fgoodwin

Maybe they believed and trusted in the "perpetuity" clause of the lease? Or maybe it was in consideration of the free rent?

Good turns' ought to count http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/editorial/15140277.htm http://tinyurl.com/n2kxw Posted on Fri, Jul. 28, 2006 Hans Zeiger In 1928, the City of Philadelphia made a promise to the Boy Scouts "in perpetuity." That was the city's arrangement for its leased land to the Scouts at 22d and Winter Streets, where today sits the headquarters of the Cradle of Liberty Boy Scout Council. In exchange for the city property, the Boy Scouts have contributed countless "good turns" to Philadelphia. A good turn is an act of kindness, a volunteer project, a daily decision to invest in the lives of others. Scouting teaches boys to look beyond themselves to the community around them, to ask how they can serve. Scouting serves 40,000 children in Philadelphia. It makes sense, then, that the City of Philadelphia should partner with the Boy Scouts. But City Solicitor Romulo L. Diaz Jr. has written to Cradle of Liberty Council President William T. Dwyer III citing the scouts' "discriminatory policies" as grounds for ejection from the council headquarters unless the scouts can pay a "fair-market rent." The discriminatory policies to which Diaz refers include the Boy Scouts of America's national policy excluding homosexuals from positions of leadership. Yet, it makes no more difference to the City of Philadelphia that the Boy Scouts teach that homosexuality is wrong than that the Girl Scouts do not. The city ought to have partnerships with both organizations because both are contributing to the community in ways that the city government itself is incapable. A private organization's membership regulations are entirely inconsequential to the City of Philadelphia. A private organization's service to the community is highly consequential. And in order for the community to thrive and to succeed, it is necessary to keep open channels of support between public and private associations of every sort. Philadelphia is a success story for public-private partnerships aimed at remedying social injustices within the city. Urban champion John DiIulio and former Mayor W. Wilson Goode Jr. founded the Amachi program in Philadelphia to involve people of faith in the Big Brother Big Sister in-school mentoring program. In addition, as many as 40 percent of welfare-to-work programs in Philadelphia are based out of churches or other religious institutions. Philadelphia's public schools also benefit by public-private partnerships. Several years ago the School Reform Commission contracted the management of 45 of the city's lowest-performing public schools to private for-profit organizations. In 2004, Philadelphia school superintendent Paul Vallas called on members of churches, synagogues and mosques to help local schools with tutoring, campus safety, and mentoring. Today, 90 percent of Philadelphia public schools have been adopted by at least one faith-based partner, according to James W. Scott, director of Community Relations and Faith-Based Initiatives. A public-private partnership does not mean that the public sector endorses every position of its private partner. There are some things on which common ground is necessary, of course. A public-private partnership between an anarchist society and city government would make little sense. But Kiwanis Clubs, Rotary Clubs, American Legion posts, VFW lodges, Boys and Girls Clubs, PTAs, Elk Clubs, Presbyterian churches, Baptist churches, Jewish synagogues, scout troops - these private groups and many others have much to contribute, irrespective of their particular membership requirements and codes. When a private organization supports some aspect of the common good that the public sphere operating alone could not promote as well, a partnership is in order. So it is with the Boy Scouts, and so it has been since 1928. The Boy Scouts have done thousands of good turns for Philadelphia. Upholding its promise to the scouts is the least the City of Philadelphia can do. --- Hans Zeiger is an Eagle scout, an assistant scoutmaster, and author of "Get Off My Honor: The Assault on the Boy Scouts of America" Contact Hans Zeiger hanszeiger@yahoo.com

MarkS writes:If the courts have decided that it is unconstitional for a public school to be the chartered organization of a scout unit, then as scouts and scouters we have a duty to our country to obey that law."If" . . . "Then" The problem with your "if-then" is that no court has ever ruled that it is unconstitutional for schools to charter scout units.

The Scout Law: what does it mean? http://www.timesnews.net/community_article.php?id=415 Published 2006-07-27 16:23:38 By Kurt Stevenson Warriors Path - A View of Scouting Through The Eyes of Scouts Since 1910, Scouting has had several basic fundamentals. Lord Baden-Powell set up these principles to insure the integrity of Scouts everywhere. These are known in Scouting as the Scout Law, the Scout Motto and the Scout Oath In this series of articles, we will examine the 12 points of the Scout Law, the Scout Motto, the Scout Oath and hear about lessons learned through Scouting from various members of the Warriors Path District Committee and from various books on Scouting and Lord Baden-Powell The Scout Law states that a Scout is: Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean and Reverent. Let us first examine Trustworthy. Webster's dictionary defines trustworthy as being worthy of confidence, dependable, trust,tried and reliable. Therefore someone that is considered trustworthy would be one that can be depended on and that you have placed your confidence in. As stated in "The Scout Law in Practice": A Scout's honor is to be trusted. If he were to violate his honor by telling a lie, or by cheating, or by not doing exactly a given task, when trusted on his honor to do so, he may be directed to hand over his scout badge." When we have thoroughly grasped the idea of honor itself, it becomes an easy matter to understand that "a scout's honor is to be trusted"; for we know that our honor is actually our sense of obligation to duty and to God. It is a debt that we owe which we can not fail to pay without losing everything that is worth while in life; for, according to the standard of men of honor, life without honor is not worth living -- not because it means disgrace or contempt in the eyes of men, but because it means that we feel ourselves to be dishonest and untrustworthy. The faithful performance of our everyday duties, for no other reason than because it is right, will help us to be trustworthy in times of special trial. It is not only the exact carrying out of orders which trustworthiness demands, but the spirit of initiative which will do a useful piece of work in intelligent anticipation of an order. This might, of course, be carried too far, but usually the living interest we take in our duty makes us intelligent in carrying it out. There are men who seem incapable of this sort of initiative, although they can do very good work under direct orders. These are not trustworthy excepting under certain conditions; more trustworthy is the man who does not need to be watched, but who does his work faithfully from his own sense of duty. Such is the timber of which patrol leaders and assistant scout masters are made, and, later on, foremen and superintendents and officials; but, even these may get their positions only because they are relatively better than the rank and file, without being really trustworthy in their hearts. The really trustworthy man is he who in every case and in every detail would rather do right and lose, than do wrong for his own personal advantage. Our great president, Abraham Lincoln, was a man of this type, and we revere and love his memory not only for his great deeds as a statesman and leader, but for the trustworthiness which sprang out of his love for the right and his human affection for other men. A deep trust in God, because God Himself is trustworthy, is the surest foundation of human courage; and no one is likely to trust in God unless he is trustworthy himself. Whether a scout is standing watch on signal duty in war time, or whether he has been put in charge of a young child, to give his mother a chance for an outing and rest, or whether he be standing his watch at night as a sea scout on board ship, his obligation of honor is the same, and nothing on earth is an excuse for unfaithfulness. A scout is trustworthy. For more information about Scouting and how to join, visit http://www.scbsa.org

