Eamonn

Dano, Thanks. But it's a good job that you can take London out of the boy. I'd either be very poor or a really good swimmer!! Eamonn.

Yo! Beavah dude, Dat "register the graveyard." ain't no way man!! Just ain't cool. Dis is da kinda stuff da got da big time stink last year man. When you is building somfink awesome to start wid you have no need for transgression. So when the Man comes there will be no, no doom. Eamonn.

Hi Dano NE-regional will be conducting National Camping Schools for Climbing and Rappelling at: Camp Squanto Scout Reservation, Plymouth MA June 10 -16 Massawepie Scout Reservation Tupper Lake NY June 17-23. Hope this helps. But why if you are from Phoenix AZ. Would you want to attend a NE-Region School? Eamonn.

http://www.cngei.it/eng/cngeng1.htm Hi Angeles Welcome to the forum. Try the site above it might have some things that you could use -It's in English!! Eamonn.

I really wish that all of our numbers were based on rechartering numbers plus the numbers that new units bring in. It wasn't a great year for the NE-Region In December 2004 Total Traditional membership was 609,582. In December 2005 Total Traditional membership was 570,635 A loss of 38,947 (-6.4%) It seems that we lost: 22,073 Cub Scouts (-6%) 8,243 Boy Scouts(-4.2%)and Varsity Scouts(-3.3%) 8,631 Venturers (-19.5%) I don't know what is going on in Venturing?? To lose 19.5% of the members, when we are only reaching such a small number of the total available youth? The other number that stands out is the Tiger Cub down from 54,566 to 49,334 a loss of 9.6%. I know that there was great hopes for Tiger Cub recruitment. Sadly it doesn't seem to have worked. Of course given time these low Cub Scout numbers will filter through to the other programs. We can squawk all we want about not wanting to see Councils sell off assets but if we don't get a firm grasp on our membership numbers and do something to turn them around things will only get worse. I don't think we can blame National or the Councils for the decline in membership. We are the sales team, we are the delivery team, we are the recruiters. Before we take a name off a charter please give the Scout or his parents a call and invite him back. Eamonn.

While I don't think anyone is going to do any arm twisting, in order to make the Troop take on membership that it feels would be unmanageable. I am a little bewildered. How many Scouts do you think would want to join if you went with a "Come on down" open door policy? It would seem to me that one sure way of not attracting new leaders would be to turn Scouts away. While I don't want to sound unkind, please believe me when I say that each and every unit goes through peaks and valleys. So while the Troop might well be riding the crest of the wave today, the time will come when it will be down in the valley. The only sure way that I know of delaying the slump is to keep plugging away on membership. It would seem to me that the Troop has a golden opportunity to strengthen not only the number of youth served (Which is why we do this in the first place.) But to reach out to a new set of adults who can be selected to serve as leaders and committee members. Of course you haven't given very many details. Maybe if you already have 100 Boy Scouts in the Troop, you really can't accept any more? Having spent some time working on the District level, I know that I would be doing everything that I could to get a new Troop started ASAP and who knows maybe some of the Lads you now have would want to go there? Eamonn.

I'd like to thank the NFL their support of British music. Last year we had Sir Paul and this year the Stones. I'm a little unsure if it's the music or the quality of the stitching that the NFL really likes? Eamonn

Boy do I need to take my smart pills!! I didn't read the other thread?? I thought we were talking about the Lord Of The Rings!! If this wasn't a family friendly site I think I might have said that I'd had a brain ...... Thanks to to the magic of Hollywood and the special effects that seem to blow my pea sized brain, it seems that in many ways that we are not sure what is real and what isn't. I get a sick feeling in my stomach when I see some images come on the screen. Seeing images of kids starving in Africa and India just rips me up. The films taken of the Nazi concentration camps, almost make me lose faith in my fellow man. How could anyone do this to another person? The footage of what happened on September 11 in New York, along with the terror attacks in Spain and England make me feel much the same way. How can people do this sort of thing. I'm too young to have been around during the first and second world wars. I do remember the images of Vietnam on the BBC and it seemed that over in England at that time the feeling was that the Americans were guilty of some really nasty stuff. I can't remember where I was or what I was doing the day JFK was shot, I do remember watching the funeral. The other week on the Discovery Channel they tried to put together all the photos and film footage that had been taken the day he was shot, they played and replayed the assassination. It was too much for me. I remember watching the first moon walk and years later I bought the 45 rpm record at the Air and Space Museum. I do of course know where I was and what I was doing on September 11. Without wanting to show any disrespect to anyone. I do feel shocked, I do feel saddened and my heart goes out to all the families that lost family members. But I also find myself standing on awe of just how brave and how selfless some people were on that day. If watching the towers come down reminds us just how brave the people who rushed into the towers were, it is worth seeing the footage again and again. Eamonn.

