GernBlansten

Supplex is wonderful. Especially for sailing or camping. You get wet, it wickes the moisture from you and dries very quickly. It doesn't chaffe. Its light. It doesn't get dirty so quick. It looks sharp and crisp no matter what stuff sack you just pulled it from.

I stood in the scout shop after summer camp standing in front of the rack of traditional scout shorts and pants. I just couldn't do it. I never wear cotton in the field. Its just not practical. And I wasn't about to drop some serious coin on a "dress" uniform I couldn't use in the field.

Now, if what you say that it will be considered a "Field" uniform, ohhhh, my heart be still!

Just don't tell me they are made in China!

SUPPLEX NYLON!!!!!!!

HOOOOOOORRRAAAAHHH!

Welcome to the 21st century BSA!

I've worn Supplex Nylon sailing shorts for the better part of 10 years. Wonderful material for outdoor conditions. At a price of $40, I'll buy two or three sets. Now I can finally be in "FULL FIELD" compliance. Oh darn, I'll probably have to pick up some of the dorky socks too won't I?

Acco, you are correct in your second statement.

Round is the only shape that would prevent them from falling into the hole if misaligned.

4. Novelty is a plus. Hiding somebody's boots isn't funny.

Yes, but swapping somebody's boots with very similar but two sizes smaller is a hoot.

Acco4, you got me on that quiz.

Now here's mine:

Why do they make manhole covers round?

I work for a mega corp defense contractor. Dress code varies dramatically from coast to coast. Our corp headquarters in Maryland, anything less than a gray suit and conservative tie and you are in violation of the code. In our office in Colorado, if you wear a tie, you are interviewing for another job with another company. If you wear a shirt with a collar, you probably have a funeral to go to later in the day. The fanciest restaurants in our town think blue jeans are just fine as long as there is some kind of hem. (no daisy dukes)

Our scout troops kinda follow the same code. A "full uniform" generally is a clean tan shirt tucked into something resembling pants. Its unusual to see someone in a true "full field uniform", even at council or district events. Now we do have a few troops that demand complete compliance to the uniform method. Those troops just don't seem to be much fun to be around. Do I think we have a lot of room to improve in the uniform method? Sure. Do I put it at the top of our priorities? No. Don't get me wrong, I think it looks real cool when a troop shows up for flags with all the spit and polish of a military unit. I don't think my scouts appreciate it as much as me though.

I recent did an Alaskan cruise. During our 7 nights on ship, we had two formal nights. Since I didn't have any suit that fit me, I decided to rent a tuxedo on board for those nights. Gotta admit, it was kinda fun to get all dressed up as a penguin and do my best James Bond impersonations. Of the 2000+ guests on the ship, probably only 50 of us men were in full proper formal dress. Most just wore business suits. I see the same trends in scouting. Its becoming more casual (dress wise). Its a trend I don't see reversing.

Our summer camp didn't have any requirements but as a troop we required the boys to be in field uniforms for flags but not of meals. Since we cooked our own meals, that would soil the uniforms to an unbearable degree by the end of the week. Still, I was amazed at how dirty the uniforms got by mid week and unrecognizable by week end. I know a scout is "clean", but man, how do you keep them clean in a dust bowl of a camp? By Thursday, I stood there in my relatively clean uniform comparing the cleanliness of other scouts from other troops. Our scouts clearly were missing the mark. I guess I need to spend more time making sure the scouts keep out of the dirt than having fun at camp. This stuff is hard work!

Having been on Cape Caneveral Air Force base during a Titan IV launch, and standing 2 miles from the pad, its a very impressive sight to see. I'm sure many of dreams were launched with those scouts.

This year, our troop voted to go out of council to the neighboring council's scout ranch. Virtually the same program and terrain. This allowed us to compare apples to apples (good and bad).

Most adults thought the staff was remote and unapproachable. The scouts didn't notice. Little things made the differnce. At our local camp, the camp director came by every morning with a thermos of coffee and pastries (cheap danishes) for the adults. Our staff guide stopped by regularily to make sure we had plenty of fuel, garbage bags and stuff. The camp commissioners would stop and grab a chair to chew the fat. Nothing like this happened at this camp. I felt as though we just rented the space.

The food was about the same (plenty and of good quality). In our council camp, staff cooked and ate with the patrols. This caused a bonding with the staff. In this camp, I don't know where staff ate.

Also, the schedule we received online before camp and the one we received at check in bared little resemblance. Then to boot, they changed the schedule every day. Probably minor but a pain the buns for us adults.

Another issue was this camp was 3 hours from home, our council ranch is 1 hour. This made for less adults being able to share duty watching the scouts. The ones who came, stayed the whole week (good and bad).

After weighing the positives/negatives, I will lobby the scouts to return to the local ranch next year. However, I won't be there, I'll be at Philmont!

No, I think they should not advance, especially if you feel they don't live up to the scout oath. But I think they are acting as typical teenagers. In my mind, if being lazy and generally detached from responsibilities is a reason to hold a scout back, then 95% of scouts shouldn't advance beyond scout.

