"Just How BIG is the Roundtable or Campfire?"
Settummanque, ("MAJ)
Tue, 10 Dec 1996 14:36:28 -0600
Funny how things come in twos or threes. I have just finished reading Rob
Cook's
personal posting to me and here's Tom Lynch saying similar stuff:
Rob Cook (using a friend's account) is on FidoNet, and gets our postings
someway through the Scout BBS in Tennessee. Among other things, he asks:
>Just how BIG is this Roundtable meeting? You say it's about 2000 strong, and
>others have said it's around 900 or something like that. It seems to be a
large
>group, because everytime I sign on, there's a different group of people
talking
>Scouting!
And Tom Lynch commented in a separate posting:
>One thing that we must remember here in the
>list is that we are only about 668 members strong, and do not represent
>the entire Scouting movement in the U.S.
The number of people that receive our postings, Tom, is misleading. We know
that there around 800 subscribers presently. However, there are an equal number
of people that are reading these postings on the old-fashioned (can I
*really* say
that?? BBSs are old-fashioned??) Bulletin Board Systems set up because their
sites cannot receive "list mail" or for other cost reasons; and of course,
there's the
paper trail in which people print the entire digest and share it with 14 or
30 or
50 of their fellow Scouters. For those reasons, and because the forum is
truly an
international one, I always "inflate" the numbers upward by a multiple of
two whenever I talk with others about our "Roundtable which Never ends!"
Add to this, the people that read one or more of our posts on a webpage and
chose
to hit the reply icon on the page and bring up their browser's email window to
reply postively or negatively about something they have read or experienced
at that site.
On occasion, I'll get someone to post to me through someone else that just
got email access or had it and never used it to "really talk with someone
about an issue or
concern" (and others here get similar postings). It's amazing that someone will
post you after we're left a topic and tell you in the first paragraph "I
know this is
extremely late, but I just got this from *********, whom got it two months ago
at a Roundtable meeting (or I just got finished reading this on Fidonet or
on a BBS
somewhere in British Columbia) and I wanted to know if I can share this with you
or everyone?"
I want to take the opportunity, while it's fresh in my mind, to THANK EACH
AND EVERY ONE OF YOU and your fellow Scouters/Youth leaders and managers for
such a superior year here on Scouts-L. In this past year, we have talked
about over 1730 different topics (ask my hard drive and two Zip diskettes,
that's how I know!), with only 200 of them or so overlapping or continuing
from a previous
"string" or series. We have truly talked about everything from the most
serious subjects of dealing with problem children to silly things like "how
to pronounce
Akela" and "how to use alternative speech as program" (pig latin, valley talk,
internet/"wonk speak" and the like). Truly, this daily interchange has
been more than just people wanting to know "who's talking about what"
today....it has been
a very open, expressive and impressive forum, full of experts and amatures and
people like me, somewhere in the middle of this.
Before everyone departs for a truly memorable holiday season, I wanted to
"close the loop" (military speak for "finish up"...see, even we have
"alternative speech"!)
on a couple of items.
First, the Internet Interpreter Strip will be ordered at the end of this
month and made available after the first of the year (or as soon as I get
them here). My main
problem is, as my wife can share (and know), is that people don't know if
I'm "in town" or "gone somewhere else" to do something related to my
military jobs. The
other problem is that some companies I was trying to deal with were
reluctant to ship to a AE (American forces Europe) address....Same goes for
the IS (Internet
Scouter) patches, though I won't get those until I post the final design for
your
collective approval (this week!)
Second, the certificates are done, complete and ready to share with anyone
that wants one. Unfortunately (fortunately for me *grinning*), it is in
Geoworks Geowrite format and in "*.PCX" format. So, I'll be spending my
off-days converting it to that "windows" format so that those of you wanting
to recognize your Scouts/Scouters/youth leaders for being online and
understanding all of this,
to do so.
Third, I will be going to a half-day scheldue starting Monday and ending
after the first of the year. What that means is that (*groan*) you'll "see"
more of me as I
will be catching up on several rather overdue replies to some serious questions
(not that I didn't want to reply, it's just that I start and then my boss
comes by
and says "let's go" or worse, I get it halfway done and we swap out
computers (I STILL don't have an office of my own and have been sitting at
five people's desks
while they are out sick or downrange or something!! Oh the life of a
Reservist!!)). So, as Jessica calls it, I'll stop my "wah-wahing" and get
busy repling.
Fourth, I am going to give my New Years' Resolution now, since many of you
will be moving onward after this week's over. I resolve in 1997 not to post
so many
nine-screeners and try as hard as I can to summarize what I want to say in
the first
two paragraphs. This will make it easier, I feel, for those that want to
read what I have to say but don't want to scroll downward to the end of the
posting to get it!
*lots of laughter*. Seriously, I'll try...but it's hard to do it.
Finally, a reminder to those of us that have to leave their seats to be with
their families and friends during this most special time of the season. If
you do not want to receive Scouts-L mail, please, please, please set your
account to NOMAIL.
If you feel that you'll be moving onward, please UNSUBscribe before you leave
for the holidays and please remember us and where we are at when you are
ready to
rejoin us, because we WILL MISS YOU and YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS, no matter how
small, no matter how long, no matter. Finally, our listowner Jon deserves some
time with his family, friends and community there in Texas....please make it
easy for him to dial in and take care of "bounced postings" by letting YOUR
system
administrator or operator know of problems you're having with getting Scouts-L.
Thank you, Jon, and please express our collective thanks to Texas Christian
University for allowing us the EXPANSIVE space to use for our daily youth
group discussions. It has been an extreme joy for us to not have to worry
about moving to
a new or different site every other year as other groups do.
When I was down on an orientation flight two weeks ago to the place where we
were to start the multinational humanitarian mission, I saw a sign at the
airfield.
The sign was crude, but the meaning was there: Thank you for caring.
I want to thank each and every one of you for caring. For showing that
there's parts of your being that you decided you wanted to share with other
people...and with their children. In our varied and diverse programming,
all around the world, we are reaching more youth even when the "bean
counters" tell us otherwise. We reach them, not with planned program,
carefully described, formatted and age-appropriate. Not with resources and
camping and outing facilities which rival the biggest of our national parks.
Nor with books and magazines and full color ads
and media that would reach our moon if not encircle it several times over.
We reach them with love. With respect. With a sense of ownership, even if
the child is not *ours*. We reach them with ourselves. They come back,
not just because we provide a good program, or because we provide a way to
escape realism
or faltering social and family systems.
They come back, in a large part, because of YOU.
>From Amanda, Andrew, Aaron. From Kailey, wherever she is, waiting for us.
>From Jessica, in bed after falling (somehow) and injuring her leg. From me.
We all wish you and your families and friends and communities much joy,
happiness, and love for each other and for life. Be careful, stay warm and dry.
And come back to Scouts-L, where the campfire nor the Roundtable is NEVER
too small, NEVER too crowded, and NEVER ENDS.
Settummanque!
-----
(MAJ) Mike L. Walton (Settummanque, the blackeagle)
http://www.vhm.com/~uscardnl/
(Brigade) Signal Officer, TF 21, 21st Theater Army Area Command
Kaiserslautern, Federal Republic of Germany
"everything I say is "on the record"; speaking ONLY for myself unless indicated"
personal inquiries via blkeagle@midwest.net or kyblkeagle@aol.com
professional inquiries via waltonm%po2.hq@taacom.kaiserslautern.army.mil
-----FORWARD in service to youth and the nation-----
Terry Howerton Sakima Group, Inc. SCOUTER Magazine Kansas City | 
