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Chippewa29

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Everything posted by Chippewa29

  1. As a Scout: Arrow of Light, Eagle (no palms), Vigil Honor (before I made Eagle); was APL, PL (twice), ASPL (three times), SPL (twice); also did a stint as troop librarian; in OA, served as chapter and lodge officer for five years, Section Vice Chief for one Currently: SM of my home troop the past four years after 8 years as ASM and two as committee chair.
  2. I'm fortunate that we get a lot of adults that like to come on campouts with us. We are often able to have at least 6- to 8-deep leadership. My concern is when parents that come on campouts bring their other kids to stay overnight with us. One dad has a six year old son that has been on several campouts already. He is a nice kid (in some ways he's more ready for Scouts than some of our 11 year olds), but I have two concerns. The first is that the kid doesn't stay with his dad the whole time. Often, he tries to follow the scouts and will sometimes wander off in the woods exploring by hims
  3. I currently own a 1981 Southwest Michigan Council patch made for the National Jamboree that year. It is shaped like a shield and has Snap, Crackle, and Pop on it dressed as Revolutionary War Fife and Drummers. It also has Copyright 1981 Kellogg Company (the council has Kellogg's in its borders) on it. From what I was told, the council had to pay Kellogg's a fee for every one of these patches produced. I think it is pretty valuable and would like to see where I could get it appraised (I'm divesting my collection). Does anyone have any suggestions on where I could get a fair appraisal of it
  4. I just got a call from the dad in my troop who was making the reservations for our September backpacking trip. Apparently, the support staff at council lost our reservation to go backpacking that was made in June and now someone else has been booked in our spot. Long story short, we are now scrambling trying to find another backpacking trail to hike on next month. I've been searching the net for the past hour trying to find other hiking trails in Michigan or northern Ohio. I've already tried all the council sites, but they haven't been helpful. Does anyone know of a book or website th
  5. I came to the forum to post a new thread, but I'll just tack onto this one. It is along the same lines. Last night at our committee meeting, a couple of parents were complaining about the kids needing to wear a uniform, especially during the summer. One of the dads said that when he went to training last year, they talked about how the required parts of the uniform were the shirt, socks, hat, and belt. To me, that went against everything I had heard for years. Could someone please post a link to an official site (BSA Supply Division, etc.) that gives the official definition of what a
  6. I like the idea about actually recruiting volunteers instead of just asking for them. About two years ago, we had some upset parents because certain things weren't happening in the troop. When I got brought to task before the troop committee, I told them I was doing about six jobs in the troop at the time and I needed help. The only one who would step forward to be an ASM was probably the last dad I wanted to do so. He has been a pain at times, but with the help of our unit commissioner, we managed to find a role for him that would minimize his weaknesses and play up to his strengths.
  7. When my troop's new youth leaders takes office soon, I'd like to have a half-day training session for them to explain how the PLC works, how their individual jobs work, and build some teamwork among the leaders in the troop. Does anyone have a training similar to that they've used for their troops?
  8. My troop used to have the same problem. It was a couple of adults doing pretty much everything. Our former SM always whined and moaned about no one ever helped him. However, he was a control freak and everything was his way or the highway. He also had done a ton of training (basically, everything our council offered) and made himself seem like the end-all, know-all of Scouting. Parents in the troop were put off by two things. The first was that they wouldn't have a say in the troop, but were merely there to do what the SM said. They also felt like they would have to put in tons of hours
  9. Most of the kids in my troop don't have nicknames (other than shorted versions of their real names). However, at one time when I was a Scout, we had four of us (out of twelve Scouts) with the same first name. They had to nickname all of us to tell us apart. Even though the other guys with my name left over the years, my nickname persisted until I was well into college. Occasionally, someone from the old days will stop by and refer to me by my old nickname. This past week at camp, I refered to three of our 13 year olds as Athos, Porthos, and Arimus. When I told them those were the nam
  10. As we are all aware, in order to get First Class, a Scout needs to attend ten activities outside of troop meetings, including a certain number of overnight camping trips. My troop camps about ten times a year and the other two months, we'll do a day long activity. A Scout that is active should be able to make First Class in a year. In preparation for our backpacking trip in September, we are holding weekly prep hikes (about 1 1/2-2 hours each). The purpose is for the Scouts to get some miles under their belts before taking on a long trip. We'll end up doing 7-8 of these hikes before t
  11. Growing up, I always wanted to be a Navy officer. After a mishap on the paperwork, my application for a NROTC scholarship wasn't processed (it wasn't discovered until it was too late). I enrolled in Navy ROTC anyway (no scholarship) and was still on my way. When the Navy started to cut back after the first Gulf War, they got rid of all of us that didn't have scholarships. Any other year, I would have been able to continue in the program. With that dream gone, I started looking toward other areas. I worked and coached at a high school for ten years (recently left) and am now focusing
  12. Next weekend, my troop is going white water rafting for the second time. We had a great time last year and I'm looking forward to going again this year. However, I have a few reservations. 1. We have only 9 out of 22 Scouts in the troop going. Also, there are no Scouts going unless their parents are going. It seems to me that if you have less than 50% of the eligible Scouts going on an outing, then the troop needs to re-evaluate that activity (we picked the date back in January and everyone was aware). 2. The dad coordinating the event decided that instead of cooking in camp, every
  13. Back to the original subject, I also saw the picture and was very impressed. If I were closer to DC, I would have liked to do the same thing with my troop. That picture would look incredible if painted by Norman Rockwell or Joe Csatari.
