Twocubdad

Teach Your Children, CSN Of for a bit more country flair, Simple Man by Lynyrd Skynyrd Mama told me, when I was young Come sit beside me, my only son And listen closely, to what I say. And if you do this It will help you some sunny day. Ohh take your time... Don't live too fast, Troubles will come, and they will pass. Go find a woman and you'll find love, And don't forget son, There is someone up above. (Chorus) And be a simple kind of man. And maybe some day you'll love and understand. Baby be a simple kind of man. Won't you do this for me son, If

Agreed, BD. The folks posting there are a bunch of saps. The current thread is about what little gifts Eagles can give the other Scouts in the troop who helped him get his Eagle. Oh please. Reminds me of a conversation between my wife and a friend of hers. The friend was talking about a third friend who had opened a gift shop in town. She said it "was the perfect place to go if you were having lunch with friends and needed to stop and buy a little gift." "Really?" I asked. "She's running a liquor store?" Apparent this is one of those Mars/Venus things. I started to post this

More accurate would be to put the sign on your door, but then giving it to 80% of the kids anyway and withholding candly only from those kids who look like they are going to cry.

I had to listen to a retired DOD guy carp about all the government folks missing work after having four-day work weeks due to sequestration. Makes me wonder how many of them missed paychecks over the past five years. I know many, many folks who would have been grateful to have work four days straight.

I thought we had some stupid debates here. The tucked/not tucked debate takes the cake.

That must be a recent addition to the syllabus. It certainly wasn't mentioned in my course. If it's all about me, I'm spending the weekend at the Grove Park Inn. That's ridiculous.

Yep. And some folk considered it an act of war.

Now they're closing ocean, too. http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/10/03/3668028_p2/shutdown-day-3-food-distributor.html

Blue Ridge Parkway is closed, too. It's a ROAD folks, a road. I suppose Americans are to stupid to drive through the mountains without federal assistance. However I did see a uniformed US Forest Service employee blowing leaves off the parking lot at the ranger station today. An essential service, no doubt. They must have discovered a cell of Al Qaeda squirrels.

Moose -- I have no idea what you're trying to say. If one member of the Bull Moose party is elected to Congress it is his/her obligation to vigorously represent the voters elected him or her. The argument that those oppose to the ACA should just "get over it" is specious. The shut down isn't costing the government $300M a day, the story was (if you can believe it) it is costing the economy $300M a day. That's the equivalent of the change in the truck arm rest compared to a $16T economy. Heck, it's small change compared to the $10 BILLION we senp a day or the $2.5 billion we borrow dail

"I also don't want a precedence for the minority to rule government by hostage taking.. " What minority is that, Moose? IIRC, the Republicans have a majority in the House, placing them in an even tie with the Democratic Senate for control of Congress. Consequently our current stalemate. I find all this talk of terrorists and Gitmo amusing. If a football team is down by 10 points with 20 seconds left in the game and go for an on-sides kick are they terrorists? Should they take a knee and head for the showers early or do they play out the game to the end using the rules they've b

Good for your son. He's doing the right thing. At this point I'd wait to see what comes of the UC's visit with the troop. There may come a time during the ensuing conversations where it would be appropriate for you son to state his case. Scoutmaster: "Everyone this troop absolutely earned every MB the received! Who here doesn't think they honestly earned a MB?" (Cue Brett Jr.) But if not, I think you will be surprised about what you and your son can learn together. Most MBs are written on a middle school level. Get the MB book and read through it. There used to be plans for electric

If reading the pamphlet included the information you need to complete the process, you would have a point, Base. But how much of the real, actual approval is left up to the local districts and councils to implement. Hell, the process here has changed two or three times SINCE the new workbook came out. We have long had a couple ASMs and myself who work with the Scouts on their Eagle projects. Before the new workbook came our, ours was a council that had a two page checklist of required touch points proposal were required to contain -- one of which was a copy of the completed checklist c

I don't buy that SMs don't have any control over the MB process. Bunk. If I knew a camp (or any other) MB counselor were cutting corners that wide, a) I'd be climbing the camp program director's clock and , b) we would not award the badge. I know that's not BSA policy, but sue me. If things are as bad as your OP makes it sound, it's because the leaders in your son's unit are complicit in allowing it to happen at this scale. I would do two things. First, I'd talk to your son. This is an opportunity for a life lesson the value of actually earning things. Here's your chance to gu

I tried the Leadership patrol thing for several years. It never really worked until we got to a point where the leaders were all buddies and would have been in a patrol together regardless. That group is aging out this year with about half already 18. The current group of leaders are scattered over a couple patrols with their buddies and I don't really see the leadership patrol idea working. My experience is that friendship trumps job titles every time.

