Eamonn

As a council we send a Camp Edition of the council newspaper to each Cubscout family via USPS. There is a camp promotion video that each district camping committee is to show to all the packs. We also have placemats with camp info. which packs can order for their B&G. That along with a few/lot of plugs at Roundtable. Sad thing is that we have the packs that always go and the packs that never go. Some packs just can't wait to go and then there are those that for whatever "Reason" just don't. Getting these little fellows to camp is something that works best if it is promoted at the den and pack level. If we don't get the Cubmaster and Den Leader to buy into the idea we are lost. Eamonn

To make matters worse I do own a shirt with a knot that is upside down. Still if they lock me up I can invite a load of rock and roll stars to play a FOS benefit along the lines of 46664. Eamonn

As I said "Time To Duck!!" Eamonn

At the last Jambo I went with some of the Scouts when they went to dispose of the water that they had used for washing up. There was this Scouter who was very cheerfully running what I would call a giant waste disposal. He was really very proud of this machine. I talked with him for a while. He informed me that this unit (Machine) was so much better then the one he had at the last Jambo. If I remember right this one was five horsepower and the last one was only three. As I left this happy fellow I couldn't help thinking what a great organization this is. Here we have a chap who has a dirty, smelly not so great job. There he was laughing and joking with the Scouts and he had paid to do this. Barry is so right. Eamonn

After the break for the holidays it seems that everything is happening all at once. While there is no real break, we have held the weekly key3 meetings. Even if one of them was a dinner meeting at my favorite french restaurants and we spend more time working on the menu then we did on the district. There has been one round table meeting but all in all things have been a little slow. Until this week. Then BAM - 3 meetings in 3 days. Last night was the Council Annual Meeting. A good meeting with seven new Executive Board Members voted on to the board. While there was a lot of business covered the high point for me was that each of the three Eagle Scouts who were awarded a scholarship from the council for writing an essay got to read what they had wrote. These were three really fine young men. They are are credit to our council and to Scouting.When you see and hear young men like this you want to climb on the highest rooftop and blow raspberries at all those who knock or put Scouting down. Tonight was the first District Committee Meeting of the new year. I was expecting some doom and gloom. We had failed to make Quality District in 2003 and some of the goals for 2004 are going to really put us to the test. I opened the meeting with something that Red Feather had posted about Frogs in the Scoutmaster Minute section. It kind of set the pace for a very upbeat meeting. Heck I even passed out the Disrict FOS cards and we blew that goal out of the water. We worked our way through a very heavy agenda. No one even complained when we ran twenty-five minutes over. I was amazed that some of the committees had already met and were reporting all kinds of neat stuff and great ideas. Sometimes being the District Chair. Is fun. There is another meeting tomorrow a community FOS kick off. Our District has been chosen to make a presentation of how to run a community campaign. Maybe due to the fact that we were the only District to reach all of these goals last year. Our Community Chair is a wonderful chap. So 2004 is now up and running. Tonight I feel that it is going to be a outstanding year. How long will the feeling last? I don't know. Maybe if I keep reminding myself that a Scout is cheerful it could last 345 days. Eamonn

As a four bead Silver Beaver I will make sure that the coast is clear next time I have to visit the little boys room. Eamonn

Lord lead us not into temptation... Eamonn

I'm with the honrable Cub Scouter from the Garden State. I have gone out of my way to ensure that anyone who has earned a knot gets it. If they decides not to wear it that is up to them. I have uniforms that have no knots on and a couple that have a lot. Sometimes I wear the one on the top of the pile and there are times when I select the shirt with the "Right Stuff" on it. Eamonn.

