Eamonn

Ownership can at times be hard to work out. I own a fair amount of Scouting equipment which is mine. I use it, I maintain it and I can do whatever I like with it which might include allowing Scouts to use it. I have donated a lot of gear to Scouting (I'm thinking mainly of the Ship.) I no longer own it, while I might at times maintain it, I do so knowing that I don't have to and that it's my choice. There is a fair amount of Scouting equipment that is kept / stored on my property. Some it it is training equipment that is used by the district and was bought to be used by the district. Of course the district is an arm of the council so the stuff really belongs to the council. The Lodge is part of the council so if the gear doesn't belong to a person then it in fact really belongs to the council. In a perfect world everyone would know who owns what and this would be recorded somehow someway. In the case of the OA Dance Team maybe the individual owns parts of the regalia, but there are parts that belong to the lodge. When everyone is happy there really isn't a problem, but at times when someone gets upset things can get heated. Someone who has donated something, then wants to take it back. I can't help but think of a donated ax. The head has been replaced three times and the shaft twice, but the guy who donated it wants it back?? That seems silly, I know but when people get upset silliness tends to happen. Not to hijack the thread but if your using a OA Dance Team? Be sure to let them know how long you want them to dance. I invited our team many years ago to a B&G. Their dancing lasted a lot longer then the attention span of the Cub Scouts and their parents. Before they were done, about half of the people that had been there had packed up and gone home. Ea.

"Asking relevant questions, however politely, can get you red-carded" Not sure about the red card? Yellow? Maybe? What tends to happen is that someone waits till they are upset about something and any idea of "Politely" Goes out the window and then they make a fuss asking the wrong person. There a lot of really great people who are employed by the BSA at every level. Many if not most want to do a good job and do what is right. Still when it comes down to fixing something that we as a volunteer see as being wrong it is far better that we deal with it volunteer to volunteer. Don't go running to the DE or the SE. Use the system that is in place to get things sorted out. Ea.

Have been thinking why this would never happen where I live? The main reason is that the fees for events like the Jambo. NOAC, Summer Camp are set by the volunteers who sit on the committees that are responsible for these events. Of course the Council does have a representative sit on these committees, and there are costs that are set in stone. Still, the volunteers go out of their way to do what they can to keep the costs down as much as they can. For the Jamboree, someone on the committee knew someone who owned a trucking company that was willing to donate the truck and the trailer used to carry the equipment to and from the site. Someone else knew a bus company that was willing to provide the buses that got everyone to the site and the company only charged the cost of the drivers. For many years we had the same District Camping Chairman. He attended the Council Camping Committee meetings with the goal of keeping the increase as low as possible. Anyone who has ever tried to understand BSA budgets or financial statements will know that these just don't make sense. Salaries? Very often will include all the salaries that the Council pays, professional, office staff and camp staff. Repairs to equipment at camp? That might come out of the Council operating budget. Buying new or replacing equipment might come out of the capital budget. T-shirts for staff? Awards and promotions budget the same budget used to buy Silver Beavers. For a very long time no one had any real idea what the cost of anything was. At the District level, every year the District Key 3 was supposed to sign off on the budgets for all the District events. Most of the time the budget was based on what had happened last year. In ten years as a Key 3 member these were never right, all of them were wrong. I was informed that the District had lost almost $2,000 on last years Webelos Woods. The break down of where we'd lost all this was very impressive. Sad thing was that we hadn't offered Webelos Woods for the past five years. The Day Camp budget showed that we'd paid $2,300. for a water tap in fee. Day Camp was at the same place for the past 15 years. A local Grange who donated the use of the site and never charged us for anything. So every year I'd note what was wrong and fax it all to the Council Treasurer, normally about 40 pages. The guys who sat on the Camping Committee used this mess to their advantage. Every year they would come back to the District Committee meeting and report how they had managed to keep the increase of the cost of summer camp down to $5.00 or $10.00. The truth was that this number was just a number taken out of the air. No one knew what the cost of camp really was so of course no one knew what the increase ought to be. It wasn't until the Council faced a massive financial crisis that we managed to get any numbers that had any real meaning. BSA accounting and financial reporting is terrible. It makes no sense and at times does seem to be more about confusing everyone more than anything else. We the volunteers are not dumb. We understand that there isn't any such thing as a free lunch. If everything is open, transparent and above board we for the most part will support it and as volunteers we are of course willing to pay our own way. But also as volunteers in a volunteer organization we have a real responsibility to ask questions, get the facts and decide what's fair. This isn't about being a pain in the neck or any sort of "Them or us". It's about doing what's right and protecting what we have not just for ourselves but for the generations of kids who will follow. It seems to me that if a Council is so hard pressed for money that it is willing to upset and make the volunteers mad that it has a big problem. We the volunteers are the Council so we need to find out the reason why it needs to be asking for funds this way? We need to be willing to work at fixing the problem. No matter what, it does mean that doing nothing is not the answer. Ensuring that we have the representation at District and Council meetings and having our representatives ask the right questions and report back is the first step. Ea.

