NWScouter

The National Association of Lutheran Scouters have put their Scouts Worship on line and it has a vespers in it.

http://nlas.org/Worship.htm

swiss army knife--- leatherman only if I need a pair of pliers

Fotoscout,

Where is your citation for that? Kenks description of the BSA rule is right on with G2SS.

Units may make more rules but he has what the BSA says.

Fog,

I have been involved for fifteen years with a camp based Post, which was changed to a Crew when Venturing started . It was electing youth and adults to the OA until the change over to being a crew.

Here is part of a post I made from last March which includes a quote from the 91 OA handbook:

At one time you could be elected from an Explorer Post but you had to have earned First Class in Boy Scout troop, that kept girls out.. The essence of our existence is that we must be those campers- Boy Scout, Explorers, and Scouters who best exemplify the Scout Oath and Law in our daily lives. Order of the Arrow Handbook 1991 printing p.7. It was your fellow Scouts or Explorers that elected you to membership in the Order p. 31.

When I was a scout in the sixties we had a different handclasp than we have now.

In the 1960 handbook :

To give the Scout handclasp, extend you left hand with the three middle fingers out stretched, the little finger and the thumb spread out. Interlock your fingers with your friends fingers and clasp firmly

When I I was a Webelos Den leader in 1985 I found out it had changed to just a left handed with no interlocking.

When did it change?

For the one who asked if every position that you are multiple in counts to membership numbers only your primary position counts. Plus the only membership numbers that national really cares about are the youth numbers. I know my council has been requiring merit badge councilors to fill out the adult application form for last 15 years plus. The other form listing the badges you will do is just for the advancement committee. Who then make up the list for the troops to know who and what badges they will do.

The second part of your question: Your ten months started back when you were a youth and has been running ever since then. So you meet that requirement. Get a hold of a current OA Handbook and check out the rest of the requirements. Then check your lodge's calendar for a Brotherhood ceremony opportunity that you can make.

Just need to pay this year's dues and you are active again. Remmeber you only can wear a lodge flap of your current lodge.

Trail Pounder it had all to do with race. At that time by LDS Church doctrine, no black could reach their highest priesthood level because they were unworthy by the taint of having dark skin. Many university football teams refused even to play BYU because their black and other team members refused to play. In the early 70s their leadership had a revelation that changed the doctrine.

Also, the National office of the BSA allowed southern councils to have and require white and color troops, activities and camps through the 60s.

It is not so much that we should be giving the Venture Crew the ability to elect OA candidates but to restore it to them. That level of the Scouting program could when it was called Exploring and then when all but a few career based post were changed into crews they lost that right.

Ed,

I was saying not the SM should lie but that we have to assume that the person signing the POR felt that the Scout had fulfilled the requirement. The SM could have assigned the Scout a leadership project that was to be a APL. That is why when an authorized person (however the unit determines, but usually in this case a Scoutmaster)has signed, we have to make the assumption that it has been pre-approved and the scout has fulfilled the requirement.

Usually around here the name is released when one is formally charged.

There should be no problem. There is a part of the POR requirement that gives the option to the Scoutmaster to assign a leadership project (or words to that effect). So if it is signed off, the SM approved and like a blue card there is no going back on that. We must assume that the SM determined that APL was a leadership project or that he completed something else.

Adults outside of Boy Scout and Varsity units can be nominatied by the Scout Executive and Lodge Advisor. That how you may see Cub, District, and Council Scouters going through their Ordeal.

I just remembeedr hearing that non-American can join an overseas BSA unit if he is a temporary resident of that country he is in. A child of British military family in Korea could join the base BSA unit if there was no British Scout unit nearby.

BSA in foreign countries is the reason for the resides in the US part of the regulation. I believe a non-citizen cannot join an overseas BSA unit. Just like if there was a British Scout Troop organized in Washington DC for dependents of embassy personnel, they most likely would not be allow to enroll Americans. It would be considered poaching.

