Tokala

Scouting was my major activity throughout my childhood. I was very active in the Council as a youth. I continued my involvement after my 18th birthday largely due to the opportunities presented by the OA. I have remained active ever since. I do not have any children, but enjoy working with and challenging youth to test themselves. I have 2 major reasons for staying involved: #1) I tend to run interference for the youth and deflect the meddling, overbearing, stuffy adults. I've always got a smile and having fun and yet I seem to be able to get the "values" stuff across to the kids. I als

"Since that is a rather extinct East cost culture, I don't see much mentioned in the current OA handbook, other then very general regalia references." The Delaware, Lenni Lenape, still exist. They currently reside in Oklahoma and still hold dances. I was associated with their elected chief, Curtis Zunigha, during the '96 & '98 NOACs. I'm sure that there are still sources for their traditional clothing, although they too use the more common pow wow dance styles. "In the guide to inductions it states that ceremony teams should if at all possible use regalia as would be worn by loca

His attitude reflects many of the other youth and adults that participated. My squad also voiced their disappointment that they didn't get to finish. They did announce that they had renamed a trail in the Forest to "Arrow Corps Loop" to recognize the effort and project.

Thank you. I served as a squad leader for the event, as well as a van driver to the project sites and helping with logistics. I was one of about 6 leaders to last leave the camp and I didn't get on the road home until about 2 pm on Saturday. There were 2 different project areas: Warm Springs and James River. Warm Springs did some trail maintenance, built campsite pads, and built a trail that winds along the shore of Lake Moomaw. James River was all about building trails. There were 4 major projects: Peter's Ridge, Fore Mountain, Douthat Connector and McGraw Loop. It was an ambious project

I've been involved in various stages of forming/maintaining the dance/sing team in my local lodge. Being in Florida, plains culture isn't accessible to Scouts without attending pow wows or adults with a lot of knowledge and willingness to coach and work with the youth. We have gone without a dance team for about 10 years and the sing team keeps trying to get something started. IMHO taking the interested youths to pow wows works the best. Currently, we only have 2-3 youth interested and we drag the drum put and let members hear in order to try and get them interested. I am not currently the sin

I just returned tonight from the GW-Jeff AC5 event. What an absolutely amazing experience! I watched as 60 Scouts cutting a hiking trail through National Forest lands that even the rangers had never walked. To look to my left and right and see a line of 60 Scouts and Scout leaders working on a project of such magnitude made me smile. At the closing show it was announced that the BSA had contributed over 70,000 hours of volunteer service to the GW-Jeff Nat'l Forest.

I've been a chapter advisor several times through the years, and emb021 nailed it: PROGRAM. Scouts and leaders are overwhelmed with busy schedules and a meeting "just because" won't draw the attendance and serves no purpose. The last time I was a chapter advisor I offered ideas such as BBQs, helping with the annual shoreline cleanup, a Toys for Tots drive at Christmas time, etc. The chapter chief decided to stay with chapter meetings at roundtable. Once he made that decision, I required him to have a program that revolved around something other than food. He couldn't pull it together, so we ca

Leadership styles vary through the entire spectrum of the organization and at every level. The patrol method is a way of dividing the youth into teams of 8 to give them an opportunity to grow. It's not in the details of the syllabus, but in the growth that each young person experiences. They're all not the next BP or Green Bar Bill, and neither are the adults. It's a red herring to throw out the concept that modern leadership models mentioned in the wood badge syllabus are trying to usurp the patrol method. Couning the number of times a word is used in a publication does not guarantee t

I cringe everytime I read in the paper or see on the news a statement like: "gas prices will reach $4 soon." As soon as the media publishes a comment like that, it's like giving the gas companies the OK to raise the price. It's like the media is conditioning the customers to believe and giving the gas companies the ability to raise the price, warranted or not.

I was not aware that this training exists. We have a course this fall and discussed our plans if we had to deal with a hurricane(s). The CD is a county employee and would have to report to the bunker if emergency evacuations are called. After careful consideration, we realized that the course would be cancelled anyhow because everyone, not just the CD, would be evacuating or boarding up their houses.

