Jump to content

Its Me

Members
  • Content Count

    573
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Its Me

  1.  

    When I address the youths in my troop I try to use the term "scouts". Occasionally I will slip and use "boys" and an ASM will correct me. When I write emails and such I will often go back and change where ever I wrote boy to scout.

     

    I agree that formality breads mutual respect. I often respond to a scouts, Mr Its Me! with "yes sir?". I call them Mr as often or more often than I call them by their first name.

     

     

     

     

  2.  

    So I am at the soccer field the other night buying fries for my daughter and me. I reach for the Tabasco sauce for my fries and the boy next to me grabs the Tabasco bottle just before I do. Not rude, just a timing issue. He then liberally coats his burger with Tabasco. I comment that, "I have never seen a kid use that much Tabasco sauce before." And I kind of gave him the man-nod that I thought it was cool.

     

    He pauses for a moment and says, "I am not a kid I am 12 years old". I smile and just walk away.

     

    I now know I offended him by calling him a kid. But in his mind what is he if he is not a kid. At 12 I guess I should have used young man or a gentleman your age. Or I should have just shut-up because people don't like stupid comments from strangers.

     

    Help me out here

     

     

     

     

     

     

  3.  

    I agree with Oak Tree, a good pair of sturdy comfortable shoes trumps 7" new boots for all but the worst situation. When I think high sided boots I think muck and water crossings. High desert trails with well worn paths call for shoes with aggressive soles (souls). Leave the eleven pound boots at home and take the four pound shoes.

     

    another vote shoes

     

     

  4.  

    The Armstrong question is interesting.

     

    Would I recommending scouting? Yes! But, they have to be looking for this sort of product. Do you go around telling everyone they need more cable wiring in their house? I think not. You only recommend Armstrong cable when there is a need for the product. "Hey, I am remodeling and I need a cable company. You know a good one?"

     

    So when some one asks, Hey I am looking for an outdoor program would you know one? "Yes, of course", will come the replies from 99% of the people on these forms.

     

    If we are going to tie this into the Dwindling Numbers thread we have to expand into creating a demand. Armstrong, does cable, WiFi, surround sound, intercom, fiber optics, home office... He meets multiple needs of his community.

     

    Boy Scout does outdoors, character building, physical growth, citizenship, leadership, just to mix in some aims and methods.

     

    I am not sure that "would I recommend scouting" is the ultimate question for scouting. At least not for dwindling numbers.

     

    The ultimate question for both Armstrong and scouting is; how can I effectively meet the needs of my community? Armstrong does this through an understanding of his customer's needs and then by competitive pricing and competent service. Boy scouts should do the same.

     

     

     

     

  5. Well we did it!

     

    We stayed in a hotel in St Mary's on Thursday night and on Friday morning departed on the Island Queen ferry for two nights of backpacking in the Cumberland Island wilderness area.

     

    We took off late due to the fog and arrived on the island about 11:00 AM. After a brief Park Ranger orientation we were off to our first campsite at Hickory Hill, some five plus miles up the parallel trail.

     

    What a fantastic place Cumberland is. At first the trail starts off in a semi upland area. All the trails on the island our canopied with 85-90% coverage but the trees change. At first it was short scrub oaks then pine flat lands and finally majestic live oaks. The flat trails made for easy walking. I can't describe how nice the trails were. Wide and leaf or pine needle covered made almost a carpeted path to our campsite.

     

    The forest was thick but was absent of the neusense vines such as Kudzu and Air Potatoes. This opened up our sight-lines for hundreds of feet at time revealing a beautiful forest in as close to a natural state as I can imagine.

     

    The five mile hike was a little rough on a few of the scouts. The temperature sored into the mid 80's and the boys over packed. Even with discussions and a good shake-out backpacking trip two weeks before the boys just haven't learned the balance of packing just enough to make do. At least now my new troop has a group experience for going backpacking. Other than my son and one other dad, the other 13 scouts and adults had never backpacked before But we arrived with no blisters and only the one-two scouts out of eleven really complained. Many of the older scouts wanted to push on for another two miles to the Yankee Paradise campsite.

     

    Hickory Hill is a wide spot in the trail that has a semi-marshy trail to the Atlantic. We went down this trail and all but four die-hards pulled up and decided against trudging through the 100' of marsh land that separated the trail form the sand bluffs to the beach. The "beach" is an 18 mile north to south slice of disturbed land.

