Eamonn

My son has a cell phone. I bought it for him. So far as I know there is no BSA regulations that would prevent him from taking his phone anywhere where phones are allowed. He has my permission to use it as long as is not in the wrong place or the wrong time. Our Council Summer Camp site has a pay phone. I would never prevent a Lad from using the phone as long as I knew where he was going and he had a buddy with him when he went. I fail to see what right a Scoutmaster has to tell me that my son can't take his phone with him. I can see that he can be asked to turn it off or on to silent mode depending on what is going on. In fact I wish many of the adults did the same thing. Why are people wasting time and energy on stupid home made rules when this time could be better spent delivering the program? Eamonn

Everyone that has taken the course or staffed the course is aware that the course is a leadership course. While there are certain parts of the course that may need to be "Tweaked.". However if everyone who is in charge of the delivery of the course changes it, there won't be very much left of the material left too tweak. It is also worth remembering that some participants do not belong in a pack, troop or crew. At the course that we hosted last year we had Commissioners,Council vice-presidents, district volunteers, Council Executive Board members taking the course. Making changes to the course to accommodate or make the course more "Cub Scout Friendly" does nothing for these participants. We did however make one very slight change. On day one, we had two Gilwell Gazettes. When the participants arrived the Gilwell Gazette they received was the newsletter of Pack 1. This had the Cub Scout Law and Promise as well a the songs that we would be using at the first gathering on Gilwell Field in it. My feeling is that at present Boy Scouters make up most of the Staff on the courses. In our case we only had five staff members that had taken the old Cub Scout Wood Badge course. While things might be different in other councils, in our council we don't have that many people who took the old Cub Scout Wood Badge. As more non Boy Scouters take the course, the delivery is going to change. We also still have people who still have the old Boy Scout Wood Badge stuck in their mind and while they are willing to try and deliver the new course, they can't help but look back to the old course. The Course Director does explain in the Course Overview, why the troop setting is used. He or she might also want to explain that this is a Leadership course and is not the place to get specific training and he or she could touch on this when he or she covers the BSA training's. Sad to report that I didn't do such a good job in this department. Going over the participants course evaluations, they said that they wanted more information about Venturing and Varsity Scouting. We did have one Crew Leader on staff, in fact he is the Dad Of the young Lady who was at that time the Northeast Region Venturing President. We did have handouts on Varsity Scouting, but not having any Varsity units in the Council and never having had one, I will admit that the handouts were about the total of our knowledge. All programs were covered very well in the Staff project and later in the Patrol projects. In fact I would say that the Patrol Projects were more Cub Scout oriented then Boy Scout. Eamonn

Have been feeling a bit grouchy these past few days. In an effort to cheer myself up, I got to thinking about the things that I really do enjoy about Scouts, Scouting and working with kids. Not the deep and meaningful stuff. More the little and sometimes wacky stuff. I'm hoping that some of you will want to add to the list. I enjoy the sound of Kids laughing. I really like to just listen to them when they forget or ignore that I'm around. Two Lads talking about who would win a fight if it was between Spider man and Batman? Or if George W. Bush wears PJ's? A good water fight or battle on a hot day is a lot of fun. Watching a Lad really concentrate. My son sticks his tongue out of the side of his mouth. The fuss boys make of my dogs. The smile on the face of a Lad when I say "Well done, good job." The way kids tease me when I use the English word and not the American word. How six young Lads can carry on a conversation when they all talk at the same time. Watching a car or van full of Scouts fall asleep on the drive home from camp. A good camp fire is the best entertainment on the planet. How some Lads never get dirty. How some Lads get dirty so quick. The way Scouts are always so polite to Her Who Must Be Obeyed. (All with the exception of one - At times!!) Buying a round of ice cream cones and eating them with the Scouts. Letters and E-mails from Scouts. Old Scouts and new Scouts. Eamonn

Jason. Forgive me I forget how old I have become. Once upon a time there were four Lads from Liverpool; John,Paul,George and Ringo.They recorded a song titled Help!! Eamonn

Jason, I will now be singing the song all night. My best friend has no sons and has been blessed with two very intelligent daughters. Thanks to a great fear of water he never made Eagle Scout. He serves as a council vice president. Eamonn

