Mike Long

It might be un-Scout like but I would just love to bring down the ACLU. After all that they have done to so many innocent people how can America not see that they have become a tool of a malicious minority acting to further their own political interests at the expense of everyones freedom.

Bob, campfires, firebuilding and cooking over fires are all important parts of a well-rounded Scout program and should never be removed. We just need to teach the boys to understand when fires are and are not appropreate (sp?.) Campfire knowledge is very necessary if at least as a survival skill. I personally prefer to cook on campfire coals rather than my stove. (ash adds a certain zest to scrambled eggs in the morning.) LNT does not impose harsh rules of conduct it simply asks you to think about your impacts more than we normally do and restrict your wear and tear to areas and ite

You might also want to check out camps in Georgia. We are from north Florida and we have attended Camp Rainey Mountain in Dillard Ga. Located in the corner of Ga where SC and Tenn. come together. Our boys just loved the place. I particularly like this camp due to the fact that they gave the boys "camp work" to earn their merit badges. Our local camp has a reputation of being a "No-Work" camp. Rainey has a COPE course, mountain biking, hiking and whitewater rafting as do most of the camps in the region. Everyone does indeed stay busy. If you go here definately take the troop to eat at the

The Committee Chairman is not the "Boss" and it is not his troop. It is the Boys Troop and the Parents Troop. All you have to do is outvote him. If he refuses to follow the decision of the majority then he needs to step down. At this point someone needs to have a nice long talk and explain to him that there is a problem. Perhaps that might just do the trick, if not, well then it becomes sticky and you may need to have him removed from the position if progress can not be reached. Has he taken Scoutmaster fundamentals training? If not, the committee needs to ask him to do so. Tra

Program, Program, Program. The only thing that keeps older kids interested is a challenging and exciting program. If your older kids just do the same thing that the younger kids do and the only difference is what you call it they will leave because the program stinks. We do not have a Venture Crew in our troop but we do have a high adventure program. Basically our program centers on two week long trips a year. The first is seven days and six nights backpacking in the mountains. (A big deal to kids from Florida.) The other is a week long canoe trip. We are looking at adding a th

You are correct a Scoutmaster is not part of the board of review and has no say in the actual decision making process. I do not attend boards except to introduce the candidate.

Here in northeast Florida our council has a great relationship with the United Way. When the funding issue reared its ugly head our United Way chapter flatly stated that they had no intentions of "removing" themselves from Scouting. So, lucky for us, we just go our merry way providing the time tested and proven program of Scouting. Scouters need to be aware that the decision to fund or not fund is decided by local chapters not some national United Way directive. Last I heard there was only 17 chapters that had distanced themselves from Scouting. So before you pull your donation, check i

Get ready for a debate on this one. First off "Adult supervision is recommended when using liquid fuel or propane stoves and lanterns" at no point does the guide to safe scouting state that boys can't use liquid fueled stoves and lanterns. You only need to have knowledgable adult supervision. I strongly suggest that you have a meeting with all of the adults active in you outdoor events and have a clinic on the care and feeding of all of your fueled camp gear (liquid and otherwise.) Please note these suggestions are from 16 years of long distance hiking experiences in low and high e

I think that you and I are on the same wavelength. I take Scouting very seriously. I too was shocked at what I was told by reps from our council and national. In my mind, if those are the policies and we are not allowed to attempt to steer boys towards living the Scout Oath and Law then why even bother with "Reviews?" In effect, I was told that if he simply completes the tangible requirements then give him the badge. That is not acceptable to me or the committee and parents in our troop. The subject has been discussed and consensus has been reached. We believe that national is wrong.

In order to be allowed to use fire a Scout must earn a Fireman Chit and have it on his person. The rules for fire use are printed on the back of the card and are also in the Scout Handbook. The Scout needs to clear a 10 foot circle around the fire. As far as how close a tent can be I'm not sure that there is a solid number one can give you. Sparks can fly a long way and I won't allow the fire ring to be near the tents. My best answer is as far as possible.

When I post on these boards I'm not sure that I come across as I intend to. Oh well, just trying to teach the Scout Oath and Law as best as I know how. Our Troop is sponsored by a United Methodist church so our boys hear about God in a Christian Medodist context. So I guess it could be said that as an outreach of the church we try to support the teachings of the United Methodist Church without condemning the beliefs of others. As to the statement "So, while the BSA is not excluding those who chose to worship other gods, it has not accepted them either. I feel it takes the sa

I had read on another site (can't remember where_ that National had made available a Eagle certificate without a presidential endorsement. It also stated that this was NOT a political decision by the National Council but a courtesy being provided to parents and Eagles with strong opinions regarding the character of our current President. I would think that if President Clinton was the honorary Chief Scout when the boy earned Eagle either it would be his name or none on the certificate. It seems silly (at best) to attempt to pick and choose who is named as Chief Scout on the certificate

Boy Scouts of America 1329 W. Walnut Hill Ln. P.O. Box 152079 Irving, TX. (972) 580-2000 Phone # As found on Yahoo.com yellow pages. Address as found in the publication disclaimer in Scouting Mag. All BSA publications also contain publication information (as required by law) that state the BSA is located in Irvine, Texas. A simple call to directory assistance could net the phone number. As far as who "They" are, one page iii (right before the table of contents) is a letter form the Chief Scout Executive Jere B. Ratcliffe. Let me know if you need any more help, I'm alwa

