Eamonn

As yet the Brits have yet to say what sort of staff they are in need of. It might be that they don't need or just don't want people to sign up for specific tasks and only need people to help do mundane tasks like putting Scouts on and off buses. There is a place on the 2007 Jamboree site where you can sign up for information. I signed up some time back and up till now have only received information about Eurojam. Which was really of no interest to me as I knew I would be at our National Jamboree. Unfortunately a separate corporation has been set up for both Eurojam and the 2007 Jamboree, so things are not under the management of the International Department at Gilwell Park. At times it does seem that there is a lack of effective communication between the Jamboree organizers and the Scout Association. My hope is that once Eurojam is out of the way and they have had a chance to see what worked and what didn't work at Eurojam, things will become a lot clearer. Sad to say from the reports I'm getting Eurojam was not the hit they had hoped for. I have been given a lot of different reasons for this, the main one being the cost, which was very high. Also they didn't attract the UK Scouts from the south of England, as they can camp in that part of the UK any old time for a heck of a lot less. Of course what I'm hearing might not be accurate!! Eamonn. NE-Area 4 World Jamboree Chairman.

Hi Owain, Many, many years ago I was a cub (A Wolf) Cub, back in the 24 Fulham (Sands End) When I old enough I spent sometime as an Assistant Cub Scout Leader in the 35th Fulham (St Thomas of Canterbury). When I left England, there were no Beaver Scouts. My Son who is now 17 years old, was a Cub Scout. Packs over here are in Dens. Our youngest Cub Scouts start off as Tigers then go on to be Wolves, Bears and then on to Webelos Scouts. Webelos is a very strange word!! It stands for We be loyal Scouts! Back when I was Cub in England the top rank was the Leaping Wolf, this changed and we had Bronze, Silver and Gold Arrows, and just before you moved into the Troop you worked on the Link Badge. Here in the USA the highest rank a Cub Scout can earn is the Arrow of Light. What is really cool about the Arrow of Light is that you get to wear it on your Boy Scout uniform. I know that I had a lot of fun when I was in Cubbing in England and when I was Cubmaster over here in the USA. Still the real fun is in Scouts. I really do hope that you have a great time with the pack until January and then are ready for Scouts. Do you know what Patrol you will be in ? Eamonn.

Hi NIscouter My house-master was a Welsh international player. I have very painful memories of Rugby practice first thing on Monday mornings, when the ground was still frozen. Man did that ever hurt!! This was in the days when corporal punishment was allowed, if he thought you weren't "Giving it some well-ie" he made you bend over and whacked you on the behind with his training shoe. To this day I swear he must have had the biggest feet in the UK. Eamonn.

I have been known to take a walk in order to get a good pint of stout. So maybe I should be happy that it's not the Women's Temperance League. Welcome to the forum. Eamonn.

Hi Morainemom, I really enjoyed meeting your son and his buddy. That was some gateway that you had!! I hope the Lodge members from your Council got to attend the Section gathering that was held in the Staff Mess Tent. Ken Hager, our Section Chief was my 3rd ASM. He truly is a wonderful young fellow. He, apart from myself was the only member of our Troop that had attended a Jamboree before, he was with me in 01 and went to the World Jamboree. It really was a great meeting, each Lodge tried to sing their Lodge song a little louder and it seemed a little worse that all the others. Needless to say I thought Wagion was the loudest, but I might have a bias? The guys did a great job of promoting NOAC and the Conclave, I only hope Potomac Council is going to be ready for the numbers that might attend. We hope to beat the 75 we sent too Moraine Trails and are aiming for 100. I don't think you can ever relive the excitement of doing things the second time? I thought the middle of the closing show went on far too long and just wasn't that interesting. It might have worked as the opening, but we will never know. I really enjoyed the gentleman playing his saw in 2001. Still I bet having two working arms must have made life a little easier, even if it did mean that he had to help with the washing up. He is a super nice Lad and it really was my great pleasure to meet him. They are trying to talk me into going to NOAC, I'm not as yet sold, but if my back holds up I will be at the Conclave. Eamonn.