Having never played a game of baseball in my life I think it all sounds great. I agree with the Guinea -foul (See I'm getting the lingo - Cos I'm a cool dude.) You need to not get stuck at a sticky wicket and start the ball rolling. I feel certain that you will. Good Luck Eamonn

As ever this thread has put my little gray cells in overdrive. There is a lot of stuff going on here. I own a lot of kitchen knives, really expensive ones. They are tools and have over the years helped me earn a few bucks. Her Who Must Be Obeyed, knew that when we visited a commercial kitchen showroom that I would come out with some new toy. But even if it wasn't totally needed it was still a tool. She went into an outlet mall the other day and while she was doing her thing I waited out side what turned out to be a knife store. The knives on display were the type that you see on the TV shopping channels. They looked like over sized fish with holes in. I suppose these are collector knives. I have no idea what you might use them for. I have a few Swiss Army knives. A few with all sorts of extra blades and stuff. I rarely use the extra blades and stuff. Could it be that I bought them because I thought they were cool? The knife does what I want it to. So maybe half of it is a tool? I own a couple of sheath knives. I never use them. I do remember that as a young Lad that there was something about owning one and wearing one that captured my imagination. I do remember using it to cut the odd rope and chop up the odd spud. I also remember using it to play "Splits." I think it has a different name on this side of the pond. You and a pal take turns throwing the knife in the ground and you put your foot where the knife enters the ground.Of course looking back this was a very dumb game and it didn't do the knife much good. I of course had been taught never to do this sort of thing. I was playing and the knife was a toy. While we never thought about it we could have used the cooking knife in the patrol box or a folding knife to play the same dumb game. I think that times change. Baden Powell wrote a book on the art of Pig Sticking. I'm sure that as a young man the idea of jumping on a polo pony and sticking a pointed stick in a pig, might have seemed like fun. Today he would end up in jail. So until someone can come up with an argument to make me change my mind. I am willing to strongly discourage sheath knives. I'm basing my decision on the Lords Prayer "Lead us not into temptation." The other thing that caught my eye was that we came back to being "Cool." I suppose I have fallen into the cool trap when buying stuff.I only have to look at the extra stuff on the Swiss Army knives. I am now of the opinion that Cool Leaders are not cool. Cool wears out. I have seen my son hero worship adults in Scouting who he has seen as cool, but it has always been a passing fad. Our Scouts don't want or need Cool Leaders, they will always come back to the Leader that they can respect. The Leader that they can look up to. The Leader that is following the program and doing his or her best to live the Scout Oath and Law. This Leader isn't trying to be cool he understands that "To help other people at all times." Has true meaning. Eamonn

I really like our DE. Sad to say I became very annoyed and upset with her today. It has been brewing all week and most of it is not her fault. In fact for the most part she is only the messenger. At the Professional Staff meeting last Friday the Field Director gave all the staff job descriptions for two new volunteer positions that he had came up with. This came from him not the membership committee and until last Friday there wasn't a word of warning. We have no need for these new positions. However the DE doesn't want to upset him and is prepared to just toss him a couple of names to keep him happy. I am upset as this just is not the way that we do things. We have committees that work hard and we have a system that gets all fouled up when we start tossing in names just to keep people happy. Then today he has had yet another brain wave. He wants each district to do a popcorn training at the district ice cream social. We have always used the ice cream social as a training for sign up night. He wants someone who is not the district popcorn chair to get trained so that they can present the training. Again this has never been brought up to the Finance committee. We have a district corn roast which is when we get the greatest attendance of all the units and where we hand out the packets with all the popcorn info. And the Popcorn chair who is a member of the district finance committee goes over all the details. The proposed popcorn training will happen a week after our corn roast when all the units will already have all the stuff. I feel sure that no one will attend. So I suggested to our DE that we cancel the corn roast. She thought that I was joking - I wasn't.When she worked this out she said that we could just toss him yet another name. This upset me. It is not the way to get things done. Who the heck does this guy think he is. I will be in the Scout Executives office tomorrow. We blew our popcorn goal out of the water last year. None of the other Districts even met their goal. What is wrong with having regular meetings of the committees other then the fact that this guy doesn't want to work at night. The time to bring up all these new positions was last August or September, so that we could have selected people to do these jobs. Not wait till vacation time. Eamonn

