yaworski

Is it not possible that they were there because their boss siad, "Go to Woodbadge" and no other reason.

"If the batteries ever go dead, should they ever own a GPS, I am confident they will be just fine." Not when they drop compass reading like they have done to other "traditional but outdated" skills like tracking, semaphore, morse code. However, I'm sure that when compass reading goes away that you'll embrace it with open arms because you believe that anything that issues forth from BSA HQ is true and proper.

Bob, It took my 80 year old father-in-law five minutes to figure out how to put in a hard drive. It took me about as long. It isn't that hard, why waste time in high school with it. Maybe they should learn how to speak or compute a tip without a calculator. As for carpenters, I don't know a good one that doesn't know how to use a handsaw or a brace and bit. As for your boys with the GPS, I still ask what are they going to do when their batteries run out. You won't answer that. All you can do is spout BSA rhetoric.

Gee Bob, By hurling insults at me you have demonstrated that you cannot abide by the Scout Law. Perhaps you should seek counseling and until you are cured, you should not have anything to do with Boy Scouts.

Bob, You have proven yourself to be excellent at two things: avoiding the issue when someone disagrees with you and spouting BSA dotrine. Ta!

" If you expect 50% to drop out, it is a self-fulfilling prophecy. " Gotta disagree here. If you are running the program the way that it is supposed to be run, you can't worry too much about the drop outs. Changing a program to try to keep the kids who are leaving short changes those who want the program. I've been involved in number of large organizations over the years and I've seen similar things. My chapter of the BMW CCA is one of the largest in the country, about 4,000 members. The strange thing was that only 150 to 200 members were seen at the functions. That's not 200

It may have been funny but it still missed the point.

OGE, I may take my shots at you but your thoughts are your own. You should realize that Bob White thinks no original thoughts about Scouting, he can only spout what BSA has poured into his brain. Have you ever tried to discuss religion with a born again Christian? 99% of the time, all they do is quote the Bible at you. No original thought. No understanding of what they believe. Well, that's Bob and BSA. As for my thoughts on professional scouters, I think that the disease runs much higer than the DE level. Everything that I see is "grow, grow, grow." Why? Money, money, money. K

Bob, you were so intent on mocking me, that you didn't bother to really read what I said. Most people today don't want to do for themselves. To address your smartass remarks, as usual Bob, you miss the point. The question isn't do we not embrace new things, the question is should we abandon old things. Hell, everyone has a GPS today, why bother teaching them to use a compass or find North using a watch? Oh dear, what to do we do when the GPS' batteries die? Heck, we carry them there spiffy stoves, why worry about learning to build a fire? Golly, the stove just quit working?

"It's funny you said that, because that exactly was the problem in my old Troop, the Scoutmaster was a former Cub Leader, and so whenever we'd plan something he'd dumb it down" A big problem that I see today is that parents just don't want to let go of their kids. Why? I don't know. Way back when I was a youngster, we'd head off on our bikes at 8 AM with a couple sandwiches and a bottle of pop and not return until dinner. Now, parents want everything to be supervised. No more adventure for kids. I see the same thing with the Troop that my son is in. On his first camp out two o

"The reason for the uniform change is linked to the social needs of youth at this stage of their development. They want to have ways to display their growth and graduation from one level to another." If today's kids need a different cap every year plus those stupid "Immediate Recognition" kits to feel "good" about themselves, we're in a sad situation. We're raising generations of kids that expect a pat on the back just for showing up for work on time. Next they'll expect

"There are few scouters left that really know their stuff when it comes to edged tools. Our soceity has moved out of it's rural past and left a lot of the knowledge of that world behind. " It's not just Scouters and it isn't limited to edged tools but it seems to be mostly college educated white collar workers that are effected. Today, it is popular to be stupid about mechanical things, as if mechanical knowledge is beneath most people. If you like to work with tools, you are considered a bit strange. I know of many households where their tool kits consist of two screwdrivers, a

"I went to the scoutstuff.com site and the yellow shirt is still available and is not in the discontinued item list. This the first I've heard of a discontinuation." My sources at the local Scout Shop say that it isn't discontinued but Scout Shops are no longer stocking it. Why? They want to encourage women to wear the khaki shirt.

