Eamonn

While I never met the outgoing president, her Dad served as a Troop guide on our Wood Badge course last fall. Congrats to Outdoor Thinker. I bet the old Grey Eagle is more like a Proud Peacock. Best Wishes Eamonn

Hey Bob White The worst part about what you said is that Her That Must Be Obeyed along with a good number of Scouter's in our Council would agree with you. Phil It is nice to have you in the forum. It's nice to hear an English accent. Eamonn

Have to admit too not understanding all that you posted. I got lost somewhere around the high Adventure Trip? The off the cuff answer would of course be that these Lads have taken an oath to do their best. Maybe a spluttering of examples of people doing their best when they didn't really want to could be in the Scoutmasters minute. Patrol Spirit needs to start when the Patrol is formed. Patrol Flags and Patrol yells need to be used not just every now and then by as much as possible. Were the patrols at the Camporee "Real Patrols"? Or made up patrols just for the camporee? It is kind of hard to have patrol spirit when it's not a real patrol. Did the Scouts who attended the Camporee really want to be there? Again it is hard to be really enthusiastic about an event that you didn't want to be at in the first place. How enthusiastic were the Adults? The Scouts do follow our lead. You might want to try doing more patrol activities at your weekly troop meetings, relays and that sort of thing add silly challenges such as the Patrol that cheers the loudest. Many years back we challenged the patrols to choose a hymn and make it into their Patrol Song. The list of how to recognize a patrol is endless. Even down to when you recognize a Scout you also recognize his patrol. Good Luck. Eamonn

Serving as I do as a District Chair. and before that as a District Commissioner, I work with all the adults in the District. Some are outstanding examples of what Scouts and Scouting is all about. They really seem to got it. Then there are those that no matter how long they have been in this organization have not got it and in all likelihood never will. While I have to admit most are not as "Flowery" as FOG few are as outspoken as he is. I do stand there and hear them out. When they are done, whining and complaining I have a choice. I can stand and argue with them - Which does at times happen depending on my mood. If this does happen I normally get upset at myself for allowing it to happen. Or I just walk away. No I am not rushing away to read a secret stash of Playboy Magazines or even complain about how I feel they are mistreating me. Just as KS stated I walk away shaking my head. When I am in a real masochistic mood and really want people to beat up on me I wear the uniform with the yellow epaulets. Man oh man does that bring the moaners and groaners out of the woodwork. I don't know how many youth members we have looking in on this site. I feel that we need to give those that do a little more credit. I feel that they know that FOG is guilty of trying to rattle the chain of others. With any luck who knows they might even feel grateful that he doesn't belong in their unit. Having said all that. Bob White is a friend of mine and I do think that FOG is way out of order when he attacks Bob. Eamonn

As I'm sure some are aware Ken Blanchard along with a couple of other pals have written a book titled "Leadership By The Book." It looks at the leadership that Jesus Christ gave from a leadership point of view, not a religious one. Eamonn

Go for it now. By the time MS gets to putting it out there will be so many critical up dates your Grand kids will be Eagles. Eamonn

Have to admit that I have used the Squelch. The person I squelched no longer posts in this forum. Could be that he got on his bike and went back to visit a wise old Abbot. There are of course people that I tend to agree with more then others. Needless to say these people are more right then those who disagree with me. Who of course are less right. Me being a real cool Dude of course makes me always right - Even though at times I have found that I may have been wrong. That would of course put me in the group that thinks I am less right. If I were to squelch them I could end up squelching myself. Then I would never know if I was right or not. Eamonn

Eamonn said:" Do you know if any of the youth members had any input into the design?" Fat Old Guy said:"Or would you have a discussion with him a about the idea of dressing well." I would hope that the youth input and the discussion would lead to something that would be acceptable to all. Maybe what the Fat Old Guy meant to say was more along the lines of "Have him sit down and listen to my idea of what being well dressed is."? Eamonn

LOL Eamonn

I'm in the KS Camp. Eamonn

Couple of things: The need for funds is never going to go away. In fact without chipping away at the services we offer the end user(Our youth members.) The need for more funds will not only exist it will increase. As I read about all the fuss that is going on in parts of the country and funds that were available being cut and properties lost. I find myself wanting to see the BSA become less and less reliant on these funds. This can't happen until people like me are willing to put their money where there mouth is. As for when a FOS presentation should be done? We ask the unit leaders to invite us, they pick the time. If a unit decides that they don't want to allow the presentation we stay home. Eamonn.

Note To OZEMU: Good On Yer Sport!! That Coke stuff is bad for your teeth - I never touch the stuff. My Dad was a rum and black current man. Lots of vitamin c. Not that it mattered he had false teeth. Eamonn

In another tread a large cantankerous Gent, is stating his dislike of the new English Scout uniforms. Do you know if the youth members had any input as to the design? As compared to the old uniforms which do the youth members prefer? I have to admit at being a little shocked at how cheap they are now compared to the old Scout uniform.( The long sleeved green shirt, and dress type pants.) On the other hand I nearly fell of my chair when I seen the price of patrol tents. We used all Nijer tents for the patrols and used the fly as a dining tent. That would cost 730 pound per patrol.I know that they last for ever but at that price they would have to!! Last time I was down Buckingham Palace Road, I looked in at the Scout Shop. They seem to be doing a much better job of catering to all sorts of outdoor enthusiasts, not just Scouts. Needless to say my son and I left a lot poorer then when we came in. At that time they had some really good buys on compasses. Keep in touch. Eamonn

It might be said that the new English uniform is a little like that of a that food company. Could it be that they asked the Scouts what they wanted to wear? Eamonn

Welcome to the Forums Uncleguinea. Glad that you found a uniform to your liking and hope that you will stick around for a while. Eamonn.