We see " to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes" a lot. What do you do to make this work? Eamonn.

Owl62, I had forgotten about the cord that runs through the sleeves!! Back when I was a little fellow my Mum used to do that with my gloves!! Now my jacket has Velcro at the cuffs and the gloves also have Velcro. The system works or would work if Rory didn't think that I hang the gloves for his entertainment. Thinking of that silly cord brought back some very fond memories. Thank You Eamonn.

Much as I'd sooner watch a good soccer match (Chelsea or Fulham ) Attend the All Ireland -Go Meath. Watch a rugby game. Fall asleep on a village green on a sunny Sunday afternoon watching the locals play cricket. I will watch the game. We will have a house full of kids. (I have the largest TV ) Everyone will be rooting for the Steelers. I don't ever remember watching the Hawks play. The Steelers come from a town noted for blue collar workers, Iron City Beer. The Hawks are over-decaffeinated!! Steelers all the way. Going to win by at least 20. Eamonn.

Back when I was SM, we seen the troop grow from zero. Along the way: Less than 12 was really hard. 24 -40 Was fun. 60 -80 was hard. When we got to 90 it was almost a full time job, so we split and lost 10. Cub Scouting wasn't so hard we never went over 70. But finding places to hold banquets was a problem. We were fortunate to have a really good committee and great Den Leaders. The big problem with small units is that they need such a high percentage of interested parents. When the parents don't step up we have people wearing multiple hats and when they burn out you need to fill multiple positions. I don't know if National should set limits. I do know that Troops over 60 do need very Strong leadership. Eamonn.

Hi Wallace, When OJ (Our only child) was little we would go to all the school functions. Open house was a nightmare, so much so that they scheduled times for when parents would come in. School plays and concerts were standing room only. Parents and Grandparents with every camera under the sun flashing away. We still attend all the open houses and teacher conferences, but there is a heck of a lot less people there. The same kids, but sadly parents don't come. Selling tickets to the School play is like asking people to go have a root canal. Back in my Cubmaster days we had as many as 350 people show up for the B&G banquet. The last Eagle Scout COH I attended was very poorly attended. At some stage it seems kids stop being cute and parents seem to lose interest. You have seen how hard it has been in Cub Scouting to get parents to step up to the plate. Once their kids get a little older it seems that the TV shows get a lot more interesting!! While the youth in Venturing are learning to be a lot more independent. The things that they want to do require a lot of adults. The activities seem to be further away, which means more transportation and more drivers. A coed program requires male and female leaders. And it seems everything is more expensive (Especially in Sea Scouts!!)This means that more money has to be managed and more money has to be raised. All this at a time when the demands on the youth are overwhelming. Right now I have Sea Scouts who as well as the expense of being in the Ship are trying to raise money for the Prom (Candy Sales) Band members who are going to Disney in Florida( Candles). Some of the boys are going to NOAC and the Conclave. When they were cute Mom and Dad took the popcorn form to work, now Mom and Dad are lucky if they ever see the form!! I know that we have a good program. I also know that I have the greatest bunch of kids ever, but at times I get very frustrated because even after careful planning and great communication things fall apart. Someone gets a job, someone else signs up for indoor soccer,someone gets a new girlfriend and the list goes on. Deep down I know that this is all part of them growing up, but I still get frustrated. We are a new Ship -I'm an old fellow who spent his entire Scouting career as a "Dirt Scouter", I'm having to learn new skills and new ways of doing and looking at things. While it sounds like you may have all your ducks in a row at home and at work, I can't help but thing going into new (New to you) programs and being able to switch one on and one off is just not going to work. I would go as far as to say the reason why we have so many Crews that fail after a year is because they are started by ASM's who think that Venturing is Boy Scouting with an attitude. The real truth is that it is Venturing. I have a great friend who has been involved with Scouting and the OA for ever. He is looking at Venturing as being a program for older Scouts. He is wrong. Eamonn.

