Proud Eagle

My OA lodge has been invited to send representatives to accept the E. Urner Goodman Camping Award. We are planning on sending a group of 2-3 adults and 2-3 youth. We figure this is sort of a once in a lifetime sort of thing. Due to the extreme cost of airfare to Dallas, I think our guys are going to be taking a road trip. They don't plan on being at the meeting other than the dinner to accept the award (that is the only part they are invited to). If anyone has any ideas about what a mixed group of youth and adults could do in the Dallas area at that time I would be open to it.

In my council sheath knives are forbiden on all council properties by council created policies. There is no law against sheath knives, but the council decided that you must agree to not bring a sheath knife to be allowed on/in any council property.

You have a couple of valid points. You do lose a certain level of control at a council camp, or for that matter at any other event beyond unit level (Camporees, Jamboree, high adventure bases, etc). You also don't have a staff all of your own. The issue of control over your own program is one that I think many camps need to look at how to better address. We are supposed to be there to serve the troop, the patrol, and the Scouts. Many camps seem to do a poor job of offering opportunities for all three of those elements. In the ideal world a summer camp would be a place where they ha

CCC is a pretty nice camp. You know, I hear the western part of the state has a pretty decent camp too... now what is it called.... (laughs at own joke while everyone else wonders what he is mumbling about...)

Ah, Jambo. I guess I am going to miss it this year. I have made both of the two Jambos since I crossed over from Cubs. In 97 I was a visitor and in 01 I was a troop member. I had hoped to do 05 as staff. However my council needs me at camp, and so I will be at camp. Of coarse camp does end on the 23rd of July, so perhaps I could take an end of summer road trip. Eh, who knows. Too bad Jambo staff has to be there so much earlier than the start date.

All I can say is that I am quite impressed. Many units are finding it difficult to get enough adult support simply to send the boys to the council camp. It is quite good that you have enough adult support for this. The key thing, as some others suggested, is to make certain that is adult support, not an adult command structure or something of that sort. I would very much like to go with a troop doing one of these camps just as an observer to find out what they do and how. Descriptions are great, but until a person has made first hand observations there is no real way t

Go serve on camp staff. Just do it. If anyone is thinking about being a camp staffer, do it. If anyone wants to be a camp staffer but for some reason you are looking for an out of council option (your council has its entire staff in place, you simply want new scenery, whatever as long as you are qualified), let me know by private message. I know I could still use a few more people in program staff, and I think the administrative and supports staffs could still use some people too.

Here is what most of the lodges in my section do in regards to the position patch to be used by the lodge chief: In most councils the lodge chief is made a member of the council's Executive Board. Therefore the lodge chief wears the position patch to go with that position and also wears grey loops. As a note, I believe it is national policy that councils may have up to two youth members on their executive board. In many councils these positions are occupied by the Lodge Chief and the President of the Venturing Cabinet (or whatever that is called these days).

Miami_Chief, I don't know where your information came from, but I am afraid it is incorrect. Please take a look at the current edition of the Guide for Officers and Advisers. There is a section titled "Choosing Vigil Honor Candidates" (page 31 & 32 in the version I am looking at) in that section there should be a 13 point list. Take a close look at 11 and 13. "Approved Vigil Honor candidates must be inducted within one year of national office approval. Otherwise they must be removed from the approved list. Their selection and approval must then be reconsidered with the curr

In my area the LDS units seem to have decided that they cannot travel on Sundays. As best as I can tell they don't seem to have a problem being away from home, they just don't travel. (On the other hand most of the individual members of the LDS church I have known traveled on Sunday just like everyone else when there was some activity such as a school trip.) In any case, these travel restrictions have made it very difficult for LDS Scout to participate in certain district and council functions, attend summer camp or other major summer activities, and to participate in the Order of

I must say most of what is required to make a section work properly is contained in the various publications and program materials from the national level of the OA. Anyone going for a section office should read through the Field Operations Guide (FOG) and should probably try to attend a CoC (Council of Chiefs) meeting or two to find out how the section works. Most of the problems in the Scouting program come from our innability to make the vision set out in the many publications a reality. There is no need to invent the wheel, someone else already did that and wrote a book about it.

