OldGreyEagle

Actually I would have thought todays excessively baggy pants would make a heck of a lot better flotation device than the tight flared jeans I used back in the mid 60's I heard the reason it was taken out was because a scout would never be on a boat without an approved PFD in the first place rendering this requirement obsolete. Cant say for sure. Cant say it was any harder on our kids than swimming the distance they have to for first class. The confused parent Yaworksi talks about does bring up a point of consideration. You cant always beleive the internet (Reference Pierre Salinger who held a press conference to say the US military was responsible for shooting down that jet over Long Island because he read it on the internet)(sic)There are a lot of sites with Boy Scout requirements listed, it is a situation of caveat emptor, be sure the requirements you see are the current ones.

I agree scouting skills need to be emphasized, but I dont think the BOR is the place to do it. It should be done as part of the troops overall program, the scout teaching other scouts the knots or any other skill that is required for the rank. The program should be set up so there is no doubt the scout knows his skills before the BOR takes place. Now, lets say you do throw the scout a rope during a first class BOR and he can't tie the bowline and you tell him the BOR is in recess until he can tie it, will you also find out who signed the scout off and review his/her understanding of the requirement? And be sure the signer knows the knot as well? Otherwise its like College football where the school gets probation while the coach who was there during the infractions skates free.

Our troop also has frequent BOR's on Campouts, especially at Summer Camp. The SM starts doing Conferences on Wednesday night, on Thursday we start BOR while the SM continues, Friday night are more BOR's and Saturday morning successful scouts are recognized. "Hey Mom, Dad, I got the Basketry and Leather work meritbadge AND I made secdond class..." On other campouts if the boy is ready (post SM conference) and three committee members are present, why not do a BOR? Otherwise, if we held the BOR until our next meeting, the backlog would get huge.

If your Crew has been around awhile, gather pictures from various activities you have done and put together displays/poster boards with a few lines of text about the trip. Go to the scout store and buy the 5 Bronze awards,Gold, Silver, Ranger medals to display with a few lines on the requirements Have a few handbooks that can be paged through, Get the requirements for the Ranger Award and have them handy Have an organizational chart of the crew, be sure to emphaize this is led by the youth, there is no Venturemaster, only an Advisor I love the idea of a BBQ, be sure dessert is either Baked apples or bannanas Oh yeah, my son says to be sure you have a selction of music to play during dinner and while the guests talk and peruse the exhibits, real music the kids will like, not what the adults want to hear, after all its the kids crew

While I would never attempt to speak four Bob, I think what he means is that Boy Scout Troops should strive to have the same emthusiasm and pride and commaroderie as that soccer player he mentioned. The player wants to be there because he feels the team is counting on him. How many scouts feel they HAVE to go on a campout or his patrol suffers? Is that the gist Bob?

MomScouter, unless I am wrong (always possible) you can ask your district to come to a commitee meeting and provide training there,(This message has been edited by OldGreyEagle)

Acco40 and Bob Ewe are write, those job descriptions are inn the SM and the SPL handbook . Eye am looking two sea them inn an electronic format four my Woodbadge ticket sew eye don't half to retype them (Sorry Zorn, I couldnt resist)(This message has been edited by OldGreyEagle)

...And while they are at it, maybe they could check the birthdates of their players as well...

While it is true the child of a gay man or lesbian woman can be a boy scout, I would not want to be the one to explain to the boy that his parent(s) are not considered fit by the BSA to be an adult leader. The boy joins, gets infused with scouting spirit, wants his parents to join the fun (particularly if adult leaders are obviously needed) and the chartering organization representative has to say something to the effect, "the BSA doesn't let people like your parents be leaders, the BSA doesn't think they are proper role models for boys". For extra irony, lets say the Chartering Organization is a church that allows openly gay clergy. (makes sense a gay "family" would join a chucrh that has gay clergy). Again, I would not want the task of explaining to the scout why his favorite clergy person is not a proper role model either. I agree BSA has the right to formulate membership requirements, I just hope I never have to explain to a child why Mom, Dad, and Pastor/Minister/Reverend Pat are not fit to join an organization the boy loves. Slontwovvy, Some lesbian couples elect to have children by artificial insemination. Some gay "families" are formed when a husband and wife of a heterosexual marriage divorce because one determines he/she is gay, finds a gay partner and has/shares custody of the kids. I am sure there are other scenarios, these are the ones I can think of at this time(This message has been edited by OldGreyEagle)

Does anyone know where I can find the currrent BSA job descriptions for SPL, ASPL, Quartermaster, etc online?

jbroganjr has it nailed, award the badges

Laura, I cant beleive I havent sent you these links as yet, http://www.macscouter.com/Songs/index.html http://www.mudcat.org/threads.cfm The Mudcat link has a pretty good search engine, Note, not all songs may be suitable for scouts. The Macscouter of course is wonderful. I know I have some links with chords listed, will find them later. Put me in the category of an enthusiastic singer, but also one who has been accused of inflicting crewel and unusual punishment on those close by.

