eolesen

The networking... My course was out-of-council, and it doubled the number of people outside the troop that I can reach out to for support.

If you do decide to go to NASCAR, Longhorn Council has a small camp (Hills 'N Hollows) just a few miles up the road from Texas Motor Speedway. http://www.longhorncouncil.org/maps/camp_maps/hills_and_hollows.htm If the PLC chooses Nascar, and it's workable in terms of financial and adult support, you will cause far more damage in veto'ing their decision. I agree with a couple other folks -- try to do both, even if they're the same weekend. (This message has been edited by eolesen)(This message has been edited by eolesen)

We slept in the tents we set up, cooked over the fires we built, had PLC's, had some sit down learning in cabins, worked on our pioneering & compass skills, did skits, lead worship services, attended assembly daily, backpacked, hiked & learned some new recipes all in the great outdoors! It was a blast & the best training course I have ever attended for anything! No movies, no long lectures. Tons of hands on stuff. My patrol functioned the way a Scout patrol was expected to function. We worked together toward a goal! We all made new friends. You just described my description o

We charge it separate from the participation fees, and base it on the distance. In-town events rarely have a fee, but if we're going more than 20 miles one-way, we'll tack on a transportation fee starting at $5, which is collected in cash at departure from the church and distributed to the drivers. Definitely keep a log for tax purposes. I'm sitting at over 1000 miles for 2007.

I agree, Ed. It doesn't relate to advancement one bit. It's just CYA. This may all be included in "A Time To Tell" but that is still opt-in training for the boys, and there are still parents who don't want their kids to attend. By making it a requirement, BSA covers its arse.

We're in the no-trailer crowd as well. CO won't allow one on property, so it's a no-brainer. After coming from a unit with two single axle trailers, I don't miss them at all. If we need a trailer for hauling gear to camp, we rent from U-Haul or borrow one. Enclosed trailers are nice, but I find that flat trailers work best for footlockers & gear that can be safely tied down.

I wouldn't count too heavily on FOS picking up the slack. The Salt Lake newspaper expose on SE salaries last week is probably going to cause FOS to drop this year....

We discouraged annual dues in my old troop... A Scout is Thrifty. We took the approach that paying dues is a lot like tithing -- if you just write a check once a year, the Scout learns nothing. By making the patrol leaders collect the dues on a weekly basis, the kids realize they have an obligation to fulfill, and with our son specifically, he had to find that $1 a week. It came out to the same $50 that our current troop collects once a year, but the lesson learned was perhaps a little more useful in real life.

We had a camping toilet for our pack once... consisted of a Home Depot bucket with a toilet seat. Beat the heck out of hovering over a cathole!

Sorry, but this whole line of discussion about the NAACP giving scholarships to a poor white kid is giving me flashbacks of U.N. Jefferson being asked to approve a charter for a Lambda Lambda Lambda chapter at Adams College.... Sure, it could happen, but would it?...

All the more reason to use online advancement -- it will probably take a few months for people to hack it, but at least there isn't a signature to be forged. We were discussing an offshoot of this this lastweek at an ADC meeting... One of our ADC's was also a recent CD, and was asked how you verify a WB ticket was complete. Her response was "a Scout is Trustworthy... if you tell me something is done, I take your word for it." If someone earns their Eagle thru nefarious means, they are the one that has to live with that.

No kidding. Now, if only the Unit Visit system were integrated with this, so I could have just one account and password....

I think I'd also put a little more emphasis on "what's a good ticket" but have that be before-the-course preparation, especially for a weeklong course. When I developed my ticket, it was done while talking with the CC and SM in my troop, and with another SM I'd gotten to know pretty well back in Texas. I don't think it would have worked out to be as much of a challenge or even as uniquely tailored to my abilities if I didn't get their input. If I had to rely only on discussions with my TG to get it written, I would have easily wound up in "ticket detention" instead of working on the cons

Joni, if you're MC, then you don't need OLS to attend WB. Check with your council, but they may offer camperships or a WB "loan" which you repay on your honor after the fact. Cedar Badge is the local name for NYLT, just like Oak Badge, Twin Arrows, Polaris, SilverAxe, Brownsea, Buckskin, and a lot of other names that various councils have used (and borrowed from other councils). They're all now supposed to be branded "Localname NYLT". My son's course was staffed by volunteers, and I'm not so sure that the $200 is out of line. That's $40 a day for food, consumables, facility ren

Depends on the timing of the meeting. My son's den meets at 1830, so we don't bother with it. If we were running a den meeting that was immediately after school, a snack at the beginning makes a little more sense.

