Hal_Crawford

Movies "get things wrong" for a number of reasons. Sometimes it is to avoid legal issues or the need to get permission. You rarely if ever see BSA uniforms unless severely altered because BSA holds the rights to those uniforms and guards them carefully. I doubt that they would give permission unless they had such things a script approval. Hollywood producers are loath to agree to such terms as it can slow down production and that costs lots of money. For a while you rarely saw the LAPD depicted in the movies or on TV because they had gotten savvy and wouldn't lend their name unless they had some level of artistic control. They sometime get it wrong for dramatic reasons. Sometimes the actual events are altered or compressed to improve the story telling. Saving Private Ryan is regarded by many WW2 vets as the most accurate movie portrayal of the D-Day landings. Still, while it may capture the feel of the battle some of the facts have been changed. Dog green beach and the D1 draw were not taken by rangers from the frontbut rather it was taken from the rear by troops who had broken through in a more lightly defended sector further east. Was it better story telling to have Captain Miller's rangers be the heros? Absolutely. Sometimes they get it wrong because it is too difficult or expensive to use actual locations or to be historically accurate. That's why you might see a Pacific Bell phone booth at Dulles International airport (Die Hard 2). Many films use Vancouver or Toronto as stand-ins for US cities because its cheaper to film there. Hair styles are often wrong because it is too expensive to compensate actors to cut their hair. In the TV series MASH you rarely ever saw actors with military haircuts because it was unreasonable to ask an actor (especially a day player) to do that. To get a military buzz might lose them other work in contemporary projects. For those who know DC how 'bout the movie No Way Out where Keven Costner runs into the Georgetown Metro station (there isn't one) and when the train arrives its the Baltimor Metro. Finally, Hollywood often gets it wrong because they do not know any better. Designers often miss details because of a lack or knowledge or research. I am a set designer and I can't count the number of things I have gotten wrong just because I didn't know better or followed research that turned out to be wrong. I once designed a back drop for an opera (Maria Stuarda) that was supposed to look like a tapestry with coat of arms of Queen Elizabeth I. The painter did a great job but it turned out that the drawing I used as research had her motto misspelled ("Dieu est mon doit" instead of "Dieu et mon doit"). It was onstage for about 10 minutes of rehearsal before someone told me how dumb I was. I think every scenic or costume designer has at least one similar story. Sometimes I am irked by dumb stuff that everyone should know like flag placement or 50 star flags in WW2 movies. Documentaries screw up too. On a History Channel show about Peter the Great I watched last night, they had a close up of a circa 1700 soldier placing a percussion cap on his musket. But if I might be allowed to take one dig at re-enactors... is it true that the Civil War was fought primarily by men in their forties, fifties and sixties? Hal

OGE: So much for that theory. Still, I think a friendly cup of coffee is still in order. He's ticked off about the flag, your ticked off about his e-mail. You guys should talk and get past it. For whatever reason the flag was incorrectly placed, maybe it was there when folks came into the room and no one noticed, maybe someone had a moment of cranial flatulence and put it in the wrong place. It happens. Your moving the flag during the meeting bothered him for some reason. Maybe it embarrassed him because it was his screw up, maybe it was just a moment when it disturbed his thought process and it wouldn't have been a problem at any other time. Maybe he was in a bad mood about something unrelated and this just pushed his button. That happens too. Sounds like you are both making more of this than it deserves and if you both let it fester it will remain a problem not just for you but the committee as a whole. Maybe there is an underlying issue you are not aware of. In spite of asking you to be on the committee and the clear understanding of your work conflict, your late arrivals may still be an issue. It's unreasonable I know, but people are like that sometimes. Ask him if it is a problem. At any rate, I doubt that it will get any better through e-mail discussion. Sit down and talk with him. Good luck to both of you.

OGE: I too am bothered when I see the flag incorrectly displayed. That said I am not surprised that the committee chair was offended by your changing it in the middle of the meeting. He probably saw it as a distraction from the business at hand. I wonder if there is more to it than that. Could it also be that he is also bothered that there is a member of his committee that routinely arrives 60-45 minutes late for meetings? I understand you have a work commitment but I wonder what is the point of coming at all if you are going to be that late every time? To be honest, if I were the chair I think your late arrival to every meeting would bug the heck out of me. Perhaps it is time for a friendly cup of coffee with the chair. Start with an apology for moving the flag. You didn't think it was disruptive but he did so say you're sorry. I think the big issue you need to discuss is your role in these meetings. I do not know in what capacity you attend but is it essential that you be there? If your presence is crucial then perhaps they should change the meeting night/time so that you can fully participate. If your role is not that essential then perhaps you and the chair should agree on some other way in which you can best serve the district committee.

