SCOUTER-Terry

Hi @skeptic -- not sure what printed piece you're referring to?

The SCOUTER.com virtual campfire has been lighting our community now for more than 25 years. It's hard for me to imagine that so much time has passed, and the thousands of Scouts and Scouters around the world that have learned and shared together. These are obviously incredibly trying times for Scouting and enormous transition for the organization. But I have always believed that the very best of Scouting was at the grassroots, found in the mentoring relationship of a leader and young Scout, honed on cold winter campouts and sharpened by the lessons of leadership and service. And these forums have always been in support of the grassroots of the Scouting Movement. Moderators help keep this community conversation as Scoutlike as possible, reminding us that tens of thousands of guests (including many, many young people) quietly read these forums each month. Moderators are just Members that have taken on extra responsibilities to pitch in and help us all. They are still Members, and hopefully share and contribute to the conversation just as much (or more) than everyone. They are easy handed, and certainly (rarely) might make a decision about content that isn't popular. But they deserve all our gratitude and thanks. I'm pleased that @Eagle1993 and @T2Eagle and @elitts and @gpurlee have all agreed to join the Moderator team. Please be kind to them and to each other, and extend a Scout's left handshake to welcome them to this new role! TERRY HOWERTON

Sorry about that folks... we had some gremlins running wild in the server... should be resolved, and I will try to monitor more closely!

Hi folks! Please welcome @desertrat77 and @MattR as the newest members of the moderator team at SCOUTER.com! As a reminder, these moderators are volunteering their cheerful service for a quality experience around our virtual campfire. They aren't forfeiting their roles as members of the forum, they are just stepping up to help keep the area clean, and remind us all to remain Scoutlike in our interactions. Be kind, be friendly... and thankful to the full team!

Forums were upgraded today, and errors were during the upgrade time. Problems should be resolved now, or in the next couple of hours.

The new mobile interface is generally much easier to navigate. However, if you prefer to view standard web page interface while on your mobile device, you can achieve by "requesting desktop version" as a setting in your browser (this is a standard checkbox in the settings of Chrome and most browsers).

Hi folks! Today, we have upgraded the forum software from the outdated version to the latest stable release. Unlike the old forum version, this new version is feature-rich, security hardened with automated anti-spam, more professional, with the ability to integrate numerous add-ons/services, and is built on the contemporary HTML5/CSS3 framework. It is also fully responsive to media devices (PC/Tablet/Mobile). Please be patient, but explore the new software and let us know how you like (or dislike) new features. Some of these things may just take some getting used to, other items we can continue to improve (or change). Please use this thread to post your feedback and/or any bugs or errors detect - we'll have developers monitoring this thread. Thanks!

Folks... (and really this is directed at just two or three of you)... Give it a rest on the moderators. They are all volunteers, and they make this place better for us all. They also aren't immune to their own opinions and passions, nor did they volunteer to give up their ability to participate in the forums. I picked a balanced team of very reasonable, moderate folks and begged them to provide this cheerful service. It's unseemly to whine about them. They are doing the job I've asked them to do. If you have concerns, feel free to PM me directly, but please stop complaining publicly about what you see as slight to you.

@@MattR, fair enough... Though my comment was meant more to align with the wonderful news that soon all families will be able to find or start a Scout troop and join the Movement. This here little website may have been around since November of 1995 (20 year celebration needs to start planning soon!), but folks can easily walk across the Internet tubes and launch their own. Happy weekend to y'all.

The volunteer moderators of this forum do cheerful service, usually just keeping SCOUTER.com organized and enjoyable. The policy and standard of decorum for participation here has always included (1) acting Scoutlike and (2) behaving as you would standing around a campfire where Scouts and Scouters could gather. The Issues and Politics Forum have always had greater leeway, because important and interesting issues deserved to be discussed. The expected change in policy by BSA is a major inflection point (one long overdue in my opinion, though I respect that some may disagree based on their religious beliefs). It's certainly roused activity in this forum, and the Moderators are busy trying to maintain some semblance of decorum. Here's the standard and direction I will give to Moderators: Scouting already decided that every unit must not discriminate, exclude or otherwise harm gay kids. Period. No exceptions. And there very well may be one of those kids in your unit, or certainly reading this forum. Scouting seems poised to decide that only religiously-chartered units may choose to not select gay parents or leaders as mentors, and that would take effect immediately (like, next week). It is impossible to honor point #1 above while standing around a campfire (or this virtual campfire we call SCOUTER.com) denigrating or shouting angrily into the wind your personal distaste for gay people. It's impossible to honor point #1 while disparaging an entire group of people that may include one of those kids. As such, I encourage moderators to simply delete posts they feel could violate point #1 above. If excluding gay adults is something your church sponsored unit decides to do, and a message they want to send to gay kids that might be growing up in that unit, that is up to the sponsor to decide. Similarly, it's now up to the parents and Scouts to decide if they want to stay a part of that unit, or walk across to the street to join or start a new unit. As for THIS public "campfire", we welcome discussion, and we welcome sincerely held, politely-stated personal beliefs. But we will not be used as a platform that sends denigrating messages to gay kids who may be within earshot. Scouting has moved past that, thank God. TERRY Publisher, SCOUTER.com PS - If you dislike my position above, feel free to move on to a different forum (or start one of your own!). If you refuse to follow this standard, be prepared to be blocked from future participation in the forum. PPS - Thank you, thank you, thank you to the volunteer Moderators, who 99% of the time are doing the thankless task of deleting spam, organizing topics and chasing down bug reports, and for their incredible "moderation", patience and service to our community in just keeping the cheerful spark burning.

