Eamonn

Some years back I made a promise to myself that I was never going to complain about the summer heat. I love summer. Even at the 2005 Jambo when it did get hot, I did a good job of not complaining. I enjoy spring. As Rory and I go out each day I look for signs of new life, keeping a watchful eye on the wild daffodils. I'm the only person I know who counts robins. One day last summer one of the freshly cut hay Fields was covered in butterflies, thousands and thousands of them. That same field one day last week had 346 robins. Rory at the start of his walk is fairly energetic and does chase them, but after the first twenty minutes he must think it's a waste of time. He was checking out the drainage ditches the other day and flushed out a ring necked Grouse. I don't know if the grouse knows it or not? But the red fox has made her den only about half a mile away. I was really pleased to see the grouse as its the first I've seen in the 18 years we have lived here. We have wild turkeys and snow geese visit every now and then. Much as I enjoy spring, I tend to want it to move on and get out of the way to make room for summer. I hate the way it seems to want to tease me. On Monday it was 80 degrees. I walked around the sail boats in the yard making mental notes of what I was going to do first. In my minds eye I could see our Scouts having fun just messing about on the water. I swear I could hear them laughing and having fun. Today it's snowing the high is 36 degrees with a wind chill in the teens. Looking out through the doors that lead to the deck, I see a couple of groundhogs who are trying to make the best of it. The robins seem to be having a hard time with the frozen ground. Rory and I tend to take the same walk most days. Just before we turn to make our way back home is a small wooded area. It divides our property from the property owned by the local Byzantine Church. The Priest is a very nice man, but the old boy who tends the gardens doesn't seem to like Rory. I think because Rory will visit him when he is working and being a retriever will retrieve things that didn't need retrieved, things like the old boys gloves or flower pots. I have to admit to at times finding it funny. In fact when I talked to the priest about it he laughed and gave Rory an on going absolution. I think maybe he thought it was better than finding an 85 pound dog in the confessional? I don't know who owns the woods. I know I don't do anything to care of them and it seems that the church is happy to let them be. For about a week I had noticed that someone had been in the woods. There was evidence of a fire pit and half burnt wood. So I wasn't very surprised the other Sunday to find a couple of young Lads in the woods. They were working their tails off building a fort/shelter. Rory works on the assumption that everyone loves him, so he went to say hello. The boys who were about 14 seemed to sense that he wasn't going to hurt them. I stopped and talked with them. They seemed surprised that I didn't tell them to go away, but gave them some tips on how to build the fort.As we were talking I heard the drum-roll of the local Red-Headed Woodpecker, so I took them to his tree. We looked for the resident long eared owl, but he must have been taking a nap. I'm sure when I left these Lads they must have thought I was a strange old fellow who talked funny and had a good looking dog. As Rory and I walked home, I couldn't help remember that when I was about their age Steve Bolton and myself built our little fort in the woods. We somehow managed to catch a rabbit! Which we tried to cook!! Burnt on one side and raw on the other. We sat around telling each other how good it was, but when we got the chance got rid of it when the other wasn't looking. I remember feeling that we were like Tom Sawyer or Robinson Crusoe. Seems to me that us old people moan and groan about "Todays Kids" and video games. I don't know where in their imagination these Lads had gone? Maybe Daniel Boone? After all he was from Pennsylvania. I couldn't help wishing I was about 35 years younger and out there with them building a fort in the woods. Ea.

While I'm sure the debate regarding the decision will go on for sometime. Talking just as myself? I'm happy that the Jamboree will go ahead. I'm not sure if I'll attend in 2010? I do know the Scouts who went with me to the past two had a wonderful time and I'm happy that the opportunity will be there for the next group. Eamonn.

