Eagle92

This special eagle knot definitely sounds like a fundraiser's idea. While I am not opposed to recognizing NESA members, why not just bring back the dangle? Good enough for the OA, why not for NESA. Also Philmont already has special recognitions, why do they need a knot?

Loud Snoring Bear, Yeah I know I've been doing a little more than I should in the past 18 months. Attendance prior to me taking over as chap. adviser was on a good nite 3 youth members. At the time this happened, the membership VC dropped the ball and my CC and I decided to make the calls. It had got better later when some fresh blood caming in at that Ordeal and they took over some offices, and the CC took off and was. But we have lost some of those great folks to college or family moves with in the past few months so we are down to 2 officers again. Luckily the new CC is a young, moti

Ok in my 15 years of being an active Arrowman I've encountered a problem in reference to unit elections and the Ordeal for the first time last year and while I tried some things to solve the situation over the past year, With unit elections coming up again, I may encoutner the problem again and want some other ideas. I have a super unit of 50+ scouts who have little to no involvement. despite the fact that the old SM is a Vigil Honor member. When I went with the election team to the unit, I out of the 18 scouts eligble, about half didn't want to be elected as they wanted nothing to do wi

Having gone to and worked at a variety of camps. Here are a few observations. 1) You need a motivated, enthusiastic, and honest staff. It starts at the top with the Camp Director and goes all the way down to the first year CITs. I've seen camp with decent food and fair facilites outperform a cmap with brand new facilities, catered food, yet had a very poor camp director which affected the rest of the staff. 2) Develope an active program outside of the MB classes. Busy hands are happy hands. 3)PROMOTE, PROMOTE, PROMOTE! If you've had problems in the past and a

One thing that has kept me and friends active while in college was OA. Because the events are mostly weekends, we had a lot come in. Also one thing my old troop did was start a Venturing Crew for the older Scouts and younger leaders. For those that were active with the troop, they acted more as an old Leadership Corps or Venture patrol, but were registed as a crew and worked their own venturing advancement. 4 times a year, usually around the college and HS holidays, the venture crew did their own thing.

In addition to all the above negative aspects, there are a bunch of positive aspects. 1) Really making friends and working with the volunteers, especially if they view you as a "real scout leader." Best impression I ever made with some volunteers was when I was at an Ordeal and busting my butt in the mud to prepare for the ceremony that nite, since I did ceremonies as a youth and love working with ceremonialists. Some of the volunteers in my district thought I was hiding and sleeping somewhere as they did not know where i went off to. When I showed up in muddied, wet, cammi

Although it's been a while since I was a Sea Scout and leader, I love discussing the topic because Sea Scoutin has been the red-headed step child for so long that most people, including a few professionals I've run into, always give me the "They still have Sea Scouts?" question, whenever I am out promoting my council's sea base at conclaves. Luckily the national Venturing director is pro Sea Scout and the program is becoming better known. Heck I've even seen Holmes in a Sea Scout uniform. While I do not have the 10th edition manual and may get flamed, I do have the 9th ed. first

Here are some answers for you: Is it possible to have no fundraising experience and do a good job as an entry-level DE? Yes but you really need to pay attention at PDL-1 and pray you have a wiz of a FOS chairman. I lucked out in that my FOS chair knew ever business leader and wealthy individual in my district. He came from old money, had a family business and was a pillar in the community. Is it possible to have a personal and family life and do a good job? In my opinion not really. It is a very demanding job with little family time because you are working nites w

I have attended and staffed camps that had female Explorers/Venturers active with non-camp posts/ crews working staff both over and under 18. And I have never had problems with them. They have know the rules, followed them and everything works out well. Like someone said already by the end of staff week or the first week of camp, the infatuations and flirtations are pretty much over with. I also had ladies who had specialty skills work camp with me, specifically a COPE director and medic. GREAT SCOT the problems that occurred with them two. And with one case it was difficult to correc

Sorry about that, got distracted and hit the wrong button. Anyway if the above summarizations are correct here is my $.02 worth. YES the patrol method is not being used as much and is not promoted as it should be in training, unless you have some old school leaders and trainers. Also it is an acknowledged fact that BSA screwed up in the 70s and GBB had to become a retread again to get the BSA somewhat back on its feet by writing the 1979 handbook. Thinking back on it, I remember as a youth having patrol meetings outside of troop meetings, and organizing and leading a patrol hike. Wh

Ok I jumped around on this thread, so correct me if I'm wrong but the main argument, in the classical sense, is that BSA has watered down leadership development and the patrol method in order to have more emphasis as a result of the 70s. Also although national preaches patrol method, in training it doesn't emphasis patrol method enough. Am I correct in this?

DON'T DO IT!!!!!! LOL. Seriously though Beavah and BadenP offer great advice. Other advice I suggest is talk to the volunteers in the district, if given the opportunity, during the interview process, and also talk to professionals you know and respect about possible council you will be interviewing with. I say talk to the volunteers because 1) they know the territory, 2) will tell you up front what is right and what is wrong in the district, and 3)may give you subtle hints as to the situation you are getting into. First interview I went on was the council business meeting in a small

How many of you folks know about the European camp Staff Program? Howmany of you folks know someone who has done it? How many of you folks have done it, like me?

