ASM915

Novice, We've heard "Put the OUT(ING) back in Scouting", but everyone seems to forget about the SC of Scouting, SPIRITUAL COMMITMENT. I've heard of CO's, religious based, that have asked the SM to strongly push the Emblems programs, wanting as many of the Scouts in the Troop to get their Religious Emblem Awards. Cubs and Ventures have options in rank advancement to earn their Religious Emblems, but not the Boy Scouts. They have an opportunity to earn the award, but not as part of rank advancement. Maybe if they did, we would see an increase. In our Council, there is presently a major initiative to talk with as many religious leaders in the Council about starting new units, especially with signing youth groups as Venture Crews. A win-win situation. I also knew a DL that informed his parents that the Cub or Webelos Den would be working on their Emblems Award for an additional 30 minutes after the Den meeting for those that were interested. He usually had a good response. Does your Council have a "DUTY TO GOD" page on their site? I managed to get our Council to start one. The groups were out there in the Council, but the information was not flowing. Last year, our Council only had 8 or 9 Scouts receive their Catholic Religious Emblems, all from the same area in the same county. This year the numbers are up to 20 because of the site. Some of the other Scouters involved with other faiths have also received additional calls about information. The Catholics usually have a better formed movement then the others. Maybe it's because they have larger numbers, and the Protestant faiths have splintered into a number of different DUTY TO GOD or GOD AND COUNTRY awards specific for each faith, unlike when I was a Scout in the 60's and 70's when there seemed to be only the GOD AND COUNTRY that was generic for all the major Protestant faiths. They also all have their own Committees, but locally they seem to put forth little effort at promoting themselves like the Catholic Committee does. Our Council also throws a Religious Emblems Recognition dinner each spring for all Scouts and Scouters who have received a religious award. This last spring we had around 150 to 200 Cubs, Scouts and Venturers and adults recognized. The best way is to lead by example. If the leaders aren't setting the example by showing their faith and Duty to God, why do we expect this of the Scouts?

mlg, Check out Seven Ranges in Buckeye Council. It is about 30-40 minutes east of Canton, Ohio. The camp has a good FROG (First Year Orientation Group) program. I'm not sure how old the counsellors are. They have a top notch Ecology program that runs a few very good tree and plant ident. programs, a good star-search program, and the 80+ year old camp honors Pipestone Program. Their Wilderness Survival and Emergency Preparedness MB's are excellent. To participate in the Pipestone Program, the scouts have to do a Good Turn Project. The camp has three weekends set aside during the spring as GTP weekends. The projects can be done at any of the Council camps, but 7 Ranges draws the bulk of the Troops on the three weekends. The projects can be done any timwe of the year by talking with the camp ranger. A second requirement is that each Scout needs to bring a cubic foot of wood, (sticks between the size of your little finger and your thumb, barkless,. No smoke when burned.) This may change with the problems with the green ash bore. There are other requirements that are easily fulfilled while at camp. The camp honors staff, 200 to 300 people other then the regular camp staff, use the wood for all the fires they have burning during the program which runs from around 9PM until as late as 3:30 AM. There are usually 4 simultaneous programs running at the same time in 4 identical amplitheaters within a few hundred yards of eachother around a large hill, but totally unbeknownst to the participants. You can camp in main camp and use the dinning hall, or at outpost where you do your own cooking. There is a pantry set up in the pavillion and a shed with freezers and fridges to store your food in. Our kids refuse to camp in main camp. They love Outpost. Plus it is a lot cheaper then main camp. PM me with any questions. Check it out at www.7ranges.org. Maybe we'll see you next summer YIS, Eric P.

30) ?Como Esta Usted? How about the Vale La Pena Award for scouting service to the Hispanic communities. The knot is a blue and yellow knot with the yellow overlapping the blue, on a red field. All the animals have been found, but there is one more cultural one hiding out there.

DanK, You forgot the chainmail.

I talked with ED via PM today and offered to post this. Ed, I hope you accept my apologies. No harm was meant.I just couldn't resist after reading Local's little jab. I still think Merlyn must be either part parrot or stuck LP, the way he keeps repeating & repeating. The way you kept sidestepping Merlyn early on reminded me of Hillary at last weeks debate. And yes, she is more then a moron, and finally got caught on tape at it at last weeks debate. I hope that in time you can look back on this and say, "That was funny that someone thought that Merlyn and I were the same person, just the opposite evil alter-egos. Again, I my deepest apologies if I upset you. YIS Eric P.

"Knowing exactly how to goad the other guy" CAScouter, Maybe they're siblings and this is just one of their sibling spats. Sorry Ed, but we're all brothers in Scouting. Oh that's right M isn't.

