SSScout
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15 hours ago, AwakeEnergyScouter said:
It also sounds like adults aren't supposed to be running religious ceremonies at camporees in the first place, did I understand that correctly? It did sound funny that Scout's Own be done by not a current scout.
Might I ask, what is the point of a Scout's Own?
I apologize if I didn't make that clear.... A Scout's own, to my mind is just that. It is not led by ordained ministry.
It should be done ""By The Scouts". This is not to say particular faiths can't do what they do. But it should be labeled such: Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, etc.
Ain't the web wunnerful? http://usscouts.org/chaplain/scoutsown.asp
Dropbox "Scouts Own " IOLS discussion and example... Please copy and use as you see fit.....
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WELLLLL, Old compooter died, new compooter finally up and humming. Had to sign in "new".
AES: Some folks are just that way. Please find the grace to forgive them, and learn from whatever lesson they teach. Maybe it applies, maybe it doesn't in your case. So be it.
Did you hear about the agnostic, dyslexic, insomniac ? Poor fellow lay awake all night wondering if there is a dog.....
Bada bum bum....
As our District's resident Chaplain , I discuss (I try to not say "teach") "Reverent" at our IOLS sessions. It is sometimes hard to get thru to some folks. Is there room in the Scout tent for all faiths? Or lack of them? I like to think so. The Bible starts from a vengeful, violent god to a forgiving, peace seeking son's example. Much of the Bagahvad gita is similar. And the Torah. I like to think we are improving as a species, but only time will tell....
At the Nat Jam when I attended , I often came upon a Scout or two who espoused the idea that "mmmm, I'm not too sure about this God stuff." Yep, me too. But I keep finding things (miracles? Ways opening? Still small voice?) that insist on some "higher power" being there.
"Scout's Own" should be just that. If it is "taken over " by any ordained clergy of any faith, it ain't a "Scout's Own". On the rare occasion (Camporee?) I am asked to arrange a sunday observance , I ask the Troops attending to send me their "Chaplain's Aides" , if they have one, or any interested Scout. We meet, I tell them, this is up to you Scouts. I will help as you want, but Here's my Bible, here's the Torah (in English ! where did I get that?), here is the "Sample" S's O I present at IOLS. You design it. And they never fail to please me (and confound some adults?). If I can figure out how to attach/transfer old files to this new compooter, I'll do 'er.
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There is a difference between "I'm going to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches " and "I am going to build a new kitchen for the homeless shelter".
The planning can be as important as the project completion. At work, we used to talk about back dating what we just did to accomplish solving a problem.
So the Eagle Project Book has a "Planning Section"..... The Scout can recreate ( ! ) his/her process.... In the negotiations with the Beneficiary, the project is fleshed out. . What do they want. What does the Scout want to do. What is POSSIBLE with a crew of well meaning amateurs (? augmented by some friendly professionals ?). What would satisfy the beneficiary. . All that can be explained in the EPB. And it can be recreated , in the past tense if necessary. Been done, seen that....
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Good for her. I don't think I'd worry so much about her GSUSA local council so much as the county health department. I know around here, they take a dim view of selling food stuff in even a "semi professional" manner. Church bake sale, not so much. Cake table auction, mmmmm okay. Publicity, garnering future delivery orders...
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Greetings and salutations ! I personally have not heard of 90% of these awards. The "Uniform Police"(tongue firmly in cheek) would wonder and wish the "offishul" reference that it is OKAY to wear these when earned on the BSA uniform. COuld you verify that? I would love to forward these on to my Scout here in Maryland....
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"" The purpose of life is the planting of trees, under whose shade one does not expect to sit."
Plant some trees, TCC.... Sit ye down by our virtual campfire . You want cinnamummm in your cafe?
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What Matt said.
True story: At the local University of Scouting one year, I ran across a Scout who wore four medals : I recognized his Eagle, the God and Country, the Ner Tamid, and the Ad Altare Dei... These were the Methodist Church, Jewish and Catholic awards, respectably. As we ate lunch, I said, "you know, I have to ask how you come to wear those three religious awards.?" He said that his mom was Jewish, his dad Catholic and his Troop was sponsored by a Methodist Church. He said that when he asked about earning the awards, his father's priest, his mom's rabbi and the minister at the Troop 's sponsor didn't seem to mind the rest of his family arrangements.....
Refer them to : http://www.scoutingbsa.org/programs/awards/religious_emblems/Religious_Emblem_Information.html
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What would I do? Go back and re-read The Jungle Book.....
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My condolences to you , the Scoutmaster's family and your Scouts.
