GaHillBilly

"The easiest way to boost mileage is to replace your wheels with smaller diameter wheels. You can drive faster AND get better mileage." FScouter, I hope you realize that there are plenty of folks out there that will not realize that you are joking! (I trust that you ARE joking! But, I'm a little worried. When I Googled around about to verify that odometers worked as I thought, I discovered that there are quite a few car owners, and particularly Prius owners, who are apparently quite serious about such suggestions.) Anyhow, smaller wheels -- or lower profile tires -- on most vehicles

Evmori, You are assuming that demand for gasoline and oil is limited to physical users of those commodities. As a result, you are looking at declining US physical demand and reaching the plausible, but mistaken, conclusion that gas prices are moving counter to demand. In fact, demand for most commodities includes physical users + commodity brokers + investors + speculators. In the current world market, with the declining US dollar and Middle Eastern and West African political instability, oil prices are being driven in large part by investor and speculator "demand". This was on

You're talking more about the recession and real estate crisis than gas prices, I think. And, in the short term, those are the bigger issues. But long term, I think fuel prices are what will reform US society in rather profound ways. Cheap autos (relatively) and cheap cars drove the 'suburbanization' of the post WWII America. Auto travel replaced public transportation and walking. For over 50 years, we've been building roads without sidewalks and pulling up rails. But all of those trends have depended on cheap gas, and cheap gas is gone. No matter how you look at it, cheap gas (

I think I'm giving the wrong impression here -- a Venture crew is NOT imminent in any way, shape or form. My question really is more a case of considering my options, looking 3 moves ahead. I was really asking, "should I keep this in the back of my mind, and collect Venture info as I go?", or "should I dismiss it outright?". One reason for asking is recruiting. The troop we're in is small, and getting smaller. There are some conflicts that I don't understand fully yet between the troop and the pack, with the result that rising Webelos are not coming into the troop. OTOH, there

"You might want to contact your District Commissioner and ask to have a cup of coffee with the UC who has Venturing in his portfolio... or ask who the go-to person is in your Council for Venturing." Not yet -- all this is just info for me to file in my hip-pocket, so to speak. We're in a troop that's facing a leadership crunch within 12 - 18 months. The 3 most active leaders, including the SM, all have sons that are either inactive, going inactive or soon to Eagle out. Because of the history of the troop, none of these older boys have the skills to be guides or junior leaders, so tha

"for the leaders it could be figured as "An hour a week, per Cub Scout" That, I think is a little more accurate." Gee, and I was just talking to a guy last night who'd run a Pack with 100+ cubbies. I wonder how that worked? Cubdemonium, no doubt ;-) GaHillBilly

So, it sounds like it could be done, but might take some juggling of paper work, dual registration (as both a Scout and a Venturer) and so on, in order to fully take advantage of the overlap? I'm assuming that nothing prohibits a Scout from being ALSO registered as a Venturer? I assume that it would also mean declaring things like, "This is officially a Venturer trip, not a Scout trip.", in order to satisfy all the regulatory necessities. GaHillBilly

This is sorta OT, but the responses about the lack of Venture crews reminded me of a question I've not been able to answer. Is it possible for a Venture patrol to coexist / cooperate with Venture Crew, say by sharing trips, etc.? The reason I ask is that I've already seen problems with trying to get or keep a Venture patrol going. It seems -- to my admittedly uninformed mind -- that it might be easier if a Venture patrol, within a well functioning troop, co-operated with a Venture crew, and shared trips and some functions with them. It seems this might be a way to retain or gain

Kudu, I found your post very interesting, assuming that all your facts are indeed correct. My son and I are new (15 months) to Scouting, and I have no prior experience with Scouting. Because we are evangelicals, and because I'm using Scouting as an element of my son's home school curriculum, I've been very interested in the relationship of Scouting to Christianity. I was surprised to learn the degree to which Scouting could be 'customized' to reflect the religious message of the chartering organization, and have subsequently been interested to understand what philosophical and

