John-in-KC

Miss Mary, Now that scoutsource is back online... From this chart... http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/ageguides.pdf Winter camping is never an age appropriate activity for Cub Scouts, Tiger-Webelo. Now, what constitutes winter camping up in Iowa, the Dakotas, or Michigan is a completely different matter from what constitutes in in Florida, South Texas, Arizona, or southern California. Those are places with year-round moderate climates. In fact, there is a winter sports activity in G2SS dated this August. Points back to H&S Guide #34415. I think, before you look for examples, you should swing by whichever set of cubicles the National Health and Safety folks occupy. Then, I think you need to visit with the Camping people. What are their thoughts on the matter of winter camping 7-10 year olds? Frankly, I think you need to revisit with your editors about this article. Is this something they really want written?

I agree, it wasn't a personal rebuke. It was, howver, a case where the US was doomed to lose: Our Puritanical-based social mores don't include bribery and graft, and well they should not. Those mores are rather less stringent in other areas of the world. I'm convinced Brazil won because it had the deepest well to line the IOC pockets. Now, as far as Obama going, there's an old Western adage: Keep your powder dry. What was his logic in going there? Was there logic, or was he playing the "charisma" card? Sigh. A fool's errand, and I'll keep reading to see how the D base reacts.

Actually, if you go to the Acme University School of Education, you'll find there's not only a name for it, mastering how to do it is a multiple graduate credit hour course. It's called in the civilian world "Instructional Systems Development" and in the military world "Systems Approach to Training." The idea is to take a task and decide how to train it to standard, using what teaching styles, be it in-class workgroup, demonstration, guided/supervised practical exercise, and supervised from afar practical exercise. What's lacking, imo, is the evaluation stage. Anyway, for those who want the 600lb manual... it's at http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/26-242.pdf That's the courseware for TRAINERS EDGE course. Heck, it's a bin item. Oh: Ken, here I disagree with you. Teaching a Troop Instructor how to train (or even a TG or Patrol Leader) is a skill they will use lifelong. The buzzword does not matter, that the tool is an effective template does. I agree, it's best done with things the kids need to do... like hone knives.(This message has been edited by John-in-KC)

Hey, the day crew must have arrived... it's finally up. Monday, 0630 Central

A professional I know has put young 18-21 adults into the College Scouter Reserve, and then adult nominated and approved them for the Order. Since he's one of the 300 or so Supreme Chiefs of the Fire, I do not think anyone is going to question him.

Have you asked your COR to carry your water at District and Council business meetings? The charter belongs to the licensee of record... the church, civic group, or business that sponsors Scouting. The unit is the consequence of the license. Have a friendly cup of coffee with your COR. Share your concerns.

I think that as with any education or training, you learn more when you're the trainer/teacher/instructor than you do as the learner. So yes, I'd like at some point to do the work which justifies the extra beads. Will I wear the beads themselves? Dunno, to be honest. I have to think through: Would it be personal braggadocio, or would it help others to identify me as a resource? I've seen a couple of uniforms where you could hardly see the shirt fabric for the patches. Sorry, I have an "I Love Me" wall already at my home. These days, it has two pictures: EagleSon delivering his thank-yous to his Eagle Court of Honor, and one particular senior portrait of him.

OT, don't say that too loud. This summer, two Rovers from the UK were on camp staff at the Reservation I do commissioner service at: One guy, one gal. They had a fantastic summer, and at staff banquet, dressed out in full uniform (as were all the staff) they stood every bit as tall with the pride earned in their summer of work. Of course, they had reason to be proud: They got staff scholarships too.

Now, the Committee would be asking about helmets, gloves, and safety lines... Each time I've gone to PTC, movie night is "Follow Me Boys." There wasn't 2 deep leadership, uniforms were often catch as catch can, sometimes the EDGE was the edge of a nuckle sandwich, and Lord knows the Buddy System didn't always happen. Even so, the kids came out pretty well on the backside. Yes, it's idealized, but maybe we do have this overly complicated.

SSS: Last time I checked, To Kill a Mockingbird was about how your DNA affected your skin color affected your station in American life. TTT is about a forever turning point in American history ... the day we had to become a Great Power. From Here to Eternity is about how people are changed by forever turning points. It's just like Scouting: The Outdoors is the methods vehicle, the mission is the Aims.

