Jump to content

WAKWIB

Members
  • Content Count

    606
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by WAKWIB

  1. Really looking forward to this weekend.  It will be the traditional big party that kicks off the summer at my Scout Camp!  This was nixed last year by the pandemic, but it looks like we will have something like a "return-to-normal" this year.  I will be so happy connect with many old and new Scouting friends.

    I hope that all of you fellow Scouters will have a great summer, too!

    • Like 2
  2. On 6/12/2020 at 10:34 AM, John-in-KC said:

    Fred Harvey-ish tables of 8 in the dining halls of HRB and Naish, and mass picnic tables under the shelter of Bear Camp. .  I wonder how Camper Timmy and his leaders will eat?

    @John-in-KC  I only know the plan at Bartle will be to have meals delivered to the campsites.  If/when anything is served in the dining hall it will be a limited capacity type of thing to allow for social distancing.

     

  3. Our council is going forward with summer camp starting in July.  Lot's of policy and protocol to follow to keep in line with CDC guidelines. I'm not sure how much "fun" it will be for the adult leaders and the camp staff, but I hope it will be a good time for the Scouts.  For the first time in many years, I won't be going there for a weekend visit or two due to a very strict no-visitor policy.

  4. On 9/7/2019 at 8:47 AM, Eagledad said:

    Like Venturing, OA is another scouting program outside of the troop program. SteveMM’s SM is looking at it as a troop program, which adds pressure on the scouts. Pressure and boredom drive scouts away.

    Barry

    Yep.  OA is something extra and requires more investment of time.  By all means, I think a Scoutmaster should do his part to facilitate OA elections and try to insure that those elected attend the Ordeal stuff.  Beyond that, it is purely up to the Scout to determine his plan and purpose in the Lodge.

  5. On 11/10/2019 at 5:11 PM, Oldscout448 said:

    Well, as a start to the story we now have a charming young lady who wants to join the ceremonies team.  Which  probably deserves its own thread. 

    And, we will see a lot of that in Lodges around the country.  The girls in my council are gung-ho about getting involved in OA, Mic-O-Say, and camp staff.  Where it sometimes feels like pulling teeth to get a boy to step up into a leadership role,  it seems like there are more than a few girls that are wired for it.

  6. On 11/5/2019 at 7:42 AM, Oldscout448 said:

    Well the fall area ( our lodge is big enough it has areas made up of 4-5 chapters ) Ordeal is this weekend.  Lows temps 20-25.  That's cabin camping for a lot of troops in this area.  I'm wondering if they will put all the candidates in the lodge Friday night.  Safety and all that.  

     

    On a somewhat related topic,  our chapter was asked to perform the Ordeal ceremony.  The request came last Sunday!  Two of our best guys are taking their  gf  to their high schools homecoming dance.

    Yikes!

    Hopefully some replacement ceremonial team members were discovered and trained in time, (under short notice, I know).   The camping situation will be what it will be. That part is probably out of your hands.  Decent ceremonies around a roaring fire will be impressive, and the day of cheerful service should go on, even if the Scouts sleep inside.

     

    • Thanks 1
  7. At a Troop level,  in my experience as both a kid and as an adult, a prayer before the meal sometimes happened and sometimes not.  There was always some type of Sunday morning gathering on campouts where prayers would be said.

    Summer camp was quite a different story. "Grace" was and is said before every meal.  

    There are a couple of favorites from my youth.  At camp we would often sing (as a group of about 500 people in the dining hall) an old Methodist hymn:
    "Be present at our table, Lord, Be here and ev'ry where adored, These mercies bless, and grant that we May feast in Paradise with Thee."

    When I was on staff as a kid, I really loved when one of my brother staff-men would give the prayer in the dining hall.  He was Jewish, and would do the prayer in Hebrew and give the translation:
    Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu, melekh ha'olam, hamotzi lehem min ha'aretz. 

    Translation: "Blessed are You, LORD our God, King of the universe, Who brings forth bread from the earth."

    • Upvote 1
  8. I had to look at my profile, because I honestly couldn't remember.  I've been here since Dec. 29, 2003.  It's been fun and informative. 
    The Issues and Politics Forum was quite a show back in the day.  I was just thinking, that maybe the reason it has quieted down is that all the hot political, social and religious topics get hashed out to the max on Facebook and Twitter.  It may be that a lot of us get so burnt-out on it on those platforms that we don't want to drag it over to this space. Just a theory.  To be honest, the frisky debates of the past here on Scouter were far more rational and polite than what we see on social media these days

    This is still my go-to source for the latest things going on with the program.  Many times I learn about the latest "news" here before it gets out through our council's channels.

     

  9. 9 hours ago, Jackdaws said:

    In my experience with "seasoned" Scouters, they refuse to acknowledge that we live in a different age and its harder to get some of these kids to engage.   We live an a vastly different world than 100 years ago when scouting began.  I have been a scouter for about 5 years so I am somewhat new to the game.   I do think the Boy Scout program as its made is still something that youth need to have available to them and they will learn life long lessons that could/should serve them well one day.    But kids now days are not interested in outdoor stuff.  Its sad.   I will admit my 12 year old son doesn't know how to ride a bike.  Its due to a combo of factors, not living near any other kids his age, lack of interest from him and road conditions.  Mainly lack of interest on his part due to not living near other kids.  We recently got a bike and have plans of him learning to ride as some troop activities and merit badges can be done thru biking.    

