SSScout

Class Names: (fill in curricula as necessary)

" Using the Media: Taking the Bushel off your Scout Candle"

" How to plan and hold a Cub Scout Day Camp" (Workshop not to supplant Camp School)

" How the Public Library can help your Scout Unit"

" Is your Charter Partner really a Silent Partner? "

" Den Chief: A key to successful Dens"

Round Table workshops???

Have the class (and make sure they know about them) and they will come!

Ho- hum.

One starts off with the beliefs that one's parents/raisers impart by instruction, example or lack there of.

One then has the freedom to accept that belief or reject it or find an alternative to it, as one is led by one's life and experience. One's actions and life direction is, determined in large part, by one's underlying faith or belief system. Indeed, one's actions indicate the actuality and strength of the belief,expressed in words or not. Hence the term "hypocracy" comes to mind.

If someone comes and challenges that belief, I think that is a good thing. If one can not defend that faith with logic or experience or just plain "feeling", then perhaps that faith needs closer examination by that believer. Or the questioner.

"It is a sad reflection that many men hardly have any Religion at all; and most men have none of their own: For that which is the Religion of their Education, and not of their Judgement, is the Religion of Another, and not Theirs." = William Penn =

YiS & C

Welcome to the colonies, chug. Scout units in the US of A can be sponsored by almost any non-profit entity. I have known units chartered to volunteer fire companies, school ptas (not so much now), private schools, service clubs (Kiwanis, Lions, American Legion), hospitals, and religious groups (churches and synagogues and mosques). All to varying degree of success and loyalty. We have real "hands on" charter partners who want to be in the thick of Scoutings issues and programs (LDS) and "hands off" partners (go forth and Scout, why do I need to do anything?). It depends in large part on the attitudes of both the Scout unit leadership and the sponsoring entity. Stand off or jump in.

As GW says, the LDS use the BSA program for their male youth program. And it, again, depends on the attitude of the local leadership. And the male youth can view it as a neat, fun thing to pursue or it can be something ya have to do 'cause the adults say I gotta. Their numbers are many because every young male is automatically enrolled. Comes with the family membership in the church. Youth females, when of age, become Venturererers, but it is a mono-ed program, not co-ed, in my experience with the local Stakes.

So howbout that Manchester Union, eh? eh?

Yes,every so often a "sub group" is required by the "main group" to prove themselves.

When I became a single parent and took responsibility for my then 4 year old daughter, I found most of the folks I would look to for support (my mother, the preschool, the in-laws, my bosses at work)all had opinions about how I was not the appropriate one to raise a daughter. I was asked to accept a "home visit" from the staff of the preschool. Just routine, I was told. Not really, the other parents told me.

I constantly had to reassure my friends and relations that I was up to the task, and later, sometimes years later, many of them admitted to me their misgivings and congratulated me on my success.

If my child had been a son I feel there would have been no such misgivings.

The same problem is apparent in the Dad - GSUSA disconnect. Dads should deal with sons, Moms with daughters. Seems only natural. But it is not that simple. Possible sexual deviancy? Always a possibility, but we're talking fathers here, not strangers. There can be a certain amount of jealousy about the capability of the female leadership vs the possibilty of a male leader "taking over".

If the purpose is to help the GS to be a strong, skilled, self reliant human, than why limit her example and leadership to females only? Chauvinism? My, my.

Perhaps the dads just need to be persistant and be very available and better than perfect. They need to "prove" themselves even moreso than another mom would need to. Be aware of the unease and be ready to allay such fears.

I agree, it is more a local concern (personal leader?) than an "official" problem.

Oh yes. My daughter chose not to join the GSs. Back then she thought the ones she knew were "too dorky". We went hiking by ourselves and with friends. Later, camping and outdoor stuff might get her dirty, so she avoided other Scouting opportunities. Oh well. She is now 24 and happily married.

Paraphrase::

"But you don't understand, he has asperger's"

"Yes ma'am, I do understand. My brother lives in a group home for emotionally challenged. And do you remember? I went over all the safety rules for the range. I remember you sitting in the back there with the other Den Walkers. I asked the Cubs if they thought I was strict, and all of'em including your son, said yes! And when I asked them if they thought I had reason to be strict, they all said yes. "

"But Johan is different..."

"I'm sure he is but I'd really like to avoid having to ask YOU to explain to another parent WHY Johan shot an arrow into their Cub's foot. And I'd like to avoid having to fill out 3 hours of insurance reports AND having to shut down the range for the other boys, too. Have I helped you to understand my position?"

Motto Be clear, Be strict, Be glad you were.

