Eamonn

Laurie, OK, speaking only for myself. I love having females in Scouting. They add an understanding that I know I sometimes don't see or understand. My Son has been brought up to respect others, and that includes Girls. The path works both ways. When Volley ball wasn't offered last year to the boys, he went and tried out for a place on the Girls Volley Ball team. He was the only boy that did. He had a great time. I still like women to be women, even if they can do just about everything that I can do and I'm willing to admit that many do a better job then I can do. Sure there are some bone heads around even in this great organization. But once you know that they are just bone heads you can take plenty of no notice. Could it be that I lived in a country that was led by a female? I didn't like her politics, but she was a really great leader. Eamonn

When I first read the question my first thought was, who cares what people think!! The Leaders, male or female have been selected by the Chartering Organization to do a job. Trying to judge how other people see us is something that I don't spend a lot of time on, when it comes to the leadership being male or female. I would guess that Joe Public accepts female leaders in Cub Scouting more then it does male leaders. When I was in Cub Scouting I used to get my leg pulled about not being man enough for "Real" Scouting. We at this time do not have any female Scoutmasters in the district. We do have a fair amount of female ASM's. Cubmasters is about 50/50. Den Leaders, females outnumber the males by about two to one. We have a female DE and have had a female District Commissioner. Just as I would hope that we are color blind when it comes to leaders, I would hope that we are gender blind. Joe Public also seems to have a hard time that some of us can be in Scouting and not be involved with a Troop and spending half of our lives in the woods. Still the good thing is that almost all of the people that I meet and talk with think that we are doing a good job. Go BSA!! Eamonn

No Unc. The offer is OJ. Shane is not the proud owner of a driving permit. Shane didn't jump into the driving seat last night and inform me that he was driving home. That was OJ, it was his first time driving in the dark. Of course if you talk to Her That Must Be Obeyed, she will want you to take me. If that were to happen both you and I would be put up for adoption by Mrs. Unc. - But Boy would we have fun!! Eamonn.

Having served six years as a District Commissioner I find it hard to say politely how much I really hate rechartering. I am 100% for anything that makes it better. Going back to my Cubmaster Days. The Charter did the rounds from Commissioner to the Pack Committee Chair, to me and I always seemed to be the one who ended up in the sitting room of the Parish Priest waiting for him to sign off. Of course we know each other and have worked on other committees. He was happy that the Pack was there, worked with us on the Scout Sunday Service, allowed bake sales after mass. But that one time a year when I asked him for $20.00 and waited for him to sign the charter was the one time when we really talked about the pack and the little guys in the pack. We discussed how many had gone to resident camp, how things were going at all levels of Scouting. He normally offered me a drink, which I felt that I had to accept. Bad thing it was some sort of prune brandy- yuck!! I tried to avoid it by giving him a bottle of Bushmills every Christmas, but I got stuck with this stuff that made the worst tasting medicine seem good!! I hope that on line rechartering isn't going to get in the way of meetings like this. Eamonn.

If you are looking for activities for Webelos Scouts. The Activity Pins that they work on offers a lot of ideas. I think that Webelos Scout camps where there are Boy Scouts ought to be run for the Webelos Scouts, using Webelos Scouts activities not "Tamed Down" Boy Scout activities. Even some of the basic Scout skills require a degree of coordination that these little fellows have not yet got. Webelos Scout are just that Webelos Scouts, they are not little Boy Scouts. Eamonn.

Good 4 U. Eamonn

Political? please explain. Eamonn

In 16 months and 3 days, my term as District Chairman will be over. The new Chair has been selected. He has been busy working with the Finance Committee. In 2005 he will become the District Vice Chair. And I while I'm unsure what I am going to do in the District or Council, will be busy serving on the Area Committee. The next year is going to be a little rough. We have a new DE, who is new to the profession. In fact this is his first job since college. The Vice Chair. Is a super nice chap. A father to a Lad in the District, active in the community and president of our small home town bank. He was a Cub Scout (My Mother in-law was his Den Mother) But was never a Boy Scout. He is not going to have the time that I put in, but I'm aware that I stuck my nose into a lot of stuff that really wasn't in my job description. At times me being a program person worked against me, or I allowed it to work against me.I have to admit that I don't think that this role and I were a perfect fit. I enjoy being where the people are. Not that we don't have people on the District Committee!! In fact I take a lot of pride in the fact that we no longer have Committees of one. As was the case when I took office. Working with the Nominating Committee we now have a lot of good people working in all areas of the District. Sad to say we only had one person in charge of popcorn!! My role on the Area Committee will be done near the end of 2007, after the World Jamboree. What follows that is so uncertain that I haven't really given it much thought. I will go where I'm asked to go. If I'm not asked I hope to remain as a member of the Council at large. Eamonn.