Pack, If I didn't think how a President uses his political and diplomatic capital on behalf of the Nation wasn't important, I wouln't comment on it That said, though I be conservative leaning libertarian, and Republican by registration, I also damn GWB and Don Rumsfeld to a special corner of history: People who caused excess deaths of Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Airmen by not looking at an operational/strategic long view, and who didn't build the base of the force to a size where it could handle the missions assigned it. That extra 3 months everyone got to serve in the box in 07-08? That was because we lacked the forces in being to maintain the 12 month on-station policy. Among many other things, that error on Bush/Rumsfelds' part was a cause of people wanting any change at all, and giving us the big O. This to me is the single problem in American leadership today: Each party is by golly self-righteous unto itself, all have forgotten how to cooperate and graduate, and if you ain't a Dem Rep, then you ain't XXXX. Any President has so much political capital on January 20, xxxx. If he spends wisely, his capital grows, and he can chivvy his vision along. If he spends profligately, his capital diminishes, and he loses ability to move his agenda. I've already seen one Huffington blogger demanding the President return to Copenhagen in December for the global climate change treaty talks. She says if he does not, environmentalists should begin the search for a President who will. That's inside his own party. That's simply because he went on the plane to the Olympic selection. There's another blogger on Huffington. He's saying Obama didn't listen to most of Chicago, who didn't want the games. Political capital is neither cheap nor easy to earn.

You just have to love the National Council IT office. I think it's time to wish Dogbert's curse on them: "OUT!!! OUT!!! YOU DEMONS OF STUPIDITY!!!" Does not any IT person in Irving monitor the production servers? At this writing, the Scoutsource portion of the scouting.org domain ... http://www.scouting.org/sitecore/content/Home.aspx ... has been down for something like 18 hours. Here's the error: Server Error in '/' Application. ________________________________________ Runtime Error Description: An application error occurred on the server. The current custom error settings for this application prevent the details of the application error from being viewed remotely (for security reasons). It could, however, be viewed by browsers running on the local server machine. Details: To enable the details of this specific error message to be viewable on remote machines, please create a ( customErrors ) tag within a "web.config" configuration file located in the root directory of the current web application. This ( customErrors ) tag should then have its "mode" attribute set to "Off". ( !-- Web.Config Configuration File -- ) ( configuration ) ( system.web ) ( customErrors mode="Off"/ ) ( /system.web ) ( /configuration ) Notes: The current error page you are seeing can be replaced by a custom error page by modifying the "defaultRedirect" attribute of the application's ( customErrors ) configuration tag to point to a custom error page URL. ( !-- Web.Config Configuration File -- ) ( configuration ) ( system.web ) ( customErrors mode="RemoteOnly" defaultRedirect="mycustompage.htm"/ ) ( /system.web ) ( /configuration ) I've replaced the < and the > marks with ( and ), so the scouter server does not see them as bbcode. Who's minding the store in Irving? Most large businesses I know (and at the National Council level, BSA is a big business, albeit a non-profit) have somebody minding the store after hours. Who's minding the store? I mean, customer service is something IT weenies learn in CompTia A+ training...

I think the concept is 11 year olds are learning to use knives for the first time; 14-21 year olds have acquired that skill. If you think you need it, take the training, but then use the skill and press on. Remember: Venturing is not a clone of the Boy Scout program for teens. It's got different program and methods.

SFAIK, he went into Copenhagen, did the pitch, got the vote, flew home. He was back in the US in time for the evening news shows last night. The nutters will capitalze on it, but hey, the Left's nutters are actually happy as hell that Chicago lost the bid: This little ditty came from the Huffington Post, iit's called Obama's Olympic Error: url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-zirin/obamas-olympic-error_b_302025.html "The Obamas, former Chicago residents, should be standing with their city. Instead, we have the sight of Barack, Michelle, and Oprah trying to outmuscle Pele and Brazil for a place at the Olympic trough. The question is why. Maybe Obama wants the Olympic fairy dust enjoyed by Ronald Reagan at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles or Bill Clinton at the 1996 games in Atlanta. Or perhaps he is returning favor to the developers and other sundry connected people in the Windy City who will make out like bandits once the smoke has cleared. But his intentions are clear: he wants the glitz, glamour, and prestige of the games and he wants it for the Daley machine. What the people of Chicago want doesn't seem to compute. (This message has been edited by John-in-KC)

Wolves and Bears, because their program is similar, can have some combination. Tigers? No, keep them separate. Tigers is a 1/1 environment of parent and child. Wolf and Bear is supposed to allow the child a smidgen more independence than having parents to hand. Unfortunately, what Bear Dad advocates (separate meetings) is really the best of all the bad ideas for this. Have a cup of coffee with your CM and CC. Tell them to get to work on the encouraging folks to step up to the plate.