Scat bandanna.... is it scratch and sniff?

In our council the ESLP project is not reviewed by the whole committee but by a member of the committee (each unit assigned specific reps) so it is more streamlined. My son's birthday is in early January. Going into the third weekend in October he was short 5 merit badges (all in progress) and had done nothing more than think about a project. I had about given up on his chances of finishing Eagle. We had a camporee at an airfield specializing in antique aircraft and he became inspired. He asked their scout coordinator if there was anything he could do as a project that would help them out. The gentleman suggested a couple of things and they agreed on developing an area as a campsite. Son spent the next three weeks writing the proposal, planning the project and getting all the approvals. He and some of the scouts did some preliminary work on Thanksgiving weekend and the big day was the first Saturday in December. The next couple of weeks consisted of doing the final write up and finishing those badges. Requirements were complete before Christmas and the BOR was held between Christmas and New Year over a week before his birthday. From project idea to completed requirements including finishing the five merit badges, about 8 weeks. If it were just the project it would have been about six weeks. He was lucky, all the stars aligned and there were no unexpected delays or issues. Everyone was helpful and available when he needed them. Merit badge counselors were tough but available. The weather was great on the work day. So many things that could have gone wrong but didn't. I doubt it set any records but it was pretty amazing to watch.

If the question is whether to give to scouting through United Way or directly to FOS consider that United Way has to use a portion of your donation to fund their operation. I say this without any criticism of the organization; it costs money to collect and process your contribution. A portion of your donation to FOS also supports fundraising. It would seem that by giving directly to FOS you more of your money should be spent supporting the scouting program because you are cutting out the United Way costs from the equation. I would say this no matter what your charity of choice is. If you wish to support cancer research, give directly to American Cancer Society or a cancer hospital. You get the idea. Where United Way is great is for people who wish their donation to support a wide range of charities. It is great for those who do not wish to feel guilty that they have overlooked one deserving group in favor of another. When giving it is also a good idea to look at what percentage of donations goes to direct support and what percentage goes to fundraising and/or administrative costs. These numbers are published and they are sometimes surprising. According to the Better Business Bureau's Wise giving report BSA spends 90% on programs,

Our troop meets throughout the year except the week between Christmas and New Year, the Thursday of Spring Break, the week of summer camp and anytime a national holiday falls on a Thursday. We cancel if the schools have closed for snow and we sometimes cancel in summer if too few show up. It's a small troop though we are now growing. We do a week of summer camp and a week of high adventure. We schedule campouts in July and/or August but they sometimes get cancelled for lack of enough scouts. We did not manage to do any weekend camping last summer. This year we did not plan summer campouts at the annual planning campout in September. We are gathering family vacation schedules now and the PLC will schedule an August campout at their May meeting. They might do a July campout as well but I doubt it as the high adventure outing is in the middle of the month and most of the senior scouts will be doing that. A couple of other senior scouts are working as counselors at camp so leadership will be thin in July. Pet peeve: When my son was in Cubs our pack was not active in the summer except for Webelos camp. I guess that is fairly typical. At the time you had to be a 12 month unit to qualify for Quality Unit Award. The DE asked our CM why he didn't submit a QMA form at rechartering and he said we didn't qualify because we weren't active in the summer. The DE said that he should just say that we were on the form. The CM just said, "no, a scout is trustworthy. I will not lie on the form". It bothered him that the DE would encourage dishonesty. I later learned that DEs are evaluated on how many Qualities Units they have and it can directly impact their compensation. It bothers me that BSA puts their professional staff in that position. Though the standard for QUA has changed the quest for numbers still encourages dishonesty.

