OldGreyEagle

I thought the The mission of the Boy Scouts of America is to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Law. The Aims are: Citizenship Charactor Development Personal Fitness Now the eight methods are: 1. Ideals 2. Patrols 3. Outdoors 4. Advancement 5. Personal growth 6. Adult association 7. Leadership development 8. Uniform Aha, yes leadership development is mentioned, but as is often commented, no method is more important that any other method. Advancement is not the sole reaon for scouting, the uniform is a method of scouting, but not any more important that any of the other seven. Boys attain the higher ranks by in part by being succesful in Positions of Responsibility, not Positions of Leadership, a key difference, I think. Just as I would hope no Troop would set out with a goal of making every boy an Eagle, the unit makes the opportunity available I dont think think it proper to think every boy will be a leader either, although the opportunities may be present as well.

In a few weeks I will be at Summer Camp with the Troop. Lets say as I pass by a tent, I hear the distinctive "pop" of a soda can opening and then get a whiff of yeast and malt. Now, owing to a bear population in camp there is to be no food or drinks in the tents so I am a little concerned for the safety of the occupnats I go to the tent opening and I hear an "Oh F*** its Mr GreyEagle!" and a tittering of giggles, I open the flap to see three older scouts hiding beer cans and Hustler/Penthouse magazines. Now, if I tell them, "look guys, I don't care what you do, keep it out of the sight of the young guys" and then walk away. I can guarantee you by the next morning at Flags, the whole camp (youth only) will know what happened and also "know" that I shared a can or two with the youth, read aloud a few Penthouse Forum Letters, and ogled some centerfold while describing in detail my desires. At the very least, the scouts will know I don't care and only embolden them to bring more on the next campout. "Hey, I can bring this, Mr GreyEagle didnt care when we brought beer, why would he care if we brought weed, betcha he tokes a bit himself, thats why he is so mellow..." Then on the next campout, the scoutmaster catches the boys, and what is their first response? "We don't know why you are throwing sich a fit Mr Scoutmaster, good ol'GreyEagle caught us at summercamp and joined in with us or didnt say anything to you then" How long for the Scouting World would I be? How could I face the parents of the other youth, the three might have permissive parents who don't care how their sons behave, but I have the responsibility to live up the the Chartering Organizations Values, and they do not include under age drinking and the perusal of porn. And maybe the only time the boys face any restrictions of their libido and taste for suds is in Boy scouts, what a great teaching opportunity to learn that you can't always get what you want, but sometimes they just might get what they need, enforced boundaries(This message has been edited by OldGreyEagle)

In such a situation, the Scoutmaster would have to figure why the first boy left and what about the second troop is atracting the other boys. Is it loyalty/friendship to the scout? Is it a boy perceived better program? Why are the boys leaving and what is the reason needs to be determined. Once the reason is detrmined, then the quesiton is, does the scoutmaster want to change? I say that because I could see a boy run troop having a hard time competing with an Advancement machine where adults do most of the work and all the boys do is lay back and enjoy the ride. The boys look at the Advancement machine and figure, why am I knocking myself out when Troop XXX does all the work for their boys. If thats the situation, I am not sure I have an answer but praise the boys remaining

If you have scouts who are disruptive on campouts and meetings, goof off on service projects, and are bullies and very disruptive why are they still members of the Troop? Why wait til advancement time to let the scout know where he stands? Of course, you could very well be holding multiple socutmaster conferences with the youth, counseling them on how their behavior will effect their advancement, even to the extent of including the parents if the situation warrants so that their lack of advancement is no surprise to anyone, scout or parent. I can see working with youth who have a bad attitude, you don't want to just be another adult who quits on a kid looking for something in life he can't define but at some point, the needs of the many outweighs the needs of the few. Just as long as its not a surprise to the few of course.

Usually hydrocephalic children are at least slow to develop and may have other issues as well. This is a tempting target for bullies so I can see the impulse to be a helicopter parent and applaud her for letting him go to camp. Hopefully it wil be a good experience. Just a thought, I have seen many hydrocephalic children, anyone know an adult who was hydrocephalic?

Then again, "going hiking" might just as well become the new "going Bunburying" But it's always important to be earnest

If she is unemployed, she could always go to Camp to be the Camps Physician, at least for the week you are at Summer Camp and then she would have to provide Medical Liciense number et al to the Council and you guys are fine. Bonus, she is at Camp with her son

these are some of the suggestins we have for our next U of S Youth Protection for Venturing Youth Progrection for Adults Safe Swim Defense for Youth Safety Afloat for Youth Forum Class, how to form, Working with Teens VOAs Local Caving Grotto Organizing a new Crew Service ideas for Crews How to hold an open house Road Rallies made easy

Reprise Steve Martin and do karoeke of King Tut, the program director is always called King Tut and the song is played on the last day. You have "excavations" with a map and compass and have teams follow directions to find buried treasures (works best on a sandy beach)

Of course an Eagle Project is more than ..."from painting a building to organizing a fund-raiser." Got to do more than paint an outbuilding and of course, a fund raiser by itself is not an acceptable Eagle Project, but its great to get National Positive exposure and I will be glad for that. National Positive exposure with accurate information will have to wait I suppose.