The little silver arrow is for wear on street clothes. I dont think you are to wear the triangle anywhere but on the ribbon. Years ago before I even was a scout the OA had small silver animal totems to wear on the ribbon. Each lodge picked one as its own. This may have been before flaps. The lodge when I was a youth gave out the dangle at ordeal, and you did not get the flap until you went through brotherhood. Some lodges have an ordeal, brotherhood and vigil flaps. Both of these I believe are against OA standards.

They can be worn together. I have seen the flap worn without the dangle more often than not but rarely seen the dangle worn alone. I wear my 'pocket rocket' all the time since I became Vigil in '99. It's the only way to show you are a Vigil (because you only wear your sash at OA functions or representing the OA) or have received the Founders Award.

Just a note, the Washington Times is well known for its conservative views. More conservative than the Wall Street Journal and like many papers thorough out the nation. The myth of a monolithic liberal media is just that, a myth.

Scoutnet is the national database for the BSA. The scout offices only access it. It's what turns out the various reports that district and council professionals and volunteers use to do their jobs. It also is the way that councils send information to national such as registration.

Sometime it works well, some times it is hard to use and doesnt do exactly what you want it to do. For example, training has to have an exact date I cant remember what was the date I went through Commissioner basic, it was the spring of either 88 or 89. So I made up a date of April 15, 1988, so it would show I was trained.

It can keep track of a lot of things, but you have to staff hours to input. Money is tight, so many of the features are not utilized to the fullest.

Talking to our council registrar today, the way that national identifies a unit is by council number and unit number and type (troop, pack, team, crew). When a council merges identical unit numbers need to be changed. In our council the ones from the old council in the north got a 4 placed in front. Also all units have 4 digits, even if they dont use them any where else.

Col. Unit

Troop 36 in Snohomish (old Evergreen Area) 606 0036

Troop 36 in Bellingham (old Mount Baker Area)606 4036

This is how they show up on recharter, scouting magazine labels etc.

In most case the unit chose to use only the 36 as they are know to every one else

There is no national method for giving out numbers. In the three councils I have been associated have had systems in the past to give out numbers that are not really used much any more. The main way was to link the numbers to areas of the councils. The north end was 300s, the east was 400s, south 200s, west 100s and the central 0- 99. The council I am with now is the product of two councils joined together back in 1994. May numbers were duplicated. No troop had to change but the duplicated numbers in the northern council were made into 4000s, officially. Troop 36 up there became 4036 on all official paper work but on their uniforms and how they are referred to as Troop 36. We try now to not issue any duplicate numbers now. My council from my youth added the prefix numbers to units in the council it absorbed and they though have them on their uniform.

Individual programs, be it council camps or private groups can restrict the ages. Scout camps out here generally restrict certain programs such as climbing, waterskiing, black power, mountain biking, and others. In has to do with cost of the program, equipment, strength, size and anticipation.

The cost of the equipment and staff limits the number of scouts that many of these programs can have at summer camp. Having a proper fitting equipment for smaller scouts can both be hard to find and expensive. Size and strength differences can make it difficult for staff to instruct and supervise, and effect the enjoyment. Safety issues can also be affected by size. Drawing the older scout back to camp and having something for the younger scout to look forward to are the goals also.

All the camps Ive attended in the last twenty years have had some programs restricted by age. If you dont like what your local council camp is offering, check around there may be another camp offering what you want.

Many officers in the CSA had slaves as personal servents. Many of these slaves had grown up with the officers and through devotion to them may have help defend their master. They may have fought but were never an official part of the CSA Army. There also may have been instances of slaves defending their masters plantations. There were labor battalions building fortification that were made up by slaves, but they were either press ganged or hired out by their masters. This may be what they are reffering to but none of it is freely serving in the army as there was in the Union Army. And before before anybody says anything about the labor battlions that the North had, most of the ex-slaves served in those more willingly for food, shelter and protection.

It is not that there are honor societies that existed before the Order of the Arrow but there were many societies before the OA was adopted as the official honor society of the BSA. Many camps and councils had them by the fifties many were replaced by the OA and in many cases suppressed by national. National wanted only one and it was and still is the OA.