vumbi

It could be worse timing. And $33 is not bad considering everything. I'm good with it. I think this isn't such a big deal.

Just saw the news that BSA is now accepting members based on the gender they claim on their application. Interesting. Transgender is 'in'.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/us/boy-scouts-reversing-century-old-stance-will-allow-transgender-boys.html?emc=edit_na_20170130&nl=breaking-news&nlid=48592939&ref=headline

I can feel your pain.

Wow, it's almost as if this isn't I&P! (sarcasm)

Can't you guys discuss anything without getting mad at each other?

Back to a more serious tone, we've done this often but never for more than two nights on the road one way for a long trip. You have to know the boys and find hotels that allow a decent capacity per room. It also helps to have some space outside so they can run relay races or something to burn off the energy. A pool is even better. We have a careful 'reading of the riot act' before we enter the rooms and then the SP does an inspection of the rooms once we're packed out. We've never had a problem other than so-and-so snores too loud (oops that's the SM).

On a couple of trips we exploited our CO's affiliates and with sufficient lead time, we arranged 'sleepovers' at churches instead of hotel rooms. Keep in mind that we were not flying but rather were in buses. So far the churches we visited gave us high compliments for the care we took and how polite the boys were (I had to check to make sure they hadn't confused us with someone else, lol). So our experiences are good so far.

Have fun!

It's been around a few years. Qwazse's idea isn't a bad one but after dealing with these adventures in acronyms I'd much prefer something that works with SCREAM. As for topic, I think that if BSA makes a further modification to its program (as it seems wont to do), it would be a relevant topic.

And NJCubScouter, when you consider the foundations of geometry, or Mandelbrot fractals, or really, many other examples where science and art intersect (there was this guy, Leonardo), the relationship will seem much more natural.

Our Eagle guy merely counsels them on what is the usual content of the EBOR and answers any questions the boy has about the process. The EBOR usually takes about 30 minutes or so. Mine was all of about 10 minutes way back when.

Nothing can beat Krispy Kreme. I'll take 'em stale for that matter but if they're still warm....I'm pretty sure there's something in the Bible about them being sinful.

Officer, it came down and was just outside my windows....If it wasn't trying to invade my privacy, what other alternatives might there have been?

I guess I could always try the Dick Cheney defense, lol. I haven't seen one over my property yet...that I wasn't flying. So far so good.

In the spirit of working things out on my own, I actually have used these things a few times to get views that I simply can't get as easily any other way. That said, I always make sure I have permission to use over the property of whoever owns it below. And as for my own property, any of these things flying over my property without my permission will find themselves on the wrong end of a 12 gauge - or maybe tangled in the fishing lines I have strung to keep birds out of certain places.

Take 'em all out of the sky if they are over Vumbi land. Let the owners seek me out for the remains.

MrBob, point taken. He stood out as the only adult in the ceremony and could have handed that job to the SPL. Not many were paying attention by that time. To me it stuck out that the only adult who entered the ceremony was the last person to represent the scouts to the audience. And while I can't say what the impression was by the audience, and I've spoken to the leader before - he's a really nice guy, it wasn't exactly the image that the audience had from watching the boys. I admit that after the long wait, I was applying a critical eye to everything, perhaps not as fairly as I could have.

No one has poisonous snakes. They're venomous.

Correct, they're all edible.

Cambridgeskip, what is required in order to be part of the Commonwealth? Just curious.

Yah, hmmm....

 

One wonders what happened to the "respect wildlife" part of Leave No Trace, eh?

 

I don't reckon it's necessary for everyone to start shoutin' and wavin' when they happen to come across one of our ursine brethren.  Just relax and give the bear some respectful space the way yeh want the bear to relax and give you some respectful space.

 

I'm always amused by da notion of smelly ground monkeys trying to run away from a bear.  Bears are fast.  Faster than smelly ground-monkey children.  Way faster than somewhat overweight ground-monkey adults. 

 

Beavah

Agreed. "Ground monkeys Running" reminds me of 'The Revenant'. In Yellowstone, many years ago, I watched through binoculars as a bear ran 'the 50' faster than any human ever could over really rough terrain. They look big and clumsy, until you see a male threaten the cubs of a female, then you can see why you wouldn't have a prayer.

A 44 mag wouldn't do much to a grizzly. Might kill it eventually, but not before you'd been eviscerated. I'm not sure it would even be of much use for a black bear for that matter, the times I've been charged there was no way I could have gotten off an accurate shot.

Yah, that's creative, eh?

 

Are yeh really lookin' for a "rule" on this, @@Hedgehog?  Good heavens, why?

 

Scoutin' is a kids game, and this is a classic youth leader choice.  I bet da use of pirate headscarfs in your troop will be more "uniform" than da use of the uniform.     It will bring a sense of identity and teamwork that's exactly what we want to encourage, particularly at camp.  It will be fun.  It will make your troop stand out for its spirit.  Your kids will talk about it for years.

 

I'd let it be.  It will be good fun for awhile, and good scouting.  I reckon I'd actually join in and figure out what to bring to help the lads lash up some piratical camp gadgets.

 

Or, if for some reason yeh really don't think it's a good idea or fits da image the Scoutmaster/Committee/CO wants, then just say "no".   You don't need a "rule" to act like an adult.  Yeh just do it.  The boys will respect yeh a lot more if you stand on your own two feet and don't try to hide behind some remote BSA regulation.

