Hal_Crawford

Theatre, Emergency Prep and Railroading.

I'm sure that Campmor is great but I would recommend buying packs at a local store where they can fit it and show you the correct way to wear it. You pay a bit more but I believe that the help and advice from a knowledgeable salesperson is a worthwhile investment

We have a locally owned outfitter (Casual Adventure, Arlington, VA) that offers a 10% discount to scouts and scouters. Their manager even came to one of our meetings to help scouts going on a high adventure trek to properly pack and adjust their packs (no matter where the packs came from). Personally I want to support businesses that support us in that way. It is nice to have a clerk tell you that "this is what I used at Philmont".

I know some who will go to a local store to try on gear and then go home and order it on-line. Thrifty yes but not a very nice thing to do to the local businessman.

On bungee cord, I avoid those things completely. Too easy for them to snap back and cause an eye injury. I have a dinged pair of glasses to prove it.

YIS

Hal

Does anyone have a link for the on-line Den Chief training mentioned in the above posts? I would love to make this resource available to our scouts but I cannot find it on-line.

Thanks,

Hal

They have tomahawk and axe throwing at Lenhok'sin High Adventure as part of the Mountain Man and Lumberjack outposts. Tomahawk throwing will be an activity at our district Mountain Man camporee next weekend.

I did as a scout and it was a blast but that was 1965. Stayed in barracks, ate at the galley, got to sit in the cockpits of A-4s, F-4s and A-6s... the planes that were going to win that war in Vietnam. There wasn't a boy in our troop that didn't want to be a navy aviator after that. At least one actually did. (Not me).

Would love to see what others have to say as the boys in my troop would probably love it as much as I did.

Oh now I get it! One hour per week per scout.

Goshen is even better now. Climbing tower, COPE course. It is truly a gem. For those who don't know it is the NCAC council camp located near Lexington, VA. There are actually 5 resident camps around Lake Meeriweather: Bowman, Olmstead and Marriott are for boy scouts and Ross and PMI are for Cubs. In addition there is Camp Baird, the Lenhok'sin High Adventure base camp.

LHA is a 5 day trek in and around the reservation. There are various "outposts" with themes like "mountain man", climbing and "civil war". It has been described as a "mini-Philmont" but I cannot attest to the veracity of that description as I have not yet been to Philmont. In these economic times when scouts' families might not be able to afford the trip west it is a viable alternative. I understand that they will be offering longer treks next year.

Speaking of which Arness was Peter Graves (Good evening Mr Brigs) from Mission Impossible's older brother.

WAS? IS! Thankfully, James and Peter are still among the living. So few of that generation of TV stars are.

Like Packhound, I have been lurking for a while, I've weighed in a couple of times but I haven't introduced myself. I am an ASM for a troop in Arlington, VA, just across the river from our nation's capital. Arlington is the smallest county in the US and is home to the Pentagon and Arlington National Cemetery and 208,000 citizens.

I grew up for the most part in Arlington as an Army brat. Went through Cubs and made it to 2nd class before we moved overseas. I missed scouts but sort of got over it as I was a teenager living on a beach in Rio. After college I bounced around from place to place, Atlanta, Long Island, Nebraska and back here to Arlington. I am a Virginia Cavalier and a Georgia Bulldog.

My son went through scouts here in Arlington and I went along for the ride, MC and then CM for the same pack that I had been in and Boy Scout CC and now ASM. Not my old troop as it went the way of the Dodo sometime in the seventies, too many troops not enough boys. Son earned Eagle and is grown and on his own. I'm still having fun in scouting.

Our troop was founded in 1945 and though it was once so large it split in two it now has about 18 boys in two patrols. Our scouts are pretty active. We have a couple with special needs and some real super-scouts. We camp or have some sort of outing (nearly) every month and a week at Goshen Scout Reservation every summer. This year we took a crew of 6 on a trek at Lenhok'sin High Adventure and it was really a hit. We have so much interest that we may field two crews next year. Our Eagle honor roll is closing in on one hundred and we are only on our forth SM. He's starting to talk about stepping down so I might become #5. They say it's only one night a week and one weekend a month but I think it might actually be more. Ya think?