I'm unsure if there ever was a time when outside organizations welcomed Boy Scouts or any sort of Scouts with welcome arms. Back home in the UK, with so many youth groups participating in the Duke Of Edinburgh Award See http://www.theaward.org/ A lot of young people who really had no idea of what they were doing got into all sorts of problems! (Not the fault of the award!! It is good and worth while. I hold all 3 Awards.) This at times gave the award a bad name. While I'm sure I might be way off base. It seems to me that at times the BSA is suffering from the same sort of thing. When I look at myself. I know that I'm not an expert in any given field. Sure I have been in Scouting for a while? I can camp, cook, my back packing skills are a little above average. I can sail and have a certification in instructing Sea Kayaking. My first aid skills are good. I have done a fair amount of rock climbing and repelling and used to be a Merit Badge Counselor for the climbing MB. I really do enjoy being outside, have taken courses in LNT and maybe one day when I'm not busy would like to become a Master. I don't do much else with my free time but be a Scouter. When I talk with outside organizations they seem to be very deeply involved in whatever it is they are involved in and for the most part only want to deal with people who want to get deeply involved! The exception to all this is the person who is deeply involved and is also a Scouter. I have to admit at times to finding some of these people a real pain in the neck. They are so "Expert" in what they are doing that they at times "Preach" or talk down to idiots like me. Some units served by people like this seem to forget that they are part of the BSA. Last fall when I took the LNT Instructor course, I was really taken back by what a bad rap Scouts and the BSA seemed to have! In fact most of the other participants and the instructors didn't have very many kind words to say about Boy Scouts! When I was trying to get organizations interested in becoming CO's for Venturing, many of the organizations I talked with seemed to think that they didn't need us and were happy to do their own thing. Am I way off base? Ea.

Thanks Skipper, I sent off for a used copy !! I have just started reading Small Craft Piloting & Coastal Navigation, by A.E. Saunders. The book is from Canada. So far it seems that it does a good job of breaking things down into bite sized easy to understand pieces. I gave Ray Derk a call and both Ships are going to spend some time working together on this. We also have some Scouts attending the Piloting course in June on the NE-Region Training Ship. Doug Yeckley is Skipper and I'm going as a stowaway! The Power Point presentation on Dead Reckoning, that is on the Sea Scout web site,isn't all bad!! But our Scouts just didn't seem to get it!! Once I get all my ducks lined up (Or maybe I should say if I get them lined up?) I hope to put something together that younger Scouts might be able to understand a little easier. I'll send it to Bruce and maybe he'll add it to the site? I do have the SEAL tests and some of the older Scouts are looking at them. Strange thing was that when I gave it to a couple of them, - You'd think I'd given them a special treat. They only got them last Monday. I handed them out at the end of the meeting telling them we'd go over them next Monday. I'm kinda anxious to see what happens. As I have said I'm just not having any joy with the USPS in our area. Once I get this done we can move on to the joys of working with the sextant! As yet I don't own one!! I'm trying to find a good used one for about $350 -$450. I'm thinking that can be my winter project!! Eamonn.

As I see it, if we wait till 16 or 17 to move Boy Scouts from the Troop to Venturing is that most of them will not be around for very long till they are off to college. In our area the Ship and Sea Scouting seems to be most appealing to 16 year olds, but no sooner are they in when it's time to graduate from High School and off they go. The 14 -21 age group just isn't working. Even those who opt to go to local community college are busy working at full time jobs and just don't have the time. Ea.

Beaver My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone touched by this sad event. It's not very often that I'm lost for words. I just can't even try and imagine the terrible pain this Lad's parents are going through. Over the past few months it seemed that OJ and I were not as close as we had been. I'm not sure why? Or if there was any reason for it? We didn't even seem able to agree to disagree. Her Who Must Be Obeyed was at times caught in the middle of our petty and at times infantile squabbles. Three weeks ago while playing deck hockey, he fell and dislocated his shoulder. HWMBO and I were at one of her Doctor visits. Our phones were turned off. As ever we were running late as she had to be at work at 3:00. She works in the local ER. So you can imagine the greeting we received when I dropped her at the door. In order to get his shoulder back in place the Doc gave him some fairly strong meds. I dropped her off and parked the car. When I went into the ER the nurse was happy to see me and said that he had been asking for me. Of course I was sad to see him in pain and so very uncomfortable, but part of me was so happy that I knew he still needed me. While of course prayers and thoughts need to go out for this Lad and his family and friends. Still I do feel we might spend a minute thanking God for our own kids and ask that they remain safe and well. Easter is a time of new life and time for new beginnings. Eamonn.

As I see it, if we wait till 16 or 17 to move Boy Scouts from the Troop to Venturing is that most of them will not be around for very long till they are off to college. In our area the Ship and Sea Scouting seems to be most appealing to 16 year olds, but no sooner are they in when it's time to graduate from High School and off they go. The 14 -21 age group just isn't working. Even those who opt to go to local community college are busy working at full time jobs and just don't have the time. Ea.