I do think that some people are born with a natural talent. Maybe everyone is? Tiger Woods seems to have a natural talent for playing golf. Still it didn't hurt that his Dad put a club in his hand at the age of three. I wonder what might have happened if his Dad had forbidden him from ever playing golf? I never played a game of golf until I was in my early thirties. I'm terrible! But I'll never know if I might have been better had I started as a three year old. Up until a few years back, I never really thought of Leadership as being a skill you could really learn. I was of course aware that some people had it, but I never really gave much thought of it being something you could develop. I think maybe part of this was that back home in England many of the admired leaders were from the upper classes. Working class people never got that many opportunities to lead other than when they were rebelling against something. Back when I was a Scout, the Patrols were mixed age Patrols. If possible the Patrol that you joined was the Patrol that you stayed with. There wasn't any elections or that sort of thing. Most of the time it came down to age, when the older guys left you moved up. Some Lads were far better at being the P/L then others, some took to it like a duck to water, while others kinda grew into it. Ea.

What a shame. Most of us know and are aware that Councils do need funds. We can maybe disagree about how the funds are used and spent. I've done my fair share of raising money. Asking the average Scout family for money is really a waste of time! I put it up there with trying to teach a pig to sing. While there are exceptions to every rule, I'd guess that most families with kids in Scouting: Have kids (Duh!) Have a mortgage. Have other fairly large expenses like car payments. More than lightly don't have a lot of extra cash. So I'm going to pester them for a donation. Some years back I asked for a report that showed who had donated to FOS over the past ten years. At that time the computer in the Service Center printed reports on a long continues rolls of perforated paper. The report was several inches thick. I started looking for people and businesses that had given over $5,000. The list was very short. In fact the list of people who had donated over $1,000 wasn't very long. I looked at the local businesses in the area where I live and noticed that while there was a lot of support (Names.) Most of the local businesses hadn't increased their donation in the ten year time span. Looking at the Family donations. -It became very clear that in a good many units, the bulk of the donations were coming from the people who were members of the BSA. There was a fair number of small donations, under $50.00 that people made when they had sat through a FOS presentation. People who donated over $100.00 were making pledges, paying so much a month. I'll bet by the time these pledges were processed and reminders sent that there really wasn't a lot left of the $100.00. The main job /role of a SE is to bring home the bacon. A good SE will be looking for grants, will have mastered the fine art of Grant Writing. He will be at ease asking corporations and wealthy people for real money. As District Chairman I invited a fair sized group of local business people and other people who I knew had large amounts of money to come and have dinner with me at Camp while summer Camp was up and running. I asked a couple who I knew had money and were keen on supporting Scouts and Scouting if they would be willing to donate $10,000 they did. I asked everyone else to look at what they had given in the past and if they'd consider donating at the $5,000 level, not very many did, but businesses that had been donating at the $100.00 for the past ten years increased their donations. No one left that night without a pledge of less than $500.00 a good many went to the $1,000. When we were talking about building a new dining hall at camp, I asked one very wealthy person who has a history of giving if he'd donate $250,000. He said yes. But then the plan for the dining hall went south and the donation was lost. Rather than upsetting and making our hard working volunteers upset for what really isn't a lot of money. We would do far better to go where the real money is and find ways to draw these people in and gain their support. I'd sooner ask someone who can afford a worth while sizable donation for money than waste my time upsetting someone for a small amount. Any SE who isn't raising enough money to cover his salary? Is just a big drain on a Council and should be replaced. Ea.