In the last few weeks looking at this forum I have found a lot of good thoughts about program and advancement. Our district RTs work in very much the same way with discussions of best practices around a given topic. I don't get to go often enough as they are on the same night as our unit meets so this forum is particularly useful to me.

It's nice to meet you and I hope I can make some helpful contributions in the future.

YIS,

Hal

Turnaround in in our council (National Capital Area) is usually 2 weeks. If I recall the kit comes to the Scout Service Center which then sends a postcard to the SM telling him that it is ready for pickup. Postcards sometimes get lost so it wouldn't hurt for the SM to call the SSC; the kit might be sitting there. Congrats to you and your Eagle.

Beavah:

We'll just have to disagree. With this I believe there is a good chance that things will start to get better in a matter of months; without it it could be a long hard recession. It passed the Senate tonight 74-25. I'm guessing Kennedy is probably the missing vote since it would have been big news if he had come in for it.

Here's a dilemma for you: Both presidential candidates just voted for the rescue. Unless you want to vote for one of the Senators who voted for this bill you are left with Nader, Barr or just staying home.

ScoutMomSD:

I couldn't have said it better that their is no time for moralizing. The solution is being debated in Congress as we speak. It's not perfect and no one is happy that we are at this point but we are and this isn't just a bailout for the bankers or the Congressmen; it's a bailout (the preferred term is "Rescue", whatever) for all of us. It doesn't matter as much who put a hole in the boat as it does that the boat is sinking and we are ALL in it.

The bill before the Senate today is much better than the one originally proposed by Sec. Paulson and with an increase in the FDIC limits to $250k it is better than the one voted down on Monday. It is not a blank check and there is a real possibility we will get some if not all of it back. It is supported not only by the President but by both Obama and McCain. They haven't agreed on much lately but they do on this. Come January 20 one of them will inherit whatever comes out of this week so that both support this says a lot to me. A 778 point drop in the Dow sure said a lot as well. The fact that there is no credit available for businesses, farms and individuals says a lot to me.

Don't get me wrong, I hate that we are in this mess. There is a ton of blame to go around including bankers, "congressional bozos" of both parties and the last 5 presidents. That knowledge really doesn't help with what has to happen this week but will be fodder for the discussions about banking reform that I hope will follow.

I live in the DC area and this evening I spoke to someone well connected to what is happening on the hill. Phones are ringing and it isn't the same message that Representatives were getting before Monday's vote. Congressmen are listening. A Rescue Bill will pass House this week. Senate was already on board so things should move pretty quickly. I doubt that we will be out of the woods but we should be in a lot better shape.

In Portuguese and Spanish: Estados (States) Unidos (United) da America (of America). It is similar in French. GW picked up on the irony about Canadians and Mexicans. When Brazilians are talking about them they call them Canadians (I forget the Portuguese word, Canadianos?) and Mexicanos. They might refer to the three countries together as North Americans but they usually just mean us. To be fair, most Norte Americanos think that 187 million Brasileiros speak Spanish. To give an example of the difference, if you order a glass of beer in Spanish it is almost right in Portuguese except that the Spanish word for "glass" (vaso) means "chamber pot'.

I don't know what Mexicans call us... at least not the polite word.

As someone who lived in Brazil I can tell you that from their perspective, "American" (Americano) describes anyone who lives in the Western Hemisphere, including Brasileiros. They usually refer to those of us from the "EUA" (Estados Unidos da America also abbreviated EEUU) as "Norte Americanos" (North Americans).

As to why the flag was added to the uniform. I don't know what actually prompted the BSA decision but I do remember that in the early seventies there was a push back against the protest movement and suddenly flags started showing up on police and fire uniforms. Some (including my father, a retired Army officer and veteran of two wars) argued that it violated the Flag Code as much a hippie sewing the flag to the seat of his jeans. The Code was subsequently amended to allow for the use on uniforms. The BSA seems to have jumped on the band wagon at that time.