Venividi

Looks like Stosh, GoldWinger, and Gunny all have differing processes for scheduling conferences, and those processes work for the boys in their respective troops. Vive le difference!

>A lot of SE's don't really want lots of independent-minded COR types >on "their" council boards or pushin' things at an annual meeting. A >lot more pros are really concerned that if the CO's truly understood >the responsibilities and risks they were takin' on, they would drop >their units. And that might be true, eh? But are those the CO's we >really want in the first place? That may be so, but I will offer another possible reason for the lack of participation of CO representatives at the district level. The church that chartered the troop that I worked with chartere

Consider putting your stimulus package towards better food. Buy more milk for the kids. Eat good quality steaks more often. With Idaho (or Maine or Wisconsin) potatos. Along side a pinot noir from Oregon. Or other wine of your choice from upstate New York, California, or wherever. No problem if someone prefers an import to mix things up. The good old American farmer offers products that rank among the best in the world.

I spent Saturday running a first aid scenario at our district's version of a klondike. It was a day full of activity challenges where patrols followed a compass course between challenges. It was a beatiful day, around 30 degrees, with a foot of snow that had fallen the day before. I was surprised at the number of patrols that had an adult tagging along with them (better than half). And most were mixed aged patrols with at least some scouts that were 14 to 16 years old. This was in a relatively small forest preserve where, if a patrol got lost, it might possibly take them up to 5 m

Back in confirmation classes (in a protestant denomination), catholic in early church terms meant 'whole". And that when we recited prayers that included reference to the "catholic church", it meant the whole body of christians, and not Catholic with a capital "C", as a specific denomination whithin chritianity today.

Wow! go away for klondike, and return to see that pot roast is a very popular topic. I do like the analogy. Thank you Bob for starting it. Here are some more. A man liked to make pot roast. He followed a particular recipe, and his 3 pound chuck always turned out to his liking. Another man took the same recipe and found that his 6 pound bottom round did not turn out the same. A woman took the same recipe and found that her 3 pound chuck didn't turn out like man #1's. Upon discussing with others, she found the difference was that she was working with a roast from an aging

There once was a man that loved pot roast. He grew up eating pot roast. His mother made it often. The pot roast that his mother made was POT ROAST. There was no other. It was the recipe that she served in her restaurant. The man learned the recipe and followed that particular recipe every time he made it. When he went out into the world, he found that not everyone loved his pot roast. People that lived in the mile high city found that their conditions required cooking the roast at a different temperature and different length of time, or the pot roast came out under cooked. They sugges

I suppose that depends on what that 29% represents. Is it that 29% of units have no trained leaders, or 29% of leaders that are untrained? the two are not equal

Please stay on topic or spin off a thread to the issues and politics section. thanks

Pappy, Love accepted. You certainly did open up lots of options for different directions to take this topic. I do hope that this thread stays on topic of faith in scouting, and does not take the path of discussing faith in public schools, which would be a better topic for a separate thread in the politics forum. The troop that I had served was sponsored by a church that viewed scouting as one of their outreach services to the community. Typically, there were several (2 to 5) members of the church in the troop. Most were from outside of the troop, including many non-churched. O

My two blue sky ideas: 1) Create 2 tiers of methods - primary and secondary. Put advancement in the secondary tier. 2) Reposition scout camps from primary focus on MB's to primary focus on outdoor adventure.

Reminder: John in KC asked at the beginning of this post: "From now until Sunday, let's make this is a "Blue-Sky" exercise, brainstorming only. We can evaluate later."

Another thought - perhaps scouts have met their leadership requirements in past offices, and, having met the requirement for their own advancement, are satisfied because they are focused on their own needs and not the needs of their patrol and troop? jblakes strategy may work in this instance also. Perhaps a campout or two will get cancelled because no one steps up?

Match the particpants in this discussion with the leadership style(s) they are using. (Yes, I realize this is a discussion, but so is the conversation between SM and SPL.)

If this comes to pass, mine will go into a 401K. I have a lot of savings to do to make up for the drop in value since the sub prime issues wacked the market.

" If I'm spending 8 hours a day on meals instead of 4 I have more time for program. " Ya, but summer camp program areas may not be open during all non-meal hours. I have been to both. Hours that staff members were available in program areas was about the same. Personally, I prefer patrol cooking camps. I consider cooking as a patrol to be program. I am not suggesting that anyone else agree with me, nor am I trying to bash dining hall camps. Which ever works for you - there's more than one way to accomplish the aims.

Brent Allen comments: Troops give up this fantastic opportunity to teach the Patrol Method at Summer Camp, just in order to get quicker meals. I have had conversations on this topic with scouters from other troops in our area that attend dining hall camps. From those conversations, I gather that it is more than just to get quicker meals. Or to have more time for advancement (i.e. earning MB's). Beneath those explanations, patrol cooking described as work, as not being fun, and that they are on vacation and dont want to do chores that are seen as not fun. I agree that it is more wo

I would lean towards the middle option. Cold weather camping requires training and a shakedown for safety. New scouts joining the week before won't have that opportunity (unless there is a possibility that your troop leaders can find a way to do training and shakedown during the week between joining and the campout). We did lose a lot of new scouts one year after particularly nasty weather on a March campout (and this was a cabin campout). Despite instruction on proper attire, both to scouts and parents, many of them still came unprepared.

Bob W., I guess I just look at situations from a different perspective. I dont think that it helps to tell volunteers that they should be ashamed of their volunteer efforts. People are in differing places on learning curves. Could be that someone is inexperienced, or experienced in a different area. Or struggling to find ways to create a good program. And needs some ideas that they haven't thought of, or is struggling between the balance of implementing a program and guiding the PLC in taking the reins. Why should they be ashamed of that? Especially if they are trying to learn to

Whats with the recurring theme of "shame on you/scout leaders" that is creeping into these threads? Aren't we all here to share our experiences and learn from each other, and maybe work towards (slowly) making the troops we work with better? Why should someone that does something differently, or even wrongly, be shamed?

>Testing is OK but retesting is a no-no! Especially not requirement 9a right before a canoe trip!

Thought I would spin this topic off from the perceptions/realities thread, so that one can get back on its topic. Here, lets share experiences with scouts own services on campouts. My experience: The troop my son was in did not have them. The chaplain's aide, like many support positions, was a "patch only" position; i.e., only thing the aide did was to lead his patrol in grace before meals. After I became SM, I asked the chaplain's aide to be responsible for leading a short service on Sunday mornings. I supplied copies of the short services that are in BSA's troop planning resour

I dont think that Lisabob was looking for advice, but rather using the experience to highlight her thought about impressions vs. realities. In my SM days, I did move the troop to add a scouts own on sunday mornings before leaving camp. Bland and boring - perhaps, but short and simple. I didnt approach it as the point being the message delivered in the scouts own, but rather the message of doing something more than grace at meals (with respect to the 12th point). I think it added to the bonding, though really couldnt put my finger on it until I accompanied a crew to Philmont, where I ca

GW, Thanks for the clarification. I hadn't read it that way. My mistake. Here in Illinois, our state legislatures recently passed a bill making a moment of silence mandatory in all public schools. Their time could have been much better spent on state budget issues.

Crappy schools, teenage pregnancy, and shooting for sneakers are linked to insufficient quantity of public prayers? Are there no private prayers being offered by anyone to address the world going to hell in a handbasket? If not, why not? If there are, how would public prayers be more effective in addressing such problems? I am puzzled at how prayers/bible readings at a 4-H club will prevent problems GW mentions. I think they are unrelated.