archimago Posted February 10, 2016 Share Posted February 10, 2016 (edited) So, as I mentioned in my intro post, I'm a council employee. However, I'm also going to be serving as a volunteer with a local troop. I don't wear a uniform in my council position (I'm an Exploring exec), so I'm a bit confused about what shoulder loops I should wear with my unit uniform. I'm assuming I just go with forest green so as not to look pretentious, but is there any reason why any of you would opt for the silver? It seems unnecessary to me, but I'm torn between my desire not to be pompous and my impulse to be correctly uniformed. ETA: Alternatively, I could just break out one of my pre-1980s uniform shirts that don't have epaulets and forgo the loops altogether... Edited February 10, 2016 by archimago Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle94-A1 Posted February 10, 2016 Share Posted February 10, 2016 So, as I mentioned in my intro post, I'm a council employee. However, I'm also going to be serving as a volunteer with a local troop. I don't wear a uniform in my council position (I'm an Exploring exec), so I'm a bit confused about what shoulder loops I should wear with my unit uniform. I'm assuming I just go with forest green so as not to look pretentious, but is there any reason why any of you would opt for the silver? It seems unnecessary to me, but I'm torn between my desire not to be pompous and my impulse to be correctly uniformed. Best person to ask would be your FD. I know back in the day when I was a DE, I wore silver all of the time. Even with the three units I was listed as a leader for (summer camp's Explorer post/ Venturing crew; HA base's Sea Scout ship; and my service club's CS pack). Grant you, two of those units were job related. When I worked for national however, my manager wanted my employee uniforms and volunteer uniforms separate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stosh Posted February 10, 2016 Share Posted February 10, 2016 I would suggest one would use the color for the position one holds. I am a SM so I wear the red when I wear the shirt with the SM patch on it and when I function as a UC, I wear silver on the shirt with the UC patch. It has no bearing on what I do in real life, when I volunteer, I wear the appropriate uniform for the role I am presently assuming. To wear a BSA uniform as an ASM with silver would be inappropriate as far as my opinion runs. Your mileage may vary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archimago Posted February 10, 2016 Author Share Posted February 10, 2016 I would suggest one would use the color for the position one holds. I am a SM so I wear the red when I wear the shirt with the SM patch on it and when I function as a UC, I wear silver on the shirt with the UC patch. It has no bearing on what I do in real life, when I volunteer, I wear the appropriate uniform for the role I am presently assuming. To wear a BSA uniform as an ASM with silver would be inappropriate as far as my opinion runs. Your mileage may vary. This was sort of my thinking, as well--no need to introduce an unnecessary incongruity between the position patch and the shoulder loops, especially since my primary professional role doesn't entail uniforming, anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krampus Posted February 10, 2016 Share Posted February 10, 2016 We have a national staffer in our midst. He wears his national uniform for national stuff. He wears his unit uniform for unit stuff. His unit uniform looks like all of us. When at council or district events he wears the shirt of the position he is attending for. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qwazse Posted February 10, 2016 Share Posted February 10, 2016 We have some scouts on council camp staff. As such, we let them wear the silver epaulets. Also, while VOA officers, our venturers wear silver (or yellow, if a area/regional officer). The main reason is to get younger scouts to ask "why" and then learn about the ways they can lead in different levels of scouting. But that's youth. So, go with the forest green. Or save the dimes and use your vintage shirts. If you still fit in them, more power to you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sentinel947 Posted February 10, 2016 Share Posted February 10, 2016 We have a national staffer in our midst. He wears his national uniform for national stuff. He wears his unit uniform for unit stuff. His unit uniform looks like all of us. When at council or district events he wears the shirt of the position he is attending for. That's the way to do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJCubScouter Posted February 10, 2016 Share Posted February 10, 2016 I assume when people say "forest green", they mean the Boy Scout loops, not the Venturing loops. (I still wear the red ones.) I just looked on the Internet and see the Boy Scout loops variously described as "olive" and "hunter green". On scoutstuff.org it says