eisely

I agree with the others in recommending Zion Canyon. I would probably skip Bryce Canyon.

If you are going all the way to Hoover Dam, there are some river tours that operate out of Boulder City Nevada. Below the Grand Canyon, the Colorado River is actually a series of lakes, beginning with Lake Meade formed by Hoover Dam. You can go in below Hoover Dam and take these power boat trips some distance downstream and then back. You can also rent canoes from an outfitter and paddle down stream about 12 miles from Hoover Dam for a take out at Willow Beach (if memory serves correctly). Have all your boys qualified as BSA swimmers?

Hiking into Havasupai and out in the same day is not the trek I had in mind. I don't know where you are coming from, but I have been there twice, driving over from Southern California. We drove to the trail head, parked and camped overnight at the top of the trail. We then hiked in to the campground in one day. We stayed at the campground two nights to give time to check out the waterfalls go swimming and the like. We hiked back out on the third day.

Except for the first mile or so which is straight up and down, this is not a demanding hike. Younger scouts can do it. I don't know what the age mix of your group really is, but if you are concerned about the abilities of your hikers, you can have gear packed in and out by the indians.

This is a much shorter hike than trying to get to the bottom of the Grand Canyon along say, the Bright Angel Trail. There is a five thousand foot difference in elevation there. The change in elevation into and out of Havasupai is more likely around two thousand feet.

I have never hunted and doubt that I ever will. However I respect those whom I know who hunt responsibly.

Deer hunting is almost a necessity throughout the USA since the deer populations have exploded and the deer are becoming real pests. Controlling the deer population through hunting would likely also result in a healtheir deer population.

Certainly I have no sympathy for the irresponsible louts who combine alchohol and hunting.

Hunting as I understand it teaches valuable habits such as patience and knowing what you are shooting at. Even Hollywood seems to acknowledge the value of hunting in the recent flick "The Hunger Games". One of the major reasons for the heroine's success was her experience as a hunter.

Consider hiking into the Havasupai Indian Reservation. See the link to their web site below.

http://www.havasupaitribe.com/

The hardest part of the trek is coming back out. If you are concerned about the loads that the boys might be carrying you should be able to hire pack horses from the Indians.

This is one of the most beautiful spots in the American Southwest. Your boys will love it.

There will have to be an addition to G2SS addressing safety with the large flensing knives. Also, will the boys have to wear safety glasses to avoid getting whale blood spattered into their eyes?

I am impressed. This has got to be one of the most brazen scams in scouting that I have ever heard of.

How does one fulfill a requirement for "position of responsibility" for six months while a life scout when you are not even registered or in a unit? Presumably they will try to claim credit for some POR in their prior defunct unit.

Writing as "they", there is plenty of time for this young man to do what he needs to do. He has done all the necessary planning for his project. He just needs to redo the paperwork and chase down signatures. The project itself can be executed in the short order.

Actually this boy turns 18 in May of this year so he is under the gun. I did review the substance of his project as documented and told him his project was OK. He just needed to get the paperwork right, possibly including a fund raising application. I also told him that, although I normally deal with eagle projects only on Monday evenings, I would see him at any time to help him advance the ball down the field so to speak. So my conscience is clean. This is more of a unit leader failure to make sure the right document was being used. The scoutmaster had approved the project.

This last Monday evening I had to reject an eagle project solely because the scout had used the old eagle project workbook. Our council is taking a hard line on this. Please make sure that your scouts are using the correct eagle project workbook.

As mentioned above it is a pre requisite that the troop elect at least one candidate during the annual cycle. Assuming that you have been having regular elections to OA, and you meet the camping requirement, the person you need to talk to is your committee chair. You should have received an election packet from the OA for your troop. There should have been an adult nomination form in that packet.

I like the idea of having the boys scour the internet for ideas and opportunities.

Given Obama's betrayal of the Poles regarding missile defense, I don't think it is out of line to express serious doubts about Obama's intentions here. He has some 'splainin to do.

This is a lengthy thought provoking article, but it is also superficial in many respects. There are many things that have gotten us to where we are today, and the increased demand by all age cohorts for instant gratification is one of them.

Although the article attempts to be even handed in spreading blame between the two major political parties, the bulk of the blame belongs to the Democrats. I would remind readers that in 2005 after he was re elected George W. Bush put forth ideas for social security reform in particular that would have favored the young. He was thoroughly trashed by the Democrats and the main stream media for doing so and the suggestions died very quickly.

Regardless of the politics of the situation, people are simply outliving the actuarial tables and that matters a great deal; to the extent that policy makers pay attention to honest actuarial analysis.

How's this for a suggestion: Why don't we abolish the current federal system and replace it with twelve autonomous regions. Then we could have annual contests where we set the young against each other to provide entertainment. Oh wait, that's already been suggested....

Wife and I went to see Act of Valor last night, a movie which I highly recommend. Among other things the movie is a great recruitment piece for our navy.

Towards the end of the movie one of the seals writes a letter to his son and incorporates this prayer from Chief Tecumseh. This would be awesome for Scout's Own or a Scoutmaster Minute. Just had to share.

