SR540Beaver

ahhhh, pets! We have two adopted cats and one stray dog. One of adopted cats is a little black and white cat named Lily. She seemed as sweet as she could be when I took her out of her cage to check her out. I was looking for a lap cat. I got her home and she ran under the bed. That has been several years ago and she is still under the bed. She is our scardy cat. She wants to be loved so much, but it has to be on her terms. She has to rub up against you and will run if you try to approach her or hold her. My wife loves her. I think it has something to do with female's talent at playing hard to get. Our other cat is Spanky. He is part Siamese and 300% tomcat. He is the most nosey and curious cat I've ever seen. A total stranger can walk in the house and Spankers is up in their lap like a flash checking them out. He likes to torment Lily at every opportunity. He has a thing for q-tips. He likes to open the cabinet door under the bathroom sink and turn the trash can over so he can eat the cotton off the ends. If none are available, he gets inside the cabinet, goes behind the drawers and pushes them open, comes back out and climbs in the drawer, opens the metal container holding the q-tips and spreads them all over the bathroom. He thinks he owns the house and his job is to be worshiped on a regular basis. I love the cat. He sleeps with my son and he climbs in my lap at every given opportunity. My wife hates him. She says he is a devil cat. I think it has something to do with females not appreciating the simplicity of the male species. Jake. MY dog. 155 lbs of great dane/bull mastiff. He is the biggest baby you've ever seen. Not a single mean bone in his body. Always eager to please. Always obedient. Always wants his huge paw held when he sits next to you. He wants to be a lap dog in the worst way. He thinks his place is in the house with everyone else. He'll set at the door and whine when you get home. He obeys commands on or off the leash. He loves to ride IN the truck with me. He is 8 years old now and starting to show his age. Large breeds don't live as long as smaller breeds. He has been a dream dog. A once in a life time friend and pet. The day I lose him will be one of the saddest days in my life. He can never be replaced.

Ed, You strike me as a guy who probably doesn't care for welfare. I could be wrong. Why should a troop who is unwilling to support the council's financial needs and goals expect a free hand out from the council. If you help me build a shelter, you've earned the right to crawl under it with me when it rains. If you sit on a log and watch me build a shelter, it is up to me to decide to share it with you when it starts raining. It isn't politics. Consider the oath and law. Why would a troop who lives by the oath and law choose not to support the council and then expect something for nothing?

scoutldr, Well, it has sort of worked for the Blue Jays and the Expos. However, I spent 10 months in Vermont a few years back and heard an awful lot of French being spoken by the Canadians who ventured south.

twocub, Yep, that's what it says. There are districts and therefore councils who look the other way on this one though. It is a major recruitment tool for them.

It has bothered me ever since I posted in this thread earlier that my comments might be considered flippant. Please forgive me if anyone took them that way. Everytime I read this thread, I think what if this were my 11 year old son and I tear up. My heart goes out to this scared lost boy and his family. I pray for a miracle and that he could be found alive. I know that with the amount of time and weather, that is a slim possibility. Still, I hope. I checked and saw where one of his socks was found 3/4 of a mile of his last known location. That is helping them concentrate their search. My prayers are with him and his family.

Acco, I was thinking the same thing. BSA is BSA. National determines the program and you accept it when you sign on. If you don't like it, don't sign up. It isn't a democracy and you don't get a say so. I've seen this argument many times here as well. On one hand, I do think it is part of what has helped keep Scouting strong in America. But it is dependent on the leadership at the top which we don't have any say so in. Should we ever get people in power that act the way the Canadian leadership has, we could see things go south as they have and not be able to do anything about it. People would have to vote with their feet the way they have in Canada. I don't think their reform movement would be any more successful than those that want to "reform" BSA because of the way they are set up. They can resist outside influence all day long and be perfectly within their legal rights. People throwing up their hands and leaving will be the only thing that could change it. However, the whole organization could die if the leadership continued to resist. Now, before anyone accuses me of wanting to change BSA, don't. I like it just the way it is. I realize that there are folks who want to include gays and atheists. I don't. I don't want to make it co-ed or do away with the uniform. My comments are simply a realization that we are at the mercy of who is running the organization and that it can be abused. Thank God that it has not been here in the US. Let's hope it stays that way. There will be little we can do if it doesn't. Canada is a good example.

scoutldr, No, we approached the DE about starting a new troop. Obvioiusly, he was thrilled with the idea. But there was no suggestion or pressure from council or district to get a new unit going. We could have all transferred to another troop or split up and joined various troops. We are a group of dedicated scouters and we wanted to build a new troop ourselves and our boys liked the idea as well.

