SSScout

Thanks , Cal, I knew I left something out. Galvanized pipe, copper pipe, hot or cold...

Thank you eamon. It is one thing to discuss a rumor, as to veracity, appropriateness, stupidity, etc. It is another thing to pass it on as if YOU have accepted it as truth. Same thing here, I feel. To discuss the appropriateness, stupidity, lack of judgement, possible illegality, ruination of reputation, etc. of a FB page/ account is one thing. To pass it on purposefully is another. This does nothing to help the Scout realize the danger inherent in such pages, in fact, it increases the danger by enlarging the reach of the page. Might alert the parents as to the content, let them deal with their son.

You can find lots of medical info on line (thank you Google and Yahoo) frinstance http://www.finishing.com/71/64.shtml and http://www.finishing.com/217/03.shtml and http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080226173711AANCXL0 Hot soapy water in an old galvanized tub? No danger there. Once the soap has washed off the "finishing oil", and the dishes are rinsed off, there should be no toxic residue. However, in woodfire heating the tub, you risk producing zinc and/or lead and/or other metalic fumes that could be irritating and toxic. See "foundry flu" or "fume flu". Old wash board and wash tub images...

The idea that the Scout Promise and Law applies in all parts of a Scout's life is, indeed, foreign to some. There's no such thing as "Scout time" and every other time. The Facebook realm is used by some as a "brag" forum. Whether or not the stuff he posts there ("gee, I was only fooling!") are meant to be taken seriously, it WILL be. Lots of people do not realize how far reaching facebook can be. It is NOT a private diary. It also is a very poor place to establish reputation and renown,altho some may assume that it will establish themselves as a *lover, *stylish fop, *expert (pick a subject), *someone not to be trifled with. Then too, for what does one wish to be known? Ability to consume large amounts of alcohol? Funny behavior while not in full control of one's faculties? or perhaps something else? I think it is never too early to tell boys (and girls?), that one's word is one's bond, and a reputation as a "Trustworthy" person is one of the best things a person can carry with them thru life. See Mathew 5:33. I'm not sure how I would approach a Scout's BoR, having knowledge of something on his facebook page. Perhaps take him aside before the official BoR to ask him about the significance of something you "heard " about? I definitely see a SM Minute in this subject. Remember the macho braggadacio of youth, and the need , some more than others, to "make a name" for themselves. Good Scouting to you.(This message has been edited by SSScout)

Misery does love company, eh? Some years back, I ruptured a disc in my lower back. All of a sudden EVERYBODY I met or knew had a back injury story. Seems to be the same in Scouting and Council politics?

If your Council is blessed with campS rather than camp, utilize them. Make them useful to the Scout, with training programs, camporees, CSDCs, high adventure programs, camp cooking schools. Make them useful to the greater community. Coordinate Outdoor Education programs with the local school systems. Give Orienteering competitions. Astronomy camps in the darkness of the woods and fields. Let Sierra Club use it. Church groups. Aviation R/C club uses a local camp. What is used is appreciated, and not neglected. The Council of my youth had four camps, perhaps 200 to 300 acres each, each about two hours max drive from a quarter of the Council. They were sold in favor of buying a 4,000 acre property, about a 4 hour drive from the furthest reaches of the Council. This property is divided into at least four camps, each with a different camp philosophy: dining hall, Patrol cooking, Webelos camp, high adventure base. It has been used for a mega camporee at Jamboree time. Then, luck shone on the Council, and a real estate developer worked a deal such that wetlands were rebuilt, a 450 acre property was saved from urban developement and the Council gained a closer in camp ground. It is touted as a conference center, training ground, CSDC, resident Cub camp, close in camp ground for Packs and Troops, National Camp School, and all kindsa stuff. Local school districts use it for Outdoor Ed and the kids get a taste of Scout camp. Beware the SE that wants to improve the bottom line by liquidating properties. See previous thread, "Goodbye Owasippee". http://www.scouter.com/forums/viewThread.asp?threadID=87008 The idea that the "Market Place" will eliminate under utilized camps might be true, but once gone, you cannot duplicate them.