Sad to hear that the Troop is Folding. Of course if some new bright eyed young Lads could be recruited it would solve the problem as to what to do with the tents. Eamonn

Just thought I'd share this. I am or I like to think that I am a very normal sort of chap. I have my failings and I have my good points. Most are known to people who know me. As what you see is what you get!! I don't think that I'm especially religious just an ordinary everyday practicing Roman Catholic. I sometimes wonder when I stop practicing and get it right!! I'm not very High Tech. The computer that I using to post this is six years old and other then enlarging the memory it is about the way it was when it came out of the box. About 3 years ago I made up my mind that I needed a Lap top (I didn't need one - I wanted one.) At that time everything I looked at was over $1,000.00. So I went to a used computer store and bought a Lap top for a little over $600.00. It was very basic but I really liked it. I liked it so much and I got so fed up with OJ hogging this machine (At that time the only one hooked up to the net.) That I bought him a brand new Lap top. It cost me a little over $800.00. Boy was it nice DVD player CD burner. I was a Little bit jealous!! The Christmas before last I seen a offer that was just too good to pass up. A laptop with all the bells and whistles which after all the rebates was under $700.00. I "Needed" this one for the up and coming Wood Badge course and the screen on the one that I had bought used was bad. So I bought it. What a great machine, I loved it. I went and bought a new digital camera and everything was right with the world. It worked it's way through Wood Badge. We set up a wireless network at home and at work. I had never seen the movie Follow Me Boys,so I pre-ordered the DVD, thinking that I would show it at a District Camporee. Then it happened my toy broke. The DVD refused to work, no disk would do anything. I go to the Best Buy store. They say that it has to be sent away and it's going to cost $24.95 just to give me an estimate for the repair. The very nice young chap in the store seen my pain and tried to console me by telling me that it would probably cost about another $100.00 to fix.Of course the idea of spending another $100.00 didn't thrill me, but this was my baby. The store said that they would call me within two weeks. When three weeks had past I called them. The man who answered the phone said that I had declined the repair. I explained that no one had called me and asked how much the repair was. He explained that he didn't know how much the repair would cost as his records only showed that I had declined the repair, he would however send it back. Three weeks later without word I called the store. This time he knew the cost and informed me that it was $498.00. I now did decline the repair. Even if it was my toy $498.00 was just too much when I could buy a new one for an extra couple of hundred. I wasn't in any rush to pick it up. Then today I got a bug in my ear. I thought that I would pick it up and take it and the one with the bad screen to the used computer store where they do repairs. I didn't tell the guy that I'd already had an estimate. I just told him what wasn't working. He put a DVD in and it worked!! He tested the CD ROM and burner and it worked!! He did clean it for me. I showed him the one with the bad screen he told me to give him a couple of hours. I returned and it was good as new. I asked him how much do I owe you? He said that he had noticed all the Boy Scout stuff on it and that he was a Eagle Scout and refused to take any of my money. Yes Sir, the Great Scoutmaster in the sky was / is watching over me. I just wish that I was more worthy. Eamonn

Watching the news tonight there was a shot of a party of Boy Scouts stopping by the coffin to give the Scout salute. These Lads were in what looked to be full uniform and were very much a credit to the BSA. I have no idea what Troop, District or Council they were from. But anyone who has anything to do with these Scouts needs a well deserved pat on the back. Thank You. Eamonn

I agree that trying to say that because someone holds a certain position makes him more worthy then anyone else is just plain out and out wrong. There are people that because I know them and about things that are going on in their lives that I think makes them special: The Cubscout Leader with five children. The 70 year old Commissioner looking after his mother with Alzheimer's disease. In the pre Her Who Must Be Obeyed days I had a lot more time to devote to Scouting. When I was busy trying to climb my way out of a mountain of debt and earn a few bucks, I had less time then I do now. Surely it comes down to "Do my best"? Eamonn

