OldGreyEagle

Where's the kraut and chili? Ah, the hot dog stands that lined Manheim and Irving Park around O'Hare field were magnificent... I so miss having a Portillo's nearby

Rooster, I am not talking about belligerent parents, parents who bring alcohol or abusive/profane/vulgar language or other distractions. On what pretext would you prohibit a gay parent from comming on a campout? The gay parent(s) would be held to the same standard of behavior as any other parent.

The standards of the BSA are clear, all activities are open to all parents and or legal guardians. If the gay parents of a scout wanted to accompany him on an outing, then there is no way a unit could prohibit it.

What trees are native to your part of Texas?

The immediate "banned skit" that comes to mind is either the "motorcycle skit" or the "roughrider skit", normally it involves two guys, one sleeping in a tent one not, the "gang" beats up the guy sleeping outside twice, after the second time the sleepers switch places and then the gang decides to beat up the guy in the tent. Big fun The only reason to ban skits is to encourage creativity amoung the troops, but then why deprive kids of the "old nuggets"?

Venturing doesnt require a uniform, what aspects of a Crew do you think youth look at before deciding to join?

"there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy, Horatio!" Gee guys, just because you don't understand or have never heard of it before doesn't mean it cant happen. And yeah, years ago ADD was "cured" by a paddling by a principal, usually followed by dropping out of school a life of crime and voila, I told you that kid was no good. 50 years ago spousal abuse was a matter between husband and wife, Jim Crow laws in the south were honored and sexual abuse wasnt talked about, and dyslexics were just people who didnt concentrate hard enough, doesnt mean they didnt exist or that the ways they were handled were right. If you ever see a full blown ODD tantrum, you will recognize it as not just a defiant child, although you will get defiant adults who struggle to accept reality(This message has been edited by OldGreyEagle)

Nope Beav, just BobWhite

Ed, Johnny Storm? never would have picked you to like such a flamer (sorry, guys, I had to)

Excellent suggestion, I nominate the Boy Scout Handbook, as its the most universally available, any other thoughts?

Perhaps before we fix scouting, we first determine what's broken. And to determine whats broken, first we need to have people who have experience in doing the program "by the book" (horrors) because if you don't do by the book, then how do you know the book is wrong? I offer the above as food for thought only

Merlyn, I wasnt aware the military "ran" the jamboree, I know the many sub camp commissioners and myriad staffers would be surprised to hear that as well.

I always preferred Ben Grimm of the Fantastic Four as my alter ego, but if I accept the nom de plume of Dr Bruce Banner, does that rescue me from the too seriously sentence?

I would venture to say that many, including yours truly, takes scouting a wee bit seriously at times. The important thing to remember is we all have hot buttons. When I hear about a troop that routinely has 30 minute or more Boards of Review with every scouting skill learned thus far fair game for the reviewers, I might just go beserk (see Billy Jack) When a new member of the forum asks a question and the thead deterioates into a name calling, one upsmanship battle of quips of posters harping on each other for past posts, I might just go beserk When self professed experienced leaders say that the methods of scouting are only suggesitons and "their" brand of scouting is superior to the program that some proclaim they have not taken the training for, I might go beserk When a new scout's parent comes here and tells a story of the troop just joined that has an attendance policy, a history of hazing, a non-spoken "policy" of having no 15 year old Eagles or younger, I might go beserk Oh, and by the way, when I see exchanges between forum members that serve no purpose other than to "twit" each other, I might go beserk. Maybe I take myself too seriously but then I wouldnt be me

Merlyn, what I am saying is the Jamboree is a natural place for the military to seek out future members. It is true that atheists can't attend, but I did invite you to gather 35,000 youth and see if the military would help out putting on a 10 day event. If they refused, and then continued to sponsor the Jamboree, then that I would agree is wrong. Talking about this subject does bring up a thought. President John Kennedy was Catholic, President Richard Nixon was "Quaker" and George W Bush is a methodist. Does the presidents attendance of a church constitute an establishment of a religion? Sen Joe Lieberman is jewish, does showing him walking into a synagogue mean anyhting? If President gives a Commencement Address at Boston College (a Catholic University) does that constitute an endorsement of Catholicism? If Proctor and Gamble buy advertising time on the EWTN network are they turning their back on other faiths or people of no faith? Can the Marines recruit on EWTN or the 700 Club?