Maybe I was unclear. If you read what Roy Williams said at the BSA Annual meeting about the Gift Of Time, it is clear that the Den Leader, Cubmaster,Scoutmaster or Crew Leader is the person who makes this organization work. All the rest of us are only here to support that work. We do this in as best we can. Some give money some are involved in training others patch the roof of the dining hall. No matter what or how we serve the bottom line is that we all serve. It is sad that we may never know how much effort it takes for any individual to serve. We may never know about the Scoutmaster who is paying a babysitter or nurse to look after the people at home while he or she is working with the troop. While I might be in a position to make a fair sized donation to the FOS and not think twice about it to others that $100.00 Might be a lot of money. We just will never know. Still when we get to the selection of people who will be awarded the highest award that a council can bestow on an individual I still think that this person has got to have done something in the council. It does not have to be anything to do with a donation. In fact the person that I will be nominating while he does make a FOS donation is our Council Boy Scout Training Chair. I have no idea how much or how little his FOS donation is nor do I care. I will be putting his name forward because of the good work that he has done for the council in training. At this time this is the only position that he holds in Scouting. He has in the past been an active scouter but other then knowing that he was I have no idea how good or bad he was. My nomination is based on the work that he has done with the Council Training Committee. As he is not a unit leader do you think that he should be out of the running? Eamonn

Why? Packs are family and neighborhood based. Eamonn

Laurie, while I'm pleased that having the Ex- Den Leaders on your pack committee is working out for you. I have to admit to not being keen on the idea. My thinking is that they ought to be focused on the job at hand. Also that the pack will change as the boys in the pack change and new leaders come on board. If these Ex-Den Leaders are no longer part of the pack they won't be part of this change. The pack needs to have as many family members as can be had on the committee if these people are there with no family in the pack we are starting to get away from this. Eamonn

Congrats are in order. Well done. It is a strange thing that we at times think that a person is the heart and soul of a Troop, Pack, District or even a Council. The real heart and soul lies in the program. Scouts and Scouting even within a unit can and does change. New Scouts have new ideas, different wants and needs. Things that used to work seem to fall apart and things that never worked are all of a sudden fun. I used to meet with the chap who was my Scoutmaster a man that I have great respect and admiration for. We would meet about once a week for a pint. At first I allowed myself to hang on his every word. After a while I started to think for myself and sad to say a little while later I started to resent him trying to run the troop from a barstool and our meetings became less and less frequent. We never fell out our fondness for each other was way too strong for that. I just needed to be my own man. I messed up and looking back I see that there were many things that I did which I may have done for the wrong reasons and things that I could have done better or smarter. I think that if you intend to go to the old Scoutmaster that it might be a good idea to in as friendly a way as possible make him aware that you are now the Scoutmaster and while you are glad to have him around and you are listening there will be times when you will go your way. You may hear from both the Scouts and some adults that Old SM, didn't do it this way or we have always done it that way. This is when you need to make sure that you are working with the PLC, The Methods Of Scouting and when you stand your ground. Eamonn

Two points that I would like to make. We have awards for those Scouters who serve in the field (No pun intended.) While it might be an idea to name a building or something after a worthy individual. However as in our case you run out of buildings - Unless you want to count some of the old outhouses? Many of these people have already paid the $1000.00 needed for a James E. West. If we were to only make the Silver Beaver Award available to Unit Scouters there would be nothing for them as things stand at the moment. It is also worth noting that many of the people who serve at the council or the district level are not affiliated with a chartered organization. I would hope that a unit leader that was doing a wonderful job would be recognized by the charter organization. In my case the church saw fit to nominate me for the St George Award. I wish that I could be as objective as the people who serve on the committee that TwoCubDad serves on. I know most of the people in our small council. This at times works for the nominees and at times it can go against them. Hopefully there is enough diversity within the committee to make up for that. Eamonn

