SR540Beaver

From the Oklahoma DMV website: Oklahoma offers over 100 types of special license plates. Some of these plates are available to any applicant, while others are available only to applicants meeting certain criteria. Several of the plates may be personalized by the vehicle owner. Most special plates are issued for a fee, which is in addition to the annual registration fee. In many instances, a portion of the fee is apportioned to the applicable organization. There is a Boy Scout plate available.

I believe the high cost of the popcorn is because of all the different levels it has to support. In addition to what the boy gets for his account, council, national and Trail's End get their cuts too. If you sold it at half the price, no one would make enough to make it worth going thru the effort. There are obviously better fundraisers where you can make 50% profit on reasonably priced products. However, it bypasses the council and national. They have to have cash to operate too.

Out of ignorance, what is the relationship between BSA and Trail's End? Is it part of BSA? Does it sell it's popcorn thru other organizations besides BSA? Can a council actually switch popcorn vendors as BadenP suggests? Fundraising can be a mess in any organization, regardless of whether it is a church youth group, scouts, sports, school band, etc. There are always those parents who would rather write a check than participate. There are always those parents who don't want to write a check or participate. Then there are those who go all out and end up paying the way for half the group thru their lone efforts. Aside from door to door sales and show and sell this year, we are going to attempt to contact businesses and businessmen that might want to give popcorn to employees, vendors, customers, etc. as Christmas gifts. Where there is a will, there is a way. You just have to be innovative and put forth the effort.

Well, in our troop the patrols do their own work.....so the boys would operate it. Each patrol member swishing the plunger for a minute or two won't take anymore time or effort than each one using a sink. Considering that all of the scout camps I've been to so far have either a stopperless narrow sheetmetal "sink" or a length of PVC pipe cut in half for a sink, a bucket or trash can would work much better. Also, considering that our scouts seem to have the uncanny ability to get their uniform dirty in about 30 seconds flat, having a full load to do wouldn't be a problem.

FOG, Cutting a small hole in a piece of plastic is too much work? Do you sleep in the car on campouts so you don't have to set up a tent? You can always let a Scout cut the hole.....they love cutting things.

FOG: A bit of shampoo, five minutes of scrubbing in a sink (water required), followed by a rinse and you have a clean shirt. Easier said than done. We've had 17 year old scouts who ate dry Ramen noodles because they were too lazy to heat some water and had to escort them to the showers at summer camp to make sure they took at least one shower. The other option is to buy a plastic trash can that has a lid that snaps on tight. Cut a hole in the top. Use a toilet plunger as the agitator. Instant washing machine.

Eamonn, We have a darn good district in my opinion. We have a good RT staff. I've never missed an RT since joining as a Scouter. I have to admit though, I enjoy the opening session where information and announcements are made much more than the breakout sessions. I have nothing against them, I just have never gotten much from them. I tend to ferret out my own information for ideas than depend on the RT breakouts to provide them. I'm sure there are many people who are just the opposite from me and find the large group session a waste of time and want to get to the program breakout.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Who says it ain't broke? You'll get as many answers as there are scouts and scouters. The colors are not broken. The quality and cut are in my opinion. The pants could be a little more roomier and have functional cargo pockets. The shirt needs an honest to God collar instead of that floppy piece of fabric they have. I wouldn't mind reversing the colors to tan pants and olive shirt. I think the boys might come closer to wearing a khaki pant than an olive pant. Again, my opinion. I'd like to see the uniform made from a fabric that repels stains, dries quickly and wicks moisture away from the body. All of these innovations are out in the market for half the cost of the scout uniform pieces. It could be done. I think each council will have their own requirments for Jamboree. My son and I will be going with our contingent. Our requirements are three full uniforms. We will be there 10 days and we won't be doing laundry to my knowledge. Therefore, you need enough uniforms to switch out and stay clean. No talk of a "new" uniform here. The only difference will be the Jambo patches that replace our normal patches.

