Eamonn

I'm not that smart or very clever and I didn't sleep at a Best Western last night. But when it comes to Tour Permits,I with the aged 90 year Eagle. Fill out the form and stick it in the fax. When anyone in the District asks me this is what I tell them. Even a Den doing a tour of our local Pizza Hut. Having all the eyes dotted and the tees crossed is a good thing if anything should go wrong. Eamonn.

I wish I could help, but I have never seen a special ceremony for this, most times it is part of the Troop COH. Eamonn.

"If it were up to any of you and you wanted to explain the First Class advancement part of the program in one sentence to a New SM who doesnt have any scouting experience, what would you say? " I don't think I can or could do it!! I still get phone calls from new Scoutmasters with five or six years in asking how I would go about doing something. Back when I was a participant at Wood Badge the catch phrase seemed to be "Check your resources" A new Scoutmaster might have people around him that know and understand the program and how it works or he might have to look for a mentor. Some Leaders are happy to see the Scouts take part in a first year camper course at camp, where the Scouts cover the skills needed for First Class rank, while they tend to the fire all day!! Some Scouter's will read the handbooks and go out of their way to follow what is inside. Others never open any of the handbooks. My advise to any new leader would be to attend training's and ask lots of questions. Eamonn.

Last year the Lodge changed the Lodge Year. It now follows the National Year, this makes tracking and registering members a lot easier. It also means that the new Officers are elected at the OA weekend in October and can be trained (NLS is offered in November) so come January these guys are ready to do their job. I wasn't part of the decision, but it seemed to make sense to me. However, at the Conclave last weekend our Lodge Chief was elected Section Chief. This should mean that the Vice Chief Program moves into the vacant spot. What should be done to fill the vacant spot? The Vice Chief Admin is happy where he is at and doing what he is doing and really doesn't want to move up into the Vice Chief Program spot. Vice Chief Admin. Is my kid!! Eamonn. We have looked over the rules of the Lodge and so far can't find anything. As the Vice Chief Admin. is also the Lodge Parliamentarian, people are looking to him for an answer.

I'll be looking forward to meeting him. Eamonn. Who is the SM?

Juggler Hi and Welcome to the forum. Of course in the cool light of day Bob is right. I have no idea why people think or act the way this advancement chair has acted. Training might work, it is worth a try. But if he still continues to act this way the committee should be thinking of finding a replacement. Eamonn.

Not to change the subject but....... Some little time back a Scouter from Denmark posted that he wanted to write an article on a American Boy Scout. OJ said he was interested. Things got slowed down a little due to a computer not working somewhere. Anyway OJ came out a couple of days back with his answers to the questions the Danish Scouter had asked. I looked it over and looked up OJ was shaking his head with a pitiful look in his eye. He took his laptop from me and said "You know Dad my history report was only 1,000 words, this is 1,600!! It's not fair!" Eamonn. Ed, What ever happened to that show on Sunday morning? It was on WB22 wasn't it?

While showing or teaching a Lad or an Adult how to tie a knot, I think the real trick is putting him in a situation where he really gets to use it. Kinda comes under the heading "Use it or lose it" Eamonn.

