Mike Long

Eagle must always be a symbol of excellence. Those who wear the badge carry the honor of all their brother Eagles on their shoulders. If they fall and sully that honor we are all diminished. Those who wear the badge and do not fully embrace the obligation of what it is to be Eagle diminish us. I will never sully the honor of my brother Eagles, and I expect my brother Eagles to let me know when I let them down so that I can correct myself.

I'm with OldGreyEagle. BTW as for the insulting label of "homophobe" (among other) being tossed around I sugggest that those who wish to cast aspersions of others character (on both sides of the argument) Re-read the The Scout Law. Hmmmm...yep, it's still there...A SCOUT IS COURTEOUS. I think the issue can be discussed with civility if we keep our heads about us and remember that which is our purpose. Play nice.

Friends, when you see messages like the one posted by "Stormfront" please contact the moderator immediately. Content such as that needs to be removed like the cancer that it is. I have already contacted the moderator and it has been removed. This requires all of our efforts. Thank you.

These guys have a great page of information on international scouting. http://www.msu.edu/~rasche/scout/trp180/intergd.htm

I agree with OldGreyEagle. Philmont is a great trip but it is not the be all end all of high adventure, it's just one of the few trips that comes with its own patch. Our troop puts on its own high adventure programs and the boys love them. As a point of interest, one of our boys went to Philmont last summer and when asked about how it compared to our own trips he replied that he loved it, but he said that our Smoky mountain 50-miler was more challenging and a lot cheaper ($1000 for Philmont versus $70 for the Smokies). As for stories of favoritism in the phone lottery, I have never heard

Sweet. Glad to help. I'm in NORTH Florida, Atlantic Beach to be exact which is part of Jacksonville. Ya know, it would be cool if we could get Troops to come together and host each other at campouts in each others area. It would be a great exchange of experiences especially for boys that don't get to travel much. Sounds like a post for a new forum. BTW, where are you?

I'm not a fan of chemical methods of fire starting. To me they are way too unpridictable. Here's an idea that might do the trick though and be a lot safer. Get some super fine steel wool, a length of speaker wire and a battery (a 9-volt works well) All you have to do is connect the posts of the battery with the steel wool and the steel wool will ignite. I would build a "nest" of steel wool in the firelay, connect the speaker wire to the wool and bury the wire underground and run it out "backstage". At the appropriate moment an assistant could connect the wires to the post on the battery

Found it! Just keep reading. The original book on Scouting was called "Scouting for Boys" and was originally published in installments in 1908. This is an excellent site with loads of info about BP http://www.pinetreeweb.com/B-P.htm These guys have a pretty good bookstore of scout stuff and a link to a 1992 reprint of Scouting for Boys by BP. They link you to the product page at Amazon.com, who'd a thunk! http://www.1earth.com.au/militaria/b/scouts.html Seek and ye shall find.

It can be found here. http://www.scouter.com/Archives/Scouts-L/200006/1119.asp

I am not familiar with the term guidon but I do know that military units for a very long time carried smaller versions of their flags in the field. It sounds great to me, our guys carry a small US flag when we hike and it sounds really cool to me to have a small troop flag too. Wow, now that I am really thinking about it, why not get scout staves to use as walking sticks and get each boy to carry a short section of lashing rope and when you get to your destination erect a flagpole (conditions permitting) using both? Talk about old school scouting! Go for it!

Way to go! Good luck with it all.

I did some research and found a pile of custom flag and banner shops all over the place, but no "official" BSA cotton flags. My best suggestion is that if you want a really special flag hire a custom flag shop and have one made. As far as if you are "allowed" to do so, I am not aware of anything that says it must be "official." Actually, when I judge Troops at local camporees, I would give you extra points for having a "special" flag. Just do a search using the phrase Custom Flags. If you don't get many hits look at my topic regarding finding stuff on the net. Good luck, I might just look

DON'T GET RID OF THE FLAG!!! Take your old flag and have it mounted and framed and hang it on the wall at your meeting hall. Don't "clean it up" either. All those stains and tears are badges of honor and should be preserved. You ought to find someone skilled at preserving old cloth items and get some suggestions so that Scouts 30+ years from now can enjoy it. Your flag is part of your history, protect it.

