OldGreyEagle

http://www.americancatholic.org/messenger/feb2003/Wiseman.asp

Stosh, please take this the right way as there is plenty of Poster bashing going on, and I do not want to start another round, but... Could it be that the Eagle Canidate with the "perfect uniform" just bought the uniform and paid for the sewing because he regards the Eagle Board of Review with such respect he wants to look his best? Could the youth in the disheveled uniform spent the last 4 years using his uniform as the unofficial wipe cloth in his room and routinely stored it under his bed in a heap? The point is, we spend a lot of time telling kids not to judge a book by its cover and then here we see all sorts of judgements being made based on how right or wrong the uniform is. WOuld it not be a better avenue to talk to the person first and get a sense of what is going on before developing any ideas about them? Or I could be wrong, its just an alternative view, not saying you are wrong

But then again, how old was Billy the Kid when he was shot by Pat Garrett? Was Billy the Kid a good guy or a bad guy? Were the Regulators of the Lincoln County war anymore a Neighborhood watch group? Or at least what the western frontier would look at as a neighborhood watch? At the Shootout at the OK Corral, were the Earps and Company rightgeous or were the Clantons just being bullied by authority? We have many stories from each side each making the other guy the bad guy. Violence and tragedy is not new, neither is a distortion of facts nor is each side having a "Certain point of view" (quick movie reference there) that defends their actions. We do need to move to a place where such events are limited and we all have confidence on the actions of others, and there lies the rub, we have to trust other people to do the right thing(This message has been edited by oldgreyeagle)

We are not all that far away from celebrating a famous golf tournament in Georgia. The Masters and while I do not follow golf, I do know that Augusta National, the Country CLub that sponsors the Masters is an All Male Club, women need not apply. They are a private club and get to make up their own rules and membership standards. At some point, some organization will protest Augusta National's membership stannards and it may garner some attention, but the Masters will go on and all will be forgotten until next year. The BSA is well within its rights to develop and follow its membership standards. Whehter or not it wants to stand with the August National's of the world is a separate issue

A Crew should recruit form a much wider circle than close by Boy Scout Troops. The youth targeted should be anyone who promises to do their duty to God and help strengthen America, to help others, and to seek truth, fairness, and adventure in our world That includes a whole bunch of youths other than Boy Scouts. You are looking for those who moved into the area while 10-12 years old and didnt know enough of the area to join a troop or perhaps joined a troop and were put off with the way the Troop was run. You are looking for youth who have no problem saying, I want to do this and then go and make this happen. Whether its Deep Sea Fishing off the New Jersey Coast or going to a Broadway Play or a whole bunch in between. You are presenting a vehicle for the youth to do what it is they want to do whether Backpack (Out Door Crew) Teach Sunday School or prepare a Relious Retreat (Religious Life) or perhaps put on a play (I love Musicals myself in Arts and Hobbies) follow an interest in Sports or even become a Sea Scout Ship Venturing while it could be part of the natural progression from Cub to Boy Scout to Venturer, you don't need to have an scouting experience to be a Venturer.

Ah, but to what side of the argument would you apply Godwin's rule? Anyway, as has been pointed out, nothing is static, how is it said? SOoner or later everyone gets the goverment they deserve? perhaps we get the society we deserve as well, or is that the some thing?

I think there is a difference between "Don't worry, no one will get hurt" and "Don't worry, we have the skills to handle anything that happens". A slight difference in words but a huge difference in perception

Wait, I got this, two quotes come to mind, Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers. and "The streets of our country are in turmoil. The universities are filled with students rebelling and rioting. Communists are seeking to destroy our country. Russia is threatening us with her might. And the republic is in danger. Yes! danger from within and without. we need law and order! Without law and order our nation cannot survive." And as the two more prominent 20th Century minds once said "... And the beat Goes On..."

Certainly there are sacred things, money for one...

I am really not sure where the anti-female bias comes from in Scouting. It wasn't from the Founder Baden-Powell. Take this link to a page with several speeches recorded of B-P http://www.thescoutingpages.org.uk/speeches.html Listen to the second listed speech "B-P gives a talk to Scouts" I love listening to him talk, and about the 3:05 mark you will hear him say the following: "...We want more young men and even young women to come forward as Scoutmasters. There is work for all, and good work." So apparently B-P was not so afraid of having Women Scoutmasters, perhaps we should not either