KiS MiF YiS

Can't be any worse than using the washers spin dry cycle to pump water out of a flooded basement (it was either that or bucket it out the loooong basement stairs). Washer needed replacing anyway, right? It was twenty years old anyway, right? Saved my back, right? Burning smell was gonna happen eventually, right? Avocado green didn't match the rest of the rec room, so it came out good all around right? Rec room had to be redone too, right? uh-huh...

Good a time as any,I guess...

(bada dum bum bum bum...)

I'm looking over my dead dog, Rover,

That I just ran over with the mower!

One leg is missing, the other is gone,

The third leg is scattered all over the lawn.

No need explaining the one leg remaining

It's spinning on the car port floor...

I'm looking over my dead dog, Rover,

He just doesn't move any more!

I'm looking over my dead dog, Rover,

Who I just ran over with the mower!

My dog's not eating, he no longer barks;

He hit the propeller and turned into sparks.

No need explaining, there's no dog remaining;

He's part of the lawn you see...

I'm looking over my dead dog, Rover,

Who I sent to Eternity!

(badalalala....)

The Rabbi put this question to his students: "How can you tell when night has ended and the day has begun?"

One student suggested: "Could it be when you see an animal and you can tell whether it is a sheep or a goat?"

"No, that's not it," answered the rabbi.

Another student said: "Could it be when you look at a tree in the distance and you can tell whether it is a fig tree or a peach tree?"

Again the rabbi answered: "No."

After a few more guesses the students said: "Well, please tell us when night has ended?"

The rabbi answered: "It is when you look on the face of another human and there is enough light to recognize them as your brother or sister."

"Until then, it is night, and the darkness is still with us".

Just finished watching "Castaway" with Tom Hanks. Talk about camp skills.

Part of the problem is the NEED for the skills.

Tents come with preattached ropes and tensioner do-hickeys. No need for tautline hitch or double half hitches.

Plastic and metal tent pegs and poles included. Axe and hatchet skills?

All the poles for the dining tarp are automatic. Lashing, knots? Naw...

Cooking comes in a precooked package (Troop leadership encourges Scouts to use "precooked" burgers and sausage etc. to avoid underdone meat problems).

Cell phones and GMRS radio. Why know morse code or wig wag or semiphore?

I don't need to ID Poison Ivy, SM will keep us away...

Piezo electric clickers and Lucifers (matches). Flint and steel?

Gas stoves alleviate need for regular camp fire building skills.

Yeah, yeah, we can't burn up the forests by too many campfires (LNT not withstaning), but still...

All this leads to the idea that the GAME part of Scouting must become more important, the encouragement of the FUN part of OWNING the skill. Being GOOD at something that other boys may not know anything about.

Howbout a Castaway Camporee? Think Mr. Hanks or Mr. Zemeckis would come?

While announcing upon the ra-dio

There are words one must simply omit

Like @%!! and &*^%% and !@+(**

Why, hell, you can't even say SH-

AVING cream, keep yourself clean,

shave every day and you'll alwaysbe keen.

Stimmt das.

"Speak truth to power". Pack has part of the meaning. The term must include the idea of telling those 'in power' or who have, in some sense, authority over you the truth as you know it, REGARDLESS of what the authority might want or expect to hear. It means saying to those who can harm you what you know they MUST hear, regardless of the consequences to you.

The concept has a religious basis and the origin of the phrase can be traced to early Jewish writing and the Q'ran. Although there is no record that he actually said the phrase, George Fox is often quoted that he was "moved to speak the truth to them" , referring to whomever he was with, whether mayor or magistrate or Cromwell. It is being "trustworthy",going beyond merely "yes".

I like to go out jogging,

I must keep physically fit.

But last night when I donned my Addidas,

I found they were covered with SH

AVING cream, Keep yourself clean, shave everyday and you'll always be keen...

Wannabees? Naw, no way.

Lessee now...

We now have Tiger Cub, Bobcat, Wolf, Bear, "Webelos" (whatever that is).

Usta have Lion, then Webelos (that's a singular noun!).

Never really liked the Tiger Cub moniker, when the rest of the ordering is smaller to bigger, fiercer animals. Breaks the trend, don't you think.

If we look over seas for inspiration, I really don't know what our Brit friends do. I have heard that the UK have Scouts now, not Boy Scout and Girl Guide anymore, only age distinction.

So what to name a kindergarten Scout? Some small, possibly fierce animal....Badger? Ferret? Ocelot? Mongoose? Shrew? Vole? Pergrine? Echidna? Lynx? Prairie Dog?

I like Ocelot...alot...Or peregrine to begin...

Maybe Lynx...Bob Cat...Badger...Wolf...Bear...Webelos...