The big thing is not where these little fellows camp, it is the program that they have. Unless the program is geared for them they really ought not be participating in a Boy Scout Program Eamonn.(This message has been edited by Eamonn)

In the past we have held a Corn Roast. This is the kick off meeting for the new Scouting year.We covered a lot of stuff at this meeting. Maybe too much? We handed out the popcorn packets to the units and covered School Sign Up. A couple of years back the District Committee decided that we needed to spend more time on Sign Up, so we added an ice cream social. This year some bright spark in the Council Service Center said that we couldn't hand out the popcorn packets at the Corn Roast and we had to have a Popcorn Training. To make matters worse we had to do it at the Ice Cream Social. I wasn't very happy. I moaned and groaned and sent E-mails to the pros. At one stage I was winning the SE said that we could hand out the popcorn packets at the Corn Roast, but the Council Popcorn chair worked on him and he then said that we couldn't. Not long after it was in the Council newspaper that the popcorn packets would be passed out at a Popcorn Training which would be on the same night as the Ice Cream Social. Our District Popcorn Chair. Is the mother of four and she informed me that she couldn't make it. No problem, I can do that. I said. I was out and about all day. I return home to a message from the Membership Chair. He is in hospital!! No problem, I will have to do that. I have a power point presentation ready for the popcorn stuff but it all revolves around a DVD that Trails End has made. One of the pros is bringing it from the Service Center. The meeting is at the Camp site. The key is in a box with a combination on the box. The Box refuses to open. They have changed the combination!! I phone a friendly camp master he gives me the wrong combination. By now the windows which are all locked are becoming very tempting. OJ, is playing with the lock box. We try all the easy combinations (it's letters) We try BSA no luck. We try the first three letters of the camp name - Again no luck. Going back to the camp masters wrong combination we come up with the idea that this is close to the name of the other building which is named for a departed Scouter. His real name was Edison but everyone called him Pete. So we replaced the "E" with a "P" and we were in. The ice cream was nice and soft by now!! We unload tons and tons of papers. We have popcorn papers, School Sign up papers, posters yard signs the whole nine yards. OJ sets up the A/V stuff a laptop and a projector. The pro from the office arrives. Soon I have him mixing up bug juice. OJ, is doing a dry run on the power point. I ask where the DVD is? He has brought a VHS tape!! We don't have a VCR !! So dispatch someone to go to my house to pick up a VCR. Of course we don't tell anyone. I start into the joys of School Sign Up Night. I am doing this by the seat of my pants. Soon I have everyone singing silly Cub Scout repeat after me songs. In the past we have set goals for the units, tonight I ask them unit by unit to set the goal and shout it out. I then chided them into adding one or two more. The VCR arrived. We break for cookies and soft served ice cream. We do the popcorn stuff. I suggest that every family be set a goal of $500 in sales. I thought that this would land me in hot water - It didn't, so I explain the scholarship and $2,000 in sales they ask if they get the scholarship and the prizes. We get two more units to sign up for the sale. By now I am worn out. But boy did I have fun. We need 180 Cub Scouts for Quality District. The goals that they set will bring in over 200. We need 10 Boy Scouts their goals will bring in over 60. We need 2 Venturers their goal will bring in over 30. The Pro from the Service Center said as he was leaving "I thought that you didn't want to do this?" Eamonn

Unc, We have discussed our pets and while I'm not a cat person I dearly love our dogs. We have Joe the English Setter, who is close to being a cat. Most of his day is spent sleeping and finding different places to sleep. When I'm home he is rarely far from me. We have a big picture of him asleep on our fridge with a caption that reads "Joe preparing to go goose hunting." We also have Shane a collie that looks very much like Lassie. Shane is OJ's dog he sleeps in his room.When OJ, was young he would ride his bike and Shane would be running along side of him. Shane loves to play ball and will case and fetch till his mouth bleeds. Sad to say he is going on 14 and his hips are not in great shape. We lost Woofter a few years back. She was a Manchester Terrier that we bought in London when we were first married. She was my dog as a pup she would wrap herself around my neck. I remember taking her to the local park where we met some of the Scouts that were in the troop , they all made a fuss of her and said that she looked like a mouse on stilts. It cost me more to fly her over from London then it cost me to fly Her That Must Be Obeyed!! I was heart broken when the time came. As I read about Zehe, I am wondering if I should leave OJ with you for a while? Eamonn.