OneHour, He meant bath tub floor. It is where the floor (hopefully a single piece of fabric) curves up and attaches to the tent walls several inches above ground level. It keeps those pesky seams with all their needle holes from being at ground level and leaking from ground water. Of course, the one problem with a bath tub floor is when the roof leaks and you end up with several inches of water being held in the bottom of the tent!

OGE, I admit it, I used to be a forum junkie. I've been a member of numerous types of forums on the internet. The only ones I frequent these days is this one and a political forum. From my experience, the moderators try to take as much of a backseat as they can and let the threads roll. They only act when drastic measures are required. They usually will PM the offender. If that doesn't work, they will give a warning in the thread. Next step is to ban the offender as a last resort. If too many people are acting up, then a thread might be closed. My preference for what it is worth is to give a gentel remined to keep the tone friendly and let the thread continue. Just because a thread is old is no reason to close it. I'm not trying to tell you how to do your job friend, just telling you how I've seen other forums managed. In fact, maybe Scouter Terry, Hops and you can visit and come up with some agreed upon rules for what will cause warnings, bans and thread closures and post them for all to see. Just my two cents. Take it for what it is worth.

Which begs the question....if you are going to designate your UW contribution to go to a particular organization, why not just give it directly to the organization? Cut out the middle man.

ScouterPaul, What the heck is a tarp without a bottom?

Cut it? That's a waste of time. You make it and you eat it. End of story.

And the award goes to....Hops! Congrats!

Yes it does and all seams are factory sealed.....for real. We have not had to seal any seams like we did with my Coleman.

No....I don't even like the hike from my recliner to the refrigerator.

MM, Check out Sierra Designs Gamma tent. It is one of there lowest cost tents, but is packed with features. My son has one and loves it. I've used it and liked it too. It is a "two man" tent. It has good height and weight. It also sports a full rainfly. It runs around $150 which is a steal compared to many backpacking tents from other name brand companies. If you look arounf on the internet or check e-bay, you might pick it up even cheaper. I don't think you would be disappointed with it. Sleeping bag? Not sure, I'm in the market myself. My son has a Sierra Designs Flex bag. It is a mummy bag with a nice innovation. The internal baffles are made from an elastic fabric that gives about 6 inches of stretch for people who shift positions and don't like the confinement of a mummy bag. It is designed for people who sleep on their sides or tummy instead of just on their back. It also has what they call a ngith cap hood. It is roomy enough that you can pull your arms up under your head and still keep them covered. If it is really cold, the hood can be cinched down around your head like a traditional mummy hood. They make both a synthetic and down version and are good down to about 15 degrees I believe. The synthetic can run around $200. I found my son's at www.hiltonstentcity.com for $139.00.

Saturday morning at George Thomas? Hmmmmmm...

I saw the fluffernutter on the Food Network one night. It looked like a waste of perfectly good peanut butter to me! For those who may not know what it is, it is a peanut butter and marshmallow creme sandwich. Yankees seem to like them.

Rooster, He availed himself of the opportunity to send PM's that were vulgar to a number of us. He brought the warranted comments upon himself.

Boleta, He went easy on you. I won't repeat his message to me.

Bob White and Eamonn have both stated that they are leaving. A new comer to the boards was Jason OK. He enjoyed stirring things up. He also came back as Old Fart and The Dude. Those are the only three alias names I know of for sure. He represented himself as entirely different people under each name. I believe Scouter Terry has dealt with him. He quit posting around 5 PM today. Not before sending me a rather nasty curse laden private message however for telling him that he needed to seek serious help and that it would be better for him to move on. That is the score as I understand it.

Ahhhh, this is more like it! BTW, I'm still the peanut butter king! I will grind all challengers to my title into.....peanut butter! Chunky peanut butter!

LOL You really are clueless. Look at the bottom of this screen and click on the FastRoot link. Scouter Terry is the CEO of a global technology solutions company. I don't think there is much you will be able to teach him.

Thank you Terry. JasonOK/The Dude/OldFart, etc. (did I miss any) has finally outted himself in another thread.