SSScout

The idea of "special" patches for the "special" year is appropriate, but I agree, the pdf pictures are TOO blatant. I would favor the "usual" designs with a special color border (?gold?), and much smaller (if any) lettering. Is it too late to ask for NO plastic on the back? Makes it harder to sew on. And BadgeMagic sticks better to pure cloth rather than plastic.(This message has been edited by SSScout)

Try to find "Matching Mountains with the Boy Scout Uniform" by Edward F. Reimer, 1929 E.P.Dutton & Co., N.Y. History and insignia of that day.

My coolest thing is being recognized , say, in a local store by a Scout as the man with the bugle, or a Cub from Day camp will introduce me to his mom. But my pal Ted has , I think, the "coolest" story. At the CSDC we worked, Ted and I did Scout Skills, and presented the morning skit. We were doing Lewis and Clark that year. Ted assumed a cartoon french accent as his schtik:"huh, huh, huh, yo' tie ze knot lika zis huh, huh, huh!" and he adopted the voyageur attitude, (if there is one). Months after camp, he told me he was in the local Safeway when a little kid walks up to him, points at him, says "Huh, huh, huh!!!" and runs away! Now THAT is making an impression!

Recommend Bill Mauldin's ""Up Front"" and ""Back Home"".

KiS MiF for all parts of the R/T. Everyone starts out in one room for opening, general announcements and then CS go to one room, VS to another and (usually) BS stay in the big first room. CS "breakout" is run like a Pack Meeting,next months theme used as a start, cheers, den activities, beads awarded for "advancement" etc. Cub activities demonstrated, skits practiced. BS might have a camping demo (biscuit donuts in the parking lot), types of tents discussed, MBfeatured, a special speaker does a slide show about Philmont. VS talk, mostly about trip and adventure planningtrips. Might have a joint meeting to discuss/demo Whitlin'/Totin'Chip, or Astronomy MB and BL. DO NOT make it a lecture series....

I think this is a neat idea. Instead of "printed material", could they not reprint the original MBBook? I'm wondering if these will have the "original" requirements or if they will be "modernized"? I talked to a contractor/builder at our Troop meeeting tonite about being a carpentry MBCouselor, he said he wouldn't know how to hold a hand tool, all he uses are power saws, drills, nailers, etc. "County Farm Agent", also called the "Extension Agent" contact your State University, they usually operate out of that. And your local 4H or County Fair should know. -.--,---,..-,.-.,...,..,-.,,...,-.-.,---,..-,-,..,-.,--.,,

Let's not say "Kill the Thread", Let's say "Time, gentlemen" And remind each other that, as in the bar you met your buddies in in younger days, "you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here". Action appropriate and approved. And there's always another distending discussion around the corner.

Are they required to wear helmets?

Or maybe Way Out West, or Saps at Sea. Or A Night at the Opera....

I favor broadening their horizons alittle. They'll see Up and the rest at home or in the theater. Be adventurous. Second Hand Lions is very good: adventure, love and loyalty, bad guys lose, good guys win and it's a boy who wants to be a Scout!. A Laurel and Hardy or Marx Brothers flick (Music Box or At the Circus). Introduce them to the classics, if you can get a good copy of Max Fleischer's "Gulliver's Travels" (1939!) there are nice restorations available, my Cubs loved it (now that was 12 years ago, in Video tape!). Bus ride with a movie. Captive audience...

Orthopaedic surgeons on helmet use: http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=a00425 Irish sport of "hurling" now requires helmets: http://www.brainandspinalcord.org/blog/2010/01/06/hurlers-required-to-wear-helmets-to-help-prevent-brain-injuries/ On the other hand, statistics tend to show that cycling is safer than walking. Do we wear walking helmets? http://blogs.ft.com/undercover/2008/07/should-we-cyclists-bother-to-wear-helmets/ Anyone seen "Sleeper" lately?