I gladly admit to being an old Codger when it comes to the traditional Scoutcraft skills!! I do see that new styled equipment may not require the same level of knowledge that maybe it once did. But looking back, once a tent had been used a few times, there was no need to keep tying knots. I don't live very far from our primitive Council camp and very often do open it up when people want to camp there. There is a unit that seems to be there every time I seen to be there. They are not in the same District as myself, but I know the SM, in fact he was a member of the Owl patrol when he did his Wood Badge back in 1999, I was his Troop Guide. Without wishing to be unkind the guy is not the brightest light on the Christmas Tree. This Troop is at camp a lot, but other then sleeping in tents and playing with the fire, they never seem to do anything. They are there so often, I very much doubt if they ever go anywhere else. While I'm sure this is or was fun and adventure for the little Lad when he first joined the Troop, I have to think that it must get old real quick. I know from comments that my son who will be 17 next month has made he thinks what they do is just boring and he makes a point of rolling the "r"!! I really don't see that going away to sleep in a tent and eat outside offers the PL the opportunity to lead. If we are going to really make the Outdoors method work we need to ensure that the Adult Leaders have the skills. Sure if we have Scouts who have them, let them be involved with passing the skills on to the little Lads and the adults who may not have them. But somewhere along the line the Scout, be he young or old has to learn the skill from someone? If he isn't learning it from his Troop Leaders I think that's a shame. I have always used the Troop meetings as the prep area for the big event the big event being the weekend activity. I hate riding a bicycle, but if the PLC had a bike hike as the monthly activity, we used that a the theme for the month. We looked at road safety, maintaining your bike, reading a road map and the list goes on. Camp gadgets are only boring if you sell them as being boring!! I have seen inter-patrol gadget building competitions result in some very ingenious contraptions and along the way the Scouts have used the knots and lashings that we practiced at the troop meetings. If the day comes when we no longer use outdoors as a method of Scouting and there is no need to learn the outdoor skills, I think that they should no longer be requirements. But they are still required and as long as they are someone has to be able to teach them to our Scouts. Not just knots and rope, but all the outdoor skills. If the Troop Leaders don't have these skills is it any wonder why a Scout doesn't reach Fist Class? Worse still we have Scouts that have been signed off as knowing this stuff when they have as much idea of what they are supposed to know as flying to the moon. Eamonn.

I will be with Troop 412 in Sub-camp 4. Me thinks that trying to set up a time and place might be difficult, with so many of us all doing different things at different times. Still if I or if someone else wants to look at the guide and pick out what looks like a good time that would be fine. I know that Bob White will be there but is kinda tied up doing what he has to do. We hope to "Tear Down" on the last night so that will be a real busy time for me. Eamonn.

Welcome back Mark, you were missed. I do think that we have to do what works and at times go with the flow. Last year the Troop that OJ, is a member of had a entire herd of Lads cross over I think there were about 16. This year they only got two. Of course two Scouts are not enough to form a NSP. I know that I belong to the cuckoo patrol, but I don't think that I live in cuckoo land!! While I haven't served as a Scoutmaster for sometime, I really don't see any real need to make an issue of Scouts becoming or reaching the rank of First Class in a reasonable amount of time. I don't need National or anyone telling me that if there are a lot of Scouts that have been in the Troop for eons and have not reached First Class that something isn't working. Maybe we need in this thread to take a look at what might not be working? I sure as heck don't have all the answers, but a few ideas I have are: Attendance. Seems to me that if Scouts are not attending meetings and not doing activities that no one is going any place let alone getting there is a reasonable amount of time. Maybe we need to take a long hard look at our meetings and see what we can do to make them better. Sure we can blame other activities as being the reason why little Timmy isn't attending meetings, but who is really checking? Is the SPL, the PL and if need be the SM calling to see why? And ensuring that Timmy knows that when whatever he is doing is done that he will be welcomed back. In House Skills. Looking at the adults in OJ's Troop and there is a lot of them, very few have the skills needed to be able to show the Scouts or demonstrate the skill to a Scout. The older Scouts don't have the skills. So who is going to teach the Scout? Worse still is the fact that having no one in house who has these basic skills means that these skills are never part of the program, so even if the Lad does learn them some place else, he is never going to use them and when the time comes to really put them to use the Lad hangs back, at times the map and compass becomes a hot potato. I like the new Outdoor skills Training but you can only learn or teach so much in a weekend. Imagination. I was a little surprised when someone posted that the adults in the troop were playing Boy Scout. We never had that problem. The adults were far too busy thinking up "Problems" that when presented to the Scouts involved saving the world, nuclear bombs, swamps filled with man eating crocodiles, water fights, flour bombs, home-made cannons, monkey bridges, and that sort of good stuff. I don't have any problem with the trips to amusement parks, or miniature golf outings, but I still think we need to do the good old traditional scout stuff. A lot of other things do come into play things like recognition, Patrol Leader training,equipment and the care of it. I have to marvel at the Troops that spend time presenting merit badge classes, I just don't know where they find the time? Eamonn.

