eaglescout1996

Not in that sense, but for our Spring Pow-wow in March, the Pow-wow chairman brought in a drum and dancers who compete in the Pow-wow circuit.

They held a class during a two hour period on the drum and songs, and then on their regalia and their dances. Then the drum preformed for our Pow-wow in the afternoon. Aparently the members of the group hail from various nations from the Southeast and Midwest.

Everyone recieved some very good insight, and a lot of us hope this is the start to something good. During the day we also had local lodge members teach courses on moccasin making, beading, ect...all of which had recently come back from teaching at CIS in Statesville the previous month.

I'd like to see a lot more local nation participation (or invitation for that matter)...it can only lead to good things in my opinion.

Congrats to Justin!

As someone who had to have a Council appeal because of a SM who refused to sign an Eagle Application, I can sympathize. It took me a few years to get back into Scouting, I hope the actions of a few don't push you away from a great organization like they did to me.

Again, congratuations!

If the election team does a good job with the explaination, then there shouldn't be a problem.

Last month I went out as an Advisor with an election team and the troop had about 12 new crossovers. I'd say about 8 of them didn't turn in ballots because it was explained that if you didn't know the candidates that well and you're not sure who to vote for, do not turn in a ballot.

I was also surprised to see that only one of the five eligible scouts were voted in by this particular troop. Again, the election team did a good job of explaining the responsibilities of arrowmen and what is expected, and the scouts of this troop knew that only one would follow through.

Just have the team explain that a ballot not turned in does not count toward the election.

We had the same thing when I went to WB in Central Florida. On staff, there was an ASM of Program and one for Facilities (I might be making that one up, but it was something like that). The ASM of Program had a set of GIANT WB beads, each bead being about 15"x6" on thick rope, and the ASM of Facilites had a bucket and plunger.

Everyday a new patrol was assigned "program" and "facilities", so during that day each one would be responsible for leading the groups in song or insuring the dining hall or bathrooms were clean.

Every morning at Gilwell Field, the PL of the patrol would "deliver" the various "accoutrements" to the ASM, and while they were in that Patrols possession, they would decorate them with their totem and other items that would represent their patrol.

Then the ASM would call up the next PL and they would be handed off the item.

I just happend to be the PL when our patrol (Antelopes) became the "Program" patrol. I remember the "delivery" of the GIANT beads involved ASM swinging them around.

At the end, the beads and bucket/plunger were gifts to the ASMs.

I earned Woodcarving, Basketry, Indianlore, and Leatherwork all at my first summer camp. I'd have to look at my MB sash to see which one came first, as I put them in order that I earned them.

As for my favorite...I'd have to say Woodwork and Metalwork. While I was living in Germany, our middle school shop teacher was our MB counselor, and let us use our lunch hour to work on projects, even if we weren't in the class. I had a lot of fun building bookcases and bending metal!

Tokala, that must be why we had so many West Central Florida people in my course.

I went through SR-794 in 2006 while in the Central Florida Council, and I believe out of the 56 participants, we had about 6-8 from West Central Florida Council.

Actually, I recieved my LOA by email Satuday morning and my letter and patch came in the mail a couple days later.

Last weekend I was at our Section's Leadership Retreat, and our Section Chief and antoher that was attending, both are VC's for two of the OA events (Mysterium Compass and PACEsetters) asked anyone if they were going to Jambo as staff and still needed a position. Both of those still have slots.

The historical merit badges are listed on scoutstuff on the insignia page...but that may or may not mean much.

I paid my $100 deposit months ago, and still haven't received my letter or patch....but I do have an assignment.

I was emailed by one of the directors last week, we went back and forth by email, eventually talked by phone, and I agreed to work in his area.

Assignment but no patch!

I serve as a UC, and for my Council, I think it works District by District.

As for my district, we do it by program. For instance, we have one UC who takes care of most of the Venturing Crews, as we have very few, and many are high school ROTC units.

As for me, I am responsible for three Cub Scout packs, and one of the CO's has a Troop, which another UC takes care of.

I can see it work both ways. In my previous council it was the opposite. I was responsible for two Packs and one CO which had a Pack, Troop, and Crew. It allowed me to understand how the CO ran the program and adjust my methods that way.

But...I like have only Packs (or if it where Troops or Crews), because you're sticking with one program and you can share the information on how different units operate. It also makes it easier when I go to round table, it allows me to stick to one room and run around and talk to everyone.

Adventurebase 100 is going to be here in Atlanta during the Dogwood Festival at Piedmont Park...too bad it's the same weekend as our Section Conclave.

Our Council is asking for volunteers, saying that "there will be extensive volunteer opportunities for Adventurebase."

We'll see....

The Eagle Rank patch looks good, since the regular one already has wording around it.

I think you'll see more and more of this for 2010. It was announced by Tico Perez in the Fall/Winter "Commissioner" that he recieved permission to have special "2010" commissioner office patches for all commissioner posistions.

http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/522-975_FallWinter09_web.pdf

As a commissioner, I think it's kind of cool, they have used the older FC badge and wreath for the center.

My wife and I were at our Volunteer Service Center yesterday for the Council's District Committee Training Workshop, and while on break we went in to the Scout Shop to look at a few things.

