Argyle

Lot of history on this site.....Eamonn, I have twin 10 year olds who will start Boy Scouting in the fall. Debating on spending the extra dough if it was worth it, doesn't should like it. Sounds like I'd be better off getting the cheaper handbooks and keeping them ziplocked.

Has anyone purchased the spiral bound handbooks? Do they hold up any better?

These types of Advancement Committees and subcommittees must run amok across the country. It no longer becomes the youth's Eagle Leadership project, it now becomes the "Man Scout's" project.

We actually had a district advancement committee person call the church and the scout's mother, berating them about a lack of a few details and the use of several power tools. The church said, "forget it" and that was the end of that project.

Incredible.

Speaking of posters, I have a recruiting poster idea. Give me a buzz.

Go Army....but you squids are alright in my book.

On that note, I just finished "Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors." Can't remember the last time I couldn't put a book down, but I couldn't put that one down. I was and still am in awe.

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A limerick you write, I may fail

Amongst you wordsmiths, I flail

The river is high

The carp they will fly

In a few weeks I launch Argyle and Sail

Argyle is actually the name of my boat. I know what your thinking, "Why in the world did he name his boat after a sweater, or socks, or even an old redheaded highlander."

But, the previous owner, whose great grandchildren were watching Hunchback of Notre Dame cartoon movie and just could not pronounce Gargoyle. They kept saying Argyle, instead of Gargoyle......so I'm stuck with Argyle.

I kept thinking that I needed to change this boat to something more catchy, but after owning it for two years.....I'm Argyle. It's funny. Being a rookie on the race course last year, one of the surly old guard fellas was having a bad day, and he was coming up behind me yelling, "GIVE WAY, GIVE WAY" and I'm thinking, I'm the windward boat, he needs to keep clear and shut his pie-hole. Sound travels across the water pretty good, I could hear him bellyaching to his crew about "&^$*& Argyle in the way again." He thought we were out pleasure cruising, but his crew says, they're in the open fleet and he races every week. He put his head down. Then the race committee lady actually said hello on the dock one morning, "Hi Argyle". It's too late to change it now.

There's another team in Chicago? Hmmmm.(This message has been edited by Argyle)

Yes, Kenny Holtzman, and don't forget Milt Pappas and Bill Hands.

Back in the day....

Even though I thought I was little league's Ron Santo, I seemed to ride the pines for the first three innings and then sub for the last three in right field, getting to bat at least once a game. I can still name those '69 Cubbies...Sweet Swingin' Billy Williams in left, Don Young in center, Jimmy Hickman in right, Santo, Kessinger, Beckert, and Mr. Cub Ernie Banks around the horn, Randy Hundley catching and maybe Fergie Jenkins on the mound.

It had to be around age 12-13, 6th or 7th grade. I was riding the pine during the first playoff game. The winners went to the championship game. Our pitcher that day pitched the first three innings and we were up 5-4 when he hurt his arm. Big conference on the mound. Our catcher just happened to be my neighbor, who I played a million hours of catch with, who would want me to pitch to him, to practice his catching. So, he told the coach that I could pitch. Him? Are you sure? Coach didn't know me, and his son for some reason didn't then, and never has been a pal of mine. Well desperate times, call for desperate measures, they didn't have anyone else. Whoa cool. This beats the snot out of three innings subbing in right field. I can remember the smirks on the other team's smug little faces today, to them victory was a certainty.

One of the changes that happenned that summer, was that I could throw a curve before the kids learned to hit them. My neighbor Mark says, "Just like at home, inside, outside, inside and keep it low." "Yep". He didn't use any signals, just placed his target where he wanted it, inside or outside and low. All the chatter was a little unnerving. Bah. It wasn't that unnerving. First pitch was to one of my classmates, who went on to play all through high school and a life-long pal. He was smirking. It was low and inside right on target and made a nice pop. Strike one. Mark set up outside, swing and a miss for strike two. I threw the first real curve ball in a real game. Big fat slow can of corn. It started out right at the batter, he squatted and bailed out as the bender broke right over the plate for a called third strike. The smirks were disappearing.

We did the inside-outside thing for three innings of no-hit ball. The other highlight of my young, not-so-long career was another one of my pals, who went on to play baseball in college, was on first. He beat out an infield hit. He took his lead off and when I took a peek, he was daydreaming. Whap. I picked him off first. It wasn't even close, no arguments, nothing, he was nailed. He just looked at me when he jogged by.

We won the game and our team moved on to the championship game. Coach announced that I would be pitching. I said, "Coach I have Scout Camp next week." He asked, "Can you skip it?" I said, "No, I'm the SPL." My ASPL was on the team too. He said, Remember we told you?" I still don't think he remembered us telling him. I don't recall anyone saying another thing about it. Nobodys parent's or the coach called my mom, begging her to make me play ball. I went to camp. So, there was at least one kid in the history of scouting who skipped a ball game for summer camp. Me. Let's see 1974 was how long ago?

My troop went to our council camp every summer. We looked forward to it, competed to earn the model campsite award, we lashed anything that could be latched. We put up a balanced weighted pole gate at our entrance, was the highlight of summer. Went their 6 years in a row, we didn't know or care that we could go to other camps, we looked forward to going to ours.

A few carefully placed phone calls and we're in business. Kodiak at Sea. We've laid on four sailboats for a 7 day Kodiak Long Cruise on Lake Michigan. 12 Youth and 4 adults. Sailing, seamanship, piloting, navigation, fellowship, and youth leadership training. Perfect. Everyone learns, nothing to fail, win-win all the way around.