It is exciting, no doubt. And I have to agree there are better ways to spend our dues/donations/endowment. Safe camps? Rebuild camps? Preserve property? Just took title to 10,000 acres in WVA for a Jamboree/high adventure site. Must be lotsa naming rights therebouts, huh? "Coca Cola White Water Rapids". "Burger King Dining Hall". "First Alert Campfire Circle". "Viers Paving Memorial Driveway". "Kaiser Permanente Health Lodge". "Weyerhauser Nature Lodge". "Jinsu Axe Yard". Every time the Jamboree comes around, Car companies "donate" vehicles and then at the end, Jamboree sells them. Maybe Jamboree could GIVE them to deserving Councils or camps for staff use? Could National give local Councils low cost/no cost loans if the council is in financial straits to help fix things up? Course, now, if we could make that racer a Pioneering/Farm Mechanics/Chemistry/Composit Materials/Engineering/Automotive Maintenance/Metalwork/Traffic Safety/Truck Transportation Merit Badge project, that might make it worth while. Can an Offie be lashed to an oak frame and ... Where's Andy Granatelli when you need him?

Yeah, like the boy is going to want to do three ranks at once. CNY, Which type A parent is interested in this? Had a Cub in the Pack I commish. CM asks me (in October)if they could award this Cub his Wolf from the previous year, because his Den Leader had ceased being DL and did not get a chance to sign off on the boys requirements. The new DL (now Bear Den) said that the parents had approached him with this. The previous DL had signed off on the other boys' req's before the year was up, and had promised (so said) to sign off the Cub's req's before the turn of the school year, but didn't before he/she left. I said I saw no reason to penalize the Cub for an adults lapse. If the DL and parents (Akela) and CM were satisfied he had met the req's, award him the rank, postdated if you will. Then too, I guess that wasn't really "working" on a younger rank...

" Doesn't matter what happens to you . Therefore, I want the absolute worst thing to happen to you if you have an UNINTENTIONAL event. No need for padding or knee pads or helmets, they just impede your motion and don't allow the wind in your hair. Please go for the 4 diamond slope , cut close to the tree line, mogul, rad it, and generally raise your adreniline level. Don't worry. go fast." "I love you. Please train and practice and gradually increase the challenge you face so you can meet those challenges with skill and take pride in your accomplishments. Oh, just in case some UNINTENTIONAL event happens, wear the pads, the helmet, the knee pads 'cause ya never can tell when a loose patch of ice may come up, or some other fool cuts across your line, or a misplaced piece of lift tower appears closer to your cut than you thought.I know you don't need to worry about the PLANNED stuff. It's the UNPLANNED stuff we wear helmets for. Have fun."

"it's not a rule, it's only a guideline". No, it's a rule, now. If we didn't love you, it wouldn't be a rule. We learn and get better as we get older. Barney Oldfield didn't use seatbelts when auto racing was invented, but he invented the rear view mirror to increase his chances of surviving AND winning. Bet Jacky Ickx and Jimmy Stewart and all the Gordons and Eckharts are glad to wear helmets and seatbelts now. Same with helmets in ALL sports. It's not wimpy, it's smart. It's an advantage. You might like the feel of the wind in your hair, but you'd like the feel of asphalt in your scalp less, hence helmets for biking; both motor and pedal. http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/03/19/ski.safety/index.html Hit your head once, you never have to do it again. It took a long time to see the advantage of the helmet. High iron workers, football players, Delta Force, deep sea divers, motocross, skateboarder. My son rode his bike across the street to a neighbors house. Riding back he slipped, the bike went one way, he went the other. He walked back home the 300 yards, met me in our driveway(I was washing the car and had not seen what happened) and asked me where had he been? We were at the emergency room for about three hours while he was diagnosed with a "possible" concussion (nothing showed on the scans). He is a believer now if he wasn't before, and will ALWAYS wear the helmet ANY time he is on the bike. Next months Troop ski trip? Helmets are on his mind...and around it! "you only need it once...which once?"

Bike helmets are still a good idea for snowsports, even if you are not an "Xtreme" boarder. If the Bike helmet was properly fitted to begin with, take out some of the sizing pads, and wear a wool watch cap. Don't forget the goggles. Wear it square on the head, not on the back, in a "cool" manner. Snug up that chin strap. I would tell them the same thing I tell my son when he is bike riding; "You only need the helmet once. Which once is it going to be?" And then we remind each other of the demonstration we watched of a melon being only dropped from 5 feet up, onto a dirt floor (not concrete!), and then thinking about adding some velocity to it, and snagging a rock "just by accident".