E, I know my Pow Wow comment would raise an eyebrow and I knew I should have explained it more fully. Our Council does a Pow Wow Plus. It is training for Cubs, Boy Scouts, Venturing and Sea Scouts. It is a big deal here and well attended. Aside from the standard training classes that are offered, their are classes for friction fire building, dutch oven cooking, scrapbooking, knots, uniforming, etc. There are 67 classes in all. There is even a 7 hour Den Chief training class which is the only class open to boys. Our SM being the District Trainer (as well as all other District Trainers) is heavily involved in the Pow Wow Plus as the Vice Chair of Program. Here is the website if you want to take a look at what all it offers. http://www.lastfrontiercouncil.org/powwowplus/ Without getting into the gory details, our sons crossed over in February to an existing troop. It became clear within a month that it was a cliquish group that really didn't want new blood from boys or adults and that we were not welcome. Since we all knew each other from Cubs and worked well together, we decided to form a new troop and run it by the book. The majority of our leadership had been involved at the district level for some time. Our SM took the role reluctantly because of his other responsibilities and I remember him saying that he would do it with the hopes that we can recruit someone else in the future. It is something I've been giving consideration to discussing with him. I just have not made myself comfortable with the idea yet. If I do, I will limit myself to the unit the majority of the time. BTW, we started the troop in June with 8 boys. School started last week and we took a page from the Cub playbook and set up a table next to the Cub recruiting table at open houses at 3 elementary schools. We signed 4 new 6th graders up. That is a 50% increase overnight! There are 2 more possible recruits. We hope to recruit 6 to 8 boys per year and be at a good 32 boys in a few years with a decent age spread.

I know that many people view it as wrong, but I don't plan, make or enforce the rules for our Camporees. The Webelos camp in the same site as the Troop at our Camporees. Each patrol has their area, the adults have their area and then the Webelos/parents have their own area all within the same campsite. They are just treated as another patrol within the campsite. For cooking and activities, they are divided between the different patrols and Webelos leaders/parents accompany them to the various events. I would like to see the Camporee returned to it's former glory of being skill competitions among the troops and have some meaning. All it is now is just a bing recruitment event. Keep in mind, we do a Webelos Woods each fall for the specific purpose of recruitment. It is much like a Camporee, but with the skills competition geared more towards Webelos instead of Scouts. If I had my preference, Camporee would be for Boy Scouts only and Webelos Woods would be for recruitment and the two would never mix. But they do in our district.

E, Hmmmmmmm......I'll give it some thought. One of my other concerns is the wearing of too many hats. Our SM is also the District Training Chair, is a UC and serving on the next WB staff. Our other ASM helps with training, is a UC, is serving on the next WB and is an ASM for the Jambo contingent. Our CC helps with training and is a UC. All three are also heavily involved in POW WOW each year. Two of our other Committee members are UC's. We are a brand new troop of only two months with ten 11 year old boys. Someone has to hold down the fort while the rest of our leadership is fulfilling the district and council responsibilities they held before this troop came about. You should have been around when we set down with the calendar and tried to figure out which weekends we could camp thru the end of the year.

Chew or Die! Beavers rule, all others drool! Good story and have fun at WB.

I was made aware last night that my name has been given to the DC to contact me about becoming a UC. My answer will be no. I was involved for 2 years in Cubs. One of those as the Committee Chairman. I've been involved in Boy Scouts since February of this year as an ASM. I love scouting. I've been to every training available for my position as well as other positions. I've been to Wood Badge and am one ticket away from my beads. I've been selected as an ASM for our Jamboree Contingent. I got into scouting with my son. The unit is where I want to be until he leaves and/or ages out. That is why I don't want to be a UC right now. However, the main reason I don't want to be a UC is because I don't yet have the experience. Maybe a few years down the road. Being a dedicated, but warm body is no reason to take on the job or to have the offer extended.

Where the heck did you find such a survey? I've never been overly impressed with the layout of the BSA site. It is too hard to find what you are looking for. I went to their search box and typed in survey and still couldn't find what you are talking about.

LeV, Good to see you back! The buddy what? From my experience, you could drill a hole in the boy's heads and pour the buddy system in with a funnel and cork it tight and they still would ignore it. We made a sport of it at summer camp this year to sit under our dining fly next to the road and ask boys where their buddy was. We'd send them back to their camp instead of letting them go get their slushie at the trading post.

Heck, I'm still trying to figure out why OA exists in the first place? What is "honor" camping?

Debbiedo Embroidery & Monograms 207 SW H Ave Lawton, OK 73501 Phone: 877-593-9656 FAX: 580-353-2606 Email: DebbiedoEmbroid@aol.com This is a very involved person in our council who does a huge amount of scout related work. She was my troop guide in Wood Badge.

