SSScout

These Scouters have left their mark and will live on in the lives of the Scouts they touched.

There is a need for reminding folks of the "Basics", and the need to remind folks who really, really, really want to help that they can help. One fellow attending our IOLS admitted that 1) his son had just joined Scouts (Webelos) and he (the dad) really wanted to encourage him, 2) he had never been a Scout or done anything resembling camping 3) his hiking boots were new last week 4) the tent ("Can you help me set this thing up? I just got it at a yard sale last month") was a nice old style Eureka with the poles on the outside, but IT HAD NO RAIN FLY! ("Oh? Is that necessary? I thought you were suppose to enjoy the stars thru that screening".). We loaned him a tarp for the cover. 5) he had never learned to tie shoes, so the boots were a challenge which we helped with. (slip ons always) or Velcro closers), string and rope were a new concept to him (!). 6) He was the most involved man there. Questions, hands trying everything. I am sorry to say he was from a distant district, so I don't know how he faired afterward.

Geocache? Orienteering? Stampbox? Letterbox? Scavenger hunt? Poker Hike/Run? Autocross for Bikes? Fantasy vs reality? Real world vs cartoon? Batteries vs feet? Perhaps this is another symptom of the downfall of the empire. More entertainment, more gladiators and the serfs won't notice the lack of bread.....

And this relates to our "other" ultimate leadership training called WOODBADGE how? And when was the last time a Scout Leader needed a 3 1/2 star hotel (!) for accommodation when training? There will be "room" for over 380 participants? That's a lot of tent platforms. And nylon That's a lot of "resources" that could be used to sponsor some inner city kids to attend the White Water Rafting Summit camp . Yeah, it's nice that the Philmont Training courses may be heading east, but it doesn't sound like it. What sort of accommodations do the Philmont attendees have? I've not heard from anyone who has attended. It is nice Irving is thinking of utilizing New Hope Center year round. Oh, maybe it is going to be the new Greenbriar Hotel....

If you build it, and promote it, and publicize it and make it convenient, they will come. IOLS is an INTRODUCTION to Outdoor Leader Skills. It is intended as the bare minimum, the example of how a Scout might (might!) earn First Class, only that. The idea of offering more advanced training for Scouters to encourage them to train THEIR boys is laudable and done in some Councils. Powder Horn comes to mind. The idea of a Troop developing their own "High Adventure Trip " is a goal way beyond many volunteer leaders, but still a goal. My Yearly Meeting (Quaker speak for Diocese thing) sponsors a summer camp program that would challenge any Scout. Third graders go out of camp on backpacking trips, they hike and carry their gear , accompanied by older counselors. This coming week is the "Ten Day Trip" for teens graduating out of the program: 4 days on the Shenandoah canoeing, four days on the AT hiking/camping, and one day service project and one "solo" night, out alone. It is a challenge my Scoutson compared favorably with Philmont (no Mt. Baldy). The kids train at the hands of their counselors, who take Rock Climbing cert course, NOLS courses, and such. It is a lot. If you would find the IOLS course less than an Intro, then I'm not sure what to do.

He sounds like a very nice young man. I wish him and you smooth trails and sunny skies. To get Irish: "May the road rise up to meet ye, the wind be ever at yer back, the sun over yer shoulder and the rain fall gently on yer fields, and may ye be in yer grave for an hour afore the deevil knows yer dead."

Stosh, me hearty, Tis an easy one. Aye, of the Alphabet, if he be literate, his favorite letter be 'ARRRRRRRRRRRRR". What be his favorite type of foot covering?

There you go. If the restauranteurs had only worn the camp uniform, there would have been no problem. Were they there as extra Camp staff, or as Hooter people?