Hi Rick, While I wasn't all over the site, I have to say that I just didn't see what you describe. The Guys in Sub-camp 4 didn't have the problems that you describe. We had several members of our Council serve on the Jamboree medical staff, in different sub-camps and not one has described what you have. The Father of my 3rd ASM, a RN worked at Wilcox Hospital and he said the number was about 300 who needed help. Wilcox which in 2001 had twice as many beds was pushed and did send Scouts out to local ER's and did fly out extra equipment to these local hospitals. Some Scouts were also taken by helicopter to these hospitals, due to Wilcox being so short of beds. As I say I can't say how well or how badly the Scouts that were a long way from the Arena area fared. I do with all due respect think that you may be overstating it. Eamonn.

Wow - Gaelic Football Tournament !! A few years back a cousin of mine Eamonn Brady,played in the all Ireland for County Meath. I played Rugby in the number eight position (The smallest fellow on the team!!) And got the heck knocked out of me. I of course have a repertoire of rugby songs that could never be sung in mixed company or anywheres near our Scouts. I hope you find a way of sorting this mess out. I'm not sure how. Maybe it will all come down to A Scout is Trustworthy, and failing all else you can meet with a MB Counselor in your District and tell him what was covered? You might want to give your District Advancement Chairman a call. Does your Lad play Hurling? Eamonn.

No. Eamonn.

We kinda, sorta had the same problem, only different!! Last year at Summer Camp,two Staff members were caught stealing stuff from campers tents. Both Lads were signed up for the Jamboree. I admit if I'd had to make the call they would not have been allowed to attend the Jamboree. But it wasn't my call. The Scout Exec and their CO were OK with them going. Of course my good luck got really good and one was elected SPL for the Jambo Troop. I had several choices. I could pretend that I didn't know or that nothing had happened or I could talk with them. I opted to talk with them. I had them one at a time with their parents and I explained that they had made a big mistake and made bad choices. We talked about STAR STOP THINK ACT REFLECT. I asked them to reflect on what they had done and made it very clear if they did anything like this at the Jamboree they would be going home early. The Lad who wasn't SPL did manage to mess up again at Summer Camp and his parents took him out of the troop. The Lad who was SPL, did a wonderful job. I was so very proud of him and let him know that I was proud and grateful for the job he did. Now I'm really happy that I wasn't the one making the call, because I would have been wrong. I have to admit that seeing the term "Chuck Him" is really ever so sad. Surely we are here to help Lads make ethical and good choices, just wearing a Boy Scout uniform doesn't make a Lad into an Angel. Looking back to when I was a young Lad and the times I violated the Scout Oath and Law, if someone had chucked me, I would have been chucked around a lot. Eamonn.

Reading the postings about the Jamboree,it seems to me that there is some kind of expectation that at the Jamboree we Scoutmasters hand over the safe keeping of our Scouts to some group of unknown, unseen National types. This is not the case. I never for one minute gave up or handed over the welfare of the Scouts that I was serving to anyone. Sure the parents of the Lads that attended the Jamboree knew that there would be times when their son would be doing adventurous activities, where there was an element of risk. I however knew what the activities were and I knew the Scouts in my charge.I am very capable of telling a Scout that he isn't allowed to do something. I never ever enjoy telling him, but safety will always come first. I will never ever pass the buck. The parents of the Lads have entrusted me with their son. The buck starts here and ends here. While I am in no way a "Mother Hen", I take the buddy system very seriously and I keep an eye on each and every Scout. I take every opportunity to talk with them and make sure that they are OK, and if they do have a problem we work on fixing it. From the time we got on the bus, till the time I delivered them back to their parent they were my Lads. Lord knows I like to laugh and joke around and I really do think that Scouting has to be fun, still a Lad that is hurt, be it because of dehydration or because his scout shorts are chapping his legs isn't having fun. We do what we can to train them before any event, we at times go into "Preach Mode", Still we are ever vigilant for the well being of the Lads that we serve. I have no problem saying NO to anyone and when it comes down to looking after the Scouts in my care, no one is ever going to over ride my authority. I of course keep within the rules and follow the G2SS, not because I'm some kind of book thumper, but because it works. I like to think that both the parents and the Scouts know and are aware that I am looking out for them and their best interests and that I'm not being the green meanie out of spite or because I enjoy it. They also know that I am not going to allow anyone to prevent me doing what is best for their Son. Eamonn.

