Gold Winger

"Are you in disagreement with the Star/Life/Eagle POR requirements or have a beef with the concept of PORs?" My beef is with the unit adults who allow the PORs to be nothing more than wearing a patch. My son's troop had an SPL who NEVER came to a meeting but he still got credit for it and was given his Eagle. When he was the Guide assigned to my son's new scout patrol, he NEVER came to a meeting and when he went camping with the new scouts, never did anything with them. He was given Life for that job. If Scribes scribed and Historians did history and the QM actually worried about gear instead of some hapless parent doing all of the work THEN the POR requirement is accomplishing its requirement.

Maybe they are part of the BSA vanguard to change the name from Venturers to Venture Scouts which actually makes more sense.

There really aren't ranks in Boy Scouting either. They are just awards for jumping through a certain set of hoops.

There aren't many frogs in Covington, Kentucky.

Notice that they only mention "Large Sheath Knives." So small ones are okay. Buck makes some small sheath knives that are lighter than a medium sized folder. I'd really rather carry a sheath knife, they are faster to deploy.

From my old house to the pool was a little over a mile. After a day of swimming, we'd walk home in less than half an hour. As a middle aged, overweight guy, I can easily do 2 miles per hour with a 50 lb pack. Unless these kids do nothing but eat potato chips and play video games they should be able to do 2 mph . . . Of course, we're talking about today's kids. I withdraw my statements.

"Lets face it, the majority of youth stay in BSA because their parents want them to. And the parents want them to get Eagle." Is that why we want them to be Scouts. I thought that they were supposed to be a Scout because THEY wanted to be Scouts. I guess I'm just silly.

In olden days, Boy Scout knives were made by Ulster, Remington and a few other brands. Those knife companies actually existed but the brand names were eventually absorbed by Camillus, which as you have heard does not exist anymore. If you dig around for knife making forums, you can find a guy who will repair yours for a fee but it may be more than the knife is worth.

I have a lightweight Buck that has a 3" blade and only weighs 1.5 oz, that's my hiking knife. I usually carry a Kershaw Whirlwind assisted opening knife. Other times I carry my Buck 500 or my Beretta Airlight. Rarely do I carry a Swiss Army knife. "Fixed blade is the policy I am aware of under health and safety." You need to read that again, fixed blades are discouraged for reasons of size and weight but not prohibited.

I don't know if we can change the mindset, it is too deeply entrenched in our society now. Dance, baseball, soccer, football at age five or younger. Why? So they can get out there, learn the game and learn to WIN! Fun is irrelevant. Why WIN? Winning is how you make the varsity and get scholarships. The same is true for Scouting. Get out there and WIN and by Jove if I have to shove you along the path, I'll make you win! Unfortunately, many don't want to play varsity or make Eagle and rebel against the parents shoving. What do they do? They don't build hot rods anymore or play pick-up football. They turn into blobs that sit around and play video games because those are "fun" and there is no parental pressure to preform. Parents really need to take a chill pill and get off the AAU/Eagle/AP Physics/SAT Prep train and step back and let kids go at their own rate. The cream will rise to the top. We need both leaders and followers.

I agree with you and the boys. There is toooo much pressure to advance from day one. First Class in one year. Why? Because it keeps the revenue coming in. If you poll guys who were Scouts back in the 60s and 70s and before, you'll find quite a few who aged out but never made it past Life or Star. I even know one who never made it past 2nd Class. Back then you had to be motivated to make Eagle because the parents weren't pushing. They stuck around because it was fun but they didn't want to work on merit badges or take a position of responsibility. That's why the military put a premium on Eagle because Eagles sought out responsibility. Now . . . One problem with the "little kids" is the way that our society has changed. Back in the good old days before every activity was organized, kids of all ages played together. It wasn't unusual to find high school kids and grade schoolers playing touch football. The job of the older boys was to teach the little guys how to play. As a little guy, you couldn't wait until you got big enough to play tackle instead of touch. Heck, we'd play army, football, baseball, and go on bike rides with mixed age groups. There were other benefits to these mixed age groups. The little guys learned that there were different behaviors for different situations. For example, if you're sitting around after a football game with the guys, it is okay to blast gas or belch. However, if you're 12 and you see you 16 year old friend chatting with a young lady, you don't walk up and belch. At least not if you don't want to get pounded. The result was, back in the old days, the older guys figured that it was their job to teach the younger guys in Scouting. Maybe our solution should be to encourage boys to abandon Boy Scouts for Venturing. That way they can advance if they want but the pressure would be off.

I'm wondering if the internet geeks have cleared with MLB? They were using DH long before Al Gore invented the internet. :-)

Keep a video tape in your car? I think that I'd rather put a copy in my safe deposit box. What if the house burns while you're on vacation and the car is in the garage?

I'd like to read some background on this whole thing. Scouting, like many organizations, keeps its dirty laundry well hidden so all we can do is speculate about the real issues. As for BSA's reputation, so what? I say the same when people say that the USA's reputation has suffered. I don't know that we've ever had a good reputation, people just like our money and our aid.