Rx for violence: dump on Boy Scouts http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/opinion/15132591.htm http://tinyurl.com/l3l7p Posted on Thu, Jul. 27, 2006 Michael Smerconish THE CITY'S homicide rate appears headed for a record. From the politicians (the mayor and his would-be successors), we hear the same-old, same-old: Blame the guns and philosophize about police redeployment. Blaming guns always provides a good sound bite, but the reality is that guns aren't driving this problem, and neither is police presence or lack of it. No, the murder rate is a direct result of kids born into families in which there is nobody home to kick butt, kids who are uncontrolled and facing no future. The closest anyone in this town has come to addressing the real root cause was when Inquirer columnist Claude Lewis wrote recently about the need to give kids back their childhood. Not only does the city not hear Lewis' wisdom, but it's about to contradict his logic by undercutting a private group that preaches ethics, values and morality to young people who could otherwise fall into the grip of urban violence. At a time when young black people are dying in the streets, the mayor has set his sight on the Boy Scouts. Yes, the Boy Scouts. You know: On my honor I will do my best To do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; To help other people at all times; To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight. It's that last part that has Mayor Street's knickers in a knot. So the city is threatening to evict the local Boy Scouts, the Cradle of Liberty Council, from its city-owned headquarters at 22nd and Winter, which it has occupied since 1928, when a less-PC City Council said they could use the land forever. In reality, the scouts pay $60,000 a year for maintenance and upkeep of the property. They also made $2.6 million in renovations to the building in the mid-'90s. This is a battle that has been going on for three years. And it is certainly a debate worth having, just maybe not now when the city is in crisis. Unfortunately, Mayor Street would sooner appease some special interests than stand up for kids getting role models. A recap: The national Boy Scouts require scout leaders, not members, to be straight. This requirement has withstood Supreme Court scrutiny. That's right. The Boy Scout position has been approved by the Supremes. The local Boy Scouts disagree with the national policy and have said so in a very public way. They don't want to discriminate against homosexuals - and John Street knows that. They have gone as far as they can go to appease both the city and their national leadership by adopting a nondiscrimination policy that states: "As the most diverse youth-serving organization in our service area, we are committed to this mission and we oppose any form of unlawful discrimination." That's still not good enough for City Solicitor Romulo L. Diaz Jr. Not only does he want unlawful discrimination condemned, he wants lawful discrimination to be condemned, too. So guess who is poised to lose out? Not some Hitler youth. No, the losers are more than 40,000 local kids in grades K-12 who participate in programs called Learning for Life, or ScoutReach. Learning for Life is a values-based, life-skills program run in collaboration with the city schools. The youths are taught by district teachers. ScoutReach helps to meet the developmental needs of young boys in Philadelphia, Montgomery and Delaware counties. By emphasizing ethics and moral values, ScoutReach addresses many of the social concerns of parents and youth in our area. Values. Ethics. Morals. Just the kind of things to throw away at a time when the city is in crisis, as long as the city involved is this one. And there is something else significant about Learning for Life: The program is absolutely nondiscriminatory! It has nothing to do with traditional scouting. The schools, companies and organizations that partner with the scouts in Learning for Life pick leaders based on their standards, not those of the Boy Scouts of America. And how ironic that one part of scout law requires them to be trustworthy: "A Scout tells the truth. He keeps his promises. Honesty is part of his code of conduct. People can depend on him." According to the Boy Scouts, John Street needs to keep his promises. They say that in January 2004, a deal was cut with the solicitor's and mayor's offices in which the Boy Scouts adopted a nondiscrimination policy accepted by both the city and the national Boy Scouts organization. It's not too late. Mayor Street can still follow the scout motto and "Do a Good Turn Daily." He can tell gay groups he's sympathetic, but, for now, he's going to lay off the scouts to give some kids an alternative to drugs, mischief and violence. --- Michael Smerconish can be heard weekdays 5:30-9 a.m. on the Big Talker, 1210/AM. Contact him via the Web at www.mastalk.com

50th Anniversary of Our National Motto, "In God We Trust," 2006 http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/07/20060727-12.html For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary July 27, 2006 A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America On the 50th anniversary of our national motto, "In God We Trust," we reflect on these words that guide millions of Americans, recognize the blessings of the Creator, and offer our thanks for His great gift of liberty. From its earliest days, the United States has been a Nation of faith. During the War of 1812, as the morning light revealed that the battle torn American flag still flew above Fort McHenry, Francis Scott Key penned, "And this be our motto: 'In God is our trust!'" His poem became our National Anthem, reminding generations of Americans to "Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation." On July 30, 1956, President Dwight Eisenhower signed the law officially establishing "In God We Trust" as our national motto. Today, our country stands strong as a beacon of religious freedom. Our citizens, whatever their faith or background, worship freely and millions answer the universal call to love their neighbor and serve a cause greater than self. As we commemorate the 50th anniversary of our national motto and remember with thanksgiving God's mercies throughout our history, we recognize a divine plan that stands above all human plans and continue to seek His will. NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim July 30, 2006, as the 50th Anniversary of our National Motto, "In God We Trust." I call upon the people of the United States to observe this day with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-seventh day of July, in the year of our Lord two thousand six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-first. GEORGE W. BUSH

Gulf Stream Council launches its first Muslim troop http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-bc28troopjul28,0,7633613.story http://tinyurl.com/hejed By Lisa Bolivar Special Correspondent Posted July 28 2006 Hassene Chaabane has been a Boy Scout all his life, so he jumped at the recent opportunity to introduce scouting to a new group of youths. Chaabane, 31, who attends religious services at the Islamic Center of Boca Raton, is spearheading the formation of Cub Scout and Boy Scout Troop 394, the first Muslim troop in the Gulf Stream Council, which covers Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River and Hendry counties. "I can't imagine the life of a boy without Boy Scouts," Chaabane said. Chaabane, a native of Tunisia, drives from his home in Hallandale Beach to attend the Boca Raton mosque and help form the troop. Participating in scouting in his homeland helped him grow into the man he is today, he said. "It taught me self-confidence, values, you name it," he said. "At an early age boys have a lot of energy, and if you don't direct the energy in the right direction, they will go and do bad stuff. ... That's why you see kids on the street doing bad things. Some do drugs, some go toward sex, so this is an opportunity for kids to learn about life." Members of the mosque approached Jennifer Thomason, district executive of the Gulf Stream Council, about starting a new troop. "We are very excited about it, because Boy Scouts are for no specific faith, and we look to any community organization of faith or not of faith to take our standards," Thomason said, adding that there are several new troops forming in Boca Raton, two at synagogues. She is helping the elders at the mosque train to become troop leaders for the more than 40 children already signed up, while learning about the differences between the Islamic way of raising children and traditional American ways. "I am definitely learning things about the culture, especially the difference between men and women," she said. "In the Islamic center, they keep the boys and girls completely together until they are teenagers, then they separate them, which is opposite from what we normally do." Normally, little girls join Girl Scouts, Thomason said, and later in high school, boys and girls come together for Venturing, a form of scouting that is coed. Muslims, on the other hand, separate the sexes once they become aware of each other's differences to guard chastity and moral behavior, said Mohammed Sanhaji, who represents the Islamic Center of Boca Raton at the Boy Scouts. "I am excited about the fact that we can get our kids to be a part of activities that are not just Islamic. We want activities that are meant for community leadership," Sanhaji said. "Boy Scouts is mixing the religious background and civic duties and other standard morals, and they will become good leaders and model citizens." Troop 394 will approach scouting from a family perspective, Thomason said, involving girls and parents in activities. Annie Lin of Delray Beach was quick to volunteer as a den mother. Her son, Yusuf Lin, 6, is eager to begin his scouting experience, she said. "I'm very excited about it, and I am very supportive of anything that complements Islamic values, traditions and morals," said Lin, an accountant for a family-run Chinese vegetable farm. "Cub Scouts is an American thing, and it's an organized group, and they promote self-confidence and teaching survival skills and boys getting together and doing outdoor things." Lin looks forward to watching her son grow with scouting, both in his faith and as an American. "We can be Muslims and can be a Boy Scout also, and I want to make sure that the children understand that just because we are Muslims, we can involve them in other things that are along the same things that Islam teaches us. We are American, we were born here," Lin said. "I don't want them to feel like they are different." Mazin Musallam, 12, of Lake Worth is looking forward to the physical activity of Boy Scouts. "It's pretty good. We get to play outside a lot," he said. "We have snack time, and we get to learn stuff from the Red Cross like if firemen come, don't be afraid." It is about time that scouting evolved to reflect the community, Thomason said. "We do tend to be seen as predominantly white and Christian, and that is not what we are," she said. "We're having to change and accommodate, like with the Jewish units we have to change a lot of our events to Sundays [to accommodate the Jewish Sabbath on Saturdays until sundown]. We should have been changing and accommodating long before this."