Once upon a time, there was a Boy Scout. He went camping and hiking with his friends, had a good time. Gained skills and confidence in himself, went places and did things he would not have otherwise. He was not really concerned much about how his Troop fitted inwith the greater Scouting world. He went on in life, sometimes using the stuff he learned in Scouting, using the ideals to help guide his choices. One day, he woke up to discover he was married and had a son! Son became a Scout, and so the Old Scout became an Adult Leader. He was welcomed and initiated into the Greater World of Scout Politics. Scoutson didn't really care about how his Troop fitted inwith the greater Scouting world, he just liked to camp and hike and go places with his buds. But Old Scout learned that when he had been a Scout, his Troop (now Scoutson's Troop) had been in The County, which was part of The Council. Now, The County was divided into 3 Districts, and Troop was in District 2. No problem, Old Scout worked for the County Government and was used to the vicissitudes of bureacracy. Two years later, it was announced that "to better serve the youth " (closer relations, easier communications), our 3 Districts would be re-aligned into 6 districts. Troop is now in District 3 of 6. Volunteers grumble, rearrange themselves, reschedule trainings, assignments, camporees, CSDCs and get on with Scouting. One DE per District, might be a good thing, DE can visit and be around their District more. OK. Two years later, of the three original DEs, and 6 new Districts, only one DE remains, three have come and gone, three Districts never had a new DE assigned (Regional Directors oversee them, some DEs do double duty). Therefore, "in order to better serve the youth", the six Districts will be rolled into one County District, with one Senior DE, and two Asst. DEs (Membership, Program). Volunteers grumble, shake hands with the old friends across the way, combine schedules, reschedule Camporees to not conflict (hey, more than one Camporee can be a good thing!) and the three seperate CSDC Directors meet each other. And learn the benefits of cooperation. One Chair for each District Committee, less problem with communication. Well, maybe it would be good if the 3 DEs divided their responsibilities alittle, say, a western sub area and a central sub area and southern sub area. Makes the Camporees fit and the CSDCs fit better, too. And folks know better who they should speak to for assistance. Seems to work. Two years later, the PTB announce that "in order to etc.", the County District will "probably" be divided along school district line into...6 Scout Districts, and we welcome your comments and suggestions.... I don't THINK it's official, yet. Check with me in September.... >( )(This message has been edited by SSScout)

Dunno. I didn't stop to ask!

In our District, Web leaders are encouraged to take IOLS independently. Welot is not offered.

We had a really fine camporee a two years back, organized by a consortium of local Troops, at a big Methodist retreat center. The theme was the Civil War. Patrol (not Troop) competition , Max of 8 boys per... Each activity station was predicated on what a CW era person or soldier might need to do. Signaling! semiphore and Morse code. Fire building(no matches or lighters) and cooking. Cook a potatoe and eat it! Close order drill! Baseball (Abner Doubleday?) of the period. Find your way with a small scale map and MANY choices of starting and destination, over the whole of the property (no GPS!). Period first aid (litter carry races, make believe limb removal and then one legged races and one armed activities). Each station required a Patrol cheer or yell. CW reenactors were in attendance. Black powder musket fire. It was a BIG affair. My only quibble was the souvenir patch. If you looked close, it had a fifty star flag on it!

Unless your area is recovering from a disaster, and camping is "mandatory" (!), is should be fun . Remember the Cub Scout mantra"" KISMIF"" Keep it simple, make it fun... Help your folks to start easy, take'm on hikes, 3 , 5 miles, in interesting places. Make the hike GO somewhere where there is a "reward", like an amusement park, or the Zoo, or a museum, or a Civil War re-enactment, even an urban hike can be a good start. The idea is to Get'em outdoors. Learn about your areas history, both cultural and natural. We have a new park nearby that is an old quarry that specializes in dinosaur bones and fossils. Hike around that and then see the bones! The overnight under canvas will come, but get them outside, with mom and dad along for the ride. I once led our Tiger Den down in the park near our house and led them to a Beaver dam and showed them the chewed off trees all around. Sat them down (mom and dad too) and read them some T.W.Burgess Paddy the Beaver stories. We did many more hikes, and tho the Pack never got "under canvas", the Webelos Den did. Camp out in your CO's back yard at first, or even in the social hall (if you have one) or somebody's apartment's party room. Call around and find a "pick your own" farm and ask if they have some back acreage you could use, and then go pick strawberries!

Cliff Swallows... wasn't he in a Gene Autry movie? Played the rough and tumble ranch foreman?

Well said, Onehour. Hard to fill such shoes. Keep his ideals in front of you, and he will be remembered.

