RememberSchiff

Check out Wizard magazine's interview with the actor Chris Evans who will portray Captain America. "As far as the physicality goes, that comes from the serum, and I think special effects will help me carry the load. As far as who he (Captain America) is as a man, the reason he's chosen for this experiment is because he has a pure heart. It's the morality, the nobility. He's a real redeeming character to play, it's exciting to think of playing him. I actually have a friend of mine who I'm modeling the character after. This guy is actually an Eagle Scout, he's one of those guys who stayed in the Boy Scouts all the way until he was 18. He's just a good human being. He does the right things, he's open, he's honest, he's sincere, he's selfless. It's something that I think everyone aspires to. A lot of time I play characters who don't have any redeeming quality [Laughing]." Ok Boy's Life interview Chris Evans and his Eagle Scout buddy and put Captain America on the cover! In comic books, there are occasional Boy Scout references but only in dialog, that Superman or Shazam are (meaning act like) boy scouts. I have yet to see a DC or Marvel comic showing a young Clark Kent, Steve Rogers, Barry Allen as a scout. Martha Kent would have been a great den mother! Maybe next year. My $0.02(This message has been edited by RememberSchiff)

A buyer appears http://phillyrealestate.citybizlist.com/2/2010/12/21/Heifetz-Offers-to-Buy-Boy-Scout-Building-for-1.5M.aspx "Philanthropist and businessman Mel Heifetz submitted an offer to purchase the City-owned Winter Street property that is currently occupied by the Cradle of Liberty Council of the Boy Scouts near Logan Square. Heifetz, owner of a 48-room boutique hotel in Philadelphia, has offered $1.5 million for the property with the intent of donating it "to a nonprofit organization that does not discriminate." Heifetz opposes the Boy Scouts stand on homosexuals in its hiring policies and membership enrollment. Heifetz is a former Eagle Scout who led a scout troop while in the armed services on an American Air Force base in Germany. He currently owns and manages more than 150 apartment units in Center City. Heifetz's offer is in direct response to a proposal to sell the City-owned property, at far below the fair market value, to the Boy Scouts. That action, he believes, is contrary to a city law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation or expression, age and mental or physical disability. The City has offered to sell this property for $500,000 to the Scouts, a million dollars below Heifetz's offer. ..."

Worth a try. Might be a farewell to that camp and the return to an old way of doing scout summer camp ... patrol cooking what a concept. Closing a scout reservation (make that TWO scout reservations) for summer camp usually leads directly to the selling of "under-utilized assets". Also there was no explanation as to why Western Mass troops choose to summer camp elsewhere. My $0.02

Alumni as defined at MyScouting (in member profile there is an Alumni checkoff with a "What's this?") "The definition of a BSA Alumni is a former Scout, a current or former Scout leader, family members of current or former Scouts, and anyone who is supportive of the Scouting program and would like to be connected." Though it would not surprise me if another definition is being used on this knot. My $0.02

Yes sarcasm. These often publicly available, online worksheets make it too easy for others to do a scout's work. If a scout is required to write something, have them do so on a blank paper with you present. No chance to google, cut and paste 100 words verbatim from Wikipedia or have a parent do it completely for them. If a counselor uses these worksheets, please make sure it is the scout's work. My $0.02

Seen them used at express merit badge camps and colleges, but real merit badge counselors don't use them. There are often good reference links on these worksheets to aid parents in completing worksheets for their scout who didn't read it nor the mb pamphlet either. Just hand it to counselor and beat feet. Often gives parents and scout the impression that once the worksheet is turned in , the merit badge is completed. Gimme. Now I'm sure there are some negatives to using these worksheets... My $0.01

http://www.wmascouting.org/pdf/WMC%20Camping%20Program%20Changes%20FAQ%2012-10.pdf 'Financially sustainable' = cut expenses by cutting programs, selling camps. As stated in above FAQ, they are still running some programs at those camps this summer; I wonder if they would allow a troop to run their own summer camp week? They mentioned the $100/scout subsidy but no mention of FOS in this. I thought we were funding this scout subsidy in our FOS contributions? I wonder if they still plan to rent out Chesterfield for the Mass Junior Conservation Camp as they have in past summers? It is interesting that Western Mass Council did not partner with any of the few remaining Mass camps. 'Financially sustainable' - I wonder what council services are? Training? Council Award Dinners? What money is coming in and where is it going? Do we really need a council if we have no camp? Sorry for the ramble, I am not optimistic about the continued existence of local scout camps or 'non-financially sustaining' high adventure camps in the next 100 years. My $0.01 (This message has been edited by RememberSchiff)