Our DE. E-mailed me this yesterday. Last year at our Council Camp Site we had two Lads hurt when a tree came down. The team that does the safety tour at camp had done their job. However with all the rain and all the storms, it came down when it was storming. One Lad got away with a few cuts, the other had a broken collar bone. I will of course remember this little fellow along with his family and friends in my prayers. Eamonn

It used to be that you needed special permission from your council to be a leader if you were not a citizen of the USA. This was changed a few years back and is now clearly defined in the by-laws and rules and regulations of the BSA. The change was in Scouting Magazine. Sad to say I can't find it!! As a non-citizen I did get the OK from the Council Exec. and have been around for a little while. When it comes to teaching the requirements that are in black and white that is easy. I think that I have a more then fair knowledge of American Flag etiquette and learn a little more American history everyday. While I would never show any disrespect to the Flag of any nation or the lawful head of any nation. Things get a little bit more difficult when it comes to the Pledge Of Allegiance. I can teach Scouts the words and what they mean but I can't make the pledge. A bit like an American singing God Save The Queen!! Sad to sat while the English and the English government are very open to dual citizenship the American government is not. Eamonn

"A win win for everyone" Unless you own the Golf Course/

Whitewater, I think that everyone ought to pay their way. If there were 7 people including the leader the cost should have been $10.00 a head. However in my book it should not have just been the Scouts paying. Of course that's just in my book. Eamonn

I am not sure about what is happening in other Councils but I am not very impressed with the staff that work in our Service Center. I am supposing that all the kinks have now been worked out and that Scoutnet is up, running and being a good boy?? Her Who Must Be Obeyed,likes to work and works part time at our local hospital. Thanks to what the Union did in the past she does earn very good money and from what she tells me along with what others have said she is good at what she does. A couple of years back there was an opening in the Council Service Center for a part time Registrar. She thought that might be a good fit for her life style and while she knew that there might be less money she was very surprised when she found out it paid just barely above minimum wage. I have always been of the mind that if you pay peanuts you get monkeys. At work I share a PA. with two other people, one being the Director of Nursing, the other being the Director of the facility. The amount of work that this Lady (Dolly) manages to get done is outstanding. Everything from Billing and payroll to meds and diets. I have never looked up what her pay scale is (None of my business.) But I think that she is well paid and she has the same benefit plan that I have. She is there and gets the job done at times even going above and beyond and giving me a kick in the pants as needed. I look at our Service Center staffing and I see: A lady who answers the phone. She is a real pain. When you ask her anything she gives everyone the number of the DE!! We now have a full time Registrar. A very nice Lass, but she really is a sandwich short of a picnic. I asked for a report showing all the Wood Badge Trained people in the Council by District. She gave me a full report of the trained leaders by unit. (Which wasn't up to date - Maybe not her fault.) When I asked her why it was by unit she informed me that is the only way she knows how to do it. Last Fall she drove me nuts with unregistered youth. One Cub Scout sent in seven applications. I personally handed her two of them. But they weren't there. Lost in the big black hole? The parents were very upset!! Try asking them for a donation to the FOS!! We have an office manager. When I ask for a flyer's to be made we have to have a work order and it can take up 3 weeks, even then it is never on time. Again she is a nice Lady. We have a fund raising person. I'm not sure what she does? I asked for a report of the Districts FOS campaign to be E-mailed to me 3 weeks ago and still don't have it. We have a Finance Secretary, she pays the bills and is supposed to keep track of things. The budgets from annual events that have been held can change from week to week and items are charged to the wrong budget. We also have a Lady who looks after the Scout Shop. Many of these people have never had any training except from each other. All have said out loud that they think that they are under paid. We are a small Council 10,600 youth. Half of this number is in LFL, which is under the watchful eye of the Field Director. Cub Scouts advance once a year and don't create a lot of paperwork. There is a lot of Merit Badges earned by the 1,500 or less Boy Scouts that attend Summer Camp and there is extra work at Rechartering time and at Sign up. However during this time there isn't that much fund raising going on, but we are discussing hiring temps to help during this "Rush period." I think that we are way overstaffed and could let half of this lot go. Retrain the rest and pay them better. We would save money on benefits and see improved performance. Eamonn