Hopper is alive and well, I talked to him last night in the MSN chat room. He will be at the Jambo working in the Area D rappelling area. The guy in charge of that area is from the same council as myself. So they will be hanging out together or is that dangling? I really am looking forward to meeting him, as OJ is also working in Action Area D and Troop 412 has been invited to be the first troop to go through the rappelling area (They want to see how long it takes to get so many Scouts through in a specified time.) I think the chances are good. Eamonn.

I don't think that there is such an animal as the ideal kid or ideal Scout. At times when I sit on Eagle Scout BOR's I try to find out what motivated a Lad to want to become an Eagle Scout. This is mostly for my own curiosity. I have talked with Lads who seem to have made plans of what they are going to do with their entire life. Some of these Lads see Eagle Scout as just another step toward getting to where they want to go. I used to think that these Lads were being pushed by their parents, some of course are, but there are Lads who at a very early age know what they want and know how to get there. I have talked with Lads who were just too busy doing other stuff and left everything too till the very last minute. It's kind of easy to think of them as being lazy little toads. But I talked with a Lad at the last BOR that I sat in on, his goal in life is to be a radio sports announcer or commentator. He could talk about baseball and basketball, the players and the stats till the cows came home. I look at my Lad and see that the other stuff does include soccer and track, but it also includes the OA and the time he spent trying to be a good SPL. I have seen little fellows who are so darn intelligent that they are way beyond their years and older Lads that I swear have a big R and a big L on their socks and still haven't worked out that you can wear a sock on either foot. I think we need to stop thinking about the ideal Lad or the ideal age. Each and every Scout is different, his motivation is his. The goal of becoming an Eagle Scout should be his. Our role in this should be that we help and support him. Help and support is a long way from push and bully him and hopefully is even further from slowing him down or making it tough or harder than it is. There is a active thread about First Class Scout, I think that helping a Scout to become a First Class Scout should be a Troop goal. After that the Lad should be able to set his own goals and age doesn't come in to it. Eamonn.

In our Council people who have served on staff at our summer camp seem to belong to some sort of highly esteemed group. Having served myself and being a member of group I don't have any problem with it!! The walls of the new building at camp, which serves as the camp central control and cost big bucks, is named after a dearly loved professional. His painting hangs over the fireplace in the big meeting room. At times when the light coming through the sky lights is right the room takes on the air of a church or temple!! The big painting over the fireplace and photos of camp staffs going back to the 1950's hang on the wall, almost like Stations of the Cross. Every year when camp is over we have a Camp Staffer picnic. We all bring covered dishes and hang out telling war stories from camp. These seem to mainly be about over-sized fires, Scouts who got lost and were found by Camp Staffers, plumbing, damage done to the camp truck, and who holds the record for getting the tractor stuck in the most remote location. The age of this groups goes from 85 down to about 16. While as far as I know, no one from the camp staff went on to land on the moon or become President. The group does have a lot of teachers,a few that did a stint at working for the BSA, a few that went on to work for the Wildlife and Game Commission. The guy who was Program Director when I served in 1977 in now the Director of Parks for the county. There are a few guys who work in Law Enforcement and an Undertaker. Last year we started collecting a few dollars from those who wanted to give, to be used for Camperships. This group is by no stretch of the imagination a secret group and most of the guys who are still in the area are involved with Scouting at some level. The photographs that hang in the Camp building are the group photographs that are taken each summer. There is no names, just the staff. It's fun to try and work out if that really is who you think it is. When I look at the 1977 Staff I see my father-in-law. That year he was laid off, the Camp Director and the Camp nurse were a husband and wife team, who lived next door to him. I had no idea when that picture was taken how much these three people would do to change my life. Scoutmasters come away from camp each year saying that this year the Camp Staff was good, bad, super or terrible!! But the Camp Staffers when we meet all believe that the staff or staffs that they served on was the best. I was wondering if we are alone in this Camp Staff hero worshiping or if the same thing is true for every camp staff? Eamonn.

or worse still move in with you !! Eamonn.