Here in our District, last time my "Yoda" and I decided to make sure we covered the "Official" curriculum, but kept much of the old curriculum, too. We explained what we were doing, it was fairly obvious from the included materials. We have always jncluded "added value" (""now how much would you pay?"") . We opened as usual early Saturday morning, and said goodbye as usual about 3pm Sunday. No complaints. Our plan is to run the course as a Troop campout, Patrols do classes, have some friendly competition, and gain awards for their flags. The goal is to go thru the Scout to First Class requirements. Patrols are formed at the indoor part of the course, and thru email discussions. Seems to work. Our "old timers" concur that the watered down course was done in response to complaints that the "old course" was too long and not adult enough. We treat our nascent SMs as Scouts, and haven't had any problems. Too long? Maybe that is a reflection of the reality that today's Troops seem to HAVE to get home sunday before 1pm...... Might be we were doing it right all along....

Welcome and greetings from Murlin, across the Potomac. Lexington's a pretty , old city. Driven through there many times.

""My son wants to have a ECOH with his buddy he went through scouts with when he Eagle's soon and have it less formal and more religious because that is just how he rolls. As long as he invites the people who helped him I am OK with that. My other son is in OA and I think an OA style would appeal to him as well."" Well, there it is. I like the idea of a multi-Scout CoH. What a concept. One of the most memorable ECoH I ever attended was for three Scouts who grew up together in Scouting. They opted for a campout at one of the Scout's grandparents farm back woodlot. Folks had to park and walk back several hundred yards to the site. Held in the late fall, there was a campfire for the hotdogs, folks brought the potatoe salad and three bean salad. Candles, quiet crickets, it was great. After the ceremonial stuff, and the parents and relatives and other folk had (finally!) gone home, just the die hard Troop Scout campers were left to sit around the campfire to share more stories. It can be done, including the old Scout friends, the proud relatives, the Troop to show the other Scouts "how it's done". It can be meaningful, memorable, and short too. See you on the trail....

"Did they serve pizza to the crew"?

Llama, llama, llama, llama, llama, llama. LLAMA.

Buccaneer = expensive corn. Privateer = Nobody bother my corn. Lavalier = smokin' hot hearing appendage.

""But Hooters was not staffing the camp they were sponsoring it and providing an opportunity for their employees to volunteer to help with the program they sponsored."" But it was a Scout Camp, and they were "helping" with the Scout camp, and the restaurant gave some money (?) to support the Scout camp, should not the Staff helpers dress the part? They were not Staffing the restaurant. Promotion, perhaps, but we always said thanks to our sponsors/supporters with mention in our CampNotes and such, not by allowing folks to not be "in uniform". Unless they were doing their thing especially. Firemen, model airplane fliers, Walmart trucker, homing pigeon demo, State Police helicopter, state park Scales and Tales come to mind. All these folks were there to promote THEIR thing FOR the Cubs. These restauranteurs were there, I perceived, to BE CSDC staff helpers. There's the difference. If a Playboy bunny came to staff the Nature Pavilion, and she was not dressed in her "work" clothes (!), but appropriate to a CSDC Staffer, and was knowledgeable about the subject , where's the problem ? The CSDC Scout folks here allowed the Hooter girls to be restaurant promoters rather than Camp Staff, it now seems to me.

"""By the way, how many WB Owls do we have in the audience?"""" Whoooooo wants to know?

""Whooo Do You Love ((with apologies to Bo Didley)): I walk 47 miles of Philmont, I use a cobra snake for a woggle, got new Scout Hut on the roadside made outta Antelope hide, it's got a little bitty chimney right on top made outta a Buffalo skull. Come on Troop Guide, take a walk with me, tell me, whoooooo do you love oh honey, whoooooo do you love....... I got a Boy Scout staff and a Woodbadge Mind, I'm just 42 and I don't mind Hiking..... Whooooooo do you love….. Come on B-P make me understand, let the boys LEAD , win all you CAN, WHOOOOOOO do you love, oh Course Director, tell me, whoooooo do you love…......

