Eamonn

Ideal Troop? That sounds like a very tall order. I'm OK with the Vision Statement of the BSA: The Boy Scouts of America is the nation's foremost youth program of character development and values-based leadership training. In the future Scouting will continue to Offer young people responsible fun and adventure; Instill in young people lifetime values and develop in them ethical character as expressed in the Scout Oath and Law; Train young people in citizenship, service, and leadership; Serve America's communities and families with its quality, values-based program. But... I do think different groups or different people within a unit may bring their own vision to the table. When we started the Sea Scout Ship last year I really wanted to make sure we had a strong foundation. I wanted to make sure that we had a real working committee and a strong relationship with our CO. To this end I have really pushed more and more stuff on the committee, even though it might have been a lot less work for me to do the stuff myself. I have regular meetings with our COR and provide him with a written monthly report about what the Ship is doing and hopes to do. The Scouts keep a notice board in the club so that everyone can see photos and notes about the ship. At our first Quarterdeck meeting, we sat down and put down on paper some goals that we wanted to reach before the end of 2006, mainly membership, uniform, advancement and finance goals. After attending the Nygard Regatta and not doing very well the Petty Officers (Quarterdeck) decided that we needed to come up with a plan to do better next year. Because of my family situation, I have set a new goal to recruit more active leaders into the Ship. I think my vision for the Ship is and always will be Fun, Adventure and challenge. If I can help them achieve that all the other good stuff will fall into place. You need to use fairly broad strokes or you will end up tying yourself in knots. Eamonn.

Some years back we attended a Cub Scout parent and son weekend camp. The Assistant Cubmaster played a big part in having some of the Cub Scouts run a pair of underwear belonging to a Cub Scout up the Flag pole. I think most of us agree that this isn't and wasn't a very good example for the boys and was a fairly dumb thing to do. Sadly even after talking with him he failed to see that any harm had been done. He is now a Scoutmaster and the Troop is a fairly good Troop. Still he does at times things that just seem stupid. He is fully trained. YP Training seems to spend far too much time on sexual abuse. As we know from reading in this forum hazing is seen differently by different people. I'm all for us the adults making sure we don't place ourselves in situations which might leave us open to accusations. But for myself I don't ever see myself sexually abusing anyone. While I like to think of myself as being an easy going, nice fellow. There was a time about 20 years ago when a Lad really pushed it and the idea of bopping him on the nose seemed like a good idea!! I thank God that I was aware of my feelings and walked away, returning when I was better able to manage the situation. While we do this for fun, taking a group of kids away for a week or more can be very tiring and very stressful. I really wish that YP Training spent a little more time on that. While online training is a good thing, I fail to see how having anyone sit at their computer for an hour is going to help avoid situations like this one. Before Her Who Must Be Obeyed and I were married we took marriage classes, six weeks sitting in with a group of other's who were either getting married or just married. 24 Years later and I'm still learning. A few years back we were asked if we would present the class, I wasn't sure we were qualified. Our Priest said we were, but I learned so much from spending the time with the couples who were so much in love. This new parent/Leader seems like he wants to join in and have fun with the Scouts, having someone take him under their wing will do a lot more than any formal training. Eamonn.

I can't help but think if I had a dollar for every time I've opened my mouth and inserted my foot that I'd be a very wealthy man. Take the chap out for an adult beverage, find the right time to let him know that he has to be a little more careful about what he says around the kids. Explain to the Scouts that at times adults do say things that they ought not. I'm trying real hard to think where in any training this might be covered? But if the Committee insists on going ahead with whatever, that's up to them. I'd let them know my thinking and be sure not to attend any meeting. What can you add to the meeting? Stay home and watch the telly. Eamonn.