Since 1961, my family has been in the tool & die/plastic injection molding business. I'm the 3rd generation. The business has always been ccylic and oddly runs nearly opposite of the majority of the economy. It tends to start downturns sooner and recover earlier. Back in the 80's the industry was concerned about the business going to Portugal, in the 90's it was Mexico, and now it's China. Locally there were 30-40 small, private shops that employed 10-20 guys at wages around $18-20/hour. Now there's probably no more than 10 shops and each may have 2-3 guys at lower wages. I have gone

Many also include subcommittees for: Camping Advancement Training Cub Scouts Venturing (This message has been edited by Tokala)

"My memory is that the early primary was "forced" by the Republicans in the legislature over the opposition of the Democrats. But it is the Florida Democrats who have to pay for the action." That is correct. Florida's legislature is about 2/3 Republican. The legisltaure set the date of the primary. Florida also has a closed primary. The DNC stripped FL of all of it's delegates and the RNC stripped FL of half of it's delegates. Personally, I think the primary system is outdated. It also sets up the fundraising to support only candidates that the lobbyists feel will win. With the techn

I still see both locally. "Call outs" seem to happen at the troop level, whereas, "tap outs" seem to happen at the camporee or summer camp level.

I was at the Southern Region CDDC last year when they annouced that adults on NYLT staff could earn ther 3rd or 4th bead as a proposal. While the 2 courses are similar, there is still a vast difference between the material presented. The wood badge beads have so much historical background that I think National has overstepped. Wood badge beads are for wood badge. I've cajoled my council for many years about how they micromanage wood badge and ignore NYLT/JLT/TLDC. Every Scout deserves a trained leader, but the primary goal, IMHO, is to help boys become leaders and good citizens. NYLT

I seriously doubt that kids in 2008 would put on a beret, even if it was official uniform. Beret's aren't exactly "cool" any more.

I honestly don't recall anything that stood out as a memorable moment. It's been about 20 years, but it's not due to failing memory. I guess for me it was just another Scouting activity.

Congratulations! And, welcome to the best and most active region in the nation!

Eamonn..as for the music. Go to youtube and listen to some Flogging Molly. Trust me. :-) As for history and change, I try to use the great experiences and adults that I enjoyed as a Scout in the 70's to illustrate how the values are still the same, even if the uniforms and advancement programs have changed. I've put stuff from the 70's & 80's into my troop program and NYLT and the Scouts thought it was fun and interesting. I didn't necessarily tell them that it was "old school", but presented it as something that might be challenging and fun.

My council uses a simple rule when hosting an event: Budget to make somewhere around 10% for the Council. This applies to camporees, wood badge, NYLT, corssovers, day camp, et al. This rule helps keep zealous volunteers and professionals from padding budgets in an effort to seek favor with the Council. I'm sure that some push the limits and others try to make it break even. On the whole it's a fair way of conducting business for the Council and the particpants.

I don't see it as a problem. As long as no one has access to any powder or ammunition, it's strictly a highly accurate historical prop. My lodge uses Seminole clothing for ceremonies and for many years Nutiket carried a 50 caliber musket. I've seen many dancers carrying weapons at pow wows, but I've seen so many I don't think I could separate the BSA ones from the real ones.

Eamonn please take this in a constructive way... You wrote: "While I don't think the old course did a good job of teaching traditional Scouting skills. (It was never intended to do so.) " I have been through Boy Scout wood badge and staffed 21st, I'd argue that Boy Scout wood badge taught & used Scout skills much more than 21st. Gone is the spliced belt, patrol method cooking, pioneering project, and orienteering. In it's place are more "conference room" type training experiences. You also wrote "While I have not been involved in the new youth courses that replaced JLTC, from

I've heard that a new uniform is on it's way. The only thing that I remember from the conversation is that the color-coded loops on the epaulettes will be history. As for old uniforms remaining "official", that is true. You can wear old uniforms; however, the parts must be from the same time period. You can't mix the 70's uniform parts with the 80's onward, or vice versa.

Eamonn, you touch on a lot of subjects. I'd like to address a couple of them. Every council had to start the 21st Century syllabus from scratch. They had to draw on people that had wood badge experience in order to create the same intensity or passion about delivering the experience. There's a lot more gained from these courses than just the material and skills in the syllabus. My council has run 4 courses since the introduction of the new syllabus. Out of 4 courses we now have a pool of potential staff and course directors to draw from to staff the next course. This has effectively elimi

I've often posed the question about how the standards set for Wood Badge for the 21st Century were set. Good trainers are being eliminated from the talent pool simply because they completed a different syllabus. Training skills aren't related to a book, but to the individual. As one who completed Boy Scout Wood badge 20 years ago and staffing the 21st century courses, it was a difficult translation. It can be done, but it would be simpler if I had taken the course. The 11 leadership skills are still valid methods; they're just not what the BSA is using to train adult leaders. I don't