How much importance people attach to the award is very much an indivdual decision. I know Cub Scouters who have stayed with the pack after their son has moved on to the troop only to work on the knot. To my way of thinking setting the District Award of Merit or the Silver Beaver as a goal is not a good thing. I have known of Scouters who have gone as far as making copies of form which were filled in and having as many people as they could find sign them. It didn't work. A couple of years back one of our Councils Ex-Presidents received the Distinguished Eagle Award. He was visible moved. The awards are not the be all and end all of what we do. They ought never cloud the vision of serving the youth. We all serve in different ways. I have to admit that the idea of having the Webelos Scout Den arriving every week at my home now fills me with gratitude. I'm grateful that I longer do that. While I really miss not having more interaction with the youth members. I'm not sure if I could be at the troop meeting every week and could give up one weekend a month. Yes I think the world of the people who do it. However I don't think any less of myself because I can't. I serve as best as I can. The lightlyhood of me ever receiving any awards other then those that I already have is about zero and that does not bother me in the least. At this time all my goals have to do with the district first and then the Jamboree. Awards are a nice pat on the back, but they can never and will never replace the knowledge that each of us has when we know that we have made a difference in the life of a boy or girl. The look we get when a kid knows that we care or the stroll around the camp when we look at all that is there and we can say that we helped make this happen. Eamonn

Yes Sireee Parents can be a real pain. In all the time that I have been in Scouting I have yet to have a youth member phone me and complain. I have had adults that feel that they are at the end of their thither. Most of the time not with the youth but with other adults. I have found that at times like this Tea is good. You make yourself a nice pot of tea and sit down and really think about where the real problem is. Why is this little fellow not coming to the meetings? Could another parent give him a ride? If the funds are needed for the meetings and he isn't paying can the money be found else where? They were the easy ones the ones that follow are tough. Am I allowing my anger to prevent me from doing my job? Am I doing my best? What about Help Other People? We can all at times fluff these questions off and become very defensive, at times we may not like the real answers. Once we have looked at how we are feeling we can take steps to make things better. We might want to improve the way we communicate. We could look at how we are managing conflict. While there is a lot to said in kids being kids, we can never allow safety to be compromised. If a Lad is doing something that puts others in harms way. We have to get him away from the activity as fast as possible. We may need to explain the why we did that to the parent and if they can't see the error of their ways we ask them to leave that activity. Then pass this on to the unit committee. It is funny that I have never seen a Cub Scout eat a marshmallow that was toasted in a fire, in my experiance by the time they have it toasted it is more like a molten lump of sugar. Eamonn

Thanks Bob. Memories of the days when I was District Commish. Came flooding back. I never had a problem with Troop Charters but at times some of the Pack Charters made me dizzy. Am I right in thinking that a Assistant Cubmaster is not a required position? Laurie you might want to give the list of the Lads who crossed over to your unit commissioner. He might be able to check that they are where they are supposed to be and if they are not maybe someone could give them a call and see what they are up to and invite them to rejoin? Just an idea. Have Fun. Eamonn

During a very heated debate in fact more of an argument one member of our council said to another that it was ok for him he had money and he could afford to support the council. The chap this was directed at got very hot under the collar. He went to say that he had come from nothing. His parents had left Cuba with nothing. His Dad worked construction by day and at a gas station by night. He had joined the Boy Scouts and due to the interest that the adults had in him, he had gone on to study medicine and become a doctor. Due to his work schedule he wasn't able to be in a unit. He did serve on the council executive board and was one of the representatives from the council to the BSA National Annual Meeting for a number of years. He is a great friend of mine and I know that apart from the donations that he makes to the council and the golf outing that he holds for our district, all I have to do is mention that there is a Lad who needs a hand going to someplace and I leave with the check. I was overjoyed when he was awarded the Silver Beaver. But as I say he is a friend of mine. Looking back to the BSA Annual meeting Roy Williams spoke about the gift of time. At that meeting George Zambelli was awarded the Silver Buffalo. I never met George Zambelli and really don't know that much about him as a person. I do know that at the National Jamboree I along with about 45,000 other people were in total awe due to the outstanding firework display. I have been told that the Zambelli Firework Company donated all the fireworks and set everything up. I was happy to see that we had seen fit to select Mr Zambelli for this award. I don't care if he never set foot in a troop room or not. Sad to have to say that George Zambelli passed away on Dec 25 2003 in West Penn Hospital.