KS you want two scoops of ice cream? And Sprinkles on top!! Eamonn.

I was reading something the other day and seen that the Scout Executive, who was Scout Executive when I came over to the USA had passed away. I think it must have been in the Northeaster, the quarterly newspaper that the Northeast Region sends out. He passed away several months ago. There is only a couple of people in the Council Service Center who were around when he was Scout Executive. He had retired a long time back and moved away from the area. I did send his widow a card. Had I known earlier I would have passed the hat and done something more. While there are people I know that just love to complain and who by always complaining at times don't get taken seriously. There are some that never say a word until it's too late. I receive al sorts of reports from our Council Service Center, I do read and study them. Some of these reports do at time send up a red flag. If I look at the Advancement Report and see a Troop that shows little or no advancement. I want to know why? I also think to myself that the reasons could be: Membership, if there a fewer Scouts there are fewer advancements. Program, or leadership. There are of course times when everything is fine and dandy and the Troop has been busy doing something else. Or the Scoutmaster has a case full of blue cards that he hasn't handed in. I normally would call the District Commissioner and ask him to find out from the Unit Commissioner what was happening. We at present don't have a District Commissioner so the Assistant District Commissioners will be the people that will get the call. Membership Reports are tough. While they do show unit growth, they don't tell me what is really happening in the unit. The problem is that once a boy is registered he is on the charter till the unit recharters. In some other threads some have said that this is somehow cheating?? But I pay my annual dues to the club and am a member of the club for a year. It doesn't matter if I set foot in the place, they will count me as a member. I have seen packs where a Den leader has quit and all the Cub Scouts leave, but they will still show up on the membership report. Then if they recruit more Cub Scouts, I think they are doing well. Unit Commissioners are the eyes and ears of the District. They should be telling what is really happening in the unit. When I was District Commissioner, I asked that if the UC wasn't able to attend one of the monthly Commissioners meetings, that they mail me a copy of the visitation report/Commissioner worksheet. We also used a color to see what we needed to be doing. Green was everything is fine and dandy. Yellow was the unit needed help and Red was the Unit had big problems and if we didn't do something fast it might close. Sad to say the District Commissioner that we replaced wasn't keeping an eye on the Unit Commissioners and we had units that didn't have a Commissioner or they had one that wasn't doing anything. The District really does want to help and support the Units and the Unit leaders. We invite COR's to attend the District Committee meetings. I have an agenda item that is for their reports. If they have a concern we want to help, we also minute what they report so if they do have something it isn't going to get lost, it will be there next month. I have tried really hard not to ask Unit Leaders to serve on the District Committee. I think that they should be working with the unit. There are of course times when nothing we do works!! I don't have lists of people who are waiting to be leaders!! We can help a unit set up a Nominating Committee. I like to think that everyone in the District knows me and hope that I'm not that hard to talk to. But still things go wrong. I wish people would just pick up the phone and let me know. Or let someone know before things get so bad that it's even too late to pass the hat. Eamonn

I really do want to echo what Terry said about not becoming anything more than a normal participant. This is a great place to exchange ideas and to reach out to give or get help. I really am looking forward to meeting as many forum members as possible at the Jamboree and seeing what your ugly mugs look like!! Eamonn

Kinda think that everyone is seeing the names in the moderator area and it's not rocket science. So I will put my hand up with Unc's Eamonn.

Page 5 of the 2003 - 2005 Insignia Guide covers Jackets and their Insignia. In a nut-shell it states that the Universal emblem is worn on the left pocket or if the jacket is the nylon jacket, in that area. The Philmont bull is specifically designed for the red wooljac-shirt. There is a list of what 6-inch patches can be worn on the back, but states only one can be worn. Hope this helps. You might want to see if the Troop has a copy of the guide in the Troop Library. But they are real cheap you might want to donate one? Eamonn.

