Gold Winger

Mother would have said, "even if they never show up, keep inviting them." The flip side of your age-ist comment is that young people are too reactionary. There's a reason that generals are older and lieutenants are young. Wisdom comes with age. Enthusiasm goes with youth.

"what exactly are the American values regarding homosexuals?" "Men don't like showering with men who like showering with men." However, it really isn't your concern. Is it?

"what exactly are the American values regarding homosexuals?" "Men don't like showering with men who like showering with men." However, it really isn't your concern. Is it?

" I am thinking that we might do a service project for them, like serving the refreshments at a church function, or doing some renovation of the playground equiptment, or something like that. It would generate a lot of goodwill." Ah-yuh. Eagle projects are also a great way to build goodwill with your CO. Invite the COR and IH to your annual dinner, courts of honor especially Eagle courts. Heck, ask them to come and visit a campout. Make them feel involved.

The difference is that we have a different set of values over here than you do. I find it interesting how no one like the Yanks telling them how to live their lives but they all love to tell us what to do.

"It is fine if a chartered organization chooses to monetarily pay for troop needs but there should be no expectation that they do so." Be that as it may, the CO shouldn't expect the unit to donate anything other than time to them.

When I had your job, I couldn't stand Troopmaster. I'd just use the official BSA advancement report, fill it out at the BOR and get the appropriate signatures. If I had the time, I'd build a well designed troop records package. Unfortunately, good software takes time.

"Also we have been asked to donate to some of their different funds, which we have not done. No one on their end has made a futher point, but I wonder what they actually think." Sounds like they don't understand what the relationship is supposed to be. They're supposed to be doing fundraising to support you, not vice-versa.

"I agree. Do you have any observations about what the "Genghis Khan" gifted natural leader vs. "one minute manager" ratio is in any given Troop? (How often do you encounter a really gifted Patrol Leader?) Is the occurrence rate different in city vs. suburban populations?" I'd say it is probably about 1 in 6, although opportunities for kids to lead today are dwindling unless it is related to crime. Remember the good old days. . . kids would hang out in a group and there was usually a leader. He wasn't elected but he was the one that could get the ideas implemented. There were the kids who were always the captains of the pick-up teams. The guys who organized the midnight swims at the town pool. Now kids sit around an play video games. No leadership opportunities there. Pick-up games? Not any more. Sports teams? The captains are just figure heads because the coach calls the shots from the sidelines. When I was an altar boy, the head altar boy was in charge. He made the schedule and hired and fired his crews. Now the padre makes the schedule and no one is ever fired because that would be mean. The biggest problem in finding good leaders is that you have to have people who are willing to be led. Today, in the workplace, in Scouts, and in life in general people want a person to be in charge so they can be the scapegoat but they don't see why the leader should be allowed to lead.

"since we meet at a school, this cannot be taught at our regular den meetings so we will try to do it at an upcoming camp out." There might be a way around that. I've taugh a firearms safety class at a local high school. I was given a letter from the program administrator that for purposes of the class, I was allowed to bring unloaded firearms into the school. If you don't have a principal who's afraid of anything sharp, you might be able to get a similar letter.

What a Webelos 2 scout? I'm looking in my various books and I see Tiger Cubs, Cub Scouts, Webelos Scouts, Boy Scouts but nothing with number like that.

"Also, in my experience, corporate leadership courses, especially ones that intense and time-consuming, cost far more than Wood Badge." So? I went through a lot of that . . . crud . . . back in the 80s. Bunch of snake oil salesmen trying to teach MBAs with no leadership ability how to "lead" which usually means intimidating the workers so they'll put out more effort to maximize profits and bonuses for upper management. Oh sure, we'll make the "team" feel like they have a say because their "committee" gets to pick the color of the new shirt. Or give them idiotic pins that say, "We care about quality!" when everyone knows that management only cares about profit. Now I'm sure that the only reason to go to Wood Badge is so that I can join the MacLaren Society and wear a kilt.

Brent, you are ignoring the fact that part ii was all practical. Woodmsmanship, Scout Games, Scout Craft, etc.. "I know with BSA, there is no turning back." Not really, they did a reversal when they put camping back into the program. Alas, I'm sure that they'll continue to water down the program even more over the next 20 years. Map reading? Don't need it. Emergency shelter? Why? You'll never get lost with your GPS and cell phone. Knots? Don't need them with velcro and bungees. Swimming? Not needed because you wear a PFD anytime you're near the water.

