Marty_Doyle

Info can be found at: http://www.usma.edu/uscc/dca/clubs/scou/index.html

USMA is close by and very Scout friendly. A number of Army sporting events (fooball, basketball, etc) are free to Scouts.

Plus the Camp-o-ree, which is fairly competitive to get selected for - one criteria is that a former member of your troop must be a current cadet to be entered into selection pool.

Our pack visits West point every other year in the spring (in those years when we don't camp by the submarines in Groton or on the battleship Massachusetts - got to give equal time).

The cadets will go over a lot of this with the Cub Scouts. A little less than half of the cadets were in Scouting, so there is a link there.

I would guess that there is a similar range of activities at the other two service academies.

"first and primary duty"?

I don't know if that sounds more like a BORG or Robby the Robot.....

Do manly men, except when talking about oil wells or bleeding wounds, ever use the word "GUSHES"?

I had hoped "he who must not be named" had left the forums, since he hadn't posted in a while (for him).

My mistake. He was counting the uses of the word "man" in the indexes.

The fact that, between the 1948 and 1998 Handbooks, the Boy Scouts became co-ed at the Explorer/Venturer level, and some Explorers/Venturers could continue to work on Boy Scout ranks using the Handbook, and making it less gender specific could be viewed as "friendly", "courteous" and "kind" and maybe "helpful", doesn't seem to matter.

I agree with SA. I should quit my job and spend more time getting an education in the public or the local college) library.

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In both the BALOO cand WLOT courses I attended, it was stressed that the restrictions on who could camp how and when was based on two components:

* the average mental, physicial, and emotional maturity of the boys in that rank, roughly equivalent to grade, and

* the desired incremental progression into Boy Scouting - the concern was if Bear Cub Scouts go camping for three nights in conjunction with white water rafting and rappelling, what "Sizzle" is left to entice them into Boy Scouts?

We are talking about first (6 years old), second (7 years old) and third graders(8 years old) here, guys.

Talk about herding cats! Have any of you been a den leader with a bunch of second graders for 60 minutes lately? Then you might realize the problems with bringing them camping, which involves in some form fire and sharp objects - outdoor cooking, fire building, axes, bow saws, knives, etc. Almost all of the things i just mentioned are not allowed for Cub Scouts below Webelos rank.

And this is different than BB guns and archery, which are only allowed at camp, under strict supervision, with lots of adults around.

I agree with the dropping of the stars for individuals.

I think the concept of rating things is good, but I am not interested in what a poster's rating is as much as what an individual thread's rating would be.

Almost everyone who posts has contibuted something meaningful or useful to me, at one time or another, even if it is just a chuckle on a stressful day.

Don't know how you could switch things, but just my $.02.

Ours was last night also.

Since the theme was FIESTA, we also had red and green with the blue, yellow and gold decorations.

Yep, we had two different parents buy decorating supplies, and one came in with yellow (matches the piping on my old Cub beanie)stuff while the newer parent came in with gold decorations.

We mixed them all up and it looked great.

There was about 20 (out of 25) Cub Scouts and another 50 parents and family, plus all three local troop's Scoutmasters, the DE, three representatives from the CO and the Mayor.

No one showed from FOS or summer camp (I'm not sure how I feel about that - conflicted?). I called them and asked them to appear at the B & G. They agreed and never showed (or called to cancel).

Aside from that, it was a big success.

I think that it is really Blue and Yellow, but that doesn't have the same ring.

My 8 year old daughter wanted to know if Boy Scouts have a Red and Green?

This is the funnies juxtaposition of posts I've seen in a while.

Terry's post is right on, but the next one is hilarious. I would have given it a BIG thumbs up, if only that had been the intent.........

Good luck Terry.

Meow.

I do not think that WHEELER will go gently into that good night, if NJ or I or others do not respond to his posts. He will go, only when he comes to the realization, by himself, that we truly are "incompetent Judases" who will not change, no matter the level of enlightenment he reveals to us.

I selfishly think that if I could refrain from responding to him, I might have more of my "hour a week" for real Scouting stuff.

And I am biting my e-tongue to avoid answering in kind the post two above this.(This message has been edited by Marty_Doyle)

I agree with NJCubScouter.

WHEELER was posting to some other list, when he had an epiphany, decided his writings related to Boy Scouts and found us. (The other list is currently celebrating this fortunate event). I get the impression that WHEELER thinks:

* this is the "official" BSA website, and he is plugged in to the "powers that be",

* either OGE or BobWhite is a "nom de net" for Roy Williams, and either or both are hiding vital documents from the world,

* if he keeps posting, he will convince some or all of us, and therefore the BSA, how far we have fallen astray.

We feed his delusion by responding.

Since we do not agree with his posts, all of the rest of us are either yahoos, rednecks, bumpkins, and finally dunderheads. (I think that is the last one). Name calling isn't particularly Scout-like.

I could have kept reading, mainly for some of the humourous responses, but it is now, as NJ says, getting repeptitive.

And the final straw - the drink that Yogi Berra loves is YOO-HOO!!!

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This is one of the things we were going to teach the second year Webelos Thursday - it is one of the Arrow of Light requirements - what are the parts of the First Class badge and what do they stand for.

I'm not sure the 10 year olds are ready for WHEELER's post.

Helllllo Dave!

Did you ever hear from my uncle?

Also, are schlemiel, schlabmzel, amd hossenpfeffer code words for Milwaukee, Cleveland or the Boy Scouts?

Twocubdad - my eight year old daughter already knows she can join Boy Scouts at 14 - our DE told her!

We had better stop talking about Ayn Rand - there are two pop-up ads for Rand related sites on this website now.