The family of HWMBO were one of the families that played a big part in settling the little town near where we now live. Take a drive through town and you will pass the public park that is named for her family, pass the school that was also named for her family and you can drive down a avenue that also bears her family name. One of her Grand Aunts died, maybe it was a great Grand Aunt. She was almost 100 years old and had lived in the house where she died since she was left it by her parents, who got it from their parents. Everything in the house was old. There was an auction. Some paintings of the family came up for bid. They went for more than I was willing to spend. HWMBO was very upset that some stranger bought the paintings. Her feeling was that they were family paintings and they should have remained in the family. I'm not sure who bought them, why the person wanted them? But while I'm not brave enough to say it out loud I was kinda happy that he did. The idea of having some stoic gent who looked like he might have been a constipated member of the clergy looking down from my walls at me for a very long time, didn't fill me with joy. If she hadn't bought a very ugly looking blanket type box and a big old clock, she could have bought the paintings. Isn't this very much like these patches? The guy who is selling them might not see them as anything other than merchandise, something that has no real meaning other than that it might make him a dollar or two. At the sale I went to with HWMBO the family bible was also sold to a stranger. What he is going to do with it or why he wanted it? I have no idea. But he was willing to bid more than anyone else so he now owns it. God Bless Him. Ea.

It's strange how at times something that is and has every intention of being well meant and helpful can end up really getting on your last nerve! Back when I first attended WB, I swear that if one more person had said "Check your resources!" I very well might have punched him on the nose. Could it be that a true Natural Born Leader can see and identify resources better than others? A long time back, I remember reading about the Brits exploring Africa. The Expedition Leader was most of the time a wealthy Englishman, who hired a group of natives as guides. Again most of the time, there was one native who was the leader of the natives. This native leader was of course able to speak English. I never worked out how come? Bit being able to communicate with the natives and the English expedition leaders gave this guy a big heads up. The Native Guide also knew the lie of the land, where the water was, where the places to avoid were. He also knew the best places to hunt. He took care of the lighting the fires and the cooking. All of this has me wondering. Who really was the true leader? The Englishman because he was using his resources? Or the Native Guide? Without whom the English guy would have either been eaten by a lion, fallen in quicksand or died from thirst or starvation? Wasn't the guide a real example of servant leadership? Even if the guide didn't share in the same vision as the Englishman? Ea.

I wonder... What are the feelings of the youth members? What BP might say? Ea.

Thanks to this forum, last week I started thinking about natural born leaders. About the same time I received an email from my team leader at work, telling me that in July I have to present a four hour training for the entire team. The team is a very small team which should have eleven members but one guy is on deployment with the military and one is off work with a broken leg. We have one guy who has a PhD. He isn't the team leader but seems to be the go to person in the team. He is a department head, a super nice guy and is the most experienced team member, not only because he has the most time in, but has had to deal with more real world situations than anyone else. I think that I'm the oldest team member but I'm the newest member on the team. We are a special team that is called on when needed to deal with hostage negotiation. Team members are selected by the team and undergo a fair amount of training and have to attend eight hours of training every month. We are on call 24/7. There are a lot of procedures, policies that are laid down by the department which are supposed to be followed. In a real world situation our team is one special team of four. The other three are armed teams. As you can imagine communication is very important for us. We do have a team and assistant team leader, but when we train we cross train so that any team member can take on any role that is needed. Back to last week. Thinking about natural born leaders got my little gray cells working. On one side I thought about the team and how could and should all have the ability to be able to lead. On the other side I thought about situations where the bad guys are following their leader. It seemed to me that while I like to think that I know about Leadership Skills, for the most part I'd never given a lot of real thought to the make-up of the natural born leader. Of course over the years I've met both youth and adults who have the stuff it takes to be natural born leaders. But I wanted to find out more about what this "Stuff" is. I found a book that is titled The 108 Skills of Natural Born Leaders by Warren Blank. I bought it and read it. Sad to say, while there is enough in the book that if I wanted I could use for the four hour training that I have to present. Most of it is the same old same old leadership jargon that I've already read in other books on leadership. The book did very little that had anything to do with what I's call real natural born leaders or leadership. While I was reading this I was also reading the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. (I'm just starting on the third book.) While of course this is a work of fiction, I found a lot more about what the stuff it takes to be a natural born leader in this book than I did in 108 Skills of Natural Born Leaders. While I'm not saying that no good comes from reading some of the Leadership books that are out there. I do think that trying to make leadership into a product that can be sold as a package is fast becoming something that is way over done. Overdone almost to the point that finding anything worth while is becoming really hard. Eamonn

Ehink that I'm kinda lucky. There isn't a lot of Eamonns around. Add that to the fact that most people who have met me tend not to forget me. I don't have much use for titles, but of course if I were ever knighted I'd use the Sir Eamonn! Ea.