I think we were supposed to have them for lunch? (Everything closed early that day.) I tried: http://www.scouting.org/jamboree/pdf/67-145.pdf but the page isn't there -Someone must have eaten it. Eamonn

I got a little lost in the numbers. National likes to see one professional for every 1,000 youths served. How active the Scouts and Scouter's in a District are? Is a hard question to answer. A lot might depend on the geographic lay out of the District. Our District goes up a mountain, so in winter we tend not to see a lot of the people from that part of the District. While we might not have that many members we tend to have about the highest percentage of TAY in the Council, but the area is made up of a lot of farmland and a couple of State Parks. The Scoutmasters in the District are mostly people who have served as Scoutmasters for a very long time. Some for longer than that!! At times trying to motivate or get these guys excited about anything can be hard work. But to be fair a few of them run first rate programs and really have no need for the support of the District and are so busy providing a first rate program that they don't have time to do much else. Packs seem to suffer more from the "Peaks and Valleys" more than Troops do. Mainly because of the turnover of leaders. I heard last week that Pack 155, the Pack I was Cubmaster of is down to five Cub Scouts. When I left we had 65 Cub Scouts and it went as hight as 70+. At the Wood Badge course I directed we had five leaders from the Pack participate. Of that five only one is still active in Scouting. These were the people who participated in everything that came down the pike -Maybe they found that it was all too much? Cub Scout R/T are a lot more fun than the Boy Scout R/T meetings. When I looked out at our Boy Scout R/T meeting, I seen the Scouter's who had been there, done that and got the T-shirt and the Scouter's who were never going to do that, go there and didn't care about the T-shirt. Building a strong District Team is really hard. On one hand you don't want it to become the good old boys network, but you need people who will do a good job. Councils seem to want community people to fill the District Chairman position, this does help bring more money into the District, but if he or she knows nothing about the program or the people in the program the program will suffer. The turnover in DE'S is really hurting the program in some areas. Two years back I sat in on a meeting to do with Council Finances, Councils from all over the NE-Region were invited to bring their DE's. Of the over sixty DE's in the room over half had less than six months service in. I suppose we all do what we can, but when I was District Chairman I wouldn't ask a unit leader to serve on the District Committee. My thinking being that he or she had enough to do and if the role of the District is to serve the units we can't do that by taking away the key unit people. Eamonn.

Our Council has a 3 year term limit on Chairman positions. I think 3 years is not long enough!! It takes about a year to get a good understanding of what you are doing and a year to train the next guy, so that only leaves a year to get anything done!! Eamonn.

emb021 While I agree with most of what you posted, I do however think we need less crews and more Venturers. Eamonn.

In the past trying to get a good turn out for events even on the Regional level has been met with disappointing attendance. The new thinking seems to be events at the Area level. Our Area held a Quest weekend a few months back. The reports I got were all good. If you are looking for something really big you might want to think about Aussiemoot. http://www.aussiemoot.com/ Eamonn.

I have a fair amount of MSR equipment mostly stoves. I really like their stuff, but the price is maybe a little more than most units want to spend? Eamonn

I seem to remember that there was a plan for a patrol table in a past Jamboree Guide Book. I don't see these as camp gadgets. You might want to look at the Gil craft Books. Along with the writings of Rex Hazelworth and John Sweet. Eamonn.

Hey Beav, We fed our guys hot dogs when everyone got back to the site. Hot dogs. Fireworks. The President of the United States of America. For a minute I nearly lost my accent!! Eamonn.

As I say his mother is a friend of mine. She is an attorney who specializes in the area of adoption of kids from overseas. She adopted Mark. He is a bit of a handful and was suspended from school and now attends a military school. The project was approved by the SM at school. His Mom is active in just about everything that is going on, her family own the local bank. The Lad isn't home very much, so I don't see that he could be very active in collecting stuff. Anyway 105 pound isn't that much! While I really can't state for a fact who paid for the trip. I do feel knowing his Mom that she just wrote the check, she did for the 2007 Jamboree. Talking to her the idea of the orphanage and finding the one that got the stuff all came from her. Eamonn.

