frankj

The self-inflating pad is the way to go. As one gets older (and in my case, heavier) they no longer do the job though.

I am also an advancement coordinator for our troop, so I'll take a stab at answering the question.

We have not had an active Scribe, so there hasn't been any work to share. After doing the adv. records for a few years, I am not sure I would want to share a whole lot with one of the boys. It requires a fair amount of attention to detail so that the records are done correctly and in a timely manner.

The one area where I see the Scibe helping with the advancement recordkeeping is in keeping track of which boys went on which outings, who slept in a tent (for Camping MB and other advancement); who worked on which service project; etc.

I am on many of these outings, but not all, so a Scribe might be assigned the job of collecting this info and passing it along to you. It is true that a call or e-mail to the SM or another leader would accomplish the same thing, but this gives the Scribe something useful to do. Another area might be keeping up the e-mail addresses of troop members -- we do a lot of stuff by e-mail in our troop.

Another item might be to have the Scribe and the Historian work on a Troop scrapbook that would be a record of outings, summer camps, hikes, service projects. In my mind, it would not have to be exhaustive, but enough to be interesting. The Historian's role might be to help document w/ photos, and maybe track down past members of the troop and talk to them, get a picture and maybe a quote or two for inclusion. Such a book might be a great recruitment tool.

The Scribe might be tasked with compiling a record of outings, campouts, hikes etc., with information on a template form of some sort, kept as a permanent troop record. For example, for a hike: driving time to the trailhead, availability of water, is a parking permit needed?, where do you get one, hike distance, elevation gain, round trip hiking time. All the stuff that would be good to know when, at some future date, the troop is planning a trip and considering options.

If others see ways to involve the Scribe and Historian in creative ways, please chime in because at our last meeting the boys elected new troop leadership and these 'staff' positions such as Scribe, etc., also rotated.

The handbook we have is the 11th edition. Is there a later edition that lacks some needed info? Stuff I remember from the old handbook I referred to in the earlier post: semaphore (spelling ?) signalling; Morse code; a system of placing rocks and/or sticks in certain ways to convey simple messages along a trail.

Fat Old Guy: I had a pretty old version of the Handbook at one time. In the late 1950's the family next door gave me a copy of a Scout Handbook that their son had used. At the time, he was in his late 20's so the book probably dated from the 1940's. It is long gone but would be interesting to look at and compare to the current one. I don't have any big problems with the current handbook, I think they probably have to make some choices on what to include and what to leave out, while trying to keep it to a certain size and keep it affordable.

Best of luck to Ahnold and the State of California. How well he does will depend not only on his advisors, but also on how much cooperation he gets from the legislature.

Best of luck to Ahnold and the State of California. How well he does will depend not only on his advisors, but also on how much cooperation he gets from the legislature.

the Boy Scout Handbook; and,

a well-balanced and wickedly sharp machete that my great uncle got in tropics and passed down to me.

Mike, thanks for the info.

I did not want to start a new thread on this question, thinking it is close enough to the discussion of the Patrol Method to be handled here. Our elections for PLs and SPL are coming up soon. The existing patrols were more or less formed by the boys choosing who they wanted to be in with, then, the SM has done some adding to the patrols of new scouts. They are roughly balanced in terms of boys per patrol.

We don't have a new scout patrol because except for one Scout, all the boys have been in over one year.

Here are the questions: 1) The existing patrols should elect a new PL and APL from their ranks, right? and,

2) The new SPL will be elected also. Then, should he appoint an ASPL or should the ASPL be elected also? We think the latter is better, because then the ASPL can succeed to the job of SPL.

Comments anyone?

I hope I am not too late with this, but don't worry about the spacing, worry about the length of the sash. They come in at least two lenghts, 30 inches and 42 inches.

We have tall boys in our troop who should have purchased the longer sash, and short guys who should have purchased the 30" sash. Best of luck.

I would attempt to paraphrase something Bob White once posted here. Here goes: Because Boy Scouts has as its goal the training of boys in qualities such as leadership, citizenship and morality... qualities that our society needs. Boy Scouts uses fun and outdoor activities to keep boys interested in a program that teaches these worthwhile traits.

Apologies to Bob, maybe if he sees this he could resurrect the original post.

to become

Seems like a good, balanced review of the facts. I hope the Council reaches the contributors it needs to reach. United Way in Portland, OR did something very similar recently.

The United Way in Portland, OR recently adopted a policy that its community "partners" must adhere to a new and very broad dictate as to non-discrimination, thus cutting the Boy Scouts off.

forester / timberland mgr.

My favorite memento was a hand written letter on plain notebook paper from a Mom, when her son crossed over from Webelos to Scouts.

