SSScout

TOSRV?

The necker reads "1968" and has the wreath of the Commissioner Corps. And it's a green background. I will venture a guess that it was a souvenir of a Commissioner training, Pretty. I am forwarding this to my Canadian connection.... I also think the arrow patch may be a Canadian badge, but they don't have OA.

Reference to my other thread about Scout reticence to use the (tele)phone. If there is a question about the Scout's having fulfilled a requirement, or passed a MB, make the phone call. If there is a problem, mature adults can work it out. We are all Scouts, brothers (and sisters?) in arms, and (to borrow a phrase) "it's for the kids", yes? The Scout's home Troop is where his records are kept, and where he is ultimately judged, I would say. Home Troop SMConference, home Troop BoR, home Troop CoH, unless otherwise arranged because of extenuating circumstances. Had a Scout from Georgia arrive at a private, boarding school in the neighborhood. His mother called our Council, who called our DE, who called me (UC) who contacted the Scout , who called the SM of my home Troop, who arranged for him to attend meetings and camp with the Troop while he was at school. SM called SM in Georgia, requirements passed were emailed back to home Troop. He only stayed two years (family troubles), but his Scout record was kept straight and (so I heard) he was on his way to Eagle. He was never dual registered, just camping out up here....

Always relate it to the Scout Promise and Law. And while you're at it, the Golden Rule..... Then go back to the BSA guidelines and policy.

Not to demean the travails of Texas and the other parts of the Midwest, but we had more than an inch of rain in less than an hour last night at our house.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IObCcAHKjSg

Gives new meaning to "Boy Led".

When will I hear of a Council's professionals doing what the volunteers do? ""...and develop programming that we never thought possible to get our Scouts excited and learning.†?Learning? What happened to adventure (safe) and outdoor skills and confidence in those skills? Oh, where are you , Kudu?

Works for me. Our summer camp last year organized a carpool to a local historic site so Scouts could complete their American Heritage MB, and Cit in the Nation.... It was just that, a group of Scouter vans ("we need some drivers on Wednesday, if you can drive, contact the director...") from camp, not a camp bus.

Not WB, but the indoor part of the Scoutmaster Specific course, now called "Scoutmaster Position-Specific Training". I tend to think BSA, in their wisdom(!), is trying to divide up the training, such that the Committee Member stuff (policy, money, CO relationship, etc. ??) is given to THEM, and not to the program folks, the SMs, ASMs, . I don't like it, I tend to think everyone should know/be aware of everything. My District Training Vice Chair (not "Vice Training", enough of that joke) and I, when we have led the SM training, have noted that certain things have been "left out" from the new course. It does shorten it by at least 3 hours, but hey, it makes it more palatable to the newby SM, yes? Training guide here: http://www.scouting.org/filestore/training/pdf/511-213_WB.pdf

Can I add the new Scoutmaster Specific course to this discussion? HICO Eagle mentions "" It would also be nice if it covered - secondary but important factors in running a troop (expenses, sources of income, CO relationship, etc.),"" .....all of which were specifically addressed in the prior version, but are not officially included in the new version. My partner and I were pointedly led to discussions on just those sort of things when we said "any questions?"

My yellow pages help keep the door open to the kitchen...

So I MBCounsel Bugling. At a MBDay some months ago (February!) , I met with 5 Scouts. Numbers one and two did the prerequisites listed and completed their badge that day (one of these played trumpet in the town orchestra. Nice to hear really good technique!). I gave everyone my card and asked them to call me when they had the rest of the requirements done. Number Three needed to play the rest of the calls and had the "serve as the Troop Bugler" to fulfill. He called, I met with him at his Troop meeting , heard his playing, spoke with his SM about the "serve" requirement, congratulated him and gladly signed off on his card. Number four had his SM email me with the "serve" requirement done. They phoned me, we met at the Starbucks and I gladly signed off on his card and wished him well. Beginning last month, Number five has emailed me, copied to his SM, who responded that #5 had , indeed, served well as the Troop Bugler the past months. #5 asked (by email, copied to SM) how we might get my signature on his Blue Card? Could he mail it to me? Could his mom drop it by? What are my "thoughts"? I emailed him back to PHONE me and we would discuss meeting at his house, or McDonalds or some such place (his Troop has "finished" for the summer, his SM emailed). I have had the same basic email from #5 three times over the last month, but no phone call. He has had the same response from me, "Please phone me, so we may discuss where we can meet..." I await his call (or his mom?) .... *sigh*

Public service.... underline the word "public".... Wear some uniform/BSA label. Digging ditch for conservation project, wear Troop informal/class B/tshirt....(full field uni/class A is overkill, but OK... Directing traffic at a voting poll, wear the formal field uni... passing out literature for a candidate, no uni at all. Helping at the church daycare, wear the Troop T... serving as an usher for service Scout Sunday, wear the full field.... working at the local shelter, T shirt... helping with the Council climbing wall at the town festival, (it's 85F) wear the Troop T, all the same color... Helping to move the town library for renovations (thousands of books and stuff), Troop T is preferable, but Class A is okay fershur... "It depends". Unit Service projects should elicit a uniform look: All Troop Ts or All Field::: "Ask your Leader". Or , if NOT a unit project, "Ask yourself" (look in the book?).