Help me out here. Am I the only one who doesn't think this is a good Eagle Scout Leadership project? I fail to see the leadership. The Lad is from our District and his Mom is a pal of mine. I'm glad that I will not sit in on that BOR. http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_466040.html By Marilyn Forbes FOR THE DAILY COURIER Monday, August 14, 2006 Mark Kiefer is working toward becoming an Eagle Scout. But the project he's doing to achieve that goal isn't typical. Kiefer, 15, of Scottdale, has opted to work on a project outside his neighborhood. In fact, the benefits of his work will be felt outside the country. The undertaking requires hours of dedication to a chosen service project. In order to complete the project, Kiefer traveled to Costa Rica, where he spent many hours helping at an orphanage with the Costa Rica Rainforest Outward Bound School. Kiefer said he was planning to attend a 15-day surf adventure course when the idea for his project was formed. "I thought that I could do something while I was there, so I inquired about any orphanages that were located there. I was going on the trip, so I thought that I could just kill two birds with one stone." Kiefer's work did not go unnoticed at the Aldea Infantil Save Our Souls Orphanage in Tres Rios. "They were really glad and happy at what I was going to do," Kiefer said. The orphanage housed more than 200 children, ranging in ages from 2 to 22. Prior to his trip, Kiefer gathered and packed 150 pounds of supplies, which he planned to deliver to the orphanage. But with new shipping regulations, only about 105 pounds made it to the children. "We packed toys and things like toothpaste and some medical items that were donated by several people and organizations," Kiefer said. Various medical and dental offices, family and friends -- as well as Troop 160 of Everson -- contributed to Kiefer's efforts. When Kiefer visited the orphanage, he helped out for several hours. "I did a lot of yard work and weeding. I cleaned and re-cemented steps, and I cut and maintained the soccer field. "It's a good feeling that I helped someone and other people that did not have the resources to do it," Kiefer said. Eamonn

"It now can take up to two weeks because our council now verifies the drivers license and insurance information." Please don't tell anyone but Councils do not have any way of verifying this. They rely on the person who signed the application. As we all know there are times when things change at the last minute, drivers change, different vehicles are used. Running a co-ed program does mean that we do need to ensure we have the right leadership. In our area there is so little offered to girls that Moms are overjoyed to see that at long last someone is doing something for the girls in the area, while most don't know anything about Scouting they seem happy to sign up as Committee members and tag along to make sure the rules are met. One sure way to get their attention is to let them know that unless a female does go along, no girls will be able to go!! Starting a new unit is never easy. Starting a unit for this age group seems to be harder than a pack or a troop. You only have to look at the attendance at school open houses to see that in grade school the parents are lined up, by middle school the lines are a lot shorter and by senior high you can go in and talk to the teacher for an hour or so!! Still the main reason why people don't volunteer is that we don't ask. Asking works best when it'd done face to face. I'm good at throwing letters away. Deleting E-mails and taking no notice of web sites, but when someone plonks his backside in my recliner and has an adult beverage that I paid for in his hand and makes a request saying no is a lot harder. Add the fact that I want my chair back!! When the Scouts see that you are going all out to make this work, they will use you as the example for their commitment. Up till now going out for a sail has held their attention, but the winter is coming and they are looking to you for leadership. Eamonn.

This thread surely isn't going where I'd hoped it might, but that's not new. GM donated the use of the vehicles for the Jambo. They also paid for the participants Jambo Passports. A good friend of mine was in charge of one of the Action Areas. While they tried to keep from using the vehicles during the Jambo during the time they were setting up the big trucks were used a lot. GM decided what cars and trucks they wanted to allow to be sent. They also offered the vehicles used at the Jambo for sale after the event. Sadly while the Jambo is a wonderful event. One that I'd love to see each and every Scout have the opportunity to attend. It is also a giant PR event. We can all question if the PR was good or bad? Those of us who were there didn't get to watch and hear what the early morning T.V shows were saying. I know I was irked. As a Troop who did attend the first "Show" (The Scouts voted to attend) We sat in the sun waiting. Sure enough Bill Frist, was allowed to give a speech in support of the Support our Scouts Bill recently passed in the Senate. It seemed he'd no sooner got the last word out when we were informed about the dangerous thunder storms that were coming -Boy them storms must have came out of no where and been fast moving. The Jamboree is also a good time to get a lot of meetings and leg work out of the way. I attended several meetings about the 2007 World Jamboree while I was at the Jamboree. These were held in the staff eating areas of one of the sub camps and not miles away in an A/C Motel conference room. I get a little annoyed about the events that are only open to James E. West and above contributers. Yes I did attend a couple and I was about the youngest person there!! So maybe they do help provide something for old time Scouter's who still want to support Scouting. Of course I don't see me as an old timer-Just yet!! Having the President attend the Jamboree is the icing on the cake for the BSA as far as PR goes. It's a nice photo call for the President as well. But trying to get 75,000 people into one place at one time and not ending up with major head-aches can't be easy. I was happy in 2001 with the video tape. I used copies of the tape for raising money. I'd be OK with sending a handful of Scouts to meet the president and having the tape shown.I'm unsure how well that would go over with the President or the BSA? Regional shows in place of the big Arena shows have been talked about. The 2005 closing show was about the most boring thing I have ever had to suffer, very much like waiting in the dentist's office. We only stuck it out for the fireworks. Maybe for 2010 we can talk Apple into donating I-pods to all the Scouts and the President and all the boring bits can be pod-cast to everyone? Eamonn.

