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SR540Beaver

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Posts posted by SR540Beaver

  1. 55 minutes ago, SWOKlahoma said:

    I have been involved in cub scouts but never tried to set a program up. Where I live at there is no program around for about 50 miles. We have reached out to the closest council to try to get things set up, and it seems like we are getting the run around. My question is. How do we set it up and how does funding work. I was initial told about the charter dues which were $42. Now they are saying that each individual is $250. Can someone give me some guidance. 

    You are in Last Frontier Council’s Kickingbird District. I am the Council Training Chair and know the Field Dire for for your Service Area. Private message me your contact info and I’ll see that someone who can help you will contact you. 

    • Upvote 1
  2. You make allowances where allowances are called for just like rank advancement in a troop.  We had a young man with cerebral palsy confined to a wheelchair who earned the Vigil Honor.  What kind of work did he do that got noticed and got him nominated?  His father pushed his chair to the beginning of the serving line at the dining hall where he held the box of hand wipes for people to clean their hands.  Every meal at every event, without fail.  Outstanding service depends on one's abilities.  If a young man who has memory issues wants to seal his Brotherhood, by all means encourage him.

    • Upvote 2
  3. Our districts have two Eagle Board of Reviews.  One is to get the project approved and the other is the final where they earn Eagle.  These BOR's are held once a month and each BOR has at least 3 adults on the board.  We may have 4 to 5 boards running with 3 adults each depending on how many Scouts scheduled for a BOR.  The District Eagle Chair plays traffic cop in scheduling the monthly date, scheduling the Scouts and recruiting the number of boards and adults needed per month.  They also check to make sure all the T's are crossed and I's dotted on signatures, reference letters, etc.  The Eagle Chair doesn't actually sit on any boards.

  4. 2 hours ago, Oldscout448 said:

    Quite a lot of the scouts have bought their own materials, made their own regalia without any help whatsoever from the Lodge,   If they decide to serve the cubs by driving their car to an AoL and doing a ceremony that the pack has requested,without any reference to the Order, I do not see how a Lodge ,or even National ,has any right legal or moral to tell them no.

    Oldscout

     

    So you're going to use the, "if a patrol wants to go play laser tag as a bunch of friends in street clothes, then it isn't Scouts going against the G2SS" defense even when the patrol planned it at a meeting?  OA ceremonialists need to do the honorable thing and follow the national rules rather than go rogue.

    • Upvote 1
  5. I am a Lodge Adviser.  In the past, there were four official OA ceremonies that must be conducted as written.  These were the Pre-Ordeal, Ordeal, Brotherhood and Vigil.  Crossovers, AOL and callout ceremonies were homegrown affairs.  There is now an officially recognized crossover/AOL ceremony.  It and only it is to be used for crossover/AOL ceremonies.  It is done without regalia and has a backpacking journey theme to it to recognize the Cubs journey to Boy Scouting.  It is done in uniform with backpacks, compasses, etc. as props.  All Lodges are required to use this ceremony or don't do them at all.  Those are your options.

    The future of regalia in the other ceremonies is an open question.  My personal opinion is that with our ever increasing politically correct environment and concerns over cultural appropriation, we may end up having to give it up someday.  My other observation is that with the coming of girls to the OA in 2019, how do we handle regalia?  If there are Native American nations out there who question our use of regalia, how will they feel when girls put on male regalia as the mighty chief to perform a ceremony.  Will that not only be cultural appropriation or a "perversion" on top of appropriation?  Time will tell.

    • Upvote 1
  6. On ‎10‎/‎26‎/‎2018 at 10:06 AM, Carter said:

    Any chance this could be shared? We have many scouts just like others here have mentioned that do not have an income for various reasons. Instead of creating the wheel from scratch it would be nice to have something that works as an alternative that will teach the boys more about real world finances.

    Sorry, I posted that 7 years ago.  The SM is long gone as is my son and I from the troop.

  7. Let me add, that when we have former members from our Lodge looking to join elsewhere and we don’t have records, we suggest they try this same approach and I’ve yet to have one tell me they were refused. 

  8. Once an Arrowman, always an Arrowman. I serve as a Lodge Adviser and we get folks moving into our area or their son has been elected and we get this question a lot. If your previous Lodge doesn’t have records from that far back, we work off of the point of the law that a Acout is trustworthy. If you tell us you were in the OA, we will take you at your word. We do ask that you do the best you can to provide the date of your induction and Brotherhood and/or Vigil. We will add you to our roster after you pay the current year dues. We welcome “lapsed” Arrowman back I to the Brotherhood. 

  9. 2 hours ago, wisihalacon said:

    Our troop has two members that need to attend the ordeal soon but have not been tapped out. The understanding is that the tap out is optional.

