drop it in our lifetime.

Not at all fgoodwin, First, as I posted the committee has the responsibility for Courts of Honor (not in nature as expressed by John in KC but in job responsibility as stated by the BSA). Second, That does not mean that they cannot share the leadership of that activity with scouts and scout leaders, as I expressed in my post. Thirdly, planning and hosting a court of honor is an option for the communication merit badge. If the Committee of his troop would rather a scout not not plan and MC the upcoming CoH then the scout can do a campfire program instead. Doing a CoH is just an option. No Harm...No Foul.

Actually it is not up to the Scout and Scoutmaster to work out. It is up to the advancement regulations of the BSA, which do not require that the scout hold different positions, only that he meet the requirements.

Hi t-eagle First, Venturing Crew Advisors are not a part of the troop. They belong to a totally separate unit and should function as such. While there is nothing wrong with recruiting from a pack (or packs) you are right to consider other options. You will find that the most effective way is to recruit friends of the boys already in the troop. The ammount of time and resources involved in recruiting in the way you suggest rarely produces significant results. If your scouts could recruit even a small fraction of the friends they have outside of scouting then you would have more than enough new scouts to keep the unit healthy and growing. Look at it like this. If only 25 percent of your scouts recruited a new scout each year, then in 3 years you would be a troop of 30 scouts add your recruitment from your pack(s) to that and you are in fine shape. My recommendation would be to develop and support a recruitment program among your own scouts. Have an exciting an adventurous outdoor program that will make them proud to tell their friends about what they do and enticing enough for the friends to want to come along and see it. Remember that a boy does not have to be registered in scouting to go on an activity with the troop or patrol. They need only be interested , eligible to join, and have their parents permission to attend.

Hearst is a footnote because his venture lost and the other teanm one. Had circumstances been different and the scouting program that Hearst was backing come out on top then it would be Boyce who was the footnote. It can be easily argued that no one person is responsible for the founding of the BSA nor doid it just spring up over night. It tokk a few yeqars a number of talented and dedicated people to create the foundation that today's BSA has built upon over the decades. Was Boyce the "most" important? Perhaps, and perhaps not, it would appear that from 1910 to 1916 you have to agree that at least 5 main characters were involved. Baden-Powell; who developed the original program. Boyce; who incorporated it in the USA, and provided the original funding Seton; who developed the advancement program, created the merit badge program, wrote "edited" the first handbook and was the first Chief Scout of the BSA. Beard: who developed much of the outdoor program for the BSA West: who created the chartered organization concept and developed the council structure, as well as was instrumental in the congressional charter. I agree that Robinson's role was important, but one of the reasons why he is seldom mentioned is that he was only involved for the first year. Once he replaced himself with his friend James West, Robinson returned to his work with the YMCA, and so few people were aware of his contributions to the scouting movement. Why the rush? Because it was a very popular program throughout Europe.

Actually it was in the early 80s that they went from black on red patrol medallions to the ones we have today. As far as the rank badges they only thing that changed was from rectanmgle to oval and the background changed to match the shirt color. the emblems themselves went unchanged

I am confident that if eolesen reflected back at what he recieved it was more than the 20 questions. He was also told where an when the course was, what the cost was, what the requirements for attending were, what to wear and what to bring. There is nothing you must do to prepare for Wood Badge other than meet the requirement of being old enough and being registered in the BSA. Wood Badge (two words) is just a leadership training course, its a very good one, but it is not something you need to do any amount of planning for other than packing for a campout out and completing the physical, the self-assessment, and the registration form. There is nothing imposing about it.

I never said that you turned down a scout, I said that the standards that YOU SAID you used, were not within the regulations of the BSA and that is the problem. The fact that you never turned down a scout based on those self-created standards is a relief. You said that the problem is overly strict adherence to BSA rules and regulations. I posted that the problem is adults who either do not know or do not follow the BSA requirements, rules, and procedures. Those are very different positions. At this point in time neither you or any other poster has shown as an example that supports your opinion. Can you give any example to support what you believe is the problem? A number of posters have (and could continue) to show examples of canditates who were turned down for reasons that have nothing to do with the BSA requirements, policies, or procedures. I know of one scout whose project was refused by the district and council advancement committee because....1) his parents were supplying the lunch one day and he was told that that was against the BSA rules. 2) There was a power tool involved and he was told that BSA policies did not allow scouts to use power tools. 3) the projects was being done outside of the district boundaries where his unit was registered and that was not allowed. NONE of those rules actually exist in the BSA or EVER HAVE! These were not people who were being overly strict in adherance to the rules. These were people who rather than know and follow the advancerment rules just made them up as they went along. Can you share an example of how adhereing to the rules denied a scout advancement when he had met all the requirements of the BSA? I do not believe it is possible.

That is not a problem since you can wear the current uniform, the new uniform, or a combination of pieces from both, and still be in a complete and correct uniform according to the uniforming poilices and regulations of the BSA. KY_, Is it your intention to force the scouts and scouters to wear a particular version, only a complete and correct one?

In a stern letter to the BSA, Boyce stopped his $1000 a month contributions to the BSA around 1915 asking them not to contact him for further contributions stating that it was not his intention to fund a national program but simply to bring the Scout handbook to youth in the US. No one disputes that Boyce played a role in bringing scouting to the US, a recognition still afforded him by the BSA along with other key individuals. The question was "why the rush" at that particular time in history, and one cannot fail to recognize that the two people most prominent in trying to get the program started here were competing publishers, and that Baden-Powell's book was a best-seller at the time.

It is very possible that the crest was embroidered onto the new shirt, I did not look to see if it had been, but it had an embroidered crest on it.

Actually the colors are not the same emb021. we have seen them side by side with the current uniform and they are different, similar but definitely different.

GW Your perception and assumption are incorrect. The uniform we saw being worn had a por patch on the sleeve and it fit just fine. It would appear that you are grasping at staws in order to have something to complain about. KY So you have a slight inconvenience in that the BSA Supply Division timetable for ALL orders does not meet what you want for YOUR order. It is not as if they are not willing to make the customized numbers. They are just asking that you wait until the uniforms have been released. Patience is a virtue. (This message has been edited by Bob White)