Backpacker

Hunt, If you want an active CO/COR invite them to attend activities your unit puts on, treat them as guests of honor and you will have them eating out of your hand. If one or two of the CO seem interested, invite them to join your committee or help out in other ways. Thats what we did with the pastor(IH)and COR of our CO and now we get all the assistance we need, it took a lot of initial effort on our part but it was worth it.(This message has been edited by Backpacker)

1027 While Bob's information is correct since it comes right from the book, sadly it is far from reality. Many CO's have no idea what their duties are and many really dont't ever want to become involved with the unit, unless there is trouble. Your CR is your lifelink to your CO so make sure you use them. Your DE is supposed to each year sit down with every CR and IH and remind them of their responsibilities. There is even training for a CR if they really are concerned with doing their job. As far as selecting leaders, most of the CO's rubber stamp whoever the unit chooses since all adult lea

While the buddy system is preferred in most scouting activities, it does not apply to sleeping alone in a tent, which as hops indicated is acceptable . As far as female Venturers on our crews last outing we had 10 females signed up but one fell ill so one girl slept alone in her tent,her choice, it was perfectly within BSA policy and her tent was right next to the others so they could communicate if necessary. I have never heard of the 3 year rule but it does seem to make sense as a guideline, but we have to be careful in taking suggestions from a trainer and making them a hardfast rule when t

I agree with acouple of posters here, first FEMA has become so disjointed since it went under Homeland Security, the right hand doesn't know what the left is doing and thats because Homeland is still trying to figure out who is really in charge when something happens jurisdiction boundaries are now all askew. F-Scouter is also correct, experts on engineering, ecosystems, etc. are all saying you can not rebuild New Orleans the same way,otherwise this will just happen again. The government needs to get things organized and rebuilt smarter, not quicker and the least costly methods. There is plent

I think it is amazing that the SE is allowing volunteers to interview a new DE, means he is more open minded than most of them. Usually only the professional staff at a council interviews a new DE, sometimes with one or two members of the executive board, and it is the SE and only he that makes the final decision. Maybe your SE feels that if you all decide this guy is right for the job and later on he doesn't work out you all get to share the blame. One main concern with any DE is what his idea of a successful district and what his priorities are. I don't think it is important what his vo

Being an honest District Executive. But it also can be one of the most rewarding when things go right.

In our troop we have used mixed age patrols for over 5 years now and it has worked great. The crossovers are put in groups of three and put into an exsisting patrol, where each of the older boys take a turn being their guide. This results in two positives I have seen, first the crossovers integrate into the troop much faster than if kept in their own patrol, which we have tried before, and second for some reason we have excellent retention and much more rapid advancement. First Class - First Year has become routine in our troop. My own feelings for this success are that we have an extreme

Bob, See what happens when you tread into unknown territory, per your last post it is obvious you know very little about professional scouting and your lack of sources to support your claim just proves my point. Stick to what you know and have experienced instead of giving incorrect information on professional scouting which you have not been involved with and are so ill informed about. All you do with such posts is dishonor the efforts of those honest DE's trying to help scouting.

Ok Bob this is not meant as an attack on you but SR DE is not automatically given out for time served and training, every DE must also achieve all of their money and number goals as well, there are many DE's who have served for many years that never go higher in the ranks even with the training. Now this comes from my six years as both a DE and Sr. DE and from National's professional policies and all my trainings at National, your reply to that poster was incorrect. What were your resources for the reply you gave, for all my years in scouting I never heard anything like it? National does

Bob Why you insist on distorting the truth continues to amaze me. To set the record straight I do not hate anyone on this forum, I may disagree or point out faulty statistics like you just gave Bob. Secondly I am not negative about the BSA, otherwise why would I stay involved all these years. I have seen some things on the scouting professional side which I did not like even though I was involved in it for six years and see some of the results in the latest stories to hit the news. However I ran my districts with openess and honesty which the volunteers responded extremely postive an

Having been accused by Bob a number of times for things that were simply not true I have to agree with Zahnadas last post, especially the last line. However I have been involved with scouting for over thirty years as a youth, webelos leader scoutmaster, district executive and a Venturing Advisor and for the record no one supports or believes in the scouting program and its methods more strongly than I do, not even you Bob. To all those who think it is some kind of sin to discuss and debate different aspects of scouting then I say to you open your mind or choose not to participate in

F scouter, Tell me do you know the difference between a moderator and a censor ? Apparently not with the indiscriminate way you delete and change posts.