 

In that case though, given da camp theme, I reckon yeh need to put on your "fun" hat and be ready with an alternative.  Maybe old school USN caps from da era of the Barbary Pirate Wars.   Your troop could be da anti-piracy navy at the Pirate Camp, with a mission to win every contest/battle against all da other "pirate" troops!

 

Beavah

Agree with Beavah, why on earth would you even worry about something like this...things must be pretty good if this can cause some anxiety.

JoeBob, those neckerchiefs are worthless as bandanas. That's one reason we make our own neckers, large enough to actually do something useful (like first aid, etc.). We've never been 'tut, tut'ed' by anyone for it, at least not to my face.

This old thread seemed good enough. I just finished a great evening of music and other activities, capped by the usual fireworks. The symphony played a great mix of patriotic music, ended with the 1812 Overture with canons startling people and making them spill their beer, lol.

At the intermission a local BSA troop gave a flag retirement on stage. The usual intermission is 15 minutes and they were supposed to do it in that time frame. But the retirement ceremonies I've observed at these things just keep getting longer and longer. It's as if people feel the need to make it more and more elaborate, maybe try to outdo the previous ones. Anyway, we sat and watched them cut the flag into pieces, with a slowly and reverently-spoken explanation for each step. There were just enough pieces for each member of the ENTIRE troop to have a piece. And THEN, the SPL and ASPL took turns explaining and quoting passages from various documents as each piece was slowly added to a small fire in one of those metal 'fire pit' things. It dragged on to the better part of 40 minutes and lots of people were giving up and leaving without finishing the concert. There were probably 6 or 7 thousand in the audience and they had come, in some cases, from other states for this. Anyway, it turns out that the flag that they used was some kind of synthetic fabric so instead of burning the way cotton would have, it produced huge amounts of black smelly smoke as it melted and burned in a molten puddle at the bottom of the 'pit'.

I know the 'code' for this and I know that while they didn't break the code, they sure took their sweet time in completing the process...capped by the SM waddling across the stage with the 'union', displaying a rather (ahem) unflattering profile.

Can we do better than this? Do we have to make this kind of thing into a spectacle rather than a simple respectful retirement?

I stayed to the end and the remainder of the concert was great.

I think Stosh is right about this. Diapers have been the subject of net energy analysis since the early 1970s and the result has remained pretty much the same. Cloth diapers have the edge over disposables with one exception: if you're drying the cloth diapers with an electric dryer (not gas, not a clothesline) in that case disposables have the edge over cloth.

We used cloth exclusively and I understand this result. The major energy cost is the energy necessary to evaporate (dry) those clean, but wet, cloth diapers. If using the sun, there's no contest: cloth wins hands down. Even if using a gas dryer cloth has a marginal edge over disposables. But if you use an electric dryer the advantage shifts.

We used a clothes line and sometimes a gas dryer.

Stosh, one day? That's pretty good. Took us a lot longer.

Once in a while I do some digging and strike gold. Take a look at this old thread:

http://scouter.com/index.php/topic/20442-unclean-leader/?hl=hygiene&do=findComment&comment=124703

Sound familiar to anyone? It isn't exactly the same but the offending body parts sure are. Hilarious!

I've heard of them, never tried 'em though. I'll enjoy learning who likes them and why.

Wow, 12 pages and I read the whole thing to see what it was all about and now I'm just...tired. I think Beavah has it about right, SSF. You've already made the decision for all practical purposes. Go ahead and pull the trigger on it. It will be for the best of all involved.

Heaven forbid that something this natural has to be viewed as somehow shameful.

I think Qwazse is right about the tax implications. I wouldn't worry about paying for it myself if the trip is less than, say, 100 miles. However for the big trips, the cost needs to be included in the budget.

In case there is any interest, here is a nice paper on the dichromatic nature of spectral sensitivity in deer:

http://www.neitzvision.com/content/publications/1994-jacobs-electrophys_of_white-tailed_deer-jcompphys.pdf

One rule of thumb for nature is that if an animal has bright colors, there is a good chance that their species has color vision. If they are drab, they usually don't. This is not a strict rule because spectral sensitivity is highly variable but as the paper notes, most ungulates are similar.

Primates are unusual in our spectral sensitivity because most mammals don't see what we see. That said, strictly speaking, color doesn't actually exist. It is just a perception, the way we sense different wavelengths.

The troop was from Atlanta, camping in Tennessee. Draw your own conclusions.

We were on a troop outing in Tennessee. By chance there was another troop doing a similar outing and we were camped within an easy walk from one to the other. So after the first day, another adult leader and I dropped over to the other troop to say hello. It was a Muslim troop.

They were the quietest, best-behaved troop I've ever seen and and the boys took scouting very seriously from what I could see. At first the leaders acted as if we were going to interrogate them or something but when it was clear that we just wanted exchange greetings and friendship they opened up and welcomed us.

As we talked it became clear that they had experienced negative comments before, not only from members of the public but also from other scouters. I told them that I was saddened that not all 'scouters' actually live up to the Scout Oath and Law. I reassured them that not all of us are bigoted and they said, yes, they know. But you can't know for sure by just knowing the other person is a scouter. I couldn't disagree.

I wished them well. Never heard from them again.