Gold Winger

"I saw the article in the newspaper that Curtis Sliwa was producing more Guardian Angels for a nearby town and my heart covulsed as I thought how he destroyed the red beret. Guradian Angels wore a red beret so people could identify them and they were way to close to the BSA red beret. I couldnt and still cant beleive this guy in making a career out of Vigilanteeism especially after Bernard Goetz." Good Lord man! Get a grip! Destroyed the red beret? BSA did that because it was a stupid hat, stupid because no one knew how to wear it. Yes, BSA destroyed the red beret. Vigilatism? Last time I checked the GA is nothing more than a big neighborhood watch. No one gets shot, no one gets hung. There aren't any midnight raid on gang hideouts by masked men. I suppose you are one who believes that we should depend on the po-leese to pro-tect us. As a ghetto dwelling friend once told me, the po-leese only show up after someone is dead. The po-leese chiefs tell us that we don't have to worry about protecting ourselves because they're there to protect us. That is until something happens. Then the po-leese say, "we can't be everywhere, lock your door and cower in your kitchens." Heck, even the Supreme Court has said that the po-leese have no obligation to protect anyone.

Myabe you could send Mike an email and point out the problems. He is receptive to people pointing our errors.

"Have any of you ever gotten an award that you felt that you were beneath." Nope. I always figured that if I was given an award someone figured that I deserved it. Now if only the gods of the Power Ball would look my way . . .

There's a list of the Executive Board in my 1936 handbook. Teddy Roosevelt is listed. Marshall Field, the scion of the founder of the Marshall Field's department store. Thomas Watson, founder of IBM. John M. Schiff's name is there, he was a notable investment banker. George W. Olmsted founded the Long Island Lighting Company in 1911. Walter W. Head was the President of BSA at that time and he was president and founder of the General American Life Insurance Company. I could spend all day researching these names but I have to cut my grass.

Let's be logical for a moment. Who would be a better choice for the board of directors of a council. Let's take a guy, an average guy, a computer weenie who barely understands the stock market, has almost nothing in the bank, drives an old car, has no connections but is an enthusiastic Scouter. Let's take another man, might not be a Scouter but supports the goals of Scouting, he's President of a division of IBM, is worth millions, and knows many more millionaires who support Scouting. This man is used to forecasting the outcomes of investments and business decisions. He can call up the CEO of Toyota and say, "Hey Bob, BSA needs $250k to finish a new camp. I'm kicking in $10K, can I count on you for the same? Yeah, I'm calling Jim over at MegaBank next. Sure I'll tell him that you're down for $10K and that you expect him to match it. Thanks. See you on the links." I'm voting for #2.

Some say that the CO can lay claim to the funds, others say they can't. I'd be willing to be that it depends on state law and how good of a lawyer you can hire. If the CO could claim the funds, they could do that if you recharter as a self-charter unit. When you do that, the old unit ceases to exist and the new unit arises from the ashes. Spend the money on the boys. Don't collect recharter money for a year. Don't charge for the annual banquet. Send everyone to camp for free. You might want to talk to a tax guy about giving those Scouts a check. I'm not a lawyer but I believe that Scout accounts are common enough that there isn't a problem with designating money for the use of a Scout. However, it strikes me that giving a Scout money that was raised for Scouting might be outside of the rules.

"I just find it interesting that Obama cannot hang his hat on a valid Scriptural reason to transfer churches." Why do you need a scriptural reason to change churches? I've changed churches because I didn't like the pews in the first one. Church is as much about community as it is about scripture. If it was only about scripture, you could just sit at home and read. Like any community, if you don't like it one valid option is to move. I have enough reasons to dislike Obama, changing churches doesn't make the list.

I wouldn't vote for any Democrat but I've voted for black men in the past and I probably will in the future.

Do not think wrong thoughts, Big Brother is watching.

Let's see . . . there's the infamous "not saluting the flag incident," his handlers explained that away by saying "sometimes he doesn, sometimes he doesn't" The comment that his grandmother was like most white people, "a racist." Basically, he's a big a racist as any member of the KKK.

Money helps as do power and connections in the business world.

"I once heard that the An Hour A Week slogan was for the parents, and for the leaders it could be figured as "An hour a week, per Cub Scout" That, I think is a little more accurate." The origin of "One hour a week" is from an old recruiting campaign. The line was, "Just one hour a week makes a difference in the life of a boy" (or something to that effect) meaning that the boy was spending one hour a week with Scouting. Somewhere along the line, it got co-opted by the Scouter corps and became a joking recruiting pitch. However, I've noticed that younger Scouters have never heard the line before so maybe saying it is a sign of age like saying, "Cool daddy-o!", "Far out!", or "23 skidoo!"

