{"id":2450,"date":"2019-05-07T11:36:15","date_gmt":"2019-05-07T15:36:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/?p=2450"},"modified":"2019-05-07T11:36:15","modified_gmt":"2019-05-07T15:36:15","slug":"issue-598-may-7-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/2019\/05\/issue-598-may-7-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Issue 598 \u2013 May 7, 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

________________________________________
\nHi Andy,<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our troop has logo T-shirts that both our Scouts and our adult volunteers wear. And, for a parallel troop for girls that we\u2019re starting up, we\u2019re now ordering T-shirts for the girls, in a female cut. Okay so far, but then, in preparation for a fund-raising car wash, the mothers on our troop committee asked for tank tops for our female adults. We\u2019re in Florida, so it does get pretty hot here, possibly warranting these, but I\u2019ve never seen any Scout or Scouter wearing a tank top for Scouting events, except maybe going to and from the waterfront.<\/strong><\/p>\n

So is it okay for adults to wear a tank top with the troop logo? (I\u2019ve seen woman tie up or roll up T-shirt sleeves, but I\u2019ve never seen a tank top with a Scout logo.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m on the fence about how I feel about this. I do know I am against it for members of our girl-only troop, but what about for female adult volunteers (for either troop, I suppose)? (Chuck Spence, SM, Gulf Coast Council, FL)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Good question and your reluctance is absolutely warranted.<\/p>\n

Most Scouting units have two “uniforms.” Pages 20-21 of the SCOUT HANDBOOK show and describe these. First, we have a \u201cfield uniform\u201d (often, although mistakenly, called the “Class A” uniform) that includes the official BSA uniform shirt for males (there\u2019s one for females now, too). The second is called the \u201cactivity uniform\u201d (aka “Class B”), which replaces the official uniform shirt with a T-shirt (all else\u2014BSA belt, pants or shorts, and socks\u2014remains the same as the field uniform).<\/p>\n

If you check all other photos and illustrations of Scouting youth and adults in the handbooks for boys and for girls, as well as all training materials for adult volunteers, you\u2019ll find no tank tops. This makes it plain that tank tops are not<\/em> part of any Scouting \u201cwardrobe.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the car wash fund-raiser, I\u2019d make sure that all Scouts and<\/em> all adults\u2014registered or not\u2014are wearing identical troop T-shirts.<\/p>\n

And one further thought… It’s the Scouts who should be running the car wash, including washing the cars! The adults present decidedly don\u2019t<\/em> work alongside the Scouts\u2014they’re in the background only, to provide safety oversight, and that’s it. (Baden-Powell: \u201cNever do for a Scout what he can do for himself.\u201d)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Finally: One of the coolest T-shirts I ever saw was designed by a Scout crew for their Philmont trek. They had two T-shirts: One for “out-bound” and one for “home-bound,” with this slogan, “We’re headed home, clearer and copious-er!”<\/em>
\n=========
\nHi Andy,<\/strong><\/p>\n

The BSA has recently made their \u201cScoutbook\u201d website (www.scoutbook.com) free to all units and individuals. But some parents, and Scout leaders too, think this is a replacement for the SCOUT HANDBOOK, and are holding back on getting actual handbooks for the sons and their daughters.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our viewpoint as direct leaders is that Scouts should make use of the hundreds of pages in their handbooks that are informational and instructive, but often they just focus only on the dozen pages in the back that record their advancement sign-offs. This isn\u2019t want we want them to be using their handbooks for!<\/strong><\/p>\n

As an Assistant Scoutmaster and also Advancement Chair for our district, I\u2019m trying to find some best practices to guide troops on the use of Scoutbook without having it become more than it\u2019s intended for. (I\u2019m aware of at least one troop in our district that\u2019s dropped the use of handbooks altogether and are teaching from other materials, while keeping records using Scoutbook. I’ve discouraged this, but their Scoutmaster continues to think it’s a great idea and supports his troop\u2019s move away from the handbook.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m concerned that other troops will start adopting Scoutbook to the exclusion of handbooks, for several factors: It\u2019s officially BSA-branded, it\u2019s free, it\u2019s current with digital technology, it\u2019s an easy record-keeping tool, and it syncs individual and unit advancement records to council records.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In my home troop, handling this is easy. We simply tell all Scouts and their parents to go get a handbook, period. But as District Advancement Chair, I’m struggling to help guide units on best practices for combining the use of handbooks and Scoutbook for record-keeping. So I\u2019m hoping that you and your many readers might have some great best practice ideas to make positive integrated use of both tools.<\/strong><\/p>\n