Get a local surveyor to come out with his optical transit/ theodolite and rod and let the Scouts watch the ground vary in altitude as they walk the rod around.... Surveying Merit Badge!

Reading ANY map is a great skill nowadays. Get a paper map and look how it connects to other maps. When I taught Map and compass at CSDC, I would hang up the following and make the connection for them: a two dimensional representation of a three dimensional reality.... A National Geographic "Map of the Universe", here's our "Local Group", (to next map) LIGHT YEARS!! vs KILOMETERS!! vs METERS?FEET!! here's our Galaxy, the "Milky Way", here's our star the SUN with it's little orbiting planets, (to next map) here's our Solar System, planets, comets, asteroids, etc.... (next is a globe) this is a three dimensional representation of our three dimensional world. Hard to tuck into a pocket, so we invented a "projection": (next map, a Mollweide projection vs a Mercator projection. What's the difference?), unwrap the surface of the Earth and make it flat. (next map) Political or physical? Boundaries or mountains? (next map) Here's the USA. Lots of states. Change of SCALE! READ THE KEY! SYMBOLS! (change map) Here's Maryland. (change map) New closer ?bigger? scale, here's our County. (new map here we are at our town area... and (new map) Here we are at our Campsite! I hand out the campsite map (copy of NGS topo) and we do a compass course and pace out lines . They get to keep the compass (50cents from Oriental Trading) and topo copy.

I've always liked the idea of an original Troop (or Patrol!) design. I like the idea of a non-copyright design. The Necker SHOULD be big, 30" on a side is not too small. Then, it lends itself to being USED, as the original necker was intended to be useful, as a flag, or dust mask, or sun hat, or arm sling or..... My Troop necker was designed by the boys in the Troop just before I joined. There was a pair of dusty boots with the motto displayed "Always on the GO!" . The ESL necker was a style statement, indicative not of Scouting's purpose, but of it's demise from being the pre-eminent outdoor youth adventure organization. If you have a good, Scouty design, well and good. Stay with tradition. But you might ask the boys to provide a design THEY can own. And use the necker, don't just wear it for wearing's sake. Good Scouting to you!

wc153221, ?? Any news??

"ALWAYS keep copies of paperwork until the deed is completed or your grandchildren are no longer interested".

Do you want a stand on the shelf TROPHY or the Sports Academic Letter to sew on his brag vest? http://www.meritbadge.org/wiki/index.php/Cub_Scout_Academics_and_Sports_Program A lot of this is "obsolete", so you may well have to make it yourself (nicely sawed off log section "cookie" with the pins etc. attached thereto), as a keepsake, or go the ebay route. Shadow boxes are also a nice way to display what in my day was put away in the old shoebox in the closet. CS shadow boxes are available at my Scoutshop.

Cub Scout Obstacle course: "Crossing the Crocodile infested Amazon " "Look out for the Piranha!" --- Nail/screw 2x4 end pieces to a 2x4 set narrow side up to make a balance beam. Make a couple shorter ones, arrange in a curvy row. Add some 9" cinder blocks (called CMUs by architects) to jump to and from. ---Tie a heavy rope between two big trees about 4" off the ground, maybe 10' long, tight, and another rope about 5' higher for them to hold on to. Ask them to navigate that. ---Old tires on ground to hop in and out of, like the course you see football players use, but don't be alarmed if the Cubs can't make the distance with the shorter legs. They will still have fun with it. --- Sink a fencepost in the ground, 4' high. Use the tires, have the Cubs pair/triple up to lift the tire OVER ONTO the fence post. Can a Den do it as a team for time? . Scout staff can lift them back for the next team, or just pile'm on, add on to it. Set up a relay race for the Den, for time. Use balls, flag folding, stick handoffs, knot tying, filling up a measured bucket with a wet sponge.... Make stations for the Cub Dens to travel between. KiS MiF!

Yep. Beads. Amazing what a fella will do for a bead, doesn't matter the age, I guess. The OA in our area gets a bead for a service project attendance, for helping at a Ordeal, etc.. CSDC, everyone earns beads for catching a fish, hitting the target, picking up a handful (judgement call) of trash, leading a Den cheer. Those beads add up. At CSRT, beads have come to be expected, sign in, pick up your handouts, take a bead (Trustworthy), different color each month. . Did I mention Jeff throws out candy for good questions? Also beads, when he runs out of candy. I haven't had to stop to that, (church won't allow food in my room). I see a lot of beady neckerlaces.