Dan, of course the goal of the ACLU (and others of its ilk, like Scouting for All) is to force the agenda of those it represents onto BSA. When the ACLU lost in the courts after its direct attacks on BSA, it changed its tactics and launched collateral attacks on public entities that sponsored packs and troops. If ACLU had won its direct attacks against BSA, it would never have launched those collateral attacks to begin with. At least S-F-A admits on its webpage that it wants to change BSA policy -- ACLU supporters ought to have the courage of their beliefs and come clean also. For those who attack BSA and its supporters, its always been about changing BSA policy. This isn't news.

Hunt, I've pointed out before that ACLU forcing Scout charters out of public schools was a pyrrhic victory at best. If the goal of the ACLU is to open BSA to gays and atheists, forcing the charters into churches isn't exactly the best way to do that. The ACLU hasn't thought through the long-term effects of their constant assaults on BSA; so while they may have won the battle, they will ultimately lose the war.

Like father, like son http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,23110-2227658,00.html http://tinyurl.com/pqxjf June 17, 2006 The Times Frank Cottrell Boyce Tomorrow is Father's Day. What better time for Frank Cottrell Boyce and his son Benedict to put to the test a bumper book of old fashioned activities? THE DANGEROUS BOOK FOR BOYS by Conn Iggulden and Hal Iggulden HarperCollins, 18.99; 294pp FROM THE DAY THAT I became a Dad, I knew which Dad I wanted to be the one in Swiss Family Robinson, the kind of Dad who could build you a shelter, shoot you some lunch (with a bow hed made himself) and cook it over the open fire while telling you all about the stars and tides. The sort of Dad who could make being marooned on a desert island seem like a lark. Ive got the inclination but not the skills. I can do the marooning but after that youre on your own. For instance, it was entirely my fault that we were once washed up on an uninhabited Scottish island with nothing but a hospitality pack of bourbon biscuits and no hope of a boat till nightfall. Pastor Robinson would have knocked up a fish supper and organised a ceilidh. I spent the afternoon looking anxiously from my watch to the horizon and back again while the children played happily in the streams. On another occasion, filled with the spirit of Swallows and Amazons, I took them all canoeing on a fast-flowing mountain river without actually knowing how to canoe. For half an hour we whirled over rapids at hair-raising speeds, heading towards who knows what cataracts and torrents. When we crashed into a bank, my entire family without a word of discussion abandoned ship, leaving me on my own with my paddle. Then there was the torchless midnight ramble on top of the mountain which I suddenly belatedly remembered was riddled with unmarked mine shafts. The pastor would have made some kind of night-vision radar system out of heather and a captured bat. My own strategy was to go into meltdown and try to get everyone to stand completely still until morning. My son Joe kept his cool and led us to safety. He was nine at the time. I wish I could say this list was exhaustive. But Ive left out anything that would trigger immediate prosecution. The Dangerous Book for Boys could be just what Im looking for. It could also be an exercise in camp and nostalgia. Its stuffed with illustrations that look like those PG Tips collectors cards (Moths of Sarawak etc). Its got a section on grammar and a list of Poems Every Boy Should Know which includes If and Invictus. If you recited those to your fellows while drifting hopelessly at sea, they would quite rightly eat you. (A boy needs to know Albert and the Lion and, as he gets older, a little something by John Cooper Clarke.) Im also suspicious of any book mentioning Tycho Brahe that doesnt say he had a pet elk that met its death by falling downstairs when Tycho got it drunk. (What was it doing upstairs?) So is it aimed more at fathers than boys? Is it sexist? (Charmingly my six-year-old daughter took the title to mean that it would be dangerous for boys to read it but perfectly safe for girls. Shes enjoying the stuff about insects.) More importantly, is it of any practical use? My 10-year-old son Benedict and I put it to the test. Building a tree house Frank says If there is a monument to my combination of romance and incompetence it is our tree house a platform so rickety and rotten that squirrels wont go on it. Ive seen blackbirds looking nervous on it. So I was keen to redeem myself by making a proper tree house. The plans look great and very safe. They also involve 60 man-hours of work. This is not an activity, it is a second career. However the pictures are so inspirational and Benedict has become so obsessed with it, that I am going to build it. And thus redeem myself. Benedict says We already had a sort of tree house but its not very safe. So I think its a good idea to build a new one. The one in the book looks very safe (unlike ours) and I definitely think we should build it, even though it takes 67ft of prime pine planking. Thats a bit of a tongue twister! Making a bow and arrow Frank says There are no short cuts in the chapter on making a bow and arrow. For instance, it suggests that you go and cut a piece of yew while its green and springy, then leave it to dry for a year. This is not going to happen. On the other hand, I like this slow living approach and the way that it encourages you to spend time doing things properly. I love it that the list of Things You Will Need includes flint for the arrow heads. If you followed the instructions completely you would probably experience some sort of mystic one-ness with the bow. We took a few short cuts. But we still ended up with a bow that really worked, even though we havent finished the arrows yet. I was a bit disturbed by the suggestion of old tin cans as a possible source of arrow heads, though. Benedict says I have made lots of bows and arrows before but none has been as good as this. Probably its because of the knot at the top and the bottom, which holds the string tight without letting it slip. Its called a half hitch. I havent fletched arrows yet or put an arrow head on (mainly because I didnt want to kill any of my brothers and sisters). Its hard to get hold of the right feathers (goose). Making a battery Frank says There was a bit of shopping involved in this. You cant buy blotting paper in post offices or corner shops any more. You have to go to a stationers. Benedict told me that we needed lead so we went to a plumbers and then to a builders in search of some. It was only later that I discovered what we needed was not lead but a LED (light-emitting diode), which we got for 50p in a battery shop. They are utterly great. I cant think why I havent bought loads of them before. The battery needs lots of vinegar and salt. It left the playroom smelling like Blackpool but it was exciting when it worked. Benedict says The battery is made of a tower of coins attached to an LED. My Dad got mixed up and thought I said lead like the metal even though I explained that LED meant light-emitting diode a lot of times. It did work but only a bit. The diode glows brighter the more coins that you use. Hunting and cooking a rabbit Frank says This was the most frustrating bit. Our local park is overrun with rabbits. I quite like the idea of using them as a food source but the book suggests shooting them with a gun. I tried to explain to Benedict that ours are urban rabbits and that if we shot them with a gun, their cousins would come round in 4x4s and kneecap us while we were queueing outside the greengrocers but he was unconvinced. Its to his credit that he took the positive step of trying to trap a few instead. And its probably down to his genetic inheritance that the trap didnt work. Benedict says I was quite excited about this, because we live near a big rabbit warren. My experience of hunting a rabbit though was disappointing because my Dad WOULD NOT BUY ME A GUN ! ! ! (this may be something to do with my Dad, not the book). I did try building a trap but it failed probably because it was my own idea, not the books. The best paper plane in the world Frank says This is where the book came into its own, for me. What I like about all the suggestions is that they have clearly tried them for themselves and if you follow the instructions they do work. They are the Delia Smiths of outdoor activities and this paper plane is their chocolate torte unbelievably impressive and totally reliable. The moment that I chucked it and saw it soar off, float, dip and then skim along the grass for several yards, was as thrilling as the day I learnt to ride a bike. I did it again to prove that it wasnt a fluke. Then again for fun and then again and again. Ive always been rubbish at making paper planes. Now its my pice de rsistance. Benedict says They show you how to make two different types of plane. The best one by far is the Harrier because it flies further, floats and glides. If you fold one of the back wings up, it comes back to you in a circle. This is probably one of the best activities in the book. You can spend up to an afternoon playing with the planes and they cost nothing just a sheet of paper. FATHER'S DAY TOP SIX Conn and Hal Iggulden, authors of The Dangerous Book for Boys, select their favourite Fathers Day titles. MY UNCLE OSWALD by Roald Dahl For dads only! For those who think Roald Dahl wrote only for children, this is funny, rude and still the work of a master storyteller. THE FLASHMAN BOOKS by George McDonald Fraser The greatest anti-hero in fiction, with only three talents, two of which are riding. The best possible way to know your Victorians REACH FOR THE SKY The Story of Douglas Bader by Paul Brickhill Nonfiction the classic behind the Kenneth More film. An extraordinary life of courage and irreverence. Still an inspiration. ROGUE MALE by Geoffrey Household Hunting the most dangerous man alive. Simply the best escape and pursuit story yet written, with lip-chewing tension right to the end. THE SHARPE BOOKS by Bernard Cornwell Cracking, fast-paced stories from the master and, in Sharpe, one of the best central characters you will find anywhere. The best is a matter of opinion, but for us, its Sharpes Trafalgar. Finally, books to read with sons: Anything by Terry Pratchett. Every one is funny, sharp and interesting. Night Watch is the best, but start with Sorcery and just try to read it aloud with a straight face.