Not anymore Macho that "Without using any cooking utensils, prepare a meal with the four basic food groups for three people." Which is the fifth requirement of the Cooking Core requirement for Ranger Or Starting a Fire without matches/lighter three different way to earn the Wilderness Survival Merit Badge Or Catching, CLeaning, Cooking and eating a fish we have caught or acquired for the fishing merit badge (This message has been edited by OldGreyEagle)

Easy Pack, its the increasing distance, the greater the challenge and then the accomplishment of meeting a greater challenge. I work at Summer Camp as an Ad Junct Rangemaster and work as Rangemaster at District Camporees and other events when they need a qualified person. Many times I assist a youth in the first time they ever shoot a gun. After tentative first steps, and perhaps a few misses, the look on their face when they hit the target is priceless. So, after you have mastered the 50 foot range, what do you do then? Go Big or in this case Go Long. I can see the cachet of shooting long distance. Of learning how to clump your shots in a tighter group at increasing distances, of doing something that seems impossible but yet, after you try it, you do. The old School hall conversation on Monday, imagine the following exchange: What did you? Nothing Nuthin' Hung out at the Mall Hey, I hit a target 6 out of 10 times from 800 yards at Venturing on Saturday Whoa Whoa Whoa YES! Sounds like a good idea

See, I don't see as singing for lost stuff as hazing. In a hazing ritual, most times its entry into a club. Fraternity hazing is all about becoming a brother and once you have sealed the bonds of Brotherhood, you're good. You dont have to do it again. In the Navy crossing the Equator puts you in the "Trusty Shellback" category and once you have gone through the ritual, again, you're good, you dont do it again. But singing for lost stuff, that is supposed to teach you something. I guess teach you to keep track of your stuff or else someone will take it and make you do something in front of the group to get it back. Its not really Hazing in the classic sense of the word, because once you are hazed into a group, its over. if you belong to a "Sing to get stuff back" Troop you will sing to get anything back all the time. Its just for the amusement of the others or to teach you to be accountable. How it gets seen depends on each persons personality. I know a few kids who will loose things on purpose just to get in the spotlight. I know others who will never go to another troop function because they might have to sing. Learning accountability is something we should as a societal value, whether or not singing to regain lost items assists in this I am not certain. But if it works for you, I cant say you are wrong. But if you scare kids away, you may wish to reconsider your methods

Actually, B-P had no problem with female scoutmasters, he even tried to recruit women to be scoutmasters while he was alive

Where in Maine? My father is from The Forks and I have an Uncle in East Madison

I took a look at the flyer they have. This is the first pagraph, on page 2 Following a very successful inaugural event in 2008, this is the Councils ultimate camp for advancement and Scouting knowledge. Six merit badges required for Eagle Scout are offered this week, plus in-depth information about service projects, NESA, paperwork and many other important details needed for obtaining the highest award in Scouting. This in an intensive week, thus, Scouts should be aware that all of the merit badges offered at camp require work done outside of camp to complete. In order to have the merit badges completed at camp, work done prior to camp must be brought to camp along with properly filled out partial merit badge blue cards. If prior work has not been completed, partial work will be credited at conclusion of camp. Blue cards will not be issued at the conclusion of Eagle Encampment. Instead, official accomplishment documents will be provided to each participant which should be provided to each units advancement chairman to ensure the participant receives proper credit at the Troop level. Then latter on the following is found: Prerequisites explained sorry for the wordiness this is important: Prerequisites are the requirements which wont be covered at camp and these items must be completed prior to arrival at camp. In the cases where the Scout comes to camp with a partial merit badge, if the camps merit badge counselor needs to review or endorse previously completed work, the Scout must present a legible, partially completed merit badge blue card to instructor(s) on day one of each applicable merit badge. All previous work on merit badges must be completed with a Council-approved merit badge counselor - - no exceptions. A council wide approved counselor list will be used by each of the Eagle Encampments merit badge instructors to review partial merit badges; please be sure previously utilized merit badge counselors are on the Councils list. In the event of questions, please include a legible and current phone number for previous merit badge counselors used to enable corroboration if required. All participants will be provided with a Council approved progress report from Troopmaster. Following Eagle Encampment, the Troopmaster report should be given to the participants advancement chairman by the participant. The Eagle Encampment staff will not send or issue participants results to anyone except the participant on June 22, 2012. The Eagle Encampment Troopmaster report will take the place of blue cards. Blue cards will not be issued by Eagle Encampment. As a reminder, Scouts have until the day before their 18th birthday to complete partial merit badges. So, they are very clear you have to do work before you get there. You don't show up with nothing done and get the merit badges in a week. There is prework that must get done and they are pretty insistent about it. Continuing on you find the following: The Eagle Encampment is not simply a merit badge camp; if participants are interested in earning their merit badges, then this is the place to go. Participants will not earn merit badges just for showing up and to be clear, the adults volunteering this week are not running a baby-sitting service. Each candidate is expected to take the necessary time to complete all required pre-requisites before coming to camp. The opportunity for significant progress on the Trail to Eagle is possible for those who remain focused on the objectives. Distractions from those not focused on objectives will not be tolerated; therefore, un-Scout-like behavior is not acceptable. There is a zero tolerance for any activity which violates the Scout Oath, Law, Slogan or Motto. This is not a show up on Sunday and get the merit badges on Saturday. There is the Air Conditioned part of the equation that I am unsure about, but the literaure specifically says : This program is not designed to replace the normal troop summer camp activity and Scouts are encouraged to attend camp with their troop on a different week. So, its a way to get the academic merit badges in an academic setting. I am not so sure this is as terrible as its being made out to be