Prayer follows:

_________________________________________________

So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people.

Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide. Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, even a stranger, when in a lonely place. Show respect to all people and grovel to none.

When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself. Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision.

When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.

Chief Tecumseh (Crouching Tiger) Shawnee Nation 1768-1813

All due respect Beavah, but I think it is somewhat disingenuous to dismiss the record keeping issue as "balderdash." There are many ways to skin this particular cat, but the need for good record keeping is essential to the entire advancement method.

As I think about it, every boy scout troop that I ever dealt with had some kind of system in place even before the availability of troopmaster and similar softwares. As I see it advancement records exist in three places; (1) the boy's handbook, (2) the records kept by the troop in whatever form, and (3) the records kept by the council.

Speaking to the council records first, it is a fact that council records are at best incomplete in many parts of the country. Lacking a fully functional electronic interface, the council has to input by hand all the advancement reports it receives. This has often been a low priority, since the opprotunity to update basic rank records occurs annually with re chartering. Our council is probably better than most. It matters most when a young man is applying for his eagle. Essentially the council gets the final say about this when an application for eagle is submitted for review and sign off by the council. The attitude of the council, and properly so, is that our council records are the only ones that matter to us. Fortunately the ladies at our council who handle this are very down to earth reasonable people who are very much aware of the deficiencies in their records. We have always been able to rectify any discrepancies between the council records and what we knew to be true fairly easily. What I urge eagle candidates to do is get their application signed off at the council at least two weeks before their eighteenth birthday to give time to discover and deal with any discrepancies.

Coming to the handbook, I have never considered the handbook to be much more than a temporary record and backup to the troop records. Troops are only asking for trouble if they rely solely or primarily on what is in the handbook. Having said that, another reason that handbooks matter is that this is where the boards of review sign off on all the ranks short of eagle. If a troop lacks other records, this may be the only record, particularly if the council records are incomplete.

Regarding records kept at the troop level, we are fortunate to be able to afford a dedicated lap top for this purpose and rely on troopmaster. It took us awhile to get there, but we are much more comfortable that our records are complete, current and accurate. We have also established a culture with the boys of promptly reporting their progress to the advancement coordinator and having the advancement coordinator review their books often.

Teaching accountability for anything to boys is not easy, but it is a very important part of what we do. Having the boys buy into the necessity of looking out for themselves and making sure the troop records are current not only benefits the overall program, but instills useful habits in boys. All of this is done in a friendly teaching manner.

So balderdash or not, there is value to having a reliable record keeping system, particularly when a young man goes up for his eagle.

Personally, if a person cannot qualify as a BSA swimmer, they should not be going. I know that G2SS allows such a person to go, but I don't want to deal with that additional risk.

I don't think it is unreasonable for a BOR to ask that records be recreated. There are many ways to go about this. Make it a positive learning experience, not punishment.

In our troop, the records that count are in Troopmaster. The Advancement Coordinator is present at almost every troop meeting so as to be able to record accomplishments into the record that the troop really relies upon. The boys are trained very early in their scouting careers to speak to the Advancement Coordinator early and often.

The problem with picking an "honest" person is that all scouts are trustworthy. I would wager that in none of the cases that occasionally make the news did the alleged thief start out with a plan to embezzle the funds. Opportunities presented themselves and people succumbed to temptation. No system is totally foolproof anymore than YP guarantees total safety. However, having even a simple system in place will deter most such crime.

I am curious about the dog mentioned in one of the scenarios in an earlier post. Is the dog part of the crew or emergency rations on the hoof?

Non profits are particularly susceptible to this sort of thing. The largest amount I had heard of being embezzled prior to this story was $40K+ being swiped from a high school band booster club several years ago.

The story is very short on details. I suspect that $73K is a cumulative total over a long period of time. It is also possible that the alleged thief did repay this gradually over an extended period of time. If repayment has already been made and can be shown to have been repaid, much of the criminal case goes away.

Another thing that units should do is have the treasurer be from a different household than either the CC or SM.

Has GSUSA cleared this with Michelle?

I am completely with Beavah on statutes of limitations. I have always been very skeptical of cases brought on the basis of "repressed memories." There are too many opportunities for outright falsification and manipulation by shrinks. Look at the history of the child abuse sensations of the 80's where very young children in pre schools were persuaded and rewarded by their interviewers to testify about things for which there was no corroborating evidence. People went to jail based on such testimony. And these cases were brought fairly promptly after the alleged incidents.

I remember the booing incident too. Gosh I wonder which party that was.

Clearly different UW chapters have a lot of latitude. I have cut out UW for years now. The last time I did make a minimum contribution to stay of trouble at my job, I don't think that my directed donation to BSA ever made it there. Here in the San Francisco Bay Area BSA gets no allocation of which I am aware.

One of the ironies is that BSA was one of the major nationally operating charitable organizations that helped organize UW in the first place many many years ago.

That is the most complete story I have seen so far. Please note that I refer to the "alleged" statement by the scout executive asking the mother not to call the police.