Let's hear it for the boys http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/childrenandteens/story/0,,1797080,00.html http://tinyurl.com/r7g4v Is a new book of chap-like pursuits good clean fun, or does it hark back to a nostalgic, colonial past? Dave Hill Wednesday June 14, 2006 The Guardian Valiant as a Spitfire pilot, fearless as an Elizabethan seafarer, a big red hardback called The Dangerous Book for Boys has soared to number one in the Amazon chart. Part miscellany, part homage, part pastiche, the brothers Conn and Hal Iggulden's bumper collection of Useful Skills, Ripping Yarns and Jolly Interesting Facts is already a publishing phenomenon. As I write, Amazon can only promise to dispatch within seven to 10 days, suggesting that demand has far outstripped supply. And without getting too, you know, girly about it, the book's success demands that we desist for a bit from building that go-cart out of things retrieved from skips and reflect a while on what it means. The authors' introduction gives a big clue. "In this age of video games and mobile phones," they declare, "there must still be a place for knots, treehouses and stories of incredible courage." Perhaps they're right. "Is it old-fashioned?" they inquire. "Well, that depends. Men and boys today are the same as they always were, and interested in the same things. They may conquer different worlds when they grow up, but they'll still want these stories for themselves and for their sons. We hope in years to come that this will be a book to dig out of the attic and give to a couple of kids staring at a pile of wood and wondering what to do with it." Such craving! Such nostalgia! Such faith in and yearning for an unfashionable model of boy and manhood that transcends the passage of time and can be handed down male generations like an adventuring gene! Authorial tongues may be tucked at times into their cheeks, especially in the (very small) section on girls, but there's idealism, the sense of a mission to assert certain upright principles in the face of history's mocking. Right at the front Sir Frederick Treves is quoted, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Boy's Own Paper: "The best motto for a hard march is 'Don't grumble. Plug on.'" He concludes: "Keep clean, body and mind." The book is beautifully accomplished, from its instructions about hunting and cooking a rabbit to its diagrams explaining how to wrap a parcel in brown paper and string. ("Not a very 'dangerous' activity, it's true, but ... extremely satisfying.") But does the chord it has struck also reveal the stubborn prevalence of some rather foolish and deluded fantasy vision of British boyhood? Of a past less noble and less real than it may seem in hindsight, a past which those books and comics that inspired this one would have us believe? I suppose the answer is mostly yes. I'm old enough to have grown up in a time when the sorts of virtues championed here - wholesome curiosity, diligent teamwork, pluck and decency - still enjoyed some currency, especially in schools and in the cub scouts. However, while boys of my generation enjoyed a freedom to roam and to construct bows and arrows and to play football until dusk, those good-egg moral virtues were often scarce in reality. Boys who were not "hard" or sporty got picked on by boys who were, just as happens now. Bob Cherry, the brave and hearty hero from the Billy Bunter series, was very much a fictional character. Is this book, then, purely romantic? That's quite a tricky one to call. I'm wondering why it is called "dangerous". Does the choice of adjective simply express that hankering after a time when parents were less fearful about their children? Or is it some sort of a comment being made to the effect that it is dangerous these days to insist that boys are totally different creatures from girls? A chapter called The British Empire (1497-1997) repays careful rereading. It's all battles and rebellions and good intentions that didn't always work out, but were still good intentions anyway. It is hard to see this as anything other than a conservative reading of the imperial centuries, which makes me inclined to see The Dangerous Book for Boys and its popularity as of a piece with a modern lament about the loss of an old gender order under which a chap knew what a chap was meant to do and the world was a happier place. I don't believe it ever was that simple, and pining for it will do none of us much good. Yet there remains much that is admirable here. Some more advice from Sir Frederick Treves: "Don't swagger. The boy who swaggers - like a man who swaggers - has little else that he can do ... It is the empty tin that rattles most. Be honest. Be loyal. Be kind. Remember that the hardest thing to acquire is the faculty of being unselfish. As a quality it is one of the finest attributes of manliness." Not much to quarrel with there. http://davehill.typepad.com/temperama

Danger: boys having fun http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2006/06/13/boboy13.xml http://tinyurl.com/nom9b (Filed: 13/06/2006) A book of old-fashioned, adventurous pastimes for lads and dads has become a surprise bestseller. Christopher Middleton watched his 11-year-old son transformed into a Middle Earth warrior It's amazing that The Dangerous Book For Boys ever got published, really, given the deeply unfashionable connotations surrounding two out of the five words in the title (the ones that aren't "The", "Book" and "For"). The very thought of an educational volume that sets out both to exclude a specific gender and to promote activities with questionable health and safety implications is enough to bring the ultimate condemnation that the world of mealy-mouthdom has to offer - that of being "inappropriate". Just a glance down the contents page gives a pretty good clue of the direction in which the authors' minds are heading. Even before page 100, chaps will have learnt how to decipher enemy code, make a bow and arrow and plant a tripwire that will alert them to the imminent arrival of baddies in the camp. "It is the kind of book we would have given the cat away to get when we were young," say its creators Hal and Conn Iggulden, two brothers who grew up not in the Fifties, as the book's self-consciously retro Boys' Own presentation might suggest, but in the Seventies and early Eighties. The question is, of course, does this book still work today? To find out, I gave it to my 11-year-old son Charles and his friend and battle companion, Alex, 12. Then I stood well back. These are two boys who have been raised on The Lord of the Rings, rather than the cowboys and Indians with whom I grew up. When they take up arms, they do so not in the guise of silver-spurred sharpshooters trying to chisel the Comanches out of land rights, but as heroic hobbits and elves, fighting to save Middle Earth from the ravening hordes of orcs and cave trolls. And given that the forces of evil are never more than a garden fence away, they immediately turned to the section of the book that showed them how to create their own Legolas-style archery kit, using bits of old branch no longer needed by the Ents. When they began stripping the bark off with a big, shiny, sharp-bladed Swiss Army knife, I had to dig down deep in order to ignore the parental risk-ometer readings that were going off the scale, accompanied by vivid flash-forwards of the inevitable long, bloodstained-bandaged hours ahead in casualty. Happily, though, the only injuries inflicted were upon a couple of imaginary foes, discovering to their cost the effectiveness of the new weapons. Success in this opening skirmish led not, however, to the commencement of the battle proper. Instead, responding to centuries of tradition ingrained as deeply as the mud on their knees, the boys instinctively followed Lesson Two in the unwritten guide to invincible world super-warriordom: however many weapons you've got, you can always do with more. The solution was to be found on page 20: the catapult. Here again, it was hard to resist the nose-poking instincts of the 21st-century parent who wants to make everything perfect. For although we were able to locate three of the key catapult components listed in the book (forked stick, piece of twine, tongue of old shoe), we were fresh out of cut-up bicycle inner-tube. A frantic search of the kitchen drawers came up with nothing remotely rubbery, and for a brief, panicky moment, I toyed with grabbing my 250 mountain bike and butchering its tyres, before deciding the more manly way out was to go into the garden and confess my shortcomings in the infallible father department. When I got out there, I was met not by the crushed, disappointed faces I had imagined, but by a pair of cheery catapult-wielders. "We found some rubber bands," they told me. "They work much better." Well, of course they don't. The speed-force-mass ratio of a stone projected by a rubber band is nowhere near what can be achieved by a correctly fastened, high-quality inner tube. And I was just pointing out how the measly 5ft pebble-plop they were achieving could be significantly bettered by a correctly engineered propulsion device, when something made me stop. First, the realisation that they weren't listening, and, second, that they were perfectly happy with their wonky weapons - all the more so for having worked out the solution themselves, rather than having it delivered on a plate by an over-anxious dad. For whereas I was seeing a succession of cherry pips landing feebly in the flowerbeds, they were seeing a volley of deadly metal shot wreaking havoc among the armies of Saruman. Yes, they were using their imaginations - and in terms of educational targets, as we all know, that's a bull's eye. The authors make no secret of their belief in the magically beneficial effects of children making their own fun. "In this age of video games and mobile phones, there must still be a place for knots, tree-houses and stories of incredible courage," they declare, and as well as serving as a practical manual of Just William-type tasks (training dogs to do tricks, making waterbombs out of paper), their book bristles with stirring tales of Douglas Bader and Horatio Nelson-type heroism - plus an unshakeable faith in the virtues of being active rather than passive. "Play sport of some kind," they urge. "It doesn't matter what it is, as long as it replaces the corpse-like pallor of the computer programmer with a ruddy glow." It's a message that transmits right to the nerve centre of any parent worried by the roughage-free diet that spills out of their offspring's television and PC screens - especially when they're boys. All right, so it's not appetising to see children of either sex enfeebled by on-screen entertainment, but there's something peculiarly aesthetically upsetting when they're young men. Let's face it, most boys have these built-in motors that if you listen carefully, you can hear (they go "grrrr"). It would be hard to find two more amiable young under-13s for example, than Charles and Alex: they're polite, cheery and civilised, yet give them a garden and they don't turn it into a picnic spot for their cuddly toys, they transform it into a battlefield with all the gory trimmings. Within 40 minutes of opening The Dangerous Book For Boys, they had gone off-text into their own private world of warfare. Cricket pads and helmet had been commandeered as impromptu armour and, rather than stopping at weapons that could merely take out an eye, they had utilised the length of the rope (intended by me for peaceful knot-practice) to lash together cricket-stumps in a whirling grappling hook with the power to disembowel. As for my daughters, they did not so much look at the big, red, boy-coloured volume, as look through it; for them, it might as well have been written in a foreign language. Which, of course, it pretty much is. Crucially, though, for those who might think a pro-boy book is by definition an anti-girl book, the authors have included a whole chapter mapping out the correct way for boys to deal with the opposite sex (ie decently). "Treat girls with respect," it advises. "Remember that they are as nervous around you as you are around them, if you can imagine such a thing. "They think and act rather differently to you, but without them, life would be one long rugby locker room." --- 'The Dangerous Book For Boys' by Conn and Hal Iggulden (HarperCollins, 18.99). To order for 15.99 plus 1.25 p&p, call Telegraph Books on 0870 428 4112. What every boy should have to hand Swiss Army knife - removes splinters Compass - your trusty guide Handkerchief - doubles as a sling Magnifying glass - look at small things, start a campfire A marble - big one, for luck Needle and thread - to sew up wounds, mend torn shirt Pencil and paper - note down criminals' car numbers Torch - read secret plans by night Fish-hook and thread - add stick and worm and you won't starve Box of matches - dip the tips in wax (it waterproofs them)

