scoutmomma

So our Philmont crew has just returned from a highly successful trip, and now our Scoutmaster is talking about the next high adventure on the horizon. My son meanwhile attended ArrowCorps5 and after a week talking to Scouts with other experiences, has come back all jazzed about SeaBase. The SM tells me the Northern Tier is the way to go because SeaBase is "basically a vacation on a catamaran." I've looked at the SeaBase website and it sure doesn't sound that way to me -- but I thought I'd ask for first-hand perspective from folks who've experienced more than just Philmont -- anyone who's do

One of the commas in the URL broke the link, so here's another link to get there: http://tinyurl.com/676usl

What did Smitty say in response to the two emails and in the face-to-face meeting?

10 or 11 days later "Smitty" has not yet apoligized to the SM. Now what would you do? Perhaps contact the Scout and ask him directly when he plans to fulfill his promise to the Board to apologize to the SM.

GW, I never said anything about whether or not it was affordable. The point was that you said it was easier to buy both a long-sleeved shirt and a short-sleeved shirt rather than wearing a short-sleeved shirt over a long-sleeved sweatshirt, and I said it had less of an impact on the pocketbook to only buy one shirt. If you took that as "whining" that "we can't afford this," then you were inferring something that wasn't there.

We've been over this before. I knew a woman who frequently complained about the cost of Scouting, later she told me that she had spent over $400 for her son's high school ring. Talk about sill expense. I know no one who wore their high school ring for more than a couple years after graduation. Much as I might take issue with how others spend their money, it's not my call to tell a parent that. It's hard enough to get some of them to buy a pair of Scout pants to go with the shirt. If they're telling me they're only going to buy one shirt, and want to know if they should go long or short

PROBLEM: The new pants are a different color and the old pants can not be used with the new uniforms. The brochure says "each piece transitions to mix and match with your current uniform."

I always thought that it was easier to buy two shirts. Easier maybe, but less of an impact on the pocketbook to buy one short-sleeved shirt and wear it over a long-sleeved undershirt in the winter. If parents ask whether to go with long or short sleeves, we recommend short sleeves for that very reason. Out of 45-odd Scouts in my son's troop over the past four years, only two or three ever got a long-sleeved shirt.

Also, if you think that atheists are the only people who demand that wall of separation, you are sadly mistaken. I'm with packsaddle and Thomas Jefferson on this one. http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9806/danpre.html

Try Ockanickon Scout Reservation in Bucks County Council, Pipersville, PA or Treasure Island Scout Reservation in Cradle of Liberty Council, also in Pipersville, PA.

My understanding is that only a portion of this project has been affected by the Rainbow Family event. The portion of the ArrowCorp project that was to have taken place near the Rainbow Family location has been moved to another area of the forest. Infoscouter is correct. The Bridger-Teton project of ArrowCorps5 has not been cancelled, as erroneously reported by WorldNet Daily. About 150 out of approximately 800 OA Scouts will be relocated to a different area, per the article below: http://www.jacksonholestartrib.com/articles/2008/06/24/news/wyoming/doc4860f76bb014d334583272.txt

OK, yes, certainly anyone can do a service project without the BSA's permission. I thought you were saying it wasn't necessary for an Eagle candidate to get BSA permission to do an Eagle Leadership Service Project. Thanks for the clarification.

Certainly you must realize that the candidate can do the project without the approval of the scoutmaster, troop committee, or district. If the candidate is doing a project for another organization no one in the BSA can tell him he cannot do it. All the BSA can tell him is whether or not he can apply it toward his rank advancement. OK, now this confuses me -- how can an Eagle candidate do an Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project without the approval of the troop committee or the district? I have here in front of me page 11 of the 16-page Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project Workbook t

Thanks -- and they finally have it up on the OA website at: http://www.event.oa-bsa.org/events/arrowcorps5/index.php?p=onsite/siteinreview I spotted my son in the video too. :-)

They did announce that they had renamed a trail in the Forest to "Arrow Corps Loop" to recognize the effort and project. Great, I'll be sure to tell him that! Meantime, we're looking forward to when they post the Week in Review video for GW-Jeff.

My son was working on the James River project. He told me he was disappointed that they didn't get to finish on Friday due to getting rained out, but that he felt pretty good about what his crew was able to do. He only just turned 14 so I wasn't sure how he was going to feel about all the work, but he told me today he's now thinking it would be cool to build a hiking trail as his Eagle project (he just passed his Life Board of Review two weeks before leaving for GW-Jeff). Plus he's going to suggest at his troop's next PLC meeting that they plan a trip to GW-Jeff so they can hike on a trail

Tokala, congratulations on your acccomplishments this past week. My son returned today also calling it GW-Jeff, and was just as jazzed about the week -- what a bang-up start to his OA experience! He tells me the Scouts built 72 miles of hiking trails during the week - wow!

I was always under the impression that it was illegal for non-government agencies to require the use of the Social Security Number, but when I did some further digging, I learned that the waters have certainly been a bit muddied over time, between concerns about privacy rights and post-9/11 concerns, among other things: http://www.ssa.gov/history/ssn/ssnchron.html But that doesn't mean that requests for SSNs should be considered routine: http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs10a-SSNFAQ.htm And, finally, the Social Security Administration itself has this to say about requests fo

No, I wasn't aware -- but when I tried it out, it came up with a pretty limited selection -- certainly not including this one.

Yes, I've been Googling for Boy Scout news the past few days -- kind of an outgrowth of looking for news stories about ArrowCorps5. There's certainly some interesting stories out there -- like this one! http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/articles/2008/06/26/news/local_news/newsstory1.txt

Now this is different! http://tinyurl.com/6zbq96 http://tinyurl.com/3esnea http://tinyurl.com/63kwmy

What a mess. http://tinyurl.com/3k4j77 http://tinyurl.com/4pk5pd http://tinyurl.com/4lh7et http://tinyurl.com/4quv2v http://tinyurl.com/4rlle5

My son, who just passed his Ordeal last month, was fortunate to be able to go to ArrowCorps5 in George Washington and Jefferson National Forest. I won't know first-hand about his experience until he gets home on Sunday, but in the meantime, these news stories have kept me going: http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/search.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-06-23-0125.html http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/167330 Yes, I am a proud mom! :-)

Some of our parents wouldn't dream of asking for reimbursement; for others, it can make a difference in their monthly budget. We reimburse for any parent who requests it.

Here's what National has on their website: http://www.scouting.org/Media/PressReleases/2008/20080612.aspx