MVScouter

Our past District Commissioner created a segment to go underneath the round district patch. On says--commissioner team--obviously for all the commissioner staff, and another that says--district committee--for all the committee members. I'm not sure why he did it? The commissioner segment is red and the committee segment is blue, to match the position patches.

Well, I suppose change is inevitable in all things, even changing the BSA uniform. I have 2 tan shirts and 1 Venturing shirt. I don't see myself changing if it does happen anytime soon, and I beleive I will be in the majority. It's hard enough to get parents to buy their scout sons any kind of BSA clothing, much less new shirts. Forget about the pants, mostly adults will buy those. I can just imagine going to a District Roundtable six months after this change, if it happens, and seeing a 3/4 of adults scouters still wearing what we have now, and the other 1/4 (I'm being generous) wearing

Acco, you may be right about the National Jamboree Chief Executive patch. I only said I thought it was extremely rare because I had heard or read somewhere that only 200 are made each Jamboree. If that's true, and last Jamboree had 40,000+ participants, I would consider that being very rare, but I could be mistaken. John-in-KC--WOW! You really have a big district. Your district Key 3 must be the Key 6, or the Key 9! Your district must take great pride in showing its identity in you council with you district patch. I have not seen many youth wear it in our's, mostly adults, although any un

Okay. I know right away that wearing a patch that represents the district a scouter is in, is not authorized by national policy and the insignia guide. Districts are not considered a recognized body unto themselves. Yes, it states that in the insignia guide. With that in mind, about 4 years ago, our then District Commissioner, with the blessing of the Council Executive, issued a District patch. It was to be worn on the right sleeve. Other districts in our council created their own district patch as well. The Council adjacent to us across the river made a few negative comments about it, bu

There is no District Training Award. It's the training award for District Roundtable Commissioners. I would think if a Boy Scout is in a Venturing Patrol, he could wear a Venturing device for a youth religious award.

2 years ago, our council awarded 27 scouters with the Silver Beaver. At the Council Recognition Dinner, it took nearly 90 minutes to announce them all (we are the 5th largest council). Last year, the count was over 20. Each year is different. 3 years ago, our district had no one awareded. The year after that, we had 7. Baden, as I understand it, the way your council nominating committee does their process, ours is the same way. It does seem the most fair. 10 years does seem to be the minimun number of years of service. I don't know of anyone in our district that was awarded with less ye

My story is similar to many others. I was a Cub Scout along with my brother starting in the late 50's. Mom was the Den Mother. I still have her den mother patch. Got AOL (Webelos Award back then) and became a Boy Scout. Dad was the ASM and then the SM. When my brother and I slacked off, he would push us hard to get the Eagle Award, which my brother and I did. I went into Exploring for 2 years, got one palm and then the post fell apart. I rejoined into Cub Scouts as a Webelos Den Leader nearly 8 years ago with my son. I still haven't forgiven myself for not joining up when he became a Tige

I wear all of the knots I've earned--10. ( Eagle, youth religious, Arrow of Light, BS training, Commissioner Key, James E West, Community Service Award through the American Legion, the Boyce New Unit Organizer Award, Cubscouter, and Webelos Den Leader.I'll be awarded the Commissioners Award of Excellence next month. I should have gotten it in December, but sometimes the wheels in scouting turn slow. No big deal. I've noticed in our district too, most every adult scouter wears the knots they've earned. Our training chair is always encouraging adult scouters to earn them. I've had several

I like Calico Penn's post. It echos my views also. Yes, it is human nature to seek and receive recognition for our efforts. Who wants to supress this aspect of being human, not me. I wear all the knots I've earned. Many times, both adults and youth have come up to me and asked me about what I've earned. Two knots in particlar, the Community Service Award (through the American Legion) and the Boyce New Unit Organizer Award, have caught the attention of many. It gives me the opportunity to explain about them and what they can do to earn it. I look at it this way. If a youth or ad

I agree with everyone else with the list of formal occasions. I have 5 medals I could wear, but usually only wear my Eagle, Religious Award and a Historic Trail Medal I am proud of. Most adult scouters I see at "formal events" don't wear the medals they've earned. That is their choice. I would rather wear them at certain formal occasions rather than have them collect dust in a drawer in my bedroom dresser. My take on our Council Recognition Dinner and District Dinner is this: these dinners are very formal affairs with great planning and implimentation gone into creating these events by