Hi Bambi Welcome to the forum. I think the question about if the SM can also be the CM has been answered. I however am a little puzzled about: "We have a Scoutmaster that has been causing many problems and have asked that he step down but he won't and has influenced the new committee and fought to stay as Scoutmaster." You might want to find an adult application and read it over. I'm a little unsure as to who the "We" is? I think you will find that in nearly all cases where the SM has the backing of the committee and the COR, trying to remove him or her is almost impossible. Of course if there have been cases of abuse we are in a different ball field. Even when BSA guidelines have not been followed, in most cases the worst that will happen is that the offender will be told not to do it again. While we all have met that one person who gets on our last nerve, it's a real shame when the adults (I'm assuming that your an adult??)can't play nicely together. It not only interferes with the smooth running of the unit, but it also is a very bad example to the youth. Much as we might try and hide it, please believe me they do know. Trying to use a rule book to solve differences is rarely a good idea. I strongly suggest that if you have a problem with the SM / CM that you sit down with him or her and look for a resolution. Look for what can be done to serve the Scouts better -Looking back rehashing old matters will get you no place fast. Eamonn.

Blue and Gold's -- ??? I'm thinking that if all goes well on Sunday a lot of packs in our area will be replacing the Blue and Gold with Black and Gold. Eamonn.

Hi Wallace, Please don't take any of this the wrong way. I really think you need to slow down. The Troop may well be an old Troop, but if it doesn't do something about membership all it will have is a history. DE's can be very nice people but they at times have a different agenda than the volunteers. Particularly when it comes to new units. emb021 makes a lot of good points. Trying to start a new unit is not easy and takes a lot of time and man power. Please, don't start a Crew with "Names on Paper" It never ever works. While I'm sure that you have the best intentions in the world, I however think you need to look a little further down the road than just starting a Crew for your daughter. How many of the 18 year olds you talk about will be off to college at the end of the summer? emb021 mentions the area that the Crew will focus on. A Venturing unit needs to have a vision and a mission, just having a place to hang out or being able to tag along with the Troop is not going to work. From your previous postings it sounds like you were ready and excited to move into Boy Scouting. While some people make the move from the pack to the Troop very quickly, I would say it takes a couple of years to really understand the program and learn the ropes. Venturing may sound easy. But working with Venture aged youth can be a real challenge. They have different characteristics and different needs than most Boy Scouts. IMHO You need to sit down and give what you want to do some serious thought and make a choice. Eamonn.

uz2bnowl the heater might and probably is good in a cabin. The problem is the rechargeable battery. It doesn't last very long and needs to be recharged often. Coleman claims that one gas bottle will heat 40 gals of water, they don't say how hot the water will be!! To the best of my knowledge (ans as ever I could be wrong!!) I don't think the unit can be made to work off a large propane bottle. Roger, I haven't used the new Catalytic Heaters. My concerns are that while they might be flame-less they do produce heat, and left unattended could do a lot of damage. They also use oxygen and young Scouts never seem happy unless they tie down every opening in the tent. It does seem like a really neat (Cool!!) system. You do know that Coleman does have a special price list for Scouts and other youth groups? Eamonn. (Did you notice that your Caps are on?)

I'm not sure what counts as being new? Coleman had a drip coffee pot that seems to work fine. The hot water heater wasn't such a hit!! You might want to check out the Coleman site. I really like the new Field Book that the BSA brought out last year or was that two years ago?? MSR have a new stove the XGK EX. I haven't bought one it claims it Boils 1 liter of water in just 2.8 minutes (using kerosene fuel). It costs $129.95. I think I'll stay with the SimmerLite, I only paid about $79.00 for mine. Last time I was in Gander Mountain I noticed that a lot of the water treatment devices seemed to have come down in price. Therm-a-Rest pads are not new but if the guys at the meeting are a little older they might want to look at a couple -I love mine. LCD Flashlights are the cool thing, The headlamps and ones that attach to your cap are neat, the flashing red lights are really cool!! I know that Hops just loves his Platypus. I much prefer my NALGENE. You might want to share the The Boy Scout connection Marsh(Marsh Hyman President of the Nalge Company in Rochester, New York). had a son who was in the Boy Scouts. He and his fellow Scouts used NALGENE lab bottles on the trail. They were perfect as water bottles; for storing powdered drinks and pancake mix; and for carrying matches and shampoo and snacks and all sorts of camping supplies. Eamonn.