Gold Winger, The 40% was the total withheld by all NSO's, not just the BSA.

OH NO!!! He's here. Local, That's a good one. I was beginning to think Merlyn was part parrot, and that Ed's hero might have been Hillary. Beav, is there any way to trace the posts to see if they come from the same computer to see if Local's idea may be?

23) Medal of Merit 24) Medal of Honor 25) Distirct Award of Merit

And two more that are rarer then the Eagle. #18 Hornaday Award - less then 20 handed out in a year. Blue, Green and White knot. #19 Heroism Award - only one in ten thousand ever recieve one. Red knot on white background. Have one of those in the family.

Yep, I can just hear the Scouts, "Mr X is wearing that knot. I bet he's gay. I not comfortable being around him." OR " Hey, that kid is talking to Mr. X. I bet the kids gay." And the parents, "Mr X has that knot on his uniform. I wonder if he's trawling for boys?" On the flip side, how does the boy know that an adult leader won't flip out and toss the Scout, when approached about their orientation or religious beliefs?

And C. Diff Packsaddle, And C. Diff.

Merlyn, I would never even think of doing anything liky ADSA. It was just an example. I'm sure if I tried something like this, that National would be asking questions, and some of the more radical Pride people would be making a big fus over it. I don't know, maybe someone has already started questioning the Inclusive Scouting Award, and I'm just behind in the times. Merlyn, the other fear would be what you described. How would the Scout(er) really know if the person wearing the knot was not just a plant to draw the supposed undesirables out into the open under false pretenses, and then show them the door. Now there is always SpiralScouting. Maybe this knot would be more appropriate on their uniforms instead of trying to sneak it onto our uniforms and see if anyone notices. Beav, I agree. I may not agree with the lifestyles or religious choices, but I'm willing to sit down, talk to and work with a Scout or Scouter that might approach me. And know Merlyn, not through them out. I see, talk to and work with several Wiccans, Driuds, Athiest, and a large Gay community every day and all this at a Catholic Hospital.

Here goes the can of worms. On another forum someone posted a link to to a good site about other awards. Under ADULT AWARDS I found one that I didn't recognize and clicked on it. It is called the INCLUSIVE SCOUTING AWARD, and has its own (unofficial)knot to put on the uniform provided by SCOUT PRIDE. Yep you guessed right. It means that you're open to being approached by gay and or atheist Scouts. And what would happen if I started the ADSA (Anti-Diversity Scouting Award). Someone would be at my door demanding that the award be stopped and threatening litigation. But I have to put up with them trying to pull the same thing. Believe me, I'm not xenophobic. And I'm sure I know, unbeknown to me, plenty of fine closet gay and atheist scouts(ers). But why do we have to put up with this in your face bull?

Ed is right. There is an article in the Oct. issue of SCOUTING. A pack started a hiking program where the Cub can earn a hiking staff with his Pack #, and name on the staff. The Pack has patches for different legnths hiked, 50,100,150,200 etc. The Pack goes hiking every month with different distances. The Dens can do additional hikes if they want. Eric P.

As far as I know, we have not had this happen. But our District and the Dac's have a system set up. there is a MB czar. They prefer a Scout to take a MB from a MBC within the District if at all possible. They don't have a problem with the Scout going out of District if there is no MBC in the District, but would like it kept within Council. If the Scout is going to an out of Council event, they would like to be consulted first by the SM to discuss the specifics, if the SM is privy to what the Scout is doing. They don't want the Scout going somewhere for a weekend and coming back with 4 MB's. Short of hard to pull off 4 MB's in such a short time-frame. Now my youngest sons special needs charter school is set up as a Pack and Troop and have MBC's that work for the system from neighboring Councils. The DAC know this and doesn't have a problem with a MB that was earned through the school. When the blue card is turned in to a Troop, they hold the Scouts portion and give it back to him at the COH. They send to the MB czar, who then records it and files it away by Troop and Scout name. I hate to see his basement or attic. This system may seem overboard, but it has saved many a Scouts their Eagle rank when there was a date discrepancy, a lost card etc. Granted the MB czar isn't real happy having to go into the archives, but it usually ends up being worth it in the longrun. What can the Scout do to make sure he doesn't lose a blue card. Have him go out and buy a sportscard holder for a 3 ring notebook. They are the same size as the sports cards and each sheet holds something like 9-12 cards.

Has not Hester & Arthur suffered enough? Both their Scouting careers are now tarnished. Can we not just move on to more important Scouting stuff? Yes DanK. it does.

Challenge them to start a fire with only using ice. See if they can figure it out.