     

    On Saturday we day hiked to Plum Orchard an old Carnegie mansion and were able to pursued a Park Volunteer to give us a private tour of the mansion. WOW! How those people lived back then was amazing. Double halls to separate the servants and guests. Six servant quarters in the house and several servant out buildings just to support one childless couple during spring retreats.

     

    On the trail to and from we saw wild horses and we stopped short from stepping on an eastern diamond back rattler. Only by the keen eye of my youngest scout did we stay off what could have been a disastrous ending to our trip.

     

    That same day at 3:00PM we had our packs on again and were headed for another campsite, Staford Beach. This site is about two miles closer to the ferry dock. After getting to the site and setting our tents up, we headed to the beach. The trail was much easier and shorter. Thankfully the Atlantic was calm that day and just warm enough for about 45 minutes of belly surfing.

     

    On Sunday we decamped and were on the trail for 7:30 AM. The ferry arrived and we departed the island at 10:15 AM. As the island diminished from sight all had in there hearts, "I will return some day".

     

    Eight months in the making and well worth it. This was a very good trip!

     

     

     

  6. There is no endorsement in the insignia guide for an adult patrol patch. I personally see the value in culling the adults into a patrol to keep them away from over helping their kids. So although we do not wear "Old Goat" on our arms I refer to the adults attending the campouts as the Adult Patrol. A patch could go along way towards keeping a mind set to stay away from the kiddies.

     

    I think too often we scouters over interpret the Scoutmaster's HANDBOOK and Insignia GUIDE as rules and regulations. There was more emphasis in the early books to use waht works rather than use it precisely this way. If a strong unit has built up a organization using adult patrol patches why mess with it? I believe programs should be built around and for the people not the opposite. Besides at round table half the old timers there have patrol patches either from woodbadge or some silly one.

     

    Getting your COR to change his mind will be difficult. You may be able to if you are able to persuade him that there is value in building team spirit and a sense of belonging at the adult level.

     

    Good luck!

     

     

  7.  

    I would like to start planning a Backpacking MB maybe for the late summer or early fall. I need 4 nights and 30 miles at least, and 50 miles if we are ambitious enough to for the patch. Water sources and scout friendly trails such that the incline rates are moderate. We can make north Georgia, South Carolina and lower North Carolina in a day.

     

    The appalachian trail has a mystic but that is not an absolute. The McKay trail in North Georgia intererest me but I haven't hiked.

     

    Thoughts? Recommendations?

     

     

     

     

  8.  

    I love these forms for the over the top analysis they provide.

     

    FScouter last month we departed at 1:00 PM and returned at 10:00 AM the next day. Technically we did not make 24 hours. May we still consider this in our 100 "day" count? What if we return to our Charter and wait there until the exact time period we departed the day before.* Will this count?

     

    *This assumes that time on the road to the campsite is recordable time. Is it?

     

    What if....

     

     

     

  9.  

    I have a 13 year old scout at the rank of Life. He has never camped without his mom. He came to our troop a few months ago already at Life from another troop. When he camped with our troop it was the first time he had ever slept in a tent without his mom being in the tent. He now can go camping and sleep in a tent with his patrol buddies but his mom still camps nearby. We have culled her into sleeping and eating with the adults but nature has a away of teaching animals where the easy food is. He finds his way to his mom.

     

    He could make Eagle and never camp without his mom. Other than the several semi-skilled and not so skilled nudges I have given about the scout needing some room and so forth, there is not a lot I can do. I fear that once this kid comes out from under all this oppression he won't be the same kid. I'll write about this when it happens.

     

     

    The kid is normal in behavior and intellect. She is a registered leader but not an ASM.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  10. The scout should fill out the blue card. Ideally I like to see all the requirements including the sub-requirements listed. I haven't run out of lines yet but there may be a MB out there with too many requirements for a Blue Card. (shame on the Zealot who engineered that MB program)

     

    At the last PLC meeting I announced that I wasn't going to take a Blue Card from a parent. Not to open and not too close. As SM and an occasional MB counselor I cherish the face to face time I spend with the scout.

     

    Besides if you follow the old adage, "if a scout can do it, let him" then the kid fills out his own Blue Card.

     

     

    (This message has been edited by Its Me)

  11.  

    Nah!

     

    I think nostalgia has over taken this thread.

     

    Kudo got me turned on to the old scouts books and I now have a decent collection of about 12-15 various, out of print scout and camping books from 1970 - 1930'.

     

    It was not easy to camp and especially backpack in old days and the fact that my 1948 Handbook for boys lists no backpacking MB would indicate to that this really wasn't done. The make shift backpacks and ruckus sacks shown in these books weren't going to get you far. Wool blankets and canvas tents would have made even the shortest distances seem far. There is no such thing as a "sleeping bag" in my 1948 book.