The Soap trick works great, but here is some food for thought. If you have a high adventure program that includes long distance hiking (50 milers+) You should leave the soot on the pot. The reason why is that the soot helps to trap heat. The end result is that your pot heats up quickly and stays hot longer due to trapped heat thus reducing cooking time. The bottom line is that you will use less fuel. This is a huge help if you are using backpacking stoves but no big deal if you are using campfires. The only bummer is you now have a dirty sooty pot to stuff in your pack, thank god for s

I see that that some of you are running out of luck in finding information on the web. I am a web developer and what we use is a search engine compiler called Copernic 2000. What is does is it searches used SEVERAL other engines and then compares the results. It can also verify all of the links so you won't waste time with busted links. I have found almost everything I need since I started using it, I strongly urge you folks to give it a go. Yes this is a commercial product, and yes I understand that it is a BIG no-no to post what amounts to an ad here, but they have a free download v

I found this link for you. The file is a PDF so you will need to download the Adobe Acrobat reader to view it. (I believe that can be found at Adobe.com if you don't have it.) The link is at the bottom center of the page. http://www.scoutlaw.com/cb/linkshome.html

Here ya go. http://www.scouter.com/Archives/

Yep, inheirited problem kids before myself. That's a tough nut to crack, cause all he needs to do is swap troops till he finds someone willing to pass him to Eagle. I have to say I always believed that the Conference was a pass or fail or at least a good point to stall a boy who needs a few "issues" resolved. After looking even more closely, I see that you are right. All is says is take part not get a reccomendation. Did council give you any suggestions or was the response, in affect, "pass him on?" I guess you would have to raise your concerns with his review board (in writing)

I agree, give the kid what he rightfully earned. In respose to Kevieemeal As to point 2. Perhaps I did not explain myself very well on this point. All Scout functions REQUIRE the 2-deep method, this includes working on merit badges in my eyes. What I object to is one-on-one Parent-Scout advancement. Yes Parent-child bonding is a major aspect of Scouting, at no point did I state that it was not, but it must be done 2-deep. I also stated that if the only counselor available was a parent it would stand to reason that the parent needs to be the counselor. My position on this subject i

I agree, this is your last chance to straighten this boy out. Stan raised an interesting point that seems to show up far too often in these discussions. How did this boy get this far and still be unfit? Is this something new? If not, the time to address the problem is when it first showed up, not at a review or a conference, at the EXACT moment you notice it or when it is brought to your attention. If it is, you need to find out what has caused this change. I view the Scoutmaster Conference as our time to explore the boy's character. The badges and other requirements measure concret

Here you go. This is a small one http://www.isd.net/stobin/document2/PatrolBox.html This one has legs. http://home.epix.net/~hawkmtn/jambpb.html

Hatchet throwing: I did it at the '85 National Jamboree and I thought it was very cool. The only hatchet that should be allowed to be thrown is won specifically designed to be thrown. You can throw cutting hatchets but it doesn't work very good and the kids would probably find it frusrating. One designed for wood cutting and one designed for throwing are two completely different animals. Just get a few for camp use. The last thing you want to do is make kids think you can throw any hatchet. Bikes on trails: My guys love it. Bikes destroy trails so be sure that your program STRONGLY

The Honor of all Eagles is being cheapened, not just by "paper Eagles" but by the BSA itself. The BSA has made requirements easier over the years, especially after the passing of my personal hero Green Bar Bill. As a matter of fact many district and council level scouters have on NUMEROUS occasions urged myself and other Scoutmasters publically to push boys to become Eagle by 13. So if you shake your head and wonder why there are so many boys with Eagle patches who aren't quite qualified to be Eagles the answer is because the BSA wants it that way. I earned my Eagle at 16 and it was a fight,

You have two choices if even your local Council won't get involved. Start screaming at the national level and get some people removed from Scouting PERMANENTLY or find another unit (or start a new one)and take all the people that have a problem with the Scoutmaster with you. Personally I implore you to do what you can to get those people removed from Scouting. We don't need or want them counted as Scouts, Scouting has enough problems without being torn up from within.

My best suggestion would be to check military surplus stores. You can get a lot of new and used stuff at some of them. The Scout catalog used to carry an official red scout beret with the scout logo, but I do not know if it is still offered. As a brief aside; When I attended the National Jamboree in '85, I meet Some scouts that adopted Urban camoflage pants (black, grey and white) as part of thier troop's uniform. Boy did they look sharp. Don't think I want to look that military though. Anyway, at the time I was told that troops may adopt "Accessories" to add to their uniforms. Some