yaworski

I was looking through our SPL's Handbook today, it is the last version, one of the ones with some real content but that isn't the issue here. Right there in the book is a photo of Scouts in their red polo shirts saluting. I think that it was on page 5 but I'm not sure.

"The 'dress uniform' according to the Insignia Guide 2002-2004 page 47, is a blazer with scout tie or for females the scarf, worn with white shirt or blouse. It is normally only worn by professionals."

One should say, "it is usually only worn by professionals." To say "normally" implies that a volunteer wearing the dress uniform is abnormal. The Insignia Guide says nothing about professionals or volunteers wearing the uniform, only that it exists for Scouters.

Never mind.(This message has been edited by yaworski)

By rule (that's the referee in me speaking) the committee does not include the SM or any ASMs, only those who registered at Committee Members or Committee Chair. However, reality is often different.

My troop had an amorphous committee for a long time, anyone who showed up for the meeting could vote. Then someone pointed out that most of those who showed up had an ax to grind so that changed. Now we have a policy that all Scouters registered to our troop may vote, including the SM and all ASMs.

From what I've heard, many troops around here operate in the same fashion, if for no other reason than it is difficult to find people to sit on the committee.

Why are you shouting?

"YOU HAVE TO BE ON THE TEAM TO GET THE LETER AND THAN THE WHOLE TEAM GETS A LETTER IF YOU OR GOOD OR NOT."

No. There are criteria for earning a varsity letter in all but the most PC schools. Playing time, meets attended, etc.

"IN THE SECERT ORGINIZAITON OF OA AND THE ABOVE EXAMPLE THE SCOUT THAT IS THE BEST SCOUT IS EXCLUDED AND ONLY THE SELECT FEW GET IN!"

Who is to say that he is the best scout? His peers don't think so. Are we to take the word of his mommy?

"REMEMBER CHANGE IS GOOD!"

Hitler said the same thing.

I'm sure that much of the information is in the Cycling merit badge pamphlet but if it isn't you probably want to go to a good bike shop and ask. Avoid the super stores like Performance Bikes and the like. Small independent shops are usually staffed by more experienced folks.

Off the top of my head, you need

water, plan for a place to refill along the route

spare inner tube

tire levers to replace inner tube

patch kit in case spare tube also gets a leak

tire pump

simple tool kit

energy snacks (I like Snickers, not high tech but yummy)

sun screen

communications devices -- cell phone and two way radios

first aid kit

medications as needed

lunch

Also make sure everyone's bike is tuned up before going. A half century is no place to discover an out-of-true wheel.

The experience and condition of the riders will determine how long this jaunt will take. With kids you might keep an average of 10 mph, depending on the terrain.(This message has been edited by yaworski)

So there was the milk group, meat group, and oleo group? Must have been during the time that they were trying hard to push margarine as a butter substitute.

"Four basic food groups? Do kids know what that is? I thought everyone was on board with the food pyramid these days."

The food pyramid is basically the same thing except that they seem to have broken out "fruits and vegatables" into "fruits" and "vegatables" which doesn't make a lot of sense since there isn't much or anything that you can get from one that you can't get from the other.

I do have a feeling that the food pyramid will come crumbling down in a few years. It is heavily grain oriented and now carbohydrates are coming under fire.

"Being excluded from a group is never easy, and while it may have to be accepted as a part of growing up, that doesnt mean I have to like it."

It isn't something to like or dislike, it is something that simply is, similar to the nitrogen in the air that you breathe.

With the exception of the politically correct clubs in public schools, virtually all groups are exclusionary to some extent. Does it bother you that you can't take communion at an Orthodox church (assuming that you aren't Orthodox)? Does it bother you that you can't use the Congressional parking area at Dulles (I used to use it until they started cracking down on enforcement :-( ) What about the letterman's club in high school? The football team? It's not just a part of growing up, it is part of life.

"Some times all get in, sometimes a few dont. Its tough to explain to the gawky socially arkward kid that makes every outing and has scouiting skills galore that he isnt in the OA but a charismatic scout who just qualifies is."

We had an OA election right after I joined my troop. The person running it said that the Scouts should vote for those that they'd want to have along on a camping trip. Well, maybe they don't want the gawky, awkward kid along on camping trips.

Camping skills alone aren't enough to make others want to be with you. You have to be able to tell a story, laugh at jokes, etc..