After November the holidays will be here. Then there will be snow. Then Easter and Mother's Day Then track will start. I really do not want to sound unkind. I hope I'm not coming off like a pompous English twit. But... I seem to remember that you were the one pushing to start this Ship. You had the choice of two organizations that were willing to be CO's. Only a month or so back, you were so very proud that the Ship was up and running. As for: "SM training seems to be one place I can associate with Scouters who have the same passion for the program as I do." I'm sorry Dave this game isn't about you. REAL PASSION is in the delivery. So when you attend these training's are you going to tell the participants that passion for the Scouting program is all about hanging out with the adults? It seems to me that you are crying in your beer. Get off your duff, get out there and see about recruiting some more Sea Scouts. The Ship is far to new for the Sea Scouts to really understand that they have ownership of it. If you start fading away now, you might as well go back to the sailing club and inform them that this was just a bad idea and it isn't going to work and see if they want to inform the Council about closing the unit down. Sure you have hit a bump in the road, sure the kids are busy, sure it isn't going to be easy, but things worth while rarely are. Where to Commit? Come on!! You know the answer. Eamonn.

" I took out the spare to make more room!" " Did you get any on you?" "Don't put that on the .... fire" "Whats that white stuff on the dock? It's slippery" By the pelicans. "Hey Ea there's a gator over there!" "Who stole my underwear?" "Quick! Eamonn's coming!!" "I think he's gone!" "Hope you guys don't mind but I snore a lot" "What rain gear?" "I took it off" "I thought I'd tied a cleat-hitch!" "Quick the tides ..." "No!! Don't let go!!" "Everyones fine they are in the cabin watching the Robin Williams HBO special!!" "Did you mean true North?" "I woke and thought Gee I anit 'alf got sweaty feet" (Nicky Plummer who hadn't put his tent up correctly one rainy night.) Eamonn

Most of the stuff OJ had in his book bag seemed to end up in a big black hole along with his math homework. Eamonn.

Wow!!I'm so proud of myself!! I just read a posting by Beavah and not only managed to understand it!! But agree with it!! Dave You have to slow down a little. The Ship is how old? Two months?? Put all the stuff that happened in the Pack and in Boy Scouting in the history books. Looking back isn't going to do you or the Ship any good. Councils can require what ever they like. But don't let them intimidate you!! Fax the tour permit in when it's ready. What can they do? Late permits are better than no permits and they know that!! It takes the office staff less than 5 minutes to fill out a tour permit and fax it back. It doesn't take 2 weeks!! So they are unhappy!! Things WILL GET BETTER!! When we first started I took two (Yes 2!!) Scouts to the Safety At Sea Weekend. We went for a good while with a wonderful turn out for just about everything. But... Over the summer, we had guys on camp staff and family vacations, NOAC, and now we have HS band camp, football camp and the list goes on. The sailing weekend in Baltimore only had four Scouts sign up. The Scout in charge asked me what he should do? I pointed out that the boat was costing $200.00 for the weekend, gas would cost about $50.00, food would cost about $15.00 a head. I mentioned that we had planned renting a van for the weekend. So he send out an e-mail saying the weekend was canceled. Not long after a couple of Band parents called me to say that Band camp had been canceled!! Something to do with a new band director. I pointed out that the information about the weekend had been on the Group page since June 6. And that we couldn't take the chance of having the Scouts having to spend $80.00 each for a weekend that should have only been about $45.00. They of course said that they didn't know that Band Camp was going to be canceled. I said I didn't know either!! Eamonn.

