KoreaScouter

BSA doesn't require uniforms, even though it's one of our 8 methods. Unless or until they do, units will continue to have this problem. You can beg, suggest, encourage, cajole, bribe, whatever. But if push comes to shove, you can't force a boy to wear any part of a uniform, let alone a full uniform. Our Troop is fully uniformed, although the Troop custom I inherited is full uniform on the first meeting of the month, and activity shirts for the remainder of the meetings. I've asked the Green Bars to wear full uniform to all meetings (usual reasons), and I'm getting about a 90% complian

Cheffy; At a properly run OA Ordeal weekend, there is no hazing. Although OA is youth-run, there are adult advisors present, and all Guide to Safe Scouting BSA policies apply. Plus, there will almost certainly be adult candidates going their Ordeal at the same time, in the same place. These adults are also volunteer leaders, and probably parents, too -- very unlikely they'd tolerate or condone hazing. Remember, these parents have a trump card if they're genuinely concerned. All Scouting activities are open to observation/visits by parents at any time. All it should take is a cal

I was stationed in Korea at the time, and that time in our time zone was 9:00 p.m. We had just put the kids to bed, and didn't have the TV on. The phone rang, it was the command post, recalling me to work. The next several months were a blur, but I can count the number of days off we had on the fingers of one hand. Fast forward to 2004, and the third anniversary finds me back in Korea, this time just for a month, part of a team revising defense plans at various joint use bases here. Early in the morning on Sept 11th, our team pulled out of the base we were staying at in Pusan to head

In my opinion, if your desired end-state has some gender specificity, then the criteria and methods used to get there must also. The reverse would be true if your desired end-state is gender-neutral. An oversimplification, but suggests this is not an either-or issue, but somewhat situational. I'm always amused when men are "bashed" for creating most of the conflict in the world. That may be true, but I would submit that it's also largely irrelevant if who we're talking about are people in positions of national leadership and power. Men have traditionally held most of these positions a

I don't mean to put words in peoples' mouths, but I think many of us (maybe me included) consider "mentor" and "serve as a role model" interchangeably. Using the definition of mentor that I understand, I think a female or a male can serve equally well, given most circumstances. However, it gets a little fuzzier for me when I look at serving as a role model. Before I have to start ducking spears with Rooster, let me say that I think there are situations in which a female can serve as a role model for a male youth; educational, vocational, etc. But, I think that when we use term in the BSA c

Roger that, but at the same time, we're expected to make sure that camp menus make sense, they're practicing "thrifty", that we use methods that achieve the aim of physical fitness, and that we coach and mentor and lead our Scouts toward healthy lifestyles. Sure, they can drink whatever their parents allow them to, but that doesn't prevent me from staying informed, steering them toward healthier alternatives, and insisting that the vending machines at summer camp offer water, sugar free drinks, and fruit juice in addition to the Coke and Mt. Dew... KS

Watch the ingredients, even on the sports drinks. Some are glucose based (better I'm told), and some contain high-fructose corn syrup, the stuff that dieticians say is making us all fat. I'm a big label-reader... KS

I gotta admit, I trade quality for convenience WRT coffee in the wild. Mrs. KS gets me these packets of coffee mix from the asian market. They're cylindrical and hold coffee, cream, and sugar for one cup. The empty cylinder, if you hold it right, can stir the whole mess in your cup after you pour the water in. Tastes great (considering) and comes in flavors, too. KS

I'm the father of a teenage boy, and while there are certainly things he would be "uncomfortable" discussing with me in the room, nothing related to Scouting is on that list. And, the same is true for all the Green Bars in our Troop. It's their program, they drive it, and they know it. In our troop, I think peer pressure is a bigger human dynamic with them than parental influence is, when it comes to PLC decisions: "...C'mon, man, we went there twice last year..." and hands will start to go down. A "no parents" rule is unenforceable if a parent knows BSA policy and presses-to-test...al

If you PM me with your e-mail address, I'll figure out a way to get them to you. I have a number of high-res digitals. KS

Scoutldr's spot on; most families and many if not most Scouters don't understand BSA above the unit level, and how many volunteers it takes to really make this thing go. The irony is that the same people who bash the District/Council run like they stole something when they're asked to volunteer. Sadly, many people who shy away from adult leader roles because of available time, impatience with boys, whatever, would be a great fit working with adults at the District level. We've got too few commissioners, too. One of our District's large charter orgs is shaking the tree to get more vols,