Remember in April this year, National first announced the requirements for Geocaching MB and 9 months later the badge and pamphlet have finally appeared. Rather embarassing. As a result, I suspect a blue ribbon, "leadership" task force tiger team adopted a Patch First Requirements Later policy to avoid future embarrassment. Expect to see the requirements within the next 8 months, a minimum 11% delivery time improvement. My $0.01

Friends who abandon you when you get in a situation are not friends and are certainly not scouts. A scout is helpful. Stand by your scout. My $0.02

National or local, I have seen little to no promotion of Philmont during our 100th year. Jambo-Jambo-Jambo. Sigh, my oldest would rather go to the NRA Whittington Center Adventure Camp http://www.nrawc.org/ rather than Philmont. BTW the NRA Adventure Camp is fully booked for summer 2011, reservations for 2012 will be taken in spring 2011. I remember when Philmont had a backlog. Both camps are in New Mexico. Another $0.01

It also does not make sense to open another High Adventure program right now with the economy and declining registration at Philmont. Last year Philmont had a almost 50% cancellation rate and went through the entire wait list. Our council is threatening to cancel this year's Philmont trip due to low sign-up (apparently no thought was given to merging with another council contingent). It's not just the economy. There are fewer scouts, more outdoor/summer options, and frankly Philmont needs to step up their programs and do more marketing. My son looked at the recently posted film clip links to that Philmont movie. 'Wow it's beautiful but they are just doing the same stuff we do at summer camp here.' He was unimpressed with the black powder and 30-06 shooting. 'Why don't they do something more like Top Shot?'. Much of what I experienced at Philmont was new to me - backpacking, dutch-oven, rock climbing, dehydrated trail food, packing burros. Except for handling pack animals, my son has already experienced those things locally. In the past ten years or so, our unit has had about 8-10 scouts go to Jambo while 0 went to Philmont. Jambo is better marketed. Yet all the Summit presentations stress that the Summit will be financially self-sustaining. Is that a pretense to close/sell those high adventure centers that are not self-sustaining? Maybe with their "corporate model", the only way a high adventure center can be sustainable is to host a National Jambo and if that is not enough host a World Jambo? Gawd, selling Philmont would be to Scouting what selling Babe Ruth was to the Red Sox. Look how long that curse lasted! My $0.01, need coffee

It may sound too obvious, but I would say an outstanding patrol consists entirely of boys who want to do scouting - learn skills, journey outdoors, serve others,...If we keep our promise to our scouts, this is the end product of methods of scouting. But realistically, IMO "outstanding patrols" more often result (temporarily) from an all-star selection of the best scouts from across units to attend Philmont, NYLT... My $0.02 (This message has been edited by RememberSchiff)

Back then, the community strips (town, state) denoted the location of your unit. I lived in the next town over, so my hometown name was not on my sleeve.

Not that whistles and bugles don't have service availability problems either. On windy days, if you're upwind you may not hear the call at all. Still carry a whistle, flashlight, and cellphone. Back in the day, we communicated with other patrols using walkie-talkies. Pretty cool to act like Sgt. Saunders "Checkmate King 2, White Rook calling, over." New batteries Friday night came back as dead batteries Sunday afternoon. We had signal flags too, but we rarely were in line-of-sight. 300 feet or more as we adult leaders prepare them to solo. My $0.02,

Yes slowly. I don't remember any scout stores back in the 70's. Uniforms and insignia were stocked in a corner of a general store or department store. New items CSP (ugh) were stocked as the old red and white community strips (city, town, state) were sold out. Stocking one CSP patch took far less space than the dozen(s) and dozen(s) of ever-growing number of community patches; streamlined manufacturing too. Too bad, CSP all pretty much look alike from across the room and who knows where (Pick-a-name) Council is. Transition was easier, wearing either was okay as that memo infoscouter mentioned. The Uniform Method was not added until 1980 or 81, by that time I think the transition was completed. My $0.02

Sorry I wasn't clear, it is common public knowledge that the new IH is gay. Most of the congregation and troop membership is okay with that. Council is aware of the situation. What happens? Does Council block recharter, tell and defer to National? Could appear to be a public contradiction of BSA policy. I am not saying that you are wrong, but I would hope some background checks are done with IH's and certain key leaders(scouts execs) though they may be considered not direct contact. My $0.02

So what happens if anything to a chartered scout unit, when its CO (a church) installs a new minister (the unit IH) who happens to be gay?