I'm in sales and a good salesman doesn't lie because it comes back to bite you if you're looking to build repeat business. Scouting gets about 70% of the money, it says that right on the box. There's no need to embelish. Telling people otherwise, isn't being trustworthy, it is lying. As for quality . . . sure you can get a giant can of popcorn at Wal-Mart but have you ever tried that and compared it to Trail's End? Most of my customer's and my son's customers seemed to think that they were getting good value. On a lighter note, I was always amused by the people who would say, "I bought a box last year and I still have half of it left." If they weren't making that up . . . I just can't fathom that. A box of microwave popcorn is lucky to last a month in my house.

" I've only been in Scouting for about 15 months, but I've already seen half a dozen Eagle project that consist of nothing more than mowing or bushhogging a trail, and then shoveling a little dirt or mulch on it." Eagle projects aren't about the complexity of the project or the "worth" of the project but about the leadership involved. As for popcorn . . . I've sold boatloads of the stuff with my son because people realize that the money is going to Scouting.

"GW, your mileage may vary." Only if I slow down so the trans doesn't go into OD. At 80 mph, my engine is turning 2000 RPM. Below 70, it drops out of OD and the impulse engines kick in.

"up, drop that 3 ton rig from 75 down to the double nickle and you will save 20% fuel right away." Don't know about that. I drive a 5,000 lb chunk of American iron and I get 25 mpg on the highway at 75 mph. If I do 60 mph, I still get about 25 mpg. A 500 mile trip at 60 mph will take a little more than 8 hours. At 75 mph it will take about 6.5 hours. What's an hour and a half worth?

"Gold Winger - and of course when your one district was formed it had only one district chair and one district commissioner. They were given the job of handling six times what was normal. How many of the professional staff was working the new district?" The new giant district will have a professional staff of four. A DD and three DEs with different areas of responsibility: membership, finanace, program. I don't know if there are official guidelines . . . okay, they probably exist in some secret handbook . . . but when they split my district, it was said that a district should have about 50 units, no more than 60 for a DE to be able to serve it effectively. That seemed to work well. Maybe the problem isn't money raising but the ability to recruit new professionals.

"What would happen if we produced our own oil and learned to take care of ourselves rather than being dependent on countries that really don't like us all that much, except of course for our money and our Army to protect them when they get in trouble." If we suddenly found a few trillion barrels of oil in Texas, the price wouldn't drop. Exxon and SO would just sell it to the Chineese at $130 a barrel and dance with glee over the pofits. Countries that have cheap gas have state owned oil companies.

I believe that the PLC has to sign off on the idea. The other option is to tell the ASM to chill and be thankful the kid wants to wear the uniform. For the record, I wear a beret sometimes and a garrison cap at others.

Apache, I could see going from six to four or six back to three. That might be understandable. However, going from six to one district with 300 units makes little sense to anyone involved at the district level. As with most things that come from coucil, this was played very close to the vest until the decision was made and then it was sprung. No one has any solid ideas about how everything is supposed to work.

"Velcro is used by the military with field uniforms to attached badges that often change." I've beem told by a few Army officers that the velcro patches are not very popular with the troops. One colonel of the field artillery told me that the ACU is the worst uniform that he's ever worn. What is so difficult about sewing on a rank patch? Other than laziness, there's no reason not to.

Parents too often use the kids as tokens in their games. I know of too many situations where it would be easy to say, "He has Scouts so you can have him another night." A little sacrifice for mom but it might make dad happy because he's not missing "his night." Then again, maybe dad is just being a butt head (can I say butt head) because he wants to irritate mom. Fortunately, I don't have those games to play.

You're absolutely right. All it takes is the right person. It probably impressed someone that a Scout was writing and not an adult. So he showed it to his boss and said, "Hey! What can we do for these guys?" That guy said,"Let's just send them some tents." It usually doesn't cost them much to be nice. After all, what could the actual cost of a tent be? AND they get free advertising. I'm sure that the Kelty story has been told and retold a thousand times. Years ago, I was the door prize scrunger for my shooting club. I contacted one gun maker asking for a couple t-shirts or a cap. They sent a rifle.

Wow! The last two times I got certified, we had about 10 or 12 in the class with one instructor.

It's kinda funny. At one time, a heavy woolen shirt was the ideal outdoors clothing. Then durable cotton or heavy wool. Nylon has been around for about 70 years and now it is suddenly in vogue for outdoors wear. I don't see why because it isn't durable and it's only positive attribute is that it dries quickly. Oh well, in ten years it will be something else or maybe people will rediscover wool.