I am shocked by all this talk of nudity and nakedness. It is very unscoutlike, if the Good Lord would have wanted us to go prancing around naked we would have been born that way. ... ... ... Hey, wait a minute?

Actually, having someone from the Chartering Organization's Board on the Unit committee may not be a bad idea. There should be involvement from the CO with the unit. Then again, the Unit Commissioner should still not be on the Unit Committee either. Hope your unit has lots of fun and good camping

Having a uniform is not required to be a Cub scout, you have had Cubs quit because they can't afford a uniform? Spend your money on more imprtant things than the uniform, like on fun things for the kids so they want to come to more scouting activities and then the uniform will follow. And I say this as a staunch supporter of correct uniforming, but not at the expense of losing a scout, cub or otherwise(This message has been edited by oldgreyeagle)

Did anyone who went to the BSA National Meeting hear anything about this policy changing? Are we sure this is real? Does anyone have any proof that Natinal is contemplating doing away with All Boy Patrol Outings?

http://www.etexscouts.com/VenturingActivityInterestSurvey.pdf

So, the Annual Meeting of the BSA is this week starting Wednesday, anyone going? ANyone have a line in what's doing?

Here is a thought, if the cell phone is to be used in an Emergency only, have your son take his phone. If he is to use it in an emergency only, the only time a leader will see it is in the midst of the emergency and then the leader will be glad someone has a phone. As far as you letting him know what is going on, that you will have to leave to the adults in the troop, either you trust them with your son, or you don't. Most troops I know travel with some adult with a black berry or similar device and those guys love to watch weather, if not, I made Eagle in 1969 and most of use lived through the experience of youth without cell phones

It wasn't that long ago a new requirement was added to First Class I beleive. That a boy was to ask a non-scout to come to a meeting or something like that. Wasn't that recruiting non-cub scout turned Boy Scouts? As I remember it was met with some derision or did I get that wrong? In the COuncil I serve, there are recruitment nights for both Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts, now if I could only get them to do Venturing

Thank you HICO, I think, I should warn you that at times I have been labled the very worst of left leaning liberalism that shall cause the down fall of Western Civilization (which doesnt matter because at times the same thing was said of Gene Simmons and he dated Cher and lives with Shannon Tweed) I never know what position, Left Wing or Right Wing my beliefs are, I just know what they are, post them and then I get told here what type of person I am, for that day

The first time I went thorugh Airport Security at the Orlando Airport I had a revelation. All the TSA employees were wearing white shirts with epaulets with blue tabs. I has flown before but had never made the connection, maybe it was the sea of white and blue tabs with a gold tab floating around. I asked about the gold tabebd individual and he was a superviosr, I said I thought he was a visitor from National and the guy roared. Seems he is an Asst Cubmaster and knew what I meant.

SO how much is a subscription to Boys Life now anyway? SInce my son aged out I dont see them anymore. What if the Council "bought" a subscription for all the public libraries in the council? Then maybe the schools? yes, it depends on numbers and finances, but maybe a troop alumn would fund Boy Life for a year at good ol' PS 49

I do not think it wise to have National or even Council market the Boy Scout Program. Whose program do they market? The one that Daddy_O yearns for? If National advertses a high adventure all out program that is boy lead, how many of us are in programs that can say, yeah we do that? Before Natinal can promise adventure, it has to be sure every unit, or at least most can deliver the promises they make, can we fulfill that promise?

I understand that youth are not looking for values, rather they are lookign for fun, adventure, challeneges etc. Having someone say "That guy is such a Boy Scout" is not seen very often as a complement When in the Star Terk movie the following exhange occurs between mother and son: Dr Marcus (to his mother, also Dr. Marcus) "Remember that overgrown Boy Scout you used to hang around with ?" His mother responds "Listen kiddo, Jim Kirk was many things but he was never a Boy Scout!" In the movie "Clear and Present Danger" the hero, Jack Ryan is castigated for not wanting to deal in the illegal by the insult, " You are *such* a Boy Scout! You see everything in black and white!" Given those references, just the two I can come with right now. Boy Scouts is known to be an organization of people who do good, are good, act nice, however you want to put it. Being a "goody goody two shoes" or a "Holy Joe" has never been a compliment and being called a Boy Scout is probably not going to be a compliment for a very long time.

I am not sure why law abiding citizens of the United States have to justify their actions to anyone. If you hunt according to the applicable laws of your locality you owe no explanation to anyone as to why you behave the way you do, if you follow the laws of the land, you need not explain yourself to anyone regardless of the nature of the behavior

One of the better looking adults in a Boy Scout uniform has to be Robert DeNiro in "This Boys Life". Yes, the shot of DeNiro in Campaign hat, shorts and stocking was onl about 5 seconds long, the charactor of the father was an abusive weasel, but boy, he did look good