Eamonn

Her That Must Be Obeyed doesn't at times share the same enthusiasm about things like I do. I think she thought that once I completed my District Chairman term that I would be home a little more. She was right, only now we have Sea Scouts in and out of the back yard all the time. She hasn't said that she doesn't like the idea or that she has anything against Sea Scouting, she does however call us the "Boat People". One love that we both share is Dogs. We were both broken hearted last week when we had to say goodbye to Shane our collie. He was up there in years and wasn't doing that well.We had met with our Vet discussed it, but it was still very hard. This means that we now only have two dogs. Joey, our very lazy English Setter. Who is the kindest most loving dog we have ever known and Rory. Rory was my Christmas present from Her That Must Be Obeyed, last Christmas. He is a thoroughbred Golden Retriever AKC,the whole nine yards. There were times this past year when I really thought that I could have done without having a puppy. I had two operations on my back and spent a week in ICU, so coming home and having to take him out was something that I thought I could do without. In fact having to take him out was the best therapy for me. He isn't anything like his parents. They were on the small side. He is close to about 80 pounds, they were darker than he is in fact some people have said that he is blond or English Cream. The high point of his day and sometime the high point of my day is when we go for what has become known as The Big Long Walk. We do about three miles and it doesn't matter what it's doing outside. He loves to get wet and loves snow even more. I look like Nan Nook of the North, but we never miss a day, unless I'm away. Normally we are gone for about an hour or so. Most of the time is his and I'm happy to let him do dogie type things. He loves to play in the creeks and is fairly good at catching crayfish. We spent about fifteen minutes going over training type things. Nothing very exciting just things like Heel, walk with me, sit, stay , down and come. Come is the one that we have the most problems with. We have had a really super year. I don't know if it's because I'm getting older or what? But I seem to be a lot more aware things than I used to be. Very often I will take my camera. I have bored all my family and friends to death with e-mailed Rory pictures. But have also got some fairly good photos of our Owl, who lives in a Toby tree in the back yard and some crows giving a hawk a hard time. During the summer we found three deer hanging out in the corn field. Rory gave chase but they were far better at getting through the corn field then he was. I seen them a few more times but he was busy doing something else, so he never noticed them. We have all the grounds posted. So there isn't any hunting (Sorry hunters!!) I only seen them once during the fall, but there was ample evidence that they been eating the wild cherries. We have had a really strange winter. An early blast of heavy wet snow in October which came before the leaves were off the trees. We have also had some very mild days. So mild in fact that I noticed the dandelions are still in bloom. We did get a dusting of snow last week and on one of our long walks I seen some hoof prints. I have to admit to being pleased that the hunters didn't get "My Deer" As a rule the last thing OJ does before he goes to bed is to take the dogs out. Tonight he came in without a coat. I asked him why he didn't have his coat on? He said that there had been a bomb scare at school and he wasn't allowed to go back into the school and get his coat. Tonight was one of them cold miserable nights. It had rained and the rain was freezing to the car, the ground was so wet that a ground fog was everywhere. I thought I'd be the nice Dad and take the dogs out. Joe didn't hang about he did what he had to do and was back on the porch like a shot. Rory and me went further into the back. The grass was crunching under foot. I looked up to see three deer about one hundred yards away. Rory seen them and was after them in next to no time. I never seen him run so fast. I gave him a few minutes to give chase and called him. I was really surprised when he came. I thought we'd go home. But he had other plans. He wanted to go back and sniff out where they had been. We arrived home. Me with very cold feet and him covered in mud and more than a little upset that I wouldn't let him any further than the mud room. Joe thinks it's great he has the run of the whole house. Eamonn.

I can't help but think that it isn't going too be long until a lot more Councils come up with similar schemes. The Council that I serve has a "Suggested level of giving" for Board members and last year when things started looking not so good Board members were asked to come up with an extra $500.00 each. It is a sad fact that many of the units in our Council do nothing to help support the Council. They don't participate in the popcorn sale or the FOS campaign. So a set fee would mean that everyone would share the cost of Council services. I have to admit that I'm really happy that this year I will not be visiting the units doing FOS presentations. As yet I don't know if I'm still on our Executive Board or not. If I'm not I'll still make a donation to FOS,but not at the board level. I will donate the difference to the Ship. I know where that $1,000 will go and how it will be spent. Eamonn.