John I wasn't very clear. This was a SM telling me what his son planned to do. He has yet to meet with anyone from the advancement committee. My real job is just to chair a meeting once a month? Eamonn

On the form used for Camperships it asks about fund raising events. As for the "Goody two shoes." I have never thought of Scouts or Scouting as being goody two shoes. I do remember reading that a Scout is thrifty. Eamonn

We are on our way. Thanks to a kind donation all of our units now have the soft ware. There has been one training for the Commissioners. I was invited but there was something else going on that night. I missed out on the chocolate chip cookies. Eamonn.

Hi Wolfpack, Welcome to the forums. I feel really bad that I have to say that I disagree with you. From the posting we have no idea what the plans for this Flag Pole are. Also if the school was asked "What do you really need?" and the answer was "We need a flag pole!" That has to carry a lot of weight. -It does to my way of thinking. The project is an exercise of Leadership not construction!! I can rant and rave about how mad I get hearing that Eagle Projects are not what they used to be. At times it is like an old long playing record that has got stuck. We don't know anything about the Scout, the project, the area,and I could go on. Only tonight a Scoutmaster came up to me and said that his son was painting the Helli-pad at the local hospital as his Eagle project. Sure it sounds a lot more exciting then a flag pole might sound. I have seen the really special projects that when finished look great. But when I look at the report the work has been done by a Father and Son team - Give me the Flag pole that a Scout has used the skills of leadership any day. As for the profit and non profit stuff. I need some help here. Somewhere under this gray thatch I remember that a community of some sort contracted out their schools. I am unsure if it was a town, a city or a state? (I also remember that it didn't work out as well as had been hoped) The Schools still had the same kids. Property owners still paid school taxes. The money from the taxes were paid to the company that was contracted to educate the kids. The buildings were still owned by the school district. I feel sure that if a appropriate Eagle Scout leadership project came along, there would be no hesitation in passing it. We also need to be very careful when looking at non-profit organizations. Just because something costs a lot does not mean that there is money going into the coffers of someone. I am employed by the Senior Living Division of the University Of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Our residents pay a lot more then $3,600 a month. We are non-profit. We do try to break about even at the end of the year.However $7.00 an hour which includes nursing care,meals, house keeping,building maintenance,Van transportation, activities and entertainment along with the services of a really good looking Dietitian!! Can only go so far. And yes we have had Scouts do service projects and Eagle Leadership projects. The residents love to see young people around the place. Be they Cub Scouts delivering easter cards or singing Christmas carols. Boy Scouts doing Flag ceremonies. Or using the raised flower beds that a Scout built as an Eagle project. Why are the Scouts doing so much in this place? Because they are welcome there. (It is not in the District in which I serve.) Sure the Director has a son that is an Eagle Scout. Sure she is married to a nice chap who is a Bishop in the LDS Church and there is a troop there. Still it isn't all one sided I know of a District Chairman that just happened to leave a stack of FOS pamphlets in the reception area. You should have seen the face of the District Chairman of that District when he was given almost $2,000.00. The home is in his District - Drat. Eamonn

Beaver old Pal, I hope that Mr. White doesn't see that your SM is also serving as a Commissioner. As you know I am not in favor of people wearing too many hats. It sounds as if the unit in which you serve is up to it's neck in District stuff. Maybe you being a stay at "Home" Scouter is the best thing that you can do for the unit. While it is none of my business IMOHO I think that the leaders in the troop need to think about passing the torch. Pow Wows are for Cub Scouters and the best way for them to learn is stick them in a training situation and Pow Wow is a great place to start. They can't do that if there is a bunch of Boy Scouters blocking the way. Eamonn.

While I'm real big on endowment funds and I'm pleased to say that our Council has a very healthy one, which is on the receiving end of many big ticket fund raising events. A golf outing last week brought in a little over $110K. Still with am annual budget of over 1.2 Million I can never see the day when we will be able to "Live off" the interest. While the donation of $1,000.00 is a really nice thing to do, we still need to donate to the FOS and do what we can to support the Council today. Faced with the ever raising cost of health insurance, Workman's comp. Insurance and just the everyday cost of opening the doors of the Service Center. The income from popcorn and FOS is needed more then ever. Eamonn

If you hunt through my past postings you will see that when this was last brought up I said that I thought the camping had to be done with some sort of BSA outing. Having had time to give it some thought and much as I hate to admit it. I was wrong. If the BSA had intended it to be 20 nights at some sort of Scout camp they would have made that the requirement. As they didn't it must mean that any sort of tent camping is OK. Eamonn.