Hobo stove -- cooked on one when I was in Scouts, 35 long years ago! Been thinking about introducing the idea to our troop. This is the inspiration I needed. The burner buddy sounds like a great idea, thanks. You can also fuel them with briquets.

red feather: I meant "absent" instead of "removed" and I think my message would have been clearer. Someone who posted after my previous posting mentioned something about not adding requirements. I don't know if this was directed at my statement about expectations for leadership after the First Class rank, maybe they could clarify. I believe we MUST expect leadership, otherwise how do we arrive at the boy-led troop?

After the attainment of the First Class, rank, shouldn't Scouts begin to "give back" to the troop? The requirementments seem to indicate so in that Scouts are obligated to hold some position of responsibility within the troop. I don't see how a Scout can be removed from the troop (inactive) and still qualify for Eagle within the spirit of the law.

A question on procedures that reveals my ignorance, but does the Eagle Board of Review have any say in whether he actually gets the badge? Is this why you are having trouble staffing it, because the potential members know the last-minute nature of the work?

OGE's prodigal son arguement is convincing, even though to me, Scout Spirit is demonstrated to a large degree, by active participation in the troop. If I were the Scoutmaster I would try and satisfy myself that there was adequate Scout Spirit as suggested by another poster.

Not to change the topic, but which situation is more common, the "invisible Scout" or the "vanishing Scout", i.e. one that zooms through the program all the way to Eagle and then is not seen again? A boy in our troop told me that he is going to get his Eagle because it looks good on a resume and is going to quit Scouts once he attains the rank.

In answer to Ed Mori, I think the Wall Street Journal has an excellent editorial page. They cover a wide range of issues and offer editorial opinion, that I believe, is well-thought out. Current international events; trade policy; energy policy (ANWAR); education (vouchers); tax policy; court decisions; natural resource issues -- these are some of the topics dealt with. I like the fact that they follow up on issues and events -- the progress of school vouchers is one that comes to mind. They have periodically reported/editorialized on this topic for a number of years as progress is made in this area.

There is a conservative slant, no question and they do not purport to give equal time to the other side, although Al Hunt is a regular columnist and Robert Reich (Clinton's Sec. of Labor) has written a number of pieces for them.

Firstpusk with regard to your comments you accuse the WSJ of a cheap shot -- aren't you doing the same when you characterize eisely and me as sucking up the information with a straw? When you attempt to belittle those who disagree with you, you don't help your case. The context you are concerned about was adequate so far as I am concerned. That you were not satisfied with it does not make me an uncritical reader and interpreter of news and editorial opinion.

Go Raiders.

The gelled fuel starter is made from denatured alcohol, and it seems to work as a hand sanitizer. 16 ounces for about 2 bucks.

Media bias concerns what is reported AND what is NOT reported. Eisely's post had to do with the latter. I don't follow the argument you are trying to make. What facts should have been checked? And are you saying the size of the audience determines whether the utterance should be scrutinized? Falwell -- big TV audience -- outrage across the land. Clark -- small audience -- who cares? Is that your take? In my opinion Falwell is in it for the money and Clark is in it for the notoriety, but this thread is about the presence or absence of media bias.

We expect it on the editorial pages. We should eschew it on the hard news pages. An arts and leisure page, where this piece appeared is entitled to express an opinion, and in this case they expressed one about an imbalance in the reporting of the two events. You are not distinguishing between the news items in the paper and the editorial/opinion items. The news items in the WSJ do indeed give the reader the information needed to make up his mind. The editorials and opinions are intended to lead readers to a conclusion. All newspapers do this. You talk about lazy journalism: here is an example. Ramsay Clark blurts out that Jesus was like a terrorist and hardly a word is said. But when the WSJ reports that hardly a word was said, this is cause for you to call them lazy? Your logic escapes me.

Does this mean that the large squeeze bottles of gelled firestarter I use to get my pellet stove going would work as a hand sanitizer?

In my view, a "lousy" editorial page would be one that is poorly put together, technically, and maybe with low-talent writers. The Wall St Journal editorial page is anything but that.

The point of Eisely's inital post was Clark compared Jesus Christ to a terrorist in front of a bunch of reports at a press club ... and hardly anyone mentioned it.

You ask about context, etc., read Eisely's post. It is a verbatim copy of the piece that appeared in the Art (and Leisure) section of the WSJ and you can answer your own questions. You don't think there is bias in the media? Ask yourself how often the word conservative is prefaced with the term "right-wing" in ordinary everyday news reporting and then ask yourself how often these same news sources preface the term liberal with "left-wing".