I've had my fair share of moans and groans. There has been stuff at the local level that has really set me off. Stuff that comes down from the powers that be that sometimes makes me think that these guys have no idea what the heck is going on. I don't think no matter what anyone says or posts that I'm ever going to be a fan of Venturing in its present form. I think LFL is a bit of a joke. But.. I do still believe that the kids who join Scouts are better for having been Scouts. If you feel that Scouts and Scouting has become a parlor game, then it's up to you to ensure the program that is offered really does challenge the Scouts that you lead. It's not hard to put Advancement on the back burner and take on new and exciting challenges just because they are new and exciting. There is no rule that says that the activities of the past can't be reused. The Action Centers at the 2005 Jamboree kept count of the number of Scouts who visited and participated in each activity. - The activity with the most visitors was the Buckskin Games! When I posted "Local level" I was thinking about the Council. But there is nothing to say that a Troop that feels the Council is not helping or supporting them or worse still is getting in the way, can't tell the District and the Council in a very nice way to go and pound salt. The real BSA is all of us. Mostly volunteers who do what we do because we like kids and think that we maybe can help them. Sure I've met and had to deal with a few twits, but these twits are far outnumbered by really good people who not only care but are for the most part great fun to be around. To be fair, I've never been a member of any other youth organization. I wish them all the very best. Heck I even wish Venturing the very best! LFL? Maybe not so much! Ea.

While the IH is not always a member of the BSA. The organization that he leads has signed the charter agreement. http://www.scouting.org/filestore/membership/pdf/524-182_web.pdf Ea.

What is the Scoutmaster's biggest responsibility? A good SM trains the youth leaders. He trusts them and lets them lead. Of course the SM has other responsibilities, but training the youth leaders and allowing them to put their training to good use tops all the rest. I've known some great guys who were wonderful at training but just were never able to let go and allow the Scouts to lead. The Scout Law is truly a wonderful thing. But if it is going to be more than just lip-speak, we have to give our Scouts opportunities to put them fine words into action. If we want a Scout to be trusted we need to trust him and so on. The other main job the SM has is to be the first one up and have the coffee on!

The correctional facility where I work is for adult males only. I have never worked with young offenders or juveniles. I work with guys who have been convicted of everything from murder, rape, child molestation and drug dealing along with just about every other crime you can think of. While I don't have any hard numbers at hand. The largest group in our jail are young African-Americans. Many are young (Under 25) and a lot of these guys come from Philadelphia. A lot of them are in for dealing drugs. Many lack any sort of real education, belong to a gang (Bloods and Crypts are the biggest gangs.) Talking with these guys,a lot of them say that they have been on the streets selling drugs since they were 11 or 12 years old and the income that they received was the only income they had. Many come from broken homes. Dad was never around. So the gang became a very big part of their life and who they were. Sometimes these guys show me photos of their kids. Great looking little kids. But I sometimes wonder how long before these great little kids follow in the path of their Father's? Dad isn't around, all too often the raising of these kids is left to a Grandmother. So any idea of a male role model is out the window. How long till these kids join the gangs and start pushing dope on the street? How long till they end up in trouble with the law? I'm not daffy enough to think that we can save the world or fix all the wrongs, but wouldn't it be great if we could help a few? Ea.

