Troop Uniforms

[FScouter]

Running one's personal version of Scouting and intentionally violating the letter and spirit of BSA hardly seems to be an honorable basis upon which to teach boys to make ethical choices over their lifetimes.

 

Or perhaps Badenscouts has a different mission?

[Kudu]

Running one's personal version of Scouting and intentionally violating the letter and spirit of BSA hardly seems to be an honorable basis upon which to teach boys to make ethical choices over their lifetimes.

 

The whole point of this thread is to design Troop Uniforms that do not violate the "letter" of BSA policy.

 

As for the "spirit" of the Uniform Method, in the 70-year history of the Boy Scouts of America prior to the introduction of the dress-designer uniform, except for swimming is there a single photograph or drawing depicting a Boy Scout camping out of Uniform?

 

My books are packed right now, so I don't know the answer to that question. I invite you to look and then report back.

 

Kudu

 

[FScouter]

There is no provision in BSA for a unit to develop its own "troop uniform".

 

Your intent in this thread seems clear enough. The intent of your posts in this thread, as well as all other posts, is to beat down BSA, its mission, aims, methods, and uniform. Do you ever have anything positive to say about BSA?

[Its Me]

 

Kudo's intent is to have a reasonable discussion about uniforms and the BSA's (pick one: Regulation, code, policy, requirement) on uniforms use.

 

No need to get nasty with the guy for discussing uniforms here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kudu]

There is no provision in BSA for a unit to develop its own "troop uniform".

 

More importantly, there is no rule against it.

 

Reality Check: Depending on where you live, you may never meet these negative Internet "Uniform Policemen" in real life. In fact back in the mid-1990s there was a running joke among the District Executives in our Council Office. They said that they could always tell when I was debating the Uniform in Scouting forums by how upset their secretaries would get when they had to take messages from "people from the Internet" who telephoned the SE to report that my troop was wearing BDUs :-/

 

Back when nylon zip-off cargo pants were first introduced as a high-end product in stores like Eastern Mountain Sports, I wore an olive-drab pair to a week-long national Okpik training course. One of Irving's top senior BSA executives noticed them and told me that they had already tried to introduce them as an official BSA product!

 

So the moral is, you will probably discover more like-minded BSA professionals by wearing the uniform the way you think is right, than you will by wearing it the way the Internet "Uniform Police" tell you.

 

Do you ever have anything positive to say about BSA?

 

Click on the "Posts" field under my name and you will see that I have plenty of positive things to say about William "Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt's BSA model of Scouting. I believe that the 1970s liberal modernists who deconstructed Hillcourt's contributions, and the equally clueless neo-conservative religious fundamentalists who now control the BSA, don't really have that much of an influence on what happens week to week in our own units.

 

Those who support this Scouter.Com website by purchasing back issues of Scouter Magazine can read in Issue #5 (the "Scout Out the Net" issue) my article "Marijus" and Scouter Terry's accompanying piece to judge all this for themselves :-)

 

http://www.scouter.com/catalog/backissues/default.asp

 

Kudu

 

 

[FScouter]

A discussion of BSA uniform design and use sounds good to me. Then we can leave out discussion of Hillcourt, BP, Scout revision organizations, and the concept of "troop uniform".

[Kahuna]

Kudu,

 

During my entire scouting career, including the time I was a professional, I never knew a professional who would ever criticize a unit about uniforming (unless invited for a uniform inspection), yet other volunteers will scream that you are profaning the memory of Baden-Powell.

 

In fact, during my weeks at Schiff for NEI, I do not recall that any time was spent discussing uniforming. We did have to wear ours a few times a week and of course, we had to purchase our Hart Shafter & Marx dress uniform (talk about a dog of a uniform), but they only mentioned in terms of the method.

[evmori]

I think we put way too much emphasis on the uniform. I like it and wear it, but that's me. And since it isn't required, I feel we would be spending our time in a better fashion if we focused on the Scouts & not how they are dressed. After all, they are why we are members of this organization. At least that's why I am a member.

 

Ed Mori

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

A blessed Christmas to all