Hi, I never seem to have much joy with links to the BSA site You want to try and end up at: http://www.scouting.org/jamboree/world/pdf/68-07B.pdf Try going to the BSA site then to the 2007. Then download the leader application.(A pdf file. On the app there are details for service team members. I have heard that there are already a great number of these already in at National, so you may want to move fast. Eamonn I just tried the link that I provided and it works:)(This message has been edited by Eamonn)

Please do cut him some slack. The instructions were not very clear. We collected all the yellow slips. In fact we very nearly lost a couple when the second storm came!! We the Jambo Leaders are informing the Scouts home Troop SM what MB's were completed and what parts were completed if the entire Merit Badge wasn't complete. We are backing this up with a copy to the council service center and a blue card to the SM along with a copy of the yellow slip. We are also asking the home SM for permission to hold a Jamboree Troop COH, where we will present all the MB's along with some other" Awards" (Some serious and some not so serious) We will recognize all the Scouts for earning all the rockers. I feel sure all the SM's will allow us to go ahead with this, they of course can recognize the Lad again at their own COH. Sadly August is just such a busy month, I like to recognize a Scout as quickly as possible, but September will soon be here and by then I will have made all the disks and hope to have a half decent presentation made, the Jambo parents will be invited to bring a covered dish and I will provide the Gatorade - It will be just like old times. Eamonn.

Hey hacimsaalk12 It's far quicker and a lot more fun to walk and leave the bus for the visitors. I knew a few short cuts and our Lads thought that they were the cats whiskers, when they kept beating the other Troop at getting to where they were going first!! Needless to say the short cuts were found by just looking at the map. We could travel from Action Center D to the MB Midway in under 15 minutes. This route went past the female Scouts from Poland and was very popular.One ASM taught our guys how to say Good Morning and Good Evening, in Polish, needless to say they never did get it right but not for want of trying. One 13 year old took a shower and then doused himself in half a bottle of some evil smelling stuff - Axe?? So he would smell good, just for his pass by. Sadly they were no where near their site but I bet they got a good whiff of him no matter where they were. Eamonn.

Thanks for the Patch and pin. Some time back Terry used the term "Herding Cats", I kinda think this could be applied to finding people at the Jambo. We had parents who came a couple of times and never did get to see their son. Maybe if the Explorer restaurant is open in 2010 we can all meet there? I did get to meet Hops and Bob White and a couple of others. But I only got to see OJ 3 times. I will send you a PM. Eamonn.

