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 Dortch, former president of 100 Black Men

http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/Awards/SilverBuffalo/TommyDortch.aspx

Jeff Gordon, the NASCAR driver

http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/Awards/SilverBuffalo/JeffGordon.aspx

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, prepare the final reports on the financial health of the event and importantly cut me my reimbusement checks ; the support from the DE of course; the contingency in case we miscalculated costs or attendance and probably some things I'm forgetting.

Should all of this come from FOS? Yes, it should. But the reality is not all of it does. So in order to employ all those people who make _my_ life easier, as a course or event director, the contingency is a fact of life.

The size of the contingency is going to vary from council to council depending on the financial health of the council, and how much of a burden these events become of the office staff.

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 time, a survival kit is more than he needs to be hauling around.

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 e-book readers are more "open", using Adobe Digital Editions software. These readers can access PDF and EPUB formatted materials, including e-books you can 'borrow' from some libraries.

Right now, BSA hasn't released any publications in EPUB format. There are quite a few publications in PDF, which is a huge step forward - they didn't exist even two or three years ago.

Maybe this is something the new CIO can work on. (Once he fixes ScoutNet - he he he)

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 education transportation rules require hand-to-hand or eye-to-eye transfer of students from the parent to the bus driver and back again. The bus drivers sometimes find it difficult to get down our narrow driveway, and prefer to pick up at the end of the driveway.

In the rural areas around my home town, and in the farther reaches of our county, you will find variations of this structure: http://www.oregontimberwerks.com/rural_school_bus_stop_waiting_shelter.htm (usually not so deluxe). Kids walk down the driveway and wait in the shelter for the bus to pick them up. Sometimes more than one family will share the construction costs.

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 churches.

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 siblings.

My family went one year and enjoyed it immensely.

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 on hand of community strips, a template for the three additional shapes, and a price list."

I'm not sure if all councils adopted a CSP, since apparently the red and white strips were still authorized, so different councils may have switched at various times.

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.

Our Belt Loop-a-Looza was a big hit last year and we're looking forward to a bigger event next summer.

Its really satisfying, seeing the kids and parents together. At our latest event, I was asked "So do you guys do this every weekend?" They assumed we were a crew that traveled around from district to district, putting on events! In some ways, if we're that professional, that's flattering :-) However, I quickly pointed out that all the 40+ staff, youth and adults were volunteers. It is an easy assumption to make - in our council, all of the council run events & camps have paid staff. District events are all volunteer - but parents don't really know the difference.

I love Cub Scout camping!

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 from inclement

weather, and comfortable bedding."

http://www.trcbsa.org/TRC_Committees/Camping%20Minutes/Camping_Minutes0910/430%20-%20311%202010%20Res%20Standards.pdf (see page 17)

But, as you see - it does not apply to unit supplied tentage, so your troop tents do not have to comply with this standard.

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'd only done verbally previously.

We scheduled a spring fundraiser for right away after the new Scouts crossed over, so they could build up funds for camp.

We (sigh) increased the troop dues.

The SM had long discussions with the PLC about the effect the change would have on the troop,and the level of work/commitment, they would have to put out to make the changes work.

85+% of the new boys went to summer camp. We have lost only 3 or 4 that I know of.

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