epalmer84

Follow up stories: Totem pole victim, 9, loved tractors, tools Officials probe why totem pole fell I know all of our totem poles at our camp are made from phone poles. Our master carver worked for the phone company and had connections (he was featured in Scouting a while back). I would never have thought to check a phone pole for rot, but it is still not clear how this one was constructed. Ed

At ease! I was never a jarhead, not have I stayed in a Holiday Inn recently. I was a conehead- a somewhat pejorative term for a nuclear missile technician in the US Army. Your green "Scout Handbook" (that was the proper title at the time) was the handbook that introduced the Improved Scouting Program in 1972. I still have mine. I started Scouting here in Virginia. I was an assistant Scoutmaster and Scoutmaster through my military career in Germany, Alabama, Florida, Alabama, Germany and Texas. I'm back home in Virgina and am currently an assistant Scoutmaster and an Adviso

> jblake47 "While it has become popular to "make up rules as you go along", it is rather fruitless to question their validity when they are not adherent to the Flag Code of June 14, 1923. My crew (male) uses military uniforms and render appropriate military salutes in spite of BSA policy/protocol against it." The second statement rather destroys the validity of the first. That is all I have on that subject, and I am not pursuing it any further. Flag Code of June 14, 1923 is rather a misnomer. While true that the United States Flag Code was adopted by the National Fl

http://www.scouting.org/ The BSA site now has a survey on merit badges. There is one survey for Scouts and one for counselors. The counselor survey is interesting, as it is inquiring about multimedia and internet resources. Ed

The SPL and PLs are responsible for troop hygiene. The shower house at Camp Shenandoah was rebuilt a few years ago with individual stalls to meet the Youth Protection program rules. The lake does not count as it is usually high in algae and goose poop. We rarely have any problems. I also setup a Coleman shower tent and a shower head in camp. It is cold, but it does feel good at three in the afternoon. They can also use it to change clothes if two of them do not want to change in the same tent. Ed

Camp Shenandoah supplies the wall tents (that is the proper name) that are set up as part of the spring Ordeal. The council buys new tents for each national Scout jamboree and these get cycled back to camp to replace the worn out tents. Most of the wear is from the cotton ties rotting out. In the past, we have used two piece floor boards; these get stacked and covered after summer camp. We are moving towards platforms with one piece floors and "outriggers" on the sides to attach the tent. We have either military style cots or steel bunks with mattresses. We get the mattresses fro

Our troop and crew performs a salute when wearing the official uniform or the activity uniform. The troop activity uniform is a t-shirt with our troop logo on the back. I think the salute is more about respect and not attire. Ed

Hi, my name is Ed and I'm a Scouter.

> Well, today it is. Under Explorers/Exploring they never made spruce green shorts, so you had to wear the boy scout shorts of the time. Hmmm. OK, I had seen photos of Explorers in the spruce shirt and trousers. Flipping through Peterson's The Boy Scouts: An American Adventure there is a photo of an Explorer in spruce shirt and olive shorts right in the front. We never wore uniforms when I was an Explorer in 1976. Ed

> Yes, ditch the bylaws That is the best piece of advice yet. We have a troop guidebook. This is more of a FAQ for parents. Every year we update it based on what new parents need to know when coming into the troop. We have a parents meeting just before summer camp where we answer any questions about camp. Based on the questions asked, we update the guidebook sometime after camp. This next update will finally get posted on the web. I think we have exactly two troop rules: one on knives, based on council and camp policies and on the Code of Virginia, and one on electronics

>are today's Belt loops & pins from the Cub scout Academic & Sports Program actually from an older Boy Scout program? The short answer is "no"- they just recycled part of an older concept. The BSA does not throw away concepts, they just stow them away for a while and dust them off when they need them again. Just a few examples: - Boy Scout patrols were originally identified by colored ribbons worn on the shoulder with a brass pin; these were replaced by patches similar to the ones used today. When the Webelos activity pins were developed, the ribbons came back as t

