Re: bit of this & that

Hello, my name is Joe Wallace and I am presently a Troop Committee Chair in
the Inland Northwest Council a council that includes eastern Washington and
northern Idaho, like many of you I have served in many capacities including
den leader, cubmaster, district training committee chair, camping committee
member, and my present position. I have bought most of the books, read most
of them and have taken and put on training events.
I attended Cub Scout Trainer Woodbadge and heartily recommend it for anyone
interested in helping train adult leaders.

>Young folk old folk everybody come
>Join the darkies Sunday school and have a lot of fun
>Be sure and check your chewin gum and razors at the door

I feel very uncomfortable not commenting on this song since the first lines
make refference to "darkies" and "razors", Those terms and the stereotypes
they represent have no place in scouting. I understand the poster was just
presenting a historical american song and it is still interesting to know
this version. As leaders in scouting we need to be sensitive to the impact
these epithets have on scouts. Old sources are a wonderful resource for
scouters but we must tailor them so they support world brotherhood.

Speaking of old songs
After singing "back to Gilwell" the first time I thought I had seen the
song before. I believe I saw it in an old childrens song book. I recall
the song being a British Army song that sang of someone who "used to be a
grenadier" and talked of going "back to England" I looked up "work your
ticket" in an old english dictionary and it reffered to someone who was
using his pension. I have been looking for years but have been unable to
find the song book. If anyone knows anymore about this would they please
contact me. I promised my Woodbadge Scoutmaster I'd share the information
with him if I could find it.

Yellow Shirts in cub scouts,
The women who were scouters in our Pack were negative on the shirt, those
that did wear one did so because they felt it was important to be uniformed.
Many of our scouters continued with the same den as it progressed and
eventually wore the khaki shirt anyway when they became webelos and boy
scout leaders.

Now for the real question,
We have been having a problem in our troop recently with parents who go with
the troop leaders on campouts. The problem is worst when the boy scout
camps out with his parent, this can have devistating effects on the patrol
system. Even when the parent hangs with the scouters, they're not involved
in supporting the troop activity. It's as if they figure that cooking their
meals and drinking coffee around the fire is as much as they are willing to
do. At the last troop committee meeting we discussed this concern and are
wondering whether we need to develop a policy that clearly deliniates the
role of parents on troop events. We have enthusiastic parents and want to
use that enthusiasm to strengthen our outdoor program. I would be
interested in hearing from anyone on SCOUTS-L who may have words of advice,
antecdotes on how to approach this issue, or (dare I hope?) solutions to the
problem.

YiS,

"Buffalo" Joe Wallace
W-CS-28
Pullman, WA

<mcwallis@pullman.com>

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