September is National Preparedness Month; here are some resources: http://www.ready.gov/america/npm/index.htm http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?content=5745 http://www.citizencorps.gov/news/press/2006/2006_07_17.shtm http://www.apts.org/events/nationalPreparedness.cfm This would be a great tiem to finish that Emergency Preparedness Merit Badge! http://www.scouting.org/pubs/emergency/

Street Wrong To Evict Boy Scouts http://www.theeveningbulletin.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16963263&BRD=2737&PAG=461 http://tinyurl.com/qo4r4 07/25/2006 By: RAJ BHAKTA, Special To The Evening Bulletin In the midst of Philadelphia's worst crime wave in memory, including 220 murders already this year, a shrinking police force and failing schools, who has Philadelphia Mayor John Street bravely targeted as public enemy number one? The Boy Scouts of America. The Boy Scouts Cradle of Liberty Council, which serves 87,000 scouts in Philadelphia, Montgomery County and Delaware County, has kept its headquarters on public grounds near Logan Circle since 1928. In a more sane era, the City Council promised that the Boy Scouts may remain there with no rent charged "in perpetuity." Since then, the Scouts have spent millions of dollars renovating this structure over the years and paid for all its upkeep. But now, the city of Philadelphia, under the leadership of Street, is seeking to evict the Boy Scouts from their city-owned Center City headquarters because of their alleged refusal to admit open homosexuals as members. This, however, is of course a lie. Right on the Scout's Web site it says, "Prejudice, intolerance and unlawful discrimination in any form are unacceptable within the ranks of Cradle of Liberty Council." This strikes me as the most ridiculous political action taken this year by any politician in America. Why now, while the city suffers its worst quality-of-life crisis in recent memory, does John Street push a radical agenda rather than face this city's genuine problems? And who suffers in the end for this piece of political theater? 40,000 inner city children who belong to the Scouts. The streets of Philadelphia are unsafe, yet Mayor Street chooses to go after the one organization that has done so much to improve the lives of thousands of children in this region. He is taking on a group that has helped many young people steer clear of criminal activity. Because John Street has chosen to waste precious time and energy on this matter, I fear he doesn't know about the dangers brewing within his own city. So let me spell it out for him: Crime is up astronomically in Philadelphia, Mr. Mayor. Drug use is skyrocketing. In Northeast Philly, where I was born, the numbers are staggering. Assaults have risen over 400 percent in some areas of the Northeast including Mayfair, Fox Chase and Burholme. We Philadelphians should take pride in our long-standing support for the Boy Scouts and should let the mayor know, loud and clear, that we do not support his hateful treatment of this group. If the scourges of crime and drugs persist in our neighborhoods, only God knows who the city will target next. Perhaps the Salvation Army. Raj Bhakta is a candidate for Congress in Pennsylvania's 13th District.

I found several links to vendors of repro military clothing. I don't know if any of these vendors will repro a vintage Scout jacket or not, but it wouldn't hurt to ask: http://www.costumes.org/history/100pages/militaryuniforms.htm#Reproduction%20Uniforms http://tinyurl.com/zcgng Good luck, and keep us posted.

I've never tried them, but a quick search turned up this interesting link: http://www.vintagetrends.com/military/militaryvintage.asp Some of the jacket prices look pretty reasonable; I can't tell if these are repros or the real thing.

I've been looking for a Scoutmaster's jacket for a long time, but since I wear a 44R, odds are I'll never find a decent one in my size. I once saw a 38R on Ebay; it went for around $600, if I recall correctly. So if you ever see one outside of a flea market, expect to pay out the nose for it. Some places specialize in clothing for military re-enactors -- have you considered looking into them as a possible source?