At summer camp we consider the latrine to be within the site and not requiring a buddy. That said, we had a first year camper get disoriented (may have been sleep walking) and wander into a neighboring site wearing only boxers. He had wandered 100+ yards through the woods without shoes! Though it was after midnight there were still some people up in the site so their SM loaned the lad a set of flip-flops and they led him back to our site. It would be hard to get terribly lost in our camp but I have heard lots of stories of scouts out west getting lost between the parking lot and their campsite. By this I mean lost enough to spend the night in the woods and/or requiring a full scale SAR response. I assume this is because western camps are larger and more backcountry rather than scouts in western states having a lousier sense of direction.

I do not have any direct contact with it but I believe that NCAC does this with Camp Snyder in Haymarket, VA. http://www.boyscouts-ncac.org/openrosters/ViewOrgPageLink.asp?LinkKey=24713&orgkey=1933 They site talks mainly about renting to scouts and families but the wording regarding COPE is vague and suggests that they may rent to others. Probably worth a call or e-mail to get further info. Hal

My understanding from the last time I took YPT from a live human as opposed to on line was that if we had reason to believe a child was being abused we were required to report it to the authorities (CPS) AND to the SE. In my mind the logic would be that even if the suspected abuse was occurring outside of scouting our contact with the youth is through scouting. In the case of the DUI I would contact both the COR and the SE. It just makes sense to have both in the loop. Both may be able to provide guidance or direction as to what to do next.

"The border between the US and Mexico should have been closed since last weekend! The fact that the poor infant who died in the Houston CAME from Mexico City and did so AFTER the WHO alert came out over the weekend scares the crap out of me". You were misinformed. The boy entered the US April 4 and was admitted to the hospital on April 8. That was what, three weeks ago? The genie was out of the bottle before any of us were talking about swine flu. How many tens (hundreds?) of thousands of people crossed the border during the last few weeks? Given the outbreaks in other parts of the world it is clear that closing one border will do nothing to stop the spread. Don't forget, its not just Mexicans spreading this virus There is an outbreak in NYC that traces to private school kids that spent spring break in Cancun. Should the government have turned them back at the border? Sorry kids, you can come home in November. The CDC and the WHO are both saying that the best use of resources is to fight the disease rather than to try to limit its spread. Its pretty clear why.

There is a good follow up article about this http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090430/ap_on_re_us/us_missing_hiker;_ylt=AqXfK_1plmAHi3lnnLCp2zNG2ocA In "Deep Survival" Laurence Gonzales writes about a group of four climber/hikers sliding down a mountain while roped together. The person who started the slide was described as the "most experienced" climber. He goes on to explain that sometimes most experienced means doing it wrong longer than others without having an accident (yet). The climbers encountered two other parties, cloths lining them and pulling them down the mountain. I think there were eleven total when they reached the crevasse. If I recall 8 of them died. I think the moral of the story, as it applies to this thread is that you not only have to use the buddy system but you have to choose your buddy wisely. BTW: I highly recommend Gonzales' book.

A few years ago I was working at a stage show put on by a teen company for an audience of children. Before the show the director came on stage to tell the kids about the show and how the teens in the company had developed it. About 30 seconds in her cell phone goes off. I remember thinking, "wow, that's embarrassing". Then she looked at the phone and said "Oh, this is important" and proceeded to take the call; onstage in front of a couple hundred kids. She spoke for a minute or two (that seems like an hour on stage) before hanging up and continuing her talk to the audience. With examples like that, what can we expect from our youth.

Amen Beavah. The kids by and large get it. Its the adults that are hard to re-educate. We do some of our back country camping in Shenandoah National Park which mandates LNT. Nobody seems to object when they understand that it is a condition of camping there.

NW: The buddy system does not always save lives. Two can sometimes be as stupid or just unlucky as one. I know you are not arguing against the buddy system but it seems a little like the argument I've heard about seat belts. Everyone who opposes seat belts (or seat belt laws) can tell you about someone that was either saved by being thrown clear or died in spite of wearing their seat belts (sometimes told as "trapped by their seat belts in the burning car"). These things do happen I am sure but on the whole seat belts save lives. My FIL was a ground crew chief on Saipan in WW2. He didn't like to wear a seat belt and told me about how they had to carry big knives to cut crew members out of the seat belts in B-29s that had crash landed. When he finished telling me this I asked, "what would have happened to those guys if they weren't belted in?" "Oh", he said sheepishly, "they would have been dead". On the whole, the buddy system saves lives as well.

Hey, did anyone else notice the ad at the top of the page for lawyers that will help you beat that DUI charge? Today's dose of irony is brought to you by Google ads.