There's always Richard Milhous Nixon ... of course, my sainted mother called him a crook ever since he stole the election to be Senator from California away from Helen Gahagan Douglas in 1950. (That was the first Dirty Trick, btw). He certainly used his political capital to zero. He had to resign the Presidency to avoid certain impeachment in the House, certain conviction in the US Senate and removal from office.(This message has been edited by John-in-KC)

I'd love to help you Mary, but right now (1030PM on Friday the 2d of October), the production server for Scoutsource at www.scouting.org ( http://www.scouting.org/sitecore/content/Home.aspx ) is throwing this error: Server Error in '/' Application. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Runtime Error Description: An application error occurred on the server. The current custom error settings for this application prevent the details of the application error from being viewed remotely (for security reasons). It could, however, be viewed by browsers running on the local server machine. Details: To enable the details of this specific error message to be viewable on remote machines, please create a ( customErrors ) tag within a "web.config" configuration file located in the root directory of the current web application. This ( customErrors ) tag should then have its "mode" attribute set to "Off". ( !-- Web.Config Configuration File -- ) ( configuration ) ( system.web ) ( customErrors mode="Off"/ ) ( /system.web ) ( /configuration ) Notes: The current error page you are seeing can be replaced by a custom error page by modifying the "defaultRedirect" attribute of the application's ( customErrors ) configuration tag to point to a custom error page URL. ( !-- Web.Config Configuration File --> ( configuration ) ( system.web ) ( customErrors mode="RemoteOnly" defaultRedirect="mycustompage.htm"/ ) ( /system.web ) ( /configuration ) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I replaced all < marks and > marks with parentheses, so the error code was visible. The bottom line is I cannot get to the G2SS right now, to read it as it applies to Cub family winter camping.(This message has been edited by John-in-KC)

Given the current state of financial management software, from Excel to Quickbooks, I don't think it's too much that a Troop be able to show a budget. Even if the data is a reconstruction from records, a Troop treasurer should be able to show how the money is spent. I'm on a budget subcommittee at my church. Our planning process is a combination of actual performance, guidelines, and requests. If the Scouts are being Thrifty, and are directly contributing their luchre as dues, they have the right to know the process and the results. Further, it's a tremendous introductory opportunity for American Business or Personal Management merit badges All that said, I agree with all: Go in respectfully and inquiringly. Work with your Scoutmaster, let him help you form your question to the Committee.

No, Lisa, Barack Obama was born in Hawaii. He's an American citizen by birth. That's settled, except to the truly whacko. I ask you retract that. I have very high expectations of my President. When I look at Presidents historically, I look at Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Truman as being among the very best. FDR and HST in particular, for they had both internal and external matters to deal with. I expect my President to show great maturity in his use of his political and diplomatic capital. He starts out with only so much. How he uses it either earns him more or spends it down to zero. We've seen what happens when a President spends his political capital down to zero: His name was Gerald R Ford, and he had veto after veto over-ridden by the Congress. We've seen what happens when a President spends his diplomatic capital down to zero: His name is James Earl Carter. I won't say anything other than Desert One. You don't go into a lion's den without understanding the rules. Google IOC and bribery, what do you get? LOTS. That includes the SLCOOC. Read this: http://www.vexnews.com/news/6585/bribes-ioc-corruption-rears-its-ugly-head-as-chicago-shunned-and-rio-parties/ Chicago and the US went into this as we should, with our heads held high, and walking up to the front of the table. Unfortunately, much of the rest of the world does not work that way. Graft and bribery aren't significant crimes, they're part of the political landscape. People back up to the Olympic table, including the Salt Lake City Olympic Organizing Committe. Speaking of Salt Lake City, here is NPR's summary of coverage: http://www.npr.org/programs/specials/ioc/ So here comes Obama in the 747 with his cast of many. The Chicago hopefuls have already sent Oprah and Michelle ahead to schmooze in the final hours. How much more "glitter" does the proposal need, for Pete's sake? Meanwhile, General McChrystal met with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs this week at Ramstein. There are reports he gave Admiral Mullen his Request for Forces. In the meantime, that fracas continues. There's also the little fracas in Iraq. In addition, the head of your political party, Lisa, does not seem to have a VISION, GOALS, or a SMART implementation path to health care reform. Instead, the Congress, which has an ironclad Democratic majority, is floundering around. Where's LBJ, HST, or FDR and their world-famous armtwisting methods? Finally, for those who think eight years without an attack on the US is an indicator we've defeated terrorism... there's a concept in military thinking called strategic patience. Our enemies have it, we don't. Had Chicago won the games, I'd bet the last dollar of my IRA that we'd see something akin to the Palestinian incursion on the Munich Games of 1972... only worse. You're not going to make me fall off this, Lisa: This trip was a waste of diplomatic capital that the United States needs from the President: He has to deal with keeping NATO forces committed to Afghanistan, we've got the makings of a trade war with China going on, over 10% of our workforce is out of a job... there's enough for him to do inside the US. Lisa, I never did answer your initial question: I want him not to have made this trip at all. Since I cannot go back in time, I can call it as I see it, "A Fool's Errand." Hier Ich Stehe, to quote Martin Luther. ETA: I googled President Bush Beijing Olympics. Here are the results for your reading pleasure: http://www.google.com/search?gbv=2&hl=en&q=president+bush+beijing+olympic+games&start=10&sa=N Eamonn: I second Lisa. Start planning coverage of your 2012 return visit to your native land. We'll bring the Dutch ovens full of cobbler, you bring the slide show (This message has been edited by John-in-KC)(This message has been edited by John-in-KC)

Then, OT, Start looking to friends. Start looking to form a Crew that makes sense to your desires. First a Vision, then Goals, then means. Look at a group in your HS that lacks a club centered around it. Leverage Venturing as the vehicle for that club. It can even be an athletic squad ... as long as it's not a contact sport.