As for my lodge, if you look at my profile you can figure it out, I think. As for a motion to close the floor for nominations, I don't realy know if that motion is in order or not. I have never been a section officer or adviser, so I haven't ever had a reason to know exactly. The FOG makes it quite clear the nominations can only be closed once, and that it must be immediately before the vote is taken. So I don't know if a motion to close the floor was in order or if the floor is simply closed automatically. I seem to recall that it has been done both ways in the past. I also seem

The FOG only goes so far as to say that a candidate must have his Scout Executives approval in writing in advance of being nominated. As long as that approval was given before he was nominated, it seems to be OK according to the FOG. The FOG also states that nominations shall be closed only once, immediately before voting for that office. (Chapter 2, Rule IV, B). In years past the correct paperwork was required by some certain point in the conclave. The theory was this requirement was necessary to give the section chief and adviser time to confirm that the paperwork was complete an

BENEDICT XVI 19 April 2005 Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum; habemus Papam: Eminentissimum ac Reverendissimum Dominum, Dominum Josephum Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Cardinalem Ratzinger qui sibi nomen imposuit Benedictum XVI Urbi et Orbi Blessing Dear brothers and sisters, after our great Pope, John Paul II, the Cardinals have elected me, a simple, humble worker in God's vineyard. I am consoled by the fact that the Lord knows how to work and how to act, even with insufficient tools, and I especially trust in your prayers. In the jo

Just out of curiousity, how do you handle notify the aquatics staff about medical conditions? The Safe Swim Defense makes it clear that the person supervising an aquatics activity MUST be aware of any medical conditions that could impact the swimmers. It seems that some sort of list of conditions would need to be provided at least to the Aquatics Director, perhaps some of the other staff as well. So, how is this done at other camps? Are there other staffers that should be made aware of certain medical conditions?

Thank you all for the feed-back. Some of that is in line with what I was thinking, some of it is in areas I had not thought of. Oh, and yes there are a great many requirements about what has to be served. Now as for the rest of you that haven't responded, surely someone has some more opinions. This is an entire forum full of opinionated Scouters and only two have opinions about ways to make summer camp a great experience?

I thought you were condisering putting poly-wool legs on poly-cotton shorts. Sorry, I must have misunderstood you.

I am looking for a few good ideas. I will be once again serving on camp staff this summer, and the camp leadership is attempting to finalise some of our plans. While there are many good ideas on hand already, I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask for some feed back from this esteemed group of Scouters. I am open to any ideas you may have. I have provided some items to think on in case you need something to jump start your grey matter. To learn more about our current program elements, please see our leaders guide. http://www.shawneetrails.org/PDF/Summer%20Camp/RCM%202005%20No%20Pictures

Early Registration Deadlines. I know my council requires all registrations be in by April 15 to get the early registration discount. Most other councils and camps have similar early registration discounts. Make certain you get your paperwork and money sent in on time if you haven't already missed the deadline. I would hate to think a bunch of hard earned Scouting money got eaten up on late fees because an adult was slow in filling out paperwork. Don't forget those new Scouts! Many Webelos will still be crossing over between now and summer camp. Don't forget to offer to in

What exactly are you asking about? Are you talking about building platforms/floors for BSA wall tents? If so, you will need to know what size tent you are using, as BSA has several sizes. I would suggest you contact the BSA Engineering Service. They have plans for many things of that sort on file. I don't know for certain if they have what you need, but they are worth a try. I don't know the exact contact information for that office, but if you call the main line at the national office I am sure they can either connect you to them or give you contact information. 972

Hey! I can bring some pointy sticks if someone else can supply the things to roast on them.

I will be the first to admit the uniform isn't perfect. I could wright a book compaining about it. However, I don't know of any other solution that would really be better in a universal sense of the word. I can think of many options that would be better in some ways in certain situations. Yet, I can't think of anything that would be better without being worse in some other way. We could have lower cost, but then we would either have lower quality or have to settle for the risks of sweat shop labor and the like. We could have a better uniform for outings, but then it wouldn't

I have some zip-off pants made of similar material to Scout pants. They are horrible. They type and weight of the fabric causes the zippers to rub. The weight of the fabric requires heavier zippers than most zip-offs, and so they really don't feel very nice. Zip-offs are fine for very light materials like thin, quick-dry nylon. It isn't such a good idea for most other types of material. At least that is my experience. Also, zip-offs need to be a little looser fitting to keep the zippers from becoming uncomfortable. Finally, the two types of fabric will likely fade at di

Humor me by playing along with my little concocted situation: StarGazerOne suggests that a grouping of stars looks like an elephant. StarGazerTwo suggests that a grouping of stars looks like an alligator. Both believe you can find patterns that make up things such as constellations in the starts. However, they completely disagree about which stars make which patterns. Both respect the fact that the stars do make patterns, but they just can't agree on what those patterns are. Then StarGazerThree comes along and denies that it is possible for stars to contain any particular

I don't know how to even start answering this question. To begin with the question is a false dicotemy. We have no idea if the homosexuals are trained leaders or not. Bob makes no mention of the homosexuals having training or not, yet everyone seems to assume they are trained. On the other hand, everyone is assuming the untrained leaders are running a poor program. They may have been mentored by excellent trained leaders, have read the relevant materials, maybe even watched all the films, but just never have been qualified as a "Trained" leader. Also, untrained leaders