Mike Long

SagerScout I would not have a problem with that at all. I'd love it if they all came and went at the same time. Unfortunately that was never the case. The situation I had was just like you described. One Scout would come out Friday night and leave for a 10am to noon ball game. Another would be an afternoon game. Still another would roll up Saturday morning and leave mid afternoon. And so on and so on. My problem was not only with kids, even my adults would do this juggling game. I once had a trip where five ASMs and myself attended. I was only one who was there all weekend. The entire ti

Right on LongHaul! I do the same during PLC meetings and SM conferences. I solicit feedback, positive and especially negative. It is the boy's troop and they need to be able to feel comfortable is asking for change. Most won't feel comfortable giving adults a bad review until you encourage then to do so. After all, where else in their lives can an adult be questioned or constructively critizied? For most kids nowhere.

Have you personally tried to bend the stays before? They are not that easy to bend on purpose. They are supposed to be bent only on the inital fitting of the pack so are pretty beefy. The stay thickness is designed to carry weight and I very much doubt that you could put enough weight into the top compartment to bend them unless you like to carry large quantities of lead. The only other reasion you might have worries over stay distortion would be if the stays were bent every single time you went out for several trips. That might weaken the stays enough to make them pliable but I most strongly

Screenprinting WILL be a mess the first few times you try it but honestly it isn't all that hard to do. Here is one of the kits I was talking about http://www.dharmatrading.com/html/eng/2164-AA.shtml Most of the other screenprinting resources I found online were for commercial printers and would be a real pain to wade through.

My quick answer would be this. If the financial situation was present when the the fundraiser were taking place and the scout family chose not to participate knowing full well that that was his only way to make it to camp then he's stuck. Sorry, no camp. Hard lesson #1 anything that is worth having or doing is worth working for. If the financial situation was sudden and the Scout though camp was covered then the case has merit and I'd be willing to help. Our Troop, with the aid of the Church's Mens Prayer Group used to pay the way for any scout to go to summer camp that needed assi

Well Ed, I for one hate when kids show up late and leave early on campouts. It is extremely hard for me to keep track of the boys. Some scouts do fine with it but most folks despite SEVERAL discussions can't seem to be bothered to inform me of their comings and going and never seem to arrive on time and it always disrupts the program. I don't outlaw it but I'm not going to encourage it.

Now that to me would be a reasonable restriction.

I agree with Ed completly I'd ask them about it and to explain why it's necessary. The only restrictions I ever impose on eligability for trips is for high adventure or because of behaviour issues.(This message has been edited by Mike Long)

As a former master screenprinter I've completly researched the copyright issues on this one. You may use any scout branding (logos, slogans, whatever) on anything that your troop produces to be used as troop gear. Just just the logo properly. (OA stuff for OA member only ect.) In a nutshell you can use the BSA logos for your shirts, hats or whatever. You just can't commercially sell items with the BSA logo on them. Not to say that you can't charge the scouts for costs incurred in making troop articles, you can. As far as printing shirts you might want to consider screenprinting them

I can see and agree with age and/or rank requirements for High Adventure or other activities where physical size and experiece/maturity are necessary, but a Klondike Derby? Is it a High Adventure styled Derby? That sounds like a troop or troop leader adding requirements. All the JLT's I've seen here are open to any Scout who wants to go and learn about leadership. I prefer they go as soon as they can. I once had some parents who wanted to not allow ANY first year scouts to go to summer camp because of possible homesickness. That didn't happen.(This message has been edited by Mik

So do I, so do I. Don't be afraid to modify gear either, make it work for you.

Wow, have any of you seen this? Foxnews.com http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,48963,00.html County Closes Bank Account to Protest Handling of Boy Scouts Wednesday, March 27, 2002 AUBURN, N.Y. The Cayuga County legislature decided to close its $3.8 million account with HSBC Bank USA after the company shut its doors to local Boy Scout meetings because of the group's ban on gay leaders. The county council voted 14-1 Tuesday night without dispute to withdraw its money from the bank. "I hope it sends a message to the bank that if they want to fight with

Awwwwww shucks. Stop it, yer embarassin' me.

Thanks Korea but when I go to district or OA events all the other Scouters think I'm 17. Last time I had a Lodge Officer start to order me around. One of my Scouts looked at the guy in utter disbelief and said "DUDE! That's my Scoutmaster. He's not a kid!" It was pretty funny stuff for everyone involved. I guess I'm Senior when y'all can't see me. LOL.

Yeah if its raining during break down I use the "Cram and Scram" method too. That zipper thing bothers me. I'd replace the bag with an oversized stuff sack.

I don't blame you feathers but the key peice of info is an email address. I run my own webserver and mail server. I track IPs and have reacted to SEVERAL hack attempts. I guess I'm just very comfortable with the web.

I'll trade straight over a BSA handbook for an Australian one. I'll ship to you, you ship to me even steven. Cool? Just email me mike@humanpackmule.com That is of course unless Bob wants to trade, he spoke first on the subject. Dibs to Bob.(This message has been edited by Mike Long)

I'm more concerned with quick setup than quick breakdown. Just try setting up that stuffed tent in the rain. It ain't pretty, more often than not you will be sleeping in a puddle. Been there, done that, ain't doing it again. I unashamedly fold. I've been told about the stuff thing and did it for a while but found absolutley no benefit over folding other than faster breakdown. My folded tents have never shown any ill effects from being folded and I camp MUCH more than once a month.

Nope, at least not that particular brand. I've used other brands and they will help water repellancy but most won't help with condensation no matter what the label says. The only condensation cure I've seen is ventalation. I'd be more concerned with seam sealing your tent. I use any old brand of seam sealer and apply it with an oral syringe. It's much cleaner than a brush although you will need to keep one handy when seam sealing to level out heavy deposits of sealer.

Huh, same thing here. SQL errors.

With the new way of identifying members it is now very easy to learn a little more about each other through our profiles. Some of us have nothing in our profiles and I would be very appeciative if we could all take a little time to update them. Think about it folks. If we know where we are all at we could support one another if any of us want to take our scouts on a long trips or get current local information. If anyone is going to Seabase or Florida they are welcome to stop in and Troop 623 would be glad to host you on your way down.

I have seen the condition described but I can't say if it is more prevalent or less today. I kinda liked being Senior.

"...I have heard rumors that National is dropping the photo requirement that Boy's Life has for full BSA uniforms for any group doing high adventure outings..." Now that IS funny. I wonder how many of the folks who implemented that policy ever backpacked with those little buttons digging holes in their shoulders all week. I gave it up after a weekend and it took years for the scars to go away. I can see bringing class A's for a photo op but not on trail use. Cool stuff on the zip t's John.

Thanks. The guys like her as she is fearless with critters and has a huge knowledge of plants and animals. She's a trooper. I personally have never been to Rainy either but the Troop went two years ago and loved it. Too nasty hot to do Summer Camp in Florida. I'm going this year and am looking forward to it.

Sctmom, yes Cumberland is hard to get reservations but not harder than anyplace else that's popular. We usually get ours about 6 to 4 months out. "too hard to get reseverations" means "too lazy to get reseverations". Some photos for your enjoyment. 2002 http://www.troop623.com/cumberland02.htm 2001 http://www.troop623.com/cumberland01.htm