John-in-KC

prof, OTOH, The Right Reverend Representative Emmanual Cleaver (D-MO-5) said he's going with Hillary though his district broke Obama. Friendship trumps all in his book. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19096400 Hey, I voted for Ron Paul. It was a protest, malice aforethought

Have you had your unit FOS presentation yet? Tell the SE no FOS until this is fixed. Do you know some people in the Community FOS campaign who've not donated yet? Ask them to hold their donation hostage. Money talks. John Yes, I'm cynical...

I listened to NPR (All Things Considered) on a drive today. The NIU university relations director was on the horn. While there are ways out, several of them involve making schools and colleges jail-like, if we do not want the risk. I actually enjoyed the piece, the NPR folks weren't able to win their point!

Lots of the stuff we do is really a gut call. How well we pass authority and responsibility to the youth, how we implement advancement, how we implement outdoor method... all have some judgment call. Uniform Method, OTOH, has clear and quantifiable metrics from National. If you like clear metrics, you'll love the Uniform Method.

Personal Fitness is the third!(This message has been edited by John-in-KC)

Ed, As far as the SHOULD of the new requirements goes, I think they could have done just as well by incorporating them into Family Life and FORCING it to earn Star. OK. I'm not the National Advancement Committee. That's my point, I guess. I'm not the NAC. I can burn emotional energy over their stupidity in accepting the task from the National Youth Protection folks, or I can save my energy for more important things. At the moment, my emotional energy is best spent elsewhere. That make sense?

I think we all know that this was the wrong way to prime the pump to boot. Had our friends in Washington put some JOBS on the table, either with special factory orders for DOD (they're gonna need one heckuva lot of Humvees and trucks and heeeeleeeeoooo-bopters when we come out of the sandbox, anecdotal reports of equipment wearing out) and the Forest Service/Park Service and... Instead, they do the "Barney" of giving us something that really only helps catch up the mortgage payment or the credit card. A pox on all their houses...

Volker, The idea in BSA is the UNIFORMITY caused by wearing uniforms be done by wearing BSA'S UNIFORM. As you can see, there's lots of debate on this topic. Lisa's Troop has moved from being "uniform above the beltline" to being fully uniformed. Others have as well. Other Troops divert away from a BSA supply standard item... this was even more so just a couple years ago, where the quality, fit and finish of the BSA pants and shorts were only good for the Parlour. Our zippable field pants are at least a viable attempt at state of the art outdoor wear. HTH!, John

cad-guy, Let me point you to an online resource: http://www.scouting.org/boyscouts/resources/32215/index.html You can buy the print edition as well, but BSA Requirements is fully online. Your son has started his upper trail by taking those first two Merit Badges. If I may respectfully suggest, point him towards taking at least one of the "3-monthers" while he's earning Star. Have fun watching him move up the trail

Ed, What we think or not is moot. National Advancement Committee has placed these on the table. This is one of those times we swallow and just do it. If you search back on this topic, Eamonn had a huge resource in a ScoutsUK pub on bullying. I've made copies for local families, I believe it that good!

Ed, you've admitted you are the banker... Is the stimulus "rebate" an advance against our 2008 Tax Year (payable 15 Apr 2009) tax bill/refunds??? I'm guessing yes, but I've not been able to find anyone who says aye, yes, no, or up yours yet... TIA

Joni, I've seen Scouts make mature judgment calls on elections. I've seen Scouts turn elections into popularity contests. I've seen Scoutmasters who would certify anyone with two feet and breathing as being eligible for election. I've seen Scoutmasters who care. Half the challenge is a good certification of nominees by the Scoutmaster. He has that degree of control. From that point on, the Election Team has responsibility.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/14/superdelegates/?iref=mpstoryview#cnnSTCVideo There's video as well covering this. Lisa, you're the admitted political scientist as well as the resident declared Democrat in the room. From where I stand, if the popular primary/caucus vote breaks one way, and the "professional politicians" decide the nominee should break the other way, that's political hay for the Republicans. This is all the more so after "COUNT EVERY VOTE." Truth be told, it seems to me we have a certain amount of Balkanization in both our American political parties. Might we see fracture at some point towards a multiple parties and alliances as other nations have? What are yours ... and everyone elses' thoughts?

