Eamonn

My thoughts for what they are worth. For any new unit to have half a chance of surviving it needs a good solid foundation. In Scouting the foundation comes in the form of people. - A group of people who will work together to get things started and hang around at least for a couple of years until the unit can bring more interested adults in. A lot of times DE's and members of the District Committee will want to see a new unit listed as started that they rush things through. Which is a big mistake because when the unit fails not only do they no longer have the unit but have also lost the b

Scoutfish, For the record when it comes to this singing thing, I agree with you. But.. I do worry a little that some of us? All of us? Or maybe just me? Run the risk of maybe "Over thinking". Some of this stuff. Ea.

I was tempted to post my views on these Strategic plans without watching the video. I'm not a great lover of these plans. Mainly because they seem more like a wish list, than anything else. This time it does seem like something is really going to happen. My thinking is that as an organization we are stuck between a rock and a hard place. On one hand we have the youth, who if the truth were to be told really don't know what they want and seem to tire very quickly of things that they think they want. On the other hand we have an organization, steeped in history, not wanting to upset or

Not sure that I'd ever want to be king of anything. Me being me still allows me the opportunity to tell someone what I really think, something I'd lose were I to become king. Like many others I'm guilty of having pet peeves. - In my case a fair number of them. Of course because I claim ownership of them , I tend to think that they are right, because I don't like being wrong. As some forum members might have noticed, I'm not a great fan of Venturing as it is set up at present. I do firmly believe that there is a need for a program for older youth, but what we have now is just a mess.

Re the Knots: While I do think that they do act as a carrot for some adults. Still, as far I'm concerned it's not a big deal if they remain or if they go. The DE's? Scouting in the UK has managed without an army of professional Scouter's, but that's over there and we are over here. I haven't kept up to date with what a DE is paid. I'm thinking it's about $35,000. Add a benefit package and the cost has to be in the $44,000. Range. (Feel free to disagree and correct me!) That number is never going to go down. With the ever declining membership coming up with the funds to pay a DE i

moosetracker Like it or not. There is in most Districts an "Expected" level of donation. If you are wise, you will not allow yourself to be drawn into this, what can only be called fools errand. A few pages back I gave an outline of why I think pestering our volunteers for money is worthless waste of time. If you really want to make a difference join the District Finance Committee and set about making a list of people who can and might be willing be donate large amounts of money. Do not share this list with the DE or any of the pros. Do not mention James E.West. Ask the DE what t

A few years back thanks to some very serious financial mismanagement things didn't look that great in my neck of the woods. A special Executive Board meeting was called to discuss the sale of the only camp site that the Council owns. The other is leased from the State, Almost all the board members made it to the meeting. So many in fact that the venue had to be changed to accommodate the number. As dinner was being served I asked the wait staff to give me a head count. Not counting the pros and the office staff we had a total of 63 Board members. I looked around the room and tried to

strider Welcome to the forums. There are are of course different courses for different horses. If you find YP scenarios helpful. More power to you. Long before the BSA made the wise move to put all this stuff on line I was tasked with having to present it. A lot of times I kinda felt a little bit like Goldie Locks. While of course I didn't want anyone to ignore all the important and good information and follow the guidelines. I at the same time didn't want to scare the living daylights out of them so that they would be afraid to ever do anything. Youth Protection needs to be done

More tech savy? With no disrespect intended to anyone. I have to say that I worry a little bit when anyone says that we need to be more anything. More outdoor oriented. More concerned about the boys. More involved with youth protection and so the list goes on. Sometimes it is kinda like the guys who know all about fine wine. The swirl it, they sniff it, they talk about it having a good nose and under-tones of this and that and a fine full body then they taste it and spit it out. In the real world us real people hand over fifty dollars buy a bottle of what we hope will be a decent b

Have to say that when it comes to Scouts and Scouting the word "Important" Leaves a nasty taste in my mouth. The most important position to fill is the position that is vacant. Scouting is very much a team game. While maybe in soccer the center foreword might get a lot of the glory, the team still needs a good goal keeper. But just for the heck of it. Over the years I've seen units where the CO other than signing off on the charter once a year and there have been times when I've wondered if even that signature is real? Plays no part in the life of the unit. These same units are ver

In the "Real World" I've been around a bit. Starting off teaching English History at what here in the States would be at the high school level. I found out fairly quickly that my love of English History wasn't shared by the kids I was trying to teach. Went back to school and became a chef. Found out I was good at it. Cooked for a few very important people, worked in some of the better hotels in London, then went on to become an area manager for a big food service company, moved to the USA. Worked for a while then bought one then two restaurants of my own. Went back to school and became a R

Wow! Seems like a lot of fuss over a an ice cream bar! I know and have met a lot of first class twits but even the best of these couldn't classify this as being cruel. So you can rest easy, the paddy wagon isn't on the way and your not going to be taken away in hand-cuffs. I'm not sure how I'd go about this? But that doesn't matter. You have been doing it for a good while with no problem, the Scouts don't have a problem but a Committee Member does. This Committee Member is of course entitled to his or her opinion and you being the open minded nice person that you are will of cou

