Eamonn

" I guess I just don't think the Santa hat is silly."

What is and what isn't silly is very much to the individual.

Had a little walk around Wally-World a week or so back, seen lots of Santa Hats on sale.

Red hats, blue hats one that was able to sing Grand-Ma got ran over by a reindeer.

That to my mind does seem silly.

Of course that's just my opinion.

Every year I buy another Santa for HWMBO to add to her collection of Santa's.

This time of the year they take over the top of the fireplace and the bookcase.

On top of my desk there are snowmen, some who play the piano and sing Christmas songs.

I'm a Roman Catholic. Lord knows that the Lives of The Saints was required reading material for me when I was a little shorter than I am now.

Sure enough Saint Nicholas (Nikolaos of Myra) was on the list.

He is listed as being the Patron Saint of: of sailors, merchants, archers, thieves, children, pawnbrokers and students.

Kinda like the idea that thieves have their own Patron Saint!

I wonder what Nikolaos might think if he came back and was able to see that he is now not just a Saint but also closely associated with selling coke a cola?

Of course as a kid growing up in England the jolly old Saint was known as Father Christmas.

As a kid I remember being taken to the big department stores down town not far from where I lived. One year to get to see him I remember having to take a ride on a space ship.

For me, especially as a child Saints were important.

They stood as examples of how to live a good life and maybe work my way into Heaven.

Today?

While I still love the example of what they stood and stand for. I'm not sure how much of what is out there is really true or not?

I'm OK with my idea of what my God is.

I try not to push my ideas on others.

If my saying that the hat is silly has offend anyone?

I'm sorry.

But if wearing a hat in a public place becomes more important than kids dieing in Africa or people starving here in the USA.

I can't help but feel that I must have missed that memo.

Ea.

Kinda hope that I'd never go out of my way to knowingly disrespect anyone.

I get it, that people have different ideas and different beliefs than I have.

This doesn't make them right or wrong. Or make me right or wrong.

It would be nice if rather than stressing or what might be right or wrong or what divides us. That we as people who live on the same planet look for and find things that bring us together and we work to fix the things that are clearly wrong.

I have never been really hungry.

But I think if I was I wouldn't care who fed me, just as long as I was getting something to eat.

Maybe a public school isn't the right place for religious displays that not everyone feels happy participating in?

Maybe it's a little too easy for people like me to shake their heads and ask what's the harm?

Still with no disrespect to anyone, I can't wait for the day when the most important thing we have to fight about or disagree about is some guy who wants to wear a silly hat and read a poem to a bunch of kids.

Sadly I don't ever think that day will come.

Ea.

I'm just glad that I never let it get out of hand!

" when do you consider someone being a bit too... intense in Scouting?"

That's easy.

You know when the wife and kid moves and don't leave a forwarding address and you have no idea where they went.

Unless you live in a mobile home and they took the house with them.

Ea

Kids are strange.

Back in 2001 the guy who stole the show was an old timer who played Over the rainbow on a saw.

He went over far better than the Young Osmond's.

Ea.

"Gun Control, what is reasonable?"

I think that I'm reasonable when I expect not to live in fear that some nut with a gun isn't going to come and blow me away.

I think that I have the right to not live in fear.

As yet I'm not sure how we get to this point or if we ever will?

Thankfully, most of the people I can think of who might want to blow me away are in a place where they can't get to me.

I tend to think that most gun owners are not the bad guys.

The bad guys are not following the law and chances are no matter what laws are in place they will be happy to just ignore.

Doing our best to prevent bad guys getting guns does seem to make sense.

A lot of the guns the bad guys get they get by stealing them from the good guys.

So how about a law that has all the good guys make sure that their guns are locked up in a safe and secure place?

I was in a local tractor supply store the other week, they had gun safes on sale.

Some of these looked like they would be hard to get into and big enough that no one is just going to pick one up and drive away with it.

Yes I know this has its faults. The bad guys could make the good guys open the safe and still get what they want.