Kahuna Thanks for the kind words. I wish that I could say that I deserve them. But I don't. The Ship belongs to the Sea Scouts, I'm just a resource. Who at times gets in the way. purcelce Not that long ago you posted a link to the Crew web site. I have to admit to being impressed and do think that you all have got your act together. I still however feel that the Venturing program would be better off it it wasn't tied in any way to Boy Scouts. Just as we don't have Webelos Scouts completing their AOL once they leave the pack.Why have people from another program area work on that programs awards? Most of the "Do Nothing" Crews that I know are Crews that have close ties to a Troop. Many of the adults involved in Boy Scouts just don't understand that there is a big difference between the two programs. I'm all for older Scouts who are receiving a program that they like and enjoy staying in or with the Troop, in fact I don't see any reason for them to join a Crew. Eamonn.

I'm never very sure about articles that try and suggest that any large group has common characteristics. When I read or see on TV stories about kids who belong to gangs and are dealing in drugs and guns, I feel bad that these kids are not spending time being kids. I feel the same way about girls who have babies when they are very young. I know that when it comes to my 17 year old, I seem to do a lot more for him than my parents did for me. I put a lot of this down to my being brought up in a big city, with lots of public transportation and us living in the sticks, where he has had to be taken to everything. He hasn't had the same freedoms that I had. This can be both a good and a bad thing. I'm well known for being a very lazy toad. I look at how much and how many activities my son tries to cram into a week and I really don't know how he does it. I'm really saddened that he doesn't have my great love of books and reading. He never seems to have the time. But when I see the Harry Potter book sales, I'm led to believe that there are a lot of kids out there that do read. The age that a boy becomes a man? Has I think changed over the centuries. Even in the 99 years that Scouting has been around. When Scouting started in England boys could leave school at 14 and get a job. Even I can remember friends of mine leaving school at 16. My son will be almost 19 when he leaves HS and then he plans to do a four year degree. So he will be 23 or 24 before he really has to stand on his own two feet. So maybe he will spend a few years sowing his wild oats and when the big 30 hits he will stop being a Peter Pan? Eamonn.

Pint, Norway is wonderful. I was there for the 1975 WSJ. The country and the people are great. I don't know if things have changed but everything was very expensive, far more so than in the UK at that time. We had a adult leaders night out and the price of a pint would knock your socks off!! We took really small sips. Eamonn.

We will be doing the Sea Kayaking Adventure at Camp Blue Heron Located Near Savannah, Georgia. A lot of our Sea Scouts will be on staff at Camp Conestoga in Somerset PA. (They will take time off to attend the camp.) Her Who Must Be Obeyed and myself will also visiting friends and family in England and Ireland,sometime this summer. A pal of mine is bringing his unit over from England to camp at Haliburton Scout Reserve, so I'm hoping that I can spend a few days in Canada. They will be there at the same time as NOAC so things ought not be to hectic. Eamonn

Pleased to report that membership in the Ship continues to climb. We now have eighteen Sea Scouts. Six are female and are not in any other youth program. The twelve Boys are or were involved in Boy Scout Troops. One is 18 and hasn't made up his mind if he wants to sign up as an ASM with his old Troop. One decided that he would quit his old Troop and just do Sea Scouting. The other ten are still Boy Scouts. Some are more active than others. We had one Lad quit the Ship because he didn't feel that he could do both. We are not in any way connected to a Troop. When I was starting the Ship, I did the program for the first three months. But we are now following a six month plan that the youth leaders put together. When I did my plan, I had us meeting twice a month. The Quarterdeck members changed this to weekly meetings. They have a very full calender. Which if I was asked I would say is great but might be a little too full -I however wasn't asked. When they made the plan the were careful to avoid OA functions. All the boys are in the OA. The Boys come from five different Troops. I don't think when they made the plan any Troop activities were taken into account. As you can imagine we have found a few times when there are clashes. My opinion is that it is up to the Lad to choose. However some parents are a little unhappy. The main reason why the Lads joined the Ship was that the Troops they hail from are not providing a program for older Scouts. The main reason why they are staying in the Troops is because that is where their parents want them to complete their Eagle. I have of course explained that this could be done with the Ship and that is what the Lad who quit Boy Scouts wants to do. We have in the District one outstanding Crew, which isn't connected with a Boy Scout Troop and two other Crews that never seem to do anything that share the same unit number as the Troop. I'm really starting to think that allowing Scouts and Venturers to be multiples is just a bad idea. While I will of course work with any Sea Scout who wants to work on his Eagle, I think Venturing would be better off without offering Boy Scout Programs. I also think that adults who try and serve in both programs are asking for problems. If a Troop is offering a program that meets the needs of the older Scouts, I am really happy for him to stay there. So far the Scoutmasters I have talked with have been very supportive of the Ship and I don't think that they think I'm in any way trying to "Poach" or recruit Boy Scouts away from their home Troops. While I feel sure that not allowing Scouts to be in both programs would hurt the number of Crews that are out there, I do feel in the long term it would result in a better Venturing Program for the youth who want to be in real Ships and Crews. Eamonn.

