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saltheart

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Everything posted by saltheart

  1. My personal practice is and always has been to give directly to those I direct my charitable giving. That includes the BSA. My personal opinion is that everyone should do likewise to be certain that their dollars are going where they think they are. Simple concerns like how much of every dollar I give actually makes it to the charity drive my decisions. I would assume others share simlar concerns. Giving is such fashion avoids these petty grievances raised by those who would see the likes of the BSA give into their will. Give directly and thumb your nose a the ACLU. Beyond that, I would q
  2. "Ford would probably make a good speaker." Well, I'm not so sure that Gerald Ford was among the best speakers of his time, but in my lifetime, I'll give him credit, as I gave him my vote, for being probably among the most courageous of Presidents. Knowing full well that pardoning Nixon would be committing political suicide at the time, he did it anyway...for the good of the nation...to put the nightmare behind us...and get on with the road ahead. For that I will forever be thankful to him. That was, although most misssed it at the time, a very courageous stand to take. Few would
  3. Wrong thread....figures.....(This message has been edited by saltheart)
  4. Be very wary of what you find on the internet. There's truth out there, and then there's truth as only the author(s) will see it. And then there's those who will bend the truth so that it couldn't be recognized. Believe nothing you hear, and only half of what you see. Somewhere in there will be the truth, from each side of the issue, and you will have to decipher which is which...unless you hear it straight from the horses mouth. Good luck. Oh, and by the way...to the 'college' student...the spelling is 'decisions'...not 'decesions'.(This message has been edited by saltheart)
  5. saltheart