When I get home I'll post the exact requirements, but here are the requirements as I recall. At the last ECM they added 1 more requirement, which may be must attend a chapter workday and /or chapter fellowship. I was absent that meeting because of a newborn, and don't think the new requirement cards are out yet. From the top of my head here are some of the basic requirements. 1) Attend 4 chapter meetings. 2) Attend 1 Ordeal besides the one you became a member. 3) Attend a Section Conclave OR Lodge Fellowship (NOAC may also be an option, but it's one fun activity). 4) Cond

My current lodge has had some membership problems in the past. Heck even last year we met everything for quality lodge EXCEPT growth, missed out by 40+ new members. BUT our attendence at functions is increasing. Our lodge leadership two years ago came up with some interesting changes that some people just went crazy over. The poor lodge chief was getting calls at his house with people screaming at him and it took three to four months for things to finally settle down. I think things settled down because we saw the changes work after the first Ordeal it was applied to. Some of the changes

Don't have the most current edition now, but the last edition did say something to the effect that the sash is appropriate on special occasions, i.e COHs, dis and cncl. banqets, etc. We had this question come up at a roundtable because we are trying to reestablish the OA in the district and we wanted Arrowmen to wear the OA sash at the district banquet. It actually helped. We had several adults wear their sashes to the district banquet, had a nice little set up with more info on the chapter (and to brag on the success to date of our efforts to rebuild), and we now have some movitivated new adu

Rebuilding and starting new chapters is tough and I wish the best of luck inthis endevour. In my experience, it takes about 3 years to rebuild. I am in the same situation, and just when I get things going, I lost my very active CC and three active members to out of state schools. Almost back to square one, but we are surviving. Advice so far has been very good. Now my $.02 worth. Now some additional ideas. 1) Try to get some activity that the OA is traditionally known for and use it to build interest in the chapter. My chapter is now known as the singers because we

Funny story about some "professionals" I met. The council I was in just had three new DEs come in, hadn't even gone through PDL-1 yet. Well they were told that they need to go through the Ordeal and join the OA. Friday nite wasn't to bad for them, but when Saturday morning came and the found out more about the Ordeal, two said a few unScoutlike things and just left. I never saw them again and later found out form my DE that all three had a meeting with the SE monday morning to discuss the Ordeal. Those that left were given their termination papers. The other has had a successful career last I

Yes council can be the CO, but it's my understanding that there is a limit to the number of untis they can sponsor. Mostly councils use it for their summer camp staff as not everyone hired is active in Scouting. In the seven years I've worked summer camp at four different camps, we have had Marines, Navy Corpsman, National Guardsman, seminarians, and outside experts in specialized area for the sea base one council operates. They needed to be registered, and thus the crew. Also where does it say that a summercamp crew cannot be active year round? While one crew I was associated with did

Ok now that I am away form work and had a chance to read fully everything, here's my $.02 worth. 1) While the OA is a youth run organization and you will need a highly motivated youth to be in charge, you also will need a highly motivated adult to be adviser. 2) You will need to promote, promote, and promote AIA at all lodge functions. 3) Take all comers, youth and adult. 4) Have the youth decide if they want to focus on team dancing, or the individual powwow styles: Chicken, Fancy Feather, Grass, Northern traditional, and Straight. 4A) If team dancing must do res

I sent you a PM, but anyone interested can send me a PM as well. I've restarted dance teams and am in the process of getting my current lodge's up and running. I have some resources available and advice if needed.

Scout Nut In reference to the tour permits, on the CS level they are rarely, if ever used by a lot of folks. That is a battle that is slowly changing, especially when we talk about the insurance and liability issues. Awareness is being raised and more units are starting to use them. As for how the tour permits get approved, I don't know. Maybe because our training records are so screwed up, there is no way to tell who actually has the BALOO training. Fortunately this to is getting better. In reference to council wide training. Because of the geographic size of the council, it's

Bob White, No, It wasn't that I wasn't interested in those courses. It was that everytime I tried to get one organized, I had trouble getting leaders to attend as either trainers or students. I had to pull teeth as it were to get an IOLS done, and then only 3 people showed up for the course. Trust me I believe every Scout deserves a trained leader. In a predominatly rural area where most people go hunting and fishing on a regular basis, few of the leaders think they really need to go through the training. Plus we have alot of oldtimers, average Scout leader tenure in the district

In addition to tracking it yourself with whatever software you choose. I recommend contacting your council and getting a copy of your record from them. You maybe surprised.

Can anyone please tell me what the differences are between the Basic Adult Leader Outdoor Orientation (BALOO), the Webelos Leader Outdoor training, and Intro to Outdoor Leadership Skills? This is going to sound ridiculous, but I never had enough interest in the CS side of training, to get the two CS courses done when I was training chair. Further I cannot recall it being offered in the 4 districts comprising my service area. The only person I know to go through them actually went out of council to complete them. Thanks eagle 92