the Venturing loops are "green" and does not say what color the Boy Scout loops are, but the photos they have of each one look almost exactly the same to me. On the actual subject of this thread, I agree with the others, it should be the "Boy Scout" color, whatever that color may actually be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sentinel947 Posted February 10, 2016 Share Posted February 10, 2016 http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2014/07/30/different-colors-scouting-shoulder-loops-mean/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RememberSchiff Posted February 10, 2016 Share Posted February 10, 2016 No epaulets or loops on my old scout shirt; I like it that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blw2 Posted February 10, 2016 Share Posted February 10, 2016 I would suggest one would use the color for the position one holds. I am a SM so I wear the red when I wear the shirt with the SM patch on it and when I function as a UC, I wear silver on the shirt with the UC patch. It has no bearing on what I do in real life, when I volunteer, I wear the appropriate uniform for the role I am presently assuming. To wear a BSA uniform as an ASM with silver would be inappropriate as far as my opinion runs. Your mileage may vary. red? I thought we were the last unit using red! Some time long ago, going back when it was fully adult led....somebody in our unit decided to keep red loops and red numbers instead of switching to the green. Apparently i has come up more recently like within the last 2 years and the boys decided to keep red At our last committee mtg I heard from the new SM taht we are switching to green.... yeah! I don't like the red.... and half our troop is wearing green, transfers in, new scouts, etc... we were having an ex leader make them and so they were a pain. I'm still in blue, since the scoutshop is 45minutes in the wrong direction for me. I have green ones on order form before I learned this...only because red weren't availble now I need to order green numbers and trained patch! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stosh Posted February 11, 2016 Share Posted February 11, 2016 My ASM's makes the red loops. The boys voted to stay with the red. I don't know their rationale, but it wasn't an issue I was inclined to get all that concerned about. They went with a blaze orange necker, full square, not BSA branding or troop insignia on the necker. Black trim for youth, white trim for adults. With the availability of red/white numbers on E-Bay, we should be good for say, maybe 100 years. One of my patrols opted for the old red/black patrol patch with the old '60's matching pendant flag. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krampus Posted February 11, 2016 Share Posted February 11, 2016 There's a troop in AZ or NM (can't remember) that attended camp with us. Small unit. They wear the old 1960s style pants, shirts and the old garrison cap. They looked SHARP!!!! What they could not buy in surplus one of the kid's grandmothers made. Classic look. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stosh Posted February 11, 2016 Share Posted February 11, 2016 This gentleman was one of my Eagle scouts. The uniform he is wearing is the same one he did his Eagle project in. It's the same uniform he wore every week to meetings. As you can tell from the insignia and Eagle knot he was at the time my ASM. He went and got appropriate 1960's ASM patch when he aged out. He had a difficult time, but he did find the community strip, too. Any historic uniform is a valid BSA uniform, but one must make sure the insignia is historic as well. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archimago Posted February 11, 2016 Author Share Posted February 11, 2016 (edited) This gentleman was one of my Eagle scouts. The uniform he is wearing is the same one he did his Eagle project in. It's the same uniform he wore every week to meetings. As you can tell from the insignia and Eagle knot he was at the time my ASM. He went and got appropriate 1960's ASM patch when he aged out. He had a difficult time, but he did find the community strip, too. Any historic uniform is a valid BSA uniform, but one must make sure the insignia is historic as well. And this latter point is the problem I've run into with historic uniforming. I don't want to slap a modern CSP on an old uniform because it will look silly. Does anyone know if there's any place out there that manufactures repro community strips? I've been able to find vintage square knots, positions patches, etc., but the community strips are much more difficult. I've been able to find one for the city out of which our council is based (and of which my small city is a 'burb), and that may be the best I'm able to do unless I can find someone out there reproducing them. Edited February 11, 2016 by archimago Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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