    I have grown tired of going to district committee meetings and roundtables as its an old guard vs. new guard battle each month.  Lots of "used to be" or "used to could".   When I was District Training chair I got so many complaints about YPT not being offered in person anymore and that it had to be done online when they rolled out the new YPT.   I finally had to tell them its "2018 and there are computers almost everywhere.   If you need a ride to the library to do it there, please let me know."    I didn't have as much gray hair before that.  

    Now there are some older scouters who are embracing way youth are these day and rolling with it.   That's great and what we should all do.   In my Woodbadge course one of the main lessons for one segment was "Change happens!".

     

     

    The thing that drives me and my peers (old codgers by most standards), is the desire to deliver the best program possible.  All of us have had to take a leap-of-faith in the face of the recent changes.  In our council, the girls who participated in our summer camp program loved it to the max, and we changed absolutely nothing about it.  We were quite surprised and it has motivated us to drive forward because we know the interest and participation from young ladies in our community is only going to increase.

     

    • Like 1
  10. On 9/2/2019 at 8:02 AM, John-in-KC said:

    @WAKWIB Don’t get me started about the excrement HRB Reservation serves for “food”. 

    @John-in-KC  When was the last time you were at camp Brother John?  True, there have been good times and bad times when it comes to food at Bartle-Land, but this year there were few complaints.  Neither you or I can fully comprehend the challenge of keeping the cost low and the quality acceptable.

  11. scouter.thumb.jpg.80f206ecf2fba994cfb25544991668d6.jpg

    Spinning this from another thread.

    Regarding the "new BSA," I am very happy to report that in my Council many of the volunteer folks that are driving the program into the future have 30-50 years of Scouting experience.

    We intentionally mentor and listen to our future leaders who are currently in the 18-30 year-old age demographic.  This is mostly done through cultivating relationships with dozens of people who serve on our summer camp staffs for 6 or so years.

    Our goal is to infuse the New Things with as much of the old traditions and practices as possible.  In short, old guys and gals are embracing the changes and are doing our best to influence the outcomes.

    Will everything be perfect and meet everyone's expectations?  Obvious answer is NO!   

    But, we are trying.....what say you?

    • Like 1
  12. 16 hours ago, David CO said:

    Have you ever read mythology?  Zeus would never be compliant with YP.  He is constantly taking strange forms and sexually molesting young people as they sleep.  Zeus is the perfect example of what BSA is trying to keep out of scouting.   

    True!  And maybe I could share this lack of Zeus' integrity with the Scout in this very goofy scenario.  Keep in mind that the original poster of the Zeus comment was doing it in jest.  I seriously doubt that I will ever have to deal with such a situation.

     

  13. On 7/9/2019 at 11:20 AM, mrkstvns said:

    Hehehe....I wonder how I'd respond if a scout came in and told me how he did his "Duty to God" by praising the mighty Zeus who rules from the heights of Mt Olympus...

    I have a "Duty to God" conversation with several Scouts every year.  I would simply ask them,  "What does Zeus expect of you?"  "Do those expectations align with the Scout Law?"  "How are you meeting those expectations?" 

    • Upvote 2
  14. On 7/10/2019 at 1:05 PM, NJCubScouter said:

    Walk in the Woods, personally I believe that if you have an explicitly Christian organization and require adult leaders to be Christian (and not only Christian, but believers in the Trinity which excludes some people who call themselves Christian), the fact that the organization says it is open to youth of all faiths seems meaningless to me.

    Trail Life and the churches that are CO's for their units view inclusion of non-Christian youth as part of their evangelistic outreach to the community.  They don't require "faith" as a requirement for the youth.  They are hoping they can plant the seeds of Christian faith through their program.  However, that's a side outcome for the most part. Most of the men and boys who participate in Trail Life just want to camp and enjoy outdoor fun.

  15. On 8/7/2019 at 1:55 PM, Cburkhardt said:

    I did a quick Google search, and there are hundreds of media accounts on this that will be present over the next several days.  Most seem to be written in a manner to lead the reader into thinking that there is a current problem (couched as an "epidemic") with sexual abuse in the BSA, when the suits are related to events from the 60's, 70's and apparently some from the 80's.  We have had our YPT act together for a long time and those who read this blog know it.   Individual reporters on the far right or far left can be motivated to allow such a misunderstanding for reasons previously and fully discussed.  These suits will continue to be fled in the hundreds over the coming months.  The point of importance to me is that this makes very clear why we need to support a financial reorganization bankruptcy to deal fairly with the situation and prevent the BSA from being forced into liquidation over the next couple of years. I have confidence that the national organization is appropriately considering the matter and will act in the best interests of children. 

    Yes. The sensationalism in all this is pretty apparent.  I think part of the strategy for the plaintiff lawyers is to score a lot of points in the court-of-public-opinion in order to influence the outcomes of their cases.  Financially, I'm fairly positive that BSA will get over the hurdle somehow, but there will be a taint on the reputation that will take a lot of time and work to overcome.

    • Upvote 1
  16. On 7/29/2019 at 5:53 PM, prof said:

    WOW. I was just watching Fox news and saw a commercial from lawyers trolling for Boy Scout abuse victims. Brings it up to a new level.

    Given the date of this post and what has come out in the last week or so, I say that you saw into the future.  Unfortunately, the reputation of Scouting is going to take quite a hit even longer into the future.

×
×
  • Create New...