Been there done that. These guys aren't stupid and talk to each other. It is not uncommon for an entire patrol to sit out a campout if a few key players don't attend.

I'm not as black and white on the subject as the others. The volunteers put a lot into making the unit run and if the pack spends a little here and there to show it's appreciation for their time and effort, there's nothing wrong with that, in my book. I think part of a CM, SM or CC's job is building morale among the adults and doing something nice occasionally is a good way to do that. We started having quarterly meetings with the ASM a couple years ago. The first meeting I made dinner for everyone and charged it to the troop. Dinner for 12 guys was about $60, if I recall. Subsequent to

ALRIGHT! To which forum do we we spin the thread on smokers? Not that crazy about smoked turkey and chicken, KDD. The little bit of smoke isn't worth the time it takes. But I still have a couple pounds of 'cue in the freezer from the last round of butts I smoked. Excellent. And let me tell you about the Nova Scotia-style salmon I made back in the spring. Oy! What smokers do you guys use? Semi, sorta staying on topic, I use 3-4 digital thermometers in both the meat and cabinet. Of course that to keep the temp from getting too high, not to ensure minimums.

Not a peep. World in '07 was one of the highlights of my Scouting career. I'd love to go again.

Amazing. So much in one post about what is wrong with BSA. Why does BSA have to do anything for a fired SE other that direct him to the nearest unemployment office? (Rhetorical question. I understand why.)

Please print Scouter99's post (#3) and make multiple copies. Post 10 or 12 around your meeting room, and give one -- make that two or three -- to every man, woman or child who comes within 100 yards of you troop. Your OP, cnew2, gives one of the best arguments for not having troop MB classes -- people are lined up three deep to give boys merit badges with little or no effort. Summer camps are the biggest offenders. Camps are set up for boys to earn the maximum number of MBs possible. Parents -- parents, not Scouts -- select camps based on "getting their money's worth". Hey, if I'm paying

No doubt. If mommy and daddy are committed to putting forth the effort to find compliant, agreeable, or incompetent units willing to put up with this it is certainly possible. Blow through Webelos and earn Arrow of Light at 10.5. Join a Boy Scouts and convince a newbie SM that AoL is as good as Tenderfoot, a month each for Second and First Class (just like in Webelos) then you're home free for Eagle in exactly 16 months. Of course mommy and daddy will have to sign up to counsel multiple merit badges and constantly be on the lookout for new sucker troops when the current one wises up, but t

I think you are all missing a critical element here by mis-defining "discipline." Discipline is not punishment. Discipline is training which makes punishment unnecessary. We don't punish Scouts. That is the parent's responsibility. We do try to instill in the Scouts a sense of discipline such that their behavior is not a problem. In this sense discipline takes on the same meaning as disciple -- as in an adherent of a particular philosophy. While I like the simplicity of Stosh's three rules, I also have a bias toward the Scout Oath and Law. My rule is if you want to be a Scout and

Two thoughts: The greatest obstacle to TL's success seems to be it's attempt to eat the elephant in one bite. Clearly they are in a "strike while the iron is hot" moment, but attempting to recreate a program as broad as BSA in six months seems far fetched, even without the camps and HA bases. My sons attended a charter school which started all 13 grades over two years. It was a disaster. It took them five years -- the entire time my sons were at the school -- to BEGIN to get their act together. And that was with a paid staff and standardized curriculum. I wouldn't recommend the appro

You guys do realize this thread is 11 years old, right? Old Grey Eagle has passed away, Bob White got p-o'd about something and left years and years ago and Yaworski was outted as conducting sham debates with himself posting under multiple user names. Yes, this is a picturesque bunch!