SR540Beaver

I think the issue moose speaks of is more a result of the MB Fair approach to things. Boys go and get spoon fed and earn a MB in half a day. The old school way involved adult association. You found a buddy who wanted to take the same MB, got a MB Counselor name from the SM and called the person to arrange dates and times to meet. You went over the material one on one. Being able to actual discuss the material meant having to know it......which meant reading it. That is hard to do in a classroom setting with a set amount of time.

It appears to be something new since the article says the app will be released in January. And it appears to be national sanctioned since it mentions a connection to the Handbook app.

Agreed, but not everyone feels that way. Some folks think using modern technology is somehow less manly.

I realize that there will be some who will say how wrong this is since BP didn't do it this way and that he will be spinning in his grave.......but I think this just might be a good thing. http://www.scoutingnews.org/2010/12/15/merit-badges-iphone-app/ Merit Badges Will Be Going Mobile With New iPhone App Beginning in early 2011, Boy Scouts will be able to manage their merit badges with an interactive application for the Apple iPhone. The application which will be available for $1.99 through the iTunes Store, will let Scouts review merit badge requirements, keep track of their progress by requirement, and even share their success on Facebook. Boys are notoriously bad at paperwork and famously good at technology. This app will help Scouts keep up with their advancement and undoubtedly spur them on to achieve even more, said Bob Wiemers, team leader for Publishing & Printing Solutions. The apps home screen shows the total number of badges the Scout has completed and started. With a few taps, he can check the requirements for any badge, find links to related websites and resources, and record the requirements he has completed. He can also post his results to Facebook from within the application. If a Scout has already purchased The Boy Scout Handbook Boy Scouts of America app, which appeared in 2009, it will automatically be imported into the new app. The handbook app is also available for purchase through the merit badge app for $7.99. The merit badge app is about more than just merit badges. It also includes an RSS aggregator that pushes Scouting news to the owners phone.

Airborn, Them's fightin' words to his Sooner mama!

clemlaw, Way ahead of you, but it will have to be a birthday present in February. His Eagle application hasn't made it to national yet for approval and recording.

I just wanted to take a moment to share with you. My son received the Vigil Honor last month and became our troop's newest Eagle Scout last night! Needless to say, mom and dad are proud of Little Beaver! He has grown into a fine young man and Scouting has played a tremendous part in that. We are blessed. Next on the agenda, making a final decision on which college to attend next year.

Job very well done! Now you have a new trail to follow. Enjoy!

Being a conservative leaning libertarian, I fall on the side of personal responsibility and good parenting vs the gubmint telling people what they can and can't do. I've never touched an illegal drug substance and some folks drink in one night what I drink in a year.....maybe two. Pot is no worse than alcohol. Legalize it, regulate it and tax it and watch the wind get taken out of the drug cartel's sails.

Well, it depends on what we are calling news these days. CNN, MSNBC and FOX have very little actual "news". When you have networks that operate 24/7/365, you have to fill the air with programming people will watch. Else, they will go out of business. No one offers news all day long so you can pop in, get the news and pop out. To keep the ad dollars coming in, they fill much of the time with opinion shows based around politics and current events. These are not news and should not be confused with the news. They are opinions of the news. Olberman is hanging so far over the ledt that you sometimes wonder if he is going to fall over the edge. Hannity is hanging over the right just as far. Glenn Beck.....he's just circus wacky. But the news.......the real news that these networks offer is practically indistinguishable. It tells you who, what, where, when and how with little to no commentary. Sadly, people are confusing the entertainment shows on the news networks with real news. The actual "news" is pretty fair and balanced across the board.

The real heroes are the guys who cross over from Cubs and remain active until they age out at 18......and earn Eagle along the journey. We've developed that culture to a large extent in our troop and it is really nice to have all these older guys around. My son sits for his final EBOR next Tuesday when he is 17 years and 10 months. He earned Life at 14. He has held every elected position in the troop, plus served a year as a Troop Guide and is currently a Junior Assistant Scoutmaster. Might have missed one campout per year and attended summer camp his first four years. After that, he staffed summer camp and NYLT for two summers. He backpacked the Pecos Wilderness, Philmont and canoed Northern Tier. He attended the 2005 and 2010 Jamborees and was elected SPL of his 2010 Jambo troop. He just received his Vigil Honor in OA where he is finishing his term as Vice-Chief of Inductions and Ceremonies. He has held two different positions in the Chapter and is on the Chapter ceremony team and election team. Did I mention that he is an honor student and works six days a week to make his own truck payments and upkeep? OK, I admit it, I was bragging on my boy!