But it seems like a fairly good place to start.

Responsible gun ownership ought to mean making it hard for the bad guys to get their hands on your guns..

Ea

Beavah,

As you might have noticed?

I tend to be a little "Left of center" When it comes to politics.

Back home in the UK, the Labour Party was seen as the working mans party. Backed by trade unions and guys who wore flat caps!

About 30 years or so the party was infiltrated by what became known as the "Loony Left".

While well meaning this group somehow always seemed to want to go a little bit too far and were unwilling to compromise.

Maggie Thatcher was able to come off looking like the lesser of two evils.

I can't help thinking that the Tea Party and some Republicans are very much like the "Loony Left" Only of course they are on the far right.

I had hoped that the NRA might have been able to come up with something of substance that would have backed up the way they feel.

Kinda hard to believe that they took a week to come up with what was almost a joke.

I spend most of this week with a group of guys who really are into guns and are gun lovers.

Nearly all of these guys belong to one of our DOC Special Teams and are trained and practice using all sorts of guns.

Most have served in the military and have great respect for the weapons they use.

There are times when I need these guys and their guns to back me up.

I bet anyone of these fellows would have done a better job of presenting the NRA stance than the twit the NRA selected.

Ea.

I'm not sure what's reasonable.

Not being a gun owner, I'll admit that I don't know very much about guns.

I know that most days on the TV news there seems to be a story about young men shooting and killing each other or some poor person who just happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

This isn't a good thing.

I'm not sure where the guns these guys use come from?

My guess is that most are obtained illegally.

What sort of guns are they?

I don't know.

I really don't think me knowing what brand what number or the technical stuff makes a lot of difference to me.

Keeping firearms out of the hands of people who will use them to do harm.

Seems like a good idea.

But this is a very tall order. A lot harder than it sounds.

It is a shame that people on both sides of this issue seem to want to go deep into one side or the other.

One side seems to want to outlaw any and all guns, while the other side talks about prying guns from dead stiff fingers.

There needs to be a sensible conversation with both sides.

Ea.

"And those grieving families will understand, profoundly, how alone they are and how empty and dark and indifferent life really is."

I read this and couldn't help but think that this isn't the same place, the same planet as the one where I live.

I get and understand that there are times when we (Me!) Feel that we are very much alone and that the darkness is overwhelming.

When HWMBO was informed that the cancer was back and that most people only live about seven years with it before they die.

I was upset, very upset.

I was mad at the world, mad at my God. Maybe even mad at my wife for putting me in this terrible situation?

For a while I wallowed in my anger, my own self-pity.

I felt very alone. But the truth was that I was guilty of not allowing other people in.

The media coverage and what happened in Sandy Hook School has really upset my wife.

She keeps asking me how can God allow such a terrible horrific thing to happen?

I would love to be able to have an answer and explain.

However the truth is that I don't know and have no answer.

I can't explain or know why bad things happen.

I know that they do and life is often full of things both good and bad.

Maybe not as bad as the death of a child but none of us live in total comfort or total bliss.

I also know that I'm loved and that people do care about me.

Of course some love and care for me more than others.

My life isn't "empty and dark and indifferent".

I'll never understand the will of God or the forces of evil.

I do believe in the power of love and that the more you love the great the return you receive.

I'm OK in thinking, believing that love comes from my God and my idea of my God. Which might not be anyone elses idea or take on God.

And this love will and does see me through the good and the bad times.

Eamonn

(This message has been edited by Eamonn)

I thought the President spoke well last night.

I'm not sure what changes are needed or will come?

One casualty of the cuts in services we have seen here in PA has been drastic cuts in caring for those will mental health problems.

State Mental Hospitals have had there budgets cut and many of the State Hospitals have been closed.

I've read somewhere that the thinking was that the private sector was able to provide the care needed.

One of the outcomes of this is that people who are mental ill end up in correctional facilities. Where much as the staff try to help the staff, don't have the skills or the training needed to really help.

These people get locked up not for being ill but for a crime they have committed.

