SSScout

Think of the great "camplantern" (no fires allowed on the WH lawn!) the POTUS can tell! "It was a dark and stormy committee meeting...."

""It Depends"" In our District, we have the good fortune to have a number of really dedicated-to-Scouting folks. They love doing the camp thing, and , if it is a lot of time and effort, it can be seen as a labor of love. Somebody will know who stores "that" piece of equipment or supplies . Our Cub CD this year is also our District Camp Chair. She worked out a deal with a resident school for "at risk " youth (they teach carpentry and other building skills) to use a portion of their 50 plus acres for Day camp. We have cut down trees, cleared ground, planted grass, killed PI, set up piles of straw bales for archery backstops and generally made an old tree farm into a campground that will be used for CSDC, Webelos Weekend, maybe IOLS, close in Troop campsite... Our extra large, economy size Council has a very nice overnight CSCamp, but it is more than an hour drive from our District area (one of 26 in our Council). It is on a 400 acre property that is also used for Woodbadge, OA ordeals, public school events, MB days , COPE course, Range officer training, and lots of other things. It was purpose built for Cub stuff, with a stockade, a pirate ship, and lots of woodsy trails and fields for Frisbee and such. It has been equipped with barracks, tent platforms, a formal lodge for meetings. Folks coming to the Nat Jam and touring our NatCap are often overnighted there. CWBSnyder: http://www.ncacbsa.org/members/group.aspx?id=118926 and https://www.facebook.com/CampWBSnyder So, "it depends" . I think it is very neat that someone came up with the idea of a day camp for Cubs. It is fun, serves a purpose, they actually learn something at it (I would hope!), and a lot of the Cubs are encouraged (if it's done right) to go on in Scouting. Like much in Scouting, "the work is done by whoever shows up". If you have the fortune to have folks that love the idea of Scouting, stuff gets done. "It Depends".... Again, we have the opportunity to give our kids an opportunity they would not get anywhere else, from anyone else....

Girl Scouts Camp on White House Lawn, first ever? http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/girl-scouts-camp-white-house-lawn/story?id=32141434 http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/01/politics/girl-scouts-obama-white-house-evacuated-storm-dc/ Never heard of any Scout campouts like that. You?

Scouter dot com use to have a news search section. It automatically sought and listed "Scout" items in the news. I guess that was a "luxury " item when the site was rebuilt. Thanks to all for posting Scouty things for us to read.

Oh, I want to be a member of this Troop. Patrol leaders and SPLs are superfluous, great, simplifies the chain of command so things get done quicker. Lots of parents on the camping trips. Very good, they can carry in the gear for the Scouts and set up the camp kitchen and sanitary facilities so they're "done right". Saves wear and tear on the poor Scouts. Cooking for the Scouts might be a good thing, too. Give mom a sense of purpose, and the boys a chance for better meals. No need to learn about how to boil water if dad is there to do it. Cocoa tastes the same, no matter who pours the cup, or does it? Parents doing everything? Very nice. More time for Scouts to play "I Doubt It" and text their friends at home to complain about the dirt and bugs. "My little darling" is close to hand for picture taking in his "so cute" Scout Tshirt and shorts. Cursing? Well, obviously the lack of a large descriptive vocabulary is a disability owing to the poor education in the person's past, and so must be "understood" and "allowed for". Then too, if one's masculinity or self-esteem is in question, naturally one must defend it with appropriately strong language. Helps to build esprit de corps, being part of the team, groupthink, etc. No mamby pambies in MY Troop. No boy ever wants the challenge of being away from home. By himself. Alone. Or with some buds, having fun without M & D to protect him. It's scary out there, in the woods (world). M&D certainly didn't plan on using that bedroom for anything else, right? Yep, a good Troop for a boy to join and have fun in. Who was this English fellow and what was he mumbling about, anyway?

AHA!

Oh , the history. I was the dad with the pick up truck for my daughter's class... They entered a "Ecology" contest and we collected aluminum cans for about a month, crushed, filled up the back of the P/U. It had a "cap" on it, as I remember, we won with about a ton (!) of AL.

Canadian friend says you.re welcome, as do I...

My Canadian friend says he remembers the arrow one as a British Scout patch, but he does not remember of what it signifies.

As a member of the Friends Committee on Scouting, the liaison of the Religious Society of Friends (Quaker) to the BSA (among other orgs), to answer some of the above, I will say : 1) In general, the religious awards are designed, administered and awarded by the faith, thru whatever organization they have. In our case, we decided that any youth of Scout age may earn the Friend awards thru their local Friends' Meeting or Church. "Your (faith) mileage may vary". 2) The awards are worn on the BScout/GScoutUSA/Campfire etc. uniform as that organization allows. Or not. 3) We also work with other Scout/Guide orgs to help understand their rank faith requirements as they apply to us Quakers (ask me about the new Cub and Webelos requirements another time). 4) If a non-Scout earns any of the Friend awards (and there have been some), they can wear it where/how they think best. It is viewed as a form of religious education. Hang it on your wall next to the HS diploma....Or Elementary school diploma.... 5) If it is an award you are proud of, wear it appropriately, with pride. But with humility. 6) As to the Congressional Award, I see no reason to object if a Scout wishes to display his accomplishment on his Scout uniform. It was, after all, earned from a Congressional-BSA partnership. Said so right up there... Good Scouting to you!

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.