SWScouter

Living here in hot Arizona, we find the imported Caribou Tundra Turdcicles are quite nice.

Lisabob, those are my thoughts too.

Gee, and I thought kids getting better grades was a direct result of "No child left behind." Thank you W

P.S. If my wife sees what I just wrote, I may end up sleeping on the couch.

I think when we start mutating ourselves to withstand colder climates, we ought to, in parallel, direct our efforts into a push for global cooling.

Actually, the brand of the hats was Boss of the Prairie, or BP, which might explain why BP liked them so much

I don't know about that FScouter. One of the reasons for the Sedition Act of 1798 was of all the "false, scandalous, and malicious writing" the newspapers were printing. Of course, then president John Adams was taking the brunt of much of it.

SWScouter

DH: Dear Husband (or Dear Hubby).

From, "Introductory Guide for Merit Badge Counselors" at http://www.scouting.org/boyscouts/resources/mbc/

Most local councils (including summer camps) use the Application for Merit Badge, or blue card, although it is not required. This tool just makes the recordkeeping easier for the Scout, the merit badge counselor, and the unit leader. At summer camp, a Scout may receive partial credit for completion of a merit badge on the blue card, which goes to the Scoutmaster at week's end. Back home, the Scout would need to contact a merit badge counselor for assistance with completing the rest of the requirements.

(emphasis is mine)

SWScouter

Personally, I wouldn't worry about it. I have no way to know whether someone has paid their OA lodge dues or not unless they actually tell me. I'm certainly not going to ask a lodge officer to check.

If he hasn't sealed his membership by going through the Brotherhood ceremony, you might encourage him to do that (and to take a couple of youth along to do so too). That way he will at least need to pay his dues for one year

SWScouter

What is community? Certainly the members of a church form a community. Likewise, the members of a school form a community. There are many types of communities and I don't take the view that Citizenship in the Community MB is limited to one's township.

My Scouting is your online portal to the Scout Net Database. You can create an account and use that to change your personal information such as address and phone number. You can use it to do internet advancement or internet rechartering (if that is your unit assignment) and you can use it to go to the online training. Also, any day now, you should be able to use it for tour permits. Actually, it was required to be rolled out before online tour permits would be available (http://www.doubleknot.com/openrosters/DocDownload.asp?orgkey=62&id=30527).

http://www.scouting.org/nav/enter.jsp?s=ms

SWScouter

Just for fun, go watch the movie "Meatballs" and watch how Tripper interacts with and helps Rudy.

Just for fun, go watch the movie "Meatballs" and watch how Tripper interacts with and helps Rudy.

Just for fun, go watch the movie "Meatballs" and watch how Tripper interacts with and helps Rudy.

One thing to keep in mind is that the council is tasked to keep record of the advancement. This doesn't necessarily mean that these records have been entered in scoutnet; most likely it just means filing the advancement forms the units turn in. In a large council, they probably have not been entered and won't be until that scout earns Eagle. It just takes too much manpower.

Internet advancement is starting to be deployed around the country. Internet advancement allows the units to update the scoutnet database directly. I helped out with an internet advancement class last week at roundtable. It will be a pain for the units to get up to speed because the advancement data are not in scoutnet and the units will need to enter the data themselves. My suggestion was to enter the data for a scout when that scout next advanced. That way one doesn't need to spend hours at the onset to get everything up to date.

SWScouter

I have no legal experience. But, once you and your wife brought legal action against the council, it seems to me that both of you should have severed all ties to the organization. Continuing to volunteer for the organization you're sueing seems to carry a great conflict of interest. It certainly seems that continuing to volunteer would also hurt the chances of your lawsuit. Did your lawyer recommend that you stop volunteering for the BSA? I'd sure think that recommendation would have been made.

I asked my Mom when I could join Cub Scouts. Not wanting to repeat a terrible Den Mother gig, she told me that Cub Scouting was stupid and to wait for Boy Scouts. Yeah, I kid her about that now.

Joined Boy Scouts when I turned 11 in 1971. I know I was still in in 1976, don't know about 77' so I just wear a 6 yr service star for youth membership. There wasn't a lot of advancement in the troop I was in. I don't believe anyone earned Eagle while I was a member. I earned Star and was inducted into the OA.