I'm far too lazy to read all the reports that the media had on the Jamboree. While I am a skinny little old fellow, who is used to being active at Scouting activities, we did have with us as an ASM a 53 year old who is not that active and might be considered over weight. We had a couple of Scouts who were also a little on what might be called the chubby side. Before the mobilization to the first canceled arena show, we were informed that the only water bottles that were allowed would be clear bottles. As part of the fee the boys paid we had included a fanny pack with two gray plastic water bottles. Before our Scouts could leave the Troop site each day they had to show that these were full. Of course on the day these didn't work. We however had parents staying close to the site and a few calls brought water in clear plastic bottles by the case full. Water in clear plastic was also available in the vending machines at $1.50 a bottle or from the trading posts at $2.00 ?? A bottle. At our troop site we had Igloo coolers full of iced water and iced Gatorade. Before we took off we made sure all of our Scouts and leaders were throughly hydrated. They all wore hats /caps and wore a T-shirt under their Scout shirt, along the way I said that they could remove their Scout shirt as long as they put it on again to go through the security check point. We made sure they were all Sun- screened - even if the SM didn't do such a good job on his knees!! At times when we stopped along the route we had toasts. We toasted just about everyone from the President to the Queen of England, just to make sure that our Lads were drinking. There were water stations along the way and the only problem I ran into was a twit. Where sub-camps four and five met with the other sub-camps was a water station. I told our guys to refill, the guy who was trying to keep the lines moving wasn't very happy, he didn't want the line to stop and tried to give me a hard time. I informed him that he was starting to annoy me and he went away with his tail between his legs. Nothing but nothing was going to allow me to compromise the well being and safety of the Scouts in my charge. He did try telling me that there was another water station further along the route. I was really annoyed when there wasn't and was very upset when I thought that he had lied to me. Even if he didn't know, he should have not said that there was. Thankfully I can be a real right royal pain when I need to be. When we went to go through the security check we were told not to throw out any water that we had by the people at the check point and I was a little upset when I see Scouts with colored Nalgene water bottles. In fact the check point staff seemed to be unaware of the instructions that we had been given. After clearing security we found more water stations and were asked to send four Scouts up to collect more bottled water, each Scout came back with two cases. We didn't have any problems with Scouts and dehydration. Sure along the way we passed maybe a dozen or so Lads and leaders that were in distress. Sure it took a long time to hike in, but we passed the time singing camp-fire songs along with some Heavy metal head banging tunes!! The troop behind us had a Lad with a penny whistle and we sang along with them, they joined us in our toasting, we toasted the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the great State of Connecticut. Of course we were all a upset when the show didn't go on, but the Scouts understood that storms were coming and it was in their best interest. Maybe we did make the best of a bad job, but while I see it what we did as a waste of half a day, our Scouts choose to go and had fun along the way. We weren't moving fast enough to cause any distress to our "Bigger Guys" And all in all we were fine. Eamonn.