What do they want? I think it's a little like asking them what do you want to eat? Some kids will devour almost anything that you put in front of them, some will choose a favorite food, but even then if they get too much of it, will ask for a change. Some are lazy little toads and will live on a diet of pop-tarts. Younger Scouts will want to learn how to do the basics, while older Scouts want to take on new adventures and new challenges, but will very often fall back on things that they know that they can do or visit places that they have been. There very well might be a place for these lazy weekends, but my feeling is that if this was all that was offered it would get old very quick. Some Scouts may have a interest that might not fall into the program that is normally offered. I had a Lad who was really into fossils, he organized a Patrol Camp to an area where he knew there were a lot of fossils, the other members of the Patrol while not into fossils were happy to go along and help him find and dig for these. The Patrol learned a lot about fossils and had a great time camping. I know very little about fossils and have no real interest in them, but I did my bit to help and support this Scout and the Patrol. I've had Scouts who were ready to quit Boy Scouts join a Ship and while they knew nothing about Sea Scouting, sailing or the like have found that they really like the Sea Scouting program. Ea.

I've been around Scouts for a good while. A lot of the Lads were kids that came from not so good areas and might be kids that today are described as at risk. At risk to end up on the wrong side of the law. I have has to deal with my fair share of Scouts fighting. Most fights last less then a couple of minutes and if one person manages to land a good punch, it's rare. I've had to deal with a group of Scouts who shoplifted while visiting stores in Ireland, a long way from home. So far, to date I have never called the police. I have been in juvenile court more than a few times to talk on behalf of Scouts who have got caught breaking the law. Most times for very minor crimes. While I'm sure that there are some cases that leave no alternative but to involve the police. - I think myself lucky that I've never been put in that situation. There have been Scouts that I know who have taken drugs. I've talked with their parents and tried to have them get the help that they need. I think if they had been selling drugs to other Scouts? I might re-examine how I'd act. Most of the time removing the Scout from where ever we are at, allowing a little time to pass and then having a heart to heart with the Lad and his parents seems to have worked for me. Ea.

"Ban cell phones from your program and you don't have to deal with the problem. " Digging a hole and sticking your head in it, might seem to make the problem go away. But when you take your head out of the hole, the problem is still there. Most of the young people over the age 12 now have cell phones. I very much doubt if their parents can say that they don't know that their kid has a phone, as chances are they more than lightly bought it and help pay the bills. Troops can of course ban cell phones at Troop and Scouting activities, but when it comes to what we are looking at here, banning the use of phones doesn't fix anything. We the adults need to teach our kids and educate them. If and when we stop looking at these cells phones as some sort of a toy and start looking at them as a tool, we will all be better off. A idiot might stick a butter knife in an electrical outlet. The idiot might get hurt. Do we ban butter knives? Of course we don't. Taking the time to teach our kids that taking naughty photos is not a good idea, telling our kids that if they ever receive such a photo that they need to delete it ASAP and not forward it to 199 of their best friends will also go a very long way to prevent any trouble. Ea.

I have never been part of a Troop that has offered anything like this. In part because I've steered the PLC away from it. At summer camps we have had times away from camp to visit local attractions and fun places like amusement parks. Also at summer camp there is as a rule time for Patrols to hang out, and use the free time time as they like from after the evening meal till before the night time activity. Not every weekend is planned to be active from dawn to dusk. We have had fishing weekends where Scouts fish till they get fed up and then go off and do their own thing sometimes hanging out with me as I don't fish. Ea.

About a year or so back Sexting made the headlines. There was a story about it on the CBS Sunday Morning show. The story wasn't so much about Sexting as a crime but how unreasonable the punishment was. Clearly the laws on the books had not kept up with the times and hadn't taken into account modern technology. Not long after, here in PA someone brought a bill to the house that would change the law. - I'm not sure what happened? While I do think that people who deal in child pornography need to be punished and we need to protect our children from child pornographers. It did seem that the laws on sexting just didn't fit the crime. I do have an issue with : " But that's only because some prosecutors and law enforcement officials (there are always some...) haven't been rational about it." While I see this sexting thing as something foolish that some young people do. I also think that law enforcement officials are bound to do their job when a crime is reported and that prosecutors also need to do their job. We don't pay the police and the prosecutors to be rational, we pay them to follow and enforce the law. There have been cases where a girl has sent her boy friend a photo which very quickly is passed around to a very large number of people in the area where she lives. This in turn has led to the girl being teased and made fun of and the girl has killed herself. Sure this is the odd case, so while sexting can look like a victim-less crime, something which most of the time is seen (Even by me) As not much more that a foolish teenage lark, it can and sometimes does have far reaching consequences. The speed that a photo that is texted and the number of people who can receive it can be mind boggling. Ea.