"The nation is cryin' for real statesmanship." Then why won't they elect any? There are people out there with hard answers and solutions to the tough issues, but they can't get elected. Ron Paul and former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson come to mind. But if they were to be elected Presidnet and attempted to implement common sense solutions to the tough issues, they would face massive opposition from both sides. American like to admire the idea of a statesman from afar, but they seem to desire partisan gridlock as that is what they elect each election.

Right, wrong or indifferent....the BSA pushed cell phones and other technologies hard and heavy at the 2010 Jamboree. They left it up to the individual council's to be the bad guy. The SM of our contingent troop is fairly old school and based on his time in scouting thought it would be a good thing for the scouts to be out of contact with the family back home and friends for two weeks. They might find it a growing and learning experience. He banned cell phones. The council got so much flack from upset parents who couldn't bear not hearing from little Bob or Tom that he was basically forced to rescind his ban. Instead, we had to come up with a list of rules and told them that they were on their own for recharging. I remembered the lines for pay phones and portapotties back in 2005 and knew that the charging stations wasn't going to be as viable of an option as the kids thought. I was right. Cell phones are a common part of our culture now. We can't fight that. What we can do is teach appropriate use and making right choices like Scouting has done for 100 years.

Gary Johnson would be a step in the right direction. http://ouramericainitiative.com/about-gary-johnson Gary Johnson is a Republican and serves as the Honorary Chairman of the Our America Initiative. He has been an outspoken advocate for efficient government, lower taxes, winning the war on drug abuse, protection of civil liberties, revitalization of the economy and promoting entrepreneurship and privatization. He was born on January 1, 1953 and attended the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque from 1971 to 1975, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree. While in college, Gary Johnson earned money as a door-to-door handyman. His success in this area prompted him to start his own construction business, Big J Enterprises, which was founded in 1976. Johnson grew the company into a multi-million dollar corporation that employed over 1000 people in 1994. When he sold Big J in 1999, no employee lost his job and the company remains very successful to this day. In 1994, Johnson was elected Governor of New Mexico despite having little experience in politics. He defeated the incumbent Democratic Governor Bruce King in the general election as well as a former Republican Governor in the primary election. In 1998, Johnson was re-elected as governor, defeating Democratic Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez by a 55% to 45% margin. As Governor of New Mexico, Johnson was known for his common-sense business approach to governing. He eliminated New Mexicos budget deficit, cut the rate of growth in state government in half and privatized half of the state prisons. Johnson also shifted state Medicaid to managed care (which led to better healthcare by creating a statewide healthcare network that previously did not exist and which saved money) and reduced state employees by over 1000, with no firings. During his term, New Mexico experienced the longest period without a tax increase in the states history. While in office, Governor Johnson vetoed 750 bills (which is about equal to all the combined vetoes of the other 49 Governors in the country at the time ) and thousands of line item vetoed bills. Gary Johnson was term limited and could not run for a third consecutive term as Governor in 2002. He currently lives in New Mexico and has remained very active, competing in numerous athletic competitions. He is an avid skier, adventurer, and bicyclist who abstains from alcohol. In 2003, he climbed Mount Everest. Johnson was raised Lutheran and throughout his life has lived according to those Christian principles. Gary Johnson has two grown children. Gary Johnson's Seven Principles of Good Government 1- Seek reality and base all decisions and actions upon it. 2- Be honest to all people all of the time. 3- Acknowledge your critics, but do what's right. 4- Determine your goal, develop a plan and then execute it. 5- Communicate. 6- Anything that could be revealed eventually, should be revealed immediately. 7- Find a job you love and make a difference.

Aw shucks guys, give me a break.......it's a darned busy day at work and I really shouldn't be posting. I'm lousy at multi-tasking.

scoutingagain, But they have grown exponentially with Bush's predecessor and there appears to be no end in sight and no stone unturned. We can't sustain the increased taxation and spending or continual erosion of our individual liberties. While Bush's actions made people uneasy, Obama's have caused people to finally draw a line in the sand. It has nothing to do with race.

