Gold Winger

So? Anytime that someone dies, it's war? Doesn't work that way.

" We have had several veteran complain about this is in correct, saying the union is displayed in the top right in time of war." Even if this was correct, we aren't at war. We're calling it a war but, like Korea and Vietnam, it isn't a war.

(heavy sigh) (This message has been edited by Gold Winger)

Thank you. Why do people always want to shortcut requirements? I know that Daddy wants Junior to make Eagle but should Junior be willing to do the work? I used to see that in sports. Well, not quite the same but similar. "My kid's big for his age, he should be allowed to play up an age group." No, you kid is fat and talentless. "The last league that my kid was in allowed curve balls so that's what he's used to. You're not being fair." So you're saying that you kid is too stupid to adapt? If Daddy presses the issue, point him to the Council Advancement Chair and say, "if he says it's okay, then we'll go with it."

Where does it say that two flags cannot be displayed?

I don't think that anything really is directly transferable. Camping is supposed to be done with troop activities. Possibly, there might be some merit badges that the counselors would say, "You got the Royal Ranger Home Building Badge so I'll sign off on the Home Improvement merit badge. We need to remember that most Scouting advancement is based on what the boy does in Scouting, not outside activities. The only time outside leadership counts is for Eagle Palms.

With over $9 million in revenue and a little bit of income over expenses, I wouldn't think that they have money problems. I'm sure money is tight because the SE needs more money, after all. Heck, I could live quite comfortably on half of what the SE makes. Looking at their tax returns, I see that most of the top staff have gotten hefty payraises in the past few years. The third highest paid guy went from $60k to $100k. Not a bad raise.

"Not a one of the area schools anymore will let a civic group (any civic group) in for free. You want to use the facilitiy, open the checkbook... for our footprint (250 Scouters across the 3 programs) each month, we estimate we'd be paying local boards $500 a month." Look at big companies that have conference rooms. One district I know of uses a company's training rooms for roundtable. Of course it helps that the Chairman is a supporter of Scouting.

"You must be in a really big, really urban county. We are two counties with a bit over 100 units on charter, " Suburban actually with nearly 1,000,000 people in the county. "Like BW said, Councils massage districts all the time." Oh, I know that, this just seems a bit drastic. If six DEs have trouble keeping up with 300 units, what hope is there for four guys? I don't like it but no one asked me and as far as I can tell, none of the District Commishes or District Chairs were consulted but that is to be expected since the volunteers do the work and the paid staff are in charge.

Well Bob, the last handbook said that the uniform was for field use. It is the same uniform as is worn today. Does that mean that the older uniform was better than the ones made today? Does it mean that BSA realized that the currnet uniform is a pile pretty felgecarb? Come on . . . we really want to know!

I know that our space is donated. Photocopyings is done by council. Don't need much else.

Of course that's your answer Bob because it comes from on high at BSA. Six districts into one? Not a big deal? One district with over 300 units? Not a big deal?

A few years back the council split my district. Actually, they split all three districts in my county making six districts and the next year they did the same to the next county over. Why'd they do this? Because the DEs had too much to do and they wanted to "provide better service to the units." Well, the six districts in my county continued to grow as did the six in the next county. Time for another split? Nope. We got the word this spring that the powers that be decided to merge the six districts in my county into just one district. Why "to provide better service to the units." The same thing is happening to the next county over. They are reducing the number of professionals for the county by two. Yep, four guys with distinct sets of responsibilities (membership, finance, etc) to serve well over 300 units. No details are settled yet but apparently there will be one BIG committee with smaller "area" sub-committees to cover activities in what used to be the six districts. So it doesn't look like we'll have one county-wide camporee or one roundtable. One thing that I don't get is if we split to provide better service to the units, how the heck is merging going to provide better service? Anyone else heard of such a thing?

I've had similar conversations with parents. Johnny is arrested and the dad says, "This shouldn't effect advancement because it wasn't at a Scouting activity."