OGE, your problem is that, by your own admission, ou were the fat kid with zits that everyone picked on so you believe that everyone should be included in everything. I was the skinny, smart kid with glasses and I worked hard at learning how to behave around other youngsters. What jokes are stupid, what other kids probably don't care about (the alloy used to make pennies is a good example), how to avoid driving off girls are all skills that the dorky among us have to learn.

If a kid wants to belong to a group, he needs to learn to fit in with that group.

I don't have the handbook in front of me but I recall that one of the requirements for 1st Class is to serve as patrol cook for a campout, planning the menu, cost breakout, etc.

In my troop the prevailing belief is that means that if Scouts do this as a group -- plan the menu together, one guy cook breakfast, one guy lunch, etc., this counts.

I read it as meaning each scout has to do the whole job himself from beginning to end, planning and cooking. Of course, someone else gets to clean up since that isn't the cook's job.

What is the general interpretation of this requirement?

"If one kid earns a lot of belt loops at one time, I just give a summary of what he earned "Bobby has been busy and earned a lot of belt loops including bicycling, chess, swimming and bunch more!" No need to list 10 things, they get the point, the boy earned some stuff. "

Years ago, our pack made a policy of awarding no more than two belt loops to any boy at any pack meeting with two exceptions. Any number earned during the Summer would be awarded in September and if the Den Leader fouled up and forgot to submit a boy this month, he could get all of them next month.

Why? Because we noticed that many boys and Den Leaders were concentrating on belt loops and not advancement. Come May, we'd have all these belt loop kings who hadn't made rank with a sudden flurry of activity in the last month.

"Oops, I meant 2nd & 3rd grade Cubs. Just read later last night that Akela is the leader for Wolves and Baloo is the leader for Bears.

That's news to me. How's that fit in with "A Cub Scout follows Akela"? Also, wolves have leaders but bears don't so really makes little sense but it is cute and BSA is working really hard on being cute.

"A lot of the new literature refers to Cubs as 2nd & 3rd graders ONLY and Webelos as a different "thing". "

BSA and parents are working very hard to divorce the Webelos phase of the program from the term "Cub Scout." Different uniform, different rank patch, plaid cap.

The PTA-like organization LETS you meet in the school?!? When did the PTA (or a clone) get the power to grant permission to use a publicly owned building?

That said, our CO is a local chapter of the Izzak Walton League (hunting, fishing, conservation society). They let us use their club house, fishing ponds and some other facilities and they give us money every year. We do things for them like provide labor for their spring clean-up day.

Even though they aren't active in picking SMs or committee members, it sounds like we have a good deal.

"Ok, I'm going to look stupid here. My son just joined Webelos last week and I was one when they first started 35 years ago. I know that Akela is a/the leader and relates to the Jungle Book. Having seen the disney film when I was a kid, I know who Baloo is. But who or what the heck is Baloo in Webelos? I've yet to hear the term at the meetings I've attended or seen it in my son's Webelos book."

To be pedantic, your son joined "Cub Scouts" and is a "Webelos Cub Scout" although most seem to snip the "Cub" right out of there.

Bob may be right but Baloo seems to be a traditional designation for the Assistant Cubmaster. BSA sells a "Baloo" hat pin that I believe predates the BALOO training by more than a few years.

You might consider that the Assistant Webelos Den leader is Baloo. Now we need to determine who is Baghera (sp?) :-)

"Webelos don't really talk about Akela and Baloo from the Jungle book. It is different than 2nd & 3rd grade Webelos."

2nd and 3rd Grade Webelos? I thought that Webelos Cub Scouts were in the 4th and 5th grades. :-)

"I am willing to assume that the federal government has the legal power to impose personal income taxes. The courts have ruled on this more than once."

Duh! Of course they rule this way, any other way would be cutting their throats because they dip out of the same tax pot as everyone else.

I don't know what the big thing is about sewing. I learned to sew patches on as a Cub Scout (back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth).

For me, the most difficult thing is getting the patches in position. Measure, pin, measure, re-pin. Once it is in place, it takes me about five minutes to sew a patch onto a uniform.

I suppose the problem for most is that since"home ec" is no longer required, mom's haven't learned to sew and most men think that sewing is beneath them. Just like men used to think that typing was a "girl's class."