Happy 100th Anniversary to the Order of the Arrow! July 15, 1915 on Treasure Island I had the honor of living, traveling and working with William "Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt when I was young. I met Bill Hillcourt much the way countless other kids did: I waited in a long line at the National Jamboree to get a handbook signed (as a gift for my Scoutmaster back home). But then, in the lead up to the 75th anniversary NOAC the next year, I reached out to Bill and asked if he wouldn't mind sharing his memories of Urner Goodman for the NOAC newspaper. He agreed, and the back and forth around the article led to a friendship, which then led to one of the great mentoring experiences of my life. On this, the 100th anniversary of the Order, I went diving into the dusty, old footlocker and fetched out that article: My Life With Urner Goodman BY WILLIAM "GREEN BAR BILL" HILLCOURT VIGIL MEMBER, UNAMI LODGE JULY, 1990 Monday, August 22, 1927. That was the first time I met E. Urner Goodman. He was there to meet me at the main railroad station in Chicago where I had just come off the train from Culver, Indiana, Dan Beard's old stamping ground. He was a slim, rather short man — 5 feet 7. He was in the full uniform of the professional Scouter, even to the broad-brimmed hat. Urner told me about the kind of life he had led in Pennsylvania: born on May 15, 1891, into a deeply religious family, he was baptized into the Presbyterian faith. When he was growing into boyhood, he had a fortunate experience: he found out that his church had a Boys Brotherhood for more than half a century. He joined it. As he grew older, he eventually became the superintendent of that Brotherhood. These experiences convinced him that he should throw his life into the teaching of youth. So, he entered the Philadelphia School of Pedagogy to learn the teaching profession. He was firmly convicted that this was IT — teaching was to be his life work. He was the commencement speaker at his graduation from the school. His topic was "The Call to Teach”. At that time, a friend of Urner's, Robert Talmage, Scoutmaster of Troop One of the Tioga District of the Philadelphia Council, was being transferred by his company, to another city. He asked Urner to take over the Scoutmastership. Urner agreed. He soon picked up the ideas and skills of Scouting and threw all his best efforts into turning the troop into a model for other troops. In 1913, a great event was coming up that would involve Boy Scout participation: the Fiftieth Anniversary Encampment of the veterans of the Civil War —- both the Blue and the Grey — at Gettysburg on July 4, 1913. Urner signed up his whole troop for participation and set out to train his Scouts in the best way of helping the greyhaired old men they would be called upon to assist. Two of his patrols served in the Encampment headquarters under the supervision of the State of Pennsylvania; the third was on duty at the headquarters of the Confederate veterans. The president of the Philadelphia Council, Dr. D. C. Hart, was a distinguished M.D. He had found out that there was a Scoutmaster in North Philadelphia who was doing all kinds of "outlandish" things with his Scouts. Cowing called in the Scoutmaster, E. Urner Goodman, and had a long talk with him about his troop activities and about Scouting in general. After Urner had left, Cowing called and told Dr. Hart about the long conversation he had had. He finished by saying,"We need more Scoutmasters with vigor like Urner's. He is my kind of man. In early 1915, Cowing called in the Scoutmaster of Troop One for another reason: he asked Urner to take on the job of Camp Director for the Treasure Island camp for the summer. He would have for his assistant Carroll A. Edson, already a member of the Philadelphia Council Staff. Urner accepted. The two Scouters sat down to prepare for the camping season, Goodman the program-oriented member of the team, Edson the organizer. When camping with Troop One, Goodman had used many of the camp activities that were so vividly and humorously described in The Boys Book of Camping by Edward Cave, the editor of Boy's Life, a new magazine for boys that had just begun to appear. Urner had been particularly struck by Cave's description of a contest in which the winners would join a"clan" -- a contest with so much appeal and tradition"that half of the troop would strive for membership in the clan for the ensuing year. That would be a goal worth striving for. Edson had taken off in another direction. He had been under the influence of Ernest Thompson Seton's booklets, the Birch Bark Rolls. He was fascinated by the way Seton had used age-old Indian handicrafts and traditions to develop his boy program of “Woodcraft Indians”. Edson set out to find out more about the lore and crafts and traditions of the indians who had inhabited the area in which Treasure Island was located — "The Land of the Lenni Lenapes”. He had help from Harace W."Shorty" Rolston, an old time Philadelphia Scouter who had joined in the planning and had located an old Lenni Lenape--English Dictionary put together by Moravian missionaries who had worked with with the Indians of the Unami sub-tribe. The two Scouters searched through the volume for a suitable name for Urner's "clan." They found it :"Wimachtendienk”— Lenni Lenape word for "Brotherhood”.

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Latest Topics 2015 National Disability Services Newsletter http://scouter.com/index.php/topic/27127-may-2015-national-disability-se... Crisis Of Faith I'm having a sort of crisis of faith in the BSA right now. It just seems like the BSA is continually moving away from the adventure of outdoors and trying to just disallow anything that MIGHT ha... Scout Led/run Vs: Scouters Teaching This has been hashed over and over I know, but I'm still struggling with the last campout campfire. I know that's criptic so allow me to give a thumbnail sketch. Ever Meet A Scout Mattman578's comments about his AT trip with his daughter got me thinking.... What's your greatest memory of the "Unknown Scout" story from your life. O... Scout Hut? I was just looking at Baloo's Bugle for inspiration for my next pack meeting. There's a little blurb pointing to this blog post http://blog.scoutin...

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