Much as I believe "Train Them, Trust Them, Let them Lead." I'm a little nervous about Patrol Camps where certain liquid fuels are used. I kind of think that I might be in violation of the G2SS, but I don't see a problem with scouts using a propane stove. Just as I don't see a problem with Scouts who are hiking using liquid fueled stoves. At the end of the day the Scoutmaster has the final say about Patrol Camps and his understanding of the responsibility of the Patrol. My main concern is Scouts trying to start a wood fire with the help of a little Scout spirit. Please don't tell anyone but I can remember doing it when I was a Scout. I of course am not posting this to say that's it's OK, more to show that even an angelic little fellow like I once was can be tempted to break the rules even when he knows and understands what and why they are in place. I like the idea of having once been Angelic. Eamonn.

I'm not sure what committee undertook writing our Council Emergency Policies. But they all worked very hard to come up with plans that would work. While it would seem that this might fall under the Camping Committee, I seem to remember it came under the Risk Management Committee. This Committee is made up of people who are very familiar with State and Federal laws as well as insurance type issues. While the well being and safety of Scouts is always number one there are also liability issues. If we look back on last years hurricanes the one area that seemed to fall down and not work was communications. I would spend some time looking at finding the most effective way of communication. Trying to look at Emergency's the following comes to mind: Lost Scout. Weather. Fire. Medical Emergency. Dead Scout. I'm sure given time I could fill the entire page with different headings. It is very important that any policies cover how to avoid emergencies. Things like the Buddy System, Camp Site Inspections, Check in and sign out procedures. Each area might also want to have and share with the campers policies that they have and locations of safety equipment, such as fire equipment, first aid kits, eye washing stations and so on. Every care must be taken so as not to panic the entire camp. Establishing a who needs to know policy is very important. Sadly in these days of cell phones misinformation can spread like wild fire and it is possible that things get very out of hand. As we seen in the West Virginia coal mining disaster a few weeks back. A lot of this is covered at National Camp School and a lot can be covered in the Emergency Preparedness merit badge. But if you are offering a document you do need to look at what liability the camp staff and the council might be undertaking. I strongly urge to get a committee with a diverse group of people on it to serve the needs of both the campers and the council. Eamonn.

I agree with most of what SemperParatus posted. You do need to meet with the COR. You might also want to find out how the Pack Committee feels. I really dislike threats. Sad thing is once you start you have to be as good as your word. So if you issue an ultimatum and they call your bluff, the people who get hurt the most are the very people we joined to serve. If you still don't hear from your UC? I'd try one phone call!! Then you need to go and find the Assistant District Commissioner Cub Scouts. While the Commissioner Staff don't have the "Power" to do very much at the unit level. Unit problems are discussed at the Commissioner Cabinet meetings and the District Committee meetings, as a rule someone at one of them meetings (Normally the DE) does have the ear of the Executive Officer and will contact him or her explaining what the problem is and outlining a plan of action. While I think training can help, this Tiger Den Leader seems to qualify as a FCT (First Class Twit) Where are the Tiger Cub partners when this man is scolding them and doing whatever it is that he is doing? Is he serving in the armed forces? Eamonn.