My email address is kleinds@gmail.com<\/span>. Thanks! (Dave Klein, ASM, DAC)<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Scoutbook” is an excellent record-keeping method for rank advancement, but in no way is it a replacement for the Scout Handbook! Even the www.scoutbook.com website says this, right on the home page!<\/p>\n

A Scout’s handbook is his manual for learning, and for ultimately teaching what he’s learned to other Scouts. Except for the less than 20 pages devoted to paper-based record-keeping (same as Scoutbook), the remainder of handbook’s over 400 pages contain absolutely vital information on patrol and troop life, leadership, and Scoutcraft skills: Fitness, First Aid, Swimming, Nature, Outdoor Ethics, Hiking, Camping, Navigation, Woods Tools, and Personal Safety.<\/p>\n

This handbook is so valuable that, so the long-told story goes, World War II military pilots and aviators in the Pacific Theater carried these three personal items with them: A knife, the Bible, and the SCOUT HANDBOOK!<\/p>\n

I was a Scout myself, over 60 years ago. I still have my original handbook and wouldn’t part with it for all the tea in China!<\/p>\n

You can share this conversation with any Scout parent in your troop, to whom I’d say this: The most valuable Scouting gift you could ever give your son or daughter is a brand-new SCOUT HANDBOOK.<\/p>\n

Okay Readers \u2013 It\u2019s your turn! If you have some hints or guidance for Dave, please write directly to him at kleinds@gmail.com<\/span><\/strong> and be sure to copy me, so I can publish your ideas!
\n==========
\nDear Andy,<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been trying to find out more about an award I was told I\u2019d received back in 2009 at Camp Victory-Baghdad, where I was deployed in 2008-2009, and where I had joined a group of other military personnel with Scouting backgrounds. It\u2019s called the Iraqi Scouting Service Award. Unfortunately I was redeployment to northern Iraq before I was informed of this, and contact was lost. Can you help? (Gary W, Schubert II, US Army Veteran, Eagle \u201996, ASM, Circle Ten Council, TX)<\/strong><\/p>\n

First, for my Readers, a bit of background… Scouting had been a part of the Iraqi culture as far back as the 1920’s but was abolished in the 1980’s by the then-ruler (read: dictator) of that nation, Saddam Hussein. Fast-forward to Baghdad 2008 and “Operation Iraqi Freedom.” Shortly after the capture and conversion of Saddam Hussein’s palace in Baghdad, a small, then fast-growing, group of military personnel and military employees with Scouting experience from the US and other Scouting-rich countries volunteered to work alongside the new Iraq Ministry of Education & Youth Affairs to restore the pre-1980’s Iraqi Scouting Association, first by rebuilding Baghdad’s national training center and then, with boots-on-the-ground in their free time, restore Scouting for the street children of Baghdad. This became the unofficial “Green Zone Council.” Shortly following this, the “Victory Base Council” was also formed, again by military volunteers, to introduce Scouting to the children of the area. These initiatives were and\u2014now more than a decade later\u2014remain successful. Scouting has been restored to a country much in need of the movement’s values after some three decades of oppression, thanks to dedicated volunteers in the service of Scouting and Freedom. To honor individuals’ exceptional service to these initiatives, both “councils” award the “Kashafa-Iraqi Scouting Service Award.”<\/p>\n

There are several online citations available, but I’m going to bet that your best resource will be John Green, a military man himself and a recipient of the Kashafa Award. I’ve included the most current email address I have for John here. Last we were in touch, he was a US Army Captain stationed at Ft. Bragg, in Fayetteville, NC.<\/p>\n

I hope this is helpful, and please accept my personal thanks for your own service to Freedom and Scouting!<\/p>\n

Happy Scouting!<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Andy<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Have a question? Facing a dilemma? Wondering where to find a BSA policy or guideline? Write to askandybsa@yahoo.com. Please include your name and council. (If you\u2019d prefer to be anonymous, if published, let me know and that\u2019s what we\u2019ll do.)<\/strong><\/p>\n

[No. 598 \u2013 5\/7\/2019 \u2013 Copyright \u00a9 Andy McCommish 2019]<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

________________________________________ Hi Andy, Our troop has logo T-shirts that both our Scouts and our adult volunteers wear. And, for a parallel troop for girls that we\u2019re starting up, we\u2019re now ordering T-shirts for the girls, in a female cut. Okay so far, but then, in preparation for a fund-raising car wash, the mothers on our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2450"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2454,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450\/revisions\/2454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}