scoutldr

Camping involves heat, sweat, bugs and dirt. Not many of today's youth nor their parents are interested in being uncomfortable. And I would remind LeCastor's troop that Merit Badges are supposed to be an individual effort (with a buddy), not spoon fed at troop meetings by the parents..

It's always been my understanding that a DE's job is 3-fold. More money, more youth and more units. In that order. Everything else program-related is supposed to be done by volunteers. Unfortunately, many District volunteer positions go vacant or are filled with "good old boys" with WB beads who like to attend events with a coffee mug hanging from their belt. We always had a "District Chairman" to run the district meetings, but the DE would hand him his agenda as he walked in the door, and not much happened between meetings.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/20/us/girl-scouts-debate-their-place-in-a-changing-world.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpHeadline&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

Has everyone been "Trained" ?

The problem with threads like this is that everyone thinks they MUST mean someone else. Time for me to take a break. Not sure if I'll be back. Happy (insert politically ccorect greeting of your choice here). And good Scouting to all.

My 6th grade picture would have been 1965. I missed the shift to the ODL uniform and dorky red berets (sorry, OGE). By 8th grade and on,(circa 1968-72) I had migrated to an Explorer Post, and we routinely showed up in uniform with our ambulance and moulage kit to give first aid demonstrations to the PE classes. We were cool and served as "staff" at most council/district events. Growing up in a military family in a military town, the anti-military sentiment didn't really affect us. EVERYONE's dad was in the military, or as mine was, recently retired. My perception is that Scouting was "cool" during WWI and WWII, since they were viewed as "junior CD wardens", helping to keep the home fires burning while the men were off to war and the moms manned the factories. I don't think the "nerdiness" started until the mid-late 60's.

Check with your scouts...SOMEONE probably has a new Smartphone with GPS capability...might be too pricey for us, but not for Billy's mom who thinks uniforms are too expensive. (sorry...was that bad decorum?)

Custom leather cell phone belt pouch with Scout logo!!!!! Cooolll. In elementary school, I wore a leather/laced pencil pouch on my belt that I made in Cub Scouts and in which I carried my official cub scout pen and pencil set. We too, wore our uniforms to school on "Den Meeting day", since we would ride a different bus directly to the Den Mother's house after school...then we would either walk home or Mom would pick us up. I have a class picture from as late as 6th grade with 3-4 of us sitting in class in our green BS uniforms. Today, my scouts come to the meeting with their shirts balled up in their backpacks, which they put on for the meeting, and immediately take it back off after the closing. Wish they had bugle ring tones...now that would ROCK!

I noticed on Scoutstuff.org, one can now buy "centennial formal attire" such as bow ties and cummerbunds for those gala Centennial Balls that some councils may be planning (haven't heard of anything here). It occured to me that perhaps it would be appropriate for the Eagle Scout Award (medal) and other top scouting awards to be produced in miniature form, appropriate for formal attire (not unlike military decorations which can also be worn on civilian formal wear). Any interest? I think these would also be appropriate for Eagle Scouts who attend ECOH in civilian attire.

There should be enough GPS's in the group that caravaning should be unnecessary.

If there is a GW problem, I am not hopeful that humans will actually care enough to alter their pathetic narcissistic lives one iota. I can't even get the others who live under my roof to recycle or use CFL light bulbs. Every day, I come home from work and pull all the plastic water bottles and soda cans out of the garbage and go around and turn all the lights off in the middle of the day.

I agree with LeVoyageur...time for a thinning of the herd, like we do for deer (it's for their own good, you know). It's just a natural cycle of populations. Besides, on December 21, 2012, it will all be moot anyway.

We wouldn't have to do anything...for reasons pointed out above, the organization would cease to exist without the financial support of the major religious benefactors, such as LDS. It would take many years for the UW to kick back in and build the support back up. In the meantime, pros would be let go and council camps would be sold...at a much more rapid rate than is happening now.

"The Scout Camp in Chesapeake, VA had to be shut down for three years because of a gay ranger sexually harassing older scouts." This is my Council and has been for 40 years. This never happened. I'd appreciate it if people would quit spreading lies.

I have a co-worker who is a perfectionist. She has her college son e-mail drafts of his papers to her, which she diligently corrects and rewrites and e-mails back to him. Same son is an Eagle, dad was SM, mom was CC, and I have to wonder how much of it he actually did. (of course, as soon as he had his ECOH, they all dropped Scouting like a hot potato) In my day, we called that "cheating". But we are surrounded by people who just don't see anything wrong with it, and the epidemic is growing.

Not sure what we're disagreeing about, except the statement that some scouts' time is more limited than others. We all get 24 hours per day. It's how we choose to use them...one of my biggest beefs with adults who sit on their cans watching football while I'm out in the cold, wet woods trying to instill skills and character into THEIR sons. That future major league pitcher just successfully completed his EBOR, by the way.

Green Bar Bill's words are nice...if you want to see membership dwindle to nothing. It's a different world from 1937. Some are still "all ate up" with Scouting...but we are becoming a rare breed. I think if a scout has a POR, then he needs to attend. The first step to responsibility or leadership is to show up. For other scouts, probably the younger ones, what we do is treat each one individually. If they are regularly advancing, attending some meetings and outings, but are also busy with other things, that's ok with us. We have one scout who thinks he's gonna pitch in the majors one day...so we don't see him much during baseball season. That's ok with me, as it was with my own sons...as long as he's not sitting on his kiester playing video games and wasting his life away. He's got goals and he's working on them...that's what life is about.

Rule #1...once everyone agrees, stop arguing and move on.

Just looked for something similar for Southern Region, but they just have an announcement that they are closing the doors and moving to Irving as of 31 December. Is this a nation-wide study, or just for NER. Agree...if this is the national standard, my camp is history, too. That's gonna tick off a lot of people.

Approached by whom? Has a CO been identified and "signed up" by the DE? Who is the COR and what is he/she doing to "start a troop"? First things first. Are you and your son unhappy in your current troop?

As Beavah would say, "Yah, hmmm." One of the articles states that alleged encounters occured at scout campouts. That should not happen in a unit that was YP trained and the fellow Scouters were alert and vigilant. What happens in a scout's own home is beyond our control...that's the parents' responsibility.

That's it in a nutshell...$$$ and numbers. When recalcitrant Scouters such as us start dropping inactive names from the rolls, it directly affects the only metrics they know...money and membership.

I never understood the "support your local camp" argument (for summer camp). If the facilities and program are competitive, you will get OOC troops to make up for the ones who go to other camps. I don't know of ANY troops any more who go to the same camp year after year. As I am fond of saying, the metric should be "butts in cots"...doesn't matter what CSP is on their shoulder. In fact, OOC is better, because we charge them more. We even have senior scouts and Venturers who STAFF OOC camps...because they are paid better and are treated better. If people are not staffing or attending your camp, look in the mirror and ask why, then FIX it. Don't blame the volunteer unit scouters.

That's fine until recharter time when the DE and/or DC take it upon themselves to personally call each "dropped" member and convince them to remain on the books, then bill your unit for the fee.

I never thought of the strip as an "award" to be given someone...if you're qualified, go buy one and wear it. I think most people don't wear it, because they don't know about it. Boys and adults may wear this strip if they show their knowledge of a foreign language or the sign language for the hearing impaired by: 1.Carrying on a five-minute conversation in this language. 2.Translating a two-minute speech or address. 3.Writing a letter in the language (does not apply for sign language). 4.Translating 200 words from the written word.