I have personally been using LNT methods for many years and have been pushing the principles in our troop from the moment I became involved with it six years ago. Scouting has always taught boys to "Take only pictures leave only footprints" Really LNT is nothing new to Scouting it is just that only recently that the BSA has allied itself with the No Trace organization. http://www.lnt.org/ We just didn't call it Leave No Trace we called it being a good camper. The only big difference is that we now have a solid written set of guidelines. I have to say, ALL troops need to follow LNT

Hold on folks! All I said is I believe that we should "at least introduce Scouts without faith to the possibilities of faith." at no point did I say that we should introduce scouts to a particular belief system. That is the responsability of the parents. (and I DO believe that it is a obligation of the parents, but my wife and I make the rules in our house not other peoples houses. Still a free country ya know.) All I meant by that was that we pose questions as to what a scout believes in and why. Encourage them to explore why they hold those beliefs and what forms their world vie

While sitting on my first Eagle Board of Review, the District Advancement Chairman indicated that Atheism was not to be accepted in an Eagle and the candidate would be turned down. I was also told that to be reverent a Scout must, as OldGreyEagle says, believe in the existance of a higher power. Basically to understand that he is part of something greater than what can be seen and measured. It is not necessary to be a "church-goer" or part of an organized religion for a Scout to be reverent. Those who put Athiests and Agnostics in the same catagory don't know what an Agnostic is. The b

Our Troop hosts 2 event each year with our Cub Pack. The first is a overnighter with the whole Pack and the Boy Scouts spend the morning teaching Scout Skills to the Cubs. The afternoon is filled with games to test the Scout skills they learned in the morning. The second is designed like a typical Scout Camporee for the Webelos. We divide the Webelos into patrols and have competition games for them. The Cubs actually compete against the Boy Scouts. The games are designed with the Cubs knowledge in mind (ie no advanced pioneering ect.) The Cubs cook their own food (with a Boy Sc

Eisely is absolutely right, you need to inform everyone of your intentions and keep a FIRM date as to your departure from the pack. Our brother Cub Pack is going through this right now. The Cubmaster has two boys, one who has been in our troop for a while and his youngest who will cross over this February. He has been asking for a year for someone to step forward and take the position. No one would do so (out of 74 families!) So he told them that he will step down formally at the Blue and Gold Banquet in February when his youngest crossed over. At every meeting he let them know that

Scouts have ALWAYS been present at political rallies. Do a little research and you will find it is true. This is not new to this election folks. Most time Scouts appear it is because the candidate or its party asked the local council to provide scouts for the occasion for window dressing, just like kissing babies, shaking hands and improperly displaying the US Flag (thay all do that one) This has more to do with the candidates support of Scouting than Scoutings support of the candidate. I agree that Scouting needs to be politically neutral and to the point, I will not discuss

No kidding! Our uniforms need to be Practical for the outdoor program. I would love to have uniforms that we could wear while backpacking, canoeing, ect. As it stands, our boys don't wear the uniform in the field because they all saved their money and bought "real" technical clothing. We even had cool-max t-shirts printed as a class "B" uniform. Why don't we start a petition and ask national to revise the uniforms AND look into the cost issue?

Oh I definately agree, just letting you guys know of another alternative. BTW- Some folks get blisters from sweaty feet. Another solution is to spray your feet with anti-persperant. It does help, I have tried it. (well it helped me anyway) Vaseline works better (for me) to ease chafing. Never used it for blister prevention.

Most scouts don't know what a blister feels like when it is forming. So a lot of us ended up with blisters before we knew what happened. Moleskin and molefoam work reasonably well to treat blisters as long as they are used as intended. But most scouts simply cover the blister with moleskin, rendering moleskin useless and the blister gets worse. What I use and swear by is called Second Skin. Second Skin blister and burn dressing can be used directly over the blister. What it is is a jelly like substance that is very soft and slippery. This stuff works wonders! The big thing to rememb

Many companies sell pack covers because backpacks are not waterproof. My experience is that I have owned several and none has kept my gear dry. My solution? Wrap everything in plastic. I put a trash compactor bag (MUCH stronger than garbage bags) inside the main compartment of my pack as a liner. Everthing than goes in the main compartment is also wrapped individually in plastic or water proof/resistant stuff sacks. I then tie the compactor bag shut with a twist tie and tuck the excess plastic away so that the opening is pointed down. I also line the stuff sack of my sleeping b

Are you using the pulldown menu at the top and right of the green bar? You need to use it to display the topics. That one got me at first too.

You mean like an intarsa pattern? Check this out. http://www.sawbird.com/eagle.htm Or do you mean traditional woodcarving http://www.carvingpatterns.com/ Something my troop did when I was a Scout is that we got an opaque projector (similar to an overhead projector) and transfered the BSA logo onto a piece of plywood, traced it, cut it to shape and painted it. It looked pretty cool at Courts of Honor. Hope this helps.