hops_scout Thanks Hops for the teenage point of view. You know how totally uncool I am!! You have met OJ and know that he is a typical everyday kid. We seem to be overrun with computers. He has his laptop and the OA section laptop. I have two laptops and we have two PC's. All set up to a wireless network. I don't claim to be good on these things. In fact I learn how to do something new almost everyday. I'm not very good at remembering passwords and names, so I have only two e-mail accounts at home and one for work. OJ, like many of the Scouts I know seems to have about a dozen e-mail accounts!! Some are from the Lodge, then there is his Yahoo and Hotmail. All the "Nasty Stuff" that appears on the computers seems to come as Spam. - You know what I mean. I love my son very dearly. I would hate anything to ever happen to him. We have talked about what is on the Internet, he knows what is out there, I know that he knows. Part of my loving him is me having faith in him and trusting him. I admit I was upset one day when I had his lap top and found some rap music that had really nasty lyrics. I deleted them, but later got to thinking of some of the records and CD's that I own. Only last week in this very forum there was a link to a site (Which I really liked) but some of the songs were about drugs and drug use. I thought to myself about people in glass houses. I don't monitor his computer use. We have talked about porn and why it isn't nice. Still I remember when I was his age going to camp and seeing copies of Playboy and that sort of magazine. Believe me we were not reading the articles. We have talked about how these magazines exploit women and why we don't want them or that sort of stuff coming into our home in any way. (We don't have HBO or any of the premium TV channels) While I'm not as religious as maybe I should be? I'm trying to live a good Christian life. At times some friends of mine pull my leg a little bit about being a Roman Catholic. They tease me about having to go to confession and confess about having impure thoughts. In Scouting we have the A Scout is Clean as one of our Scout Laws. I really like the Buddhist wisdom that says thoughts become words, words become deeds, deeds become habits, habits become a way of life, our way of life becomes character, and character becomes our destiny. While I know that some people will think I'm just being lazy and some people will think that I'm wrong. I do know that I'm not able to prevent the bad stuff from being out there, I don't think if OJ wanted to visit the nasty sites or look at stuff that I don't approve of that I could stop him, he can get it on his cell phone. What I can do is make sure that he understands why I don't approve, I can make sure that he knows I'm here to listen and talk with him (Not at him.) I can make sure that he knows that he has my trust. He is after all a Scout, he not only has to be trusted he has to be a person of honor. Or at least do his best to be one. Eamonn.

Looking at some numbers. Our Council has had to make some cuts and the 2006 Budget shows a balanced budget with totals of $1,321,245.00. down from $1,451,467.00 in 2005. Membership shows that we have Total Cub Scouts: 3,223 Boy Scouts: 1,653 Venturers: 250 TOTAL MEMBERS: 5,126 TOTAL LFL/EXP: 4,052 TOTAL YOUTH 9,243 Rechartering in the council is January for Cub Scouts and February for everyone else. As a rule (in fact I have never seen it different) the numbers go way when once the charters are in. If we divide $1,321,245.00. by 9,243 we get a number of $142.95 . Which kind of goes along with the $150.00 a year to keep a kid in the program that we hear so much about. But if we look at the LFL program. In the Council the Program was under the Class 4 Program Director, but while he still has all the duties that he did have (Camp and program "Stuff") he is now the LFL Class 4 Senior Learning For Life Program Director. He manages the 3 part time and one full time Learning For Life Program Aides. The full timer isn't really full time as she only works ten months a year. Sadly LFL doesn't have a separate budget. I seem to remember and I hope that someone will help me out here!! That the fee National collects for LFL members is $7.50. Please don't quote me as I'm not 100% on that number. The programs are all run in schools. So other than some paper and office supplies there is very little cost to the council other than Employee Compensation. I don't know what the real numbers are because of the lack of a budget. But I'd take a wild guess that without the Executive the ten month program with 3 part time and one full time is about $50,000. Add on another $5,000 for supplies. And we have: Membership fees: 4,052 X $7.50 = $30,390 Supplies and Program Aide Comp.= $55,000 LFL Program Executive (??) = $60,000 Total cost of LFL is about $145,390 Or Approx: $35.88 per member If we go back to the $1,321,245.00. and remove the cost of LFL ($145,390) We get $1,175,855. If we then divide: $1,175,855. By the Total Youth members: 5,126 we arrive at $239.39. It seems to me that $239.39 for a Council to provide service to a youth member is out of line. That's $4.41 a week. I love Scouting and I don't have any beef with paying the National fee, but I fail to see where the Youth in the Ship come anywhere near receiving $4.41 a week in service from the Council. I used to think that the much quoted $125.00 a year was out of whack for a Cub Scout, but $239.39 is just way out. If sweeping changes are not made soon I really do fear that Councils are going to price themselves out of existence. We as volunteers do have to give some thought as to what level of service we expect? And how much we are willing to pay for it? Of course there is a very good argument that could be made for increasing the membership. Of course if we could keep the cost the same and have twice as many youth the cost per youth member would go down!! Sadly that doesn't seem to be happening, we are not growing and with the decline in membership we are losing families that could donate to FOS, along with our Popcorn Sales-team. We are seeing the costs of the services that Councils provide go up, not only to cover the cost of the event or the camp but also to bring more money into the Council and help cover other unrelated costs. With the decline in membership and the money members bring in the service providers are having to spend less time providing service and more time raising money just to help cover what they are paid. While not trying to blow my own trumpet, I was really saddened to see our council have to "Raid" the endowment fund this year in order to just pay the bills. I have over the years donated to the endowment fund and it seems that any idea of endowment has been replaced by a "Get out of jail free fund." A few councils in the area are running or have run Capital Campaigns. Some of these have been very successful. While it is great to see large sums of money coming into Scouting, I'm worried that these are not going to help us in the long term. How often can you go back asking for major gifts? Most foundations want to see a specific plan on where the money will be spent. Many will not give any money what so ever for endowment. For almost 100 years we have been saying that "A Scout is Thrifty." Maybe it's time we started setting the example. $239.00 is not value for money. Eamonn. (This message has been edited by a staff member.)