Bearfootscout I'm a little confused -Nothing new there!! When you say " as far as the getting of new volunteers, should it be the COR's that get most of them. They know the people in their organizations." I'm guessing you are talking about having people volunteer at the District or Council level? While at times I will own up to being a bit of a book thumper. Even I have to admit that our great organization doesn't at times have all of it's ducks in a row. If everything went as it is supposed to went. Once a month each and every COR would kiss Mrs. COR good-bye and toddle off to the District Committee Meeting. (When I was District Chair COR Reports were an agenda item.) Sadly it seems that most COR's are not doing the toddling. Very few make it to the District meeting. (We had about 40 units, served by about 28 different CO's and even with post cards sent out to each COR each month we never seen more than six at a meeting!!) Of course if the COR was at the meeting and seen or heard that there was a soft spot he or she could suggest giving someone a call. Most of the time it falls on members of the Committee to go out and do a little arm twisting. Of course just like a Scout unit the bigger the committee the more recruiters you have and the more recruiters know more people and can cast a wider net. Every now and then someone will volunteer to do something. Sadly at times some people volunteer because they are upset about something and that person might not be the right person for the job. Finding a nice way of saying thanks but no thanks can be hard!! They say the best way to eat an elephant is one spoonful at a time, but if you have lots of people with spoons the elephant gets eaten a lot quicker and goes down a lot easier. I've never eaten an elephant, but the more people who are willing to take on responsibility for helping to get the job done right make thing go better at every level. Eamonn.

Hey SemperParatus Do you need a passport to get home? Eamonn.

As a little Lad I suffered from allergies and some sort of asthma. In fact I'm told I was a very sickly child. My Mother was worried about me going too far from home and wasn't going to allow me to attend summer camp that first year. The Troop I was in at the time wasn't that active, in fact it was near death. So not being very active was no big deal. When the Troop did die I transfered to what was without a doubt the most active Troop in the District. I was about 14 by this time. I know that if it hadn't been for the 17th, I would have ended up like a good many of my school pals - into drugs and sadly a couple of them ended up dead. We have no way of ever knowing what path the little Lad who joins the Troop will take. I have seen kids from good families start off really enthusiastic only to at some later date land in all sorts of hot water and become couch potatoes while little Mommies boys (Like me!!) turn out to be Scouts who are super outdoors men. Forget selective recruiting and put the effort into super programming. Eamonn

I do think and hope that lessons have been learned from 2005. Rehashing isn't going to move us to a positive future. I agree that we need to find a better way of preparing the Scouts we take. I'm just a little unsure how to go about it. Reading the threads on profanity made me smile. In 2001, we loaded the Scouts in air conditioned luxury buses at 3:00 AM. Arrived at Fort AP Hill at around 1:00 PM. The temperature was 104 degrees. After the medical checks and that good stuff, we unloaded a furniture removal van that had been sitting in the heat waiting for us. I don't know the temp inside of the van, but it was very hot. Then the fun started. The Scouts went about erecting the tents. Using wooden tent stakes. The ground was like concrete, the Scouts were really doing their best, they would get a stake about half-way and it would break! You bet some of the stuff I heard wasn't very Scout like. - I took plenty of No notice, in fact I had a couple of stakes snap on me and I had a muttering of Anglo-Saxon adjectives myself!! (Bad Scouter!!) This of course hadn't happened when we'd had the shake down in the Pennsylvanian mountains in May. When 2005 came around I asked for frame tents. The Council receives a grant for the tents and then adds them to the tents used at Summer camp. So they turned down my request. We did go to metal tent stakes. This made erecting the tents a lot easier and kept the profanity down!! Arriving a day earlier helped. We also got on the bus at midnight, which made a big difference. I'm not sure what can be done to prepare the Scouts we take for the heat? I know that I sent out a newsletter telling them that they needed to be in good shape and warning them of what conditions might be like. Still as a Jamboree Scoutmaster, I just don't have enough contact with the Scouts to really know how far along they are or if they are doing anything? The other thing we seem not to taking into account is that the age requirement was down from 14 to 12. The Scouts at the 2005 were younger than in past Jamborees. Eamonn.