I've been scouring eBay looking for a Jac-shirt, since the one I had as a youth is a little small now, although a still wear it. It's a size 44, and I'm a 48 right now, which would put me at an XL since BSA stopped making them in real sizes and now makes them in the generic S,M,L,XL,ect. I always check in the back where the uniforms are, hoping to find an XL.

To my surprise, there it was! Scoutstuff has been out of M-XXL for a long time saying they won't be in stock until March, so I was surprised. Tried it on, and I was confused since it was kind of big on me, but I was prepared to spend the $100 on a new shirt since I probably wear it 6-8 times a month.

First off, I noticed (of course) that the new one wasn't as well made as the one I received 20 years ago, as the new ones seem a lot thinner....but there was something else, there were shirts there with two different manufactures. I checked the tag to see if was 100% wool or a wool blend....to my surprised, it had the same tag in the back as the new shirts..."Made in China".

I can stomach paying a $100 for a wool Jac-shirt made by Woolwich or Bemidji Mills...but not for a one made in China. There was already a pretty decent profit margin for BSA on Jac-shirts, but now it's even more or they wouldn't have moved production off shore.

I just don't understand it, there are still companies selling men's shirts (from well known names like Brooks Brothers) that are made in the USA and are the same price or cheaper than what BSA is selling us from China.

I guess I'll keep looking on eBay or a larger Jac-shirt....or just suck it up and loose those 30 lbs I need to!

When I was in my first Troop as a youth, living overseas on a military base, it was always promoted to wear your uniform on BSA's annual birthday.

But I guess since we were on a base, everyone knew you were a scout anyway so it didn't matter at all to us that we were wearing them.

I was one of those youth who were told that the National Training made you "Trained" for all the Troop positions (except Den Chief).

Just a quick question, where or are there any Councils who have a specific name for their training? I went to the "Youth National Training" in 1990 (what ever it was called then) in Transatlantic Council, which called it "Golden Falcon". No Smokey Bears, but a "Golden Falcon" neckerchief, slide, stave, ect. TAC still calls their week-long yearly NYLT, "Golden Falcon".

I thought about starting a new thread, but I wasn't sure what forum it would go under!

Thanks!

I agree with Shortridge's comments...I really think the older boys who do remain active despite their other involvements, aren't always with their Troop.

Now that I'm my Lodge's Conclave Adviser, I've noticed that alot of the Lodge and Chapter Officers do ALOT for the Lodge and are active in their school or sports as well, but not really in their Troops. Many serve on Staff at Summer Camp or go on HA trips in the summer...they're really looking for that next challenging activity. Many like to teach the younger scouts (CS/first year BS), but seemed to get weighed down with the boys who've been in a few years and are still under 15.

I really think it falls under the "normal" category...young men 15/16-18 want to 'hang out' with guys their own age.

I'm about 13 years removed from the Boy Scouting program, so Venturing didn't come about until right before my 21st birthday, so I didn't get the chance to experience that. But...I was 'active' while in HS, which meant that I attended about 90% of the weekly Troop meetings and about 50% of the weekend activities. I did play three sports in HS, along with being the President of the Key Club, but to tell you the truth, the only reason I stayed active was to finish my Eagle project.

After we moved from Europe when I was 15, I was the oldest boy in my new Troop, and during the last couple of years, I was the oldest by 3 or 4 years...do you really think that a 17 year old wants to go camping with kids in middle school?

Now a days we have the Venturing program, so those boys can migrate to something else, I just don't see the fix something you can do with the program...it's just a fact of life.

Trainerlady,

I really appreciate it, I'm sure I caught them at a bad time. It just irked me that they were too busy to be of any real help because they were too focused on counting.

Oh well, we got the uniform, I sewed everything on (it's it right place...with numbers touching the CSP!), and he enjoyed opening up his gifts on Christmas. Right now he's looking forward to his first "real" meeting on Tuesday....no harm, no foul.

I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year!

92,

Not having worked retail, I'm sure inventory is a PITA.

I was just annoyed, knowing I could pick up a shirt, pair of pants,and a pair of switchbacks for a 1/3 of what a new shirt and pants cost.

Which brings me to NJ's question, what are they going to do with all the old uniforms?

Do you think they'll bring them all back to a central location and sell them on scoutstuff.com?

In the last couple of months I've ordered the old poly/wool shirts (1 s/s, 1 l/s), and although the website said they were in stock, they didn't ship because they were out.

First off, I have to say, this isn't a love/hate thread about the new uniforms. They're here and that's it.

I had my first experience with the new Centennial Supplex shirt last week and I had a couple of questions. My wife's cousin (12 years old) wanted to join a Troop, and since his mother was injured on the job last year and has been rehabing, we thought that as a Christmas gift we'd pay for his registration, Boy's Life, Uniform, and book.

We ended up with the Supplex uniform, and when I took it over to my mom's house to sew everything on, I noticed that the material was very delicate. It pulled very easily, and that was just from sewing on patches and turning the shirt inside out and whatnot.