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The Webelos diamond will not be pased out as long as LDS units do not have Tigers.

Those imbued with perfect knowledge and perfect virtue often speak in the royal imperative.

No more quizzes OGE. I'm still researching "effeminancy", and trying to figure out why I need to know who Eunomia is without having met her sisters, Eirene and Dice. Kudos to my Webelos son who helped me with "eunomia".

This is starting to feel like college all over again.

Is effeminancy related to "nancy-boys", who Theodore Roosevelt wanted out of the Boy Scouts in the early 1900's?(This message has been edited by Marty_Doyle)

OGE - sorry I jumped. I was afraid it was going to escalate to "triple dare ya" and "triple dog dare ya" (Christmas Story?). Maybe even "triple black dog dare ya".

Mea culpa for disturbing the universal flow.

Of course, one has to be careful with one's quotes. The Serenity Prayer could lead some to discuss twelve step programs, or others (of a philosophical bent) to quote either Reinhold Neibuhr or Boetius' "Consolatio Philosophiae", both of which have been cited as possible sources for the prayer.....(This message has been edited by Marty_Doyle)

For the past two years, as Cubmaster, I only awarded the oval Webelos rank badge.

Now, it can be worn on both blue and tan, and I can not tell anyone they have to buy the tan shirt, but .... Anyway, the boys want to move to the tan shirt and be the "top dogs' in the Pack.

And in the Webelos I den, the first major project the Webelos work on for Craftsman is a wooden shadowbox designed to display all of their previous Cub Scout rank awards, Tiger through Bear and arrow points, service pins, summertime award pins, denner braids. {It has been suggested to make a second one to handle belt loops/pins, special awards (Crime Prevention, World Conservation, US Heritage, Emergency Preparedness, etc) and participation patches.} For the most part, these "traditions" in our Pack help to address the issue.

Ed, Ed, Ed.

This is now the Philosophy and Literature Forum.

Yahoo is from Gulliver's Travels, by Swift.

Please catch up on the syllabus, because we are going to start on Atlas Shrugged by Rand next, which is supposed to be the most enlightening piece of literature since The Cave, by Plato.

I personally liked Joyce's Ulysses best.

And it is well known that Yahoos only travel in bunches. And there are the same number of Yahoos in a bunch as the number of Irishmen that can be fed from a bowl of boiled baby soup. (More Swift).

Double dare ya? At least we are getting back to the boy in Boy Scouts.

The whole charter can be found here:

http://www.usscouts.org/aboutbsa/bsacharter.html

Not sure why you need it, 'cause the "Purpose of Corporation" section was already posted.

Two gold bars was a Denner, one gold bar was an Assistant Denner.

I still have my Denner patch from the early sixties, along with my Lion badge and Webelos badge. All pre 1967.

O tempora, O mores!

Sorry, Wheeler. I do not think that any of us involved in Scouting are unaware of how the program is designed to teach boys how to become self-sufficient, self-confident, self-reliant adults, who are vituous and courageous, as outlined in the Scout Law and Oath. And the "classical" Boy Scout documents, like FOG and myself posted, also hold no surprises.

Tempori parendum.....

Complaints about PC aside, the program is still the same. If boys stick with it, they absorb all of the benefits. To get them to stick with it, it has to be fun. After all, "Scouting is a game....with a purpose".

Methinks your view of Scouting, and much of your posting, is along the lines of "Delenda est Carthago."

You can keep repeating it, but this isn't Rome and you aren't Cato. (You are not even Kato - he was humourous).

Putting the Webelos diamond in the middle is wrong, not supported anywhere in the Insignia Guide. Also the Webelos badge is not superior to any other badge - all badges are the rank appropriate for that grade level. Earning a Tiger in first grade is just as significant as earning a Webelos in fourth grade.

The best option, if blue shirts are maintained, is the oval Webelos badge in a plastic patch hanger, attached to the pocket button.

There will always be boys who do not earn all of the badges or pins or beltloops or patches. That is one reason why the boys wear uniforms - to allow them to display those achievements that differentiate them from every other Scout, while at the same time linking every Scout by virtue of the same base uniform. The Pack's (and Pack's leadership) role is to offer the opportunity for each boy to earn every award. Not every boy will earn everything, but there is a lesson in the "not earning".

The BSA preference seems to be migration to the tan shirt as a boy enters Webelos. But that is a parent/Scout decision, not den or Pack. From personal experience, once one boy moves to the tan shirt, the rest follow.

This thread was spun from another thread.Thank you OGE, but I borrowed that joke from somewhere else.

The following is from the original Boy Scout Congressional Charter:

The BSA NAtional Charter [uS Code, Title 36, Chapter 2]

June 15, 1916

23. Purpose of corporation

The purpose of the corporation shall be to promote, through otganization, and cooperation with other agencies, the ability of boys to do things for themselves and others, to train them in Scoutcraft, and to teach them patriotism, courage, self-reliance and kindred virtues, using the methods which were in common use by the Boy Scouts on June 15, 1916.

Ineluctable modality of the visible! It does mention the word "virtue".

But there is no mention of "Training Boys To Be Men". Sounds more like what OGE posted - citizenship, character development and physicial fitness.

Casey Jones is the engineer.

If I hadn't spent part of the weekend helping my 8 year old daughter write a paper on Tghinking Day, I might not have been "up" on the subject.

The "History of Cub Scouting" display for my son's Pack Blue and Gold dinner now has an addendum, showing the links between the 1909 Crystal Palce Rally, B-P, Girl Guides, Agnes, Olave, Daisy Low and Girl Scouts USA.

Thinking Day is the birthday of B-P and Olave, his wife. Not Agnes, his sister.