I'll not waste the space with the whole poem, but, Lonescout, I recommend to you a bit about "Tommy Atkins" by Rudyard Kipling: http://www.web-books.com/Classics/Poetry/Anthology/Kipling/Tommy.htm The homeless are not only one type of person. Each are made needy by their own history, and only that history can be blamed for that person's trouble and particular need. Safety issues can be met, Scouts can learn from example and lesson. The church can follow it's ministry. I see no real conflict. Communicate your concerns, solve the problems. Serve both the youth and the troubled adult.

Maryland has no fewer than 6 BSA Councils delineated within its convining boundaries. Pg.32... *sigh*(This message has been edited by SSScout)

"...Aw, Red, why would a mother try to starve her own son..."

(This message has been edited by SSScout)

Sorry, multiple posts for some reason...(This message has been edited by SSScout)(This message has been edited by SSScout)

Before Mr. Kelty bent his aluminum tubing, the senior scouts came back from Philmont touting the virtues of the war surplus M4 plywood pack board, and then everybody in the Troop had to have one. Sunny's Surplus couldn't find enough. Eastern seaboard Troops went up into the Appalachians, firm in the knowledge there would be enough downed, dead American Chestnut to cook over blue hot coals. No more. I had a 2 quart aluminum Scout canteen. It fell over a cliff (another time) and when I recovered it, it was badly dented. Back home, I filled it about 2/3 full, put it in the freezer, and a couple of hours later heard a loud "TUNK", went and fetched it out. All the dents were gone! It served me and my camping sons until one let it roll off a table into the road where it was run over by a car. No more canteen.

A worthy addition to the library shelf that also holds "Murphy's Law and it's Corollaries".

1)If the label/box states that it is a "three person tent", consider carefully the dimensions of the floor, and diagram if offered. Where you gonna put your pack? Three usually means two in the real world. 2) If a "rain fly" tent, Always see the tent set up before you buy, either in the store or a friends copy. Look and see how far down the rain fly really comes. Does it at least come close to the reinforced bottom? Are the zippers covered against the rain? I've seen some tents that were great so long as the rain came straight down, but give it even a little horizontal vector and regret sets in. Ventilation? you can always peel back the rain fly. 3)Personal preference: Tough reinforced waterproof built in floor that wraps up the sides about a foot (so called bathtub floor), or just tough nylon on floor (use your own groundcloth "footprint"). Both have advantages: BT is total protection UNTIL you have a leak, then the water can't get out! Ordinary nylon is fine if set up allows rain to run down walls and UNDER the GC. Either way, does the rainfly come down far enough? Will the bottom seam CATCH water rather than shed? 4) Read the fine print. What part of the fabric is really water proof or merely nylon tricot? And then, even the close sewn fabric and properly arranged seams (overlapped so as not to CATCH water) need to be properly sealed. If the tent is "factory sealed", you will pay extra, and even then... 5) Plan on buying some spray fabric waterproofing and/or seam sealer. Talk to someone you trust or a knowledgeable store person about this. Set the tent up on a sunny day and work over the whole thing from the inside and then the out with the seam sealer. Be methodical and obsessive. Don't miss any seam, the rain will find the lacking-of-sealer areas. If you run out, go buy more. From the outside, spray water proofer on the rain fly and lower fabric areas generously. Let it dry. Spray again. I am told the silicone spray also provides some UV ray protection, hence the tent will last longer. I bought a relatively cheap (oh, I'm sorry, inexpensive) Texsport 3-person tent and after $25 of seam sealer and silicone spray, am very happy with it. It is tall enough for my 6'2" self to kneel up in it, and Scoutson and I are not overly crowded. It is abit heavy for distance hiking (Scoutson shared an REI 2 person on Philmont trek), but serves well in other venues. It has withstood storms and rain and snow over the last three years with only one splintered pole section, which was fixed with a kit. The last campout I went on with the Troop (october), I laid out a 10' by 20' tarp, staked down about 4 1/2' of the twenty, curled it back over itself with four poles I cut about 4' tall, so I had an open tube. Room for backpack and gear, open to the scenery to the side. Slept well. Please note: When son becomes BS, you will no longer need a "three person" tent. Let son join Troop, and gain from older Scouts experience therein. Any other lil' Scouts coming along?(This message has been edited by SSScout)

FS one of my favorite songs... I guess it also depends on where you got your training... I always said that I had the very best license Kmart had on sale. :-) "blue light special" AND remember Bob the Tomato..."It's for the kids"