Choosing a Scoutmaster involves sensitivity, cooperation and luck. Who is moved to be the Scoutmaster is balanced with who CAN be the SM and who approves the naming/selection. Being a Scoutmaster is, I feel, as much a "calling" as it is a "trained" position. It would be nice if one of the Assistant SMs is "moved" to take up the reins. Then too, the Troop Committee and the Charter Org Rep needs to sensitively consider who MIGHT be of the right temperment and experience (if any !) . The COR approves all adult leaders in the unit. It would be VERY good if the COR takes the Troop Committee's considerations into his/her consideration.
I have known wonderful, beloved SMs who started out as no more than a parent who was dedicated to Scouting because they saw what it meant to their child.
I have known SMs who were so Scouty they bled khaki, so to speak, but were not really concerned with the Scout so much as with themselves, if you know what I mean.
I have known SMs that could inspire Scouts to success in life merely by sitting next to the campfire , holding their pipe and nodding occasionally . And I have known SMs who were scared to death to let a 12 year old boy even hold a hatchet, much less use one. Patrol Leader? Scout led? Mmmmmmaybe....
The Outdoorsman (or woman !) who loves kids and sees the future of society in the skills learned, the confidence gained, the cooperation ingrained by the "Scout Method", that's the person you should seek. Ideally. But there is , I am sure, someone in your ken that , if they aren't already that person, can become that person. Sit ye down and think over these things....
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Family joke:
Two old biddies are "regulars" at a restaurant, but never have anything good to say about the food, even tho they come there every week.....
"It's too salty". " They never use any seasoning...." " the green beans are mushy.... overcooked.... the steak is BURNT,,,, it's too raw.... "
" Coffee tastes like burnt dishwater.... greasy french fries.... my hamburger is old and undercooked...."
""And the portions are so SMALL...."
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My "attaboy ..."
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"It depends".
Schedule several practice camps for your slid together Troop. The Scouts probably won't know each other to begin with. Work with your SM. This is a NEW Troop at a NEW Jamboree, since COVID etc. Scout led. EXPECT alot from your Scouts, they will not disappoint you.
Your tents will be given you, your cot will be given you, you will still be living out of a duffle . I would think no real room for a trunk. .
Walk everywhere. Get your hiking shoes worked in. Rain shoes, serious hiking boots.... Summit is just that, up and down, alot. Rain gear. Door mat for outside the tent. Maybe a campchair or old beach chair or two. Paper plates, duct tape, markers for signage. Make sure what Camp Gate they will allow you to make and set up. Some Troops brought spectacular scenic gates, some more modest, lash together. There are NO TREES to cut down, bring your own lash ups. Read the manuals about what they plan/allow for cooking/sanitation, etc. cellphones? Handhelds? Read the guidelines ("aye, they be more like...") Plugs will be at a premium, "Yeah, I'm up to 68 percent"..... unless things have changed alot....
Do not allow your Scouts to sit around reading tiktok. Make sure they have a daily connection with the events. Teach them how important it is to DEPEND on each other. Scavenger hunt? Patch for awards? Security in your campsite needs consideration. Despite the Scout Promise and Law, it isa GOOD idea to have someone in your campsite AWAKE at all times......
Thirteenth Scout Law? Be careful of food laying around, in tents. Still might be critters around....
Have fun. Keep it Scouty....
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I had to decide under which topic to include this. Training? History? Working with Kids? When do we REALLY start "working with kids".... when they are our kids....
Personally, I can relate to this very item, which I cribbed off a Facebook page (with the author's permission). Growing up, our country home included a 55 gallon drum set on bricks, in which my job was to BURN our trash.... Responsibility....
Nelson R. Block on Youth Training…..
Scout buddies –
Once again, I present this essay in honor of this day:
I have good thoughts when I take out the trash.
One of my chores at home when I was a boy was taking out the trash. It was a final remnant (together with Boy Scout campouts) of my American pioneer heritage. My parents had grown up in an age when chores for city kids still resembled farm work, because even in the first few decades of the 20th century, urban families might have a horse, a goat or some chickens to be cared for or coal to be loaded for a stove. By the middle of the century, when I grew up, kids in the North might still shovel snow. But in San Antonio, chores mostly included mowing the grass, raking the leaves, feeding the dog, and taking out the trash.I learned a lot from this endeavor. Before the age of plastic trash bags, we lined the kitchen trash can with newspaper. If the newspaper leaked and the trash can was dirty or oily, it had to be cleaned before being lined. Caring for the trash can had to be done neatly because it was a jobsite Mom saw 20 times a day.
Dad’s inspection came on the other end of the process. The garbage had to be dumped entirely in the metal garbage cans that sat on the other side of the backyard fence in our alley, on a homemade wooden platform. If a strong wind picked up some trash as it was being dumped, I had to chase it, because no one wanted to litter their neighbor’s yard. The garbage can lid had to be affixed tightly, to keep out cats and varmints.