  14. I've coached endurance athletes for years and would like to offer a couple of cents worth of experience. First of all, Jim Fixx, who wrote the book on running in the 1970's, died of a heart attack at the age of 54. He was the first male in his family history to live beyond the age of 44. A year or two ago, I saw an interview with his son, who claims that shortly before his death, his father commented about how his running had added ten years to his life (to that point). If Jim Fixx had not been a runner, he probably would have died in his early- to mid-40's like his ancestors. As far
  15. I know that Scouting is very popular in Utah. A big reason is that the LDS church is very strong there and Scouting is the official youth program of the LDS church.
  16. I got a new FieldBook for my troop about two weeks ago and it still hasn't made it into the troop library because I've been reading it. I'm very impressed with it. I think its added a lot of higher level information that you didn't find in the past. It got me all fired up about going on some adventures this year.
  17. FOG- Excellent ideas. I've never come across any handbooks in used book stores, but it is definitely worth a try. I'll have them check at the Salvation Army stores and other thrift stores nearby.
  18. An old friend is currently working to build a Scout group (Cubs and Boy Scouts) at his church in the inner city. Most of the kids come from single family homes. They are obviously low on money. The kids are trying to learning Scouting without the use of handbooks, uniforms, etc. My troop donated some old camping equipment to get them started. They are trying to help the kids families come up with uniforms, but cost is obviously an issue. We've looked on Ebay, but it doesn't help a whole lot (especially once you add in shipping). Does anyone know of some places where we might be able
  19. I'd like to know what the official policy and some opinions on traveling in uniform to and from events. I feel that the Scouts should wear the uniform when traveling. For campouts, I like the Scouts to wear their uniforms for meals, but they can change into "grubby clothes" for activities. Any thoughts or suggestions?
  20. In regards to whomever said that the pants, socks, etc. should just be something similar from any store, this is what I've seen over the years. Instead of official Scout pants, Scout A buys a pair of green pants that look very similar to the BSA pants. Scout B buys a pair of pants that are a kind of green/tan color. Scout C buys a pair of pants that are tan. Scout D buys a pair of the jean-type khakis. Scout E buys a nice pair of blue jeans. Scout F wears jeans that are torn with holes in the knees. I've heard all the arguments. My current pair of Scout pants was bought in 1996. S
  21. We are starting to get more leaders among the Scouts and I am getting more expendible (one of my goals). Our SPL was out of town this week, so he asked two of our older Scouts (one 13, one 14) to teach the guys in the troop about cold weather camping (we are going two weekends from now). Instead of just winging it, these two went online to get information. Then, they spent two hours preparing notes and dividing up the information so they could tag team teach it. When we got to the meeting, they split up the two patrols and each worked with one, then after 15 minutes, switched to the other.
  22. My troop is getting 2-4 Scouts crossing over from a pack where we've never gotten Scouts before, but have recruited off and on for years. We have a troop in our area that usually gets 30+ Webelos crossing over from 6-8 different packs. The other five troops in the same area have to fight for the other 7-8 packs. The Webelos from this pack usually go to the mega-troop. We're also getting a couple of Webelos from another pack that has fed into us in the past. Their Webelos leader is friends with another SM and wanted the kids to go to that troop, but after coming to our troop meeting, a cou
  23. Over the holidays, I cleaned out my closets and found many years worth of Boys Life and Scouting Magazines. They aren't old enough to get any money from them on Ebay, so I decided to donate them as a resource for the Scouts in the troop. The troop librarian is organizing them. I wanted to see how I could get an index of what is in the magazines over the years. Does anyone know how I could access something like that without going through and copying the table of contents of each magazine? Thanks in advance for your help.
  24. I became an ASM when I was 18, and since most of the guys in the troop were shortly before my fellow Scouts, they called me by my first name. As new kids joined the troop, it just never changed. A few of the kids now call me Mr. First Name, but I'm still at least 7-8 years younger than any parent (and 20+ years younger than several of the older parents). Since I'm single and childless, I often seem younger than I am. I always address the other adults in conversation by their first name, but refer to them when speaking to the Scouts by Mr. or Mrs. Smith. One bonus of my age being between t
  25. Another suggestion for your BOR is to wear your leather dress shoes and make sure they are shined beforehand. If the buckle on your Scout belt doesn't look like new, then get some brass cleaner and shine it up. If you do get your shirt cleaned and pressed, ask them to do a military press on it. My best advice for you would be to relax and try to enjoy it. If you've made it this far, then you're probably pretty well qualified. If you weren't, your SM probably would have worked with you to take the necessary and make sure you were qualified.
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