"Hmmm, when I go to that page I get a picture of a Boy Scout hat(baseball cap), not a yellow female Cub Scouter's blouse. Has my browser lost its sense of direction? " That is really strange. Let's try Yellow shirt.

I stumbled on this and found it interesting http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2132993002

In an effort to encourage the boys in my Pack to sell more popcorn, a couple years ago, we decided to give the boys 5% of their gross sales. That worked out to a bit more than 16% of the profit. Alas, the same four boys still sold 75% of the popcorn. Last year, the decision was made to give the boys 10% of the gross if they sold more than $100. Why the bottom limit? The treasurer didn't want to have to keep track of 40 accounts with $4 in them. What happened with the 10% incentive? Once again, four boys sold 75% of the popcorn. Interestingly, the top sellers did most of the

The reason that BSA doesn't want Cub Scouts to design their own neckerchief is MONEY. With well over a million Cub Scouts who are told to buy a new neckerchief and now a new cap every year, that's about $10 million in revenue for products that cost about 10% of that to produce. The longer that I'm with this organization, the more that I see that ideals don't matter at the upper levels, only money does.

I spend most of my life enforcing rules, I'm a baseball umpire and basketball official. At every level of the game, we make decisions about what rules need to be enforced and what rules we need to worry about. If I show up to work a middle school basketball game and one of the players is number 67, I won't worry about it. By rule, it is a technical foul if that player enters the game. At the high school level, we'd enforce the rule. There are plenty of other rules in all sports that are rarely enforced because they add nothing to the game, they are only used to control disruptive

I still say go for it. I used to make custom neckerchiefs for my self and my Cubs. Checkered flags for the boys going the District Pinewood Derby. Stars and Stripes for the holiday parades. Oddly, our Cubmaster who bleeds Scout green and never breaks a rule never said a word. BSA expects us to shell out for new caps (Including those ugly plaid caps) and neckerchiefs every year for Cub Scouts because it increases their coffers but they don't want the boys to do anything that might give them some pride.

"Was your posting an attempt, and I emphasize an attempt, at humor?" Not at all. I am wondering why you named yourself after a paper clip company.

When I was a much younger, thinner and more agile man, I dabbled in the martial arts. Never won any trophies but I had fun and I learned much. I never pursued karate because the idea of getting punched in the head never appealed to me and the non-contact schools didn't make much sense. Why spend your time practicing to NOT hit an opponent because when you needed to shift gears and hit a real attacker, you might not be able to do so. The two martial arts that I liked were aikido and judo. Judo is a grappling art, like wrestling and one of the important things that my instructor tau

someone like Oscar de la Renta would agree to design a Scout uniform will all the flap over homosexuals and BSA.

OGE, like many of the whiners of this world, you can't see differences between similar actions. There is a great difference between bullying and fighting. Bullying doesn't involve fighting and when it does, bullies usually back off because they lack the stomach to risk injury. Boys fight for many reasons, usually unimportant but the process establishes a hierarchy in the crowd. If you had a normal childhood, you would have known that friends fight about all sorts of unimportant things. "You're sitting in my chair." "You're cheating at Monopoly." Non-friends fight overy more impo

I have no solutions but I see it as a symptom of our culture going to hell in a handbasket. Kid's, especially boys, need outlets for anger and agression and that isn't really satisfied by looking for signs of growning anger and thinking about happy things. Up until about 30 years ago, boys fought. Boys rough housed. Boys went on adventures. Boys did exciting things. Now fighting is taboo. Since nearly everyone is in daycare, rough housing is taboo. Adventuring is difficult because everyone is either in daycare or their moms's are paranoid about kidnappers. The kids

"The field uniform looks formal because it is meant for formal occasions." The name "field uniform" implies that it is to be worn in the field. The uniform needs to be re-named.