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It seems to me that a staff member is getting a little heavy handed with his editing power. I agree personal insults should be limited but for crying out loud you guys are eliminating any free discussion. We are all big boys here and can take a few hits, pretty soon almost all of the posts in here will just have : (edited by a staff member) Oh well so much for free speech!

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I am well aware of the correct acronym Hops and don't need my typo to be corrected by you. I am also positive my knowledge about Girl Scouts far exceeds your own.

Ed The truth of the matter is that Bob rarely has any facts to back up his claims, except the ones he makes up. He just is trying to prevent jkhny from expressing his views as he does with anyone who disagrees with him. While I do not agree with jkhny on this issue he should be allowed to express his opinion, and he does make a few valid points about professional scouting. The BSA is not perfect, no organization is, but a certain poster mistakenly feels that any disparaging remark about the BSA should be squelched. BSA can take the hit just fine and go on, it's too bad that poster can not

Scoutnut First of all my wife is currently a GSA professional as well as a volunteer leader and has worked on cookie sales and other things on a council and at the regional level /state level for many years now so you will forgive me if I take her word over yours. Second we were not comparing a troop to a troop but the net profits from popcorn vs cookies on a National level and there the GSA wins hands down. I don't think you or Bob can provide any stats to the contrary on that ONE issue, unless you make them up like Bob tends to do.

Scoutnut The last line in your post, "the GSA and BSA are set up diffently that they can not be compared", is totally innacurate and if you would do a little research online you would see how easy it is to get facts about cookie vs popcorn sales and other organizational matters. Or you can be like Bob and just create stats out of thin air and try to intimidate others into thinking you are correct when in fact you are not.

Bob & Scoutnut First re read Hops and Its Me posts to try to understand this topic better than you both obviously do. Secondly, my wife is an active GS leader and is involved with cookie sales on a district and regional level so yes I know the actual profits of the GS cookie sales compared to popcorn sales, so you both can quit acting so pompous and obnoxious because once again you are totally wrong. Lastly, the only ka-ka I read comes from your postings with so much incorrect information, as usual, on this and every other thread. Oh by the way Bob, I don't really care if you are

Bob if anyone told you the sky was blue you would argue that it's red. Facts are facts and those presented here are accurate. Just because you talked to two GS leaders now you are an expert on cookie sales, gimmee a break, you probably misinterpreted what they told you like you do everything else. You answered your own question in your last post, popcorn sales are not a requirement whereas all GS troops participate in their national cookie sale, so of course their profits would far exceed popcorn sales. To state that troops make as much on popcorn as GS makes on cookie sales is naive at best,

Venturing is a diverse creature at best, if you are too specialized you will appeal only to those teens interested in that specialization and if you are too generalized your crew will lack focus. The best idea is to start with a few different activities like an outdoor adventure, (rafting, kayaking, camping), then maybe an excursion to something like an amusement park, water park, etc., then try a beach party and picnic or have the crew host a dance party. That is usually enough of a diverse start to attract a wide range of teens,and will give them training in leadership and organizational ski

jkhny Using your logic that if a system or organization has done something wrong that they are a sinking ship then you would have to include the US government, most US corporations, the Catholic Church and most other faith traditions, school districts, colleges etc., etc. The fact is all these groups, including the BSA, are run by imperfect humans who make mistakes, sometimes serious ones. You don't scuttle an entire ship if one small part is defective, you repair or replace that part. Your doom and gloom about the demise of the BSA is illogical and not realistic. If the BSA makes mistake

Bobby White Believe me I never insinuated that you were a pro scouter, I would not insult the profession in that way. If you were trained as a professional you would understand the BSA programs much better than you do currently. If you need my help to understand how to find information on the National Venturing (you notice not Sea Scouts)website just ask, it's all there in black and white. Start with the subheadings on sea scouts then go to organizational structure you might just learn something. Try not to twist what you learn this time to fit your own erroneous ideas like you have

Thank you Michael for correcting Bob's misinformation once again. Apparently Bob considers the National BSA site one of his inaccurate sites because the correct information is all there, if he ever took the time to read it. Bob likes to interpret information to fit what he thinks, not what is correct.