My training in refuse engineering came in handy when I became a Scout, because our patrol campsite had to be kept clear of garbage. We got a jumpstart on the process by rinsing our wet trash through a homemade sump. This was when Scouting taught maximum-impact camping, and the sump was a hole in the ground covered with twigs and leaves. We then took whatever would burn and threw it into the fire, which was another, larger excavation into the Earth’s crust – our patrol always had a deeply dug fire pit, further protected from igniting the surrounding rocks and cactus by a wall of the Hill Country’s finest limestone. Trash thrown on top of a bed of oak coals in this furnace would be quickly incinerated.
It was only when I was inducted into the Order of the Arrow that I came to understand the deeper significance of what taking out the trash was all about. Here I saw that the Scouts and Scouters I admired were all part of the clean-up process. The lodge officers, camp staffers and the adults to whom I looked up stayed around at the end of the program to clean up, while doing a post-mortem on the activity. At other times a young Arrowman might be ignored or shoed away, but at the end of breakfast at the Spring Fellowship, when you asked the college kid who worked in the dining hall if you could carry out the trash, you got thanked. And then there were those rare moments when you could catch the camp ranger or the cook – his wife – cleaning up, and would be able to tell the guys back in the troop that “Uncle Duder” spoke to me this weekend. I left out that it was just to tell me where the toilet bowl brush went when I was finished.
Years later, I learned that the Order was founded on such an experience. Urner Goodman’s Troop 1 in Philadelphia was camping in 1914 on Treasure Island, the birthplace of the Order the next year. Scout Billy Clark was helping a friend, in a situation described by Dr. Goodman many years after the event:
"One time during our stay there, one of our charges came down with a minor sickness. There was no medicine, no hospital on the island at all. So he had to stay in his tent and he had to be taken care of carefully. Billy volunteered to be our live-in nurse for the two or three days he had to be there. And he did a good job of it.
"Came to a crisis however the next morning. It had rained during the night. Now, there is a vessel used in hospitals they call a bedpan. And it was time to take that to the latrine and Billy, of course, cheerfully took on the assigned visit. However, in going from the tent to the latrine carrying this thing, he had a little upset. It was the wrong kind of bath, to be put lightly. But Billy got up smiling from it all, if you can imagine. Now, that’s the picture of cheerful service."As the years passed, I learned that life had many such experiences, often exemplifying the old adage that “No good deed goes unpunished.” I entered the legal profession, and spent a great deal of time cleaning up the messes other people had made. Fortunately, most of these did not require a shower to be rid of their memory. Since I took to this work – after all, I had been training for it since my youth – I even did it on a volunteer basis. I became the council attorney, where one finds an amazing number of people who want to take advantage of a charitable organization serving youngsters.
Antiquity pays its nod to taking out the trash.In the Bible, Deuteronomy, 22:13, 14, the children of Israel are admonished that soldiers should have a latrine outside the camp and cover it. The fifth of Hercules’s twelve labors was to clean the Augean stables, which he did by diverting a river to carry away the waste of thousands of horses and cattle.
Modern times, too, have those who made their mark by cleaning up after others. Martin Luther King, Jr. spent his adult life scrubbing away at things that other people did not want to touch, like poverty, racism and injustice. On April 4, 1968 he was shot while in Memphis, Tennessee – helping support a strike by African-American sanitary workers.
Something to think about, next time you take out the trash.
Nelson R. Block © 2021
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I am sorry I did not see this earlier. Thanks Qwazse for the thinker.
In my duty as a Jamboree Chaplain, I would sit in the "Relationships" pavilion (title is changed with the particular Jamboree) and would be available for Scouts to come and at least get THIS checked off for their Jamboree scavenger hunt requirement. I regularly had discussions with Scouts who would open with "oh, I don't get this God stuff."
Magi? Wise Guys? Princes? The ultimate question that is never answered in scripture is what did they do AFTER they left their gifts and worship?
Our Scout District is blessed with active Jewish Scouts (of at least three varieties), many Christian flavors (including the occasional Quaker), and some Muslim Scouts. All find room in our tents.
Oh, did I tell you a young member of my Meeting earned his Eagle last fall? I may tell you about his project in our 250 year old graveyard sometime....
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The rank up (whata term) should be almost automatic, rather than "programmed " in...
Boring? Games are fine but the tree ID should happen along the hiking trail. The pioneering/knots and ropes should happen setting up camp. Leadership? Older examples the younger. Skills? Yeah. make 'em games. Map and compass? Find your way around thepark. I really learned about campasses from an old time surveyor. The Troop set up a 100 foot rope marked off in 10 foot sections (A, B, C, etc.)The Scout started at any spot ,followed the directions on the card he chose (110 feet at 75 degrees N, then 210 feet at 130 degrees.... ) until he/she came back to the baseline. If starting at B, calculated end up C, like that.... Lots of "adventures" can be created in like fashion.
