packsaddle

In the spirit of George Bush, I respond with one word...fabric glue.

In the klutzy circles I frequent, we tend to fall on our scabbards. They tend to bruise but then we also tend to make a lot of mistakes. Reminds me of my childhood with the little circles all over my body from girls taking dares and touching me with ten-foot poles. Our troop is heavily weighted toward the younger boys. I have an instinctive caution regarding sheath knives because I see their cheap, ineffective sheaths and the rather careless way the boys carry them. But I can take care of this problem in my troop. It's the Rambo wannabe in the other troop that I worry about at camp. On the

mk9750, OK, the golf thing was a little tongue-in-cheek and a little personal humiliation. The only time I ever played a full round (and last), I teed off on the first hole and the club tipped the ball so it went perpendicular to the intended direction, across a highway, bounced off a pine tree back across the highway and into a pond. Then my game went bad. My partner nearly died from laughter. Needless to say, my score would have been the envy of Dow Jones. And I have since maintained a certain sympathy for Gerald Ford. My assessment of Env. Sci. is from, let's see, 7 years of trying at cam

KS, I want to second your frustration with MBs and the need to tighten this area of scouting. I have also seen nearly identical problems, mostly associated with our camp counselors but not exclusively. I try to limit the damage by telling our boys to focus their energies on active badges (waterfront, shooting sports, etc.). In my experience these are usually fairly well-done at camp and the only opportunity for some of them. For all the others I try to know the program in advance of camp. Craft badges are so-so and mostly fun anyway. Scoutcraft badges are often well-done and sometimes the Firs

Bob White, I think I understand you on all this. I mentioned the instructions we received at camp because at the time those instructions were the only authority for that camp. You may be correct that they disagree with BSA but it is a BSA Council-run Scout camp. FYI, on those occasions over the years I make myself unpopular by protesting loudly if tobacco is forbidden for the boys, the adults ought to be able to do without as well. Perhaps we have another rogue council in need of a good rebuke. I could also mention the Council camporees where entire troops attend with 'alternative' uniforms co

Bob White, I'll try to address your questions as I understand them. The difference is that the leaders who use tobacco or drink alcohol in public (and I know plenty of these leaders) are not dismissed - as long as those leaders do not promote the practice to the boys. This difference is quite clear. Regarding tobacco use, for example, at our camp such leaders are explicitly instructed by BSA "to try to keep the boys from seeing it" (use of tobacco). Thus it is clear that 1) BSA has knowledge of the leaders' addiction and 2) BSA actually condones the practice on BSA property (just try to hide i

Nice to hear from you again, Rooster. I don't remember saying that it is BSA policy to allow gays. What I said is that in application, gays are allowed as long as they keep quiet about it. It may not be a consistent matter as you point out in the Dade case (BTW membership in a gay college organization isn't exactly in the closet), but it does happen. Executive William T. Dwyer III confirms this if the quote by Lattera is accurate in the aforementioned url. Lattera's statement, "He (Scout executive Dwyer) said, 'Well, there ya go.... You went and made your sexual orientation open. If you had

Because the subject is "here we go again....", here we go again. Ghostdancer, the article cited by 'Its Trail Day' demonstrates a long-standing problem with the policy that has been discussed ad nauseum in earlier threads. Specifically, BSA does allow gays as members and leaders so long as those gay members and leaders keep quiet about it. Gays are only dismissed when they proclaim such publicly. The hypocrisy of such application of the policy should be obvious. Additionally, this leaves you (and us) with the knowledge that: 1) we do have gay scouts around us anyway, they're just qui

janssenil, I just noticed your reference to the famous persons who either were ADD/ADHD or suspected that way. I just want to add that we are also superior at... ahem, how to put this delicately... romance. Not much relevance to the boys now, but they certainly have something to which to look forward.

Ed, my heart goes out to you and to the family of the young man, especially the parents. To lose a son or daughter is my worst dread, I hope that in time they can find peace.

Dsteele, It was my question and thanks for an informative answer. I tend to agree that there are few persons who would 1) have the time or expertise to wade through those documents (not me for sure) or 2) would want to anyway. But for anyone who challenged their council's funding decisions, an invitation to view the books might be a quick way to quiet them. Like you said, most of the persons at the top are human and they would probably be very capable at answering queries if asked directly. You know, since all this stuff is in spreadsheet form anyway, why not just put it on the web, you know,

What's the chance that councils would open the books so we could explore their budgets? Or is this already possible? A lot of these questions would be laid to rest fairly quickly, I think. Zahnada, I have heard those six things in different forms as well. Some have an element of truth. Good evidence to the contrary exists for 1), available to anyone with a critical view. The second misconception is held by many persons and certainly not confined to BSA. However, I just scanned my latest Eagletter and saw a very white document, probably dominated by Christians. 3) is obviously wrong but a