Long on my list of pet peeves has been unwanted e-mails. I do have opinions about the Republican party and the President. I don't make a point of copying jokes that might have been on late night TV about the President or the Republican party and e-mailing them to a couple of hundred of people who are in my address book. I really don't like guns. I don't want to own one and refuse to have one in my home. I don't put people who disagree with me down for not agreeing with me and I don't send out E-mails that might make gun owners seem wrong. My relationship with my God is mine! Seeing a 220 slide power point presentation of Troops praying, followed by a prayer doesn't improve that relationship and telling me if I don't forward it to ten people within the next ninety seconds that my hair will fall out just makes me upset. Hilary Clinton, has never done anything to me. In fact I think she is a very clever person. I get upset with the E-mails that are just down right nasty. I think a lot of Scouter's feel that just because we wear the same uniform and belong to the BSA that I share the same political agenda that they do! I don't!! Which I think is a good thing. - Life would be boring if we all held the same beliefs. I'm happy that they know what they believe in. I wish them well. We may share the same values? But at times I wish they would stop e-mailing me all the stuff I see as junk and go away and annoy someone else. Ea.

The Americas Boating Course offered by the USPS and the US Coast Guard Aux. Is a fine basic boating course. It just doesn't go into what is needed to meet Sea Scout requirements. I don't know about anyone else? But I found the Sea Scout Officer Specialized training title to be very misleading -Other than changing the names of the Officers it's just the same as the Venturing course! For the first time I'm starting to get a feel for what a new Scoutmaster with no Scouting background must feel!! I really don't need any more courses in Leadership or how we play this game, serving on the Area Committee, being a Member of the Council at Large and with my past experiences I think I know and understand how things are set up. What I need is to find out the best way to pass this skill on to the Scouts in the Ship I serve. Be cause of our location this isn't as easy as maybe it might be if we were someplace else. Kinda like training for high altitudes when you live in Holland. Eamonn.

The Americas Boating Course offered by the USPS and the US Coast Guard Aux. Is a fine basic boating course. It just doesn't go into what is needed to meet Sea Scout requirements. I don't know about anyone else? But I found the Sea Scout Officer Specialized training title to be very misleading -Other than changing the names of the Officers it's just the same as the Venturing course! For the first time I'm starting to get a feel for what a new Scoutmaster with no Scouting background must feel!! I really don't need any more courses in Leadership or how we play this game, serving on the Area Committee, being a Member of the Council at Large and with my past experiences I think I know and understand how things are set up. What I need is to find out the best way to pass this skill on to the Scouts in the Ship I serve. Be cause of our location this isn't as easy as maybe it might be if we were someplace else. Kinda like training for high altitudes when you live in Holland. Eamonn.

Not sure how or if this fits in? The Ship has a Yahoo Group page. When we first started it our Boatswain took care of it. He had the last word about who was allowed to join and all posts went through him. Worked great until he got really busy and went AWOL and then quit. Of course I didn't have the passwords needed. So we started a new group. All postings and any new members do have to be OKed by the Boatswain or myself. We used to allow all members to post, but there were times when they used the page to pick on each other. Every now and then I hear about someone giving someone else a hard time in My space.com. I look at this the same as two kids giving each other a hard time in the school yard. It's not nice, they shouldn't be doing it, but there is not very much I can do about it. If it gets to bad the person on the receiving end can block the other. I do have to wonder why the SM would want to do this. Maybe he is feeling unloved? Ea.

I'm kinda happy for Scouts and Scouting to be a good and worth while activity. I don't see it as a crusade.While we never know what impact or what effect Scouts and Scouting will have on that one kid? For the most part many of the Scouts will in 20 or 30 years look back and remember the things they did as Scouts with no mention of having become better in any way. As an organization, we need to believe that the program and programs we offer work. These programs need to be attractive and pertinent to the youth we aim to reach and serve. If we believe that the programs don't work? They need to be changed. It would seem at least in the area where I live we seem OK with making little or no effort to reach out to 10% of the population. We have 11 churches in our small town, 4 in the small town next door which has a population of less than 900 people. Most Sundays the Catholic church I attend is packed. Many if not most of the others don't seem to draw much of a crowd. When I have attended the odd service, it seems that the congregation is small and mostly odder people. One exception is the Morningstar Baptist Church,their parking lot is full, the people I see going in and coming out are dressed to the nines and it seems from what I see entire families are going and coming.I rarely see a white face. Why don't we seem able to reach out to these families? It would seem to me that they share the same values that we do? Eamonn.