    I expect that is still the case?

    The “tap out” is optional. It is not an official ceremony of the OA like Ordeal or Brotherhood. Many Lodges do different things depending on size. Some Lodges do a Lodge wide call out, others do it by chapter and yet others have no ceremony at all. If they were elected, they are eligible to complete their Ordeal. 

     

    I didnt stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, but I am a Lodge Adviser. 

    • Upvote 2
  10. I look forward to integrating girls into the program. There are some venturing girls who are exceptional scouts and they deserve th honor.

     

    I don't believe you will see Venturing girls in OA. While Venturing is a BSA program, it stands alone from Boy Scouts or future Girl Scouts. The OA is a program element of Scouting, not Venturing. Time will tell though if they change that. I will note that boys in Crews who are not dual registered in a Troop are not eligible for the OA either as they can't meet the requirements. The OA only holds elections in Troops and Teams.
  11. I wish this was emphasized more. It's a great view.

    Well Fred, a lot of that starts with unit leaders actually letting a team in to tell your youth about what the OA offers. Then it helps to have adult leaders who become members, are active and provide transportation for Arrowman to OA events. It helps to have the SM be one of those people. Having a youth and adult OA Rep within the troop who attend Chapter meetings and brings back info to the unit. The troop leadership needs to view the OA as a natural extension of a great Scout program rather than an interruption or competitor. They need to understand the leadership training and opportunities provided. A Scout can be the national OA Chief. A position that represents all Scouts nationally. Below that are region, section, lodge and chapter positions. OA provides the cheapest way for a Scout to attend the high adventure bases thru the trail crew program. Spend a week building trail and then get to help design a custom week long trip. The OA is big in show production. Those great shows at things like Jamboree and NOAC, all OA. They provide service to the Jamboree, other events and conservation work to wilderness areas of the nation. But back home, they do elections and ceremonies and provide service to camps. All they ask is to be able to visit your troop and introduce a world of enhanced scouting to your boys. But many troops just say no, we don't do OA.

     

    https://oa-bsa.org/pages/content/a-day-in-the-life-on-operation-arrow-staff

     

    https://oa-bsa.org/pages/content/oa-hackathon

     

    https://oa-bsa.org/pages/content/oa-facilitates-journal-program-with-national-geographic-explorer-paul-salop

     

    https://adventure.oa-bsa.org/

    • Upvote 1
  12. Adult troop leaders, if you don't allow OA elections at the top end of the scale to not supporting or encouraging participation on the low end of the scale, why? I'm our current Lodge Adviser and this is the perennial issue across the land. I just want to hear the objections and also what might entice you to entertain this portion of the Scouting program.

  13. I always thought the "Cub Scout" program resembled the Girl Scout program.  Seriously.  Crafts.  Go-see-its.  Minor camping.

     

    I was a Cub Scout in the early to mid 60's and we did crafts, go see it's and no camping. The only difference was that we wore our uniforms to school and walked to the den mother' house immediately after school.

    • Upvote 1
  14. Scouting is like church. There is a saying amongst some Christians that a follower isn't perfect, just forgiven. We like to think a Scout has reached a level of perfection and would never do anything wrong. People are people and they will at times disappoint you. I was an ASM for the 2005 and 2010 Jambos at AP Hill. We required the youth to keep their footlockers locked and always left two adults in camp during the day for security. There were youth there who would look for empty campsites and help themselves. Sad but true. In 2010, our sub camp had very nice big rig trailers that were set up with stainless steel showers. They had even contracted with a group who cleaned them thru the day. That was until some kids decided to take bowel movements in the shower stalls and the cleaning crew said they were done. The showers were locked. Fortunately, the boys in our contingent......who valued showers.....went to the sub camp leadership and asked for cleaning supplies and suggested having shower monitors present to get the showers reopened. It worked. That's the kind of behavior you wouldn't expect from a Scout, but when you have 40,000 parents plunk down the cash to send junior to the Jamboree, the odds are you will get some bad apples in the mix. There are plenty of lessons to be learned when these types of issues come up.

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  15. Nothing new at all. I was an NYLT course director back in 2012 and we did Venturing YPT for the staff. As best I recall, YPT was a requirement. Why would you put kids in a position of responsibility on camp or trading staff and not require it? You are just setting the youth and yourself up for problems in the event something happens.

  16. Like what? What do you do that the units don't?

    Provide opportunities at the council, regional and national level. Our lodge chief and adviser sit on the council board. The chief does a state of scouting address each year to the state legislature. We've had boys in the last few years be elected to section and regional leadership positions. A good number have become trail crew foreman at Philmont and Northern Tier. One young man from our lodge runs the entire Philmont trail crew operation. All opportunities that they would never have at the troop level.