I don't identify myself with the tea party. If I had to label myself, I'm a small L libertarian. That being said, I've yet to see anything personally, been provided with any evidence or heard a persuasive argument that lends any credence to the tea party being "racist". The small number of tea partiers I actually know in my neck of the woods are all Scouters that any and all of you would appreciate and enjoy spending time around the campfire with. The tea party has to do with following the constitution, lowering an overbearing tax burden, making the government live within their means and keeping the government out of people's business. Go to any tea party website and read their purpose and mission statements. Race has nothing to do with this other than making a convenient smear. Using the timing of the rise of the tea party to the election of Obama is like taking 1 plus 2 and getting a sum of 4. You could just as easily say that all the fatties in America rose up after we got a scrawny president. It isn't about the man's race.......it's about his policies.

gazing into the campfire......kum-by-yah my lord, kum-by-yah.....

Our troop camps every month of the year regardless of weather. We've done a float trip in August when the night temp was around 98 and so was the humidity. We've camped in Kansas in January when the high for the day was 5. We had one campout this past spring where it rained solid the whole campout. The ranger had to use his tractor to pull our trailer out of the campsite because it had gotten so muddy. We've only cancelled a few campouts over the years due to icy road conditions. Do we get 100% participation? No. But with a roster that runs between 50 to 60 per year, you won't. Some of the kids are involved in sports and some in band. The really dediciated ones come to camp late Friday night or early Saturday morning after a game. Then we have the fair weather kids who pick campouts based on how hard the activity is or what the weather will be. Only a few of those last long term. They weren't in to it to begin with. On top of our monthly campout, we do a high adventure trip each year. Until my 17 year old son started working, he never missed a campout. He did two jamborees and three high adventure trips. He went to summer camp each year and staffed cub resident camp for two years. It has been a while since I've seen a report out of TroopMaster than shows his nights of camping, but it is nearing 200 I believe. He went for his Eagle BOR for his project approval back in October. There was another kid there who was doing his final. He was 16 or 17. He had 24 nights of camping total. Total! He comes from a troop that does family trips and stays in hotels and only musters 5 or 6 real campouts per year. Some of those are one nighters. Sad.

mn, That would be cool if the metal frames were not damaged. My brother manages a company that had one of their building burn to the ground. They had an Olympic barbell that actually bent from the intense heat.

Job well done!

I'll echo what others have said. AOL and crossover are two separate things, though often combined and usually done at the B&G. But that varies from pack to pack. 83Eagle, you might consider getting hold of your Order of the Arrow Chapter Adviser or Lodge Adviser and see if they have a ceremony team that can do a ceremony for you. There are AOL ceremonies and there are crossover ceremonies and there are combination ceremonies. I'm a Chapter Adviser and our team does a crossover ceremony. We leave any AOL doings to the Pack. Often they will do their AOL ceremony and we follow with the crossover ceremony. Like others, I would encourage you to take a look at crossing your Webelos over to the troop of their choice in February. There are a number of reasons. The boy is quickly tiring of Cubs and dragging an 18 month program into a 2 year program causes them to start dropping like flies. Also, it allows them to get into the troop, learn the troop's culture and get some campouts under thie belt before leaving for summer camp for a full week. I've always heard that studies have shown (but I admit to never seeing one) that a boy who goes to summer camp his first year is more apt to stay in long term. Also, that kids who cross over in May and their very first campout is summer camp are somewhat intimidated by the challenge and will often opt to not go. Just some food for thought. Good luck in your position!

My only concern would be the benefactor signing off in the project workbook. If the benefactor didn't see the finished project before it went up in smoke, he could only sign off by trusting that it was done. If I were the benefactor and he had been taking photos for documentation, I'd sign it in a heart beat. My son just completed his project this past Sunday afternoon. He totally removed a rotting plywood and shingle roof down to the support columns on a pavillion in a Camp Fire USA camp and replaced it with a new frame, rafters and corrugated steel roof as well as painting the structure. It took one Saturday and two Sundays to complete. The ranger never came and visited while we were working. As soon as the final nail was driven, my son was on the phone calling the ranger (lives on property) asking if he could come inspect. He signed his project book then and there.

Honestly, I'm not trying to rain on their parade, but what is so historical about this? That they had 12 Eagles in one year from a roster of 60? We'll have 8 or 9 this year wit hthe same size roster. We had 12 some years back. We won't do an 8 Eagle COH as 4 of the boys have already had their COH. Is that what is historical, that they did a mass COH? Is it because they are black? I congratulate any Scout on earning Eagle as it is a major accomplishment. I think these 12 boys should get their horn tooted a little with an article in the paper. I'm just not sure why it is historical.

I've been told repeatedly that he hates the military.