Talking with some people at our Council Volunteer Recognition Dinner last week I found out that the Cubmaster of the only Pack which was all African-American is gone and the pack has folded. The Council is in SW PA. While there is a lot of farm land and rural packs and Troops, most units seem to be in small towns like the one I live in with about 5,000 people. We have the small "Patch towns" where at one time coal was mined. We have towns where glass was made. The county seat is the big town nearest to where I live and it only has a population of 15,569. looking at the races the breakdown is: White Non-Hispanic (92.7%) Black (3.9%) Two or more races (1.5%) Hispanic (1.1%) American Indian (0.5%) Looking at the breakdown for the county next door which is part of the council the numbers are about the same. By my rough calculations we should have about 200 black Scouts. We don't. In fact I'm almost sure we don't have 50. Even when we attend Flotilla events where most of the Ship's are from Washington D.C and the Baltimore areas I'm amazed at how few non-white Scouts I see. I was really excited when I seen that the OA was getting involved with Scoutreach. I don't know what is happening elsewhere, but it seems in our lodge we seem happy to not even notice that it's there. While I love soccer, I'm not sure if the BSA soccer program for Hispanics and Latinos wasn't in some ways a cop out? Whats next medical school programs for Asians or some specialized program for Pacific Islanders? All the Scouter's I know in our Council are now white. (I did know the lady who was the black CM - She attended a WB course I staffed a few years back.) Most of these Scouter's are what might be classified as middle class. We all seem very happy to keep on doing what we have been doing. That is providing a program to the kids of other middle class parents. Sure every now and then a kid from a poor family might pop up. But for the most part we don't make any real effort to reach out into the projects or poorer neighborhoods. When BP took that first group of boys to Brownsea Island he went out of his way to have a mixed group of Lads. I wonder what he would think about what we have become? Eamonn.

I have send my application in for Sea Badge. With the $50.00 deposit.The course is in October. Sadly the Sea Scout Officer Specialized training is not of a practical course. I like the improvements that have been made to Sea Scout.org mailing lists, Bruce and his team are doing a fine job. If you get a chance you can read what is being said about the USPS. I can't help feeling that the letter is for the most part window dressing. Our big problem as well as being new is that there just isn't any other Ship's around. We do belong to the Chesapeake Sea Scout Flotilla, the Skipper's and other adults are really knowledgeable and very giving sadly it's a 4 hour each way drive to do activities with them. At this time we have sail boats, which we trailer. If we could find a Marina that wasn't too expensive, we might look into power boats. Of course over time my hope is that we will find what works and what doesn't as well as hopefully finding ways of making things more interesting for the Scouts. I know part of the big problem is me!! I really dislike "Class Room" Scouting. While the skills they will learn will be put to use in a practical setting, I don't think there is much alternative but to have them sit down and learn these skills without having classes. The Scouts who like math and algebra enjoy this. We have one Sea Scout who hopes to work for NASA! Doing stuff like this is pure joy. But we also have Scouts who can't tell time. They can look at their cell phone and know it 10:45 but they don't know when it will be 11:00! This makes Time and distance a real challenge! Ea.

I'd be OK with leaving the choice to go coed up to the CO. I think but I'm not sure LDS units are not keen on having coed units. I don't really know enough about Varsity Units to be able to talk about them. I have never really understood by the idea of Scout Groups wasn't part of the BSA? Having a Pack, Troop and Crew as all part of one seems like a good idea, having them under the watchful eye of a Group Scout Leader, would ease the burden on commissioners. Ea.

I'd change the age groups. Seems to me that programs that run from age 10 thru 18 and 14 thru 21 just don't well that well. But while we were changing we might as well go the whole hog. Have Tigers run from between six and eight years old. Allow three months or so before their sixth birthday to accommodate fitting in with school years. Sometime between eight and eight years six months have them move on up to become Cub Scouts. At age 10 have them move into Boy Scouts. The Boy Scout program would be for between 10 and 14 years. (15 maybe?). Venturing would run from 14 to 18. Bring back something for the 18 -25 year olds. Who might be away at college or just too busy to commit to being a leader. Some might say this is Rover Scouts? I think it needs to be very unstructured more of a social group where the members might get together to go on a hike or participate in some sort of an activity. I'd also be happy if we went completely coed. When I read the vision and mission statements I see "Young people" not just groups of young people. Ea.