I can see how the little guys see this as being fun. I can see how someone trying to make a quick announcement can see it as a waste of time and maybe get a little peeved. I think newsletters work really well. I know that some adults just don't know when to quit. I never had a problem with it at the unit level, but a few leaders at R/T would on occasion start. I have been blessed with a very big mouth, so normally before they completed the first line, I had thanked them and just kept on talking. One of my favorite lines when I'm dealing with younger Lads is that I tell them how polite I am and I'm not going to talk when they are talking and I know how polite they are and they aren't going to talk when I'm talking. If they did I just stopped talking and without saying a word I put up the Scout/ Cub Scout sign and waited till they were done. If this is a problem it needs to be talked about with the Den Leaders and they need to talk to the Dens. Of course with Boy Scouts the PLC is the place to address it. I can't help thinking that the problem isn't with the Scouts but a couple of adults who think that it's funny. Eamonn.

Eagle76, I'm hoping that EagleDad will jump in here sometime soon?? I think that it's important that you understand the entire ticket idea, before you start worrying about actual projects. The how you arrive at your ticket is a very important part of the course and is covered in the course. The ticket is just six goals that you set that will enable you to reach your vision and your mission. Your vision and your mission should be based on your primary registered position in the BSA. I don't see it as being a private thing, but if someone only wants to share it with their Troop Guide and Ticket Counselor, that's up to them. While hopefully we all share in the Vision and Mission of the BSA. Your vision and Mission is just that "YOUR". If you were to take two Scoutmasters from Troops that were very much alike. One Scoutmaster might look at the methods of Scouting and see that he needs to work on Advancement. His entire Ticket might only deal with different ways of helping the Scouts advance. The other might look at the Patrol Method and base his entire Ticket on improving that area in the Troop that he serves. Even just looking at these two areas there are so many different things that might become the individual goal, that no two tickets will ever be the same. There is a requirement that at least on Ticket item will deal with diversity, but again this should fall in with the participants vision and mission. The Ticket thing isn't that hard!! You need to really give some thought to what your vision and mission is. Where do you see you in X amount of time? Where do you see the unit you serve in X amount of time? What areas do you think need worked on? Before you attend the course you should receive a sheet with 20 questions. You need to take the time to really take a long hard look at your answers. No one will ever ask to see or want to know your answers. I'm guessing that by the end of the course or when you go to write your ticket some of your answers will have changed. But I'm almost 99.9999% your values will remain the same. Your vision and your mission will be based on your values. Again while many of us share the same values, many of us have them in a different order. You might have a different take on the Scout Oath and Law than I have. That doesn't mean that I'm right and your wrong. Again it comes down to "On MY honor", "I will","MY best", "To do MY duty". Just as the Oath you take is yours, the same goes for the ticket. Eamonn. Thanks cajuncody, I'm happy that it isn't all twaddle!!

EagerLeader Please don't think you have in any way offended me. The thought never crossed my mind. There are a lot of things that I don't see eye to eye with in the BSA. My list is a long one and of course I think that I'm right and "They" are wrong. I live in hope that one day everyone in the entire world including Her Who Must Be Obeyed wakes up to the fact that I'm right and they are wrong. Until that day I will take my shoes off and not walk on the carpet in my shoes, even though the dog has twice as many feet as I do and he doesn't wipe his paws. I will continue to file endless reports that never ever see the light of day again and attend meetings where the only good thing that comes out of them is the donuts. I know that I could say no and my boss might say go. And I will continue to obey the rules laid down by the BSA. Maybe one day the BSA will do something that upsets me enough to quit and when that sad day comes I will move on and do something else. Eamonn.

