infoscouter

Bill Gates was awarded the Silver Buffalo. Not all Silver Buffalo recipients are recognized for their service to Scouting. This is a summary of the criteria: "Created in 1925, the Silver Buffalo Award for distinguished service to youth is awarded to those persons who give noteworthy and extraordinary service to youth. This award is Scouting's highest commendation of the invaluable contributions that outstanding Americans make to youth. The service must be national in scope and can be independent of, or directly through, the Boy Scouts of America." Some of recent recipients include Tommy

At one time, the BSA had a position named "Roundtable Commissioner". I believe this individual oversaw the Cub Scout and Boy Scout Roundtable Commissioners. See: http://www.sageventure.com/history/commissioner/ (scroll down part of the page covering the 1970's.

We try to generate a _SURPLUS_ (not a profit) on our training courses and other district events. These funds go to cover the back office operations necessary to make the event successful, including the Webmaster who posts the event and the electronic sign up form; the field assistant who runs regular reports from the online and manual sign ups and provides the event director with those reports so they can see how many are coming; the copy staff who reproduce the paper versions of the packets (and the paper and toner for same); the finance people who process the checks and credit card payments

If you still want a red one, and can't find one from National Supply, Bemidji Woolen Mills offers a red wood jac-shirt. It is the older style, thicker fabric. It isn't cheap!! Regular sizes are $162 and extended sizes $172. http://www.bemidjiwoolenmills.com/details/voyscout

I'm trying to figure out why a Webelos Scouts needs a "survival kit" to visit a Klondike Derby for a few hours. He's going to observe the Boy Scouts in action, eat lunch someplace, and be within walking distance of a car. I agree with the extra socks and mittens, a water bottle (we have trouble convincing them they need to stay hydrated in the winter), a personal first aid kit. That's about it. Unless you anticipate that he's going to wander away from the den and his buddy for the day, and not be recovered through the event planners' "Lost Boy" procedures within a small amount of t

For years people complained about the cost of Scout uniforms, which _were_ made in the U.S. Now they complain because they're NOT made in the U.S. I understand that the BSA has tried to find on shore vendors, but has been unable to get U.S. manufacturers (the few that are left) to respond to the bid invitations, due to the quantities involved. So, they go where the manufacturers are. Off-shore.

If you "celebrate" your husband's birthday by making reservations for the District Dinner, you might be a Scouting addict. (It is always scheduled on the first Friday in March. His b-day is the 7th, so its either on or adjacent to the dinner. What's a girl to do? One year I made sure he got the Scouter Spouse award out of the deal.)

Skeptic - My understanding is that much of what is done here by paid staff is done by Commissioners in Scouts UK. Of course, some of what is done here isn't even bothered with in other countries - my impression is that we are much more paperwork intensive. The paid staff of Scouts UK is relatively small compared to our National Council staff.

Putting on my librarian hat here. We get a lot of questions about e-books and readers. One of the limitations of the Kindle is that you're pretty much locked into what Amazon can supply for you. While it reads PDF formatted materials, unless they are enhanced with a table of contents and links, you end up doing a lot of scrolling. I'm not sure Amazon would see much of a market in any Scouting books for the Kindle - their focus is on materials with a large audience (and profit potential). There is an e-version of the Scout handbook, but its an app for the iPod/iPad. Some of the other

The schools around here (many of them 1960's-early 70's vintage buildings) have all had their parking lots redesigned to separate the parent pick-up/drop-off area from the bus loading area. There was too much trouble with parents parking in the bus area. At about the same time the school district raised the bus riding radius from one mile to two miles for financial reasons. If you lived in the two mile radius, but outside the one mile radius, you could pay $200 for bus transportation. I have to admit that I have sat in the car with my son waiting for the bus in the winter. Special educati

One thing I've always wished our Relationships committee did was make presentations to the local clergy associations about Scouting and the relationship between units and the Chareted Organization, religious emblems, service projects, etc. If your area is like ours, there may be a Council of Churches, and a variety of other clergy associations which have regular meetings. The opportunity to give a presentation, or just put up an info board about Scouting and answer questions would be a great thing for the committee to do. Anything to increase the understanding of Scouting by the various church

O.K. - this is totaly hijacking the thread, but now I'm intrigued. The verse we sing for five is "Five golden rings". What other difference are there? A Partridge in a pear tree Two Turtle Doves Three French Hens Four Calling Birds Five Golden Rings Six Geese A-Laying Seven Swans A-Swimming Eight Maids A-Milking Nine Ladies Dancing Ten Lords A-Leaping Eleven Pipers Piping Twelve Drummers Drumming

The district Membership committee is supposed to be made up of several members, one of whom is the Webelos Transition Chair. The crux of an effective Webelos to Scout transition in the district is for a highly committed individual to be place in this position. http://scouting.org/filestore/commissioner/pdf/33080.pdf See page 10

The National Council is almost exclusively using Facebook to disseminate information about the Summit. The page on the National web site has not been updated for several months. If you want the latest (pictures, etc.) Facebook is the way to go for now.

