GKlose

I'm about ready to embark on the practical phase (that is, I'm writing my ticket now). While I keep getting drawn to lofty goals, I have to constantly remind myself to not be so ambitious, and keep things reasonable. No single item seems to be too overwhelming, and I think I want to space them out over a full year and a half. Some individual "projects" are projects that I was hoping to do with the troop anyway. I've just now codified them into the ticket. I think my wife understands me -- she knows that this is important for me, and that I would like to Do My Best. At the same time, she i

One of the things I did, with both of my sons' bear dens, is the family history/tree part. I showed them a document I started with (an uncle drew an actual tree, with family members as branches, going back to the earliest known relatives -- albeit, with a lot of mistakes). Then I showed them how I looked up more information and showed them the "standardized" genealogy sheets I created. Took just a couple of minutes. We talked about "relative" and "ancestor" and terms like that. Then I gave them a blank copy of a kids' genealogy form I found (I don't know the link, but I think it is e

One more quick thought: has anyone seen "A Mighty Wind" which was done by the same people that did "This Is Spinal Tap"? It pokes very good-natured fun at the whole folk music scene of the 60s. I especially enjoyed because that is the kind of stuff I grew up listening to...my parents were big fans of folk.

I have an old Smithsonian collection of children's folk music on CD, and the "Ridin' In The Car, Car" song I think goes back to Woodie Guthrie. Very cool song. Guy

My moment was my first "D" in school, ever. College, freshman Physics, which also happened to be my first ever physics course. I had zero clue. My dad saw my grade card, and simply said "what happened?" I think he understood because he had always told the story that his physics professor in college was an old German that had worked on the Manhattan Project, and that he couldn't make heads or tails out of what the guy was talking about. Thinking back about it, I'm laughing. I can't even count how many moments since where I've had zero clue. Guy

As a scout, besides our high adventure activities, I had two particular outings that were my absolute favorites. One was a patrol leader training course that took place on an overnight. Late the next day, Friday, the rest of the troop came in for the weekend outing. The other was an incentive outing. Our SM was worried about the popularity of a fundraiser, so he offered the top sellers a chance to "choose your own outing." I can't recall how many of us there were, but the small group of us chose to repeat our favorite all-around annual outing, a caving trip. Except that it was a diff

Lisabob -- that's what our pediatrician's office does too, except they have a special "camp form fee" of $20 for filling out the paperwork. I think they get overloaded with camp forms (seems like virtually every kid 12 or under goes to some sort of day camp, or resident camp, or something). Guy

Just another couple of quick experiences: I wasn't really sure about my troop guide, from the first meeting, but over the course of the weekend I realized that he was really growing on us. He's a first-timer in his role, just like we are, and I think all of us started to enjoy growing together. From the start, almost, there was pressure (I thought) to start thinking about tickets. On the other hand, I don't think we really were provided much guidance in either developing our own vision, or about turning goals into ticket items. I finally talked to another couple of troop guides, both of w

I was one of the few to bring a seat cushion, and I'm glad I did. Seating in the hall was on hard-seated folding chairs, and seating in our patrol area was on picnic table benches. I frequently stood up and moved around. In our case, the course was held at a local camp, and the craft lodge was open for us. We all had decorated our patrol flags (but we had to do so quickly). Bringing crafty-type stuff for decorations is not a bad idea. They give you lots of handouts (and we were provided a 3-ring binder), but having some extra paper isn't a bad idea. Bring a good attitude. Your f

I just got back last night from the 1st weekend of a 2-weekend offering. The next one is about a month from now. I'm still tired, but it was mostly a good experience. My patrol is looking forward to our tasks at hand and meeting again soon, and working through our projects for the second weekend. Yes, we had a "Gilwell Hall" too, and we spent a bit of time there. At first, I wasn't so hot on the idea of watching "the movie" for the 8th or 9th time (and I think it is a great movie; one of my favorites), but this time around I took advantage of the suggestion to watch it from the team-

Yes, I think that is what is meant by ODL. It is being phased out -- there is "yet another BOGO sale" (buy one - get one) that ends today. See Scoutstuff.org and click on the sale link. Until the stock is pretty much exhausted I would expect more BOGO sales to continue.

Whew! I know how much work this is -- I was part of a playground committee for a preschool back around '01, and my wife just finished a 3-year, 3-phase project (as a volunteer) to get a playground rebuilt at one of our local elementary schools (budget cuts in our district have forced elementary school PTOs to fend for themselves, fundraise and arrange for construction). We both were faced with a lot of "helpers" that really just wanted to look through the catalogs and pick out something cool-looking, but there is so much more to building a playground than that (site prep, federal safety regula

My first weekend starts tomorrow morning.