I think that a lot of kids today don't know what they want. They aren't self-analytical enough to realize that what they think they want isn't what they want. But, I've seen repeatedly that kids pushed in the right way complain loudly at first, but then adjust and come to expect that they'll continue to do whatever it is. You need to keep in mind that many kids today carry extremely heavy workloads in terms of school and sports. Having had a son who was an 'elite' swimmer, my wife and I have concluded that that's the extreme dedication required for sports success today is not the best way

"The *you have to make it fun for them* mantra gets repeated to me ad nauseum." I think that for some Scout aged boys, this is true. It's certainly true for some church youth group attenders. But, it is absolutely NOT true for many of them, who want something 'real' to do. Some of them don't know that yet, but they know it when they experience it. One problem I've seen -- not in Scouting, but in youth groups -- is that when you begin to get 'real', the kids who actually are in it only for the fun, fall or drop out. This rubs their parent's noses in tangible and visible evidence that

"Ive always said that scout growth is only blocked by adult fears." This is something I've griped about for years, primarily in a church youth group context. But, it took getting into Scouting to help me see how many ways I'd failed with my own oldest, in terms of helping him assume adult responsibilities as soon as he was ready. "Eventually the scout develops to a point where the next step in his growth has to be an adult responsibility." That's precisely what my hope and vision is, for any troop my son's in. To what degree I can help that happen, I don't know. But, I'm goi

50 - 60 people?? Gee, I was thinking mini-bus, and you were talking school bus! But, even with a school bus, you'll need TWO buses, not one. The full size buses used at the school where my wife teaches are pretty full with 45 elementary school kids WITHOUT gear. If you're able to get 30 people plus gear, I'd be a little surprised. Plus those bus seats get pretty uncomfortable pretty quickly. Doing the math: 8 passenger vehicles averaging 7 people each @ 17 mpg for 100 miles works out to 47 gallons of gasoline, or $188 at $4/gallon. Cost per person, @ 56 people is $3.35. 2

A couple of other comments . . . CDL's: I've held a Class 2 CDL with all endorsements except tank trucks for about 15 years. The license wasn't that expensive 15 years ago, and I don't think it's terrible now, especially for just a bus or chauffeur's endorsement. Probably a Scouter ought to be reimbursed however. One caution: drivers who collect tickets should NOT get a CDL; it can cause problems all around. 15 passenger vans: These vans have rather weird handling, and are difficult to insure now (or so I've been told). Of the three vehicles mentioned (bus, Suburban, 15 seat van), I

As an alternative, you might want to look at used diesel GMC Suburbans. These are 8/9 passenger vehicles with tremendous trailering capacity. No CDL, high ground clearance, anybody who's driven a full size pickup can drive them. And . . . the price on these is falling like a rock. I'm guessing that within the year you could pick up a couple of these -- good condition, 10 years old, ~80,000 miles -- for $8,000 for both, which is a fraction of what a good condition 16 passenger bus would cost. No real need to insure them beyond liability. This is not something we've done in our

" . . . science is the only "religion" that works even if you don't believe in it . . ." Some of you are missing Merlyn_LeRoy's point. In English, he's 'Merlin the King'. The 'real' Merlin served the King. But this Merlin serves no one: he IS himself the king of both knowledge and men. Clearly, neither you -- any of you -- nor I, ignorant hillbilly that I am, are worthy to dispute his wisdom. GaHillBilly * Of all the king legends in history, the legend of Arthur is almost as Christological in form as the history of King David. Has anyone else noticed the irony of

I don't have them at hand right now, but there are quite a few 'interesting' quotes to be had from BP. I spent some time last year, digging around in the foundations of Scouting, to try to get a grip on how -- and whether -- it would help my son. Like many social thinkers of his era, he was apparently attracted to what I've called the "optimistic evolutionism" of the era. This was expressed, in its more benign forms, in novels by Zane Grey, Edgar Rice Burrows (Tarzan), and Gene Stratton-Porter (Freckles). Less benign expressions include Ayn Rand's novels and most notably, the eugenics mov