Excellent post Eamonn You have really nailed the duties of the Unit Commissioner right on the head. Every new unit commissioner should read your insights. I have always tried to pick the brains of more experienced scouters because you never know what you can use yourself from the knowledge they impart. My view as a UC is one of a resource person and helper. Through my experience, it can be very tempting for a UC to butt-into the affairs of a unit. Many a time, I've caught myself attempting to force my views on the unit's "doing business" as--"this is the way is has to be." That is

Opps. I made a error. Our National Commissioner is Don Belcher. Anyone who is a commissioner can get his quarterly podcasts off of the National website. Just go to Commissioners and you will find it. His commentary's can be downloaded to your Ipod.

Eamonn, If you have the Commissioner Fieldbook, go to page 19, "Uniform Inspections." Mine is 5 years old so I don't know if this section has been changed. It states in the 1st paragraph: "You are a uniformed offical of a uniformed organization. It is important that you wear yours correctly to set an example for your units. Pack inspections are held in the fall. Troop inspections are held in spring and fall. Occasionally you will be asked to inspect the unit." You have much more experience than I do so what is your take on this? I have only done one inspection at the troop lev

I've been down this road before, so here I go again. I feel there are certain times when someone like a Unit Commissioner or a Dist. Comm. must interceed when some scouter is grossly violating BSA uniform policies. I will explain......and I am a UC--for 5 years. I see patches misplaced or ones that should not be on the "uniform" all the time. 99% of the time, I say nothing. Usually, the scouter will wear what he wants to wear and that's the end of it, no matter what anyone tells him or her to the contrary. But there are situations that must be addressed. Such as: The district

I have 3 shirts, two tan and one for Venturing. I do wear all of my knots on all of the shirts. Again, it's personal preference. I don't know much about Sea Scouts, but imposing a limit of 6 knots on that uniform is interesting. There must some sort of rational behind it. If anyone reading this is in Venturing, I ordered several of the matching background knots from Craig Murray's Sageventure website. The quality of the knots is excellent and the background matches perfectly with the dark green shirt. I have had several positive comments about how they look. Wearing the normal tan backgr

Yes, this discussion about the UP's refuses to die. So here we are at round 3--or is it 30? Am I the cause? Look back at the thread that started in Feb. Purcelce copied that reply from Andy the Commish (which I still do not agree with)in which I got a little bent out of shape over a young scouter wearing 3 purple youth religious knots. I just thought I would refresh some memories. I hope you got a good laugh Purcelce. If you were a UC, I would have liked to see what you would have done in that circumstance. I will explain further. I did briefly glance at my Unit Commissioners Field Guideb

Since I am the guy proposing the Vigil knot idea, I will respond further. First off, my proposal was directed toward my Council Lodge. I sent out a few e-mails to various scouters I knew to get some feedback on the viability of a Vigil Knot. Some were for it, some against. As I stated before, the then Council Executive of Indianhead Council liked the idea and was willing to support it. In a future message, I will relate some of his thoughts. Remember, he is a professional scouter and he has the authority to make it a reality. Had he not supported it, I would have dropped the idea right away. N

FScouter---I side with your opinion on the appropiateness of pointing out uniform errors. My DC has asked our groups of UC's if we have conducted uniform inspections of our assigned units. (I have.) At the very least, a UC should do uniform inspections of his assigned units. There are various ways on pointing out the errors. In my case, I am very familiar with all the boys in the troop so no one got all bent out of shape when an error was seen. I actually had the SPL and ASPL do the inspections and I was more in the background. Purcelce---Thank-you for your kind words and welcome. I think

Okay. I am the UC that wrote to "Andy the Net Commish". Yes, I was very surprised by his reply, and yes, I was also surprised reading the negative feedback. I can take critism as well as anyone, but I feel Andy was overzealous with his answer. But there are two sides to every coin, right? Let me explain myself further in regards to the incident with the "3 purple youth religious knots." Only one other time before that event did I make a remark about an incorrect patch placement. An Asst. SM in the troop I am in had a temporary patch on his left pocket. I know this guy, so he is not a s