Ok, so some mile swims are "easier" than others. Waaaay back when, I did mine in the Chesapeake Bay behind a rowboat. I remember the "buddy system" in force then, my pal Don rowed the boat for me, then I rowed the boat for him. From the end of the dock out into the Bay (Camp Roosevelt, Calvert County MD) around the bouy and back to the dock. Sunny day, slight chop, Sea Nettles to contend with. I remember maybe a dozen Scouts on the swim, and it certainly took less than an hour each. Each had their own buddy boat. Was that easier? I had nothing to compare with, but Roosevelt did have a fresh water pool, back in the woods. I don't remember if they did a mile swim in the pool. Scout son did his in a lake at Heritage. Cold, he said...

Waaaay back when I coached my daughter's soccer team, I early on noticed how the girls on both teams would start to drag after only 15 or 20 minutes into the game. These are 11, 12, then 13 year olds. Aside from the usual practices and conditioning drills, I then started my team on a regimen of (1) No sugary cereals for breakfast on the day of the game. I told everyone (their parents!) they could have almost anything else for breakfast: oatmeal, bacon & eggs, pancakes, toast and PB&J, but NO SUGARY PACKAGE CEREAL. (2) At the first of the game, before we took the field, everyone drank, in my presence, a cup of water. (3) At the offense/defense team rotation (required by the league! Good idea, I thought), another cup of water required. (4) anytime a sub went in, drink a cup first. Wow! We started running circles around the other teams. Came out that season undefeated. CSDC: Our theme this year was/is "Medieval Adventure". Hey! Let's give a toast to the Queen! Lots of small hands raise their water bottles and jug-a-lug. I was moved to teach my Cubs "Ein Prosit! Gemutlicheit!" My DE took me aside and told me a parent had come to him to complain about the man who was encouraging alcoholism in her Cubs....

Depends. On the type of cheese, how old it is already, how it is wrapped, the ambient temperature, and how tolerant you are to ugly food. Remember, basically, all cheese is spoiled milk. Blue Cheese is purposely left moldy (but not my favorite!). Camambert and Stilton is made moldy, too. (tasty, but not for camping). Hard cheeses will keep longer, in all conditions, soft cheeses will spoil quicker. Cream cheese should be kept cold. Chedder and Winsleydale can keep at room temp for some days. In general, air tight, close to the cheese packaging is desired for carrying and storage.But in a backpack, the temp may be too much, melting the cheese prematurely. Therefore, mke sure your storage is water tight, too.. Dry, hard cheese is to be preferred, Parmesan, Asiago, If your extra sharp chedder has some green stuff on it, carefully cut an 1/8" or 1/4" layer off, and the inner cheese should be fine. Cut carefully, wipe the knife clean to avoid contaminating "clean" cheese. Trust your nose. see http://www.trails.com/list_3499_food-list-camping.html for some good suggestions. When Wallace and Grommit's Curse of the Were-Rabbit came out, sales of Winsleydale climbed 23%. Bon appetit...

Scoutson just returned from 500 mile bike camp trip. Group only used tarps for tops and bottoms, when not availing themselves of local hospitality, which was common in the south part of VA, along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Hispanic Scouts: Many parents might want children to be Scouts, but: - Unease about military type uniforms (look at troubles back in home countries). - In the home nations, usually Scouting is seen as an elitist organization, not for the regular people. The idea of Scouts being for any boy is a new idea. - Cost of uniforms, camp gear, summer camp (away from home? at such an early age?) can be a hurdle. Even if you try to compare it to futbol equiping, it is expensive , when considered all at once. Same here for nort americanos. - Some parents of my acquaintence can not fill out Scout forms because (hint) they do not have a SSN. They move when things look uneasy to them. Maybe N&I folks too close? Happened to one Troop I helped along for awhile, chartered to a Iglesia. The Troop and Cub Pack had a total of 12 boys, and 3 adults registered. Half those boys were not around after 8 months. Gone. - The Boys liked the idea of Scouting, I partnered them with an established Troop. The parents were mostly positive. Took the YPtraining, in spanish, but again, most could not register as a Scout volunteer. - They were eager for me to be their SM, but I could not be their permanent SM. Worked for three months with one good man, but he moved with his family to Cleveland for employment. - Their loyalty is divided between the US of A and their former homes. The Iglesia had a dozen flags on the walls of their social hall, but not until I brought in a US flag was that represented. Taught the boys US flag courtesy, all new to them. Scouting is, after all, an acquired taste.