I will not build what I do not need nor what I cannot afford. I have seen too many council construction projects go overboard and/or underfunded and they are in a deep hole - camp timber has to be cut and camps have to be sold. Here's an example Pine Tree Council, in Portland, Maine built a new council headquarters - the Alton E. Chuck Cianchette Scout Service Center and it is first rate and was done right but could we afford it? http://www.pinetreebsa.org/properties/servicecenter/ but the money ran out and council is short about a million. So timber was harvested from Camp Gustin and it will likely be sold too. http://www.sunjournal.com/city/story/933664 So why the high cost (it's already a wilderness, add an entrance road, some plumbing, gear, and base camp support buildings), and where's the money coming from? I fear nearby councils will be encouraged to sell existing (competing) camp properties to pay for the Summit. My $0.01

Our troop meetings look more like an adult drop-in center. They arrive early and setup tables and chairs. The problem is they won't shut-up, but the SM and Troop Committee say it's ok. Adult-run. Agree that the adventure is mostly gone from BSA and that other organizations have lured away boys who should have been scouts. Our loss. Even something a simple as swimming we no longer get right. Remember when all scouts were taught to swim at camp, just like 4-H and Y camps still do. Maybe if you teach an 8 yr old boy to swim, he will want to kayak next. Can't have that. Meanwhile the paddle boards remain stacked and unused in the camp cabana. My $0.02(This message has been edited by RememberSchiff)

The so-called "legal" types did not read the Scout Oath - "help other people at all times". Scouting is about doing what's right, learning to make good judgments. This occasionally does not align with following the rules. Ring the bell. My $0.02

A million here, a million there, pretty soon you're talking real money. Maybe shy of the amount to build a Disneyworld or college campus, but still I wonder why the high cost for an outdoor camp and where all that money will come from, maybe the next Jambo will be even more expensive? So far, I think donations have totaled 100 million. 170 million to prepare site for Jambo 2013 300 million to further develop for high adventure camp and possible World Jambo bid ----- 1/2 billion? I read about this on NPR (includes audio interview with Bob Mazzuca) and other sources (hard to find the earlier articles that mentioned World Jambo bid). http://www.wvpubcast.org/newsarticle.aspx?id=17161 http://tinyurl.com/35j48vf A scout is thrifty.

Hurray for the Girl Scouts for supporting American Labor. "The owners of a family-run Passaic, New Jersey, factory that has been the main supplier of Girl Scout uniforms and sashes for years were told recently that the organization would be seeking bids for the job including from a company in China. Girl Scouts spokeswoman Michelle Tompkins said the organization, which has its national headquarters in New York City, had been contacted by parents, members and volunteers urging it to keep the uniforms American-made. She said the contract hadn't been awarded but the bid request had been modified to require that the uniforms be made domestically and that companies adhere to strict guidelines regarding worker age, treatment and safety." Read the rest at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39958626

BD - You betcha. We continue to ring the bell for Salvation Army. No secret, no problem, probably because we don't touch the kettle. Just ringing the bell and singing Christmas songs, helping others. Some get in knots about Boy Scouts wearing their uniform while helping their sisters sell Girl Scout cookies, or donating their own time and money to some good cause. Council has to approve each instance. National has to protect the brand while they short-sell it for a buck. Boy those Direct-TV ads in Scouting get me going, why are we associating with such....(unscoutlike words describing a company that has a F rating by Better Business Bureau deleted by RS) There was a big fundraiser with the Blue Angels up here. Many scouts and scouters helped out. We're still waiting to hear the financial results and what the money will be used for, hopefully not a new headquarters building. Counicl, FOS show us the details, alot of rubber chicken award banquets going on. Meanwhile we ring the bell for those Salvation Army helps. "The rules only impact those who chose to abide by them." Well said and true, a nod and a wink. My $0.01

Timing is everything... Next month, I had planned to see the exhibition "Norman Rockwell and the Boy Scouts of America" before it closes Nov 27. http://www.nrm.org/2010/06/norman-rockwell-and-the-boy-scouts-of-america/ I should have attended yesterday along with some 400 other scouts when an event was held with speakers Joe Csatari (the illustrator who succeeded Rockwell at Boy's Life) and his son Jeff! http://www.berkshireeagle.com/ci_16417985 Anyone go? Lost $0.02 and more (This message has been edited by RememberSchiff)

This gave me a chuckle http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39793497/ns/world_news-europe/ I don't mean this as a slight to our British friends, we have had bigger goofs. Just a comment that no matter how advanced the technology all systems have an inherent weak link - us. Could some Boy Scouts row out and offer a tow? Maybe re-create that moment when a scout offered help on a foggy night My $0.01