We are lucky in the district we have two local papers both owned by the same group. They are grear as far as putting in just about anything that is there by the deadline. We also have a daily evening paper and a daily morning paper which is owned by another group. The morning daily has a far bigger circulation. Both will send a photographer out to cover events which are of interest to the larger community. In fact their head photographer is the SM of a troop in the district. Our DE and the Marketing Chair on the district committee do a good job of letting them know the what, where and when of district events so we do get a fair amount of coverage. At times they will hold a story until they have space. Our Marketing Chair has as a ticket item for Wood Badge given each unit a packet that has all the contact people and some guidelines to help them get more articles in the paper. Our Sunday paper has local area sections which have their own editor. They seem to want the human interest story, In fact they did a two page article on me. Coming from England and how Scouting is different here. It was nice - They even spelled my name right. I didn't have much joy with the Morning paper trying to get articles in about the jamboree. But when I spoke to the editor of one of the local papers and said that some of the boys would be the "Hometown Reporter" He was really interested and came to a troop meeting to talk about how to send a story. It would be great if more of the units would send stuff into the local papers. They prefer E-mail and digital photos, if possible with no more then 3 or 4 people in the photo.They also do printing, I used to give them all of my printing work for the restaurants and put ads in the paper. I think it is important that we support the local business community. The people who work there are the parents of our youth and we do turn to them to help support FOS and other Scouting events. Our local cable company is good at putting free commercials on the cable channels around the same time as we hold School Sign up night.We got the commercials from the National Office. One local Billboard company is donating space around about the same time. I very nearly wrecked the car the first time that I seen one. Eamonn

I have been asked to serve on the committee that will select the people who will be awarded the Silver Beaver. While I am pleased to be asked and really like to be there when the awards are made. It seems that no matter what happens I end up in the line of fire. As I am also the M.C. for the dinner where the awards take place there are a few members of the council who let me have it with both barrels. The number of awards is done by the size of the council. We are allowed five in our council each year. Some people think that as we have four districts that this means that there is one per district and one for the council. They are of course wrong. The Silver Beaver Award is the highest award that a council can bestow on a volunteer. I tend to look at the award as a council award. By this I mean it is for people who have gone above and beyond to work for the council. While the argument can be made that we all work to support the council by doing what we do at what ever level we serve. There are awards to cover this. So maybe there is a unit leader who has been working with the unit for a long time and doing a first class job. Yes he is supporting the council.But is he doing this for the council or the unit? One year we had three Executive Board members receive the award. Boy oh Boy did I get it that year. "They Bought It" was something that was said to me more then a few times. Ok so one of the recipients is very wealthy and sponsors a golf outing and clay pigeon shoot that brings in almost $100k. Can there be any question that this guy is supporting the council? To make matters worse what really irks me is many of the people who complain never nominate anyone. Go figure. Eamonn

We do not have any Varsity Units/ Teams in our Council and to tell the truth I don't know very much about them other then what is covered in the Wood Badge course. I have been given to understand that they are very active out west and the LDS Church is the chartered partner for a good many. Varsity and the LDS Church do not allow females into the program. Of course I am aware that crews do not have to be coed still I don't think that we need to combine the two programs. Venturing will take off in time and the Varsity Scouts seem happy doing whatever it is that they do. Welcome to the forums. Eamonn

To answer Fat Old Guy about the District Committee. Most of our time is spent planning events that have to do with Membership and Finance. The Chair. Will report what is happening or what has happened at the Council level and we see what we can do to make it work. Most of the time we do not spend time on the specifics. If the Activities Chair. Informs us that the camporee will be at such and such a place and the theme will be whatever. We are happy to run with it. After the event there will be a report and there might need to be a change in the way we do something. For example for many years we always charged a set $3.00 for a District Camporee. We looked at this and while some members of the committee thought that it was wrong to raise the cost. We voted and the cost is no longer fixed. As a rule we normally only vote when there is a sense of disagreement within the committee. The District Commissioner does give a report on the health of the units. If we see that there is a problem we will dispatch a member of the committee to try and help. The other year we had a unit that said that it didn't have the money to recharter, so we send the finance chair to help them come up with a budget. The chartered Organization ended up paying the fee that year after I called them. So we don't vote on every thing. However once we do that is it. If the activity committee came to the meeting and wanted to start a Merit Badge College, I feel that there might be some resistance to the idea so we would vote. No matter what my feeling are I would have to abide by the winners. Eamonn