Get ahold of your ACM(s) and DLs, create a "nature trail" with real or make'm up nature things (trees to ID, animal tracks, people tracks, bird songs, feathers), might be short notice but you could call your local nature center and see if they have any traveling shows (around here they are called "Scales and Tails"). Show a Cub/nature/camp friendly movie,,, Down and Dirty, or Second Hand Lions or Watership Down come to mind... Astronomy Belt Loop, if skies are clear? Come to think of it, go thru the BL list and see if there aren't two or three you could do for the lucky folks that remember to come... Don't you know that the "Cubs never sleep in the summer"?

Launder them, IRON them, then: (choices): *seal them up in ziplock bag of proper size, save for when Scout is of the nostagic age, along with all his other memorabilia, in shoe box, in baggies. * Go to Michaels or Arts&Crafts and shop for a "shadow box". You may end up with more than one, consider buying in advance so as to have matching set. Arrange neckers in a cascade of ranking, tips showing, Webelos at the top. Pin them to the cloth backing, using stainless steel pins , else there will eventually be rust stains. Better: Put neckers folded in ziploc bags, and put pins thru the bags. Get a real big s/box, leave room for OA, Jamboree, Eagle, etc. neckers. Don't forget the rank and camp patches. You can get a shirt front (pockets) backing from Scoutshop, or just cut up an old shirt, or sew/glue badges on the blue/tan cloth seperately for display. * Neckers don't lend themselves to this, but the badges/patches can be adhered/sewn to a fleece blanket for wall display. This is not as popular as it has been, but such display blankets were shoulder wraps at camp fires of the past.(This message has been edited by SSScout)

What topic area for this... Council Relations? Unit Fund Raising? Open Program? Issues? (gesundheit) ""It also has one of the most ham-handed, unprofessional marketing lines I've ever read: 'Remember the fun you used to have as a Scout? Building towers and monkey bridges, playing in the dirt, getting the younger Scouts to cook your dinner??"" So what WOULD you ask folks to remember of their time in Scouts? I also agree that that phrase is really poorly generalized by someone who had to justify that MBA in Marketing somehow... What would YOU say to nudge the leeetle grey cells into remembering and nostalgizizing, eh?

So beyond my previous post about your choices, and the agreement from the other posters about the CO "owning" the Unit and the Unit using the CO's tax number, same as any other part of the CO, I find it interesting that a "national chain" would make it so hard for the local manager to not make good PR with the local community. Our Troop sells Holiday wreaths (read Christmas) in front of the local CVS store, Safeway store, and hardware store (local owned: Two stores), no hassle. Name the store, and some of us with "no life" can contact the corporate offices and find out why.

First we're asked about using a parachute for shelter, and it wanders off into Tarp useage. 15' x 25' tarp. Stake out one 15' side, stretch the next grommets about 5' out, fold that up about 5' tall, use sticks,poles, tie to trees, fold over top the first grounded section, stretch out with two more poles, or tie to trees. Cross section is a "C". Ground cloth, top and wall against the weather, plenty of room for two Scouts and their gear, overhang for shade, etc.

Possibilities: 1) If you are a self sponsored unit (chartered to "Friends of Pack xyz" or some such, you are on your own. You can apply for 501c3 status, but it is up to the IRS to say "yes, you are". 2) If you are chartered to a non-profit organization, a church or Lions Club, or Volunteer Fire Company, or such, then by rights, you use your CO's status, not your own, as a 501c3. Check with the CO's head person. 3) If you are chartered to a "for profit" organization, (I know of a Cub Pack chartered to a hardware store), I have been told you cannot claim non-profit status, but the state MIGHT grant you the sales tax free card. Depends. That said, most Scout units have their own treasurer and treasury, and the CO has a "hands off" policy, except that that treasury could be construed as belonging to the CO under certain conditions. Monetary donations to the Scout unit correctly should be made to ... In #1 above, the "Friends of.." In #2, to the CO, for the Scout unit. Scout units are not supposed to solicit cash donations, hence don't expect them. Earn your way... In #3, I'm not sure... Does that help?

The creative Quartermaster will take each tent kit and write the inventory on the storage bag: Troop 123, #5 Fly, tent, footprint, 2- 4' pole sets, 6- t/ps Each piece will be match numbered. Maybe not the wire tent pegs. I like the idea of stenciling on a down corner a fox paw or such, then write the inventory number on it. Yes, true canvas will easily take paint or marker ink without ill effect. Plain Nylon will accept ink marker or latex paint, but the coated waterproofing material will be badly affected by any solvent based liquid, paint or ink. As they say, "try on a hidden corner first".