Yes we are home!! I have to admit to feeling like I have been run over by a very large Mack truck. It was nice to take a very long, very hot shower and sleep in my own very comfy bed last night. Troop 412, was a very young Troop, only the 3rd ASM and myself had ever attended a previous Jambo.When I looked at the size of our little Lads compared to the size of the Lads in other troops; even our other Council Troop, our Lads looked tiny. We were one of the very lucky Troops that were allowed to come in a day early. Still unloading all the gear off the truck and setting up camp was a chore. We got in about 3:30 PM. Later than I had planned, thanks to one Lad arriving on Sunday morning without his uniform!! We had to wait while he went home to retrieve it. The check in went well, even with the heightened security.The medical screening seemed to move a lot faster than four years ago. But it was hot. Some of the changes we had made in our equipment did make set-up a lot easier, but the work load and the heat make for slow progress. Our Sub-camp had a 8:00 PM Scoutmasters meeting, which I think was a bad idea. Taking the SM away from the unit to spent 135 minutes talking about stuff that could have been covered in a photo-copied handout, which the Commissioner Staff could have handed out, just wasn't very bright. Sure people had questions, but for the most part there were no answers, as the information had came down from "Above", with little or no explanation. Most questions were answered with "I don't know" or "This is what we have been told." Our little guys "Hit the wall" at about 8:00. Everything was done -Sort of. Tents and kitchens were up and the gateway was up.Our Scouts were already sick of hearing the leaders telling them to drink more water and almost force feed them Gatorade. The site was none too tidy when we went to bed. The Lads having discovered the joy of taking a cold shower. I never heard a single complaint. Our site never did manage to become the model site and never was as tidy as I might have liked and I admit it wasn't until the second to last day that I looked in the tents!! Then some were just perfect and others looked like my sons bedroom, I swear that some tent mates shared each others underwear, but I never asked or really wanted to know!! Monday morning we had a very quick PLC meeting, 135 minutes of information cut down to 10. And by 8:15 they were free to go out and discover the Jamboree. I felt like Fagin from the musical Oliver sending them out telling them: In this world one thing counts, drink water in large amounts. The rest of the days, looking back seem to all run into one and other. We were sad to hear about the tragedy. I met with the PLC and then each patrol to inform them of what I knew to be true, in later days the PL's took up a patch collection from the Scouts from Alaska. Our Sub-camp Chaplain, was /is a very close and dear friend of mine, in fact he was the SPL for NE-IV-153, when I was Scoutmaster, he came and talked to the Troop, we offered a prayer for all of those who were hurt by the accident. Before the Arena show which was later canceled, we had yet again another very long and very boring Sub-camp SM meeting. After which I met with the PLC and gave them the option of what they wanted to do. They choose to attend. We wasted a half a day in the heat. I can't help thinking that someone knew a long time before we even got to the arena that the show was going to be canceled and that our being there was part of a PR / photo-shoot opportunity for Bill Frist. I of course could be wrong. Over the time we were at the Jamboree I watched the Lads as they took off to do things that they wanted to do, some wanted to work on Merit Badges, some were happy to hang out at the activity centers, some wanted to work their way through everything. One little Lad told me yesterday how good the shrimp dinners were in the Explorer restaurant. I had challenged the Troop to have each and every Scout earn all the patches that go around the Jambo Patch. As some areas were closed at times because of the heat, this became really hard. But they managed to earn all of them. By day two, Lads who had never traded a patch in their life became expert traders, but unlike 2001 when trading took over these little fellows seemed happy to trade in the times when they were not doing something else. I watched Lads who at first looked at some activities with a "You'll never get me doing that" view. Try new activities and enjoy them, they moved from not wanting to even try the "Flying Squirrel" to "Hey I did the zip line twice". When we mobilized again (Yes after yet another meeting!!) there wasn't a word of complaint from the Scouts, they wanted to go and see the President, they wanted to see the fireworks. OK, I thought the middle of the Arena show was way too long and about as exciting as watching paint dry. I was shocked at the lack of bathroom facilities. I had held out for six hours without a cigarette and thought I would take a little hike into to woods behind the arena area for a smoke, the woods were full of Lads watering the trees, the lines for the 24 porta-potties were very long, with as many as sixty or more in each line!! Even one of my ASM's came back and admitted that he had used a tree. I talked with our Scouts and each one has a different take home message. One Lad who attended Mass with me thought that the Archbishop was really cool. A couple of Lads went to the Buddhist service and said that was different. Some Lads were up early to fish and thought that was great. (Hard on me, as I was their alarm clock!!) As the days past the PLC, moved the time that the cooks had to be back in the evening back later and later, because the Scouts were out and about doing stuff. Lads came back to the site full of the adventure that they had experienced. Sure there were things that went wrong, sure we had to deal with the heat, sure cooks were late coming back to the site. But I seen 36 Lads having fun, trying new things meeting new challenges. I seen Scouts working on doing their duty to God, proud to be Americans and proud that their President took the time to visit. They enjoyed the OA show, they didn't see the one four years ago and don't care if it was better or worse. They have no idea the frustrations that came out of meetings that went on too long or how hard it was trying to buy extra Igloo coolers, without leaving the Hill. When we unloaded the truck last night I held back and each and every Scout came and thanked me, I asked if they'd had fun? Each and every one said yes. When I asked if they wanted to go back, they were ready to get back on the bus!! Today, they will sleep, look at the Patches they traded. Parents will hear war stories, recounting the adventures they had. I think we really did go a very long way in doing our best to make the vision and mission of Scouting come alive for these Lads. I'm happy to be home, happy to be back with Rory,Shane,Joe and Her Who Must Be Obeyed. OJ, was on youth staff,I was overjoyed that he chose to spent his only day off from the COPE Course,with his Dad. We met up with Bob White, I was to meet him again, but got tied up with a case of an in-growing toe nail! I am really happy that I was allowed to be part of something that 36 Scouts and 3 Leaders will remember for the rest of their lives. We will learn from the things that we didn't do well, we will improve on the things that we did well. I know the message the Lads from Troop 412 took home from the Jamboree is that we had fun. Eamonn.

