Horizon

Beavah - maybe you should Google up Carol Lamb's research on superheroes. You might find that her work fits into what we strive for in Scouting: "In a symposium entitled Boyhood Making and Resisting Masculinity, speakers made the argument that current superheroes are sarcastic and hyper-aggressive without extolling the virtues of doing good for humanity. Dr. Carol Lamb, PhD, said the comic book superheroes of yesteryear were those readers could admire, while the current crop is simply caustic. Her research lead her to conclude that the media and marketers have funneled boyhood into two

jet526: I would say you are punishing him by withholding advancement recognition. If you are not letting a Scout wear his rank or merit badge patch for 3 months because he missed a meeting then in my opinion you are punishing him. In some cases the Scout might not ever wear that particular rank patch depending on timing (he earns First Class immediately after the last COH, misses the next COH, earns Star and then is presented that rank patch.)

My Advancement Chair keeps a box of awards in envelops with the Scout's name on it if they miss a COH. They get the envelope at the next meeting that they attend. They miss the nice presentation, but holding back rank advancement is just asking for a Scout to quit Scouting. Do I hold a special COH for the Scout who misses? Nope. Do I punish the Scout for missing? Nope. If a Scout is busy in other activities, then they are busy in other activities. I will take however much time a Scout is willing to provide. The ONLY time I worry about commitment by the Scout is if they are in a

Asking for a CD/DVD or USB drive submission is sooooo 5 years ago! IMHO the Council should own one high quality sheet fed scanner that sits in the front. A Scout brings his completed application, and makes a digital copy at the Council office and it is put into an electronic file. This copy would then have all signatures, scans of the photos, etc. The Scout can have an electronic copy if he brings a USB with him, and the Council gets the original "wet" signatures plus the electronic copy.

Our way: Merit Badges: A Scout is presented his patch ASAP (typically 1-2 weeks after he submits his blue card to the Advancement Chair). Rank: Recognition upon passing his BOR (we have BORs at almost every Troop meeting). Patch presented ASAP after BOR (typically 1-2 weeks as well). Court of Honor, non-Eagle: SPL calls up the Patrol Leader. Patrol Leader calls up his Patrol. Patrol Yell is delivered to the Troop. Patrol Leader recongizes earning of MBs by members of the Patrol, gives them the baseball cards. Patrol sits down. Patrol Leader invites parents of Scout

Drudge Report has picked it up, and linked to the YouTube Video. I am dismayed, even worse I am not surprised.

My son just got back, haven't heard complaints yet. Then again, he attended as a 15 year old Eagle and was just an Asst. Patrol Leader and an NYLT grad. His Patrol Leader was also Eagle, and an NYLT grad. They also had some younguns with them too. His Troop had REQUIRED shakedown campout, REQUIRED shakedown activities, and monthly REQUIRED meetings. They put enough heat on everyone that I think that they did just fine. With Council level contingent Troops, I think it is critical to have those contingent events to make it all work.

1. Ideals: Are boys learning and embracing the morals of Scouting? Is there a good Scoutmaster's minute? If you ask a boy about doing the right thing, does he get it? 2. Patrols: Real or provisional? Is there patrol pride and patrol flags? I consider the Patrol to be the heart, which is why I do NOT like new scout patrols. The patrols in my Troop are mixed age, with lots of interaction between the boys. There is also Patrol based competition going on regularly. If you ask a boy about his Patrol, does he shrug or does he brag? 3. Outdoors: Everyone gets this - do you get ou

It worked great, my only problem was that the photo feed is blocked where I work, so I could see the pages but could not watch the photos until I got home. One thought for the future - put in some webcams across the site. I would love to be able to log onto a webcamp at my son's subcamp just for fun to watch the activity. Not sure what infrastructure that would require, but I would start putting it in for the new location.

Nice Gern! Can you imagine Obama at Oshkosh? "Welcome to the air show. There is a no fly zone jfor 100 miles around the airshow so that the President can make a speech. The no fly zone will continue all day until Air Force one leaves the area."

My son attends a very conservative Catholic high school. In their student handbook they address pregnancy. This very conservative Catholic school allows both the mother and the father to continue attending, fully engaged in the school - because they value education. They do not throw them out, they keep them in school. I see this in a similar way - if a Girl Scout is pregnant, perhaps one of the things she needs most is the influence of a good Girl Scout Troop. There are moral teachings that she can pick up, skills she might need sooner than her sisters in the Troop, and lessons that

Why is there not a single real article on CNN.com or MSNBC.com about the Jamboree? It seems like our marketing team in Irving has not done a good job of getting the word out to the National Press. Yes, I see the press links on the Jambo website - but I am still waiting for some good press coverage. I work in Marketing. If I do a new product release and it is not hitting the major news sources for my industry, I get to find a new job. Perhaps the President would have been more involved if there would have been more information out in the public about this event.

