OldGreyEagle

I gotta ask, Philmont, Northern Tier and Sea base are fine, but the Jamboree costs to much? What is your Council charging for the jamboree that makes it cost prohibitive but yet your guys will go to Philmont et al? I do not wish to badger you, but from the surface it sounds down right weird The troop I serve seems to have been going to the Council Camp since as long as anyone can remember. We have become a fixture at the week we attned with another couple of troops and at this point, its alsmost like a reunion seeing everyone "again". The adults like it so far, we know where everyting is, know most of the staff having seen them grow up the line of responsibility in the Camp. It also didnt hurt/help that the Scout's Executive son was in our troop and the exec would attend camp as an ASM for the Troop. He always said he was there as a volunteer, but gosh the camp spiffed up from MOnday to Friday each year. The older kids come to camp to chill, not that I really like it, but I am glad they are there and are hatching memories for the future. If the spend all day making a fire, and they want to do it, why not?

Of course Curtis Sliwa and his Guardian Angels spelled doom for the coolest scouting accessory of all times, the red beret, it totally rocks man On the other hand, I am sure that the red tabs on the old uniform and red troop numbers could easily be mistaken for gang markings. Along those lines, should not there be a National Directive to not wear red neckerchiefs anymore? I would hate to think the red on the Eagle Ribbon be mistaken as a gang related color, perhaps the Eagle medal should be redesigned with a slate grey ribbon, I think thats prety nondescript. To tink of the uniform pants I wore in the 60's with the red piping, I was a gangsta' before anyone knew what they were, talk about being in the cutting edge!

C'mon, everyone kows that the Matador (a stupid car of the 70's) flapping a red cape infuriates a bull, (that an the half dozen or so mini-spears stuck in uner his skin) I thought it was pretty conclusive that most animls are color blind anyway On the other hand, if a parol is stealthy enough to sneak up on the citizens of the brush, I would think the BSA would want to put plenty of red n the uniform to alert the animals and prevent harrasment as it is(This message has been edited by OldGreyEagle)

Well, the Committee Chair can't be registered by the COuncil as an Assistant Scoutmaster in the same unit, although I am not going to say it never happens. The Committee Chair is certainly not prohibited by any rules from going camping so I would venture to say the Committee chair is there as a member of the committee, not as an ASM but that really isnt the issue. The real issue is just what happened and for that we need more details

as I recall, and others invovled in the GSUSA help me out, but the entry level program for Girls Scouts is Daisy which is Kindergarten and First Grade. The boys see the girls in their class doing scouting things and the best message the BSA had was WAIT? Wait for what? For sports to take over their life? My understanding was that Tigers was started to compete with the Daisy program, well, not compete, but to provide activties at a time when the Girl Scouts are are active. Having said that, I guess I have to wonder about parents who get "burned out" on their kids or their kids activities. I want to know why one has children if you are not going to be active in their life. Now that my son has aged out, I would love to have another campout with him, walk through the 2010 Jamboree with him as we did in 2001. If we have parents burning out because they have to take care of their children, we have a much deeper issue in American Society that 800 billion or whatver the current figure is will ever cure I enjoyed raising my boy, I can't imagine not being around him as he grew up, I can't imagine the dispassionate adults we are breeding by having parents unabashedly stating they are burned out by parental responsibilities

2 venturing shoert sleeve shirts 1 Venturing Grey long slacks 1 Venturing Grey Shorts 1 "NEW" Centenial Uniform shirt for Boy Scouts 2 Boy Scout short sleeve shirts 1 pair long boy scout green uniform pants 4 boyy scout shorts assorted boy scouts socks, pret near jalf dozen, 2 pair Venturing Socks Multitude of hats, either form Camp, Camp School, events, bought at scout store

this is an outline of the Climb On Safely program http://scoutmaster.org/usscouts/boyscouts/climbonsafely.asp this is about how to do a safe unit climb, not about how to set up climbing apparatus. You may want to consult Topping Out, its a technical book about climbing http://www.scouting.org/Media/FactSheets/02-578.aspx I beleive if you want youth to be 10-12 feet off the ground, you will need them to be top rope belayed.

often the best skill an adult can have is paitience, let the youth figure it out for themselves, in an absolute no other way but adult situatin environmet, ask the youth leaders what the problem is, let them define it, let them come up with solutions, let them decide the course to take. it may not always be how you would do it, but if it works, that's the point. Sorry if I was gruff, I did not intend to be

I am not so sure it's religion, but things man does in Religion's name for conquest. In WWI, the Germans singing O Tannebuam while the Englidh sang O Christmas Tree and the Christmas Day Soccer game. Religion didn't play a part there. WWII was not based on Religion either, in the west, Germany pretty much wanted religion out of its society and have its society worship its leader, in the east, Japan wanted to conquer and saw the US as the main impediment to its plans. It may have seen the US as an agreesor, but not as a Christian agressor, just as an agressor. yes, plenty of wars have been based on religion, but if not reliously base, you dont think another reason woudl not have been used? Relgion is easy because it's an easy my side your side tool, but if it didnt exist, there wouldnt be less wars.

"what if there is adult interference (albeit, well-intentioned in the sense that I don't think they are intending to undermine the process, but it just happens)?" I always get this confused, its either Mr Miyagi or Yoda thats says, "there is no try, only do or do not". I will paraphrase that to "there is no boy lead if adults interfere," no matter how well intentioned. Took me a long time to stifle myself because things werent done the way I knew they should or the best way (to me). Oddly enough give enough time, the youth do make the right moves, you just have to have faith, and a strong stomach

Maybe you will feel bad if you tell the parents about their son's Facebook page and the youth decide to ignore you, then imagine how you would feel if you do nothing and the next time you see the parents is at the memorial service for their son killed in an auto acident while DUI your call it may do well to let the youth know that informatoin on the web is really out there, for anyone to see and many people do see it

So, the only way a scout gets to go to Boundary Waters, or Philmont, or Sea BAse or any other High Adventure place is with his patrol and if he can't sell them on the idea of going to Philmont when the rest of the patrol wants to go to Sea base or stay home, then he doesnt go?

so if the troop take 40 kids on a campout, and there are 8 youth in a patrol and each patrol is 300 feet from the next, then it's still a troop doing the troop method? I guess I don't understand the distinctions being made here.