I hate this wide screen! As you might know at one time the English outlawed the Irish language in Ireland. It is said that the best English is spoken by the people from around parts of Dublin. My parents studied Irish at school as a second language, but couldn't really speak it it. The people in the west of Ireland didn't have to put up with as much English interferences, so the Irish language wasn't hurt as badly there. A couple of years back HWMBO and myself spend a couple of days on the Aaron Isles. It seemed strange to be so close to home and have people chatting away and us not

Had to renew my English passport. Not really a big deal. Not sure why it costs about $100.00 more than a U.S. Passport? But everything in England seems to cost a lot more. When I was done I took the on line survey to help improve the experience and complain about the cost! Near the end of the survey there were the questions that deal with demographics. I was OK saying I was a male, but then the drop down what ever it's called for race dropped down. Listed first was White listed second was Irish-English. I'd never seen that before! There was no "Mutt" listing. Eamonn.

If you were to ask my son what he is? He would reply that he is an American. If you were to ask my wife or myself what our son is we both would say that he is an American. He isn't Irish- American or Anglo-American. Just an everyday plain no hyphen needed or required American. At one time we, his Mother and myself had this silly idea that when he got old enough he could or would choose what he wanted to be. But that was soon pushed aside and forgotten. I'm really happy that he knows what he is. It's something that I never really knew and still don't. As far as we know and c

As my dear sainted Irish Grandmother might have said: Arh-shr Saint Peter himself would be smiling. Ea.

Peregrinator Much as I hate to be contrary. You are wrong! Back in the day there were twelve pennons to a shilling and 20 shillings to a pound. While at one time the penny was indeed silver. -Back in 1344! 1544, a silver coinage was issued containing just one third silver and two thirds copper. It has gone down and down! The 'Bloody Code' Ran in England from the late 17th century to the early 19th century. Five Shillings is twenty-five pence in todays decimal currency. At todays exchange rate it would be about 40 cents (I was wrong) It's kinda hard to say what five shillings

Here we go again! Discipline? That word again. I kinda like what Barry posted: " I would then ask scouts how such an action fits in the Scout Oath and Law? I wouldnt give the scouts time to answer, but would follow with another question that if a boy is willing to do this against his brother scouts, who else and what else is he willing to do to other people outside that troop? Then I would ask if anyone wanted to volunteer to help me clean up the box to please talk to the SPL." But I'm unsure if it really fits the heading "Discipline"? As a Lad who wasn't guilty of anything might volun

Have to admit to being very much like a kid in a candy store. The last thing I bought was and is always the coolest until the I buy something new. My office used to be just across the road from Gander Mountain and I spent a lot of time there leaving a fair amount of my hard earned cash. "Cool"? Is kinda like beauty very much Dependant on what your doing and what your used to. Boots have come a long way. I remember back home buying army surplus boots that weighed almost as much as I did. My old old Blacks of Greenwich down filled sleeping bag lasted years, now I have six or seven b

I have met a couple of people who are no longer active but do seem to read what's going on. I this because of the emails they send me. There are a few forum members from that big Council next door that one of these days I feel sure I'm bound to run into. There is one member that used to work in that Council who I think I might have met or at least been in the same room as. One year I'm going to make it to the Celtic Festival that they have in OGE neck of the woods, not sure I'll manage any haggis? But I'm good for a couple of traditional Irish songs. If OGE is into eating a haggis, I'l

Think that I've posted this before. No one seemed to know for sure when the 17th started. There was a lot of talk about it being an "Early" London Troop. But it seems along the way there was a few Troops that joined and closed and who was who? Was always in question. The Troop /Group never wanted to be tied in any way to a church. It did over the years meet in various church halls. During world war two the Cub Master held a very important job in a London hospital and wasn't allowed to serve in any of the armed forces. He started a news letter that he sent out to all the Scouts and Sc

Back in England I spent most of my time in one Scout Group the 17th Fulham (Pioneers). I had been a Wolf Cub in another Pack /Group however when things changed in the late 1960's early 1970's the adults in that group said that they weren't up for the change. I was a Scout, a Venture Scout helped for a while with the Pack and then went on to become Scout Leader in the 17th. I was Scout Leader for almost 12 years and the guy before me was my Scout Leader served for over 20 years. There had been one Group Scout Leader since world war two when he died in the mid 1970's the Cub Scout Leader w

HWMBO is asleep in bed. I'm thinking that maybe I might put some ice down her neck. No! I'm not really. But just for a minute let's pretend that I was. What would I be guilty of? Nothing. Why? Because nothing happened. Before we start brandishing words like Hazing, lets bear in mind that something has to happen for someone to be hazed. A prank has to happen for someone to be pranked. The title of this thread doesn't deal with the question that was asked. The question was: I am wondering if I should ask the older Scouts about it... Suggestions? If I were in yo

Let me see.. No I don't think the idea of breaking " hundreds of thousand of dollars of picture windows in businesses along the downtown streets of Seattle in deliberate and entirely unprovoked attacks" Is a good idea. But then again I also think that dragging down the good name and credit rating of this country is a bad idea. At the end of the day who did the most harm to the greatest number of people? Ea.

Before everyone starts beating themselves up it is worth remembering that the oath does state "To do my best to..." Ea.