NeilLup

One can, of course, buy a second OA sash for ceremonial purposes. I also knew of a lodge where the custom was that one would wear one's Ordeal sash as an Ordeal member, then when one became a Brotherhood member, one would wear the Brotherhood sash for ceremonial occasions and their old Ordeal sash for work occasions. As far as wearing an OA sash with "civilian" clothes, I can think of one possible circumstance which would unquestionably be OK. A Venturing crew can choose their uniform and could choose "civilian" clothes as the uniform. In this case, a person who was an OA member

I attended a course once where the instructor showed how there were many, many different voting systems and a skilled leader could govern the outcome by choosing the voting method and then letting the group vote. If you believe that you have two boys who collaborate and don't want that, the last thing you would want is a simple plurality. With that, a boy with two votes might win if every boy votes for himself. So you could use a ranked voting system where the boys vote for the one they want most, then second most, then third most, etc. Initially, the first place votes are coun

I've heard of this kind of restriction before. Some units do hot have female ASMs. Others have (in my opinion) seriously misinterpreted the Guide to Safe Scouting by stating that they believe that having a female ASM on a campout makes it a coed activity meaning that if a female ASM is present, a male leader must be there too. (The alternative would be two adult female leaders running a Boy Scout campout.) It would seem that the CC has a real problem with female leaders and this may be his way of getting back. He may also have a problem with this particular woman and this is his

In response to Bob White's original question, "How to run a Troop JLT."

To Mark's comments, One of the interesting additions to the 4th day of 21st Century Wood Badge is that the training on Leave No Trace Camping is done by youth formed as a Venturing Crew. They then run the challenges (adventure trail) the next day for the adults. They also are encouraged to participate in the diversity exercise and diversity game in the evening. On our first such course, some of the youth had such a good time that they asked if they could come back for the closing ceremony. Not only could they, but they were guests of honor. We took photos of the course and

It probably means that someone was connected with Scouting prior to 1972. The Scout rank was added then. Prior to that, Tenderfoot was the joining rank and Webelos Scouts could cross over as Tenderfoot Scouts as they had completed all the Tenderfoot requirements.

Hello Bill, You sound as if you are very much on the right track. Please don't race past some of the other comments made. Attending your district training is great and probably gives the best quality training but if you have a qualified person in your Pack or if your Commissioner is qualified or if one of your district trainers is willing, you can run the training in your own Pack. The position of Pack Trainer is specifically intended for the person who does this.

Ordeal '60 Nentico 12 Brotherhood '61 Nentico 12 Vigil Honor '72 Walika 228 (may it rest in peace) Currently Mosswetusett #52 In addition to getting one's shoulder mauled in the Tap Out, does anyone else remember carving the arrow during the Ordeal and getting it notched for talking, etc?

""Scouting isn't what you 'think' it is, Scouting is what the BSA 'says' it is." Oh my, oh my, oh my! I was following along with interest until I hit this sentence. Then I became very troubled. Several years ago, at a conference at Philmont Training Center, the instructor said that "Scouting is a movement, not an organization." The difference is that a movement is a loose affinity group where an individual marches or walks along with the other members of the movement because of a general and personal acceptance of the goals and objectives of the movement for as long as they c

Hello Bill, You are not necessarily out of line at all. Depending upon the situation in your Pack, it may be very appropriate. It is great that all of your Den Leaders are trained. Note that this person MUST have Youth Protection Training which can be accomplished on-line. Then, Fast Start can be accomplished on-line. If you have a Pack Trainer, that person can then administer New Leader Essentials and Den Leader Training in your Pack. If not, there still should be training for CS leaders in your area. I would suggest that establishing the attitude that a Leader

Hello TP and VentureScout, I suggest that the problem is not with the youth. Search the NYTimes archives or Google for "hyperparenting." Many parents now are involved in incredible depth with their children and their education. The scariest one was a recent article on "Getting into College Summer Camp" where one goes to learn how to write a superb college application. Their philosophy was "People don't get into college. Applications get into college." This creates a situation like that in some college classes which are graded on the curve. When everybody works ten tim

Hello Scoutldr, Concerning how Eagle Scout percentages have changed, in 1973, there were about 47,000 boys who earned the Eagle Scout award. There were also about 2.1 million Boy Scouts. That works out to a bit more than 2% earning Eagle in any given year. Last year, there were about 49000 boys who earned the Eagle Award but Boy Scout membership was about 1 million. That works out to close to 5% of the boys earning Eagle. The change in the fraction is not in the numerator but in the denominator. About the same number of boys decide that they will become "lifers" as Bo

Sounds like a great project. Has your Scout looked at the disability awareness merit badge? Eamonn very appropriately suggests running the project past the District Advancement Chairman. However, I thought that was a mandatory part of Eagle projects and not just a nice to do thing. Am I wrong that an Eagle project must be approved by the district/council before beginning?