AHA! There is the real trouble! The Restaurant Girls were out of uniform! Every CSDC I have ever staffed or attended, the working adults, and even the Den Walkers wore Camp Uniform! Special Tshirt and Cap! All the pictures I see of these offending young women show them in Hooters shirts, jackets and caps! If they were to be staffing the camp, the Hooters logo stuff should not have been in so plain view, if any.... I think the only exception to the Camp Uniform would be for "guest specials", such as when the FIremen come with their gear, or the year the Army Corps of Engineers came to teach building ... things like that. Were these young ladies frying potatoes or serving pizza? If these young "big sisters" were there to staff the camp, in whatever role, then the Restaurant should have not been their "cover". The CSDC should have been their "cover".

The Scout must make his own way. He will be an Eagle someday, maybe not next week, but it will happen. He will decide how to make it happen. Basketball? Scouts? Room for each , a little give and bend. Coach will understand if Scout is a little late to a game. Scout and SM will arrange for the SMC, at a PLC? At a Coffee shop? Mutually agreeable site. (YPpolicy governs) . And, as has been said, the EBoR is , in most Districts, not a Troop thing, but a District (or even Council thing). Find out from Eagle coordinator (should be listed in District hierarchy) how to schedule. Usually, SM or his designee escorts Eagle candidate to the site and introduces the candidate to the BoR, and then steps out. Troop CCMs may or may not be formally invited, but usually other Scout parents are invited to participate. But no one from the Scout's own family or Troop may participate in HIS EBoR. Yeah, it may seem like things are glacial, but it will happen. As us Quakers like to say, "way will open", when it should. Let your Scout know you support him, but let him deal with it. He is, after all, an Eagle to be.... By the way, what was his project?

I don't have any owls to show any random trucker.

""Apparently the troop has done multiple Scouts in one BOR for a long time, and everyone on the committee wants to keep it that way "to save time, otherwise we will be here all night." " Multiple Scouts? How is that showing the Scout he (singular) is important? How many times have you seen among siblings, at home, in a movie, "you love him better than me" because of the better attention shown to one brother over another, which leads to..... If the Scout is the object of review, why not all night? Each Scout , at some time, deserves the undivided attention of the parent, the Scoutmaster, the Board of Review. Why should it be otherwise? If nothing else, The Golden Rule requires it.

Pride. Yep. Proud to be a Scout. Envy. Yep. Wish my big sister looked like that. Wrath, See mom in news article. Gluttony, Better to go to Golden Corral for the All-You-Can-Eat.... Lust. Ah-hem. Eye of the beholder, the log in your own eye.... Sloth, Don't think so. Look at those girls work.... Greed. Ummmm, no. they worked at the CSDC for free, yes?

Hooters: "Who cooks, who cooks , who cooks for you awwwwl." I think the CSDC folks obviously had the "older sister" image in mind, and heck, the restaurant did a "good turn" thereby. One summer, at our CSDC, I had to send a male Scout youth Assistant staff back to the Admin area because he had purposely torn his tshirt in a "heroic/beach" style (his words), obviously to impress the several Girl Scout staffers we had. He was counseled, and reshirted and went back to serve the Cubs.

If my Scoutson has a schmart phone, and I have a schmart phone, how close to each other do we have to be for me to be "supervising" him? I will posit the news items about "free range children".. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/free-range-parents-cleared-in-second-neglect-case-after-children-walked-alone/2015/06/22/82283c24-188c-11e5-bd7f-4611a60dd8e5_story.html and http://www.freerangekids.com/ "Make sure you're back in time for dinner". "Okay, mom."

""When asked to appear upon some important occasion and deliver a five-minute speech, ((President Lincoln)) said that he had no time to prepare five-minute speeches, but that he could go and speak an hour at any time."" A good ceremony needs the three "Ps" : Purpose, Planning and Practice . Without them, any supposed ceremony demonstrates and elicits the three "Bs": Boredom, Buffoonery and Questions (okay, two Bs) yawning, snickers and why are we here? If the participants believe in what they are doing, the audience can forgive alot, but the inspiration must come early and with clarity. I like the Patrol Leader ceremony mentioned above. It helps to make it clear what a PL is expected to do. No amount of SM talks can do what a public promise can do.