People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones... Those who live by the sword die by the sword.. He who is without sin may cast the first stone.. Zorn "...with corrections were flawed both syntactically and grammatically..." While I also often have difficulty with the usage of the words "that" or "which", I normally include at least one of them when they are needed. Being a perfect poster is an arduous task, but then I am sure this is something of which you are eminently aware of. "Oh, feel free to point out my grammatical errors" said OGE rhetorically.

What the heck, this topic keeps getting brought up in other threads, its time to unleash the dogs of scouting on this specific topic. What must a scout do to be considered active in your troop?

Butt, back the task at hand. I cant reconcile parents who moan at the uniform price, but dont balk at replacing soccer shin guards, soccer cleated shoes, hockey shoulder pads, etc with every passing season.

in other words: I C watt u mean + eye no how u feel, write?

Zorn, I commiserate with you and while normally I eschew obfuscation, it does seem when a shard of erudition leaks out in a missive one is indeed accused of polysyllabilism, as if that were a dire thing. Dealing with pedestrian vocabularies is a vexation borne by individuals with a developed lexis (and I do not mean the automobile). But I shoulder more repugnant tasks than this with zest, this is a mere trifle

Whattaya talkin about, faggedaboutit, howyoudoin and wassup, I always just thought of them as charming colloquialisms... I know this is beating a dead horse, but BSA pants, made of the same material as BDU's might not be a bad idea

Zorn, courtesy of a number of "lazy americans" you have a right to express yourself in any way you see fit, I in no way wish to censor your speech. I do disagree with your comments that Americans are lazy

Slontwovvy, I agree the elections should be done by an OA representative, but what is a troop to do if the OA isnt together enough to send us a rep by the Council function when the Call Out occurs?

I am a member of our Districts Advancement Committee. The Committee approves Eagle Projects at monthly meetings. If we have questions, we send those back to the scout and the Chair Emails the responses. If further clarification is required, that is handled by phone, or Email. The Commitee has to be unanimous in approving the project Eagle BOR require at least three members of the troop's committee and one representative of The Advancement Committee(This message has been edited by OldGreyEagle)

I dont know if you want the hassle, but the troop CANNOT enforce its 75%/50% requirement. If possible I would contact your Committee Chair and explain the situation, if no satisfaction, then contact your Chartering Organizaiton Rep, if nothing happens your unit commissioner, then if nothing your Distrct Commissioner (I didnt say this would be easy) and finally the District Executive. Other people on this forum may have other people in other sequences to contact, I am not sure mine will be the best. The bottom line is there should be no reason your son cant get his Eagle from the troop he started with. If that is not tenable, explain the situation to the references and get more letters. Dont let this get you down. I do hate when troops require a given percentage of participation, it is so unscoutlike(This message has been edited by OldGreyEagle)

Ya' know, I was so hesitant about using Atlanta and then, BOOM, I was wrong. I knew I should have used Savannah (home of Juliet Gordon Low) Oh well, Around Chicago they dont talk much about the Civil War (wait werent nothing civil about it)or the War between the states or as I have learned during my travels through the south, the War of Northern Aggression. I mean, usually all they teach is Lincoln good (Illinois, Land of Lincoln ya know)Jefferson Davis Bad, US Grant good (from Galena, Illinois ya know) Robert E Lee bad. And oh yeah, per normal the good guys won...

At one time I think the food group "Fat" sat on top of the food group, might explain the Oleo mention. Then again I remember when oleo came in white sticks and had coloring to make them yellow... Actually the perfect food is Pizza, has the grains in the crust, the dairy in the cheese, the vegtables in the peppers/mushrooms/olives and the protein in the sausage and pepperoni and if I missed anything, it can be added. COme to think of it I am a bit hungry right now... Anyway, to get back to task, I read it as the person passing the requirement needs to be the primarily cook for the meals. SO that means only one per patrol can pass per campout. The again, the adult patrol could stand having their food cooked by a scout. It can be done.

Actually I got a varsity letter in Baseball, played catcher (tools of ignorance and all that)and an JV letter in Wrestling. Maybe being exluded is part of life, still bothers me though, sorry but I just gotta be me