"Running to momma/poppa and hiding behind her/him" just doesn't flow well. DH? Designated Hitter?

Fine but it shouldn't be tied to advancement which is supposed to be skill related. In any case, the modern way of dealing with bullies is anti-advancement. Scouting skills are about dealing with problems and solving them on your own. Now, the appropriate way to deal with a bully is to run to momma and hide behind her which only makes the problem worse. I know a woman who has been raising her grandson. The problem is that she is worse than any two mothers put together. In middle school, the boy was picked on by EVERYONE. Boy, girls, nerds, thugs, it didn't matter. Why? Gramma set him up. She talked to him in the third person when he was in the eighth grade. "Now, don't be late because Memaw is picking you up after school." At camp it was, "if you have to go pottty at night, come get Memaw so you won't be afraid." I'd see them at the pool and she'd hover wherever he happened to be swimming. He'd do a lap and she'd talk to him like he was four. "Good boy! Memaw is so proud of you, swimming all that distance." OF COURSE HE GOT PICKED ON.

I believe that the adult uniform didn't have the piping and flap over the pockets. For parts, keep an eye on ebay. Old shirts pop up on a regular basis. I have the dark green adult uniform, I'm just waiting until I shrink engough to fit it. XL then isn't the as XL today.

Actually, it isn't that much different than when I was a boy (1960s). > You don't tell secrets to people that you don't know > You don't get into cars with strangers > You don't take candy from strangers People have been writing rude things on bathroom walls for decades and hanging up embarassing photos of people on school walls ever since Eastman invented the Brownie camera. With requirements like this, I can see 1st Class going the way that thing have gone with GSUSA. Boys will say, "I thought that we were going to go camping but instead all I get are 'conversations' with my parents about bullys, internet safety, girls. This is boring, I'd rather play video games."

"Its the trailer they want, not its contents." True but often the contents of the trailer are more valuable than the trailer. If my son's troop stored it's gear in the trailer, there'd be at least $2,000 in tents alone waiting to be taken. Stoves, lanterns, cooking gear, first aid kits, tool box, rope . . . it all adds up.

I have my firearms insured as well as my car. Maybe I should take out patch insurance. I went through my accumulation of CSPs and OA flaps and I have a couple of grand in my binders. Add in the duplicates that I have in shoeboxes and we're looking at enough to buy a good used car.

I guess that it is ironic that my son's troop's trailer has great security but nothing is stored in it.(This message has been edited by Gold Winger)

I too am somewhat disappointed in the summer camp merit badge mill model. Part of it is the instructors, part of it the kids, and part the parents and their expectations. When I was a youngster, a popular activity for boys was building models. We'd spend hours sanding, trimming, gluing and painting them. We'd even modify the kits and make custom jobs, some ugly some not. Now kit are given snap-together models that take 15 minutes to assemble and have press-on decals. No attention span for detail. An old Scouter that I know proudly wears the neckerchief slide that he made for woodcarving mb. It is a work of art, a woodsman's head that it carved, sanded and painted. Now at summercamp, if the Scout just rounds off the edges of the slide kit, he gets credit. In leatherworking, the counselor holds up pieces of leather and tells what they are, no finding leather items and identifying them. Then they pound their initials into a piece of leather and they are done. It is all hurry, hurry, hurry . . . get done as soon as possible. I'll spend the week at camp on a slide or a belt and both the counselors and boys are amazed by it. They're okay but not works of art but I hear, "Wow! How did you do that." Simple, I took my time. Music and sports both took about an hour at summer camp. I'd like a summer camp model where it isn't classroom oriented. Instead the boys would do stuff during the day like hike, canoe, etc. wander around learning about trees. then at the end of the week, they could go take a test if they wanted to and get the merit badge. If done right, they wouldn't even realize that they were earning merit badges until it was all over. Of course the parents want the merit badges even more than the Scouts do. You have to have something to show for your $200. Fun doesn't count. I actually met a Scouter who was looking for a new summer camp because the one where we were had too much "fun stuff." His statement was, "If I'm taking these boys to summer camp, they aren't going to have fun." Fun with hidden learning.

Maybe BSA should have let the course evolve over a number of years, rolling out changes over a long time instead of making what is seen as a drastic change to the course. BMW used to say that their changes in styling and engineering were evolutionary and not revolutionary.

We don't know why the theives stole the trees. Maybe they needed them to raise money to buy insulin for one theif's baby sister. It is also likely that they were sent on snip hunts at summer camp and the experience left them emotionally scarred and the only way that they can vent their rage is by stealing christmas tress from their tormentors, the Boy Scouts. Or it could be that they are just scum like most petty theifs.

So? It is still allowed so doing isn't imporoper. Venture Crew, Venturing Crew. I'll try but I need you to work on all of the adults who refer to Venture Scots which includes the chairman of the Council's committee on venturing.