Truth is it was on sale 50% off! So I ordered two!! Eamonn.

Hi Fred, Kinda, sorta had the same problem. The Cubmaster that followed me, went on to start a Troop. He is a nice man. His son it seemed never was really interested in Scouts or Scouting. While he isn't a bad kid, he isn't bright enough not to get caught and always seems to end up in hot water. He ended up in trouble for having and sending naughty photos of the girls in his school to other kids laptops and cell phones. The local JP didn't think it was very funny and hit him with a fine and a 0800 curfew. All this went down about the same time as he passed his Eagle Scout BOR. Of course no one on the board knew about this. He gets his Eagle and OJ,who really doesn't like him very much thinks this is wrong. In fact he says that if they will give it to him, they'll give it to anyone and it's not worth having!! I wasn't on the board and have no idea what the project was or very much about the Lad.Still I in some ways couldn't help but feel OJ had a point. He has over the years heard me harp on about the difference between earning a badge and it just being an embroidered piece of material. So that one wasn't going to work!! I'm not sure but one day we (OJ and I) were talking about a Troop in the District, OJ had gone to do a camp promotion and OA Election. He arrived home saying how bad the Troop was. Through the OA he has known the SM for a good number of years. He is the nicest guy you will ever meet. He would do anything for anyone. Sadly while I feel he would be a great ASM he just isn't a good SM. He has taken all the training's, in fact he is an Owl from the WB course our council hosted in 1999, I was his Patrol guide. He is a real hard worker, but just doesn't seem able to inspire the Scouts in the Troop. OJ seemed shocked that I really do like this guy. I explained that while he may not have the skills to be a great SM,he is a great example of what a Scout should be. Sure the Troop never attends Summer Camp because he seems unable to get the Scouts to sign up, sure he has problems with even basic Scout skills, but if ever there was an example of someone doing their best-He is it. I don't know anything about the Lad who was given his Eagle. I think maybe we the adults did him wrong by allowing him to slide by. But maybe? Just maybe? What he did was his best? As a Dad I would hope and expect more from my kid. As a Skipper I try to not short change the Scouts. But at times even the most basic requirements are open to interpretation. We have a 16 hour work requirement. I've seen Scouts bust their tails some days. While at other times they pass the time telling jokes and goofing off! This "Do Your Best" thing is never easy, even when you get it right the bar is raised!! Eamonn.

Talking with other Skippers, it seems that the USPS and Sea Scouts seem to do well when someone from the Sea Scouts is involved in the USPS. I have contacted or tried to contact all the local Squads to no end, I wrote to the big Kahuna (Can't remember her title.) again with no result. I met with the local USCG -Aux (who can if they want be CO's) In our area (Pittsburgh) the focus is on power boating on the rivers. - We have a few!! The Skipper of SSS 46 (Sea Scout Ship Arcturus,Westover, West Virginia) serves on the National Sea Scout Committee and is very involved in the USPS and has in the past been able to help us out. But he is busy working on the new Sea Scout Manual. Thanks Beavah, the American Sailing Association has a DVD course that I'll send away for. Of course in these days of GPS and new high tech. Who knows in time it will become a lost art. That would make life easier for me, but Sarah one of our Scouts would be heart broken. She just loves all this sort of thing. This is turning out to be expensive! I just found Hand Bearing Compasses on sale! There goes another $60.00. The ASA course and DVD is another $65.00 and I haven't left the house!! No wonder I'm poor!! Ea.

I'm not doing a very good job of teaching the Ship members the joys of navigation, charting and piloting. The sea Scout manual is OK, as is some of the material on the Sea Scout web site. While the Scouts who seem to be academically well off, seem to just get it! The younger and not so clever Scouts are just not getting it. I tried using Chapman's, but I'm still not doing a very good job. I try really hard to make what we do as much fun as possible! I think part of the problem is that the Scouts are intimidated by it. Any ideas? Books? Web sites? Would be much appreciated Thanks. Eamonn.