Hey jkhny, how have you been? its been over 2 years hope you are doing well

I can tell you as a District Advancement person, very very few Blood Drives are approved as Eagle Leadership projects. Other than scheduling the space required for the drive and recruiting juice pourers and cookie passing outers there isnt much for the scout to do. Maybe some promotion, but thats pretty much it. The Blood Team will set up the way they have found to be the best. The Blood Team will follow American Blood bank Association protocol. There will be no supervision over the workers by the Scout as the scout cannot possibly know what the rules and regulations covering Blood Dononation are. Now, if the scout wants to make the Blood Drive part of a Health Fair and co-ordinate having the local American Cancer Society and similar groups at the same place and time as the Blood Drive and have information on health available to the public such as Blood Pressue screening and other things, now you are talking about a potential Eagle Leadership Project. I say that because I aprroved such a project(I said very ver few were approved, but it happens), when it was introduced to me I was told it was a Blood Drive, after the explanation I said its not a Blood Drive its so much more. There does seem to be an issue with your preception of what has been approved as an Eagle Leaderhip Project in the past.

I do not beleive it right to use the Nazi term, that comparison is well over the top and not necessary. The youth protection rules of the BSA have been developed to protect the reason we exist, the youth. There is also no small side benefit to the protection following the Youth protection principles brings to adults. There are no options on Youth Protection, at the same time, there is no Youth Protection issue here either(This message has been edited by OldGreyEagle)

In a way, I agree with your scoutmaster, if you have one adult at a station, you need to have another for 2 deep leadership. Then again, if you have none, then you don't need any just like a patrol event. I take it in todays world, the stations, regardless of distance, will be in communication with "home base" either by radios or cell phones so what could be the issue? Why not let the Venturing Youth show what youth can do, pretty exciting actually, let us know how it goes

All the literature says the new uniform and components are to be "mixed and matched" with the old unform parts so you could see new tabs (the epaulets are the cloth strappy thingies the tabs fit on)and the new numbers on an old shirt, its ok. BTW, I heard rumblings the new shirt has gone over like the proverbial lead balloon and the replacement is underway. of course, I just want to the first to say so and then 15 years from now when a change occurs I can claim I knew it all along What are we doing? Trying to get and keep the youth in the unform in any combination they wish(This message has been edited by OldGreyEagle)

You may want to consider "The Industrial Heritage Trail" of Minsi Trails Council. The hike is along the Lehigh in the towns just north of Allentown. Amoung the sights is what used to be the "silk capital" of the United States, the summer home of a signer of the Declaration of Independence and the foundation of the cement industry, the first limestone kilns in the colonies

I am not so sure that the youth should be allowed to take off on rocket assist and leave the old guys in their dust. Respect for age and consideration of abilities is not a bad thing. Then again, if the adults are 40 pounds overweight and notorious "non-scouting event smokers" that's not right either to hold back the youth. What was the plan for the hike? How many miles were to be covered in how much time and what was the youth's role in that decision? Yes youth are supposed to lead and its hard for adults who find it easier to just do it themselves, someitmes we need to find another adult and just talk about anything and watch the event unfold. No blood no foul usually

the issue becomes the posts on the page are read by many people. At some point an adult may tip his hand that he has read the page and if he does not saying anything about the content, then there are those who will take the non-comment about content as consent they are free to trash whoever they wish. A question to the owner of the page may be warranted along the lines of "is this the image you had for the page? , is this scoutlike? or the like. If the owner of the page is one who posted the objectionable material, there isnt much you can do about it othe than disavow your self from it. If you find you are cut-off, then its worth asking what is it they talk about that they don't want you to read? Saying nothing implies approval

I asked this questin with an intentin to follwo up and then lost track of this one. As was painfully pointed out one Saturday afternoon at a Camporee that wasn't planned well, I voiced displeasure that "District can't do anything right", it was carefully yet directly told to me who Disitrct is, its composed of Scouter either in units in the District or Scouters whose sons have aged out, rarely is it "lay" people who don't know scouting, District is volunteers, just like unit leaders and each has their competing priorities and obligations. District is us, enemy or not

I can tell you a happy story, I met a colleague whose nephew had earned Eagle, had his Board of Review but before his Court of Honor could be held, family upheaval and distress (its a long story) occured and the Court of Honor was never held. When I met her, she found I was in Boy Socuts and told me she always regretted her nephew never getting his Eagle medal. and was there anything I could do. I called Irving and got the Advancement section and was told if I could give them the boy's name, troop number and town, they could look it up. I got the information and called them back. They did have him on file as an Eagle Scout. For a sum, they sent me an Eagle Certificate and medal which we presented to the young man (he is 26) at a family gathering. The guy was speechless, he had totally forgotten he never got his medal but because National had his name on file, I was able to get a replacement certificate and medal. Course, it had President Bush's name on in and not president Clinton, but it struck me. I should start collection of eagle certificates with the change of each president and get one for every president. What do you think?

Certainly our ancestors reproduced, the question is, have we evolved?

Brent, I admonished Kudu to stay on topic, I now do the same to you. Perhaps another thread is indicated?