    Suspenders

    Decisions, decisions....and now yet another.... Do I wear the red ones? Or the Black? Or do I break out the ones with the family tartan? Am I wearing my troop uniform? Or my Training Staff uniform? Which hat will I don? Shall I be holding up long pants or shorts with the suspenders? My, my...so many decisions!! Shall I wear the ones with the "X" back? Or the "Y" back? The ones with the silver adjustment clip? Or the Brass? The ones with the clips? or the ones for the buttons? (Uh-oh...scout pants don't have the buttons...choice made.) The red ones go well with the trai
  6. Not any more...hehehehe..... Oh...end of hijack. Now back to your regular scheduled banter and debate.
  7. ...bear skin neckerchiefs? Bear skin? Nah...bear skin was for sissies.........we wore........... Sabertooth.........
  8. Traditional camping...? You think that's traditional camping? Bah.... Why, when I was a boy, I remember the great outdoors and the challenge it presented. Simply surviving was an achievement. Yes, sir... Sleeping bags? Never used 'em. Tents? Never needed 'em. No sir. We'd make our own beds from available materials already on the ground in the woods. Sometimes we'd cut live pine boughs for a softer 'matress'. More often than not, we'd simply lie on the ground in a cave and sleep if we didn't have time to build our own shelter. Tents? Bah... Sleeping bags? No sir. We'd sleep
  9. OK...so I haven't read all the posts, really only the OP... For all the years I've been at it, I've always expected that the Scouts in the troop would refer to any and all adults, volunteers, visitors, parents..., any of them, as Mr. or Mrs. By that same token, I have always expected the same of myself, and have always referred to the Scouts as Mr. Smith, or Mr. Jones. On occassion, in Scoutmaster Conferences and the like, I might do otherwise. Doing so is a bit more personal in my book. In the troop setting, I give my respect to the boys as Scouts and as a troop...Mr. Smith, Mr. Jon
  10. Giant Clove Hitch tied around a tree (no stumps, must be full size tree). Use the thickest rope you can find and make it about 40 feet long. Everyone in the patrol needs to participate in 60 second planning session and then tying. Everyone has to hold the rope during the tying and pulling tight. Fastest time wins. (Of course...having the knot tied correctly must count for something, too.) That's the knot. Lashing can be done by constructing a 3-piece flagpole. 3 poles lashed together to make a longer flagpole, 3 additional ropes long enough to use for stake-outs tied at a certain point an
  11. Actually, nothing is what I asked for, and nothing is what I got. My years have placed me where I don't need or desire anything that I don't already have. A Christmas List of Wishes wasn't going to happen this year. But wait..., upon reflection, I did get quite a bit. My family, immediate and extended, came to the house at our invitation and for a long Christmas Eve's celebration and a longer Christmas Day gathering. The house was full to overflowing. Some came and left. Some came and stayed the night. Some stayed yet another night. And what we shared simply by being together far out
  12. The handbook isn't the best place to look for that information. If you have one, look in the Troop Committee Guidebook for a complete job description. If you don't have the book, get one. The job description should look something like this... Assistant Scoutmaster: To fulfill obligations to the troop, the Scoutmaster, with the assistance of the troop committee, recruits assistant Scoutmasters to help operate the troop. Each assistant Scoutmaster is assigned specific program duties and reports to the Scoutmaster. Provide the required two-deep leadership standards set by the
  13. Suggest to 'Mom' that she back off on the June Cleaver stuff, and allow the boy to succeed or fail on his own. Of course, this suggestion would have to be made in a most sincere and respectful manner. As for the Scout, if he never said anything to his Mom about letting him do his own packing, I'd express some real dismay. That may not be the case though. He might not have had a say in the matter. Some Moms are more Mom than others. I don't think I'd interrupt his progress toward rank on this if everything else in his portfolio is in order.
  14. KoreaScouter asked..."Are we holding the lads to a different standard?" Given the example of not knowing the difference between a city and a state that Fat Old Guy cited, I'd have to say no. Now, was the concern to be one of a Scout not being able to recite the Declaration of Independence on the spot, then I'd agree with KoreaScouters question. None of us are that infalable, but the simplest of things like those cited in the OP should be of concern to us.
  15. Teaching as a profession suffers from the same problem that most professions do. Most in a profession are good at what they do, but there are always a few bad apples. Teaching is one of those professions that is, unlike my profession and perhaps that of many of us, held up for public scrutiny every day...24/7. That being said... For many years we've been blessed with a school system that is one of the best in the state. The school system allows us to provide the appropriate teachers with copies of the current Citizenship merit badge books, but that's pretty much for information only. Beyo
  16. As much as there may be many of us who have our own (secret?) opinions regarding the 'appropriate' minimum age at which a Scout should be able to earn the Eagle Award, none of us are at liberty to change the program, rules, guidelines, and whatever else as published by the Boy Scouts of America. And that includes the age at which a boy can earn the Eagle. For sure, there are Scouts who may never deserve the Eagle, at any age. But then there may be those deserving few who can, indeed, meet muster at a surprisingly early age. In such an instance, who are we to deny them? Rules to dictate an
  17. Here's a good link to follow... http://www.eaglescout.org These folks have things pretty well organized in a fashion for both the Scout and the leaders to follow. There's a link on the page regading Eagle Citations that will bring you back to MacScouter where you'll find another link to Governmental Officials. There's a pretty good list there. Here's the link to that list... http://www.macscouter.com/Eagle/GovEagleLetterData.doc (This message has been edited by saltheart)(This message has been edited by saltheart)
  18. A congratulatory letter can be obtained from the President via the White House Greetings Office. You can contact them by snail mail, fax, or at their website... www.whitehouse.gov/greeting/ Others that you should be contacting are you Senators and Representatives in Washington, but you might do this through their local offices (Hartford?). Also your state representatives, senators, your Governor, and town officals. Get their phone numbers and start by calling them. You might need to mail them information, or they might take it right over the phone. Oh, and the BSA does not notif
  19. Hmmm....what was the original question for this thread..?
  20. True...very true. But in this country we seem to have allowed for the 1/10th of one percent who need to complain to have the floor...the entire floor...all of it...to the exclusion of the majority who like things just the way they are...and have been for most of my lifetime.
  21. The ACLU is all for free speech...as long as it's their kind of free speech. I wouldn't miss them at all if they fell off the face of the planet.
  22. Boy, OGE..., you're taking a risk asking that question around here. But let me take a stab at it, for our troop has 'invited' a number of boys to go elsewhere over the years. I don't think you'll get a solid definitive 'this is what he'd have to do' type of answer. The way we look at it, in situations of behavioral problems, there's only so many volunteer adults. And they can only be spread so thin in the areas of responsibility that exist within the troop. When the adult/scout ratio reaches a critical level, one single onery foul-mouthed mis-behaving boy can really cut into the attention
  23. We've pretty much been doing that longer than I've been in Scouting. The Scout will provide a couple of copies of his proposal to the committee for advance reading and review, and then meet personally with the committee for his oral presentation. Many times we've found that there are things about a project proposal that simply don't come across well enough on paper, but do make the grade when presented orally. It also speeds up the process so that changes, if necessary, can be made in a timely fashion such that the project is not held in limbo. It also grants all parties a good opportunity mak
  24. First time in years that the three of us didn't get together on Veterans Day... Dad...US Marines...Okinawa Dad-in-Law...US Marines...Tarawa Myself...US Army, Airborne, Rangers...Vietnam There was a time when I didn't see eye to eye with one of them. Didn't know too much about his service. Didn't care to. Got to know the other one years later, about the same time that wounds were healing (emotional and physical), and a deep emotional respect found its way into the fibers of my being towards my two elders, and just what they had been through...as they stood by the hospital bed on t
  25. Gerneally, in our area, "should not" has long been taken to mean "shall not". The general belief is that there are more than ample opportunities for challenging projects outside that venue in the wide but local world. That being said, we've never really been presented with a project proposal in our council that proposes to do work on council property, or for the benefit of the council. I'm guessing, but I imagine that most involved would simply say "no" to such a proposal. We'll apparently have to rethink that stance.
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