"I could live without a license, but I could never have lived with myself if I had to watch one of my kids die and I didn't try something." Gee, I couldn't have said it better myself . . . whose side are you arguing for? Mine or yours? It sounds like your wife's school has some heavy duty inclusion classrooms, which would increase the job requirements, compared to those that prevail at my wife's school. But it also sounds like your wife is DOING much more than the defined job envisions. And you yourself described how she skirted, or even operated outside, the CYA restrictions t

"As I have stated here before, my wife is an elementary school nurse (licensed RN). In this state, she cannot even give a child a TUMS without a written order from a physician." Arg-g-gh! My wife is an elementary school teacher, at a school with an RN school nurse who operates under the same restrictions you describe. A friend of my wife's is a school nurse at another school. Her friend is a very, very competent RN. The nurse at my wife's school probably is, though we have no evidence one way or another. I'm sure your wife is competent as well. But it doesn't really matter. Any

Well, GAHillBilly, you've just offended me. Care to explain that remark in a bit more detail? It was a poor analogy, and "SUBMIT"ing got ahead of my thinking. I should have realized that if I needed to say, "I hope this won't offend", I should have just left it out! But I'm not anti-RC at all, even though I am Protestant. I've been enormously helped in my own faith by several RC writers, including Dorothy Sayers and her translation of Dante's Divine Comedy, Tolkien and particular his account of Purgatory (Leaf by Niggle), and Chesterton. And, I find myself constantly referring to the

Just a caution . . . I checked the pants at our local council shop, and the shorts are seriously LONG! If you, or your son, is a rapper wanna-be, then they are probably just the right length. But I'm not going to be recommending them to the hiking MB group I've just begun working with. Having pants that drag on my knees or thighs when I'm hiking in hot sweaty weather is one of my pet peeves. GaHillBilly

" da whole thing really needs a re-write and a good editor, eh? "Shall" language in guidelines, "may" language in 'policy', some policy stuff that really doesn't belong, some outdated material." Hm-m-mh. Makes sense. I knew it was a compilation; I just hadn't thought through the likely implications of that fact, and haven't been around long enough to see its evolution. I won't hold my breath, waiting for the re-write. But, I'm very happy to have the bold/plain tool in my box. I'll re-read the G2SS with that in mind, and hopefully, the next time some provision in the G2SS starts to ca

My bad; I got the bold and un-bold mixed up. But the question remains . . . there's a LOT of stuff that's been treated as required, that's apparently not. Bob, I wasn't saying it was new, only that I and a whole bunch of other people had overlooked it, and that SM's and troops and whole councils are treating non-bold text as if it were bold. I know around here I could definitely stir up some hornets (or at least a few yellow jackets) by a few statements to the affect that this or that 'requirement' is non-bold, and thus only a BSA recommendation. It would be interesting to grab

In our recent exchange, Bob White correctly pointed out that in the G2SS **ONLY** the type in bold face represents BSA official policy. To quote from http://www.scouting.org/healthandsafety/gss.aspx, "Bold type throughout the Guide to Safe Scouting denotes BSA rules and policies". The clear implication is, of course, that anything NOT in bold type is NOT a BSA "rule" or "policy", but only informational or suggestive. Though this did not impact the point I'd made to Bob, it was nevertheless a fact I'd overlooked, and one that is potentially very, very significant for anyone trying to deter

Gee, Bob, if you don't know how to respond to the question another poster poses you, you just make up your own question, and respond to that! I described the G2SS water treatment method as a "process", not a rule! I could have gone further, and called it "declarative advice". Here's the lead-in from the manual itself: "To treat water, follow these steps: . . ." That's pretty definite advice, whether it's "policy" or a "rule" or not. And blowing off GoldWinger's Nazi reference just because you find it "repugnant" is irrational and non-responsive. The same exact reference occ