Don't go on any snipe hunts! Have fun.

There are rumors that this was actually Eamonn and the liquid in question was Guiness.

I found this amusing, hope you do too. http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20040817_2517.html Bear Drinks 36 Cans of Favorite Beer Black Bear Found Passed Out at Campground Apparently Consumed 36 Cans of His Favorite Beer The Associated Press BAKER LAKE, Wash. Aug. 17, 2004 Rain-eeeeer .... Bear? When state Fish and Wildlife agents recently found a black bear passed out on the lawn of Baker Lake Resort, there were some clues scattered nearby dozens of empty cans of Rainier Beer. The bear apparently got into campers' coolers and used his claws and teeth to puncture the cans. And not just any cans. "He drank the Rainier and wouldn't drink the Busch beer," said Lisa Broxson, bookkeeper at the campground and cabins resort east of Mount Baker. Fish and Wildlife enforcement Sgt. Bill Heinck said the bear did try one can of Busch, but ignored the rest. "He didn't like that (Busch) and consumed, as near as we can tell, about 36 cans of Rainier." A wildlife agent tried to chase the bear from the campground but the animal just climbed a tree to sleep it off for another four hours. Agents finally herded the bear away, but it returned the next morning. Agents then used a large, humane trap to capture it for relocation, baiting the trap with the usual: doughnuts, honey and, in this case, two open cans of Rainier. That did the trick. "This is a new one on me," Heinck said. "I've known them to get into cans, but nothing like this. And it definitely had a preference."

The question is how would you objectively rate a scout camp. Hotels are rated by travel related companies based on certain standards. I don't see how you can apply that to scout camps. Who would go visit scout camps in 50 states to do a comparison? I'd love to, but I also like to eat and pay my bills. I've spent lots of time in New Mexico as my wife's parents live there. I think it is one of the most beautiful places on Earth. I know people who think it is the most God forsaken place on Earth. Those kinds of things come into play when considering camps. It is a matter or personal taste. At summer camp this year, we had a 21 year old young man that ran the Trail to Eagle class. He was outstanding. We had a kid who taught flyfishing who handed the boys a pole and told them to go fish while he played cards. Depending on who you talk to and what classes they took, the program was either great or it was lousy. At best, you can only get subjective opinions on camps people have been to. Staff will change from year to year as well as camp directors. I really don't want to sound negative, but I don't think you can really effectively rate camps as the are a matter of personal taste and they make-up of the camp changes from year to year.

Ditto to what everyone else said. As long as the staff knows, they can and will accomodate you. We had several older scouters, several large scouters, a man who was handicapped from a stroke and another who had lost a leg and got around on crutches. They had as good of an experience as everyone else. Your butt and your brain are the two muscles used the most at Woodbadge.

The article mentioned that Scouts Canada owns 500 campgrounds. That's alot of campgrounds. They are selling off 20. That leaves 480 campgrounds. Ontario has more than half of that 500 and that is where these 20 are being culled out. I don't like seeing campgrounds closed either, but 20 out of 500 is a really small number. How many properties does BSA own and operate? Most scout camps are owned and operated by local councils. I would imagine that if BSA owned 500 camps, they would end up selling off some from time to time. Especially if they experienced a drop in numbers and revenue. I'm sure that including gays has had a chilling effect for many scouts and scouters. While it may have some bearing, I don't think you can automatically tie one issue directly to the other.

First off, let me say that I don't condone letting scouts get in a vehicle with somone who has been drinking. Now, the other side of things. Our summer camp is out in the sticks. The nearest town MIGHT be a one horse town. It is tiny. I wouldn't have a clue how to contact the town's police department. I assume that the camp director does. The camp is private property. Will the local constable drive down to the camp because I (John Doe) called and said we had a probelm? The only way I would know of to stop the man is to physically restrain him and take his keys away. Now we have a possible fight on our hands while someone trots of to find the camp director so he can call the police who we hope we can find and can get there in under 30 minutes. It might not be as cut and dried as it looks.

Geez, I know scouts who think wearing a full uniform is lame, don't see the value of a poncho when it rains and disagree with the time set for lights out. It's called being a kid.

Nothing against young Mr. Zeiger, but he does have a certain political axe to grind. He writes opinion peices and I have a feeling that he (like most columnists from both sides of the fence) embellish the "facts" to support their view. You can read a bio of Hans Zeiger at http://www.therant.us/staff/bios/hans_zeiger.htm and read additional columns he has written to decide for yourself.