Nature-Deficit Disorder: Nature Helps Kids Keep Their Eyes On The Ball http://www.newwest.net/index.php/city/article/10120/ By Todd Wilkinson, 7-24-06 When was the last time you heard local law enforcement officials blame violent behavior and drug use in our kids on teenagers spending too many hours outdoors, recreating, in nature? When have you ever been warned by pediatricians that kids who like to hike with their parents have higher rates of obesity and juvenile diabetes than their slacker, video game playing, cola-drinking counterparts? In the daily newspaper, I read an observation from a county sheriff who expressed his opinion that many recent young offenders committing criminal acts had a passion for playing video games in which simulated murder and virtual bloodletting were the skill sets needed to win. Mow down the competition using an Uzi or AK; watch the targets hit the ground on their backs with a thud and marvel at the flash of red for added special effects. Steel the eyes, pull the trigger without reflection, enter the tunnel of catatonia. Now swagger forth though the hallways of your school afterward, reminding your best buds how cool it was to splatter those dudes. Gosh, it seems "so real." Should any of us be surprised by what the sheriff said? Are we parents paying attention? Apparently not. Even in the relatively rural wild West, in communities where opportunities for enjoying nature abound, many of our kids are chronically detached from an environment that sharpens their senses rather than deadens it. The problem of nature-deficit disorder, the subject of Richard Louvs book, Last Child in the Woods, struck home a couple of summers ago when I helped organize a camping trip for pre-teen players on the hockey team I coach. The mom and dad of one of the boys graciously invited us out to their ranch on the edge of a mountain range for a retreat. My goal was to try and build team camaraderie by removing the boys from an environment that was routinely familiar to them. I had no idea how radical it would be. We spent a couple of days there hiking, swimming, shooting hockey pucks against a makeshift net along the side of a barn, catching snakes, watching badgers, feeding the horses, being out exposed to the ambient elements and natural sounds instead of having the lads plopped on a couch, in a darkened room, killing simulated cops and make-believe brown-skinned terrorist foes in which the object of their role playing and hand-eye coordination, it would seem, is to be a gang banger. Let it be known that during my days as a violent crime journalist in Chicago, I interacted with lots of detectives who were called to the aftermath of real-life gangsta gunplay. I challenge anyone to argue that those grim scenes had any redeeming virtue in them. At the Cook County Morgue, I can tell you there was no adrenalin-driven euphoria or high fives. The smell of formaldehyde, the wails of moms and dads (some of them single women abandoned by their spouses), and the face of blunt-trauma carnage were the terminus for what the sheriff, above, was talking about. For those who think this is a subtle dig at guns, it isn't. I hunt. I own shotguns stored out of reach under lock and key. I aim to teach my son and daughter, when the times comes, the personal responsibility that accompanies firearms, the consideration one must have with taking an animal's life and eating it, obeying the law, the role we play in making room for wildlife in the natural outdoor world, and the joy that comes with simply being outdoors in the autumn. During our hockey team's sojourn to the countryside, it quickly became apparent that some of the kids, despite living in the Gallatin Valley their entire lives, had never been on a hike or hunt to the national forest that begins a few miles from their front door. They had never seen a garter snake in the wild, never held a frog in their hands, never swam in a farm pond, never enjoyed an evening counting stars in the night sky. They had never played in a natural setting long enough not to fear it. These rough and tumble warriors, some of whom, like a significant number of their peers across the nation who suffer from ADD, could recite by rote the entire menu at McDonalds or the sexually explicit, gender demeaning lyrics to a hip-hop song, or tell you, with giddiness in their voices, how many virtual people they had dispatched in their X-Box games (or other players they injured playing virtual NHL with their thumbs), but they had trepidation putting a worm on a fish hook. I was floored. Some were surprisingly out of shape and markedly overweight, dubious of any reward that could come from trekking a couple of miles to the top of a bluff for views of an uncluttered, breathtaking panorama. I was dumbstruck when one boy declared, as we crested the hill and witnessed the sunset: This is boring. When can we get back to the tent so I can play my Game Boy. His thoughts were lost to a different horizon. Was I missing something? Is it right for me to judge? Perhaps not. I apologize to any guilty parents Im offending who believe that raising latchkey kids and surrendering their mentorship duties to a joystick is their God-given right. If espousing fitness and expecting parents to get theirs kids outdoors more is elitist, then explain how the budget allows for Nintendo GameCubes, big-screened TVs, premium cable and a diet of fast food? Here's a revelation Westerners may also find of interest which Louv offered in an interview with Sarah Karnasiewicz of Salon.com. She asked if nature-deficit is most acute in cities. "A major study came out a few months ago that said that the rate of obesity in children is growing faster in rural areas than it is in cities and suburbs," Louv said. "Again, it seems counterintuitive. But its not so counterintuitive when you think about the fact that the family farm is fairly nonexistent now. Kids in rural areas are playing the same video games, watching the same television, and theyre on longer car rides." I acknowledge humbly: It is a constant battle in our family to remain vigilant. It requires persistence. It means making your kids unhappy. We've come close to getting rid of the television completely only to retreat out of lack of will power. We succumb to hypocrisy. My wife and I are not perfect parents. But our kids are well aware that the universe does revolve around them. They know that we control the kinds of foods that are in the pantry. They know that skipping schoolwork means losing their sports and other coveted privileges. They know the value of exercise. And, whenever possible, we try consciously to have them take notice of things happening in the outdoor green spaces, wherever we find them, and to dwell in those moments. Studies show and Louvs book makes clear the pandemic of future health care costs, learning problems and an inability to relate to one another on human terms that were foisting on young people. Those costs will come due on society itself. Simple actions taken to prevent the onset of juvenile diabetes now prevents exponential financial burdens later, not to mention thwarting lifestyle misery for the people we love. But more than that, we're compromising our kids ability to foster connections to the world around them and stifling their emotional development. Rather than showing them how to find solace or beauty in the countryside, we've taught them to bond with a hand-held toy that gives them instant gratification and reinforces a "me-first before anyone else" sense of self. Another insight that has revealed itself the longer I've been in the youth coaching ranks: The parents who are the most indulgent with their kids, who refuse to draw lines in the sand with their offspring's personal behavior; who de-emphasize schoolwork, who shrug off good nutrition and fitness, and who aspire to be their kids' best friends rather than role models; these are the parents who also tend to be "the screamers" along the sidelines who put themselves before the team and who are the bane of coaches, fans and wring the lifeblood out of amateur athletics. A coincidence? Where did we go wrong? The catalysts, experts say, are many beyond the lack of attentive, conscientious parenting. Louv says were filling our kids lives up, in some cases, not only with over-choreographed activities and electronic gadgetry that undermine their ability to think for themselves, but weve made them fearful of going outside based upon an exaggerated sense of danger. How many times have you heard this: "Don't ride your bike to the park, Johnny and Sally." "Why not, mom?" "Because you might get abducted by all the kooks who are out there." Louv takes a shot at lawyers and overbearing parents who together have forced governments and communities to design parks that don't hold the same powerful allure to kids that they used to. God knows we certainly don't want parks landscaped with schrubs and bushes that gangs of kooks can lurk behind. And don't put a park near a body of water because, gosh sakes, the kids might drown when they're enjoying themselves fishing and swimming. "What we usually design is really more 'lawyer-friendly' [parks] than 'child-friendly'," Louv says, noting that he supports tort reform. "This is a litigious society, and a lot of the places you are talking about have been designed by attorneys, not park designers. But there is interplay between the fear of lawsuits and [parents] fear of a 'bogeyman' that is going to hurt their children indeed, they almost have become one and the same." The National Recreation and Park Association reports that 75 percent of Americans live within a two-mile walking distance of a public park. Public health officials will tell you there's far greater danger posed to your kid's safety and health from physical inactivity and all the grams of processed sugar they're ingesting than from child predatorsthough it doesn't mean parents shouldn't pay attention or not encourage their kids to play in groups. During the 1990s, Louv observes, the radius around the home where children were allowed to roam, due to parental paranoia, had shrunk to one-ninth of what it had been two decades earlier. Weve also all heard of the rising asthma problem in kids. Our own son was diagnosed with childhood asthma but it has become ameliorated by spending more time outdoors being active and fit. As Louv notes, kids today spend 90 percent of their time indoors where air quality is generally between two and ten times WORSE than it is outside. The irony is that parents may be stricter about not allowing their children to recreate in nature but on the other hand they can be completely permissive when it comes to video games. How did we, proud and righteous Baby Boomer and Generation X parents who vowed to never give our kids the same detached parenting given to us, go from actually nostalgically recounting our carefree childhoods during the Wonder Years to becoming so up tight about our kids need to be overachievers and sports stars? When did we become so manically neurotic in programming their waking hours, so hands on in micromanaging their play dates and yet so hands off and oblivious about other things happening before our eyes? A hopeful sign for me was that being outdoors for only a couple of days seemed to influence the souls of our young hockey players. Nature, in hindsight, was an adventure. Later that year, my assistant coach and I called a time out during the middle of a hockey game that started on the outdoor rink before sunrise. We told our kids to look to the east as the gloaming day dawned over the Bridger Mountains. In 40 years of playing the sport, I had never, in my life, witnessed something so beautiful during a hockey game as when the red light beams of morning bathed the kids on the ice. We can only try to believe some of it soaked into the kids and their parents. The reality is that many of the boys and girls have gone back to their old routines. They may grow up not having the tools to teach their own kids how to go outside in a sentient wayand I don't mean skating into the brisk north wind on an outdoor hockey rink. Their lack of connection to nature means that they could just as well be living in an urban jungle instead of the northern Rockies with a mountain view. As Louv notes in Last Child In the Woods, restoring our kids' relationship to the wild West may not be a balm for all of societys ills but its not a bad place to start. Teaching them to keep their eye on the ball or the puck doesn't mean just the objects at the tip of their fingers; it's reminding them to lift their heads up and see a bigger horizon.