Cappella,

Take heart. your 13-15 year olds were acting just like 13-15 year olds.

I thought we (as adults) had it made in the shade when one of our 16 year old Eagles joined our summer camp as an JASM. I thought, great! Now we can really step back and let the boys be lead by experienced youth leadership. Boy was I wrong. He acted just like a typical 16 year old. Up late, wouldn't follow through with tasks, just all around lazy. He wasn't disobedient or discourteous, just lazy. Oh well. We spend our camp working with him and the SPL (a 15 year old Star scout) on leadership, always working through them to get our patrol leaders through the tasks. Over and over and over again. Just seemed twice as hard on us.

Good news is, our patrols (all four of them) worked great together. Cooked, cleaned, camped as a team. It was fun watching those 2nd year patrol leaders grow into leaders. We had 24 scouts, 15 of which where first years. I can already see who will blossom from that class into our next set of leaders.

About the bears...

The camp we went to in northern Colorado had a real problem with black bears. We did patrol camping where the boys do all the cooking and cleaning in camp as patrols. We are in a drought so there just aren't any berries for the bears and they have come into camp to get grub. The boys had be very careful not to spill food on the ground or themselves and return all food back to the commissary every night along with the trash. Camp provided steel bear boxes to put "smellies" so nothing of interest was in the tents. First night, I was awoken by two shotgun blasts in the neighboring campsite. Then the unmistakable sound of a huffing bear running through our camp. The camp rangers were standing watch each night and would shoot bean bags at the bears to scare them off. By the four night, we pretty much expected shots (they happened like clockwork about midnight). Our diligence and attention to campsite cleanliness paid off. No bears in any tents and our cook boxes survived with no attempted break ins. The scouts learned a valuable lesson in camping in bear country. They learned the if you take proper precautions, bears really don't have much interest in you. By the end of the week, many of the boys were sleeping outside their tents. Like a tent would provide much protection from a bear anyways!

Returned this afternoon. Aside from the bears, we faired well.

This to me sounds like a triumph to BSA and their program readying scouts to survive in the wilderness. Sure they got lost, anyone could. But they survived.

Hooozahhh!

From Little Big Man:

Little Horse: [a obviously homosexual Indian approaches Jack] Little Big Man! You have returned. Don't you remember me? That hurts me deep in my heart.

Jack Crabb: [voiceover] It was Little Horse; the boy who wouldn't go on the raid against the Pawnee. He had become a "heemanee" for which there ain't no English word. And he was a good one, too. The Human Beings thought a lot of him.

Inhalers at our camp remained with the scout. My son is insulin dependant and they allowed him to keep his pump (DuH!). They also allowed him to keep his Glucogon emergency kit. They were very cooperative on keeping his insulin vials refrigerated and allowed him to retrieve refills as needed (no schedule).

They also wanted adults to check in their meds (whats good for the goose is good for the gander). I have to admit that I kept my bottle of vitamin I (Ibuprophen) in my pack. Overall, I think the camp did it right. A wake up call to the scouts on self medicating.

Our council camp required scouts to check in their meds to the medical staff at check in. A schedule was set and if the scout missed one dispursment, he was verbally warned. Two misses and the scoutmaster was notified. Third strike and his parents were called to retrieve their son. The camp enforced this, not the scoutmaster. Us adult leaders knew the schedule and reminded the scouts to get their meds, but it was up to the scouts to get them. We never had a 3 striker, but a couple of two strikes.

SR540Beaver,

So if 1 in 1000 (or whatever ratio you like) adults can't control their primal sexual drive, how should BSA protect the 14 to 21 yr old girls in venturing from heterosexual adult males? Either kick all the girls out, or all the adults.

Or are you saying that heteros can control their desires better than homosexuals?

Ed,

If the scoutmaster never engages in or promotes homosexual activity in the presence of scouts, how will the scouts know he is a homosexual? How can be be a poor role model for them?

Reverse the arguement. If a scoutmaster engages in or promotes heterosexual activity in the presence of scouts, is he a good role model?

Hunt, I understand your concern that demonstrated immoral behaviour might make you uncomfortable.

I got to thinking about our scoutmaster. He might be a smoker, but he has never smoked in front of us. He might be a heavy drinker, but he hasn't ever drank alcohol in front of us. He might be a drug user, but he hasn't taken drugs in front of us. He might be a child molester, but he hasn't molested anyone in front of us. I know he is married, because I've met his wife. I guess he could be a closeted homosexual but he has never demonstrated sexual behaviour in front of us. I guess I should just give him a pass until he does one of those things in front of the scouts. Until then, he is a good moral role model.

So tell me, if a scoutmaster is a homosexual but never engages in homosexual behaviour in the presence of scouts, how can he be a poor moral role model?