A pal sent me this E-mail. I thought I'd share it. The Price of Children I have repeatedly seen the breakdown of the cost of raising a child, but this is the first time I have seen the rewards listed this way. It's very sweet! The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from birth to 18 and came up with $160,140 for a middle income family. Talk about sticker shock! That doesn't even touch college tuition. But $160,140 isn't so bad if you break it down. It translates into: * $8,896.66 a year, * $741.38 a month, or * $171.08 a week. * That's a mere $24.24 a day! * Just over a dollar an hour. Still, you might think the best financial advice is don't have children if you want to be "rich." Actually, it is just the opposite. What do you get for your $160,140? * Naming rights. First, middle, and last! * Glimpses of God every day. * Giggles under the covers every night. * More love than your heart can hold. * Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs. * Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds, & warm cookies. * A hand to hold, usually covered with jelly or chocolate * A partner for blowing bubbles, flying kites, building sand castles, and skipping down the sidewalk in the pouring rain. * Someone to laugh yourself silly with, no matter what the boss said or how your stocks performed that day. For $160,140, you never have to grow up. You get to: * finger-paint, * carve pumpkins, * play hide-and-seek, * catch lightning bugs, and * never stop believing in Santa Claus. You have an excuse to: * keep reading the Adventures of Piglet and Pooh, * watching Saturday morning cartoons, * going to Disney movies, and * wishing on stars. You get to frame rainbows, hearts, and flowers under refrigerator magnets and collect spray painted noodle wreaths for Christmas, hand prints set in clay for Mother's Day, and cards with backward letters for Father's Day. For $160,140, there is no greater bang for your buck. You get to be a hero just for: * retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof, * taking the training wheels off a bike, * removing a splinter, * filling a wading pool, * coaxing a wad of gum out of bangs, and coaching a baseball team that never wins but always gets treated to ice cream regardless. You get a front row seat to history to witness the: * first step, * first word, * first bra, * first date, and * first time behind the wheel. You get to be immortal. You get another branch added to your family tree, and if you're lucky, a long list of limbs in your obituary called grandchildren and great grandchildren. You get an education in psychology, nursing, criminal justice, communications, and human sexuality that no college can match. In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there under God. You have all the power to heal a boo-boo, scare away the monsters under the bed, patch a broken heart, police a slumber party, ground them forever, and love them without limits, so one day they will, like you, love without counting the cost. That is quite a deal for the price!!!!!!! Love & enjoy your children & grandchildren!!!!!!! What a bargain ! ! ! Eamonn

Hi EagerLeader, Boy do I really come off sounding like an old stick in the mud? (No please don't answer that!!) I admit that Girls scare the beejeebers out of me!! But I have seen that it works really well in the units in the UK where they have gone coed. I have watched the boys and girls in our Sea Scout Ship and they just don't seem to notice that they are boys and girls - Well most of the time. I don't know hardly anything about Girl Scouting in the USA. To be very honest I never had or felt the need to find out. The Girl Guides back home seemed to have a good program and if anything did a far better job of being part of the community than the Scouts did. I'm learning more and more with each passing day about how to deal with girls and to again to be honest it isn't much different than dealing with boys. If anything it's a lot easier because Girl Scouting doesn't seem to be big in our area and the girls seem a lot more enthusiastic than the boys. But that might be just our area. When I look at our vision and mission along with our methods I fail to see why they can't work for a mixed group. I do know that there are differences with boys and girls. There was a truly wonderful program on PBS the other week about raising boys titled:Raising Cain. http://www.pbs.org/opb/raisingcain/ I thought it was great. So much so that I send off for the DVD. It seemed that PBS was all about Boys that week as they also aired Country Boys: A Film By David Sutherland which was very good (and is costing me another $35.00) I feel sure that there would be a lot of objections to a full coed Scouting program, but I do feel that we could make it work if we wanted too. I remember being at a meeting when Venturing was first explained and some of the Scouters nearly choked on their Wood Badge beads. The problem as I see it isn't with the kids it's with the adults. Still as I belong to the BSA and I'm happy to belong to the BSA, I'm more than happy to play this game by the rules that they (we?) lay down. And as I said if and when they change I'll be a very happy little camper. Eamonn.

Hello and Welcome. When I was active as a Scout Leader back in the UK,the Scout Centre Rotterdam was a favorite of our Scouts for summer camp. I made a lot of good friends and we had a Dutch Troop come over and camp with us several times. Our Scouts got to be fairly good at making poffertjes and stroopwafels. A very good friend has a country house that he uses at weekends in Zealand. We took our Patrol leaders over for Easter one year. It wasn't very warm. In fact it was wet and windy, but there was a kind of wildness about it that was wonderful. At one time I had thought it would be a wonderful place to spend my retirement. All of our Scouts loved the Maduradam (The Maduradam is a miniature version of Holland kind of like a miniature village, but it shows the entire country) Of course all the Scouts came home with clogs, I can't remember the name of the clog makers we visited. We also visited the Kinderdijk and the windmills and took the tour. I arrived home with about a years supply of real dutch cheese. I'm thinking of maybe finding out if we can link up with some Dutch Sea Scouts. I know that Sea Scouts make up a big percentage of Dutch Scouts. Eamonn. Your new Scout building looks wonderful!! (This message has been edited by Eamonn)