Dsteele, Wow and thanks for that great reply! I'm glad you did not take offense, it was not meant that way. Your reply was straight to the point and I learned a lot from it. A quick response to a couple of your comments, though. 1) We primarily see the DE and very little of the rest of the council (outside of camp) and our DEs have been so-so over the years. New ones arrive at regular intervals and we feel like there's nearly a year of training during which time we're left on our own (OK by us). Then there have been a few duds that actually cost us in terms of families leaving scouts (our Cub

My YPT stuff says, "The Boy Scouts of America does not recognize any secret organization as part of its program. All aspects of the Scouting program are open to observation by parents and leaders." Not sure this has anything to do with personal secrets. Oops, I thought this was the "Confidentiality" thread, oh well. Certain leaders and boys of our troop keep secrets from each other all the time, especially the new guys. Such as the correct way to draw the 'man-in-the-moon' or how to cross the sticks in those two popular campfire games. One patrol keeps their killer recipes secret from the o

I have observed (in a non-scientific manner) that when adults are not themselves ADD/ADHD, or if they do not personally have an ADD/ADHD child, such adults are less likely to understand 1) what the child is experiencing, and 2) appropriate responses to superficial behaviors. I wonder if anyone else out there has a similar observation. In reference to the original question, a practical measure I try to use in behaviorally difficult situations is to feed everyone. And not with junk food but with something with protein and calories (meat, cheese, cream, noodles, etc.). As you might surmise,

OK, I share some of the skepticism and doubt expressed here. And I have learned a new term, "pencilwhipping" (I hope I have the correct meaning). BUT, it IS possible and until I see evidence to the contrary, I give the boy the benefit of my doubt and a verbal pat on the back. I have never seen anyone even come close to doing this, most of mine take years just to complete Env. Sci., for that matter almost any 500 word composition for any badge. But it is possible. My question is...can you really fit that many badges on a sash? Without using the back side? Rooster7, it must be spring, you've c

Joni4TA, I'm about to go TDY so I'll try to make this short. Neither you nor any other honest volunteer is a 'sucker'. The 'suckers' are the ones who don't get the benefit of your dedication because of their lack of it. You will get a lot of advice on how to tackle the problems you list: equipment, records, advancement, treasury, etc. I recommend that you do NOT quit, but keep trying. Fighting the fight might help one's mood but I try not to let things like these affect the real goal that I believe exists for good adult leaders. This is not to say I don't get frustrated, I do. I have fel

dsteele, in my humble opinion, you'll never get what they're really worth on eBay, no matter what the bid. This would be a different matter if you had, say, bought them at a garage sale. The difference is that they are things that mark your life's accomplishments, no-one else's. Also, after dabbling there for a while, I have concluded that if you have managed to avoid eBay this long, keep up the good work, there are better things to do.

OK, I'm curious, what are the characteristics of a 'difficult volunteer'?

Indeed, this is interesting! I am a research scientist for the U.S. Army (no lie) and if I tell you more...well, you know. (just kidding I wouldn't do that) But in my spare time I also teach at a local university and quite a while back I was full time faculty. In the distant past I worked for industry...sweating long Southern days in the hot sun fabricating rebars for prestressed concrete structures. ASM7, I very much sympathize with you. A few years ago, a drunk driver crossed the center line and nearly killed my entire family while on their way to school first thing in the morning. We (th

Bob, I've been enjoying this from a distance but I must now confess: I wear cheap ties, cost less than a gallon of gas, and I probably don't qualify as a clothes horse (my daughter is rolling her eyes in emphatic agreement). But I do like the fit and feel of the official scout pants (and the rest of the uniform for that matter) although I agree that the shorts are, well, hideous. I realize that I am in a minority opinion but I wanted you to see a positive statement in this thread. I do agree that they don't work well for some activities, swimming for example (although I've tried that by acci

Thanks!

Overtrained, can an out-of-council leader take the training on another council's web site? How do you arrange for the documentation (cards, etc.)? This would save a tremendous number of man-hours and open the training to many more persons.

OGE, I say that everytime I...uh, probably can't say that here. Wait a minute, are you clairvoyant? How'd you know about my slippers? Shhhhh, remember that 'over the rainbow' thing from another thread? I don't want the secret to get out. "I can always rely on the charity of strangers", can't I? OK, my disclaimer for those of you who are, well, you know, 'wound just a little too tight' and you know who you are, ok no names, we're just joking. You're joking aren't you, OGE, right?

Saltheart, I'm with you completely. I too hope for his quick safe return and for similar return for all of his fellow soldiers.