nolesrule

Basementdweller, I may be a UC, but if that's how it went down, I'd be right there with ya. When our DC tells us it's inspection time of year, we are told to schedule them with our units. But if a unit has no interest in holding a uniform inspection, we can't force the issue. It's not our unit, and that's something every commissioner needs to remember.

As a UC for 2 troops and a pack, I aim for one physical visit each month, usually alternating between unit meetings and committee meetings. If there is something important that I need to go over (such as the mandatory youth protection training), I visit the very next committee meeting. All 3 units take the summer off, so no June-August for the pack and no July/August for the troops (they both meet until summer camp). In between, I stay in contact with the unit leaders and committee chairs via email, and I make sure I am on all their email distribution lists so that I can keep up with what

They can wear their career arrows on a string around their necks. :-P

Any member of the uniform police who thinks you can't wear your Eagle medal at an Eagle Court of Honor should be subject to having his UP membership revoked.

"It sits in the middle of a vast protected Southwest Florida Water Management area, but funding for the Boy Scout camp itself barely squeaks through the Council's budget process every year because nobody seems to know that the camp is open again. " It's in need of a PR campaign. I knew about the sale to SWFWMD, and the lease to the council, but no one ever talks about it. Thanks to the reminder, I'm going to suggest it to the 2 troops I am UC for. I know in the 5 years I've been their commissioner, neither has been there.

Forgot about McGregor Smith. Haven't been there in a long long time.

Sand Hill Scout Reservation is near Weeki Wachee,about 25 miles south of the Homosassa / Crystal River area. It's our council's primary camp, and I staffed there as a youth for summer camp, but honestly there's plenty else to do. Someone mentioned Rainbow River, there's good tubing if the water level is high enough (I haven't checked), and there's a few rivers good for some relaxing canoeing.

This information is from 1998. They are now extinct. :-P

I'm in agreement with basement and John. Simple, handwritten thank you card. While it's thoughtful to give a thank you gift to a mentor (or two) who had a major impact along the way, I don't think giving gifts to those who helped on an Eagle Project is appropriate. Service to others is supposed to be about selfless giving (remember the story of the Unknown Scout who refused to accept a tip for his service), and that goes for the volunteers who assisted on the project. Doesn't an expected gift defeat the purpose? Besides, a Scout is THRIFTY.

"What if we skipped Beavers and Bobwhites, and sang Eagles thru Antelopes? Would that not maintain Gilwell order? For that matter, we could skip something in the middle and still stay maintain the order. " My course last year had 5 patrols...Bobwhite, Owl, Bear, Buffalo, Antelope. We maintained Wood Badge order throughout the course. We just skipped over the missing critters, although Beaver, Eagle and Fox were represented on staff.

BMI is just a height/weight ratio forumula.

I was definitely on the younger side when I put the project together. I don't remember my exact age (if my Eagle book wasn't in temp storage, I could check my time log for dates), but I know my mom or dad were chauffeuring me around town, which means I wasn't yet 15. I have to admit that at the time I was honestly surprised that my project exceeded 100 hours. It's such a large number for a 13 or 14 year old to comprehend. But I learned a lot about the meaning of man-hours. I can tell you that I was put out of my comfort zone working on the project, especially in the planning stages and d

"I doubt Maurice Drew-Jones would have too much trouble on a backpacking trip. (Although he's listed at 5'7" and 210#, all of his college stats show him as 5'6." Doubtful that he grew an inch after graduating college). " More often than not, the "official" height and weight stats for professional athletes as listed on rosters are inflated.

Even the planning stages of a project usually involve more man-hours than just the scout. My project was small. We built a dozen wood shiva benches (14-inch stools used by Jewish mourners) as an option to non-traditional yet more modern "cardboard box" stools that the local funeral homes had been providing. It totaled 120 man hours from inception to delivery. I know for my project I met with a committee at my synagogue multiple times as well as two funeral directors just in the planning stages. Those meetings are multiple man-hours, not just the scout's hours. If scouts are properly

Hehe Beavah. Yeah, I meant 8. Not sure why I typed 7. But one of my favorite mantras as a computer tech is that the biggest cause of most problems with a computer usually is between the chair and the keyboard. :-P As I said before, I'm not saying hand him Eagle, I'm not even saying this should eventually end in a successful Eagle BOR, so I don't know why you would bring entitlement to Eagle or anything else into the discussion. Except of course that as long as he is a registered member of a BSA unit, I'm of the opinion that he is entitled to participation in the Advancement Method.

No Beavah, no tomahawks for you. I agree with you.

You told a good story, Beavah. Maybe taking Eagle off the table worked in that particular instance. But was Eagle really taken off the table? Or did the SM just tell the Scout that to see how he would respond, and then when he got the response he wanted over time, told the scout it was back on the table? And is there really any difference between taking it off the table and then giving it back vs. pretending to take it off the table? But I can guarantee you that it can also work the other way. Some people respond poorly to negative reinforcement, and it can have the opposite of the d

By the same token, you need to be careful about driving someone away from scouting during an extremely vulnerable time in his life when it may have the most positive effect. There is the possibility to use this as a teaching opportunity with the scout, but he has to be around for that to happen. If a carrot for keeping this scout around is the possibility of eventually having an Eagle Board of Review, you can't absolutely write that off, lest you lose him for good with no additional opportunity to make a positive impact. That's also a reason why a definite timeframe is in order. And

Seems to me that more than 8 patrols and the schedule probably starts to get unwieldy. Or it could just be tradition.

sensational    /sɛnˈseɪʃənl/ Show Spelled[sen-sey-shuh-nl] Show IPA adjective 1. producing or designed to produce a startling effect, strong reaction, intense interest, etc., esp. by exaggerated, superficial, or lurid elements: a sensational novel. 2. extraordinarily good; conspicuously excellent; phenomenal: a sensational quarterback. I would guess the poster was using definition #1.

At least I didn't say George Lucas raped my childhood. Isn't mentioning Godwin's Law almost as bad as invoking it outright? :-)

Sorry Beavah, you lose geek cred for referencing the prequel travesty...I mean trilogy. You know, where we learn that Darth Vader is just a whiny brat who lashes out at the galaxy because his mother was killed. If you wanted a good analogy, Vader would have had to come up with additional useless paperwork and mandatory training in the hopes that no more mothers would be killed. Instead he had his step brother killed, blew up an entire planet including the adoption parents of his daughter, cut his son's hands off and turned his best friend into a ghost (and that was just his immediate fami

Hooray for buying knots. I bought my NESA Lifetime Eagle knot qualification at least 5 years before they even came up with it. :-) So when it came time to put my second shirt together a couple years back, I got the Eagle knot with the shiny border. It was the same price as the regular Eagle knot, so why not? My first shirt still has the regular Eagle knot, mainly because my wife does the sewing.

I have to say the one scouter that I personally have the most respect for and whose advice I hold in high regard has 4 rows of knots. He wears them because he earned them, and he's truly there to serve the boys. On the other hand, some of the most pompous scouters I've met only have an Eagle square knot. I hate these generalizations. It shouldn't matter one way or another as long as it's in compliance with the Insignia Guide. And why is it that any discussion of any knot or adult award tends to devolve into a criticism of the nature of those who wear the knots? This argument is

"It seems as if kids today are cut from a different cloth than we were. There has been a decline in respect, ethics, morals and good behavior in general." The older generation always says that about the younger generation. And then they grow up to become the older generation.