You know what, I did get back into TM, and there's general purpose forms that print out with all the names, organized by patrol. Just what I needed! KS

It's all legal, since all Scouting activities are open to parents. We did our last PPC in several two-hour sessions, and many of our Green Bars' parents stayed rather than drive back and forth. The lads were up front, the parents in the back of the room, and the parents just watched. IMO, their opportunity for input is when the proposed plan is presented to the committee. I don't know why a parent's presence at a PPC would inhibit a boy's input. Selection of a monthly theme, or where to go camping, shouldn't cause any tension between a boy and his mom. It sure doesn't stifle any of o

I actually had to draw arrows on the pages so the Troop Scribe could line the names up with the boxes -- they're that skewed. Maybe I need to dig into the TM utilities a little more than I have; if I can print a few sheets of paper that'll do the same thing as the TRB, that might solve my problem. KS

OK, here's the problem. Troop Record Book pages don't line up. They only have room for 42 Scouts. Shuffle patrols, or get adds/drops, and your book's a mess. I need help; does anyone know of an excel spreadsheet-thing that clones the TRB, especially the attendance pages? Please don't tell me TroopMaster. We use it, but not to take meeting attendance and I don't lug a computer on every outing. KS

I'm not an IT guy, but I understand it's a simple matter to map IP addresses & quickly determine if multiples are coming from the same computer -- moderator can do that if it's important enough... I trace the decline in civility to the invention of the telephone -- the computer's only made it worse. KS

Nobody needs to complain about a Scout or volunteer adult for more than a year. The system's self-cleansing. If their behavior isn't compatible with your program, don't put them on your recharter and let their membership with your unit expire. I'm not suggesting an ambush, but if you're going to talk with them anyway? KS

Okay, FOG, I'll play your game. Why not, indeed? National sets requirements; presumably, they can set them anywhere. Come to think of it, we watch videos and consider ourselves trained... KS

Strip away the politics, and it comes down to accepting the tradeoffs we make, collectively. If you want to cook or heat your home, the gas has to come from somewhere. Want to turn on a light? The electricity has to be generated somewhere. We want cheap gas, but no new drilling. Cheap electricity, but no nuclear plants. We want our trash to "go away", but no new landfill

Mass e-mails, COH announcements, and form letters are like eating a rice cake -- you're going through the motions, but not getting satisfied. I've had good luck sizing people up, and asking one-on-one when I need them. KS

Some say the glass is half full, some say the glass is half empty. I say, the glass is too darn big. Put another way, you can argue the MB requirements are easier, or more difficult than they used to be. Fact is, some are easier, and some are more difficult. Ultimately, it doesn't matter. One main purpose of the MB program is to give Scouts an exposure or introduction to hobbies, vocations, and topics they

I have a multi-pocket red vest, not the felt, but made out of a cotton/poly blend. It's lined with a mesh to help it breathe. I put event patches on the back, and on the front I have my name embroidered, unit number, a CSP, and my WB patrol emblem. I put everything in those pockets, then I'm not sitting on them, can get at them while I'm walking, sitting, driving, whatever. I don't wear it with

The NPS goes to great lengths to warn you how dangerous it can be. The Saturday before we got there, a man died right there when he ventured out onto the recently formed shelf, and it broke off, tumbling him and some tons of lava rock (terra not-so-firma) into the ocean. You have to actually walk past the flow under your feet to get a view of it rolling into the water. You know when you're right over it from the heat and smell. If it's dark enough, the glow comes up through the cracks in the lava rock. I guess it's dangerous in the sense that visiting the DMZ in Korea is dangero

Our Venture Patrol has a HAT planned for Jan 2-8th of '05. We're staying at the Kiluea Military Camp, right inside the park. They're sorting out their desired activities right now, but they will include hiking the crater, watching the lava flow, stargazing on Mauna Kea, and hiking as far up Mauna Loa as we can. Additional musts are Ken's House of Pancakes in Hilo, and the Hawaiian Style Cafe in Kamuela. I couldn't sp

(My posts have been getting truncated lately; if it looks like I fell asleep mid-message and my nose hit the "submit" button, please forgive me...) It's not our mission to produce Eagle Scouts. Hence, I don't measure my performance by how many I crank out (hatch?), and tend to hold at arm's length those Scouters who do. When a Scout tells me his goal is to earn Eagle, I encourage him to think of Eagle as an intermediate goal, followed by Palms, and continued service in OA, as a Scouter, and so on. Many Scouts earn their Eagle and then quit, because they reached their goal -- push that