They serve their sentence and are let go. With little or no after care plan.

It was ironic, on Friday I sat through a presentation on Mass Murderers, Spree Killers and serial killers.

One point that was made was that most of the people who perform these murders are not mentally ill. - They may have things that might seem odd, but there are lots of people who have these quirks and some who are really ill but still don't go around killing and murdering groups of people.

I'm not a great gun lover.

Still I understand that here in the USA, there is a vast number of law-abiding citizens who own guns and use them is a safe and responsible way.

Different people seem to want to read the Second Amendment in different ways.

Trying to get all the guns off the street and take away what many see as their right to bear arms? Just isn't going to work.

There has to be some kind of middle ground that people on both sides of the issue can come together on and agree.

Starting tomorrow, I'm in class learning how to instruct our Incident Response Plan.

While maybe our Department doesn't always get everything right?

When it comes to plans and planning the Department seems to really do a good job.

We of course don't know what sort of incident we might have to respond too.

So far I've been at work when we have had floods, a tornado tear the roof off part of the jail a small fire and a guy who was cutting himself up with a razor blade.

But the incident could be anything.

My big fear is that with more and more gang members being locked up, is that we will see gang fights break out and with more and more cuts to budgets the inmates might riot.

Watching the guy cut himself up did effect me.

Not so much at the time, but a day or so after it kinda hit me.

I knew that something wasn't sitting that well within myself. Thankfully I was able to talk things over with the other members of my team and work my way through it all.

If seeing a big hairy naked convicted criminal, cutting himself up, can effect me? I can't even bear to think what the first responders at this school went through and are going through.

My heart goes out to these people and you bet that they are in my prayers.

As the President read the names of all the people that had been murdered, I couldn't help but shed a few tears.

I'm not sure if any good can or will come out of this terrible tragedy?

I hope it can.

Ea.

Like everyone else I'm shocked and saddened beyond words about what happened this week in Sandy Hook.

What the parents, brothers, sisters and people who live in that area must be feeling and going through is way beyond what I can comprehend.

I'm left in shock praying that God will help all those touched by this horrendous tragedy.

Just seeing the list of the names and ages of these sweet young children brings tears to my eyes.

What happened doesn't make any sense to me.

I really don't think it can make any type of sense to anyone.

Yet this murderer took the time to gather up his guns and ammo drive to the school and do what he did.

In the days that will follow, I feel sure that some people will try and say he was a shooter who had mental health problems.

I say he is a murderer.

Lots of people have mental health problems and don't go out on a killing spree.

Don't call him a shooter.

He is a murderer.

I know more than my fair share of murderers.

Guys who have killed other human beings.

Some have killed out of rage.

Some for financial gain and some just because of peer pressure from gangs and maybe for the thrill of it all?

Some are sorry for what they did, while others just fail to see or understand what all the fuss is about.

While maybe one group is worse than the other?

The bottom line doesn't change.

Just like this guy in Sandy Hook, they are murderers.

Already some people are ready to point fingers and blame.

I've read that because the media covers these stories, the media is to blame.

Some want to blame weak gun laws.

It wouldn't surprise me to hear that video games, movies, taking prayer out of schools, along with a long list of other things are not brought up as reasons why people murder others.

This was senseless.

Trying to make sense of senselessness? Just doesn't make sense.

While maybe we can and maybe we will look at how we protect and secure ourselves?

Maybe with armed guards and more police on duty?

I'm not sure that we can ever protect and make ourselves really secure?

Just the other week a search of the jail where I work, turned up two homemade knives.

A inmate in another jail managed to make a rope out of toilet paper and hang himself.

This sense of knowing that there is nothing I can do to be 100% safe and secure is real.

As for right now?

All I can do is pray for the those who lost their lives and the people that are left and hope that somehow, someway they manage to manage.

"May God hold them in the palm of his hand."

Eamonn

fred8033 Seems to have hit the nail on the head.