I don't sit on the Council Camping Committee. However I do know for a fact that Scouts who sell popcorn are seen in a more favorable light when Camperships are given. The reasons being that it shows that the Scout is trying to pay.Also the Council supports those who support the Council. If all the units stopped selling popcorn there would not be any money for the Campership. Sure this is a case of you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. As for value for money. I think value is up to the individual. I can buy a case of beer at a local beer distributor for about $20.00. I can go to the local bar and pay $2.00 a bottle. When I look at my bill from the club they charge $2.25 +15% and on the odd occasion when I go to Nemocolin Wood Lands they charge $6.25. Needless to say I don't drink as many beers when I'm there. I am painfully aware of the overhead that the local bar has and the club is going to charge me $150.00 a month even if I don't pop in for a quick one. I am not a popcorn lover. I don't have any idea what popcorn costs. I spend about $100.00 a year on the stuff that I buy from the Council. Is it value for money? It is to me. Eamonn

Hi Jimmy, This year the fee for a Scout to a week at Camp was $160.00. We have the second lowest camp fee in our area. We seen almost 2,000 Scouts attend camp. Eagle Scouts that are staff members get an extra $100.00 at the end of the camp. Thanks to some unknown benefactor. Camps are strange places. Years ago we seemed to have a policy of "Come On Down" the more the merrier. It didn't work. Scouts were unable to do the stuff that they wanted to do. Earlier this year I was talking to a SM who was taking the troop to a camp in New York, the camp fee was a little over $250.00 and then there was the cost of getting them there. He said that it was worth it as the camp offered a lot more then what we did. Cost is not always the determining factor when it comes to camp. Most people in my age group are willing to pay a little bit more for a quality program. If paying a little more would mean attracting a better more mature Camp staff I feel sure that everyone would dig a little deeper. As for "Council Problems". I feel very strongly that I am part of the Council. If the Council has a problem I have a problem. If the Council is doing well I am doing well. The Council Summer Camp program is there. I feel almost sure that the camping committee worked hard at preparing the camp, hiring the best camp staff available and promoting the camp. In this promotion they made mention of how much it would cost. The numbers you give lead me to think that camp costs $200 for a week.What with popcorn sales and troop fund raising events $200 is not a goal that most people could not reach. Even without any fund raising it is still only $4.00 a week. If the leaders in the Council choose not to take the Scouts in their charge to Summer camp in order to prove a point these guys need to look at the vision and mission of this organization and think about leaving as soon as they can.Yesterday would still be a day to late. Scouts should never ever be made the pawns in some peoples dissatisfaction.They deserve more then that. Eamonn

Unc Unless you have the good fortune to inherit your son's old sash. Have to remember to throw an extra few bucks in the FOS hat next time it is passed. Eamonn

Hey Little Bro, Your reasons for not doing stuff are up to you. But speaking as a big Brother, you need to read the wise words of Bob White. So many Commissioners mess up due to the fact that they pass on what they have been doing for the last coon's age. Only bad thing was all that time they have been doing it wrong. Eamonn

There are no rules that I know of. Many troops try to take charge.I believe the ceremony should be left up to the Scout with support from the troop leaders. While it is the norm to have a Eagle Scout read the Eagle charge, I have seen the priest or preacher from the Lads home church do a wonderful job. If and when OJ ever makes it??? He wants his uncle who is an Eagle Scout to read the charge. He also wants his Grandmother to be part of the ceremony. At this time he wants me to sit back and say nothing ---Some hope!! Eamonn

You might want to go the "Show and Deliver" Route. Eamonn PS We do invite all units to participate in the popcorn sale. If they do or don't is their choice. Some units don't do anything for the Council. They don't allow a FOS presenter to come in and do nothing to support the Council. Some do a great job at the FOS and don't sell popcorn. Sad thing is when a member of one of these units asks for a Campership, not selling really doesn't look very good.

When I look at the very early days of Scouting. I read about young Lads reading a book and forming Patrols. These youngsters were the nominating committee. They asked Teachers and Preachers to come on board and become Scoutmasters.Baden Powell didn't get around to appointing Commissioners till a good while after. Eamonn