Last night at our district roundtable, our DE went over the basics for our contingent (he's the staff adviser for the contingent). My son is signed up, so I already knew what was up. Our total cost is $1500pp. The DE told us it is "all inclusive" except for "walking around money and uniforms". But I also know they reserve the right to change the fee up until the last moment. Our transportation costs are fairly low -- we only live about 10 hours north of D.C. Guy

Smithgall, better start growing your hair out now. :-)

I ran into a circumstance this last year with our "feeder pack" -- the W2 den was a small and very gung-ho group. They'd finished all activity badges and AoL by early spring, however their pack doesn't award AoL or crossover until the end of their program year, which happened in early June. They've now since crossed over, but I kind of danced around the issue with the den leader dad (who is an Eagle and is now on our troop committee). I couldn't exactly tell him that the pack is dragging their feet on this, so I suggested he start bringing his den to our troop meetings. It was convenient

Hey, I'd never propose such heresy! :-) It doesn't make sense to me either -- so I'm wondering if the "it's on Tuesday" or the "it's on Thursday" dodge was because of some other underlying problem with the roundtable. Another strange problem is that roundtable attendance seems to mirror district camporee attendance. I tend to see the same faces all the time. Guy

Look at the top of this webpage! Bill isn't overlooking all of us for nothing... But, to answer your question, Kudu's website is interesting (inquiry.net), but I don't know of any other sites that cover the legacy of Bill so thoroughly. And Bill's legacy is tied up in the manuals he authored. On suggestions from others here, I've found old Scout handbooks and the 3rd edition Scoutmaster handbook (2 volumes) he authored. They weren't that expensive, and they are easily found through amazon.com. Guy

Just a couple of quick data points: Our district does the rotating roundtable nights. Started last year, based on a suggestion. Seems like half the troops in the district meet on Tuesdays, and half meet on Thursdays. So the R/T commissioner is rotating Tuesdays and Thursdays. Our troop meets on Mondays, so I regularly drop in on roundtables. This isn't scientific, but it seems like I pretty much see the same faces all the time. Second item: at our district committee meeting this last week, the district commissioner told us that by request of the unit commissioners in our district, he

My course starts up in about 3 weeks (one weekend in September, one in October). I'm looking forward to it. While I haven't started to think about a ticket yet, I thought it might be helpful if I started to write down some "improvement" ideas (for lack of a better term) that I've been thinking about for awhile. Whether or not they can lead to ticket items, I don't know. I just wanted to have a list to draw from, if necessary. My DE and I had lunch last week, and he told me something funny about one of his training sessions. The people who led it had a table filled with all sorts of "

I'm attending a session that starts in about a month. I had similar questions a few months ago, prior to committing to attending. But I'm a "go with the flow" type of Guy too. I've already met at least half of the training staff, and a small handful of the participants. I'm looking forward to it. Although I haven't start to contemplate ticket items yet, I have started a list of projects, some of which may or may not become good ticket items. I'll work that out with my Troop Guide. Guy

Last summer, I registered to be an MBC (first timer). This year, I asked our DE if I would need to reregister, and he told me not to worry, that someone would be contacting me. Sure enough, after a few weeks, I received a list of the merit badges I cover, a blank application (and council CORI form), and instructions that told me I would have to reregister to be left on the council MBC list. I have no idea how much admin time and money it takes to create those lists, address envelopes and mail them, but it seems like a fairly convenient system. Guy

I got the beginnings of the idea here, but for a pack we belonged to last year, I thought it would be fun to do "Who's Smarter Than A Cub Scout?". The idea was to make up a series of questions in game-show format, and set up a competition of pack parents against their Cubs. If the questions were funny enough, and the stakes high enough, I thought it might be enough to keep a bunch of Cubs interested during a pack meeting. The questions would have been Tiger-level, Wolf-level, etc, most pulled directly from their achievements. I thought it might have been fun. CC/CM shot it down. Stil

That's the funny thing about all this. There are relatively new Scout swim trunks: http://www.scoutstuff.org/BSASupply/ItemDetail.aspx?cat=01RTL&ctgy=PRODUCTS&c2=APPAREL&C3=AOTHER&C4=&LV=3&item=644BSST&prodid=644BSST^8^01RTL& The price is very reasonable, at $9.99 a pair. I'd agree, unnecessary, but reasonable. 100% nylon, mesh lining, pockets, logo, etc. Make a set of shorts with similar specs, and a fly I suppose, approved for uniform wear, and the price is now $20 more. Guy

Our troop just got back from a 6-day trip on the West Branch of the Penobscot and Chesuncook Lake in northern Maine. Unfortunately, I couldn't go. But according to my son, they didn't see a single other group person entire time up there. Guy