Good Old Boys

[OldGreyEagle]

And hey, if it would calm the angst demonstrated here, I would turn them all in and not wear one.

[Lisabob]

Just wanted to note that the other "hot" thread in this section right now is about a troop that won't allow women to be in leadership roles, camp with their troop, or even (heaven forbid) stay in the same hotel on long trips. Can't get much more "good old boy" than that, I wouldn't think. (motives for this could be discussed in the other thread - just saying, here's a literal GOB example.)

 

 

[NE-IV-88-Beaver]

OGE,

 

Wear 'em with pride and don't worry about it!

 

I wear my doodads and on occasion, it can start some interesting conversations. I was honored to receive the Silver Beaver over twelve years ago. Certainly didn't campaign for it; in my district and council, that's a pretty sure way not to get recognized. I didn't say, "Well, I'm done, there's nothing else to get!" Being in it for the boys, it hasn't slowed down my involvement either. I can only think of a few individuals over the last thirty years that I thought were in it for what they could get out of it and not for the boys. They soon disappeared after they got what they wanted.

 

The simple answer for all is - Wear 'em if you want, don't wear 'em if you don't!!

 

But don't try to figure out the motive behind what someone else does! Don't judge them, get to know them first and see whether they're just old and still act like boys or "good old boys"! You might be surprised at how many are just old and act like boys because that's who they're there for!!

[Stosh]

I'm thinking the GOBN is more concerned about how one gets the awards rather than whether or not someone should/shouldn't wear them.

 

If the selection process is corrupt it doesn't make much difference, the GOB's wear them and they may indeed do a lot to promote the program, but leave a little bit to be desired in the practice area.

 

And I'm thinking the women in scouting issue goes hand-in-hand with this whole thing.

 

Stosh

[Engineer61]

To be honest, when I do get to go to meetings I don't bother to look at the doo-dads on the boys, let alone the adults....they are all too small and my eyesight is too bad.

 

From my view, if you want to look like George C. Scott at the beginning of "Patton" ... go ahead.

 

I'm more impressed by the respect you show us non-Scout parents then how much your uniform weighs.

 

So far, in my troop...I haven't been impressed.(This message has been edited by Engineer61)

[BrentAllen]

Come on, Beavah, stop playing dumb. My post was about RECOGNITION, not competition. RECOGNITION is given in both competition and in service. The politically correct have watered down RECOGNITION in competition so that everyone gets an award, and no one gets their feelings hurt. Same thing happens in education. At my daughter's 5th grade awards ceremony, every kid received an award. Those that didn't make Principals List or Honor Roll got a "Participation" award, I guess for participating in elementary school. Pretty silly, IMO.

 

Now, you want to do away with the adult leader recognition program for the same reasons - so no one gets their feelings hurt. What next - give Eagle out so every kid and his parents won't feel left out?

 

So, look in the mirror. You don't care for the program. You don't even have enough respect for those who nominated you to show up for the ceremony to receive your award. You end up taking the award from someone else who would have appreciated receiving it, who would have had the courtesy to show up to receive it. I don't see why you think anyone should value your opinion on this subject.

[GernBlansten]

Well, looks like ol Beavah got under Brent's skin again. Good to see that I'm not the only one who can rile up the good ole boy!

 

Come last Sunday, I attended an ECOH for two brothers who earned their award about a year apart. The first one decided to wait for his younger brother to hold the COH until he got it, as a motivating factor I guess. I participated with both throughout their scouting, in fact, the younger one attended my first campout as a cub dad.

 

My son was in the Eagles Nest, a place of honor at all of our ECOH for those who previously earned the rank and a place I will never enjoy.

 

I was there, in full and correct uniform, down to my socks. No bling. No knots, no OA devices, no HA patches, just the basic uniform. During the presentation of the eagle award, the younger scout called me forward to present me with a mentor pin. I was honored. He and I had shared many adventures and we both enjoyed his journey to eagle.

 

I went forward and he pinned it on my uniform. We shared a hardy handshake and I thanked and congratulated him. I returned to my seat in the sanctuary and enjoyed the remaining ceremony. Later that afternoon, after I returned home, took that mentor pin off and put it in my box of scouting mementos with the other eight mentor pins, knots, patches I've collected over the years. Then hung my pristine and correct uniform back in the closet.

 

I don't do this for the recognition or adult advancement. I do it because I care about the boys and enjoy working with them. I appreciate the recognition, but it doesn't motivate me.

 

I guess that makes me not a member of the GOBN.

[Twocubdad]

No, it doesn't.

 

I've seen almost as many pompus jerks in smuggly prestine uniforms as I have with 20+ knots. I'm not suggesting you are a pompus jerk or even smug, Gern, just that folks who are don't all wear the same uniforms.

 

jblake is on the right track. It's not the awards, it's the process. Does the awards committee truely go out and search for deserving leaders, or do they automatically nominate their pals.

 

I was on the district nominating committee for a couple years. The process was totally rigged in favor of the insiders. They pretend to make it as fair as possible to everyone by only considering the information on the nomination forms -- personal knowledge of a nominee doesn't matter. But that was the key to the gate. The good ol' boys all knew how to fill out a nomination form. We would get nominations for some poor Cubmaster submitted by a clueless pack parent, which only listed the the guy was a "really great Cubmaster." The Insider nominations listed every district event, roundtable, campout and FOS contribution their guys had ever made. Guess who won?

