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KoreaScouter

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Everything posted by KoreaScouter

  1. Bob White: No disrespect intended, but you have no idea what level of training any of us have -- there's members here whose ink isn't dry on their leader app and others with Wood Badge beads, an Eagle knot, and an OA flap, and everything in between...not that one needs to be an MIT graduate to decipher BSA literature anyway. There's actually ONE official uniform, not two, according to the SM Handbook. Interestingly, the same SM Handbook also says the one official uniform is good for all occasions...which of course, it's not, and that's why there's so much discussion on these threads. T
  2. DD; Thanks for the kind words; it means a lot to know we're appreciated! I wasn't implying the Reformation and and founding of the Church of England were unrelated. I'm only cautioning against confusing correlation with causation. I think Henry would have done what he did regardless of anything Martin Luther did. If anything, I think Martin Luther may have given Henry some impetus, but that's all...my opinion, I could be wrong. I can't begin to guess what Parliament would have voted for absent a Reformation movement. However, I would guess that with Henry's power and his pre
  3. I don't mean to get too cerebral here, but I'd like to make an observation. Although I'm sure it wasn't Merlyn's intent to Balkanize this thread, that's exactly what seems to have happened and we're getting involved in a serious exercise in fractal analysis. Fractal analysis is the offshoot of chaos theory that, among other things, focuses in on minute details, hoping to find definite differences, limits, and boundaries. A snowflake's a perfect example -- one is the same as another to the naked eye. Apply fractal analysis to a finite enough level, and the differences will emerge. To (over
  4. Gents; Thanks for the quick comeback. LV, does the Sierra Club book deal with celestial, or just map/compass? I'm actually pretty squared away at map/compass; it's when I have to tip my head back and look up that I come up a little short... I'm at Osan, fourth time...
  5. Le Voyageur; I envy your knowledge level in this subject; I'm an amateur. And, we have problems over here with washout from lights (very crowded urbanized country) and obscuration from pollution, etc. We had a leader who moved last year who was an Air Force navigator -- knew all those stars as well as you seem to. He told a story of his B-52 crew over the Atlantic years ago, lost all their inertial navigation systems. He had to break out his sextant and shoot celestial through the porthole...got back to base right on the money and impressed the heck out of his crew mates. Do
  6. How many times on camps/outings have leaders been split up by necessity due to bus parking, split activities, bathrooms, stragglers, what have you? For us, I'm almost never within voice range of the other leader on an outing. What we've started doing to save shoe leather and sanity is carrying those little FRS 2-way radios for instant leader communication. They've saved our bacon more than once, and more hours than I can count...and, they work in the middle of nowhere where there's no cell phone towers, too. I know, I know, some of you guys are purists who wear campaign hats and absolu
  7. Mom; The GS don't have COs like we do. Their troops are "chartered" directly to their councils. In other words, they don't depend directly on community ties in the way of COs like we do. Someone with a lot more experience in the respective programs would have to explain why that's so.
  8. Ed Mori's right: there's language in the Pack and Troop Committee guidebooks that explains that money earning projects are to be undertaken at the Pack and Troop levels, not dens and patrols -- the Unit Money Earning Application has the little check boxes on it for the type of unit, and there aren't boxes for dens or patrols -- only Packs and Troops. National can best explain why, but I suppose it has to do with the notion that a Pack or Troop project will have the oversight of the Committee and CO, and will be more likely to comply with BSA rules on these projects than if a den or patrol wen
  9. I pasted this q/a list in from another string about camouflage that everyone apparently got tired of following. My questions (largely rhetorical) are not about camo in particular but uniforms in general... Q. If the BSA is a uniformed organization, and the handbook, the catalog, et. al., all depict Scouts in complete BSA uniforms, how could this discussion even be taking place? A. Although the complete uniform is depicted in Scouting literature, there is no requirement, either joining or rank advancement, that calls for a Scout to possess or wear any part of the uniform. Therefore,
  10. sctmom; I realize it may be seem to be a stretch of logic to equate faithlessness with neglect. But, don't take my word for it. If you're interested, check out the book "The Educated Child" by William J. Bennett (former Secretary of Education and the author of The Book of Virtues, The Children's Book of Virtues, The Children's Book of Heroes, and The Death of Outrage, among others). Bennett argues that a solid foundation in morals, right/wrong, manners, civilized behavior, etc., are all prerequisites for success in school, and success in life. Parents are the first teachers, of
  11. Laura; I'm going to e-mail the page as a link to our Girl Scout LTC. We're (I say "we're" 'cuz my daughter's in GS here in Korea) in what GSUSA calls a "Lone Troop Overseas" although we fall under West Pacific Girl Scouts in Japan, also known as WestPac. Anyway, I'm sure they'll be happy to send a recipe...good luck
  12. It's certainly easy to dismiss an argument you disagree with as arrogant; I guess it depends on how open-minded and lucid you are. Webster's defines arrogant as "Over convinced of one's own importance". This has nothing to do with whether I think I'm important or not, especially to you or the parties to the case we're talking about. In fact, using Webster's definition, I've never met a Scouter who considered himself more important than the boys he/she serves. Wish I could say the same thing for everyone I've encountered in other circles. Your point about Jews or any other religious gr
  13. Folks, You might as well stop trying to win a debate over this...neither side is going to convince the other that they're right. If nothing else, it's just further evidence that a fringe group has had yet another success making the majority appear to be "deviant" and undesirable. Welcome to the age of relative morals and "anything goes". If the athiests prevail and Scouters in Oregon are not permitted to recruit on school property, it will be the challenge of those Scouters to reach those boys in other ways...ways that may not be as easy or efficient as in-school recruiting.