     

    The obvious conclusion is that they mainly car camped then too. The menu plans seem to support this with pounds of flour and raw bacon and lots of can goods.

     

    Kids haven't changed all that much and I suspect that "we" adults are applying our current selves, (work ethic, sense of responsibility, relationship understanding) to our selves as youths. We were just as absent minded then as our children our today. We whined when the load was too heavy or when the chores didn't seem even. Its human nature.

     

    So to bring this back to the original post, I disagree "that the kids are different today" as the principal reason numbers are down.

     

  12. Assumptions:

    The Lodge wants to do something but there already is a scout troop in town chartered by the Lions Club. The town is not big enough to support two troops. I think that is situation.

     

    Form a venture crew for older scouts.

     

    Form a scout program for non-traditional scouts or handicapped scouts. Allow a troop to use the lodge facilities.

  13.  

     

    Even 5 years ago Bob White was being miss-quoted. It only took seven posts back then. Scouters we are letting our traditions languish. Please return to your keyboards and in earnest begin miss-quoting Bob White at the rate that is consistent with our heritage. Our fore-posters would expect nothing less.

     

     

  14.  

    Wow a call out thread!

     

    Reading the black marks you wrote on my white screen I am reading about a guy that really still has the passion but its being blocked by adults. I'm offering a little bit different advice than the others. I say stay away form the adults and find the youths which you seem to connect with. That means running roundtables discussions or adult training sessions will be the death of you.

     

    I would look again at those SM positions. You didn't mention why you didn't take them, just that you didn't. As a SM you know you will get directly involved in the youths. Got a bad adult, pass them along to your CC to handle. You won't get adult free anywhere in scouting, but you can diminish their contact with you. The venture crew idea is another option.

     

    I would not return to that old troop. That's water over the dam.

     

     

  15.  

    Could it be stories like the Basketball Scout of America that leaves national with the perception that we can't deliver?

     

    I think there is a weakness between councils and individual units. Our district has so few Unit Commissioners that they don't even try to say, "we will get to you eventually." Our District held an emergency meeting about six weeks ago basically stating that from an administrative sense we were on our own from council. A new website will be created separate from council's, a separate calendar and various other split-list items were rattled off by the bravado District Chair. Clearly our District Chair has gotten frustrated with council's agenda and believes there is a disconnect.

     

    So we have a disconnect in the communication chain from units to corporate BSA. Just like in units (boy led Vs adult led)instead of training, building and working on units to be self reliant and capable of delivering a FCFY program, national takes a shortcut. That shortcut is summer camp where all the units can come and get trained by a nationally certified camp program. Like a drug, the unit leaders come to summer camp each year to get their opium fix. Summer camp deadens the pain of having to run your troop to the letter of the code, having scouts teach scouts in your own troop.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  16. "Anyways, I was wondering what your suggestions would be for off trailing."

     

    - Don't do it. Its against all National Park rules and most National and State forest rules.

     

    - Buy a GPS.

    - Update your will.

    - As a writer you should carry a water proof pad and pen so you can jot down your final thoughts. Who knows maybe it will sell high enough on eBay to pay for your burial. :)

     

    (This message has been edited by Its Me)

  17. He put the knife away when I asked. I am acutely aware of knife issues having had a big blow up about 1-1/2 years ago with a Webelos scout. After letters of apologies and parent - cubmaster conferences it worked itself out. That boy is still with me in my troop and is a really good scout. No more knife problems with him.

     

    As with that boy there was an underlying issue. His dad walked out on his mom 6 weeks after that incident. So based on that experience I see a scout new to my troop lashing out at every object that he can find. You can almost see in his eyes that someones face is on that stump or branch. I suspect its his brother's image. His older brother is in the troop and its not pretty when they try to work together.

    (This message has been edited by Its Me)

  18. On a recent campout one of my scouts seemed to have a lot of hostility. At every moment he grabbed a stick or other item and whacked trees, bushes, the dirt, anything. When not whacking away at inanimate objects he was slashing trees and bushes with his pocket knife. I suspect that there are issues behind this and would like to discuss with the mom.

     

    But I am not a trained psychologist and my hypothesis on why this kid is lashing out may be way off the mark. And even sugesting this may not be comfortable. Just to clarify I don't think this a youth protection issue more of a learning capacity issue.

     

    Do I mention all this to his mother including my suspicions or just assume she knows?

     

     

    (This message has been edited by a staff member.)

×
×
  • Create New...