The bike trip sounds like (I hope) an ongoing project, to be done every year? If FoS can do golf tournaments, why not an Eagle project that sets up a yearly bike hike to raise money for another worthy cause? Tell him to research TOSRV, a hundred mile bike trip once organized by the Columbus American Youth Hostel Council. Attracted 3.000 plus bikes each year, Columbus Ohio to Portsmouth Ohio. Now, branched off to a separate entity.... https://tosrv.org/15/index.htm I did it in '76 and '77. Ah, the memories... Congrats and good luck to him.

Our District has TWO separate RTs, on the same night, same location. No joint meeting, no "breakout". Boy Scouts is me. Cub Scouts is Jeff. We each have our own email list, send out our own weekly eNews. We email announce the RT place, time, topic, and lots of other interesting stuff . Jeff runs CSRT like a Pack Meeting, When you arrive, you sign in and take a bead for your necker, (a lot of beady neckers here!) give a buck in the jar, and take a copy of the Monthly Program Suggestions (gleaned from lots of sources. Jeff has assistants!) and Baloo's Bugle. A skit (folks are "drafted" into the skit as they arrive, especially new faces!) opening germane to the next month's theme. Then official announcements (Real short) and onto a crafty thing, and then maybe a "guest" that also goes along with the theme. Fireman in turnout gear, doctor /paramedic talks about health issues on hikes and campouts (Cub family campout), docent from an overnight venue (historic ship), that sort of thing. OCCASSIONALLY we meet jointly, like recharter training, or the new program material as it affects both sides of the aisle. And he closes it with maybe an award and a "Cubmaster Minute". He tries to have a snack or if there is a discussion , he will throw candy to the folks that ask a good question (they're all good!) as encouragement. (I throw old camp patches). Our attitude is if it would be interesting to me, it can be interesting to you. When I took on the BSRT, it had been done by an ex-government bureaucrat who had not wanted to do it, so the RT had devolved into a boring oration of Scout announcements and Powerpoints on camp hygiene and such. I invited a podiatrist to discuss blisters, boots and socks and the rest is history. Doubled attendance over the past year, and folks email me to ask about THAT topic or to be added to the email list. The Official RT BSA site is a good suggested outline, but hey, you are there, they are not. "Make it interesting and they will come" so long as you have them on your email list and make the RTNews worth looking at. I even get stuff to include off this raggedy site!

Ya think Ethan will help? http://www.scouting.org/filestore/program_update/pdf/Ethan.pdf And talk about disability... The kids asthma must really bother him, with no nostrils.... And let us bewail the passing of the Jungle Book from Cubbing.... Rest in peace, Rudyard....

The Troop of my yoooth did this several years. I still have the dangle from "Camp Freedom". Somebody's uncle's brother's friend owned some wooded property with a spring on it. After we had been camping on it several times, The Troop developed a schedule : We first capped/dammed the spring, put a actual spigot on it. Then, one dad worked for the phone company, and we took many surplus utility poles and dragged them into the woods (with a surplus Jeep!) and the dads and older Scouts cut and built a 3 sided Adirondack shelter into a hillside. This became the Quartermaster's Cabin. Meanwhile, somebody (?) had dug and built a privy, "over there". Down from the QCabin, they partially dammed up a creek (the outflow of the spring) and made a aluminum box in it that became the camp cooler. Little Tenderfoot me helped where I could, and often! By this time, it was winter. The next summer, I attended both the Council camp (Roosevelt on the Chesapeake Bay) and "Freedom". We had four Patrols, each had a separate campsite, and we built a rock fire place in ours. Draw your supplies from the QCabin, cook your meals, and do Scout stuff all day. Field trips to museums and other Parks. The adults were "over there" and we were "over here". We built lots of camp gadgets, including a table and benches (which was replaced the next year with a board/lumber set that we pounded together). Who did it? The older Scouts had a large role in planning and teaching and exampling, as I remember. When I became "old enough" ( a real objective judgement), I was a Quartermaster and Bugler. The adults did the supplying and directing. Mr. McDaniels was the Quartermaster and he had a couple of Scout assistants, who took care of business. Often, he was not there, but would come in each day with supplies and walk thru the camp to check on us. Mr. Leaman., the Scoutmaster was there too, but "over there" more than anything else. Ah, those were the days. I have no doubt any Troop today could do the same sort of thing, make it a traveling camp ala Joe Bob. "Freedom" was used for at least 20 years by the Troop, then it was sold off (I later found), partially to a religious retreat center and partially to the County Parks. I took Scoutson up there once and found the ruins of the cabin. The spring had been bulldozed and filled in.