Hi Oren, Forgive the long delay. Some Myths or Junk that seems to be creeping back are: You have to do stuff for the Council/District in order to work your ticket. Some courses are treating the second part of the course (Days 4,5 & 6) as some kind of endurance test. There seems to a complete disregard to the pre-course assignment, which is really the ground work for the ticket. Staffs are spending all their time prepping for presentations and not seeing all the good material that is in the Troop meetings. Information about what you need to do in order to take the course is at times so wrong that it just isn't funny. Some courses still seem to think that it is still a Boy Scout Troop Leader course. One Council I know of has decided that they don't like parts of the course and have brought back some of the material from the old Boy Scout course. Yes it was good stuff and still is, but it isn't part of the course. Eamonn.

Hi Scout Commish, I do like your thinking. For a very long time I have been saying that everything we do depends on the program we offer. Membership: If our youth are having fun and doing stuff they will bring their pals in. If parents and the local community see and are aware of a good quality program they will stand behind it. and be more willing to support it financially. At present we do seem to lack the volunteers who have the time and are willing to support the units, so that they can deliver a quality program. Eamonn.

Back when I was Scouting in England, the only Professional Scouters were those who worked for the National Association. 99.9% of the time no one had any idea who these people were. I know that there has been a lot of changes over there and it seems that they are becoming a little more BSA like. At the time I was over there I was way too busy running a Troop to have concerns about much else. The District was very much the heart of Scouting (After the Scout Group) The District Chairman, was not a very important position. But the District Commissioner was seen as being the Top Man. Just about everything was run by volunteers. If you needed to pick up badges you went to see the Badge Secretary, he was available on Tuesday nights from 7:00 - 9:00. We seemed to have a lot of District events and held a Scout Leaders meeting once a month. There was also a District Meeting once a month, chaired by the District Commissioner. We didn't have a District or County office. While there were about a dozen National Camp Sites and some lucky Districts and some Counties did own camps, these tended to be just areas to camp. Some did have a pool, but there were no dining halls or camp staffs that would take care of badge work. There have been a lot of improvements to these and many have become Adventure Centers, with climbing walls and different sorts of ranges, but still they for the most part seem to be independent of any outside interests. They are used mainly at weekends and staffed by volunteers with maybe one full time employee. A couple of years back I camped with a Troop from London that was camping at Nottingham District camp site. The only time we saw the Camp Warden was when he opened the camp shop and that was only for about an hour a day. I really can't see American Scouts and Leaders wanting to make that big a change. When I look at our Council, which is one of the bigger Councils in our Area. I see our June membership at 4,120 Traditional members. The Learning for Life numbers seem to be like a yo-yo, but the reports say that we have 4,548 LFL Members. We operate two camps, one summer camp that once the winter snow comes you can't get into until spring thaw. The other is very primitive, with only a couple of wells and outhouses for bathrooms. It does have one building and a Campmaster building. Summer Camp runs for seven weeks and serves about 1,500. We have 2 Full time and 2 part time LFL workers who report to the Field Director, the 4 DE's also report to him. We have a full time Program Director, who used to be the Assistant SE and of course a SE. We have an office staff of 8. When I see that we only have 88 packs, 79 Troops and 22 Crews. This seems like a lot of staff for 189 units. A couple of years back we timbered the small camp and got $150,000 of which $100,00 went to upgrade our computer systems. While we do have a very healthy and well managed endowment fund we ended last year $100,000 short and didn't put the money from a golf outing into the fund. This year it looks like we will end up $130,00 short and are looking at making some very large cuts. Next year summer camp will cost a fair amount more. While up until now it has been OK for District events to break even, we will have to look at all events making money, maybe as much as 20%. And then there is the staff. The volunteers see the Program Director and work with him and like him. He has been here for a very long time. (Over 20 years)If he were to go the DE's could cover what he now does, but I'm unsure what it would do to the family FOS? The volunteers don't see or know the Field Director and don't know much about LFL. If he were to go the SE would have to take care of that. There is talk about going down to 3 Districts, with so few units this seems like a good idea. How much service does the DE do for a Cub Scout pack? We as a Council don't seem to have the same clout that we used to have, even ten years ago I could go into a local business and ask for the Boy Scouts and come out with a check, I now have to beg and those that do give seem to never have heard about inflation!! Trying to get the big bucks is becoming harder and harder. Even the volunteers seem to have the mindset that because they give of their time that there is no need to put their hand in their pocket. While we have a big Metro Council on one side of us the one on the other side is a very large rural Council who is in far worse shape than we are. As a District we do raise a fair amount of money. We could support a DE and a part time office worker. But is that what we want to do? Eamonn.

