GernBlansten

Sounds like the parents want text messaging during outings. Nope. Can't support that. However, I don't have any issue with scouts having a phone with them, just turned off.

A Royale with Cheese. That's what they call quarter pounder in Amsterdam. Cub is the sole source of boy scouts. Sure we don't bar them from joining if they weren't cubs, but very, very few do. But cubs is very different than boy scouting. Many potential boy scouts are lost because they didn't want to join cubs. Crafts and games just didn't interest them or their parents. Surely there can be some way to market scouting to those we missed as cubs?

It takes several backpacking trips to become good at it. Knowing what to bring, how to use it, how to deal with various situations and weather. Its not something you can learn in a weekend course. Same goes with skiing, canoeing, climbing, caving and sailing. However, a little training goes a long way. Just knowing that you don't know everything is a lot better than being ignorant of the challenges altogether. To take a modern suburbanite out of their manicured fenced backyards and throw him into the wilderness with a bunch of hyperactive 11 year olds is just a recipe for disaster. We n

"Before Natinal can promise adventure, it has to be sure every unit, or at least most can deliver the promises they make, can we fulfill that promise?" By making available training to every unit an adventure leader course curriculum that exposes and trains modern suburbanites the skills to confidently take youth into the wilds. To emphasize that training above all else and encourage units to exercise it. Put outdoor skills ahead of management skills. Not the other way around. In my council, the only skills course (besides instructor training) for BSA Scouters is ITOLS. One weeken

Yes, Powderhorn is available but is Venturing centric, not Boy Scouting. Its more of a high adventure program course, not one for delivering adventure to young scouts, although it could be tuned to be that. And if BSA put as much emphasis on Powderhorn as they do Woodbadge, perhaps we would have an adventure program instead of a leadership one.

Boy's Life is not a marketing tool for the BSA. It is a publication for those boys already in the program. When have you seen Boy's Life in the newsstands? Why is it that when one makes note of the WB emphasis on leadership, one is bashing it? I'm just saying that the BSA in its pinnacle program, WB, is training their adults leadership and personal development, not adventure. Perhaps if we spent more emphasis training our adult volunteers how to deliver adventure instead of leadership, we would be better aligned to attract more youth.

There is little doubt in my mind that BSA is putting more emphasis on leadership than outdoorsmanship. BSA is marketing to adults not the youth. The adults want the leadership. The youth want adventure. Just look at WB. The new course has nothing about outdoor skills, and is 100% about leadership and personal development. Same with NYLT. The BSA is becoming little more than a youth Toastmasters or Kiwanis and less of an Outward Bound adventure program. That just doesn't attract youth and definitely cannot compete with sports or other youth distractions.

I'll up the ante. In the movie Slumdog Millionaire, the correct answer to the question of who wrote the song "Darshan Do Ghanshyam Naath" is shown as 16th century poet "Kavi Surdas". However in reality, this song is written by Gopal Singh Nepali for the movie Narsi Bhagat (1957). This song is also credited as traditional and originally written by 15th century poet Narsinh Mehta, whose life that film is based on. (Many, including the film, mistakenly attribute it to the 16th-century poet Surdas due to the fact that Surdas was blind and the song is a prayer asking God to "appear" before him, f

I luv it when they throw out the book on physics. Like in Armageddon when they "fly" the space shuttles in the vacuum of space through the asteroids.

One has to wonder what wrath SNL got for this skit. http://blogs.nypost.com/popwrap/photos/Alec-Baldwin-canteen-boy.jpg

Some male volunteers share the same particular physiology.

"There is a disconnect with the perception of Scouting, somewhere between "Boy Scouts is dorky" and all the respect Eagle Scouts get." Go ask 10 middle school boys what their perception of Scouting is. Probably 9 of them will say scouting is dorky. Not one of them will have any special respect for Eagle scouts. Its us adults that put value in the Eagle rank, not the kids. Boys today think scouting is dorky. If it weren't for us parents who force our boys to at least try it, we wouldn't attract any youth. Sure when the kids are exposed to the benefits of scouting and start participat

I'm not saying don't get the cheap jungle boots, but be prepared to field repair them and dispose of them at the end of the trek. Several in my crew did just that. Those of us with Altamas, lived to trek another few seasons in ours.