 

And yes, every year I pushed to change the system. I tried to make the district key three ex-officio members of the awards committee on the theory they know who the deserving volunteers are throughout the district. I suggested the committee start going out, finding and nominating folks instead of just waiting for nominations to come in. I suggested that when a nomination is made, a member of the committee be assigned to make phone calls and make sure the nominations are as complete as possible.

 

Not a chance.

 

I've since quit going to award committee meetings although having been annointed I will always be a "member". In fact, I've not attended a district or council banquet in a couple years. I choose to no longer play the game.

 

 

[BrentAllen]

Gern,

Good for you.

[BadenP]

I can see both Gern's and Brent's POV. My prejudice comes from experiences with these GOB's with a uniform looking like a military general and a cocky attitude to go right along with it. In my day we called them the Redcoats and all they seemed to be in the BSA for was the awards and recognition, and to heck with the boys.

 

At a district camporee last month I met a man in his late sixties with a uniform with what looked like every knot, badge and award the BSA gives out on it. He was talking to a group of boys at a campfire who were asking him about his awards and he spent a great deal of time talking with them. Later on I had a chance to talk with him and he told me his story how he had been active in scouting from a boy right up to the present, how he had lost both his wife and son and how scouting saved him from just giving up on life. He was a very kind and gentle man who was very well liked in his unit and district, had been offered several council positions but turned them down because he felt that working directly with the boys was the most important job in scouting. This guy was a real asset to scouting that is very rare to see these days. As far as I was concerned he could wear all the badges he wanted because he has really walked the walk and given himself totally to scouting, and at the same time kept an attitude of humility and service.

[BrentAllen]

Amen to that!

 

We have one of those gentlemen in our district, Josiah Benator. He probably barely reaches 5 feet tall, on his tip-toes, but he is a giant among men. He is the most unassuming, soft-spoken, friendly man you will ever meet. I ran into him at Summer Camp a few years back (he was still going strong at age 85, attending all week) and I asked how he was doing. He said fine, but he needed more boys. He only had 3 or 4 at Summer Camp, all older boys, but yet he was willing to spend all week with them. I ran into him again the next spring at a district event, and he had about a dozen or so boys, mostly younger Scouts, so he was doing fine. It is my sincere pleasure to call this man friend, and to shake his left hand. I hope I can be like him when I grow up.

 

http://www.jewishscouting.org/news/stuff/atlantasmarticle.pdf

A nice pic of Josiah is on the page linked.

 

This being Wednesday, Josiah Benator and his band of boys will gather today at Congregation Or VeShalom for their weekly meeting.

 

For about an hour, he will supervise them as they work on projects to earn merit badges and, perhaps, plan their next hiking event. Its been the same story for the past 65 years, at least for Benator, who has helped shape hundreds, some say thousands, of young boys into men.

 

You might guess his passion just by looking at his clothes: olive pants and shirt bearing scout pens and badges, and gold tie with an Eagle clasp.

 

Josiah Benator is a scoutmaster and, no offense, a very old one at that.

 

But he is an 86-year-old with the vigor of a man in his 30s. He can hike over five miles without breaking a sweat and rappel a 60-foot tower with a ready smile. But nothing makes him smile like the boys in Troop 73.

 

He and his wife, Birdie, live on a quiet street in northeast Atlanta. Theyre

both retired from their jobs, but not from scouting. Actually, they may

never retire from scouting because its Josiahs one true calling.

 

He knows what scouting can mean in the life of a boy because he knows

what it meant in his own. Thats why hes stayed with it so long. If you

want to teach a boy to appreciate the outdoors, the value of community,

to be a good citizen, scouting is how you do it, he said.

 

Benator was 12 when he first joined the organization in 1934. Scouting

was considered one of the great youth programs of the time. It was also

a diversion from the worlds troubles the depression and a mortgage

meltdown not much different from todays.

 

A member of Troop 52, young Josiah embraced the great outdoors,

hiking along the Chattahoochee River, catching the trolley car to Stone

Mountain and hiking some more.

 

He learned to tie a knot and read a compass the same way he honed his

leadership skills, with gusto, serving as a junior assistant scoutmaster,

assistant scoutmaster and acting scoutmaster for Troop 27.

 

After graduating with honors from Georgia Tech in 1943, he enrolled in

officer candidate school and, shortly after, went before the Scouting

board of review and did what any dedicated scout would do. He got his

Eagle.

 

That same year he went off to war, serving three and a half years with

the 10th Armored Division in the Battle of Bastogne.

 

He returned stateside in 1946 and went to work for Scripto as a materials manager. He married Birdie the following

year and the two of them raised seven children.

 

Without fail, he credits Birdie for making his life of scouting possible. She took care of the home while he went

hiking and camping with the boys. Every February, she sponsors a Kiddush celebrating his birthday and

anniversary in scouting at the synagogue.

 

The grandfather of 13 estimates that hes lorded over thousands of scouts the last six decades and hed done so

while serving his community and synagogue as President of Congregation Or VeShalom, president of the DeKalb

Grand Jurors Association, President of the Sheffield Civic Club and co-captain of the neighborhood watch.

 

Last year, the Atlanta Area Council of Boy Scouts of America, dedicated the 2007 Eagle Scout Class to Mr. B.

 

It was like going to a baseball convention and Willie Mays had just walked into the room, said Jack Arogeti, a

former Cub Scout and President of Congregation Or VeShalom. His accomplishments and service to scouting

were well known, highly regarded and everyone could see he played the game because he loved the game, and he

believed in the game, and he was a microcosm of the game.

[nolesrule]

Brent, thanks for posting that.

[Scoutfish]

Yeah Brent,

 

That was a great post.