The old Lion rank was an African Lion, not an American Puma Lion. Maybe that's why the rank was eliminated, not an American animal?

Yeah, you could make the series all-American!

I hereby suggest: Lynx...Bob Cat...Badger...Wolf...Bear...

smaller, fierce animal to larger, fierce animal.

From "Matching Mountains with the Boy Scout Uniform"

by Edward F. Reimer *1929* E.P. Dutton

pg.93....

" The Boy Scout staff has a score of practical uses. When Sir Robert Baden-Powell designed his bronze 'Scout with Staff' he gave the staff the loftiest and most prominent place in the statue.'

The next page pictures no fewer than 20 uses: Patrol flag pole, lashed together taller flag pole, uprights & ridgepoles, tripod clothes rack, tripod pritilatter (wash station?), tripod seat rack, bridge construction & brace, aid in jumping (pole vault over stream), blanket stretcher, splint, maintaining order at parades, mast for raft, marked to measure distance, marked to measure heights and distance (sighting), scaled to estimate weight (balance beam), pushing back brambles, poking holes, rack to keep things off ground, handle for camp broom, aid in climbing, aid in reaching across,etc.

The next pages (Pg.94 to 96) detail the 'Manual of the Staff'. How to carry, march with, and 'exhibit' the Scout Staff.

"By the Numbers"

"FIRST: Fall In is executed with the staff at ORDER STAFF. Fall Out, Rest, and At Ease, are executed as without staves (( Ed: plural of staff!!)). On resuming Attention, the position of order staff is taken."

To be precise, the Scout Staff seems to have held a larger place in the Scout World at one time. It is obvious that a bunch of standard size and marked staves (!) have a multitude of uses.

Try http://sne.tripod.com/hikestaf.htm for more ideas.

Recent movie: "Hoot" (new line cinema) Bunch of kids work to save a colony of rare owls against a less than honest developer.

Not so recent: Shown some years ago, shown on Hallmark:

"Lone Star Kid" (Feature Films for Families) Young boy takes on complacency and becomes the first 11 year old mayor in the country (based on true story). Streets get paved!

C in Community, not nation or world.

Close by (?25 miles?) is what in the old days would've been called an 'amusement park". On it's several acres are some of the usual whirly-gig rides in a permanent carny area, a merry-go-round, an indoor area of video games (the "violent" games are labeled as such)and psuedo gambling games (Cyclone, push the coin over the edge, aim a coin at the hole, etc. ), two laser tag rooms, skeeball, basketball throws, an electric shooting gallery, an outdoor paintball tented yard (they supply throw away overalls and fullface goggles), a kiddy roller coaster, a more "adult" rollercoaster, a pond boat bumper car thing (in which one can squirt water "cannons" at the boaters both from the shore and the boats), and other activities of varying worth and cost.

This is not a real big place, not a Disneyland or King's Dominion.

I know Scout groups go here on occasion. There is a single admission charge and then seperate, additional charges for some of the bigger activities. And lots of quarter tokens for the indoor games.

Not only is the participation in Ltag and Pball an "image" issue, but one of expense and worth. I have watched Scouts and others wear themselves out playing Capture the Flag, Steal the Bacon, Manhunt and come away tired and smiling. I have also seen parents come away from the Amusementpark shaking their heads about the worth of the time their kids spent there. There was a teaching moment there, a discussion about hard earned bucks versus worth of activity. "Well, maybe once for the experience", is the comment I have heard.

I will be at an IOLS in a couple weeks. I will be reminding new Scout leaders about our outdoor activities, the OUT in SCOUTING. Maybe we'll go camping or hiking or rock climbing or canoeing "once for the experience".

I'm not saying the County Fair's carny or the Six Flags Over Someplace aren't fun things to do. Recreation and diversion is important. At the county fair a few years ago, I surprised myself (and the game operator too!) when I walked up to the "shoot out the star" game and on the first trial (100 BBs shots)won a 4 foot tall Winnie the Pooh for my son. Me, a Quaker. But I knew the secret to success at that game (researched carny games for a school essay), and had a pretty good eye back when. Wasn't so much a gamble in my case, and my son and I had a good conversation about games and guns and such as he struggled with the shapely bag of crushed foam rubber.

But should such activities as Pball and Ltag be promoted as Scout activities? I say there are more Scoutworthy places to leave our money and time, more in keeping with our avowed values and purpose.

One can always go as a private family or birthday party, but with the imprimatur of Scouting? ummmmmebbe not.

My HO.

Seriously, now for your next LNT seminar, don't forget the "international best seller with over 1 million copies in print"

How to **** in The Woods (2nd revised ed.) by Kathleen Myer 108 pgs.

c.1989,1994 Ten Speed Press

see also Deut. 23:12-13

Yep, auto censor.