Everything Lisa said!!! Hang in there, Joni. We're here to listen.

We have a full cooking crew, since we have something on the order of 800 Scouts/Scouters on property during these three induction weekends. It's amazing to make a full steam kettle of sausage gravy for Brotherhood candidate/Arrowman service breakfasts. Again, how many Ordeals do other Lodges have who make Ordeal bread?

For a living. I work for one of the major defense firms as a "military analyst." In my case, I work with two major warfighting simulations. Both of them are in the training realm vice the operations research realm. To get there, I had to complete a full career in the Army, to include enough grad school to be approaching ABD status. By military trade, I was an artilleryman and a fire support coordinator. I was able to work with the Air Force in a theater air command center or wing operations center as easily as I can adjust artillery onto a target. In all my service, I worked alongside US Marines, who are probably the very best folk in all DOD. Certainly they are the best people in the Department of the Navy and the Armed Services it supervises! (P-3 tactical officers come right after Marines!).

Here's my question: How many Candidates undertake the Ordeal in your Lodges processing in an Induction weekend??? We have something over 200/weekend, and we have 3 induction weekends each year. By our State law, youth under 18 cannot be COOKING in a commercial kitchen. Making that much dough means industrial sized mixers...

My DE team tends to wear shirt/tie, the bigs wear true suits as needed.

RS, The actual BSA PROFESSIONAL DRESS uniform is iirc: Grey trousers White shirt Navy Blazer BSA Necktie BSA Suede Blazer Emblem

FWIW, Our Lodge the past several years has had the Reservation Health Lodge open (usually getting ITS spring cleaning) during OA events, and has typically 3 staffers (physician, the Reservation nurse, and a youth member (18-20) EMT. Now, the flip side is our Reservation Ranger is a Captain in the area volunteer fire department, and when he calls into County dispatch, there are no questions asked. It's a good news/bad news thing: One of our reservations is basically an island of true wilderness in suburbia now.

HUH??????????????? Young people need Calories. It's we old farts who can live on 1500 Calories per day or less. They NEED cholesterol. It's part of the nutritional building blocks at 8-18 years old. It's only we old farts who gather and collect it. They don't need "gratuitous" fat (read french fries and chips). They don't need sugar soda or decaf tea. Nutrition is age appropriate!!! Your menu sounds to me "Politically Correct." Beyond that, I do not understand why you over-rode normal practice and bought/cooked for the Scouts, except maybe lunch, and that because kids in the cold need hot food to warm their bellies. Further I do not understand a cold cracker barrel??? At night in the winter, warm drinks/foods help warm the body core before getting in the sleeping bag. My thoughts. Sorry.

If a candidate thinks there is funny business, he can ask for a hard copy recount! That's the point in my county... there's an auditable source document.

My favorite story thus far: California Secretary of State de-certified the touch-screen voting machines in several counties ... THAT PRINTED A PAPER BACKUP OF THE VOTED PEOPLE/POSITIONS!!! I think it was on NPR where they said Riverside County, CA had to go back to true paper and rubber-stamp X's. My county uses mark-sense balloting: Just like the SATs or ACT, you fill in the space on a paper ballot. Scanner scans; votes uploaded. At the end of the voting period, election officials pull a USB chip and drive it to the County seat. The data gets uploaded. We generally have News at 10!

Steve, Thanks for the technical comments Welcome to the campfire!! Look forward to professional as well as Scouting insights

My favorite Grace, first heard in 1968: Rub a dub dub! Thanks for the grub! YAYYYYY, GOD!