One problem I faced when I was serving at the District level was trying to get people to send in the darn forms. I have sat on a lot of Awards Committees.Both District Award of Merit and Silver Beaver. While I like to think that the "good-old-boy network". Doesn't exist, I do feel at times the committee can be taken in by the "Squeaky Wheel". While when selecting Silver Beaver recipients, I did take into account service to youth outside of Scouting, I never (rightly or wrongly?) took this into account for the District Award of Merit. I do feel that everyone who helps deliver a good program to the youth we serve is supporting the District. But worthy as a someone who works in the background might be. (Like a CC) I think it's understandable that a committee makes the award to people that they see doing things. We never really paid much attention to WB or Eagle Scout, but attitude did play a big part. Every year one unit would nominate all the leaders in the unit.The set up was the wife was COR but seemed to be in charge of what might be called a Pack? It was a mix of Cub Scouts and Camp Fire with meetings that mixed boys and girls. - I never really worked out what they were doing. They never attended any District event, participated in supporting the FOS or Popcorn sale. When I was District Commissioner I had to track them down and chase them to get the charter in. I looked at them as being a real pain. But.. Sadly the husband who was SM and his wife split up. Now the pack or whatever it was is gone and the Troop is down to less than 8 Scouts - So maybe in their own weird and wonderful way, they were supporting the District. Still at the time I felt it would be a very cold day before they ever got my vote. We have awarded the District Award of Merit to the guy who has served as our Community FOS Chair. He does a wonderful job, but I think he is the only non-program type we have ever awarded it too. Where as we have awarded the Silver Beaver to people who have donated large sums of money every year for many years. This didn't go over very well with the uniformed volunteers. I seen it as "Service to youth". One thing that has always puzzled me is when they read out all the accomplishments of some the recipients? The lists seem to go on and on. I often wonder how the heck do they find the time to fit it all in? Maybe I'm just a lazy toad!! Ea.

A little while back there was a thread about how much Scout Executives were being paid. Right now we have a new SE. I have only talked to him a few times. He seems like a very nice fellow and seems to want to put the Scouts/youth we serve on the front burner. The guy who just moved is not a bad fellow, in fact he is a nice guy. He just wasn't or at least didn't seem to be very good at anything! The Field Directors he hired? One was arrested and is serving time for sexually assaulting his son's girl friend. The other had his eye on being promoted and made sure he was by using every underhanded, sneaky way he could find. As you might guess I didn't like him and the idea he might one day become an SE does little to make me think that the system really works. Under our last SE, we seen membership not just decline, but plummet. We went from being in the black to not only being in the red, but after a very close inspection of the books found a line of credit that no one knew about. While I really don't know. I can't help but feel he got out when he did in July before whatever was going to hit the fan, hit the fan. Last week a SE who does follow what goes on in the forum, but doesn't post, E-mailed me to say that he thought I was being unfair. After giving it some thought. I can't help but think he is right. I did allow my dealings with a couple of damaged apples act as blinders. Just as in any walk of life we are going to find the good, the bad and if we are very unlucky the ugly. I think I know about a dozen Scout Executives. Of this dozen ten are really super nice hard working guys. I'm sure in these days when maybe? Scouts and Scouting isn't as attractive as it used to be and when just making payroll is hard. The life of a SE isn't always easy. I'm sure that at times making cuts and having to make decisions that they know are going to not be popular is tough and having to deal with people like me!! Isn't always easy. I was being very unfair. For that I'm sorry. Eamonn.

"Ya gotta wonder why threads are closed. There are valid reasons for some but others seem to be closed because a moderator just feels like it. Bet this one gets shut down. "This is a private community provided by SCOUTER Network and reserved for Scouting related discussions." Two people going head to head is not in my view a Scouting discussion. It was my opinion that the tone in that thread wasn't very nice and I didn't see any reason for the thread to continue. I take full responsibility for closing the thread and will add that I didn't talk it over with any of the other moderators. I'm more than happy to have us discuss the Forum and what changes if any? Are needed. I know Terry does look in from time to time, he of course has the last word on just about everything to do with the forum and he would have to approve any changes. Some of us were around when people got into it and exchanges were not so nice. I'll admit at times it was funny and even amusing, but it got real old real quick. In fact a number of people stopped visiting the forum because of it. All of us have good days and bad. At times someone will post something that really ruffles our feathers and we snap back at them. This doesn't just happen in the forum, it happens at meetings and even around the campfire. When we see it happening at meetings or around the campfire we can move on or quickly change the subject. But once it's posted here changing the subject becomes more difficult. Eamonn.