Shortridge: I stand corrected. That is a great list. I'll see your 31 and raise you one. Our camp also offers Waterskiing though it doesn't offer Pottery (though they do offer Art). Did you have Mammals on your list? Our camp offers it and encourages it for the first year campers. I guess I never took the time to add them up. Cinematography, Golf?

Good point Pack. To quote a Scottish pub song that I like. "While you're lying there in traction You may take some satisfaction, Saying, Jesus at least I tried".

Moxieman: The future is here. I have a friend who is a network security consultant who gives trainings all over the world. His Powerpoint is his product so he carries two laptops and two projectors as a minimum. In addition, his cell phone can play a power point and has AV outputs so it can be connected to an LCD projector. He has a projector that can work off of battery power. Together he has what we have all been waiting for... the backpacking power point presentation.

A lot of adults are gear-heads and love to show off their newest gadget. Some years ago an adult brought a battery operated TV and after dinner he set it up by the fire so he could watch (I kid you not) an episode of Touched by an Angel. I recall that it was a "very special episode". I could not believe what I was seeing. This guy was retired special ops; didn't strike me as the Touched by an Angel kind of guy. The following week the PLC voted to ban TVs from outings. At least THEY got it right. Pack, do you allow GPS devices?

ASM411: I guess you haven't noticed that the new pants' pockets are sized to fit the Handbook. For balance you can put the Field Book in the other pocket. Together they will pull your pants down around your ankles causing you to fall on your face. Scouting is still an adventure. For a while if you bought your uniform on-line they would automatically add both books to your cart. Don't know if they are still doing that. I'm sure that every 11 year old boy wants to join an organization where they immediately give you not one but two thick books to read. Now with pictures from the 1920s! Oh, boy!

In our council (NCAC) a lot of the work is done each year by a volunteer group, the Goshen Bears. Their work is not to be scoffed at but it takes a lot more than a few volunteer weekends a year to keep a scout camp, much less a reservation, operational. In the past few years the camp has replaced all latrines, most if not all shower houses and most of the water craft. In the last ten years they added a climbing tower and a COPE course. They have installed an IT infrastructure so that staff and volunteers have access to wi-fi and the camp offices and trading posts are better connected. Trucks have worn out and been replaced, roofs have been replaced. They purchased It is a lot of money and I probably only see the tip of the iceberg.

According to the AP story on the scout being found (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090428/ap_on_re_us/us_missing_hiker;_ylt=AhyZ.SDOf9g8RWq2Kb5LbyxG2ocA)it says that he teaches hiking and backpacking in his troop. Wonder how may times he has taught the buddy system? How many times do we adults say to ourselves, oh that doesn't apply to me? Glad he survived, hope he learned a lesson, hope others learn from it as well.

Beavah, I have to go with you on this one. On-line merit badges would be more cost effective than greener (no car idling while waiting for the blue card to print) than a drive thru window. 30 minutes and 5 questions and voila, Wilderness Survival merit badge or maybe Lifesaving. Oh yeah! 30 merit badges earned at camp? I don't think there are 30 merit badges that should be earned in a camp setting. Wow! What this kid needs is a high adventure trek (with proper preparation). A week or two of backpacking, canoeing or sailing. No merit badges, none nada, zippo; just a lot of time in the great outdoors. Which part of scouting do you think he will remember when he is 50? A gazillian merit badges that passed in a blurr or a trek at Philmont, Northern Tier, Seabase or any one of the many council run high adventure programs? Hal

Scoutldr: I didn't mean that an Eagle would turn a blind eye to health violations. It is entirely possible however that an Eagle might be a tad more understanding of where a scout troop is coming from and take a little more time giving them the ins and outs of what they need to do to have a smooth inspection. We had a scout who had to submit his Eagle project for a building permit. At the time our permit department did not have a reputation for helpfulness (this has since changed). The code official who spoke to the scout was an Eagle and he took extra time to make sure that he knew exactly what was required to get the permit, what he would need to do to arrange inspection and what the inspector would be looking for. It took a lot of the guess work out of the process. Would the same code official have been as helpful if it was a homeowner building a deck instead of a Boy Scout erecting some flagpoles? Maybe, but I think the Eagle connection grease the skids. That's what I'm talking about. Hal