"ban hot dogs and hamburgers from menu planning" Wow! Talking as a true Brit, that sounds un-American to me. Can you make Toad in the hole with hot dogs?? I really like burgers that are stuffed with Roquefort cheese. Most Scouts I know are not mad about blue cheeses,but camembert works well. Eamonn.

Hey SemperParatus, If you let me know when you are in that neck of the woods. I only live about 20 minutes from Ohiopyle. A lot of the guys who work at the Caverns are Scouter's in our Council. Our good friend Hops got to spend some time with them at the Jamboree. The entire area is really good for putting the outing back in Scouting. Sad thing is that so many of our Scouters just don't. The bike trail is good if your guys are into cycling and the hiking isn't bad. It seems lately since I got involved with Sea Scouting that I'm spending a lot of time in Maryland!! Maybe we can wave to each other on the Turnpike? Eamonn.

I have been reading some of the exchanges that have been going on in some of the threads. Sadly I think that are just not nice. But might just be me? A lot of what is posted here is of no use to me what so ever. I'm sure a lot of what I post is of no use to you. I'm not sure if anything I have ever posted has been of any use to anyone. I have thanks to this forum made a few really good friends and there are people who post in the forum who I really admire and I do value their opinions and take on things. Of course there is the other side of the coin and there are postings that I just opt to take plenty of no notice of. Still I do think that just because I don't agree with what has been posted, that it is all wrong. I don't see the need for us to bash each other the head with it. Having said that I know that at times I have completely failed to understand where the other person is coming from and I know that I'm mule headed enough not to know when to just let go. I do believe that the BSA has really great material, both in print and on the web. At times it can be hard to find the answer that you need. While we are fortunate to have in these forums people who can point us to the "Book Answer", a lot of what is posted is opinions. We are all free to take what we think will work for us and the Scouts we serve. But we are also free to think that it's all a load of twaddle. Yes even if the guy who posted it is named Eamonn. Eamonn.

Kudu makes a good point about what can be stored and what can't. I'm not in favor of stealing stuff. But if the manager of the local fast food restaurant is asked and he or she wants to donate I'm fine with that. Our patrols all had their own patrol box. Pete our adult Quartermaster would meet with the Troop Quartermaster and the Patrol Quartermasters a couple of times a year and they would have a good sort out. We found that Tupperware containers helped out a lot. The sugar still got hard and lumpy, but it didn't end up all through the box and the teabags didn't get messed up too bad. We used to buy a lot of the staples in bulk from places like Sam's Club.For Summer Camp when we would have 12 patrols camping for two weeks, we had one menu, so this worked out well. At the end of a Campout the food that was left over and couldn't be stored was up for grabs. Strange thing was most of the Scouts didn't want to take it. I'm a registered Dietician and certified food service manager.I'm constantly amazed at what people eat and when they eat it!! With this in mind it is sometimes hard to get Scouts to plan menus. We have Scouts who hardly ever eat at home and Moms who don't know or don't like to cook and then at the other end we have the Mather Stuart types who want to send linen napkins to camp. Not to change the subject but.... Some years back we were doing a research project into people with renal failure. We thought that maybe adding aluminum phosphates to their diet might prevent their bones from becoming so brittle. The bad news was that the participants had to eat the same thing every second day for six weeks. We tried really hard to give them food that not only worked for the study but food that they liked. I had an little old man in his 70's. He was a coal man. He delivered coal to houses using a horse and cart. I asked him what he had for lunch? He said "Well, I parks the horse and I goes for a drink". When it came to supper he said "Well I parks me horse goes for a drink and then I goes home has a couple of kippers and then me and the wife goes for a drink." By the end of the interview I had worked out that this little old man who didn't weigh 120 pound soaking wet was drinking about 18 pints of Guinness every day!! I wasn't able to get him the full 18 but he was happy that I managed to get him 8. Eamonn.

ozemu I think I can guess what a "Bum Bag" is but maybe a translation might help? Eamonn.

