Eamonn

I'm not in favor of this sort of thing. While the Scouts who see their adult win or do well in a competition will or might see him or her as some sort of super hero? What take home message do the Scouts who watch their adult leader lose bring home? While of course we expect adults to act in such a way that they do set a good example, some adults when it becomes a competition forget this and winning becomes the be all and end all, everything else goes out the window. Adults behaving badly is not the example we need. Our role as Scouter's isn't about proving how good or how fast we are. Ou

The best gifts are an honest and true evaluation of the course and you completing your ticket. Any and everything is unnecessary and unneeded. Welcome to the forum. Ea.

Basementdweller I think many of us have a camp that we love. For those of us who have been around for a while, we have seen and a lot of times helped make the improvements. Many Councils have a core of hardworking guys who seem to live up at camp year round working away to do what they think will enhance the camp and make it better. I'm not that handy or skilled when it comes to construction, I can drive a tractor, manage a wheel borrow and make a fairly good laborer. But I just don't have the time to spend the time that others do, so I'm happy to write the odd check and help pay for t

Phil rarely fails to see his shadow. I kinda think he knows that this is the halfway point of winter and in six weeks spring will be in the air. More importantly it's about the time when a lot of the Christmas goodies are about done. The cookies that HWMBO has rationed out from the freezer are about done. The candy bowl only has the candy is empty apart for the candy that no one likes. I did notice a box of chocolates that somehow managed to not get opened. I'll work on that next week. There is still a lot of adult beverages left. They might come in handy if we get hit by a really

Sometimes it's hard to really know what the FOS guy means when he talks about camp. Our Council summer camp is in a State Park. The Council leases the land. But owns the buildings. Without visiting the Council web site, I'm not sure exactly how long we have been there. It's a fairly long time. -1949 seems to ring a bell! I really don't think that anyone has a good idea of how much money has been spent on buildings and improvements. Much if not most of the improvements have been done with volunteers doing the labor. I don't think it would be that hard to go out to the community and

As I posted I'm OK with paying my own way. But have to admit that I was a little upset about what the NE-Region charged for the weekend Course Directors conference. I really can't remember the exact amount, but $225.00 seems to be stuck in my head. Add the cost of having to take a day off from work to get there, the cost of getting there and it was a very costly weekend. Again this was a cost that was not allowed to be part of the WB budget. Sad thing was that it wasn't even that good, but a requirement in order to be CD. Ea.

Have to say that I've never thought of myself as a muckity-muck! I do get invited to nearly all the Wood Badge Feasts and I've never ever thought of offering to pay. I'm as a rule too busy or just too lazy to attend. An invite means that I will blow the best part of a day and I really don't see a need for me to be there. But, just as I don't expect guests that I invite to go out for dinner to pay. I see the fact that I was invited makes me a guest and I never ever in a million years thought of offering to pay. I get invited to a lot of B&G banquets and COH where food is served,

Most (Not all.) Of the kids I know, over 12 rarely leave the house without their phone. As someone who tries really hard to avoid ever answering a phone and who forgets to turn on his phone and also forgets to recharge it, I don't really understand the need to be available and in touch 24/7. But I'm OK with not understanding it. -There's a lot of things that I don't understand. I think this cell phone debate will go on for a long time, but at the end of the day the cell phone and young people having and using them is going to win. Up until a few months back I seen my cell phone as a ph

Welcome to the forum. I was the Council Training Chairman when we changed from Staff not paying. I took a fair amount of heat because of the change. I was OK with me paying my way and my fair share of real costs. Others were a little upset. As a unit leader I' always paid my own way and the thought of youth members in any way subsidizing me was and is one that I find to be just wrong. So why should training be any different? Different Councils have come up with different formulas of what the real cost is and isn't. Some seem to have just plucked a number out of thin air, that sound

Some years back I realized that I was guilty of not telling my son that I loved him. It hit me that it was strange that I never ever leave the house without telling HWMBO that I love her, yet I'd just tell my son to drive carefully and not to drink and drive. I do spend a lot of time with my dogs and tell them how good they are, yet I wasn't telling my son how proud I am of him and the good work that he is doing. "Precious". Is a wonderful word that we just don't use often enough when it comes to our own children. We need to use it more. I am of course saddened to hear of the los

Being as a lot of sea scouts use boats that use some sort of petrol product to power the boat safe and proper handling of gas when filling tanks is very important. Sea Scouts,do eat!! so they have a need to dispose of garbage and empty on board toilets correctly. Boats being transported from place to place do need to be cleaned to ensure that things like Zebra mussels are not being transported. When I was CD for a course I looked at Varsity and it turned out that we didn't have any in the Council and had never had any ever, the same was true of the 4 other Councils represented by par

Most of the people who are selected to serve as staff members on WB courses are busy people to start with. Sometimes we forget just how busy other people can be and how many other activities some people are active in. Even if you do have a friendly style of communicating sometimes when you (Not you personally!) Send out "Lets start sharing ideas email.. Here are some photos I have collected for organizing my first flip book, here a flipbook or two on the web that you can use for a base and alter.. " It can be taken as being a little pushy or as you being a little needy. (Again, I'm not say