While many of us, especially some of us old timers, don't like it when this happens. Most of us do see the writing on the wall long before it happens.

Basementdweller you post:

" what is a district supposed to do beyond roundtable????"

Finding the "Book Answer" isn't that hard.

Still my feeling is that what a District should do? Depends a lot on who you are and what position you hold?

I served as a Key 3 member of a District for a good many years.

For most of that time I worked hand in hand with a DE that I'd trained, worked well with and for my part I wanted to see do well.

There is never any way that a District can get away from the goals that come down from above.

For the most part these goals have to do with Membership and Money.

How a District goes about reaching the goals depends a lot on the people who sit on the District Committee.

A little while back I started a thread about Troop Culture.

This "Culture" Thing is very evident in how Districts go about the job at hand and how they meet their goals.

When I get more time I'll start a thread on this!

Eagle92

Last year the District I served went bye-by.

The District was bringing in a lot of money, mainly from the Community FOS.

However membership just wasn't there and there was no sign of it improving.

The District Committee was a real shambles.

So the District was split 3 ways. Units going to each of the three remaining Districts.

The disbanded District is now gone. - End of story.

Youth members really don't care that much what District they are in.

The new adults that will come along will accept that this is the way things are.

So that leaves old timers like myself.

Wondering what to do?

Already some people have walked away.

But if the truth be known, they weren't doing that much anyway!

I've been offered a seat on the board. - I'm not sure why?

I'm thinking of maybe just getting involved with the Scouting program that my church has in place. The program isn't that strong and the Pack folded a few years back.

I suppose if asked by the right person to do a job that I had the time to do and was interested in doing!! I might be tempted to step up to the plate of our "New" District.

I know that my "Glory Days" are behind me.

I'm never going to fall into the trap of attending meetings five nights a week and rushing off to training's and Camporees ever again.

I have some real concerns about where the Council is heading Membership wise?

It is falling and failing.

The SE really is a nice fellow who is doing his best.

But with less members and less money coming in?

I think that our days might be numbered.

Maybe now is the time for me to walk away?

Ea.

More than just about anything else, people in the Council I'm in take great pride in their Lodge.

No one, but no one dare mess with anything to do with the Lodge!!

The Council doesn't employ a Ranger, so just about all the work for and at camp is performed by OA members. This work helps all the sections that use the camp, Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts.

The number is as much a part of the Lodge as the Lodge name.

Every patch, every t-shirt, mug and necker has the number proudly displayed.

Youth members take the time to read and learn the history of the Lodge.

Should anyone dare ever say that we are not the second oldest Lodge, they do so at their own risk. (I kinda think that we are the third, but I would never say that out loud!)

I would hope that the people in National who work there are fairly bright?

So as long as no two Lodges have the same number, it ought not be that hard to know and program the soft wear, hard wear or maybe just have a list? That shows that Lodge 6 is Council 502.

Come on, we are not taking about vast numbers, there is less than 400 Councils!

As I see it National makes hard work of things anyway by listing Councils not by the name they carry but by the town where the Council Service Center is located. If that isn't a pain in the neck!

So even if it is only a number?

It really isn't worth messing with and running the risk of upsetting people.

Ea.

"The shoulder loops are much easier to recognize than position patches" ??

The loops don't really give much information when it comes to what position.

I wore these silly silver loops when serving as a District Commissioner, District Chairman, Membership Chair and Council Training Chair.

I wore the yellow (Gold) Loops while serving on the Area Committee, but I might just have been a National Scout Shop Salesperson or the Chief Scout Executive.

These silver and yellow loops serve very little purpose.

I was always me!

No matter what silly loops I was wearing.

I'm now racking my brain trying to remember if I ever was a " A silly, grumpy old man."

As luck might have it, I wasn't at the 2010 Jambo.

So at least that time it wasn't me!!

Ea.

I never thought that my pursuit of being happy had anything to do with putting other people, rich or poor down?

But that's just a personal thing.

Ea.

You might want to take a look at what is happening at the PLC meetings?