Ouch!! Ouch!! Ouch!! Those damned stones. Where are they coming from? Oh they were just little hail balls from above, not stones from here on Earth. My Scoraterian thoughts get me in trouble from time to time. Please forgive me for calling the third a Voyeur. They were probably awaken by what they thought was a Stud (opps, I mean Stag in rutting season) coming their way and didn't want to get trampled during the rush for the prize.

FScouter, I guess this could be considered HIGH ADVENTURE for the two leaders involved, and the potential voyeuristic non-leader, but doesn't this really fall under Troop Politics?

We all have our opinions on what should be done with the leaders, if some form of boinking actually happened. Now was the non-leader just sitting around the fire, making a nature run, or playing the voyeur? Have they been known to cause a stir in the past? Was he or she heading to another tent themselves? Are they jealous that they weren't the chosen one? Did they go over and listen/peek to see what was going on because they had to defend Scouting, or because they were curious, or wanted to get their kicks? What is/was done with this person? And yes, they better watch their backside like LongHaul stated, or they may find themselves wishing the owned Fort Knox. Present it to the CO and IH, and only them, and let them has out the punishments for all involved.

Joe, Who was the MBC? Was it the old SM or did they go to a MBC outside of the troop. If the Scout saw an outside MBC, there should be a paper-trail, the blue card. The Scout should have his third of the card, if the old SM or Committee Member handling Advancement gave it back to him. If they didn't and no one can find it, have the Scout contact the MBC and ask him/her to re-issue the lost card. The MBC should have their third of the original card. As for online advancement entry, ask your Council for a copy of what they have received. You need to make sure that everything under the previous watch is correct and up to date, especially for your future Eagles. You don't want a almost 18 Eagle candidate finding out that he isn't eligible for Eagle because of shoddy record keeping by the previous administration. You need to find the potential problems know and get them fixed before the District, Council or National finds them and rejects the application. Make sure you check the time requirements on the POR's also. Make sure that the Scouts have the correct number of Eagle required MB's for each rank, 3 for Star, 7 for Life and 12 for Eagle. Believe me District and National will check dates to make sure that they correlate. Good luck.

Hey Cleveland, Hello from Canton. Check into Clinton Valley Council's site. They run an Okpik course over a couple of weekends, one in December, all indoor training, and one in earlier February, where they go out and do what they learned. They will build and sleep in the snow shelters and cook in the elements. The program may only take your older Sccouts, 16 and over. When they come back, take the rest over to Burton or Astabula. They should have plenty of snow to run the program. Ideas: - Have them bring a pack of their favorite Jello and a Nalgene. On Fri. night about 9PM, have them place the Jello in the Nalgene, add hot water, let cool a tad so they don't burn their tongues, and drink it while it's still hot. It will keep the internal furnace burning all night and help keep them warm. - Have them bring a second Nalgene. After they have had their Jello drink, Have them, or someone responsible put really hot water in the two Nalgenes. If the kids want to, add hot chocolate or tea to the one bottle. Have them place each of the bottles in wool socks and toss into the bottom of their sleeping bags. Acts like an incubator. Plus they have something warm to drink in the middle of the night if they wake up. the second Nalgene with just water in it gives you unfrozen water in the morning when you start breakfast - About proper clothing, last February when we first picked up our crossovers, my 20 year old had one of the firefighter/medics from the dept. we're on bring in a Thermal Imager. He then dressed in the appropriate cold weather gear and nad our friend fire up the imager so the kids could see what heat was escaping. The Dave took everything off, left on a longsleeve shirt and tossed on a coat that you typically see a young one running around in, no hat on and showed them how much heat they would be loosing. Good luck and let us know what happens. Eric

Yea Gunny, my leaves usually start falling three weeks ago. They just started last weekend. The last of our trees usually don't shed until the first or second week of December. That means I'll probably still be raking in Jan. in the snow. Damned Pin Oaks!! Eamonn, since you don't like guns why not have OJ try a bow. Better yet, shoot with a camera. Low 30's tonight with frost. Mid 60's tomorrow. Got to love NE Ohio.

We went on an infamous one-nighter at a little known and used camp called Camp Buckeye. It consists of around 250 acres in northern Wayne County Ohio. It's right in the middle of farm country, but you would have thought you were deep in the backcountry. The lane went in about a mile and ended at a turnaround at a precipice. There stood one of two rustic cabins, wood stoves for heating, nothing else. The edges dropped 100-150 feet to the creek below. A few hundred yards down a path from the last cabin were three 20 foot wide, 2-3 feet tall mounds thought to have been built by the Adenas. We had seven Scouts and three Scouters. We couldn't keep the Scouts out of the ravines. They had a great time, even though we had drizzle most of Saturday. It must have rained over much of the country the way the other posts read. We had a nice campfire that kept the drizzle away and kept us toasty (in an approved ring). A great time was had by all.