Oldscout448

I guess that's why I'm still hanging around trying to help out with the ceremonies six years after my youngest scoutson headed off to college. I'm going to have to step back a bit next year. I'm just not physically capable of getting by on 4-5 hours of sleep after a day spent in arduous labor. "That's just the cold hard truth."

Tis better to do one or two jobs well, than to do four or five jobs poorly.

That's why it's critical that the older scouts who have mastered these skills be allowed to instruct and sign off. Scouts get quite enough of adults droning on and on at school. "He who teaches, learns twice"

I found that skill awards made it a lot easier to locate scouts in the dark. You just listened for the clanking noise.

Hereabouts " not all" is nearly half. The girls actually seem to handle adverse conditions a bit better than the boys.

To my mind this is a crying shame. The OA greatly enhanced my understanding of how the Oath and Law were supposed to guide a scout through out his life. It also gave me a way to serve a larger scouting community than just my patrol or troop. As well as giving me ready access to other SPLs and JASMs when I needed to talk over an issue I was having with the new SM. Many a Brother in the Order has told me much the same over a drink or two. ( Out of uniform of course) It is a long established creed of the Order that an Arrow man's first obligation is to his troop and patrol. So perhaps th

It may also become moot if the OA ceases to exist in a few years. Which seems more and more likely.

As far as I know the OA is the only organization that has its members chosen by nonmembers. There are two important reasons to have a scout chosen by the members of his own unit. Firstly, they are the ones who know the potential candidate the best. They have a much better idea who best lives up to the Oath and Law in his daily life than anyone else. Except the scouts family. That's actually the primary criteria for admission into the order. There is a rank and camping experience requirement but the bar is pretty low. Secondly, the Order is NOT supposed to be some sort of snobbis

We have our first ceremonies team meeting today. Trying to get ready for the fall ordeal which may or may not be cancelled or postponed. Again. I'm pretty proud of "my boys", they just keep on showing up to rehearsal sessions and work days, knowing full well that there is a good chance that it will all be a wasted effort.

" I recognize the Council has made a decision. But given that it's a stupid ass decision, I've elected to ignore it." Nick Fury

I'm probablygoing to catch flak for this, but no. There was nothing in the ASMs background that would have indicated predatory behavior. The scouts were looked for and found probably within 10 minutes, certainly within 15. The scouters talked between themselves for years about this, attempting to figure out how this slipped thru the cracks, and how to best prevent any type of recurrence. I could certainly get on board with suing the perp into oblivion. Yas,he is still alive. At least he was 7years ago. A chance encounter. He didn't recognize me, but I'll never forget him.

Concerning this specific case I know only a few more details since the victims immediately dropped out they didn't desire any contact with the troop and I had to respect that. I was told that the scouts family moved away within a few months, but I don't know if it was motivated by the abuse or unrelated. I also wonder if they are among the 82,000. As to the ex-ASM he completely dropped off the local radar screen. Which was wise considering that there were quite a number of young men in the area who would have liked nothing more than to meet him in a dark alley somewhere. Or even a

Circa 1980 a young(21) ASM was thankfully interrupted while doing extremely inappropriate things with two young (11) scouts. Parents were called. Police were called. Council was called. The parents refused to press charges, and tearfully begged the Scouters NOT to let any one else know. " For the boys sake" So what were we to do? Personally I wanted to beat the perp within an inch of his life, not just see him kicked out of Scouting. But I figured that the parents had the right to have the first crack at him, and if they declined in order to protect their children from the

Bless their little hearts!

This was nearly five and a half years ago if the byline date is accurate.

Some of our chapters candidates opted to skip the offered virtual ordeal and wait for the in person one our lodge had scheduled for this summer. I just got an email telling me that it's postponed until next summer. "Unable to hold" it said. No further details. No one who "attended" the virtual ordeal signed up to serve in the chapter in any capacity. At the October ordeal we skipped the Sunday morning meeting/ sign up due to keeping a safe distance apart I guess. In fact the last time anyone was given an in person opportunity to join the ceremony team was April 2018. I swear somet

That is sadly true. There are predators out there, the two legged kind. I've met a few. Some in church, some in Scouting, as well as a few other places. Some people I care very much about have been deeply hurt by these (insert unscoutlike word). You are doing what you think is right to protect those in your charge and I commend you for it. Peace

Ok, I think I finally see where you are coming from. It is obvious from your posts over the years that you care deeply about the kids. I applaud. long and loud. Yet there has to be a point where we let them spread their wings and fly. Short flights in good weather near the nest at first, of course. Then gradually farther and higher as they get stronger and wiser. Scouters and parents know there always comes a day when the kids are going to go solo. Whether we think they are ready or not Our job is to make them as prepared as we can for that day. I do not believe that we can d

Confused by this. So if unit elections are out, how does a scout get into the Order?

Alas my friend, I greatly fear we're going to butt heads here. I just cringe at the thought of Father O'Kelly " supervising" an Ordeal. Or even worse "safeguarding" a Vigil ceremony! It might be interesting to see who on the CO's staff gets tagged to go supervising on a 60 mile hike. Or it's probably more likely that such strenuous events would be cancelled outright. The scouts are supposed to be growing into adults, they need some room to do that.

We are in complete agreement except on one point. I will contend that it can be extremely beneficial to have venture crews set up so that the 18 thru 20 crowd can continue to serve and lead. For example it's darned difficult to have the Lodge or chapter serve as camporee staff when most of the brothers, or sisters, have an important role in their own troops, which should always be their priority. I've sent SPLs back to their troops more than once, even though we were short handed. Many a 18 year old Eagle wants to continue his journey in the order, but his troop committee or SM isn't to

" Do what is right by the scouts, don't worry about the rest" Advice given me by a truly old time Scouter when I because a DL back in '94.

Raising a tall frosty beverage in your direction Brothers! Welcome.

I never could figure where some SMs get that idea anyway. When I look at the PoR patches at a chapter meeting they are 50% SPL or ASPL,. 30% PL, QM, or Scribe. With an occasional JASM or OA rep. These are the scouts who are doing the heavy lifting in their respective troops and for many the Order is one of the main reasons they stay in.