I don't think I can bear any more. It's time we pause for a timeout. If we don't someone might get Tigger happy. Eamonn.

While I don't see us going fully coed in the near future. I would welcome it. Eamonn.

dace Welcome. Eamonn.

When do you start a new Troop? Seems like an easy question. Sadly the answer is not that easy. I'm not going to split hairs and go on about who starts a new unit. But (Yes you knew there would be a but.)I have found that Units that spring up out of no where because someone was upset and don't have the backing of a CO, tend not to last very long. I just ended a ten year term, serving as a member of the District Key 3. As a District we had Quality District as a goal. The membership requirement for Quality does require that we end the year with one more unit than the year before. That isn't that hard, as long as you don't lose too many units along the way. We had a 3 year run where we didn't lose any units and then last year we took a big hit. We lost a Troop and four Crews. So we needed to start six units. It didn't happen, we only started one unit (A Ship) The really sad thing is that the goal for this year is the total at the end of 2005, which of course will be four less than we had at the end of 2004. If we carry on at only starting one unit per year it will take till 2009 to recover. As a member of the key 3 I looked at school districts. Our Scout District covered three School Districts. The information we got was really wonderful. We knew what percentage of the students were receiving free school lunches. (I used this number to stop the Council from raising our Family FOS goal to high.) We also looked at what percentage of the total available youth we were serving in each school district. In my home area we ran about 26% in Cub Scouts 21% in Boy Scouts and 0.83% for Venturers. The Boy Scout and Cub Scout numbers are above the National average. While we were very proud of what we were doing it's sad when you look at the numbers the other way. We weren't serving 74% of the Boys Cub Scout age. We weren't serving 79% of the Boys Boy Scout age and over 99% of youth that could be in Venturing weren't. I have to smile when people go on about too many units. Maybe before we talk about there being too many units we need to look at what percentage of the youth we are serving? Before starting a new unit lots of things have to fall into place. We had a pack and a troop that had a big falling out with their CO. They left the Church and went to the American Legion. The Church was upset. They had been a CO for a very long time and said that they wanted a Scouting unit. The DE, the Membership Chair. and myself (then District Chair.) met with the church council. They had two big problems they didn't have any youth in the church who wanted to be in Scouting and they didn't have any adults who wanted to deliver the program. So of course it didn't happen. Sadly the pack and the Troop who went to the Legion found out that the only meeting place available was in the bar, so that didn't work out either. On the other side of the coin Pack 155 found that they had 16 Webelos Scout's ready to cross over. They with the blessing from the church started a Troop they got 12 of the Webelos Scouts, the following year they got 16 more. A lot of the pack committee crossed over with their kids and the Troop is doing great. When I decided that I no longer wanted to serve at the District level. I looked at what we were doing for our older youth both in Scouts and in the community. Of course everyone said I was nuts starting a Sea Scout Ship in land locked Pennsylvania. I suppose I could have started a Venturing Crew, but I'm not overjoyed about the material that is out there for Venturing. (That is just me!!) While we are not setting the world on fire, we now have 18 Sea Scouts and hope to have 30 by the end of the year. The Scouts are having a good time, I'm having fun. The Elks love the coverage they are getting in the local paper. Our COR has been accused of being my brother-in-law (He's not!!) The main thing is that we are filling a need. Our small town doesn't offer older boys a lot of activities, sadly our Boy Scout Troops are not doing much for older boys and there is nothing for older girls to do. Most of the kids we have are 16 and 17 years old. If there is a way of fixing a unit, I'd strongly suggest trying to fix it. Don't start a unit just because you are upset. The units that start with the bear minimum of adults and youth have a really hard time making it and end up "Burning youth". Once a boy or girl has been in a unit that doesn't live up to their expectations it is really hard to get them back. Leaders of new units tend to burn out very quickly. There normally just isn't enough people to spread the load. Leaders who try to start a new unit and serve on the District must be really nuts. I know that I couldn't do it and if I tried Her That Must Be Obeyed wouldn't be a very happy camper. Eamonn