"Now the logical question arises that if the Lone Scout is camping alone, why would he wear a Boy Scout uniform, who is going to see it?" Why wouldn't he wear his uniform? According to BSA, the uniform is the perfect clothing for outdoor activities. You're still avoiding the question, Bob.

I NEVER made that mistake. Maybe today that's the case but not back in 1903 when I was a boy. FWIW, my son's den elected to stay in blue shirts with a den number when they became Webelos. The DL tried and tried to change their minds but as one said, "We're in Cub Scouts not Boy Scouts."

Back to the Lone Scout, what if he camps by himself? Is that Scouting? Not according to you.

As usual, Bob avoid the issue by misdirection.

" You are a Den Leader - mothers clean up after messy boys" What kind of mother does that? My mother made me clean up or I didn't get fed.

Thank you Ed. I don't know if there should be a seperate knot for all 121 MBs but that is an accomplishment to be proud of. Ego? Sure but then isn't a merit badge sash the same thing? Letterman's jacket? Okay, let's move into the adult arena? How many Harley riders want eveyone in the world to know that they have an HD? HD jackets, boots, caps, t-shirts, wallets, underwear, and even tatoos. That's not ego? How about all of the simpletons that walk around taking credit for things that they had no involvement with? Did you see the way we kicked tails in last night's game? Excuse me, I did't see you on the court. That's ego with vicarious involvement. It's ego that prompts me to make sure that my clothes are clean before I leave the house. It's ego that's getting me out this afternoon to cut my grass. Ego is involved in much of what we do.

So when a Lone Scout goes camping, that's not a Scouting activity? What about when a patrol goes hiking? That's not a unit activity so by your definition that's not a Scouting activity.

" 'Temporary Patch, Council Special patch? Why dosn't BSA just standardize it and give us a definate answer?' Because BSA National didn't make it?" Not quite right on either count. Look at http://www.scoutstuff.org/BSASupply/ItemDetail.aspx?cat=01RTL&ctgy=PRODUCTS&c2=UNIFORMS&c3=SEMBLEMS&c4=&lv=3&item=08597 Says "not for uniform wear" That means not even as a temporary patch which means that USScouts.org isn't right either. The Tot'n Chip patch is just another symptom of "we need a patch/trophy/award for everything to make the boys feel good." Goes along with every player gets a trophy and other meaningless crud that we pass out today. That said, I used to wear mine. My district used to hand out a special Tot't Chip patch to adults in SMF after they passed the knife and ax part of the course. Adults who weren't in OA wore it to show that they had gone through the course. Mine is gone now.

"then the overt display of Cub related knots takes more away from the uniform than adds to it." I guess the Cub leaders who wear "Boy Scout" knots shouldn't do that either. Or I shouldn't wear my knot for District Committee service on my Boy Scout leader uniform. Sorry, as Eamonn said elsewhere, "that's poppycock." FWIW, I go with the centered look. One knot, two knots, three knots or four. To do otherwise is simply laziness, just like those who sew a patch on in the wrong place and say, "I'm not changing it."

"Absolutely untrue. Some emblem distributors are licensed by the BSA, and follow strict rules as to what can be produced and what cannot. "Troy is not one of those distributors. he has the same "rights" to make emblems for the uniform as any other unlicensed vendor...none!" You need to learn to read, Bob. I can produce any patch that I want as can you. What others do with it is irrelevant. My right to produce that patch which is not protected by law, is protected by law. Whether you may it on the uniform is a seperate issue.

"Here is another question for all of you. Why do the flags on Naval Ships have the stripes pointing to the front of the ship???" Not always the case as it was in the days of iron men, wooden ships and canvas sails. If a carrier is doing 30 knots, even a 15 knot wind from astern isn't going to blow the flag forward. On a sailing ship, if the ship in running with the wind, then the flag will stream towards the bow. If you're reaching, the flag will stream toward the leeward side. Arrrh!