Scrapbook
Grant O'Neil (poneilgdo@ALPHA2.CURTIN.EDU.AU)
Mon, 30 Jun 1997 00:37:24 +0800
It may be a shock to you all, but I'm not quite sure what to say here (yes,
me, the Aussie who just won't shut up!) Scouting has been one of the great
loves of my life ever since I was invested as a cub 25 years ago.
Although I am a bit of an old hand with computing in general, I am a
relative newcomer to the Internet, and I'm sure it comes as no surprise
that when I first browsed the net I looked for "scout" in one of the search
engines - wondering if there would be much there. Well, among the hundreds
of items I discovered was a reference to an email list called Scouts-l. I
thought it sounded interesting, so followed the instructions to subscribe.
Soon after, I received a welcome message from someone by the name of Jon
Eidson telling me about this list and asking me to introduce myself to the
list.
This was the first time Grant O'Neil was launched on an unsuspecting
Scouts-l; I sent off a message letting you all know who I was and a bit
about my scouting background, and among the welcome messages I received in
reply was one from someone calling himself the Black Eagle (who obviously
likes coffee a lot, and what's this Settum-whatever all about?) giving me a
big welcome to this "Virtual Campfire". In the almost two years since then
I guess I have become pretty well known here as I put in my downunder
perspective on the many diverse issues we discuss together. So, what's it
all mean to me personally?
The biggest impact Scouts-L has had on me can be summed up as being this: I
had never before had such a strong feeling of the "International
Brotherhood" aspect of scouting as I have gained since joining this list. I
now count as close personal friends quite a number of people from the other
side of the world whom I have never actually met in person, and most of
whom I would not even know what they look like. I have come to realise that
even though there may be a lot of differences in the technicalities of
scouting in our respective countries, the bottom line of scouting is
universal. Technicalities about Webelos, OA or Eagle COH may not mean much
to me, but through this list I have gained some great ideas for activities,
learned some new campfire songs (which have been a hit when I tried them
out here), been introduced to some great new camp recipes (any idea what
it's like to be reading email at 11:30 p.m. and suddenly get an
overwhelming urge to grab a roll of foil, rush outside, light a fire and
try out the latest recipe to satisfy your suddenly watering mouth?), found
out game ideas that introduce much needed variety into our programme, made
some great progress on the international component of my badge collection,
and, as previously mentioned, made some wonderful friends in the process.
None of this would be possible without the great efforts of Jon (although
it beats me how he can manage it in just an hour a week - it takes me about
that long each _day_ just to read my Scouts-L inbox!). I guess we should
also express our thanks to TCU for their facilities being made available to
host the list.
YiS
_ .
Grant O'Neil _r| Ll\
Assistant Venturer Leader | |_|__\
2nd Ballajura Venturer Unit => \ |_|_ /
Swan Valley District ~~ `_'
Western Australia v
poneilgdo@alpha2.curtin.edu.au
http://student.curtin.edu.au/~poneilgdo/
Terry Howerton Sakima Group, Inc. SCOUTER Magazine Kansas City |