If the SM can work on the SPL, these meetings can be made so as they become the great sales pitch for what happens next. Working on ensuring that the P/L's not only don't want to miss the next activity but will return to their Patrols and sell it to the Patrol.

Maybe finding ways of tying this into inter-patrol competition which the PLC can work on, might also help.

I found that having an annual plan with themes for each month meant that at our PLC meetings we could work with the P/L's ensuring that they had the skills needed to be able to pass these on to their Patrol members.

This also meant that we had the opportunity to not always be doing the same old same old. (P/L's covering skills with younger Scouts time and time again).

Each and every Camp-Out should be a new adventure for each and every Scout, younger Lads and older Lads.

Tell them not to bring their books.

Advancement will happen over time with a well balanced plan.

The communication starts at the PLC meeting and at the annual planning meeting and flows down from there.

Ea.

I really wish that all of these silly loops could be done away with for good and never darken our doorstep again.

I hate these things!!

For people who are not involved in the BSA these loops mean nothing.

So the message they send isn't so much about telling others it becomes more about feeding egos.

If it really mattered and I wanted to know what someone was doing? I'd look on the uniform sleeve to see the patch.

These loops are a silly waste of time.

Eamonn

I think that I'd really liked to meet the old fellow.

He has always struck me as being a fascinating character.

Re: This pursuit of happiness.

Every now and then I think it's worth while taking time out to take stock of what makes me happy and what causes me to not be happy.

Last time I checked I came to the conclusion that for the most part I'm doing OK and am a happy little fellow.

This being happy doesn't always happen by accident, it takes thought, planning and a positive attitude.

It is kinda easy to stand up and say that things don't make me happy.

So while maybe? I'm very happy on a warm sunny day taking my dogs out for a run.

The truth is that I need to be dressed to do this and the dogs need to be cared for.

All this costs money and once you start along that path all sorts of things jump out at you.

I need money so I need a job.

I need to be able to get to my job.

I have to work with other people.

The list goes on and some of the things on the list can cause me to be either unhappy or help make me happy.

Where we find what makes us happy is very much a personal thing.

Have to admit to having never spent a great deal of time thinking about it, but I kinda think that some how some way it's tied into the value system that each of us has deep inside of us.

There are times when others and what they do or don't do really has an effect on my happiness.

Knowing this and being able to accept it does help when it comes the time to deal with it. - A lot of the time being prepared for when things go wrong can make the world of difference.

I'm not exactly sure how it all works? But maybe we need times of not being happy so as to be able to appreciate what makes us happy and being happy.

Sometimes just this appreciation helps to serve making us less unhappy?

Have to admit that I don't spend a lot of time working on this pursuit of happiness.

I kinda expect and hope that all the pieces will fall into place.

Very often it's only when things aren't working that I take the time to react and make the needed changes. - Then again there are times when the fear of change keeps me from taking a step that might make me more happy.

Fear is the biggest road block that prevents people from being happy.

Freedom of fear goes a long way in helping people be happy.

Ea.

This might tie in with the thread on Troop Culture.

I have a very good friend who belongs to a family where everyone is deeply involved in Scouting.

He married into a family where his Mother in law was the Cubmaster, his Father in law the SM and his brother in law an ASM.

His wife helped out where needed.

He took over as SM.

It wasn't unusual when they went to camp for them to bring their little son along, even when he was a tiny little fellow.

Before becoming ASM the BIL had been in Venture Scouts with me. A super nice fellow who when he had kids brought his offspring along.

Then there's people like me!

I never thought of even asking HWMBO if she wanted to tag along!

My view is that I'm there for the Scouts and as a rule parents just get in the way.

I'd never dream of taking a small child along. - Mainly because my feeling is that I just don't have the time to care and look after him or her.

I'm willing to admit that I'm an old stick in the mud and that my way is not the only way.

Also when it comes to "Roughing it" HWMBO thinks a Holiday Inn Express is just that.

Ea.

Visiting Troops as District Commish was a great learning experience for me.