Sad as it may sound there are times both in "Real Life" and here in these forums when I tend to prejudge people. Some time back there was a Scouter returing from summer camp and just by what she wrote I had her pegged as a Cub Scouter.It is of course wrong to generalize and say that any one group is more lightly to do something than any other group might be. There a lot of things different dealing with youth of different ages. We all have seen the Ages And Stages video. However the leap from Den Leader or Webelos Scout Den Leader is a big one. Some Den Leaders who move from the pack where the adults take the lead to the troop where the boys are taking the lead have a hard time getting used to the idea. Some ex-Cub Scouters be they male or female tend to want to mother the boys. The training is not at fault (Not that you said it was.) The training is for the leader to lead boys or youth of a certain age group in age appropriate activities. I spent a few years as a Cubmaster and I found that at times that I had to tone it down a bit. Still when OJ went away with the troop on his first camp in February, I remember thinking how small he looked up against the other troop members and even though I knew that he had the best equipment that he was going to be cold. Her Who Must Be Obeyed, had a rough time allowing him to do his own packing for camp outs. But we grew as he grew. There are a few "Rambo Type" Scoutmasters out there who to my mind do a disservice to Scouting and the Lads and Lassies that they are supposed to be serving. Still most of the leaders are willing to let the youth manage what they can for the age they are at. Eamonn

Laurie, Thanks for your kind words. At times I think that I might communicate too well and too much with some of the pros in our Council. Heck - They can now understand English- English!! Eamonn

We have a $895.00 price tag. But it only a six or seven hour drive. If we want to do anything on the way home that will be an extra. Some people are a little unhappy. But then again here are always a few who are unhappy. Eamonn

I am not as up on all this stuff as maybe I ought to be.However I feel that our wise and learned friends will put me right when I get it all wrong. We do have a young Eagle Scout who has taken to wearing his medal all the time.I don't know if he wears it on his pajamas or not but every time I see him in uniform there it is. I really don't care about the rights or wrongs if this young lad is happy so am I. As all paid up members of the Uniform special enforcement branch (USEB-BSA) Are aware you are not allowed to wear awards from other countries on the uniform. The Queen Scout Award does come with a woggle. So every now and then I do wear it even though I know if I'm caught by the USEB I will foreit my place in line at the next cracker barrel. I did earn the distinguished commissioner award while serving as a District Commissioner. The award was a nice looking plaque in a gold color along with a very cheap looking bolo tie also in a gold color. I wore it a few times but it didn't go with my boots. I do have a few awards but only two came with medals, The Silver Beaver which I wear to the Council Volunteer Recognition dinner. I do wear the tie tack to a few Scouting events. The other is the St Georges Medal the Catholic Religious award, which I wear on Scout Sunday to mass and there is a Sunday where the local Bishop has a service for all the youth that have earned the religious awards during the year. Some of the old timers do wear more then one medal at a time. I have a very delicate neck, so one medal and my Wood Badge is about all I'm good for. My thoughts are that until you are 18 wear it when and where you want to. If you are now 17 it will take a year or so for the USEB to do all the paper work and if it goes to the big black hole that some people say is in ScoutNet you might get away with never losing your place in the cracker barrel line. Once you are 18 get the knot find a good wife who can sew or a professional who does quilting as a side line sew the knot on and start adding to your knot collection with the grace of the Big Fellow upstairs along the way you will have a lot of fun and do untold good works for Lads that will someday ask "When can I wear this Eagle Scout medal." Congrats on earning the rank and good luck living up to it. That way medal on or medal off everyone will know that you are a very special person. Eamonn