UNIT VISITATION TRACKING SYSTEM v.2 Training Video

Good news!

Both a new, geared to Unit Commissioners, UVTS v.2 training video and the new Council Commissioners Manual have been posted to MyScouting for all to enjoy.

The video can be found at the bottom of the page at http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/Commissioners/UnitVisitTrackingSystem.aspx.

The manual is top left, first on the list of linked pages.

Let me know if you have trouble finding them.

Debbie Walther to Get Beaded

Please join me for my

Wood Badge Beading Ceremony

Date: Monday, June 21, 2010

Location: Zion Lutheran Church

615 Main Street, Cobleskill

Time: 7:00 pm

Please join us as we celebrate a Court of Honor for Troop 5, Cobleskill. The Beading Ceremony will be at the end of the Court of Honor. Refreshments will be provided following the ceremony.

_________________________________________________________________

Directions from Albany: I-88 West to Cobleskill, exit 22. Turn right at bottom of off-ramp and take a left at the light onto Route 7 West. Zion Lutheran Church is located at 615 Main Street. It will be on the right and across from the Cobleskill Fire Department. The Court of Honor will be held in the basement, the entrance is on the left of the main staircase at ground level.

Directions from Oneonta: I-88 East to Cobleskill, exit 21. Turn right at top of off-ramp, and then turn right onto Route 7 East. Zion Lutheran Church is located at 615 Main Street. It will be on the left and across from the Cobleskill Fire Department. The Court of Honor will be held in the basement, the entrance is on the left of the main staircase at ground level.

Please call me, Debbie Walther, if you have any questions at

518-234-4152. I hope to see you there.

And Good Ol' Beavers, too!

This 2008 handout photo courtesy of the Wood Buffalo National Park in Northern Alberta shows the world's biggest beaver dam. A Canadian ecologist has discovered the world's biggest beaver dam in a remote area of northern Alberta, using satellite imagery and Google Earth.


Lou Leopold, District Committee Member, Camarillo District, Ventura County Council, who usta be a Beaver himself in W4-57-99, steered us onto a Canadian news report about the "World's Biggest Beaver Dam," proving once again that even old and feeble Beavers can still Beaver some more... The Yahoo News reports that Canadian ecologist Jean Thie has discovered the world's largest beaver dam in a remote area of northern Alberta, an animal-made structure so large it is visible from space. He used satellite imagery and Google Earth software to locate the dam, which is about 2,800 feet long on the southern edge of Wood Buffalo National Park. Read more at:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100505/sc_afp/canadascienceenvironmentanimalbeaver.

Multi-generational (for the beavers, that is) in the making, this dam project has gotta be the world's longest-running Wood Badge ticket, too!

NE-3-188 Application for Training Recognition

Attention All NE-3-188 Badgers:

Below is a link for the Application for Training Recognition for all NE-3-188 participants working on their Tickets and for their counselors. When a participant has completed their ticket, please mail this form with the appropriate signatures to the Otschodela Council attn: Trey Miller at PO Box 1356, Oneonta, NY 13820 to schedule their ticket presentation. If you have questions about tickets or need help contact the following WB staffers: in Revolutionary Trails Council, please contact Bud Dorr for assistance in Twin Rivers Council, please contact Bill MacDonald, for assistance and in Otschodela Council, please contact Randy Gibbon. Thank you all for your help and have a great day!

Trey Miller...
Senior District Executive

BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA
Otschodela Council, BSA
PO Box 1356 Oneonta, NY 13820
607-432-6491
ralph.miller@scouting.org

Frappings of Life Minute

Required:	2 poles 1 rope for lashing a senior scout and a new scout
Preparation:	Tell the senior scout that you are going to ask him to use a square lashing to hold to poles together so he is prepared.
Script:	I've asked [Eagle] and [Tenderfoot] to help me out for a minute. [Eagle] would you please start a square lashing on these poles? Now, those wrappings look very good to me. They hold the poles close together and lay them out in the right shape. I'm sure they'll hold the poles together just fine. But, stop for a second [Eagle]. [Tenderfoot] would you please wiggle those poles and see how tight the lashing is? Hmmm, the sure have a lot of loose play in them - not as good as they could be. [Eagle], go ahead and add the frapping turns. I was satisfied with the wrapping turns, but this extra effort of adding the frapping is making a difference. The entire lashing is getting tighter, stronger, and more secure. [Tenderfoot], now give those poles a wiggle and see how they hold. Not bad! That extra effort made a much better result. Some of the newer scouts may have thought the lashing was done after the wrapping turns and it was 'good enough'. But, whether in lashing or in life, don't forget the Frapping - that little extra effort that makes what you do the best you can make it. -From the Boy Scout Trail website, http://www.boyscouttrail.com

Baden-Powell's Farewell Message to All Scouts

Baden-Powell prepared a farewell message to all Scouts to be published after his death.

To All Scouts Everywhere---

Dear Scouts - if you have ever seen the play 'Peter Pan' you will remember how the pirate chief was always making his dying speech because he was afraid that possible, when the time came for him to die, he might not have time to get it off his chest. It is much the same with me, and so, although I am not at this moment dying, I shall be doing so one of these days and I want to send you a parting word of goodbye.