Nah, they'll just write the check. My son's troop made it a requirement that you have to participate in the fundraiser and by participate they mean sell one item or show up at a show-n-sell. Not sure of what the penalty is yet because they haven't had too many that haven't participated. My son's troop doesn't say, "sell so much or write a check." They say, "If you sell over $100, 50 % of the troops share goes into your scout account." You can use that for rechartering or gear or summer camp or whatever. Somehow in December you need to get $50 to the troop no matter how much popcorn you sold. So the money can come from your scout account or you can write a check. If it was up to me, if you didn't participate, I wouldn't let you recharter. A troop is a team. If you don't want to help the team, you can't pretend to be part of it. Some units do have alternative fundraisers. I know of units that do a candy bar sale because the Scouts can take the box of bars to School and sell them to their friends.

"If someone earns their Eagle thru nefarious means, they are the one that has to live with that" That's just plain silly. If they have so little personal honor that they are willing to cheat to get Eagle, they're not going to be tormented by it in the future and will probably encourage their sons to cheat. Possibly they'll even look back as a time when "those suckers were busting their humps to make Eagle and all I did was a little paper magic." So in Beavah's magical world, there is no requirement for record keeping or verification. The Scout goes to Advancement person and says, "I did Swimming and Life Saving this week." Advancement says, "Where are your blue cards?" "Oh, Beavah says that I don't need them, now give me my merit badges." Maybe a Scout is trustworthy, supposedly but if we trusted them, we wouldn't have board of review or even requirements. We'd have guidelines and when someone felt that they were ready for Eagle, they'd tell us and we'd give it to them. Puhleeze. " They're the ones teachin' the kids, they're the ones responsible for their safety, they're the ones decidin' when kids get awards" Everything up to Eagle, Council and National have the say on that one. By the way, do you have an authorotative source that states that blue cards are optional?

The next to last course is Peach Cobbler. The last is Peach Cobbler Ade.

Most of the Man Scouts are found at the unit level because there they have more people to impress. At the district level we just a lot of tired volunteers in worn out uniforms who are burned out but don't want to quit because they don't want to see the program suffer for a lack of adult participation.

I did check the website, some of their comments are hilarious.

"GW, what kind of roasting bag would that be? Not PLASTIC would it . Probably a goat stomach eh?" Yes, plastic. We dunna make haggis on hikes. BTW, wouldn't an origami bowl UNFOLD to be flat. Is Scooby-Doing licking like a dog? One problem with an origami bowl, you have to carry an origami cup too for when you're drinking coffee. :-)

"All the more reason to use online advancement -- it will probably take a few months for people to hack it" Even easier to fraudulently get merit badges. And I doubt that it will take even a few months for people to hack it. I find it amusing that when I bring up a unit that violates the G2SS, people say, "Oh, that's not a big deal. Scouting is supposed to be fun! Go have fun!" However, when I mention verification of achievements for eligibility of Scoutings Highest Award, people run around in circles yelling about changing requirement and excess administration. To borrow from Fozzie Bear, "Funny, ha, ha, ha!"

I wasn't there but when you look at the curriculum, it isn't likely that they sat on their duffs, watched movies and and listened to lectures. More likely they learned by doing.

Let's see Joni4TA said, "the organization for Advancement of Colored People would probably not award a 100% Caucasian student a scholarship." Meryln responded, "Well, you'd be wrong." and tried to deflect the issue following with " . . .it was created mostly by white lawyers . . ." When I asked for a citation of a single white given a scholarship by NAACP, Merlyn tried to avoid the issue by claiming that he never said that. Hmmmmmm . . . Thank you for playin Merlyn, please try again later. Gold Winger++

"That is how current Wood Badge is taught - in the outdoor classroom." Sitting on a bench under a tarp isn't quite what BP meant.

FWIW, it is a silly requirement but in there to try to bolster numbers. First Class and below is about Scouting skills, not recruiting.

I did the new "Troop Committee Challenge" a few years back just to see what I could learn. I remember some idiotic exercise in which we built a bridge from pre-stamped pieces of paper. I think that it was supposed to show us that everyone has a job to do. Lame with capital L. Newer isn't always better.