Please forgive me if this turns about to be about me!! Last week was a busy week for me. Monday we had a meeting planning what was going to happen over the next few weeks with the Ship and making plans to get the Scout who is attending SEAL prepared and ready for the course. He lives in the Council next door and has made it plain from the start that he hopes to return to that Council and with his Dad start a Ship. I don't know if this will happen or not? I hope it does, we have a wonderful program and I'd love to see more youth participate in it. Right now my focus is on serving this one Scout and helping him reach the goals he has set. Thursday was our Council Volunteer Recognition Dinner. Five Silver Beavers were presented, of the five recipients I had served on WB course for four and had invited three to serve on staff. I'll admit to feeling like they were very much my "Kids". None of them serve in the same District as myself, but all are great people who do a outstanding job for the Scouts in our area. This year in place of my FOS contribution to the Council I opted to donate a brand new LCD Projector. I stipulated it was for the use of the Council Training Committee. I did buy one for myself as the one I have is about the size of a 1953 Buick. I could have stipulated that it was for the District. But I feel it will do what I feel is the most good if it's used for Training. Friday I had to go to a funeral home the wife of OJ's SM had passed away after an eight year battle with cancer. She had served as Assistant District Commissioner Cub Scouts when I was District Commissioner. A truly wonderful Lady, a great Scouter who loved kids. She is the mother of three boys who all made Eagle Scout rank. It was she who gave me the "Roots and Wings" saying that I use so very often. Saturday the Scouts met at my house at 0600, to attend the Safe Boating course. Sadly it wasn't the best. Still the fellow who presented it was from the USCG- Aux. A volunteer, who really has a passion for water safety. I'll more than lightly never meet him again. We use people all the time and in some ways the payment for this is being used. I have "Invested" a lot of time and money in Scouting, mainly in the Council I serve. Right now the Ship and the Scouts in the Ship do come first. I have said that if the Ship doesn't make it, I'm going to take a break from Scouting. When I do, I'm going to print BP's farewell message and frame it - Just in case I forget what real happiness is!! Eamonn.

Lisabob Here is what I would do. Case one. - I'd call the Child Abuse Hotline. Cases Two and Three - Call the police. I would do this a Eamonn the person who lives in the area not as Eamonn the Scouter. As Eamonn the Scouter I would give the SE a call and voice my concerns that this woman should never be allowed to transport Scouts. I'd also give the COR a call. As I posted in another thread we have had to remove a Scout for fondling another Scout. Our DE tried to make this into a gay thing? My argument was that it was a case of inappropriate behavior. I didn't care if he had done it to a girl or a girl had done it to him. It just wasn't acceptable. Of course I kept the SE informed and in the picture, in keeping with the YP-Guidelines. As the Lad was also a member of a Boy Scout Troop I had to inform the CC of the Troop. My feelings were /are that the SE should have revoked the membership of this Lad. In fact I'm upset that he hasn't and his stand is that this is a unit problem. This Lad has some real problems, I feel he needs help. His parents are still upset at me? The BSA? The other Lad??? Maybe there is some sort of shame attached in admitting that he has a problem. While everyone hates to hear "This is not my job" I think I have done all I have to do. He is no longer a member of the Ship or the Troop and as such does not pose a threat to any of the youth members. I think I would inform the adults in any other unit he might try to join. He is only a project away from receiving (Not earning.) Eagle Scout. Should he join another unit and meet the requirements there?? I have asked that I be invited to sit on the BOR (We have District BOR's) and it just would never happen. I am very disappointed that a Scout Executive is unwilling to step up to the plate on something that clearly is a Scouting matter. I have to wonder if this is the case in a matter like this why would he act in any matter that wasn't clearly a Scouting matter. I just started a thread on "On Line Training" I strongly recommend that everyone (yes everyone takes or re-takes the training) Especially anyone who is presenting the Training's. A lot of times when we were given the wrong information to start with we just repeat it and in time we start to believe that it's there and that it's true. Of course this isn't done with any harm or ill-will intended it just happens. Very often at real live training's some one will come up with some goofy scenario!! Where maybe the correct answer is "I've never had to deal with that and maybe you should phone the Council Service Center to find out who has the correct answer" Sure it doesn't make the presenter look wise and wonderful!! But it sure beats furnishing bad, flawed or wrong information. Eamonn.