As a rule I kinda tend to say the first thing that pops into my head.

This often results in me with my foot in my mouth.

Seeing someone do the job differently than maybe you might. Especially when you think that the way you do /did it was the right way. Can be a real eye opener.

Trying to always remember that you are a guest and if maybe not a great pal of the SM, but a friend of the unit. (Does that make any sense??)

Means that there are times in fact almost all the time when the best thing to do is say nothing.

I used to have to work at keeping my big trap shut.

But overtime I realized that passing any kind of judgment was not the right thing to do. (Unless of course people were in harms way. - But that never ever happened.)

There have been times when after leaving a Troop, I've sat in the car and thought to myself. Why the heck do them kids bother attending that meeting?

Truth is that I never really came up with an answer as to why they did?

It's kinda strange. Now I'm involved in something where I'm forced to have to check my own personal judgment at the door. (I'm thinking about my being a member of a Hostage Negotiation Team.)

Beavah has often reminded us that most if not nearly all Scouting volunteers are good people.

I believe most do the best that they can.

Most of the kids that join Scouts and hang around for more than a little while are also nice people.

If we keep this firmly planted in our minds. I would hope that we wouldn't be in any mad rush to start passing judgments.

As I look back on my active days. I can't help but think of the people that influenced me.

One guy stands out more than anyone else. (Cambridge Skip, I think you might know of him. Martin Gerrard?)

This guy just had/ has a wonderful way of communicating with people particularly young people. He has a knack of drawing people in and having them want to participate.

Martin was kind enough to take me under his wing when I first became a SM.

While I've admired him and the way he does things.

Most of I admire him because he is a dreamer and is able to share his dreams.

Eamonn.

I'm trying to think about how many different Troops I've visited or been part of.

Truth is that the number isn't that high.

I think that it's somewhere in the 30's?

Being as I served as a District Commish and member of different District committees, I think that this is maybe more than a lot of other people? -But I might be wrong.

Many of us have our own idea of what a Troop is and how it should operate.

Still I think that it's fair to say that there is really no set standard and each and every Troop is a little or sometimes a lot, different.

The "Right Way"? Is just an idea that each of us has.

While maybe the wrong way is a lot clearer?

I like being invited to visit other Troop meetings.

Not that long ago, I knew most of the Scouts in the District. - It's a small District.

I knew each and every Scoutmaster.

I'm a friendly little fellow and I seen just about all the guys (We don't have any female SM's.) As my friends.

Thinking back to when I was a SM.

The Troop meeting as a rule had a formal start and end, but what happened between the start and the end was very often some form of chaos.

I liked to think that I knew each and every Scout and cared about them and that they cared about me.

We called each other by our first names.

In part because at school I was always called by my last name and I hated it!

Some Scouts had nicknames, very often names that came from me or from something that they had done or maybe failed to do.

These names were never harmful and the Scouts or at least some of them really enjoyed having one.

As a Troop we could "Turn On" The "Scouty" type stuff.

Just about everyone wore their uniform at the start of the meeting, but changed into shorts and t-shirts till the formal closing.

At times the noise level was deafening. Scouts laughing, telling stories and just doing stuff the way that groups of boys get things done.

A good pal Of mine is the SM of what is very often looked at as being one of the better Troops in the Council.

Everything seems to be very formal, the Scouts are always very well turned out. Yet I've never heard him even mention uniforming.

The Scouts all address the adults as Mr.

At Troop meetings there never seems to be a lot of noise.

It's not like a church, but no one seems to want to draw attention to themselves.

The Troop has a history of doing the high adventure activities.

The adults all seem to be very knowledgeable in scout-craft.

The parents seem to look at the SM as someone who walks on water.

Even when their son has problems at school or some other place they come to this guy to have a word with the Lad.

On the other end of the scale.

There is a really nice guy, who has done just about every training that there is.

The Troop seems to just have enough Scouts to be able to recharter each year.

The Scouts never seem to do anything other than the District Camporees and only about four or five Scouts ever attend Summer Camp.