My son joined Cub Scouts as a tiger Fall 2000. I joined as Den Leader Spring 2001 when he crossed over to Wolves. I've been a scouter over five years now. I have been a DL, WL, and on Cub RT Staff. Currently I'm an SA and DC and enjoy supporting the OA as much as my time allows.

I do look back on my years as a Boy Scout and compare it to what is happening in the troop I'm involved with. There are pluses and minuses to both. Being an adult certainly exposes a whole different side to the program.

Even though I wasn't directly involved in scouting for ~23 years, it was always important to me. For example, I always directed my United Way donations to scouting. Sometimes while doing long hard efforts cycling (I raced for years and years) I'd dissociate the pain by reciting the Oath and Law in my head (I've since added the OA Obligation). Now, when looking back to the bad times in my life, I see that they match up with when I forgot or ignored living by scouting's ideals.

SWScouter

Grilled Stickies are those District Advancement Chairs you stick it to and rake over the coals.

SWScouter

Well it''s out there somewhere. Last September at the Wipala Wiki Ordeal at Camp Raymond we retired well over 400 flags and I listened to it being played many many times throughout the day. I don''t think I will get tired of listening to it. I don''t know where the recording came from or how to get it.

SWScouter

My council started sign ups for the NJ last Spring. I already signed my son up. That was an interesting talk with him since the NJ was three years out at the time. That''s 25% of his lifetime away.

SWScouter

When I was a Webelos Den Leader, I had an OA ceremony team perform an AOL ceremony for the den, then later that same Pack meeting, I did a crossover ceremony that I wrote myself. It worked out really well. There is also a District Crossover done every year in my District and an OA Ceremony Team will perform the Crossover ceremony.

Find out who the chapter chief of your chapter is and ask him, or find the vice chief of ceremonies and ask him. I'd do it soon so the ceremony or dance team has plenty of time to schedule.

Good luck,

SWScouter

I have two pairs of uniform shorts and a pair of pants. I always wear one of them with the field shirt and usually with an activity shirt such as a tee. I most always have scout socks on with the pants or shorts too. I have three field shirts, one long and one short with the troop insignia and one long with district insignia. At troop meetings I'll usually wear the troop neckerchief under the collar. Wood badge beads are most always worn with it. District meetings I'll wear the wood badge necker and woggle. All three shirts have all correct patches on along with the three knots I've earned so far. I usually have service stars and name tag on too, along with the OA dangle.

I have the red wool jac-shirt with the OA back badge and the scout emblem patch on front left pocket. I also have a nylon red jacket that I don't wear as much. It has a lodge back patch. My other non-conformance is I wear the expedition hat with the field uniform. I also wear a Camp Raymond belt instead of an official scout belt.

SWScouter

I think one of the great things about the OA is that it gives an opportunity for a scout to get involved at a higher level than he can at the troop level. Basically it widens his scouting world. His involvement includes scouts from all over the district (OA chapter) and also at the council level (OA lodge). Now, when the scout attends summer camp, he will know other scouts than just those in his troop. Then it can widen from there. He can attend conclave, a meeting of all the lodges in the local OA section. Conclaves should occur yearly and rotate between the different lodges in the section. It normally is a very fun event for all Arrowmen. Next it can be taken to a regional and national level by attending other events such as LLD (Lodge Leadership Development) and NOAC (National OA Conference). So I think the broadening of the scouting world is a big part of retaining scouts.

Another thing, all those OA events, such as lodge fellowships, ordeals, conclave, LLD, NOAC, are all organized and run by the OA youth. Sure there are lots of adult advisers, but it is the youth that organize, plan, and run the events. I don't think there's too many organizations that offer youth such an opportunity for leadership roles like the OA does. And the young men love that opportunity, especially the 16+ year olds.

SWScouter

My son joined Feb. 06, along with a few other scouts. Most of them had Tenderfoot after summer camp in June 06. The first got 2nd class around March this year and two more just got 2nd class (17 months). My son is close to 2nd class and has most of his 1st class requirements completed too. He needs the drug/alchohol prevention program still - Too bad Phoenix PD doesn't fund D.A.R.E. anymore...

SWScouter

Just so everyone is clear, it's "Totin' Chip", not "Totem Chit".

Camp Raymond, Grand Canyon Council runs Totin' Chip classes the first day of camp. The scouts earn and receive them right there on the spot. The trading post sells knifes too. This year there were knives on sale for $9. Scouts must have a Totin' Chip to purchase a knife.

SWScouter