Sounds like a great speech. I will have to look for it online to see if I can stream it from home tonight. When I talked to me son, his main comment was the heat at the arena! Enjoy the Jambo.

The only think I remember from the arena show is the Oak Ridge Boys singing "Elvira." Other than that, it was a bunch of random people talking on a stage in front of tens of thousands of us. I would warrant a guess that the boys who won't vote for Obama in 2 years ALREADY were not going to vote for him, and the ones who will vote for Obama ALREADY are going to vote for him. After hearing about the debacle when Bush came due to security reasons, I am glad that my son does not have to deal with security at Jamboree. Final note - I think there is a 1 in 100 chance that Obama IS co

Reagan didn't show up for me in 1981, I won't worry about Obama not showing up for my son in 2010.

I will text my son to stop by. He is with a Dirt Scout Troop, but has some of his Sea Scout patches to trade from his trip to the UK last year for the centennary of Sea Scouting.

I was asked to lead the service at summer camp one year. I treated it more like a one-hour Scoutmaster's minute, and I did not treat it as worship. I opened with a reading from the Good Book..pause... The Boy Scout Handbook (good for a laugh). I then read what the Handbook had to say about Reverent. From there I talked about the conflict I had with Reverent and my own faith - my desire to bring everyone to Christ, while also showing respect for the faith of others. I read off the listing of Religious awards recognized by the BSA. I then went into the history of religious wars

We encourage First Aid upon joining, and Swimming soon after that. With those two, the Trail to First Class is much smoother, and the boys can concentrate on the outdoors part. If I had the time, I would add Cooking to the initial three, since it also syncs well with the Trail to First Class. As SM, I will sign any blue card if the Scout comes to me. If the Scout is very young, I will counsel them on the badge and its importance - but still let them take it. We DO have one counselor for Personal Fitness who PREFERS not to teach that to boys before the 7th grade. He likes to run t

I will admit I don't use the shirt pockets after having it hammered into me in the military that uniform pockets are not to be used for ANYTHING other than 1 (one) Mk1 ballpoint pent, black and your current orders if traveling. So my shirt pockets stay empty except for a pen. Plus, a full shirt pocket does not work well once again with a backpack. I have long carried a "go-bag" when camping, and we encourage that for the Troop. When a Scout joins, they are told to take an old school knapsack and use it for their handbook, MB books, to always have their outdoor essentials, plus 10 f

Here is another question - what use are the shirt pockets themselves, aside from a pen? I don't carry anything in my pockets, nor do my Scouts. Other than a way to help place patches (esp OA lodge flaps), do the pockets serve a purpose? I wear custom dress shirts to work, and I no longer have pockets put on my dress shirts.

I am another one who likes the switchbacks, but I don't miss zippered cuffs. Too hard to get them tailored for length. I now wear them exclusively as my camping and full uniform pants in all activities. The uniform shirt is OK. I would LOVE to see a competition among clothiers to design the next generation, with voting online by Scouts. We tell them it needs a place for rank, OA, etc. - but maybe we give them some flexibility. We tell them the MSRP must be below $30 - I think they could even be cheaper based on what I see online. Then we put out the bid to REI, Lands End, Cabellas,

It could be argued that I push, pull, cajole, and talk about goals with all of my Scouts. Downtime is oft filled with, "Let me see your Handbook - how are you doing?" This triggers a short SMC with the Scout on ideas for meeting the next round of requirements. When my Life Scouts are around, I ask them about their project and they talk about it with me, "I am thinking about two benefactors" or "I need to schedule some work days." Sometimes they have a barrier and we discuss how to manage getting past it. Sometimes they admit that they have done nothing in awhile. Our Troop Eagle Adv

Celebrity Spokesmen could be very helpful for Scouting. The NRA has used Charlton Heston and now Tom Selleck to help sell their brand, and we could benefit from the same. The second issue to pursue is get Scouts into the public eye. We had the local paper at our Memorial day activities, and it made for a nice photo story. My next thought is to get one of the reporters signed up as an adult volunteer with our Venture Crew and start taking them on our backpacking trips in the local area. For a really good marketing program, the Sea Scouts did a "What did you do this weekend" video c

Full Field (aka Class A to the old Army guys) to all Troop Meetings. Most of my Scouts only own one shirt. 75% have the pants - they are rewarded for that. Those that don't have the pants are not humiliated in any way. We simply recognize those that go all the way on this particular method. Activity (Troop T Shirt or Polo Shirt) for quartermaster days or other activities involving grease, etc. We do a cookout for the CO, and splattering grease is not the best thing for a formal shirt. Full Field for going to and from campouts. Activity shirt on campouts. We don't have a su

Am I the only who noticed that the Cradle of Liberty Council tried to go against National policies regarding hiring policies, and only backed off when National said that they would take away their charter? One could look at this a couple of ways. Either their belief in the 3Gs can be bought for $200k per year, or they want to walk regardless (or more likely somewhere in-between).