And Mr Blair was not a Head of State. He was a head of Government. HM Elizabeth II is the HoS of the UK, last time I checked. I disagree with Jay Nixon, the Governor of my State, on abortion and embryonic stem cell research. Save that, he's a good Governor. His political party? D The Honorable Claire McCaskill, junior Senator of my State, showed incredible moral strength in how she managed her healtcare town halls this summer. She also didn't start attack ads last election cycle until about 2 weeks after her opponent. We don't necessarily agree on many issues, but I'll vote for her the next time. She's an honorable woman. Her political party? D Senator Baucus, from all I see, is giving us his very best effort to find middle ground between the sideline positions of each party. What's his party? D. I just don't believe in Forrest Gump governance (stupid is as stupid does), and that's what this little fiasco was: Wasting diplomatic capital when Iran, China trade, and assorted other issues call for it. Lisa: This was worth a Presidential letter imo. No more, no less. A letter is worth oh, about $1000 of EOPOTUS time, tops. I cannot tell you what the meters ran to take AF1 over the pond. This trip was a fool's errand.(This message has been edited by John-in-KC)

Lisa, So why didn't Mr Bush, Mr Clinton, Mr Bush the Elder, Mr Reagan, Mr Carter, Mr Ford, Mr Nixon, Mr Johnson, Mr Kennedy, Mr Eisenhower ...? Merlyn, No. I'm just saying the US should not expect to win in environments where bribery and graft is one one of the societal mores. We have strictures against it, based on our societal mores. Other folks do not have those strictures.

Lisa is giving you spot-on advice here. I think it's time for you to call your Scoutmaster and ask him to breakfast somewhere. Before you go to the PLC, and certainly before you go to the committee, ask him for his thoughts. One of the most important jobs of a Scoutmaster is to be your mentor as the SPL. We can't evaluate your units budget. We don't have access here to how your Troop Committee made its decisions. I know that a few years ago, when I was CC, $100 a year was not unreasonable in terms of a dues structure for youth members in a Troop. We split it up $50 at recharter, and $50 just ahead of Scout Camp. Remember: A boy advancing one rank and earning 6 merit badges in a year burns through $15.24. That doesn't count the pocket cards, nor the Mom's pins, nor the pin that you get to wear...

It's not the advancement method in venturing. It's the RECOGNITION method. Recognition comes in many forms. High school letters. Scholarship awards. Applause at the end of theatrical or musical performances. Winning 1st place at a road rally. Venuring's system of awards is a tool. It's not a must. Crew officers and members need to look at what their Crew is about. If there are other means of recognition, and the Venturing system is redundant, don't use it. OTOH, if it makes sense to use it, because what the Crew does isn't recognized in other places, use it. Venturing is designed to be hugely flexible. It's not a factory production line for young men, as to some degree the Boy Scout program is. It's more akin to a custom foundry, where craftsmen (the youth themselves) help forge each other into the young adults they want to be.

As Lisa said in the other thread, you'll get better coverage by posting this in the Cub Scout Forum. I&P is an off-topic forum, where we agree to use our common bond of Scouting to solve the problems of the world. If you've not taken FAST START online at scouting.org, do so. If you've not taken THIS IS SCOUTING, online or at a training event, do so. If you've not taken Position Specific Training for Pack Leadership, do so. Knowing what the Cubmaster's job is helps you have his/her back. As far as when you take over, the effective date should be when the Adult Leader App, approved by the COR, gets turned in to the Council Registrar. You SHOULD HAVE an adult leader app to change your position, unless you are doing the change during the recharter process. In any case, given what is going on, my suggestions: - Ask the COR to have the books inspected before handing them over to the new Treasurer. - Have a quiet talk with the CM. Tell him you'll have his/her back. Arrange for the two of you to get together once a month or so, privately, and make sure you've got each others' backs. - Make sure to thank the outgoing leadership. - Dump the voting. Pack Committees are support staff to the program folk (DL/CM). Consensus is useful, but voting is not necessarily part of the process. - Invite your Unit Commissioner to attend your Committee and Pack meetings, and give you feedback and advice. Most of all, have fun doing this.