How you see your role in Scouting is very much up to you. If you can play this game by the rules and the CO is happy - You are not going to get any argument from me. For myself I don't think that I'm as noble as you are. I have read and given a lot of thought to the Vision and mission of this great organization and looked at the values that it holds close to its heart and I found that both the organization and myself have a lot in common, and I am willing to do my bit to make the vision and mission a reality. As for it being a hobby? There are activities that I do within the organization that I really enjoy mainly the outdoor stuff that I would do anyway. I happen to really like working with most of the people in this organization and like to think that I would and do go out of my way to help them. Maybe the race analogy is not the greatest? I have friends that belong too and are very active in both the Wild Turkey Federation and Ducks Unlimited. These guys like to hunt and have a lot of money tied up in guns and hunting equipment. They also spend a lot of time working planting trees and other habit type stuff. They are very involved and serve at the Regional and National level. Needless to say the meetings are not on their doorstep, so they pay to travel, attend and stay at these meetings. They are also very active in raising money for these organizations. One of them is also very active in the youth program that the Wild Turkey Fed. While it might be wrong of me to try and speak for these guys. I would bet that they would much sooner be out hunting, then in a meeting trying to decide how to raise money for the organization especially when the meeting is 2,000 miles from home and they are spending $100.00 a night to stay in a hotel. To these guys the cause that they support is near and dear to their hearts. They are willing to put their hand in their pocket because they believe in what they are doing. That is how I feel about Scouting. Of course if someone needs help, we should be there to offer a helping hand and do what we can. I do keep records of my expenses that I hand over to my accountant for tax purposes. Eamonn

Great Eamonn

Like so many others I mourn the loss of Ronald Reagan. I find that I know so many of his speeches or parts of his speeches that I didn't know I knew. He truly was a great leader and I can't help thinking that he would have been a great Scoutmaster. Eamonn

I am sorry that the idea seems to have upset Scoutldr. Of course Wood Badge and Wood Badge Training isn't a secret. Ask your District or Council Training Chair and I feel sure they will be able to point you in the direction of a course. When presenting the course there are questions that the presenters have or for instance Bob White might have a different "Take" on something then what I might have. I might see no value in something that is done on the course while someone else might see this as being a vital part. To discuss this in open forum, would be like giving away the name of the villain in a "Who Done it" mystery. Or telling your wife about the surprise birthday party. I do not have a problem sharing the course material with those who have taken the course. No big secret? In fact no secret at all!! Eamonn

Yes Neil you are correct. The records are only for courses held at Gilwell Park. There is a code that can be entered into Scoutnet that does record that a person is Wood Badge Trained. This is done at the local council. While there are those who really like Scoutnet, there are some who are still not so sure??? Pete, Many congratulations on a job well done. Earning the beads is a great accomplishment, but Wood Badge is not an end - Learning never ends. Eamonn

Sorry Zahnada I'm not with you on this one. The 21ST Century Wood Badge Course is for adults doing adult jobs. The course is about Leadership. It is not a Boy Scout course. If people want to learn about the Patrol Method they need to attend a Boy Scout course. Over half of those who attended the course that our Council hosted last year were not from troops. One of the jobs that a Troop Guide has is helping the people in the Patrol with their Ticket. These tickets are adults writing adult goals that will help them achieve their Adult mission and vision. Youth members do not have the training to do this type of work. That is what we are trying to train them in. We had our Scout Exec. as a participant do you really think that a youth member could help him with his ticket? Some of the presentations can be a little hard for adults to grasp, let alone have a youth present them. Have you taken the course? Eamonn

Gilwell Park does keep a record and does have the all the course photos from courses held at Gilwell Park. In fact last year I e-mailed them for a copy of my course photo they mailed it to me at no charge and there I was even if the guy in the photo didn't look much like me - That guy had dark hair!! Eamonn

Thanks Pete, Sad to say when I was first asked to serve as a Staff member I was more interested in the bead then I was the participants. Glad to say that only a few hours into the development weekend I seen the error of my ways. Eamonn