SR540Beaver OK, I wasn't telling the truth!! I do know about these Merit Badge Fairs. I plain just don't like them. Many of the reasons given for do doing merit badge work at Troop meetings are also true for these things. Eamonn.

I really like people who are a little eccentric. It seems in this day and age we are losing a lot of the characters who used to make life interesting. One good thing about working with kids is that they can normally tell who is an eccentric and who is a head case. When it comes to Scouting, School and Sports we need to do a better job of getting across the idea of stewardship. Understanding that the day will come when the torch will be passed and helping to ensure that this is done with as little fuss and turmoil as can be is very important. I don't know if you read Bleachers, by John Grisham ? I read it sometime back and while I could see how the coach had in many ways done such a great job and how the community loved him. I seen him as being an egotistical twit. There are some people in this forum who may think that I'm way too much of a BSA loving book thumper. They might well be right!! I know very well that minor violations of whatever are not going to bring Scouting to and end. But when I read that Scouts are leaving BOR crying this isn't a minor violation of the rules this is just plain wrong. I get really upset, not just for the kid, but because it was done in the name of the organization that I love so dearly. Eamonn.

I don't know about Merit Badge Fairs?? Sadly it all comes down to money. If we were to expand "Staff Week" to maybe two weeks and spend one week on Staff development. Of course we would be adding to the cost of summer camp. Eamonn.

Our Council is in a Wood Badge cluster. There are seven Councils in the cluster. The cluster used to offer one course a year, but when the new course came along we went to two. Sadly it looks like two is one to many. Several courses were canceled because the numbers just weren't there. Talking with the Area and Regional people they blame a lot of it on Cub Scouters not wanting to travel. I don't know it that argument holds water or not. I think our Council could run a course once every three years and do OK, but we would really be hurting the other Councils. Staffing a out of council course is a little harder and it can make the Patrol meeting a little more difficult. But from what I have seen as a rule before lunch on day one everyone forgets where they came from and feel proud that they are part of the course and their patrol, unless of course they are unfortunate enough to be a Beaver. It's sad but then again not everyone can be a Bear. Eamonn.

Is it really all that bad to be different? No. I lost count of how many Scouts, Cub Scouts and leaders I have known and everyone of them was different. I'm not going to return to tweaks. It might be worth remembering that each Council has along the way been influenced by individuals. I look at the Council next door and I see that they serve 47,000 youth and have almost as many adult volunteers as we have youth in our traditional programs and LFL. I have friends in that Council who just love being part of something that big, I also have friends who would love to be part of a smaller Council. Will they do things a little different than we do? Having staffed NCS, trying not to give the wrong answer is hard. Trying not to give the according to Eamonn answer is really hard!! Sure we all follow the good books??? But different Councils have different things set up differently. When it comes to camps insurance and how each Council has covered the campers can be a real nightmare. Of course we can look at things that we think every young Lad will enjoy. We can cover the National Standards. Still at the end of the day there are different courses for different horses. Eamonn.