Its gotta be tough for you true believers. Can't work on Sundays, can't work in any retail clothing (mixing fabrics and such). Really limiting the job options. Of course, only if you really follow your convictions and don't do the cafeteria approach to morality, eh?

I understand your point Beavah. However, in each of those cases, the provider of the service is imposing their morality on others. Morality is a code of ethics that one imposes on themselves, not others. If you find abortions to be abhorrent, don't become a ob/gyn. If you find vasectomies to be against God's will, don't become a urologist. If you find yourself in a moral dilemma dispensing certain medications, don't become a pharmacist. If you find eating meat to be an abomination, don't become a butcher. If you keep Kosher, don't open a BBQ restaurant. If you find lying to be immoral

Ok, so here's another analogy. I am Walmart. I'm the biggest pharmacy chain in the nation. In order to get that big, I agree to take government funds in the form of Medicare/Medicaid and with my massive purchasing power, I can get drugs to consumers at a discount. Part of that agreement is to not restrict access to anything prescribed by doctors to customers. But I have a few Catholic pharmacists who refuse to dispense the pill. If I fire the Catholics, that's religious persecution. If I don't, I'm violating my agreement with the feds to provide medications to consumers. Wouldn't it be

The best boots for Ntiers is an Altama jungle boot. Do an Ebay/Google search and you'll find lots of them. They range in quality from a cheapo consumer version (about $60) to the full milspec version $160. There are countless Vietnamese knockoffs at army surplus stores for around $30. We found that these barely made it through the week. The mud is really sticky and deep. You step in it, pull your boot out and the soles came off. But with a little duck tape, they will make it through. The higher end Altama boots will last several seasons of rugged use. I bought my milspec Altama's used

If I own a pharmacy and I have a pharmacist, who is Catholic, who refuses to dispense birth control to our customers, can I release him? Or do his morals trump the customers and mine? If I run a telemarketing firm, can I release the evangelical Christian who cannot engage a client without asking them if they've found Jesus? If I run a deli, will I have to make concessions because my Jewish clerk won't make my customers a BLT?

Would a Jehovah's Witness doctor or nurse be giving the same moral pass when he allows a patient to die on the emergency room table because he won't administer a blood transfusion because of his beliefs?

Is $225 really out of line for a week of all expenses paid camping? YMCA camp runs about $600/week here. Philmont will run you $600 for 10 days of backpacking. Ntiers is $450 for one week. Our summer camp is around $180/week. I think its a bargain.

True story. Dateline: 3 weeks ago. Our district assigns a representative outside our unit to review the project and sit on the EBOR. While waiting for the EBOR of one of our scouts, I was chatting with this district rep. He stated that he had to do this EBOR, then meet with a scout later that evening to review his project proposal. This was a Wednesday night. He said the scout was turning 18 on Sunday and already had the project ready to go after he got approval that night. So, I guess, the if the scout's project was approved that night, he had the weekend to work on the project an

Is opposite marriage legal in, such as, the Iraq or the South Africa?

Ed, Do you think a person blowing an airhorn at 2AM is being considerate in the outdoors?

"The Confederacy is NOT a foreign entity, nor was it ever a foreign entity, and it did not become one upon secession. Lincoln went to war to preserve the Union, thus it was a CIVIL war not a foreign war. " Did not the Confederacy adopt their own constitution in 1861 and elect Jefferson Davis president establishing a separate, new government and nation? At that point one would have a hard time thinking that the secessionists thought they were anything but an independent nation. Now, I would agree that Lincoln and European nations didn't recognize the confederacy as a legitimate gover

Our unit is always considerate in the outdoors, morning, noon and night. We follow the Outdoor Code.