Remember, it is the last time you will ever hear from me, so think it over. I have had a most happy life and I want each one of you to have a happy life too.

I believe that God put us in this jolly world to be happy and enjoy life. Happiness does not come from being rich, nor merely being successful in your career, nor by self-indulgence. One step towards happiness is to make yourself healthy and strong while you are a boy, so that you can be useful and so you can enjoy life when you are a man.

Nature study will show you how full of beautiful and wonderful things God has made the world for you to enjoy. Be contented with what you have got and make the best of it. Look on the bright side of things instead of the gloomy one.

But the real way to get happiness is by giving out happiness to other people. Try and leave this world a little better than you found it and when your turn comes to die, you can die happy in feeling that at any rate you have not wasted your time but have done your best. 'Be Prepared' in this way, to live happy and to die happy - stick to your Scout Promise always - even after you have ceased to be a boy - and God help you to do it.

Your friend,
Baden-Powell

Joe Jansen's Campfire Essentials

Since good campfire building skills training has seemingly all but sputtered out in the 21st Century Wood Badge program, the WB Scribbler feels compelled to blog this list of campfire essentials from Scout-Ler Joe Janson. In this centennial year of "New Scouting," we still believe knowing how to build campfires is basic to a good Scout program. Some basic fires are well known. It is less well known that there are essentially an unlimited number of kinds of fires which have a wide range of purposes.

Here's a link with good information to some campfires:

http://www.paddling.net/guidelines/showArticle.html?191

Covered are the teepee fire, the pyramid or platform fire, the parallel fire, the star or Indian fire, and the reflector fire.

Wikipedia has an excellent article on campfires here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campfire

Still other fires are described here:

http://www.campfiredude.com/campfire-lays.shtml

Image results for "campfire types" will be found here:

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&oq=&q=campfire+types&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=qkpqS4yyEsrT8Qbx7aiwBw&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CBgQsAQwAw

Videos about building campfires appear here:

www.ehow.com and www.youtube.com

Further information on fire types is available here:

http://www.scoutscan.com/campfire.html#L4

A superb resource for fire types, prepared by our own Rick Seymour, is here:

http://www.inquiry.net/OUTDOOR/skills/b-p/wb/fires.htm

There is also great information on the burning qualities of various kinds of wood.

I will mention that coal, where available, is superb for adding to a wood fire for cooking, as coal has a higher heat content than wood. I start wood fires in my furnace every winter and add a small amount of coal to generate more heat.

A site with good illustrations of fire types is available here:

http://www.angelfire.com/ia3/camping/campfire.htm#typesoffires

Another site with information on fire types is here:

http://camping.lovetoknow.com/Types_of_Campfires

and here:

http://mysite.verizon.net/hjlichtman/Resources/ArtOfCampfire/types_of_campfires.htm

Good tips on Dutch Oven cooking are available here:

http://www.free-camping-recipes.com/dutch-oven-campfire-cooking.html

and here:

http://papadutch.home.comcast.net/~papadutch/dutch-oven-cooking-tips.htm

A very good resource to getting information on campfire building from Scouting related publications is available here:

http://meritbadge.org/wiki/index.php/Campfire_Types#Campfire_Types

This barely scratches the surface of what's available. Every Scout patrol should have a deck of cards which reviews the kinds of Scout campfires that will be useful in various situations for easy review. Cards prepared should be coated or laminated so they will hold up in the out of doors. Additionally, they may be put inside a plastic baggy to protect against moisture.

Every real Boy Scout troop will be expert in firebuilding. The links suggested above are a good start to developing this expertise. In addition there are many many other sites on the Internet that provide additional information. Enter "campfire types" in Google and you will see there are thousands of links returned.

--Joe Jansen

Oh, the magic of the campfire!

"Oh, the magic of the campfire! No unkind feeling long withstands its glow. For men to meet at the same campfire is to come closer, to have better understanding of each other, and to lay the foundations of lasting friendship. "He and I camped together once!" is enough to explain all cordiality between the men most wide apart, and Woodcraft days are days of memories happy, bright and lifelong."

--Two Little Savages, Ernest Thompson Seton, Doubleday, 1903

The Wood Badge Root Beer Song

Rick Seymour, a frequent poster on Scouts-L, recently passed along the words, with fair warning to young readers, to The Root Beer Song, as found in a new Wood Badge PowerPoint: Teaching the Edge. The PowerPoint is available at: http://www.nylt-ysdc.org/edge.ppt.

"The Root Beer Song"

Dough – The stuff that buys my root beer
Ray – The guy that pours my root beer
Me – The guy that drinks my root beer
Fa – a long way to the john
So – Let’s have another root beer
La – A lotta lotta root beer
Tea – No thanks, I’m having root beer
And that leaves me with no dough, dough, dough, dough (repeat)

"We've had CEOs on our board say they want to send their people to Wood Badge, our adult leader training program, because we use state-of-the-art techniques (Chief Scout Executive Robert Mazzuca).

The WB Scribbler adds this news item to the blogsite without comment, though he is sorely tempted.