Hi shortridge I'm not taking a side (Yet!!) I'm a little curious. If the PLC said that they wanted a " sluggishness" Weekend and you were the SM. What would you do? Ea.

Several Troops in my neck of the woods have what they call "Free Weekends". While the Scouts do pay to cover the costs the Free bit is all about the Scouts being free to do what they like. Some bring cards or board games, some bring computers and video games. Most of these weekends are offered in the winter using a cabin and the adults take care of cooking and preparing the meals. Some Scouts do play in the snow (If there is any.) Some just go for a walk with a few pals. These weekends are very popular. I've talked to some of the Lads who have attended these weekends. While I will admit that I very well might be guilty of hearing what I want to hear and maybe of asking leading questions. Most of the Scouts see these weekends as being fun, but they feel that they don't get that much out of them. Again thinking like the old fuddy-duddy that I am. It seems to me that without some sort of a challenge, even the most popular activities grow old fast. So what do your Scouts like to do? If it falls outside of the "Normal"?? Scouting activities are you open to it? What activities that the youth have said that they want to do have you put your foot down and said no? Ea.

I keep trying to go but... A week or so back I made up my mind that I was not only going, but gone. I hadn't send my money in to re-new my membership. In fact being as I was a District Member At Large and the District had been done away with. I seen myself as unemployed. I sent a email to my good friend who had been the District Chair. Saying that I couldn't see myself doing very much, that I'd still buy a table at the Council Dinner and if he knew anyone that needed uniforms to give them my number and they could have them. He emailed back saying that he'd paid my membership fee and I was still a member at large and he needed my help on a nominating committee. Over the past seven years or so I have cut back a lot. A lot of the time I'm really sad to see how things are going, but at the same time I know that I'm unwilling to do anything about it. I still have 4 sail boats on my property, I still have a lot of pioneering equipment and still have a lot of land that Scouts could if they want camp on. I don't say very much about the job others are doing or trying to do. My thinking is that if you can't say something nice, it's better to just not say anything. Of course if someone asks for help, I do my best to be of service. Still unless my son gets married and has a son, I think my days of being active are done. I don't mind writing a check now and then. If invited to a ESCOH, I try to attend. I don't attend WB feasts - I don't see my being there adds anything. I'm kinda busy with a few other organizations that are a million miles away from anything to do with Scouting. I've also got out of the habit of rushing out to attend meetings that a lot of the time are just held in order to say that a meeting was held. Ea.

Many years back (10 or may 12?) I was on staff for NCS Cub Scout Day Camp. Back then you needed to have both the Program Director and the Camp Director attend. This was changed. Now only the Camp Director need attend. Some of the Standards may seem silly, depending on where your day camp will be located. It's worth remembering that these Standards are National Standards and there can be a vast difference between a Day Camp held in the city park of a well to do area and the camp held on a area of scrub land in the back of beyond. The Mandatory Standards are very important and I for one wouldn't advise ignoring them. If the camp has been held at the same site/place for a number of years and good records have been kept, dealing with a good number of the standards isn't that difficult. NCS isn't cheap! The certification was good for 3 years. -I don't know if this is still the case? But sending one or two people (Normally a new DE will be sent!) Can blow a big hole in the camp budget. Also there tends to only be very few times a year when it's offered. When I was on staff the course was at Heritage Scout Reservation and we had participants from all over the NE-Region, people coming from as far away as Maine. With this in mind, the District Committee might have reasons for not changing things. It's very easy for people to say or post "She has to go!" However true this might be removing someone who serves at the District level is not always an easy task. Someone has to do the removing. As a rule (But not always!) The person who did the "Hiring" is the person who does the removing. (Fire is never a good word in a volunteer org.) If the District Committee has an Activities Committee the Activities Chair, might be the person, but in most cases it will fall on the District Chairman. District Chairs are at times strange animals. I wasn't selected because I knew anything about Scouts and Scouting, I was selected because of my connections to the business community. Some District Chairs, while they support the ideals of Scouting, know squat about real world Scouting. If you read the job description , District Chairs don't need any knowledge of program. Maybe the best Eagle92 can do is have a chat with the District Chair and explain his side of the story. -But that's about it. What happens next is really out of his hands. For a number of years we had a woman who was en ployed as the Resident Cub Scout Director. Back then Cub Scouts camped by Den, that is we had a Wolf Camp, a Bear Camp, A First year Webelos camp and a Second Year Webelos Camp. Each camp had a volunteer program director and they each did a really outstanding job. But this woman was just really hard to get along with. - Things were very much her way or the highway. I attended one Cub Scout Resident Camp sign-up meeting. She had a 68 book of rules and stuff that she had photo-copied for each pack, which I thought was over the top, but when she started to read it page by page, line by line. I wanted to get together with the other Cub Scouter's and form an escape committee. This was Feb and the camp wasn't till summer!! The word flexible wasn't in this ladies vocabulary. I over the years seen her send Cub Scouts home for not having the right paper work. I watched as she be littled adults in the dining room. She was on one heck of a power trip. She was also in charge of our Parent /Son weekends. These weekend were run by volunteers. With five weekends and four Districts each District took a weekend and one weekend each year one District got stuck with two. She arrived one year at a weekend that the volunteers from the District I served were running. She was a right royal pain in the neck. She managed to upset everyone. Even me!! Which is kinda hard. Our District volunteers were ready to walk and swore that they would never volunteer for another parent/son weekend. I met with the Council Camping Chairman. I didn't hold back. The next year she wasn't hired to work at any of the Cub Scout camps. The camps went on, the Cub Scouts still went to camp. When I was looking for someone to serve as Scribe for the WB course I was CD for, I knew from the get go that she was the person that would do the best job. So I asked her and she said yes. She did a outstanding job and we are good friends. Having said that, I'd hate to see her back as the Cub Scout Camp Director. Ea.