I'm with Eagledad and SemperParatus. The problem of having Scouts doing Citizenship and that sort of MB at camp is not the Scouts. It's the Camp. I was really surprised one year when I found out that our camp was offering Family Life. While I might not be happy with what the camp is offering telling or discouraging a Lad would be like taking him to an ice cream store and not allowing him to have a ice cream!! Eamonn.

It seems to me that there is going to a lot of new things coming at this Lad all at once. You can keep him a charter, there is a title and code that I think I know but can't remember at this moment. I feel sure your Council Registrar would know!! Give the Lad a chance to sort things out and get used to all the new things. Let him and his Mother know that the door will be open when and if he returns. If that time does come then sit down with him and work out what the needs of the Troop are and where he fits in with helping to meet these needs. There is in our Council a Scouter who has all sorts of problems and is also deaf and dumb. He is in his late 40's. I don't know him very well, but I see him at the OA weekends that I attend and when I look in at camp. Most times he is busy mowing grass or painting. He really likes collecting patches and when I remember I raid the Tupperware Box and bring him up a couple. I have no idea what he does in his home unit, but he works his tail off getting camp ready for the summer. Eamonn.

I did send OGE a PM, expressing my gratitude for all he has done and is doing. I do however feel that we can't dwell in a negative past and should move on toward a positive future. I know last week I allowed myself to become a little upset with a forum member and the material he was posting. When I look at what I just wrote I see: I know I allowed Myself. It does kinda look like this was my problem and I was at the heart of the problem. To make matters worse I wasn't happy to just allow myself to be upset, I had to take the next step and fire off a smart-Alec reply. This didn't go any further, but at times as we have seen this starts a cycle of trying to prove that "I am right and you are wrong". I feel sure that there a lot of other voluntary organizations that wish they had volunteers who have the passion and love of their organization that we have in Scouting. While there are times when we allow someone to get on our last nerve, we do need to remember that we are on the same team, doing what we can to serve and support the VIP's or maybe that should be VIPS Very Important People Scouts. Eamonn.

I see part of the problem as being that there are a lot of people who never get the opportunity to follow the program. They join a Troop as a Scout, which isn't following the program work their way through the what they see as the program and years later become the leader of this Troop that never has followed the program. I hate the "We don't do it that way" group as much as anyone, but the real truth is that they never seen it done right. Training should be the answer, but again we find people who want to present training's by the seat of their pants. I had the very sad job of telling a Wood Badge staff member that his services were not required because what he was presenting wasn't the syllabus. A super nice fellow and when I explained what he wasn't doing right, he said "I'm more of a seat of my pants sort trainer." The sad thing was that the guy had been in charge of presenting the Scoutmaster and Assistant Scoutmaster Outdoor Skills course in the District that he served. He has been around for a very long time and is liked and respected by the people in the District. I know that when I became a Scoutmaster of the Troop that I had been a Scout in, I found myself doing what my Scoutmaster had done. I'm not sure what my thinking was? I do think I thought this must have worked and I'm proof that it does work. There was also a part of me that seen changing things as being somehow disrespectful. Eamonn.

I went with the Classic YATCH BOY 205 Grundig, from Picou Builders Supply Co. Inc. This is the company that the link brought me to. It was only $29.99 and $11.00 shipping. It is small only 3-3/4" High x 6-1/4" Wide x 1-1/2" Thick. They have a good selection of hand cranked and solar powered radios. A real nice looking one for $59.99. I never really got into radio as any sort of a hobby. I have always enjoyed listening to it!! If I'm up early enough I try to catch the BBC World service news. Our local PBS radio station doesn't air it but depending on the weather I can pick it up on the West Virgina, PBS station. In fact I much prefer their line up of shows to what is on our station. The radio on my stereo system is not bad, but I tend to not use it very much. In fact I tend to load it with CD's and just play them till I get sick of hearing them. I have a fairly good Thorens TD 165 Turntable with a Shure M97xE cartridge and kenwood speakers and Fidelity amp. I keep saying that I will one day change all of my vinyl over to CD,that one day never seems to come. Last year some of the HS soccer games were only aired over computer radio stations, one day I will play around in that area. But right now I'm so far behind that I don't think I will ever catch up. Eamonn.