I haven't seen a course outline, but if Wood Badge had any practical value to Boy Scouting, its graduates would at least agree that all Boy Scout summer camps should have a Patrol Method cooking option. That takes the cake... I've been giving Kudu a little credit for bashing the course because I'd assumed he went thru it, but if he's never seen the course outline, then he's just bashing for the same of bashing, which is un-Scoutlike. And, for the record, any unit attending summer camp has the option of patrol cooking. It's called "bring your own food and don't go to the dining hall"

There might not be scholarships, but what happens between you and the course director stays between you and the course director. If I had someone who I absolutely wanted to staff a course, I'd find a way of making it happen. Officially.... Under Budget Goals: The course staff members will be responsible for their own expenses. They should not pass on their expenses to course participants. Ultimately, the way in which staff expenses are handled is the local councils decision. Under Course Revenue: Note: Staff costs are not to be passed on to the participants. Sta

For the past six years, our district has sponsored an open house at the November Roundtable where troops set up a display area, and Webelos II's are welcome to come visit with several troops at once. Most WDL's find it to be more convenient than trying to take up several den meeting nights with doing troop visits. Some of the troops who don't have natural or historical feed then have standalone open houses in the following weeks. It seems to work in our area, and maybe it will work in your situation. (This message has been edited by eolesen)

And since we seem to be clarifying the facts above... The quote from Anne Graham was actually after 9/11... According to the transcript of the broadcast, Clayson asked, "I've heard people say, those who are religious, those who are not, if God is good, how could God let this happen? To that, you say?" Lotz replied, "I say God is also angry when he sees something like this. I would say also for several years now Americans in a sense have shaken their fist at God and said, God, we want you out of our schools, our government, our business, we want you out of our marketplace. An

I'm much rather see a popcorn Show-n-Sell or Girlscout Cookies for sale at the 150' marker than be hassled by people looking to push their candidate's position paper under my nose or being asked to sign a petition for someone else's campaign bid in the next election...

The arguments can be over anything...if one boy expresses an interest in a football team, one of the rivals will jump in with comments about how bad the team is and off it goes. What is so disturbing is the intensity with which the arguments escalate until boys are standing nose to nose with the disagreement shifting from the original topic to personal insults aimed at each other. It got so bad at the last troop meeting that one boy began to insult the parentage of the other Yah, this sounds like Merlyn and Ed, eh? Thanks, B... I just spit soda all over my screen and keyboard...

East of the Mississippi is one thing... Out here in the southwest, large districts aren't unusual. My district in southern Arizona comes in at over 7,800 square miles. We have 170 units and about 3,300 boys. The second largest district in our council comes in at 6,100 square miles and around 70 units.

What happened was the kid earned his Life rank early, and then checked out of the program once he hit high school. Fast forward to senior year, college applications and scholarship applications... Wanting to round out his accomplishments, he resurfaces, decides to recharter a month or so before his 18th birthday, and wants to fast-track some elective merit badges and his project. He'd earned all of his white-ringers early, so there was really nothing that made this Mission Impossible. The SM gave them the Eagle workbook when he resurfaced, so ignorance wasn't an issue. It was ignori

Kudu, I'm really not sure why you have such an axe to grind on this topic, but here's a link: Leader Training Materials

Hmmmm.... As the parent of a special needs child, and a Disabilities Awareness MBC, technically, there is no line. In the public schools, you can't force a kid to go to a centralized program -- the school district needs to make reasonable accomodation in the school they're zoned for. Ethically, I'd encourage the same with Scout units. Yes, there are SN troops in some districts, and one of the units in my district is an all-autistic Cub Pack (chartered by an Autism school, which is probably the main reason they survive). Personally, not only do we sell the SN kids short if we tell the