Well, "Council" sorta does its own findraising, its called, Friends of Scouting along with a few other names. So, the troop sells Christmas Tress and Wreaths and then will also sell somehting for Council? Would that work? What we need is a National Product that the public identifies with Boy Scouts like it does with Girl Scout cookies. What would work? Fire Extinguishers? Be good, likely to have a hefty price though. Smoke/CO2 alarms? First Aid Kits? Would would work and be relatively inexpensive, my ideas would cost a lot

A Happy, Healthy and Joyous Vernal Equinox to you all. May you wealth increase with the daylight and your eggs stand on end for as long as you wish...

Could Philmont and the surrounding area absorb the 50-60 thousand or so participants and related staff without changing its charactor? I don't know if the Summitt can either, then again it doesnt have a charctor to destroy.

Seattle, you are not responsible for my happiness nor is your scouting position in any jeopardy that I know of, I wanted to be sure I understood what you were saying and now I do. Is it just me or are we all a little "touchy" around here lately?

Hey Engineer, How'd it go?

BadenP, I was responding to SecondClass and when he said: "Not to "not believe" you, but can you point me to this in the Guide to Advancement" I thought it best to give a reference. Not having a copy of the Guide to Advancement handy, I gave the requested reference by the means possible to me. I agree the Scoutmaster needs to think out of the box and not all things a good scoutmaster does are written, but here, in this situation where it was written was specifically asked for, and I complied. PS I agree the Handbook is not required PS: Second Class, the person who asked the question I answered thanked me for my response. I think THIS time I did alright. My track record has been a tad off these last few days...(This message has been edited by OldGreyEagle)

Perhaps the best plan is to find the Geographical center of the Country and puchase land there. Better yet, have someone donate the land. You do get to name it whatever you want. So, if you don't like where its going to be, devise a way to buy better land and give it to the BSA. That way the east coast gets a High Adventure camp and the National Jamboree site is centered in the country. Everbody wins. All you have to do is buy the land. As Vizzini once said, Well, I'm waiting

the way I understood it is that Summitt is 12 hours by car from 60-70% of the Countries population. Glen Jean West Virginia is hardly the Eastern Seaboard

Second Class, consider this, The Scoutmaster conference is a requirement just like any other in the list of requirements for a rank. As as other items in that list, it does not have to be done in the order listed, it just has to be done. Note from the following, taken from the BSA training on Scoutmaster Conferences, it says nothing about verifying the requirements of the rank. Requirements for the NEXT rank are discussed, but not that rank the Board of Review is for. Check the following www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/18-629.pdf "...The Role of the Scoutmaster Conference According to the Boy Scouts of America charter, the purpose of Boy Scouting is to develop in a young man the ability to do things for himself and for others, to train him in outdoor skills, and to teach him patriotism, courage, self-reliance, and kindred virtues. We use the methods of Scoutingincluding advancement, the outdoors, and adult associationto accomplish these goals. The Scoutmaster conference allows the Scoutmaster to review The Scouts growth in his understanding of Scoutings ideals How the Scout applies these ideals in his daily life and in the troop The requirements of the Scouts next rank so that he can be properly encouraged Why does the Scoutmaster engage in this one-on-one review? The relationship between a Scout and his Scoutmaster is important for the troops health and for the Scouts success. The Scoutmaster must watch the troops dynamics to see who is showing leadership, who is holding back, who is shy, who is working with the younger boys, who is skilled in outdoor activities, etc. Further, the Scoutmaster must watch the individual Scout to determine whether he is advancing, whether he is having fun, and whether he seems eager or uneasy...."