Other than the Tour permit, in our Council and District we are very much in favor of inter-unit activities. We don't have any Sea Scout units, so unless there is some insurance issue that I have never heard about, I fail to see what the big deal is? Eamonn.

I enjoy Scouting, I really enjoy being around the youth members and the new leaders at training's. I don't see this game or the purpose as being rocket science. The sad thing is that there are things that just can't be taken lightly. The safety of our Scouts is always number one and we have to take this very seriously. I do think that we should play this game by the rules and like it or not a lot of the rules come out of the National office and from different committees. The thing that I'm finding harder and harder to see as part of the game is the financial end of things. Sure we all like to have the odd moan and groan and some of us see that we could maybe do a better job of how we spend the money we raise. But when we start making cuts and these cuts hurt people that we know and like and the end result is that families get hurt. I take this very much to heart. It is sad when programs get cut or lost due to lack of money, but we tend to be like Little Orphan Annie, singing about the sun coming out tomorrow. Eamonn.

The application does need to be signed by the Council SE. Sent in to the National Office with $500.00. As far as I know the question of how many Troops or Crews each Region will get is still up in the air. When I asked our Area President about this he said that our Area, which covers 13 Councils, does normally get a Troop.But so far I have yet to hear if we will get one or not. Reading between the lines on the web-site, it says that the BSA has chartered 80 buses for the event. This might mean that we have 80 units?? 2,880 youth members and 320 unit leaders?? It does seem that there is a lot of interest in the event and there will be a stand at the National Jamboree, so I think that interest will grow. However many of the parents that I have spoken with have said that the price tag is just more than they can manage. There is a lot of adults who really do want to attend, but there isn't that many adult spaces. A pal of mine has said that he is going to just go over and visit, he is taking his wife and son. He thinks he can take all three of them for what the Jamboree would have cost for one. Eamonn.

The truck was loaded over the weekend and sealed on Tuesday. We had our last pre-jambo Troop meeting last night. In the light of what happened in London a couple of weeks back, we did a little more work on Emergency Preparedness. Last Jambo we had a few Scouts who had been before, this time only my-self and the 3 ASM have. We leave at 7:00 AM and with a fair wind and not too long eating hope to be at the Hill by about 1:00 PM on Sunday. We are in Sub-camp 4 with Troop 412. I am the very good looking fellow with white hair, green shorts and a tan shirt, who talks with a southern accent. Southern London that is!! I do answer to "Hey You" or "Hey Limey" but when I was in hot water at home my Mum called me Eamonn Oliver!! Eamonn Walsh SM Troop 412.

Hi KS, I was with you all the way until : "To walk away from that, not repaying Scouting for what one received, is the greater sin in my opinion." I don't think that there is or should be any expectation of any kind of pay back in Scouting. If we have done a good job we will have helped meet the mission of Scouting (BSA). I know that when I sit on the BOR for some Eagle Scouts candidates, I do hope that one day they will return and serve in some way. While there are some youth members who do manage to stay involved in Scouting either through the OA or Venturing. We as an organization don't offer the 18 or 21 year old college student or young worker very much. Eamonn

Does the Beatles Patrol Patch have the fab four on it? I think that "We all live in a yellow submarine" would make a great Patrol yell. Eamonn