The guy has been SM for a long time, so it's not like he is a newbie.

He never misses a R/T meeting.

But for some reason the Troop is like it is and has been like that for a long time.

What do you think makes the "Troop Culture"?

Does it come from past practices? Or is it all from the way the adult leaders go about things?

How do you go about changing a culture that doesn't seem to be working well?

Eamonn

BSA24

I don't know where you live. I really don't care to know.

But I'm glad that I don't live there.

Over the years I've read a lot of twaddle in these forums.

But this last post of yours beat just about all and every piece of twaddle ever posted.

"There's no way in hades that I would try to work with the cops on something like this. Half of them are on the take from the mob (which is who runs these operations), and they are the ones that get sent out to burn your house down and shoot your family if you become perceived as a threat"

My great fear is that you might voice this balderdash near some poor little fellow who looks to you as an example of what it's like to be a good citizen.

Lord Help Us.

I can only hope that this was posted very much with tongue in cheek.

I really am in shock.

Eamonn

qwazse

Most units have some sort of an annual budget.

A new member does get hit with having to pay the fees but after the first year the cost of these are built into the budget.

If we are looking at approx $60.00 a year?

That needs to be looked at and covered by events that raise funds or maybe it might be added on to the cost of activities?

Waiting till your faced with rechartering and trying to get the all the cash at one time from a group of teenagers? Really sounds like a no win situation.

Like it or not, these fees are the costs.

The Crew youth Committee needs to know what they are and needs to ensure that what they plan to do covers the cost of these.

Most teenagers like to feel that they are getting something for their money.

This is a hard sell when it comes to things like membership fees.

My feeling is that the sale has to be, that without these fees there just isn't a Crew and we end up not being BSA members and where does this leave us?

If the youth members don't want to make these fees a budget item?

Is five bucks a month that far out of line?

Ea.

Not trying to hijack the thread.

But...

While I've had some way of recording whats on TV ever since the early days of VCR's.

Over the past year or so, since I got the box that came with satellite which offers me a way of recording just about everything. I don't worry or bother about missing anything on TV or stay home to watch anything.

Maybe because I know it's there and available missing it on the TV is no longer a big deal.

Maybe? Our Scouts and their parents know that or expect that we will always be there and missing something is not really a big deal.

Last year I bought a new desk-top computer.

It was a lightning deal on Amazon. I seen when the deal was going to be available and made sure I was around to not miss out on it. (I saved nearly $300.00)

While we do expect our Scouts to be loyal and accept that Lads are into sports, band and whatever. All too often we moan and groan about the lack of loyalty.

We blame video games and the fact that some Lads are just lazy little toads.

All this might be true?

Still maybe instead of wasting time moaning and groaning, this time would be better spent looking at what we have on offer?

We all know that we are only as good as our last activity or last meeting, so making the effort to try and ensure that each and every meeting is too good to miss.

Only makes sense.

Where I live now, most of the time parents can pay and are willing to pay for what their kids want to do.

Sure, there are a few families that need a helping hand, but because there are so few, finding the help that they might need isn't that hard.

When I lived in London, the Troop was a real mix. Sixty percent of the Troop was non-white. Some of the Scouts came from very well to do families, while others came from really poor families.

We didn't have Scout accounts like many BSA Troops have.

The Scouts had their own Camp Bank. They could if they wished pay for the next big Summer Camp in weekly installments.

All fund raising events that were ear marked for that event, went into bringing down the cost of the event.

Back then our big fund raisers were Jumble Sales (Very much like a big yard sale)

About a week before the sale the Scouts went around the local streets putting flyer's in letter boxes announcing the sale and asking people to put their Jumble (Clothes, books you name it out for collection. The week of the sale we went around, street by street collecting and then on Saturday we held the sale.

It was hard work but even back then we made a lot of money for very little out lay.

The Scouts did most of the work, other than driving the vans when we collected.

I enjoyed watching young Scouts haggle over the price of items with older adults.