Our two long term Boy Scout camps both have a "family camp" area. (I'm in the same council as clemlaw). They have historically been available so the spouse (aka wife) of the Scoutmaster and the younger siblings in the family could camp while the troop is at summer camp. They were intended as a way for the whole family to go on "vacation" at the same time. Some of the program features of the camp are available to the family camp staff. Horseback riding, for instance is available during times when the horses are not in use by the Boy Scouts. There is a craft area, with programming for the siblin

According to this web site: http://www.gilwell.com/firstCSP/ "FirstCSP CSPs came into being on April 17,1970 with a memo from Alfred P. Reber, director of BSA's National Supply division, to all Scout Executives. The memo established council shoulder insignia as "official" identification on all Scouting uniforms. Attached was a sheet of cardstock with three national samples stapled to it, illustrating the 3 new shapes (in addition to the existing red and white Council Strip which was also authorized as the fourth shape). The memo included a form for notifying National Supply of the stock

It was not responding this morning when I opened my browser (It is set as one of the tabs on my home page). I have had intermittent problems with errors and access for the last two weeks. It usually responds at some point.

This issue is addressed in the Health & Safety training course and in the Guide to Safe Scouting. On the MyScouting site, there is a link to the National Safetly Council's Defensive Driving Course, which BSA is apparently endorsing for use by unit leaders to help increase the safety of unit travel. "Falling asleep while driving results in 1,550 deaths, 71,000 injuries and more than 100,000 accidents each year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/08/AR2010110806479.html

An enthusiast who combines Scouting and model trains can add a Scouting dimension to their layout this year: http://www.lionel.com/Products/Finder/SearchResults.cfm?doAction=search&Keywords=%22boy+scout%22&CategoryID=&Gauge=&RailLineID=&CatalogID=&CollectionID=&searchWithin=Current

Our council offers three a year, sometimes its Spring, Summer, and Fall. Sometimes Fall, Winter and Spring. A Winter course in Minnesota - goofy people running around singing in shorts and knee socks in February! :-)

We encourage units to ring bells for the Salvation Army - as representatives of their Chartered Organization. Our SA kettles have a sign at the top which specifies which organization is ringing the bells that session. So instead of Pack/Troop/Crew XXX ringing bells - its signed as X School PTO or Y church, or Lions Club, etc., etc.

I've been volunteering at Cub camps and activities for almost 20 years. I endorse the idea of having your son attend with his mom or a grandparent. My boys were great going with their den leaders, but I enjoyed it more when I went to council camps where I was able to be with them. I get a great kick out of seeing the look on the face of a Scout at the archery range, when you work with him to increase his accuracy and he hits the target (after four missed shots). I don't mind the cold at our winter activity day when I see them flying down the sledding hill or playing snow golf. O

As T185 has said, the standards are part of the BSA National Camping Standards for Resident Camps. It is Standard M-85 (M means Mandatory) "Each camper is provided with a minimum of 30 square feet of sheltered space for sleeping and storing personal gear. This does not apply to outpost or off-camp camping or unit-supplied tentage. All camp-provided and unit-provided tentage used in the camp meets or exceeds fire-retardant specifications by the manufacturer (CPAI-84) and no flames in tent is marked on, or adjacent to, each tent. All campers have clean quarters reasonably safe

We just went through this last winter. We made a point of sending youth leaders to NYLT, something we hadn't had a chance to do before. They also attended our council's sort of "intermediate step" training - sort of a University of Scouting for SPLs, PLs, PLC members - held outdoors. We started identifying committee members and potential ASMs among the Webelos parents. We formalized some processes which previously had been less rigourous (like signing up for events). We already had been holding new parent orientations, but we created a parent handbook to document some things we

>>The COR and CC were invited but don't want to be involved.