I've been thinking about running a sewing clinic for my troop.

Sctmom,

We have many choices in life. This is one of them. If you can't find a troop to your liking, you have to decide if your son live with one of the existing troops. You need to decide if you want to work to make the troop run the way that it is supposed to.

My son's troop is going through a major reconstruction. I weighed in to fight the dark side. :-) A new Scoutmaster and a number of parents who have gone through all the training have decided that we no longer want that Troop to run like a Cub Scout pack.

Backs are being bitten. Names are being called. But we will prevail and have a boy run troop in a couple years.

"My first memory of Boy Scouts in action was a local news clip showing Boy Scouts helping sand-bag a levy after a hurricane in S. Texas. I was a Cub and couldn't wait to do some real hero stuff to help out. Do Scouts do this anymore??"

There was a Boy Scout troop from my area that went to the Pentagon to help out last September. They didn't hoist rocks or beams but passed out water. Still they were there when most were just glued to CNN.

Let's not forget the ASM/Volunteer fireman-EMT who happened to be in the area when the planes hit the WTC. He simply went, pitched in to help, and paid with his life. Now that's living by the Scout Law!

Maybe there is something to be fixed in Chicagoland but we aren't in any position to fix anything except by donating a few bucks to a "fix-it fund" for the camp.

From my vantage point, it seems that the Chicago area is "under scouted." I looked at their web site and saw that they have 50,000 youth members in seven districts. Someone mentioned that the population of the Chicago area is about 8 million.

Here in the DC area, we have a population of about half that of Chicagoland with 75,000 scouts and 24,000 Scouters. My county started out as one district years ago, was spit into three about ten years ago and is now being split into six. We have over three hundred units in my county alone.

In NCAC we have quite the variety of types of units. We have units in the ghetto, we have units of rich kids, we have Korean Baptist units, we have LDS units.

What are we doing that's right? I don't know. We have the same trouble anyone has in recruiting volunteers. But we keep growing. Maybe our DEs work harder. Maybe people are just more Scout friendly around here.

It seems that today we either have parents that ignore their kids or ones that are too involved. There has to be a balance in there somewhere.

As for the matching equipment, that happens because Betty gets upset if Junior gets a sleeping bag that is perceived to be "better." Dad gets upset if Betty gets one that is "better" so to keep peace, Mom just buys identical bags so no one can complain.

I love to sing but the problem is that I can't carry a tune. However, I have no problem singing with gusto as part of a group. If compelled, I will sing solo but the audience will usually tell me to shut up. :-)

It takes a bit for an adult to get into the spirit of skits and singing unless they are a ham like I am. I love to sing and perform, I'm just no good at it. You need a Pontius Pilate, I'm your guy. Someone to do "Who's on first?" call me. Heck, I even played Yorick once.

"Why ARE the males so defensive about being without females around? Why do you fel you have to escape the females? "

Why do women like to have "a girls' night out"? Why are there fitness clubs for women where men aren't welcome? Men and women are different. Pretty simple idea, no? We like different things, we think differently, we act differently.

For tens of thousands of years, each sex has been allowed to do things by themselves and everyone was happy. Now, suddenly, women want to be everywhere that men want to be. Why?

Had a stereotypical mom on a campout this weekend. I had to threaten to tie her to a tree before she'd leave the scouts alone.

Let's see . . . what was I gonna say? Oh yeah, wear the uniform.

Take advantage of the goodwill that Scouting has built up around the world. You'll probably meet a few ex-scouts or current scouters while you're at it. Only once did the uniform not help in a situation (a Civil War museum wouldn't let us in to use the john unless we paid the $5 admission charge each)

Wear the uniform when doing approved fundraising as well. The uniform is what separates the boys from all the other kids in the neighborhood. I think that Scouts have always worn the uniform while fundraising, I know that I did in 1965.

I haven't seen a backlash against Scouting in my area (DC). In fact, every couple years we have a big Scout gathering on the Mall and I've never seen a homosexual protester there and we have more than our share of homosexuals.

There are ways to find uniforms without paying through the nose. Uniform exchanges have been suggested. I know that some charter organizations in poor areas buy their kids' uniforms. Another option is for the kids to go to Kohl's or the local surplus store and buy some OD trousers. However, whatever the kids wear, they need to have pride in it.