Hello TP, 1) You can write to National and ask why "Crew Leader" and/or "Coxswain" are not on the list. 2) Unless you wish, you don't need to have Crew Leader PLUS a Skipper assigned project. Rather, you could use Crew Leader responsibility AS the skipper assigned project.

Were these Scouts with insignia errors wearing Scout trousers. If so, I would be thrilled. My blood pressure spiker is the boys wearing a Scout shirt and blue jeans. That to me is the blatant "in your face" statement concerning the uniform.

May I suggest that you do a little reading on the most appropriate water purification tablets. I know that we visited REI recently and got quite an education. Part of the reason is that giardia is much more common now than it was 70 years ago and I am not sure that halazone addresses giardia. So if you are going to be in a place where you will be using purified water for a fair period of time, you will need to use something which kills giardia. I believe that is chlorine dioxide or sodium chlorite.

Hello Trail Pounder, As I am sure you read, the Eagle Scout application says that the acceptable Positions of Responsibility for Eagle Scout for Sea Scouts are: Boatswain Boatswain's mate Yeoman Purser Storekeeper Clearly, I would say that a boy serving in one of those positions would meet the POR requirement. I don't know what the relationship of Boatswain and Boatswain's mate are but it is appropriate for all of your Crew leaders to be designated as Boatswain's mates? Alternately, for Star Scout and Life Scout, there can be a "Scoutmaster assigned project" a

Hello Uncleguinea, It's not that the watch tells you what the month is. Rather, you tell the watch what the month is. If the watch doesn't know what the month is, how can it know how many days there are in that month and when to go back to 1 for the date. Not to mention tricky situations like leap year. That's why you also likely need to enter the year.

I have very mixed feelings on this. I certainly agree that the boys should be involved in selecting patrols. Exactly how that is done can be tricky. I remember a suggestion in an earlier edition of HBSM that the boys should each submit a list with the names of 3 or 4 boys they would like in their patrol. The SM and ASMs then use those lists to make up the patrol. The reason for my mixed feelings relates to an experience when I was a boy. It was announced that patrols would be remade on a particular night. For various reasons beyond my control, I was about 15 minutes late to t

Many of the Scoutmasters in our district are not good with computers and I doubt if they know how to burn a copy. As a matter of fact none of the computers in the service center have a CD burner. >> This objection was raised in my council. I suggested that if the CD were given to essentially any Tenderfoot Scout, he would know how to burn CDs and could do so easily. If the PLC were asked to do it, it would be trivial. Once again, this was a recruiting device designed for boy to boy in the mode of today's boys. It wasn't necessarily designed to give warm fuzzies to toda

May I second what VentureScout writes. When I hear of "Life to Eagle" classes, "Eagle Scout week" at Summer Camp, "Eagle Scout chairmen" or "Eagle Scout" mentors in Troops, it spikes my blood pressure. Eagle Scout is supposed to be hard, not just tedious or labor intensive and not just physically hard, but requiring initiative, gumption and growth on the part of the boy. The candidate is supposed to have to stretch himself, take risks and grow. The idea is not that it is like a seat on the train where everybody arrives at the destination but rather like bushwhacking through

In response to FOG's suggestion, may I make a suggestion of my own. Please write to the National Council and express your idea. I know of a number of cases where items have been clarified based on comments from the field, in some cases based on only one letter. As far as why matters have not been clarified, the National Advancement group probably: 1) Thinks that matters are clear 2) Doesn't know that there is a problem Believe it or not, National level volunteers and pros are human beings. They do their best but don't forsee every possibility when requirements are scr

My personal favorite is "It's a Lie" (The great historical bum). I also personally like "The Happy Wanderer." Last year, in Northeast Region, the Wood Badge Course Director's Development Conference and the JLT Conference held a joint campfire run by the JLT youth. Suffice it to say that the songs weren't any that I had heard before and style was, shall we say, different from that when I was a Scout. However, the singing was loud and enthusiastic and the boys were happy to teach the songs to us old guys.

Hello Jeanne, Here are some more sources for information: 1) The Fact Sheet on the Boy Scouts national web site http://www.scouting.org/nav/enter.jsp?c=xds&terms=order+of+the+arrow 2) The OA National Web Site http://www.oa-bsa.org As mentioned, the Order of the Arrow is an honor society of Boy Scout campers. Being elected is a very nice honor for a Scout. As a parent, you are entitled to know anything that you wish, so if you have further questions, please feel free to post them or to contact your local Scout office. We often try to keep OA informa

Hello Eamonn, The idea behind the Boy Scout recruiting CD was that the Troop would make copies of the CD for every boy in the Troop. And for you if you wish. Making copies of CDs is an extremely inexpensive process. Often, I find that my local Staples has a deal where you can by 50 blank CDs for $10 and then get a $10 rebate. Most modern computers can easily burn copies of CDs. Would you like a copy of the recruiting CD?