I just got my copy of "The Nuclear Boy Scout"; it plays in my PC but won't play in the DVD player attached to my TV.

WOOD BADGE FOR THE 21st CENTURY Wood Badge brings together leaders from all areas of Scouting -- Cub Scouting, Boy Scouting, Varsity Scouting, and Venturing -- and all levels of BSA professional staff. Reflecting the best of nearly a century of Scouting experience, the course also draws upon the most current leadership models used by corporate America, in academic circles, and by successful outdoor leadership organizations throughout the country. The focus is on leadership skills, group dynamics and Scouting methods, all of which you will utilize in your Scouting job. The Alamo Area Council will offer the Wood Badge training course on the following dates: October 27-29 & November 17- 19, 2006 McGimsey Scout Park, San Antonio Course Director: Jim Matthews Phone: (210) 341-8611 ext 21 E-Mail: jimatthe@bsamail.org The course starts promptly at 8 AM on Friday and ends at 5 PM on Sunday each weekend. Attendance is required at all weekend classes, and there are patrol meetings between weekends to work on assigned patrol projects. A current BSA Class 3 medical is required by the start of the course. The form may be obtained at the Council Office. Cost: $160.00 per person -- $50.00 deposit is required to hold your reservation. At least thirty fully paid applications must be received 30 days prior to the start of the course in order for the course to be conducted. Refunds will be given for medical reasons only and requests need to be submitted in writing no later than 14 days after the start of the course. All refunds will be debited a $10.00 readiness fee. Partial scholarships are available for those who qualify and apply in writing to the Council Office. Additional Contacts: Council Staff Advisor -- Jim Matthews (210) 341-8611 ext 21 Council Wood Badge Coordinator -- Dennis Hayes (210) 545-5622

I don't have any descriptions beyond the part numbers. You might ask your DE if you can borrow copies from your Council. Some Councils (NCAC, for example) will make you a copy if you bring them a blank video. You might also find old copies on Ebay. Good luck.

JillKB: The following videos may be available for purchase at your Scout Shop or they may be available for loan at your Council Service Center: AV-01V006 Cub Scouting: It's Not Just For Kids $14.95 AV-01V011 Cub Scout Outdoor Program $15.95 AV-01V012 Cub Scout Orientation $15.95 Lisabob: Can you post a link to the Powerpoint presentation? (This message has been edited by fgoodwin)

Zip lines zoom guests to treehouse B&B near Austin http://tinyurl.com/mxlmk 07:13 PM CDT on Saturday, July 8, 2006 By SUZANNE MARTA / The Dallas Morning News SPICEWOOD, Texas Ever since I saw Swiss Family Robinson, I wanted to live in a treehouse. This summer, that dream came true at least for a night. But instead of climbing to my quarters on rickety ladders, I soared through the trees on a zip line. Cypress Valley Canopy Tours has hosted about 2,000 visitors on an adrenaline-filled tour of its narrow, densely forested valley on zip lines since it opened last year. This year, owners David and Amy Beilharz opened a more advanced ropes-style challenge course and our home for the night: Lofthaven. The adventure starts around 6 p.m., with a thorough outfitting of gear and a quick but useful lesson on zip-line techniques. My friend and I step into harnesses that connect to a trolley that latches to a steel cable about 8 feet above the ground. This is what carries us as we zip through the forest. We get a quick overview of how to keep from spinning, stop and get ourselves back to a platform if we get stuck in the middle. The course starts at the wheel house, where the Beilharz family has created a water wheel to help generate energy for their 88-acre ranch. For 90 minutes, our two guides take us through six different and thrilling zip-line rides. The guides help us on and off the zip lines. They also make sure we're clipped to safety lines, ensuring that we won't stumble out of a tree. Each platform is roughly 40 feet off the ground and offers gorgeous views of the lush cypress, fragrant cedar elm and ash juniper. It's shady and cool under the thick tree canopy, with few bugs to bother us. Along the way, our guides point out various flora and fauna, including a 4-foot-long water moccasin watching for frogs and salamanders by the creek. The majestic cypress trees are more than 600 years old in some cases. The platforms were built in a way that wouldn't harm the giant trees. In one, we spy a prickly pear cactus precariously positioned 60 feet up in the branches the work of a bird's seed distribution. The narrow valley also reveals centuries of erosion and rock formations, including hollow "soda straws." After our longest zip about 350 feet we see our home for the night, hidden behind the massive cypress hosting our landing platform. The 200-square-foot room is supported by a steel plate and has a wraparound balcony. The dark khaki canvas helps it to blend into the surroundings. We finish our final two zips, head back to the longest one and zip to our treehouse. Growing up in Oregon, I spent countless hours using the towering Douglas firs as my jungle gym. My sister Christi and I would return at dinnertime with a thick coat of sticky sap on our hands. But the treehouse we played in was always somewhat disappointing. Just a wood platform nailed to a few branches. It was OK for daytime adventures, but not at night. The Cypress Valley treehouse isn't like the kind you dreamed of as a kid. It's powered by wind and solar electricity, enough to run lights, a cooling fan, coffeepot and toaster oven. A sky bridge takes visitors to the other side of the narrow valley to a full bath equipped with towels and handmade soaps. Inside Lofthaven, a buffet with a carafe of iced water and a pitcher of purple hibiscus-mint iced tea welcomes us, along with a bowl of whole fruit that would make Paul Czanne grab his brushes. A queen-size bed, piled high with decorative pillows and draped with muslin netting, enchants. And an elegantly set table for two, complete with chargers and cloth napkins, reminds us this isn't for kids. A picnic basket holds our dinner: roasted vegetable and turkey sandwiches, a fancy spinach salad and a bag of organic chips to snack on. We're also treated to organic chocolate truffles made by a local vendor. We dine under a gorgeous sunset with a gurgling creek below and the buzz of cricket frogs as our soundtrack. As dusk falls, we get another light show this time the bright flickers of fireflies swirling around. For all the bugs outside, there are few inside our room, thanks to the wraparound screens and latching door. There are a few daddy longlegs spiders there to snack on bugs, rather than overnight guests. As the moon rises, visitors to Lofthaven are treated to a symphony of sounds by the resident great horned and screech owls and nearby coyotes. It's a wonderful lullaby. After a sound night's sleep, we wake to the cheerful twittering of birds. Another basket is waiting for us. This one is filled with tasty breakfast breads, fruit salad, yogurt and granola. We sip freshly brewed coffee and savor the fresh morning air. About 10 a.m., we hear the telltale whirring of the zip line. It's a Cypress Valley staffer, coming to do safety checks at nearby platforms. In another hour, another group of thrill-seekers will be flying through the trees. For now, we'll savor every last moment of our treehouse getaway. E-mail smarta@dallasnews.com OTHER PLACES TO SLEEP IN THE TREES Cedar Creek Treehouse, Ashford, Wash., 360-569-2991, http://www.cedarcreektreehouse.com Two-level treehouse is 50 feet off the ground. From $250. Out 'n' About Treesort & Treehouse Institute, Cave Junction, Ore., 541-592-2208, http://www.treehouses.com Offers several options, including a tree teepee. From $110. Hana Lani, Hana, Maui, Hawaii, 808-248-7241, http://www.treehousesofhawaii.com Rustic lodging in lush rain-forest setting. From $120 per night, two-night minimum. Nahiku Treehouse, Maui, Hawaii, 808-248-4070, http://www.nahiku.com Panoramic views of the Pacific and Haleakala volcano. From $125 per night, two-night minimum. Lothlorien Woods Hide-A-Way, White Salmon, Wash., 503-281-9888, http://www.lothlorienwoods.com Split-level treehouse with a view of Mount Adams. From $125. Carolina Heritage Outfitters, Canadys, S.C., 843-563-5051, http://www.canoesc.com Canoe to one of three houses on the Edisto River. From $125. IF YOU GO Cypress Valley Canopy Tours' Lofthaven: Where: 1223 Paleface Ranch Road, Spicewood (about 45 minutes from Austin) Open: 9 a.m. to dusk Tuesday through Saturday, and noon to dusk Sunday during the summer. Fall and spring operations are limited to Friday through Sunday. Cost: $60 per person for the canopy tour, $75 for the canopy challenge course. A night in Lofthaven starts at $200 per couple, including meals. Information: 512-264-8880; http://www.cypressvalleycanopytours.com

