Slouchhat

Abyssinia! You can always contact me through www.frederickselous.blogspot.com best regards, Volker

Hello, being a supporter of the neckerchief as both a practical and traditional item, I reckon wear of the neckerchief is optional in BSA to begin with, but for those who want to wear it, it is optional to wear it over or under the collar. As for the uniforms, if I compare the BSA khaki shirts and green trousers with the appearance of most German troops, even the sloppiest BSA troop looks a lot sharper than most German troops. My troop is being regarded with obscurity as the kids really wear a uniform (khaki shirts and khaki BDU trousers)and not a mix of uniform items and sundry "c

100% agreed. Nothing better to keep your torso warm like a good woolly pully. If you don't like olive green, the German military also issues these in dark blue and grey as well, pocket on left breast, canvas on shoulders and elbows and velcro shoulder straps. The national flags come off the sleeves easily. If you want, I can get them for you at good rates directly from the manufacturer. best regards, Volker

Hello, part of our program is to let the scout do things away from the supervision, observation or whatever of his parents. The parents drop their boy off and put them in the care of the SM (or ASM) and that's it. best regards, Volker

Well, my leatherstockings use pup tents made of two rubber-coated nylon shelter halves. These are far from modern dome tents so we figure that some ditching won't hurt if done properly. You can see more about us (and our tents) here: www.frederickselous.blogspot.com best regards, Volker

I'm running a co-ed troop and I don't have a different program for the girls. The result is that despite their obvious feminine properties, they play as hard as the boys do. One patrol is scheduled for their scout test this upcoming March and a girl was the first to know all the necessary knots for the test. We will not be able to buy a patrol-size tent for them so they are using the old two-man pup tents and I don't want boy and girl to share the same tent. However, with the larger patrol tents, it is okay to do so given that an adult leader is sleeping in the same tent. I know, t

Time for another German proverb: Where there's no plaintiff, there's no judge. best regards, Volker

Hello, this sounds like a very good way to handle things for a small troop and I bet that's how many smaller troops actually do it. What I'd like to know, though, is why BSA sends legal letters out to other scouting organisations. Letters don't get sent out without somebody making it happen and that's usually not some clerk who says "Hey, I think it's a good idea to send Baden-Powell Scouts a legal letter." There must be a plan behind this and I have the odd feeling that it could be more than just protction of trademarked generic terms.

Hello, our troop meets weekly, every Friday from 17.00 - 18.30 hrs. best regards, Volker

To be honest, I think it's sad. I can understand that every organisation wants to protect its turf and not see their logo abused, etc. After all, most organisations do have a good name, image and do a lot of good work for the benefit of the kids. That's what it's all about. But here, I feel, things are going overboard and a negative image is being created. It is beyond my understanding how a generic term like scout, scouting, etc. could be protected. For example, the USMC has a Scout Sniper Program, there is a veterans organisation for the Alamo Scouts, etc. How scared must a

Mark this day in the calendar, my fellow scouters, I'm virtually speechless. But here's my suggestion: just formally establish your scouting organisation in Germany where we can wave this trademark BS off and tell them to bug somebody else. This is one of the most absurd copyright things I've ever heard of. The term scout was much longer in existence than the BSA and I'm sorry to say that the courts which allowed such idiocy should re-think their approach towards common sense. best regards, Volker

"Yep, it's all about that exta buck or two that they can garner from each shirt." It sure sounds like that. If a troop would like to have their own individual t-shirt made up, then this effort of teambuilding and esprit de corps should be supported, not suppressed. After all, we are not talking about climbing equipment, parachutes or other material which would require rigorous safety testing and such. But if this is such a prob, I'd simply have the shirts made up without a BSA logo. best regards, Volker

Wow. Is that really what is going on over there? We have an old saying "When three Germans are standing together they are going to establish a club." With the umpteen scouting groups, clubs, associations, federations and what have you in this country, it sounds like the old saying is right. We have three or four really large scouting organisations which work together quite well, but who are independent as to their program, uniforms, etc. I must say that a true monopoly in scouting and everything related to it can't be good for a country. Diversity prevents a monoculture.