(This message has been edited by SSScout)

FDP?

Chocolate Reddy Whip?

Cheezewhiz?

Alotta cocoa mix mixed thick?

Mud?

The real thing (shudder)?

And how old were these alledged Scouts?

PLEASE make the distinction :::

Label and call it the "Tomahawk" throw, NOT axe or hatchet.

Make sure folks know it ain't an "axe yard".

Ditto all the guidance above. We have had Tomahawk throw range at camporees many times. But be careful where you site it, both for overthrows and side areas. You will have folks that will want to watch, and they must be kept at a distance, both for their own safety and for their distractive quality. AND... don't make the mistake that happened one year: The targets were sited up against a hillside, which seemed like a good idea (back stop, etc.) but the hillside was covered in blackberry brambles. A heckuva time recovering the overshots!

We were given one piece, all-metal tomahawks by council for the purpose, really needed sharpening, but they threw well.

An "Ax yard" is also a good demo. Totin chip demos, felling ax chop thru a log for time, mebbe a two man saw competition. Needs Good supervision, but good time to be had.

(This message has been edited by SSScout)

I have seen the following in parades with CSs:

A model B17 with a 8 foot wingspan, on its landing gear (handsome model!) pulled by the Cubs , waving American flags. Led by a Banner announcing "Pack XYZ salutes our Vets".

Cub Pack dressed in card board railroad cars tied in a train behind a wagon built up to be a steam engine. Adults pulled the wagon/engine.(old timers parade).

Cub pack riding on antique fire engine. Volunteer fire company was CO.

Cub Pack pulling along each other in the "Cub Cars" they made. 2x4 frames, lawn mower wheels, rope, you know the type I mean. Each car had a sign attached that touted a point of the Law of the Pack.

Have fun!

With God On Our Side

Oh my name it is nothin'

My age it means less

The country I come from

Is called the Midwest

I's taught and brought up there

The laws to abide

And that land that I live in

Has God on its side.

Oh the history books tell it

They tell it so well

The cavalries charged

The Indians fell

The cavalries charged

The Indians died

Oh the country was young

With God on its side.

Oh the Spanish-American

War had its day

And the Civil War too

Was soon laid away

And the names of the heroes

I's made to memorize

With guns in their hands

And God on their side.

Oh the First World War, boys

It closed out its fate

The reason for fighting

I never got straight

But I learned to accept it

Accept it with pride

For you don't count the dead

When God's on your side.

When the Second World War

Came to an end

We forgave the Germans

And we were friends

Though they murdered six million

In the ovens they fried

The Germans now too

Have God on their side.

I've learned to hate Russians

All through my whole life

If another war starts

It's them we must fight

To hate them and fear them

To run and to hide

And accept it all bravely

With God on my side.

But now we got weapons

Of the chemical dust

If fire them we're forced to

Then fire them we must

One push of the button

And a shot the world wide

And you never ask questions

When God's on your side.

In a many dark hour

I've been thinkin' about this

That Jesus Christ

Was betrayed by a kiss

But I can't think for you

You'll have to decide

Whether Judas Iscariot

Had God on his side.

So now as I'm leavin'

I'm weary as Hell

The confusion I'm feelin'

Ain't no tongue can tell

The words fill my head

And fall to the floor

If God's on our side

He'll stop the next war.

==Bob Dylan==

Been away at Camporee this weekend.

Den Chief is a helper for any DL. The Adult Partner is to be there with their TC, but the TC DL can still make use of a good DC. What a good example for BOTH the Tc and their APs!

Have the nascent DC take the online training ( www.olc.scouting.org ), AND the DL also should do it so they have some idea what the DC can do for them. Make sure the DC takes the in person training when it is offered (and encourage the District Training Committee to offer it) .

Any Scout with the right attitude and spirit can be a good DC, from Scout to Eagle. Remind them that they are no longer FOLLOWING the example, they will BE the example.

Good Scouting!

Halloween is coming up...

Look up "The Cremation of Sam MaGee"

By Robert Service

Too long for here .(This message has been edited by SSScout)

*sigh* /headshakingslowly/

Mebbe someone's home sick from school?

It is, indeed, GSUSA rules being locally interpreted. Not unlike BSA perhaps?

I have a good friend that is the Daisy leader for his daughter's Troop. It numbers 8 or 9, I believe.Beg pardon, they are Brownies this year. He (and the other parents) take'em on hikes and craft days and nature study. He is a Scout pro that travels training folks, but he is home for the GSusa stuff, for sure. He tells me no problems so far...