The Scouts always seemed to have fun.

I have photos of Scouts going through the Jumble with silly hats on and one with two Scouts in a pair of gigantic old ladies bloomers.

While no one Scout received any financial credit for the event. They all had sweat equity in it.

While I firmly believe that parents are willing to pay for a quality program.

I also think if there is a feeling of family or maybe the right word is community? Within the Troop (Group.) That parents and Scouts will be more willing to be part of what's going on and want to support it.

I love being a fly on the wall when a group of Scouts retell what happened at an event to a Lad who didn't go.

I'm never ceased to be amazed that the big things I put all sorts of effort into planning and organizing are pushed to one side and how things I thought were of no significance make the "Headlines".

Still, hearing the Lad who wasn't there say "Boy, I wish I'd went!" Makes me feel like pay day.

Eamonn

2601 Posts.

I don't know and am never going to count how many times we crossed swords.

I'm sure there have been times when you felt that I was a real twit.

I will give you credit for standing up for Venturing, a program I have never had that much time for or much good to say about.

Taking care of the needs of others is indeed a real heavy weight.

I wish you nothing but the very best and pray that the big Guy up-stairs keeps an eye on you and for you.

You can be sure that when I toddle off to Mass next week, I'll put a word in for you.

Good Luck and Fair Winds.

Eamonn

Wearing my parent hat.

When we were first married, I wanted us to have four kids.

As it turned out, we were only blessed with the one.

A lot of people mainly people who didn't really know us said that my kid was spoiled.

It's true that the cost of only having one child did make things easier than having more.

Maybe the fact that I'd been really into Scouts and Scouting as a kid did play into what I was willing to spend on my kid and what he wanted to do?

Maybe he did feel some kind of pressure to be involved?

There were times when I provided a friendly kick in the pants when he decided that not attending or not doing something was an option.

I remember more than once telling him that it was OK to quit but it wasn't OK to put in a half hearted effort.

Scouts and Scouting has cost me a fair bit over the years.

Again I was lucky in that I was able to afford it. But maybe? Because I was so deeply involved I may have felt the pressure that in some ways I was expected to afford it.

For some years when he first joined, I was very busy. I owned and operated a couple of very busy restaurants and bars, working very long days, coming home only to sleep and then rushing back out again.

I didn't have the time or the inclination to be bothered with fund raising events or activities.

We, my son and I had an agreement that I'd always pay half of whatever it cost.

To be very honest I made sure that he always had the money in order that he could pay his half.

Along with Scouting he was into sports, mainly soccer and track. Being as these were school activities the costs were minimal.

I'm not sure but maybe because he was involved, I was more willing to donate to things like FOS?

I know that now that we are both not so deeply involved I'm not donating as much. This might be in part because I'm not around for people to ask.

Somewhere, sometime back when the Council membership went down, I decided that because there were less youth members the Council didn't need as much of my money.

I don't ever see me again doing the 1910 or even another James E. West.

I do believe that many not so well off parents do suffer from sticker shock when their son joins Scouts.

That first year can be tough.

Paying for uniforms and then getting hit with summer camp, sometimes with very little time between the two.

This is of course worse when a parent feels that he or she needs to tag along.

A friend of mine with two kids had to take out a loan in order to pay for himself and the two boys to attend a National Jamboree.

When the World Jamboree was in the UK. I just couldn't see me spending the amount that was being asked. Knowing that I could go to England and do much the same thing for less than half the cost.

That just wasn't to my mind value for money or money well spent.

$10,000 for two of us to go home?? No way.

Now that his youth days are over.

I am able to look and see if the money I spent was values for money or not?

When I see my son as being a caring loving person I do believe that him having been a Scout has played a part in that.

When I see him working as a Para-Medic now going for his Masters in Nursing and Emergency Medicine thanks to a fire that one ASM was able to light in him and I watch how much he enjoys doing what he does.

I know that it was worth every last cent and I'm getting the greatest return on my investment.

Ea.