Not so sure that I'd use the word hate? It seems to me that when it comes to Scouts and Scouting, not just the BSA, but other Scouting organizations / Associations, most of the time there isn't any middle ground. People tend to either support what they think is going on or have it in for what they think is happening. A lot of people really have very little idea what real Scouting is all about. A few years back I was asked to contact some very wealthy people and ask them for large donations. I was surprised how little they knew and understood about Scouts and Scouting. Maybe part o

As someone who watches American politics from the side lines. Seeing what the Republicans are going through has been great entertainment. I keep hearing how bad things are and that the economy is in the toilet but still there seems to be a lot of money out there for these guys to attack each other and call each other nasty names. Back in the day, when I was a young man living in England. Supporters of the Labour Party were depicted as working class, cloth cap wearing, union card carrying guys who wanted to change things and make life better for the working class. On the other side of the a

Things would be a lot easier if the guys and girls who were going to do bad things wore a big sign that told everyone what they were going to do. If the guys who were going to try and blow up airplanes wore signs saying "I'm going to blow up planes." We could all keep our shoes on when we travel by air. Big stores like Wal-Mart could save millions knowing who the shoplifters were. I don't ever expect it will happen. Background checks and the like can help keep people who have a history of this sort of thing from being allowed in. But as we have seen with all the goings on at Penn St

Have to admit that until I read this I'd never heard of Boston Butts. But coming from a land where Toad in the hole is seen on some menus! I'll just keep quiet. Ea. Toad in the hole is sausages cooked in a Yorkshire Pudding Batter.

First let me address "That is because you have your fingers jammed into your eyes and ears:" I think this was totally unnecessary and added nothing to the discussion. Not sure? But I think I was kinda late noticing Vision and Mission statements. The first one I ever seen was on the back of a beer salesman's business card about 20 years back. Not long after that these vision and mission statements seemed to pop up all over the place and it wasn't long till the BSA came up with the first one. Which as far as I know has been revised slightly. JMHawkins posts " Scoutcraft is making things

I've volunteered at the District level. I've done my bit to help the District do it's bit to meet the goals of the Council. As District Chair. One of the hardest jobs I undertook was working with the District Advancement Committee to ensure that we were able to offer a District List of MBC's. My goal was to ensure that if a Scout was interested in a badge that a MBC was available. The District Advancement Committee and the Dean of Merit Badges did their best to try and ensure that those on the list were qualified to cover the badge. I see this as the job of the District Committee and

Have to admit that I'd never given the Congressional Charter a lot of thought. I'd never looked at it as being a law. I don't know enough about the law or Congressional Charters as to know who looks too see if the organization is doing what the charter says it should be doing? Or what happens when it is found out that th group is no longer doing it? I do know that there are laws on the books in some places that have never been taken off the books that make some things we do take for granted illegal. Here in PA theres a law on the books that reads: Any motorist who sights a team o

Kids,especially boys are strange animals. There are times when they will eat any and everything in sight. There are other times when food holds little or no interest for them. Cub Scouts who have spent the day at camp, doing what kids that age do and using the energy that boys that age use will eat the south end of a north bound skunk. But gather a big group of Cub Scout age Lads together for a B&G and just because they are together and this holds a lot of excitement for them, food loses interest. I do believe that when planning a menu the person doing the planning needs to be

Kudu Help me out a little. I said: "For the most part Lads join to have fun and take on new and exciting challenges. They leave when they don't have fun and they become bored. " You replied: "The Congressional Charter defines (by statute) those "exciting challenges" to be "Scoutcraft." A little time later you say: "As Course Director your duty is to kick the Scoutcraft out of Baden-Powell's Scoutcraft course, and by your example here teach adults to hold the law in contempt: The law that defines Scoutcraft not as a mere "Method" of Scouting, but as its Purpose

A once active forum member emailed me some little time back when I was going off about how things in the district were going down hill. He said that a builder builds a house. He uses all his skill and know how to build the best house that he can. Once the house is built, he moves on. The people who buy the house can if they want change everything. They can allow the house to fall into a state of disrepair. It is after all their house and the builder has no control over what happens to it. I'm happy that I did my bit. Did what I thought was important and for the best. Sure it

"The Congressional Charter defines (by statute) those "exciting challenges" to be "Scoutcraft."" OK! I might just call it "Program" -But it's as long as it is wide. Scouts don't care much if something is called a Statement, a method or a statue. They just want to be part of something that they deem to be enjoyable. Us bashing each other over the head and quoting things that long dead English Lords might or might not have said might be fun for us adults. But that 12 year old little fellow? Not so much. Ea.

Have just found out that the powers that be? Have met and our Council which last week had four Districts, this week is down to only three. The writing has been on the wall for some little time now. So it's not really a shock. Still this District is the District that I served as Chairman and District Commissioner of for a decade. While it now might seem like all the work that was put in was a waste of time. I like to think that those of us who served back then did our best to serve the units and the Scouts in the units at that time. The DE I worked with back then just sent me an email t

"We should all know the "official" Eight (9?) Methods of Scouting. There is the Mission Statement and the Vision Statement..." "Our only mission should be the "Three Purposes of Scouting," as set by statute in our Congressional Charter:" Strange how some of us adult type members can get our knickers in a twist about this stuff. As SSScout posts kids join and remain in Scouts for a lot of different reasons. But so far I've yet to meet a Lad who joined to have a character rebuild or become more ethical or because he wanted to do his bit to live up to the Purposes of Scouting, as