In all of this, the article never tells us what SafeRides actually is. Ed OK- it is in the last section that was not posted here: SafeRides SafeRides, created at John Jay 23 years ago, is a program that offers rides home to students on Friday nights. It was created to help cut down on drunk driving and car accidents caused by inexperienced drivers. I participate in SafeRides because I know kids whove gotten home and have had no memory of getting there, said John Jay senior Katie Hamren, vice president of SafeRides. Anyone in the world can tell you thats a dangerous thi

Some of the points that stick out here: > The SafeRides program is owned by the Venturers, a coeducational branch of the Boy Scouts of America, and chartered by the school district. You can read this several ways, but it does not explicitly state that the school district is the chartered organization for the crew. The BSA program is "chartered to" an organization, not "chartered by"; this is probably a technicality that would escape a reporter not familiar with these aspects of the program. > Public schools and government organizations do not serve as chartered organ

A spruce green shirt with olive green shorts. What a fashion faux pas! Ed

It seems like National is quite conservative as to their web presence. It is also my understanding that their really good web people get hired by the larger local councils at better pay. Ed

Yes. And they already changed the merit badge library. http://www.scouting.org/boyscouts/resources/32215/mb/library.html Last week it had notes about updated requirements that take effect in 2008, but these are now removed. These were Backpacking, First Aid, Hiking, Metalwork, Sculpture, Water Skiing (to become Water Sports) and Wilderness Survival. Ed

>Thus I know they were using the C revision of the Admin guide. I'm not surprised it has been updated, but I don't understand why they would not update the online version. Frankly, I like having the PDF on hand as it is searchable. When I was scribe last year, I could find material in the guides and readily print up whatever was needed. Ed

The A version is what we used in April-May of 2006. The online version is still the A rev: http://www.scouting.org/pubs/av/18-591/ If you can find it, you can copy it as it is a bin item (identified by the dash in the catalog number). Our CC is on staff this fall- I will ask him what version he is using. Ed

To expand on dancinfox's answer; The reference is the Wood Badge Administrative Guide (2005) #18-591A. Ed

Ooops- I didn't get the message. Give me some lead time and I might make the next one. Ed in VA I used to be a beaver...

I had forgotten this... I was a scribe on our last Wood Badge course. I printed up name badges with position emblems and the troop guides changed name tags instead of uniforms. We did not have to buy shoulder loops. I used a color laser printer, and printed these up on cardstock, then laminated them. Ed

When I was a youth, the chapel at Camp Shenandoah here had round plaques with the emblems of several faiths- Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Baha'i, and a number of others. Returning as an adult, I found that those plaques had been removed. The chapel is still there, nestled amongst the pines, simple yet elegant. It is often used for training in the Citizenship merit badges. I often see Scouts sitting there, either doing paperwork where it is quiet or simply meditating or praying. Ed

There are actually a number on eBay at the moment. You might also search for "shofar", as the kudu horn is used for this purpose as well. Remember- one of the recent changes to the program is that only one person may use the kudu- I suspect this is a health and hygiene issue. Ed

> Again, when you talk about what "we" don't allow, who is "we?" "We" are the troop, as decided by the PLC. The only real PLC "rule" is on knives since we have council policies and state regulations. Everything in the troop and parent's guidebook is definition type material; "courteous" means you don't cut through other units campsites or shine a light in someones eyes, "thrifty" means you don't chuck rocks in the river as it has a heavy environmental impact (skipping rocks is OK) and so forth. One of our committee members didn't really understand the music thing until we were a

We don't allow electronics past watches, flashlights (and no, flashlights with radios don't count) and a GPS. If they want to play with it in the vehicle and leave it, that is fine. Cell phones get turned off during meetings. Adults who are on call are expected to use the vibrate feature and go out of the room when using the phone. At Camp Shenandoah, you pretty much have to walk down to the parking lot to get a signal- you might get lucky in the evenings, but it is spotty. I have taken my cell phone with me on several camping trips just to check coverage- it is really quite poor