Since the only option we had were Centennial shirts, we went for the Supplex since he lives in Florida and we knew it would be a lot cooler, but I'm affraid of long term wear.

The cotton/poly blend on the ODLR shirts, held up great when I was a kid, but I noticed that with the pockets "open", the velcro would "snag" the synthetic material and pull.

Has anyone had the same dealings? What do you think long-term wear will be, will they hold up?

(Rant On)

To be honest, I was quite annoyed at the Central Florida Council's Scout Shop last week. We weren't sure on his size, especially since he's grown a couple inches in the last year, so we wanted to take her cousin to the shop to fit his shirt and pants instead of purchasing up in Atlanta and giving them to him for Christmas. I called to inquire about Holiday hours and if they had ODLR shirts and the old style Switchbacks in stock. I was told yes, and that they'd being going through invetory the week after Christmas. I wanted to give him the old style uniform since I knew all of the Troop would have it and it would be a lot lighter on my wallet. By the time we got to the store on Wednesday, the employees had already "counted" all the old merchandise and had it boxed to ship back to National, and would not open it up for us. Instead of paying $30 for a shirt and pants, I had to pay $90. Not only that, but they had been counting insignia, and made a big deal about opening up the zip-lock bag the "Eagle" patrol patches were in so we could purchase one, and then scratch out the 13 and write 12 with a Sharpie. On top of that, they didn't have any new books, and the one old book was written in.

My wife and I don't have children, and as a Commissioner I always hear about how expensive it is for kids to join....now I know! Between everything (uniform, registration, BL) we've spent at least $160, not counting a book or my used camping equipment I gave him (with a few new items thrown in). Uniforms need to be cheaper for kids!

If I can purchase a Brooks Brothers shirt made in the USA (North Carolina) cheaper than a Boy Scout shirt made in China, something's wrong.

(Rant Off!)

You're very lucky to have him.

I once knew a SE, who was quick to tell everyone he was the "Supreme Chief of the Fire"...but you never saw him at any Lodge events, except the occational Winter Banquet.

Never worked or even showed up, and wouldn't support the LEC, often saying that at the SCotF, he had "veto" power.

I'm very optomistic about our new SE, and hope the good work from our previous one will continue.

Eagle92, sounds like you've got a great one!

I've got an older version, which I recieved from my dad when he came back from Turkey/N. Iraqi in the early 90's. It's just the bag and the compression sack. I've been using it for over 15 years, it's very warm, goes in the sack great, but is a bit heavy.

When it does get a bit warm, I usually just take a poncho liner, in stead of a bag.

Our Council just went through that, and it was explained to us from a member who was on the search committee that they used John's technique.

Our SE is moving on to be the NE Regional Executive, so the search committee was comitted to find someone who would work on our weaknesses while preserving our strengths.

We think we got him, as we received the previous SE of Dan Beard Council on December 1st.

I haven't met him yet, but it looks like he'll be attending our Lodge Winter Banquet in a few weeks, so we'll see.

For anyone who gives donations to the United Way, do a little research on the specific UW in your area. Before moving to Atlanta, I spent five years with UW of Brevard's (FL) Emerging Leaders program (20-40 year olds) as well as sitting on allocation funding panels for that time.

There are two ways local UW's actually fund programs. The first is the way UW of Brevard did it, they have three designation opprotunities, the UW general fund, a specific group of organizations (Children and Families, Substance Abuse, Homelessnes, ect), or you can direct designate.

An organization submits an application (let's say Central Florida Council asks for $250,000), the allocation funding panel gets the applications from the entire group (organizations who help children and families, substance abuse, ect) and review. These applications include everything, operating budget plus the previous two years budgets, lists of the board of directors, lists of staff members, recomendations and notes from teh previous year's panel, ect. The panel then makes site visits where the organizations make presentations, after that, the panel meets seperately and makes a funding determination.

The panel knows before hand that they have x amount of funds for y number of organizations who are asking for z funds, and x is always greater than z. So the panel might fund a specific program at the asking level, keep at last year's funding level, give less (or none at all) or give more. After the award is made, they UW gives the organization their direct designation funds as an addition to the award the allocation funding panel made.

Although the other way most UW's will tell their allocation funding panels how much has been direct designated to each organization and tell them to reduce the award amount by that much. Their thinking is that if you really wanted to give the organization the funds, you would do it outside of the UW.

And as most everyone here knows, some UW allow local BSA councils to be partner organizations, and others don't. For instance, in central Florida, one does, two don't. The two that don't will give direct designations to Central Florida Council, but they don't list them as an organization, so the individual must specifically write their name in.

My wife and I decided a few months ago, that instead of giving through the UW, we would just give our donations to the Council endowment fund, that way it is perpetual (and the UW doesn't get it's 10% cut), and hope that eventually will reduce the need of FOS (pie in the sky!).

The "Activity Uniform" shorts were khaki. I still have my red polo circa 1992, but I think that the shorts finally wore out a few years ago and they were thrown out.

I actually didn't really mind wearing them, and actually there's some photos of me at summer camp in '94 of me wearing my scout shirt and the "activity" shorts. They were pretty comfortable, and they had a longer inseam than those really short scout shorts I had with the cargo pockets on the side.