  14. I'm personally reluctant to have Scouts do a lot of advance academic work for MBs, whether for a roundup (or whatever you call it), ot for summer camp, UNLESS their attendance at the classes is a lock-in. We've done advance work before, only to find that the class was oversubscribed (and one of our Scouts was moved to another badge), or undersubscribed (so the badge was cancelled and substituted with another that we didn't do advance work for). Either way, time and effort wasted, or at least not used optimally for that setting. One man's opinion: the most suitable badges for summer cam
  15. I just put a fairly long post on the "To Camo or Not to Camo", that tries to cut through the camo symptom and talk to the underlying cause...the whole uniform price/options/design issue; similar to what's here. Check it out and let me know what you think...
  16. Despite pleas to end this discussion, it continues. If there's 100 members on the string, you'll see 100 different opinions. Rather than focus on the relative merits of camouflage pattern clothing vs. official BSA clothing, allow me to ask a couple more fundamental questions (with possible answers)... Q. If the BSA is a uniformed organization, and the handbook, the catalog, et. al., all depict Scouts in complete BSA uniforms, how could this discussion even be taking place? A. Although the complete uniform is depicted in Scouting literature, there is no requirement, either joinin
  17. I'm a requirements kinda guy, which has made me a little unpopular in some other threads. But, I gotta tell you, we're in a unique situation in the overseas BSA Councils which may make the requirements "hard-liners" rethink their positions. The requirements, the handbook language, the MB pamphlets, are all written with the presumption that the Scout lives in the United States. Especially with us, that's not true. Then, as leaders, we have to find ways to make the local environment, wildlife population, night skies, flora, etc., fit the requirements so our Scouts meet the intent of what the
  18. Caught onto this one late, so my thunder has been somewhat stolen; oh well, gotta pay attention I guess. The number of Scouts who earn each merit badge each year and since the badges were first offered are in a fact sheet you can download from the BSA national web page; sorry I don't have a URL you can hit, but if you visit the page you'll find it. I like the Trained strip, it shows you who's been trained in a second, and maybe just as important, if it went away, we'd also lose the "Untrainable" parody strip you see from time to time -- everybody needs a laugh now and then, right?
  19. I thought the definition of Scout Spirit was living the Scout Oath and Scout Law "in your daily life". To me, that means your entire daily life, not just when participating in Scout-related activities. I've used that leverage more than once when dealing with my son the Scout. Ancecdotal examples abound, but here's one: Mom tells son to take a shower before bed and after a day of vigorous activity that has left his skin feeling like the back side of a Post-it note. Son protests that he can take one in the morning. Dad, overhearing, simply says: "A Scout is clean; a Scout is obedient".
  20. OGE; Take another look at my Dec 27th posting. The legal issue isn't with camo pattern clothing per se, but with military uniform items that haven't been de-milled (insignia, etc., removed).
  21. As you can see by my username, I'm in an overseas council. Because most of the Scouts overseas are affiliated with military families, AND because of the Presidential Executive Order directing the Department of Defense to provide specific (and generous) support to Scouting programs overseas, our council (and I presume Transatlantic does too) is intertwined with a Military Oversight Committee; it meets regularly, and the books are wide open. It's a lot more expensive to provide a program overseas than in the U.S., and from what I've seen, the books reflect that. By and large, It's my beli
  22. Gotta be careful here. If you actually read the back of the unit money earning application, it does say that packs and troops can do this, not dens and patrols. Having said that, all the other posts have great references to individual den and patrol fund-raising requirements that are unique and wouldn't be appropriate to tap the pack or troop budget for. In my experience, and I've never been criticized for this, we've always required dens/patrols with these unique fund-raising requirements to spell them out to the committee, who then reviews it for appropriateness (again, based on a r
  23. I used to be one of the "screw the uniform, it's too expensive, they outgrow it too fast" guys, but I've changed, especially as it relates to camo (or BDU) items. Here's why: - expensive? Yeah, if you get your stuff from the catalog or council trading post. I got a good pair of pants for my son, fit him pefectly, for $9 including shipping, from an EBay auction. At $9, I don't care what he does in them or how fast he outgrows them. - Perception? That's like trying to define a bad attitude -- you can't, except to say it's any attitude you don't agree with! We've got enough image
  24. An etiquette merit badge? I don't mean to be contrary, but it seems to me that many of the social skills you're referring to are simply a byproduct and consequence of upbringing. Are we being surrogate parents? I'm grateful for the engineer who taught my son the finer points of surveying for his merit badge, because I certainly wouldn't have been able to. But, I can and should teach him manners (and we have, by the way). With all the activities competing for our Scouts' time, shouldn't we spend the scarce Scouting time on outings and activities they can't do at home? Perhaps we
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