Alright, I'll give you that one. Kodiak at Sea will be a two weekend long leadership cruise. As far as making it a council course, what's the diff? It's still going to be our instructors, on our boat, with our youth. Signature here, budget there, bam, it's a council course.

I just don't think that VLSC patch is going to fit well on the Sea Scout uniforms. But, I did find an alternate that I think the youth in our ship will find appealing and aid in motivating them to pursue all three levels. But, it'll have to be a ship's secret.

Plans are in place. Two instructors, five students, all set for our first Leadership Cruise. The Venturing Leadership Course will be part one in our summer series of Leadership Cruises aboard our 26' Nordic Tug cruising along the Upper Lake. Should be a very beneficial and participatory day cruise. All the youth will benefit in a stress free environment, and none will go home failing the course. We'll then run a weekend cruise for Kodiak and a two week end Kodiak X cruise. So, do the make VLSC patches in white?

I find it indredibly rude that instead of sending someone a PM to correct their misuse of this confusing terminology you continue to correct them in public.

Support......yeah, right.

Looks like regional/national adult volunteer politcs and egos just took out another commodore.

What if the youth want to call themselves a Venture Scout Venturing Patrol Crew? You'd be in a real pickle there.

There's a new Central Region Commodore. I wish her the best, especially after having to pick up the pieces from her two predecessors. Under the last two previous commodores number in the midwest dropped over 25%, there was no regional training to speak of for years, poor communications, a weak, uncooperative committee, well, it just wasn't any good. Wouldn't the national commodore and the national committee be the ones responsible for the floundering program in the Midwest? Yet, it was blek for the last 10 years.

But, from where I sit, at unit level, mentioning the national commodore, the national committee, or any regional or area commodores, doesn't make me sit any straighter in my chair or fill me with awe of any kind. Actually, the more contact I have with some who only server at district, council, region, and national levels only, the more we want to reject being involved with them and concentrate solely at unit level, back where the Rudder meets the Rode.

Instead of correcting poster's use of terminology, would you benefit the program more by using your vast array of knowledge and starting a crew or ship?

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An overnighter would seem to be two days, one night, or at least 24 hours of cruising time. That would mean cruising time, off the dock, up the lake, or across the river. At this point in our new ship's time, our Ordinary's are totally capable of leading a cruise out on their own for at least 24 hours.

I would think that the Long Cruise award would have to be for more than just sleeping aboard at night.

Well if the Venture Scout Leaders can morph a vessel into hiking boats.....as Skipper of a boat upon the water, I can enact ship policy to ensure that our Sea Scouts who do sport a Long Cruise Patch are young men and women who absolutely know what they're doing out there, and have the full confidence of this skipper and his mutinous mates.

In the spirit of conflicting messages and conflicting requirements, let me throw another one out here. The Long Cruise Badge. My understanding of this award is basically 2 weeks on the water, days recorded after earning Ordinary, cruising on any boat or vessel. The days can be either 14 days straight, weekends, or single overnighters. An overnighter being at least 24 hours.

One of our ship's officers reported back that at Seabadge, it was stated that a Long Cruise could modified to fit basically anything, it was said that a Sea Scout who goes to Philmont could earn the Long Cruise Badge by going on a trek. Some kids might have hiking boots the size of a small boat, but can the Venture program twist and morph stuff to fit their own needs this badly? Commander Keane is rolling in his grave.

Excellent post! In January our ship's first boatswain, now a 3rd Class Petty Officer, was home on leave after a tour on Crete and then heading for the middle east. We went to our chartered org for dinner with him and his date, and invited the entire ship to join us and tell him hello. Almost the entire ship turned out, we had a great dinner talking about old times and everyone enjoyed him telling about his new experiences. I'm pretty sure and hoping he'll come back to us as an adult leader when he finishes with the Navy.

Must be the Venturing Leadership Award for unit scouters who are out on the water with scouts all season, down there where the Rudder meets the Rode.

The Venturing Leadership Award is presented by councils, areas, regions, and the BSA National Council to Venturers and adults who have made exceptional contributions to Venturing and who exemplify the Venturing Code.

There's some scuttlebutt floating around the Sea Scout community that an old mutinous salty sea dog named Bob White has been awarded the Venturing Leadership Award. But, can you sail?

Several online stores that sell Ship caps, will also do custom embroidering, black caps with your ship info on it. http://militarybest.com/larquancusca.html SCUBA SHIP 100 on top and St. Charles, IL underneath with a dive logo would look good.

Just found it strange that these two mates who have been SM and CM for years are now not considered trained. Instead of going card hunting, I was wondering if those courses had counted previously and now all of a sudden they're not trained. It is odd though, some who were at the same training got credit, some didn't. We'll get it straight. Just thought others may have had the same issues.

Artillerists. LOL. Whenever anyone says "Howitzer" my mind immediately races back almost two decades. I was a commo guy, working in our brigade's operation section, big antennas (scud magnets) parked about 50 klicks north of Hafr al Batin. We were running our ops out of semi trailer with lots of antennas. The sun was just coming up when all of a sudden BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM, shaking and rattling our world, the six of us went from sleepy to stoked awake. We thought we had bad guys right outside the doors with big guns. I pulled the .45, thinking, "I'm not ready for this" and three of us went left, three went right, ready to do whatever. We bust out of the doors like Starsky, Hutch and Company, but there wasn't anyone there.

It seems a self propelled brigade of Artillerists had pulled up about a half mile away in the middle of the night and let loose at first light. Glad they weren't any closer...pucker factor might have been higher than 10.