From attending the last Jamboree, I would say the federal money was well spent on a 10 day long recruitment event. The military wants to keep the manpower (peoplepower) comming in as well. And merlyn, come up with 35,000 atheisists in the prime demographics and the US military will spend bunches of bucks on a recruiting party for them as well.

I know this is a slippery slope, but if the Troop can be boy lead into not wearing a uniform, what about electing not to use the Patrol Method, Adult Association, Advancement, the Outdoor Program, et al. is not the employment of the methods of scouting that which makes it unique and "scouting"? Can a Troop elect not to follow the Guide to Safe Scouting? Edited Part: Reading the initial post, I realize the troop doesnt eschew the uniform, its used during Eagle "boards" what ever that is and cermonies. Does this mean only the Eagle scout wears the uniform at his Court of Honor, or does the whole troop?(This message has been edited by OldGreyEagle)

I used the word "Da" until I left the Chicago area and relaized how different I sounded from everyone else, yet Da'Bears still rule (even if they suck!) Anyway, lets take a look at the opening post. Does anyone live in a district that would openly, actively and coerce non-trained, ill equipt boys to camp in freezing temps? If the Scoutmaster takes such a group, is not he/she responsible for the group? I would first ask if documentation of the alleged event can first be found however as something has an ill aroma in the land of the Danes.(This message has been edited by OldGreyEagle)

msnowman, where in Maine are you located, roughly? I have an Uncle in west madison (closer to Skowhegan, but that's Maine) and others in Wynham and Hartford. My dad grow up near The Forks and I have been back to raft the Kennebec from the dam down to the Forks. While Maine has beauty, the Grand Tetons are my vote.

So, why DID the chicken cross the road? To prove to the Armadillo it COULD be done!

According to the BSA publication "Advancement Committe Policies and Procedures" #33088D page 9 it lists the responsibilities of the District Advancement Committee, one of the items is "Maintain a current list of merit badge counselors"

DO you mean you want to measure the scouts success of completing the leadership project by the number of scouts who advance?

Beavah, I hope you will reconsider. Way back in a former life I was a manager. And people being people, well, at times I had to sack, fire, terminate, let go, get rid of, well you get the idea, employees. I always held it as a badge of honor if after the termination people would ask me, what did He/She do? This was all so sudden! Well, actually, it was never sudden, the employee in question knew where they stood and what would happen based on their conduct. I couldnt exactly go around saying that MaryLou better watch it or I am gonna can her anymore that say that Larry was about 2 steps from getting booted outta here. I asked for the employees to have faith in the process that if the institution thought it was time for the employee to go, there was good reason. Usually, the terminated employee was tell at least someone what happened and eventually some employees would come back and say, wow, I didnt realize all that was going on. WHich meant I did my job, other employees arent supposed to know who is in "jeopardy" and who isnt. Other times they would say What took you so long, but I digress. There really isnt a lot of banning here. Not like some sites where banning or suspension threats are thrown around quite lossely in my opinion. I ask people to have faith in the system. That if a person is banned, well then there was a mighty fine reasons for doing so. Stick around, there is a lot of good ideas here and sometimes you have to weed out the cyber chaff, but thats not unlike the real world either.

Heck, YoungSpikedEagle and I were backpacking in Yellowstone last week, near the East entrance going up to the pebble creek campground. Not only did it rain all night, it hailed a little and spit snow at us. Nothing like a brisk 1,000 feet elevation gain and sleet in the face to get the heart racing.

When my son was quite a bit younger, he was always dressed in bright primary colors, reds, yellows, greens, and bright blue, it was done so he could be easily spotted. I didnt engineer that feat, it was his mother's design, but it worked well. When we joined the Troop, another father started at the same time, he always had on bright almost neon colors and I asked him about it. He is the Deputy Chief of a SAR unit and he said the worst thing that can happen to a SAR unit is to lose one of its members, so they always dress in brilliant colors so they can be spotted, especially since they work a lot at night. Ever since then I have taken to buying brighter colors, a red rain shell, a flurorescent orange (hunters) sweatshirt, that sort of thing. No, I am not as much afraid of getting lost myself, as I am wanting to be sure a semi-lost scout might catch a glimpse of me and find his way back. I wear red sweat pants to sleep in so I can be spotted even at night if need be. When I see a kid all decked out in full camo, I do hope he doesnt go down with a twisted or broken ankle because he might not get spotted for quite awhile. Usually I look to the pros to see what they do and try to emulate them. If SAR wears bright colors, so will I and I will try to influence as many as possible to do the same.