TREE GLIDERS: Bird's-eye glimpse of nature http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/3290086.html http://tinyurl.com/qdo9d July 31, 2005, 8:48PM A zip through the trees provides a different view of the Hill Country By KRISTIN FINAN It may have been one of the most breathtaking views she'd ever see, but 7-year-old Mandy White kept her eyes focused on the half-inch steel cable stretched out in front of her, worried it would zip her through the air smack into a giant Cypress tree. "I'm thinking it's gonna be scary," she said, finally tilting her helmet-topped head toward the creek below her. "Like the first time I rode a water slide." Turning to her guide Richard Kopczynski, she asked, "Can I shout that I'm scared?" For Mandy, 10-year-old brother Dylan, uncle Mark Hogan and his friend Pat Davidson, who visited Cypress Valley Canopy Tours near Austin Wednesday, it was to be an education in the natural beauty of the Hill Country area near Lake Travis. But first, it would be a lesson about their own limitations. "OK," answered Kopczynski. "We're going to do something a little different. I'm gonna clip myself on and clip you to me. Ready? OK. Here we go." Canopy tours have long been offered in Central America, allowing nature-friendly adventurers a bird's-eye view of the rain forest thanks to steel "zip lines" that allow them to slide through the air and land on 40- or 50-foot-high platforms hugging midsections of giant trees. After taking a canopy tour in Costa Rica last summer, David Beilharz decided he wanted one of his own on his lush Hill Country land. In February he began working with his wife, Amy, and their four children to make it a reality, and, on July 4, Cypress Valley Canopy Tours opened. "You need to really work with the environment," he said. "It's really nature that set the pattern, and we just tried to fit something into it with certain parameters." The result is a six-line course with three sky bridges over their property, which includes a creek, limestone overhangs and a variety of plants and animals. Because canopy tours are a rarity in the continental United States Beilharz thinks theirs is the first and because of the spectacular views they afford, people are beginning to buzz about the Texas treasure. Ground school Decked out in a harness, helmet, gloves, trolley (which zooms riders down the zip line) and safety ropes, Dylan White said he felt like a mountain climber. Although the Web site posts a minimum age of 10, Amy Beilharz said guides evaluate younger children during "ground school" mandatory training for all participants to see if they are eligible. "It's not meant to be like an extreme sport," she said. During ground school for Dylan and Mandy, Kopczynski and guide Bree Bernwanger outlined their two golden rules: Don't handle your line attachments yourself, and when you brake (which is done by squeezing a gloved hand on the line as you approach the platform) never put your hand in front of the line or it could get caught. Then they practiced zipping and self-rescue getting back to the platform in case someone stops in the middle of a line. "It was sort of scary at first," said Mandy, who volunteered to go first on the practice line. "When I started to get the hang of it, it started to be a lot funner." Taking flight Even though it's the shortest, the initial cable is the hardest, Bernwanger said as she clipped the group to the first zip line of the course. There's something about standing on a platform and preparing to fly off it that just scares people. Looking at the cable with his sister, Dylan said, "It looks long for the shortest zip. I'm not going first." Instead, Hogan did, howling as he sailed over the creek's blur of green, gray and brown. "It stretches people a little bit, and then it's so beautiful," Amy Beilharz said. "I had one person come off and say, 'That was exhilarating, and it was peaceful.' How do you have both of those things in one experience?" With Kopczynski and Bernwanger lending hands, the group went through the first zip line and crossed two sky bridges that bounced like minitrampolines with each step they took. The screamer Near the bridges, Bernwanger pointed to holes in a tree and said they were created by a ladder-backed woodpecker. Not to be outdone, Kopczynski looked down at a few fish swimming in the creek and said perch and bass often make homes in that water. Environmental education is a big part of the Beilharzs' mission, and guides work in facts seamlessly throughout the hour-and-a-half tour. But no amount of knowledge could have persuaded Mandy, who clung stone-faced to Kopczynski for three zip lines, to stay any longer. This happens sometimes with younger children, so they called for a golf cart driven by the Beilharzs' youngest daughter, 8-year-old Francesca. A barefoot sprite with curly blond hair who loves to yell at the buffalo on the family's ranch and who doubles as an iced tea saleswoman during slow times, Francesca appeared, hands on hips, and, in a British accent, announced, "I'm here to pick up a little girl." The timing couldn't have been better. They had just arrived at "the screamer," the course's longest and fastest zip line, which whisks participants 450 feet at up to 30 mph for nearly 20 seconds. "Amaaazzzing," Hogan yelled as his trolley roared down the cable like a chain saw and carried him over the carved limestone flanking the creek. Finishing up Sometimes, for the final zip line, groups come up with contests, like "best scream" or "best Tarzan yell" and compete against one another. This group should have considered "most likely to finish the course." Zipping down the final line, Dylan got fancy and tried to slide hands-free. Nervous from the speed, he clutched the line in front of the trolley (breaking golden rule No. 2), caught his glove and stopped suddenly in the middle of the line, dangling 50 feet above the creek bed. "I'm OK," Dylan yelled. "I'm kinda nervous, but I like it up here." Because Dylan couldn't free himself, Kopczynski sailed out, freed the glove and instructed Dylan to use the self-rescue crawl to return to the platform. "We've practiced pretty much every situation that could happen," Bernwanger said. "There's a rescue bag at every platform. Everything is set up to where if the worst should happen there's always a way to help someone else." "Although," she said, between Dylan and Mandy, "that's the most we've ever had happen on one trip." After the tour, the group picnicked along the creek and rehashed the adventure. Dylan actually liked getting stuck on the line, although if he had to do it over again he would have kept his hand in the back when he braked. Davidson liked the sky bridges, and Hogan said simply, "What a thrill ride." The tour also has a zip line that spills visitors into the water, but the water level is too low now. Writing an ad for watermelon on a dry-erase board, Francesca said she's happy her parents decided to create the canopy tours. "I'm very glad, because it's fun and adventurous," she said. "And it feels like you're flying." Her mom agreed. "You want to share something if you have it, but we couldn't figure out how we could do that and not ruin it," she said. "This actually is a perfect idea, because people can go through the creek, they can experience it, but they're not taking things or leaving things behind." kristin.finan@chron.com --- RESOURCES CYPRESS VALLEY CANOPY TOURS Where: 1223 Paleface Ranch Road, Spicewood (about 30 minutes from downtown Austin near Lake Travis) When: Tours are offered through the fall. Corporate tours are available. Cost: $60 per adult, free for children 17 and younger Information: 512-264-8880; http://www.cypressvalleycanopytours.com

You're welcome -- I like Family Fun; it tends to cater to moms and really young kids (babies and toddlers), but it sometimes has articles relevant to Cub Scout aged boys.