Boring? The sit down and listen Troop meetings are the anathema to Scouting. I am truly sorry Signaling was eliminated from First Class, Wigwag, semaphore, Morse Code can be a challenge worthy of the Scout.
Boring? When was the last time you had a EMS crew come and teach CPR? State Forester meet your Troop ona Saturday morn ? Junior College Astronomy prof come out to point at Polaris and the Drinking Gourd?
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Co-mingling the two big Scout programs in America? Is that possible or desirable.? .... What a concept....
http://www.tournamenttroop.org/
https://www.smugmug.com/gallery/n-wHKK2n/
https://www.smugmug.com/gallery/n-mrZ5TG/
Oh, the humanity....
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Wimachtendienk Wingolauchsik Witahemui , brother.
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Rule the first::: ALWAYS use the same version of your name, everywhere in BSALand. John L. Sullivan, NOT Johnny Sullivan, NOT Sully Sullivan, NOT J.L. Sullivan....
I had to spend a couple hours at Council Office to combine/merge three different accounts I had somehow created in my Scouting Adult career. How did I find out about this? When I applied for attendance at a Scout thing and was told "NO", because I was lacking a course/training I knew I had.... in. a . different. name.
Rule the second:::: INSIST ON and keep a solid, card/paper copy of the "graduation" from your course. The Leetle White (or blue?) card as PROOF that you were there/then with HIM/HER.... Print it out. Do not depend on the eCertification.....
Rule the third:::: IF and WHEN you have to spend that time in the delightful company of the Council Registrar, insist she/he get CONFIRMATION FROM NATIONAL, then and there. You should have ONLY ONE BSA Registration number, associated with your name AT THIS COUNCIL. Note that if you MOVE to another Council (so I have been told) you MAY ( or may not) need to obtain a NEW BSA number, specific to THAT new Council....
*sigh* Rule the fourth::: Re-read Rule the second>>>>
Ummmm, time for new boots....
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I always pay close attention when a story starts out.... "I once had a ...."
We once had a DE that honestly admitted to being DE as a mere stepping stone to "something better"""""". I once asked him for some help on an item, and he responded "We have people for that", meaning the District Committee/Scouter volunteers. My immediate thought , being one of those defined "people", was , then why do I have YOU to ask this of? But I didn't say what I thought. He "stepped" to another stone (so to speak) in only a few months.
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Teach 'em the CORRECT lyrics....
"" "scuse me, while I kiss this guy...."" = Jimi Hendrix, please call your office......
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(With apologies to Paul Simon . . . )
”I went out camping with my Scout Troop just last week.
The fun and woods there were everything I seek .
But I when I got home and counted noses I realized…
There must be… fifty ways to lose a camper. Fifty ways to lose a camper…. “”
Just call the roll late, Nate, Get off to the john, Ron, Be in a rush, Gus, just listen to me….
A PL that’s loose, Moose, string out the hike, Mike, Just laugh at that boy, Roy , , ,
And let those Scouts be !
I called my DE up and told him of my woe, he said he’d meet with me ,
and so to Four Bucks then we’d go.
He smiled and shook his head “You’re not the first,” he said,
“There must be… fifty ways to lose a camper…. Fifty ways to lose a camper….”
Check your Tour Plan, Stan, run over those names, Ames, call the Micky Dee , Lee,
and calm try to be….
Reassure mom, Dom, be cool with the dad, Vlad , get out the cell, Mel, and call the SE.”
And so we called the Council SE on the cell.
She told us to not fret, she’d see what she could tell.
And sure enough, the family called back, .... it seemed that…the kid had stayed home with a cold all along..........
So wipe off the brow, Dow, Have another cup, Krup,
smile and cheerful be, Dee,
and set your self…. Freee…..
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Well, such is not unknown in our necklace of the woodsy realm...
I worked for our local Transit agency. Another time... At our BSA District RT one month, we were introduced to our new DE. Call him Mr. Lee. I remember him as being very personable, met everyone, shook hands, took notes about what was going on.
Three weeks later, we learned second hand that the DE had resigned like three days after our RT. THREE DAYS.... Some months later , I was called into our Transit garage office and told I was assigned to accompany a group of "Transit Tourists" around our property. These were middle management from New York City, visiting the Wash DC area. Lo and behold, here's Mr. Lee ! Now a transit manager ! He recognized me, and we talked. He honestly told me the BSA DE position was merely meant as a "place holder". We smiled and agreed the DE pay was not the best, the bene's were not worth holding onto.
Then there are the ones that have a permanent crick in their neck from bending over double to help....
What does one need to do to avoid being proselytized to at district-level events?
in Issues & Politics
Posted
Well bless yer little Scouty heart.
Nay, laddy, such as this always deserved it's own "Faith and Religion" (and ethics? shudder) forum.
Oh, let's get back to Epicurus....