Some time back I posted how much I'd like to see the Ticket part of Wood Badge moved to a little later in the course. It seems to me that as soon as the participants hear the word ticket everything else gets pushed aside. I really wanted the participants to understand what their vision and their mission was. Being the sly little Course Director that I was, when we handed out the sheets for the ticket items (goals) The top couple of lines on each page were set aside for the participant to write his vision and mission statement. While at times I do mix up the vision and the mission, I don't see it as fluff. Back when I became a District Chairman, it seemed that everyone in the District seemed to almost take pride in us being the smallest of the four districts in the council. I knew from the get go that I had 3 years to try and get done whatever I wanted to get done. My vision was for us not to be the smallest district. The mission was to improve retention, recruitment. This led to improving training,making district events more fun and trying to ensure that they were better planned. This led to us looking at communications and before we knew it we were back to the 11 leadership skills. I like to think of myself as being very much a "Program" type Scouter. I wasn't very happy being away from the youth members and sitting through meeting after meeting. Much as it might sound like I'm patting myself on the back!! (Yes I do have an ego!!) We did pull it off, we became the second smallest district in the council!! We have some of the most dedicated Scouter's in the world in the district. They all know the Oath and Law, their values are the values that are found in the Oath and Law. Once I shared my vision with them, the District Committee, the Commissioner Staff and the other members of the key 3 and they "bought" into it. We seemed to have a renewed purpose and life in the district. Commissioners would call me and tell me how well packs and troops were doing. Unit Leaders would stop me and tell me how many new Scouts they had. I sat looking at membership reports, looking at the weak units trying to find ways that we as a district could help them out and maybe help them grow. Fluff? I don't think so! Eamonn.

It was stated in another thread: "Units from a milder climate planning to travel to Virginia, should plan and train for it" " " Those who work/play in the heat every day are usually not affected by it." This makes a lot of sense. Having served as Scoutmaster for two Jamborees at Fort AP Hill ( with only one wasp sting.) I'm just a little unsure how I would go about it. The big thing that gets in the way is that Jamboree Troops are provisional Troops. For the 2001 Jambo. The first meeting of anyone interested was held in September of 2000. This meeting was for parents and Scouts. Deposits were paid and information was given. Regular monthly troop meetings started in October, but were canceled in Jan and Feb because of snow. The shake down was held in May. For 2005 we started a year earlier. This helped the parents with payments, but didn't do much for the training. Most of the Scouts attended Summer camp with their home Troop in the summer of 2004. With Scouts coming from so many different Troops going and coming from summer camp at different times, trying to organize and hold a camp out during the summer vacation didn't seem to be a viable idea. In fact trying to hold the interest of the Scouts for something that to them seemed so far in the future was at times difficult. Of course we do everything that can be done to impress upon the Scouts about the joys of the Virginia summer, staying hydrated. As part of the Jamboree fee we included a fanny pack with two water bottles. Sadly we were informed when we went to the first non-opening show that we were not allowed to take the water bottles. (We did anyway!!) On route to the real show we stopped to refill the water bottles and some twit informed me that we were holding everyone up and we needed to keep moving!! I left him with a flea in his ear and we left with refilled water bottles. When we had shirts made for the Jambo, we choose light colored high wicking material, for the shows the dress code was full scout uniform. OJ, was staffing a COPE course which was closed down. It was closed down by the military not the Boy Scouts. Scouts stood in line for some activities for a very long time. The lines were not in the shade!! This wasn't decided by the Scouts. All the Scouts who attend the Jamboree are supposed to be First Class Scouts or above, in 2005 I had 36 Scouts, not one could tie a tautline hitch. Scoutmasters who have Scouts attending events like the Jamboree really do have to take on some of the responsibility of ensuring that the Scouts from the unit they serve are prepared and ready for these events. Eamonn.