I don't think that we ought to be taking Leaders away from their units. Makes it hard for us to say that we are supporting them, when we are raiding their leadership pool. Finding/ Selecting people to serve on the District Committee is easier then finding people to serve on the Commissioner staff. For the District Committee, most of the positions that need to be filled can be found in the community. Prior knowledge and know how of Scouting is not really needed. By far the best way to strengthen the Commissioner Staff is to follow the plan for the selection of Quality Leadership. Our Council has a list of adults that for one reason or another don't appear on or have dropped off a unit charter. This is a very useful tool. Having someone on the selection committee who has been around for a while and has knowledge of the district is a big help. A couple of years back we had a unit that folded and from that unit we managed to find two really good unit commissioners. In fact they are far better serving as Commissioners then they were serving as unit leaders. It is worth remembering that just because someone is an outstanding unit leader does not mean that he or she will make a good unit commissioner. While I an against raiding units of their active leadership, we do have units that recharter with pages and pages of adults, many who never attend any Scout function. I think they only agree to recharter in order to receive the council newspaper. These are fair game. The fact that they are interested enough to still want the newspaper is a good sign. Once we have a person on the Commissioner Staff we have to remember that this is their job. Very often they become the dogsbody of the district and are so busy doing non-commissioner work that they don't have time for what they are supposed to be doing. As a District we need to ensure that we are doing everything that we can to support them. If they report that there is a problem we need to act and act quickly. There is nothing as disheartening then for a unit commissioner to attend the monthly meeting and having to report the same problem month after month. While the monthly Commissioner meetings are kind of dry they need to be planned. Some sort of training should be presented. Commissioners need to be recognized for doing a good job. When I was District Commissioner we had dinners for the commissioner staff. Around rechartering time we had the Great Commissioner Chile cook off. All the commissioners cooked the chili and the people who came to the meeting to recharter were the judges. The R/T commissioners would have the commissioners sing the songs that they were going to use at the next R/T. We tried to make being a commissioner a lot of fun. Eamonn

Looking at Proud Eagles posting makes me feel good about being a bad tempered miserable old goat. Eamonn

English Scout uniform used to have a green beret. There was a metal Scout Badge that you added to the darn thing. The Lad in the Scout catalog looked good, sad to say the Lads in our troop never managed to look that good. In fact the Lads with Afros looked like clowns. Eamonn

http://www.scoutsongs.com You will find a nice list of Scout Songs with the lyrics. Our Summer Camp got away from singing in the dining hall. Last year they brought it back. I for one am a Happy Camper (Old Time cool Dude,) Eamonn

Have to admit to being too lazy to follow the columns. The BSA web site does have the membership numbers. I only looked at 2002 Vs 2001. I did have the membership for 2003 up till November. It does look like we are taking a hit when it comes to Cub Scouts. I don't know if the TAY has changed or not. To be very honest I only use these numbers when it suits me!! It is all to easy for me to blame the numbers, when I don't reach a goal. Like last year when we didn't make Quality. We needed 86 more Cub Scouts. I can blame the numbers or I can look in the mirror and see that I wasn't keeping track of the packs. I wasn't aware that we had several of the larger packs losing membership by the score. As it so happens our percentage of the TAY went up in Cub Scouts. We just have to work harder in the area of retention and recruiting. I don't think that it a coincidence that the packs that were losing members had new leadership. Think what I'm trying to say is "when the going gets tough, the tough get going." Eamonn

Nice list, a lot of food for thought. Eamonn

Hey Dan Dude or is it Dude Dan? Could be my lack of lingo 101? What does "My bad this is a council JLTC" mean? Does Bad mean good ? Cool? Hip? Far out? or Totally Rad? As Ever a Totally Cool Dude Eamonn (All in jest.)

Don't tell me it was next to... Sam's Franks Disco, where I left my Harp. Eamonn

Not really sure what you want? Eamonn

Me thinks that you might set our dear friend Old Grey Eagle off. I really enjoy a good well ran Camp Fire. Many moons ago I took the Camp Fire Leaders course at Gilwell Park. As you have said you can bring a Scout to a camp fire but you can't make him sing. To get your group to join in you might want to try some of the Repeat After Me Songs, the ones that get louder and louder are good. Not a lot of singing but a lot of participation. At times camp fires can be a hard sell. It really helps if the people running the camp fire are really into it and look like they are enjoying themselves. It used to be that at District Camporees that I ran the camp fire. We now have a SPL from one of the troops take charge. When we manage to keep the adults at bay things work out fine. Some of the skits are a little lame but that's fine. Eamonn