Letter from scout camp

Dear Mom and Dad,

Our Scoutmaster told us to write to our parents in case you saw the flood on TV and are worried. We are okay. Only one of our tents and 2 sleeping bags got washed away. Luckily, none of us got drowned because we were all up on the mountain looking for Adam when it happened.

Oh yes, please call Adam's mother and tell her he is okay. He can't write because of the cast. I got to ride in one of the search and rescue jeeps. It was neat.. We never would have found Adam in the dark if it hadn't been for the lightning.

Scoutmaster Keith got mad at Adam for going on a hike alone without telling anyone. Adam said he did tell him, but it was during the fire so he probably didn't hear him. Did you know that if you put gas on a fire, the gas will blow up? The wet wood didn't burn, but one of the tents did and also some of our clothes. Lester is going to look weird until his hair grows back.

We will be home on Saturday if Scoutmaster Keith gets the bus fixed. It wasn't his fault about the wreck. The brakes worked okay when we left. Scoutmaster Keith said that with a bus that old you have to expect something to break down; that's probably why he can't get insurance. We think it's a neat bus. He doesn't care if we get it dirty, and if it's hot, sometimes he lets us ride on the fenders. It gets pretty hot with 45 people in a bus. He let us take turns riding in the trailer until the highway patrol man stopped and talked to us.

Scoutmaster Keith is a neat guy. Don't worry, he i s a good driver. In fact, he is teaching Jessie how to drive on the mountain roads where there isn't any traffic. All we ever see up there are logging trucks.

This morning all of the guys were diving off the rocks and swimming out in the lake. Scoutmaster Keith wouldn't let me because I can't swim, and Adam was afraid he would sink because of his cast, so he let us take the canoe across the lake. It was great. You can still see some of the trees under the water from the flood.

Scoutmaster Keith isn't crabby like some scoutmasters. He didn't even get mad about the life jackets. He has to spend a lot of time working on the bus so we are trying not to cause him any trouble.

Guess what? We have all passed our first aid merit badges. When Elvin dived into the lake and cut his arm, we got to see how a tourniquet works. Willie and I threw up, but Scoutmaster Keith said it probably was just food poisoning from the leftover chicken. He said they got sick that way w it h food they ate in prison.

I'm so glad he got out and became our scoutmaster. He said he sure figured out how to get things done better while he was doing his time.

By the way, what is a pedal-file?

I have to go now. We are going to town to mail our letters and buy some more beer. Don't worry about anything. We are fine.

Love, Billy Joe

Just finished Into Thin Air. Excellent. Spiked my interest in climbing again. I've set an informal goal to climb Denali in two years.

I've also read his "Under the Banner of Heaven". Same style, lots of research and background work. I think I'll pick up his "Into the Wild" and take that to summer camp.

Yet again I must disagree with you Ed. You can't possibly be married to the best woman in the world. She's married to me and that would make her a polygamist.

The 1970s decade was a dark time for the Boy Scouts of America. The period from 1972-80 was a national disaster, when BSA membership declined nationwide by 34% (a loss of 2.2 million members)! Although many changes in our society had an adverse impact on all youth programs, much of the cause for the drastic BSA membership decline was due to the radically changed Scout program of the period.

In 1972, the BSA made sudden and radical changes to the Scouting program, abandoning much of the traditional outdoor program, and applying inner-city programming to ALL of Scouting (what to do if lost?The new Scout handbook's entire "Lost" section showed a boy talking to a policeman with the instructions, "Ask for directions to find the way"). New, "politically-correct" terminology defined the era (the BSA had no "boys" or "Boy Scouts" because "boy" was considered demeaning; no longer an outdoorsman, the Scoutmaster became a "manager of learning" who taught Scouts the 11 "leadership competencies;" he guided Scouts through "personal growth agreement conferences" as they advanced through the various "progress awards.")

The BSA began modifying the short-lived "Improved Scouting Program" in 1975, and finally scrapped the program in 1978-79, after only six years of use. The program stands in sharp contrast to Scouting before 1972 or since 1978.

During the 1970s, the BSA finally updated its heavy-impact conservation practices to modern low-impact policies designed to protect our rapidly dwindling outdoor resources.

BSA membership peaked at 6.5 million in 1972, and reached bottom in 1980 with 4.3 million.

Source: http://www.troop97.net/t97hist2.htm#1970s

Actually Ed, in Colorado, common law marriages have the same rights, privileges and responsibilities as religious or civil marriages. The only difference being one has a ceremony with a legal document and the other doesn't have either. But a common law wife has the same rights as a "conventional" wife.

A case came up a few years back when a couple wanted to split up. The man claimed they were never married. The woman claimed they satisfied the common law marriage statues and required a divorce to split assets and assert her rights. I believe he even ended up paying her alimony too.

Didn't Kansas just fix their law? Raised it from 12 to 15 or 16?

Personally, I don't think anyone should get married until they are at least 21. Let them date until then and mature. Probably would solve a lot of divorces and "starter marriages".

Its a big commitment.

BTW, I was married at 22 and just passed my 21st anniversary. And all of those years to the same woman!