As of course you are aware sending someone to NCS isn't cheap. When does the certification run out for this person? How well run /organized is the District Committee? How involved is your COR? I'm kinda guessing that you know already how to do things by the book. That is you and anyone else from your unit that feels upset should contact the COR and the COR should waddle off to the next District Committee meeting. The District Committee will then decide what action (If any.) That they want to take or not take. Then it's up to you and the others to decide what you are going to do. Or not do! Of course not all District Committees are that strong or do things by the book. Very often things like this end up just being dealt with by the Key 3. But either way once you report it, be it by having the COR attend the District Meeting or by you talking with the members of the key 3. You have done your bit. Allow them to do their's. It might be that you might not like what they do or don't do! Then as a person you decide to support or not support the District. But as a member of the District Committee? You either quit the committee or do the right thing and go with what ever it is they decide. Wearing too many hats can have its drawbacks. As District Chair I at times was part of decisions that upset some people, while at the same time made other people happy. I however did expect members of the committee to go along with the decisions made by the committee. Even if they didn't agree. It comes down to loyalty. They can argue for one side or the other, but once the committee has decided, committee members are honor bound to go along with the committee. You really need for th COR to step in. Ea.

I don't know hardly anything about copyrights. Used to think that if I used something that was covered by the copyright laws and made mention of who owned the copyright I was in the clear. Seems thats not the case. I really don't want to cheat anyone out of anything that's rightfully theirs. My only run in with these laws was when I wanted to copy the video parts of the movies for Wood Badge. The fellow in the video store wasn't very keen on making the copies, but when I explained that I was paying to show the movie clips he had a change of heart. Also ran foul of the law when one jamboree patrol wanted to be the umper-lumper Patrol. I sent off and had 50 patrol patches made. Then the company who made them said that we couldn't use them. By then it was too late, I had given them out and most of the Scouts had them sewn on their shirts. So as not to alarm anyone, I just kept my big mouth shut! I went wild a few weeks back and bought a new blue-ray disk player from Amazon it is really neat. It makes a wireless connection to my Internet router where I can if I want download movies from Net-flicks and Amazon movies and TV. Had to laugh, after years of moaning and groaning about there being nothing on TV but re-runs and repeats, now they want to charge me for watching them. I can't remember the name of who it was? But I do remember them charging me for having a juke box in the bar. I owned the juke box, I bought and paid for the CD's. Yet they said I needed to pay for the rights to play them. I tried to argue that I'd paid any thing that might be owed when I bought the CD's. This argument didn't hold water and I ended up paying about $375.00 a year. You win some and you lose some. Ea.