  17. WAKWIB, what is your basis for saying that Randall Stephenson is "not content with 'local option'"? Is there a quote somewhere that you can link to?

    Stephenson runs AT&T. Companies like his give into activists all the time whether they believe in their agenda or not because it is a PR nightmare if they don't jump on the bandwagon. If Stephenson became president, any "anti" gay decision would be carried over to his business where he has fiduciary responsibilities. He may be the CEO, but the board and stockholders would force him to make decisions that would spare them and their profit and not have their name in the media in a negative light. Activists are not happy with local option. He would be pressured to do away with it and he might do it to protect AT&T.

     

    Side note, Stephenson's nephew was my son's best friend in grade school and jr high. My son recruited him to our troop, but that lasted less than 6 months. Stephenson also worked for my older brother at AT&T many years ago. He was a night shift computer operator and lived in a mobile home. My brother used to give him rides home after work.

  18. I got back into scouting with my son around 2002. I was initiated with talk of the death of BSA. It still appears to be alive and kicking. He camped every month, went to summer camp, floated the Boundary Waters, backpacked Philmont and the Pecos Wilderness, staffed camps, staffed NYLT's, attended two Jambos, held just about every position up the SPL and JASM, was an OA ceremonialist, Chaper and Lodge Vice Chief and earned Eagle. That's just what I can think of off the top of my head. He had plenty of adventure. His experience was pretty typical of the boys in our troop. Is scouting changing? Sure, but it always has.

  19. Reading this article, I see this quote, "We had no idea a severe storm was approaching".  I was amazed.

     

    Before my Troop goes on a camp out, I'm checking the weather web sites for the upcoming weather conditions.  Once we're on the camp out, I carry a weather radio Link.

     

    What do you do to prepare for weather?

    I live in Oklahoma. You can't swing a dead cat without hitting a meteorologist or a storm chaser. Seriously, if it's going to rain, all the TV stations preempt the network feed and spend hours covering it. The only way you can't be weather aware is by choosing not to.

  20. I must admit that I never sat on an Eagle board under the old project workbook. I was too busy doing unit scouting, OA, district and council staffing and such to add that to my list. After my son aged out and I slowed down a little, I took up EBOR's. That being said, my son and other boy's in our unit used the old workbook, so I'm very familiar with the format. As a board member, I'd much prefer the old format. We get far too many kids whose unit leadership signs off on an idea. Literally, an idea and little else. Under the new format, they don't have to put much more effort into it than that. I know I exaggerate, but it's close to being true. My son rebuilt a pavilion at a Campfire USA campground that had been destroyed by a flood. His workbook had all the materials, measurements, plans, drawings, etc you could imagine in support of the project. An owner/engineer of a major commercial construction company (builds skyscrapers) sat on his board. He told my son after the board that when he looked at it before my son even sat with them, it was so well done that he could picture the whole project in his mind and understand exactly what he was doing. now all we get is, "I'm going to rebuild a destroyed pavilion". What materials are you going to use? Plywood and shingles maybe. Maybe metal. How much do you need? I don't know, I was going to talk to the ranger and see what he thought. I'm running more and more into these type of initial EBOR's and they fall within the spirit and letter of the new rules. We spend most of our time making suggestions to help him succeed than we do hearing him explain a real plan. It's just an idea. We approve them, but we feel like we are approving vapor in many instances. I think the old workbook needed some adjustments, but I think they went too far in the other direction with the new workbook.

  21. So' date=' daughter comes home from break and I find her, Son #2, and Mrs Q playing a feisty round of cards. Talk turns to who endured the worst childcare, who got sent to the worst church camp, who didn't get sent to any church camp, etc .... Daughter than pipes up, "Well, I couldn't be a member of the BSA for 7 years." I tried to point out that she was the one who let her membership lapse when she went to college, and she said that those weren't the years that mattered. Her childhood was spent watching me take her brothers off camping. GSUSA, you gotta step it up. Get your moms out under canvas (or less) more often in tougher conditions. Or, someone else will.[/quote']

     

    Or allow the dads to.......

     

    Can you imagine if BSA were exclusionary to say women, minorities or gays? Just like the argument that gays and pedophiles are two different things, fathers and pedophiles are two different things. Dads "can be" involved, but from a distance.

  22. Obviously it is a parody' date=' but there is a serious issue that goes with it. A lot of states (including NJ) are about to administer a new standardized test, which isn't really ready for prime time. In our school district, it is going to take away a lot of teaching time so they can have these tests that are of doubtful value.[/quote']

     

    Comrade, if you keep speaking like this, there will be no extra bread for you this week. You are a good citizen, correct? ;)

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