Hi! I wish you all the best for your trip to the US and, of course, a lot of fun. Americans are very hospitable and I'm sure you will find many contacts through this board who are either in the vicinity of where you'll be travelling or know a troop who can help you along. best regards, Volker

I think were getting on the right track here now. Nobody wants to see their contributions wasted. This money doesnt appear out of nowhere, but is collected through membership dues and this money, as we all know, has to be earned hard enough by the individual scout of his/her parents. With this in mind, contributions shouldnt be spent mindlessly. Personally, I dont think that big conference centers around the world are necessary for WOSM, it will in all likelihood be a lot more cost-effective to rent space for the occasion. I also do not doubt that the facts described in the open le

I agree with you so far, but... The issue has not been raised where it belongs: in the board, the WSC. Well, maybe it has been and didn't get the majority. So some organisations, among them the BSA took to undemocratic measures to get their will. At least that is the way it looks to many people.

Well, they must have believed that he had all it takes to be SG. After all, he wasn't the only applicant. Plus he was chosen on general consensus. In this light, the actions taken by the BSA make even less sense.

"I would thus recommend our overseas Brother scouts/scouters to keep in mind that 99.99% of the BSA membership had no hand, right or wrong, in what has gone on here." Of course not (I just got wind of this by mere accident and opened this thread to see who had any detailed information). Just like those scouts all around the Globe who trust that they and their interests are represented well in WOSM and who have better things to do than following what's going on in Geneva. Personally, I have no need for a center in Geneva or South America or Cairo for that matter. One World HQ would be f

Funny how not to agree with your point of view is always regarded as "America bashing". Isn't the BSA and therefore the USA, represented on the WSC anymore? Could it possibly be that if you don't get what you want in a democratic way, you prefer to bail out, withdraw funds, threaten and so on to get it?

Well, this seems to be understood as a case of "might makes right" or better "money makes right" by many, though. What some fail to understand, however, is the concept of solidarity. Please stop calling it "our money". You pay your dues to the organisation and it stops being "your money". There is a board which decides how the money is spent and the SG is an executive who does as the board tells him. Maybe the board needs to wake up if the SG didn't act as he was told to? To be honest, if BSA would want to secede from WOSM or if WOSM decides it could well enough make do without BSA

Beavah, you're right. Americans are too quick about things they don't fully understand and I think we see a result of this in BSA. Your sexual orientation is not a matter of choice. If you are a heterosexual, it wasn't your choice. It's not the homosexual's choice either. Many of them are fighting their homosexuality, many marry a woman, have children but still know they are not straight. Most of these marriages don't last anyway. You are talking about a lifestyle. What do you mean? What exactly is a homosexual lifestyle? They have jobs, they need to eat, they need to drink.

That's what I'd be asking, too. While one boy with "special needs" might be able to do almost everything the other boys can do, another just couldn't.

GW, thanks for this point of view. That's what I was looking for.

Hi OGE, we are just as diverse as the Americans. Often enough you see people make a decision not based on hard fact, but on gut feeling. This is what I think has happened in BSA. People are monumentally uninformed about homosexuality, its hows and whys. This leads to fear and uncertainty. Therefore they decide to kick the homosexuals out and try to keep their little applecart clean. I'm just curious to see what happens when the first boys declare their coming out despite the removal of all homosexual scouts and scouters. Are you going to admit then that this activism didn't bring t

@Eagledad: nicely quoted out of context. Why don't you answer my precise questions? @GoldWinger: what if I make it my concern? But just like Eagledad, you avoide answering precise questions. Never mind, though, people. I know you can't really answer in a precise manner because all you have is an undefined gut feeling that you're uncomfortable with homosexuals. But rest assured that having some in BSA will neither turn you nor your boys into homosexuals. If some day they turn out to be homosexual, it has nothing to do with the gay scouter three districts away. I'm amazed about thi