---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 26 Mar 1999 15:17:28 -0500 From: Cody Armstrong <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Duane Wheeler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Howdy Howdy Jen and Duane, I posted a short message in the RR NG earlier this week but my ISP is having a terrible time with usenet so I don't know if my message ever got out there. I was trying to let folks know that I've started doing some RR artwork which people may use freely for RR purposes. I've only done a few pix for starters, just to see if this sort of thing is of any use or interest to people. I haven't had any feedback from any RRs but some BSA people have emailed me so what I did was convert the Buckaroo pictures into BSA Cubs so the folks in BSA would have versions of the images to use :-). Of course, I did leave the original Buckaroo versions of the images online too. I looked through the Rangernet archives to see if anyone had asked about RR clipart, artwork or images in the past months or however long that archive goes back, but I didn't find any results using those searches so I have the feeling RR theme images may not be as sought after as Scouting images are by the people in BSA. If you think RR people would like some images to use, or if not, please let me know so I can either work on some more for y'all or yank those pages. As you can see, I'm still in Canada and so I'm still not an official RR, but I like to join in the fun and chip in my small bit when I can! Scouts Canada has gone down the tubes in a bad way up here. There has been some awful restructuring and new policies which take the program out of the hands of the youth and people running the groups and places it in the hands of a massive group of overpaid staff people who aren't much interested in practicing and Scouting Spirit. The money that kids are expected to raise, which is being wasted on an out of touch clique of staff has become obscene. Something like 20 million dollars a year...and we only have a hundred thousand or so kids in Scouting nowdays! Membership numbers are dropping at a rate of 10% per year but the staff, expenses and waste are increasing. There is panic in the upper paid ranks to solidify their control over Scouting (job security), and the paying members are leaving in droves! I left Scouts Canada about 6 months ago and have joined "BP-Scouts Association of Canada". This is an independant Scouting group which is based on the traditional Scouting program. There are no paid staff at any level and groups, youth and leaders are the ones in charge of their own programs. We might not have RR up here but if a BPSAC group wanted to affiliate (be sponsored by) with an AG style church and run an RR style program....I suppose this is the closest way we can get to RR right now. Anyway, I have taken a very active interest in helping BPSAC. Their phylosophy and fair play is right up my ally. As of right now I'm an Assistant Provincial Commissioner for Ontario.:-) I may become involved in PR as well. I've also helped BPSAC with some aspects of it's youngest section "Polar Bears" which is equal to BSA Tiger Cubs or Straight Arrows. BPSAC had wanted to create a section called "Beavers", but Scouts Canada uses that name so they threatened to sue us! Ironically, the Beaver Motto is "Sharing Sharing Sharing". Scouts Canada will have non of that with us! Hypocrites! I'm glad to be outta there. The birth of BPSAC in Canada right now may be similar to the birth of RR in the US, or in other countries which have adopted RR. As I've become involved in BPSAC, I have been thinking of you guys a lot, and trying to learn from your model. It is an exciting time up here, to do something new, good and worthy in Scouting, something that has been diminishing in Scouts Canada steadily for so many years. I imagine the folks trying to get BPSAC off the ground right now are filled with the same hope, vision and passion as Johnny Barnes was 30 years ago too. It's a great feeling. Well Duane and Jen, that's the news from up here. I hope things are still going great for you as well. I'd like to ask if you might do me a favour. Can you please forward this message, or any part of it you like to the list? I'd like to let folks know about the RR paintings I'm doing, and hopefully get a response so I can learn whether or not it is a useful thing to be doing. If you don't really want to forward this message for me, or if you don't think it is a helpful thing to post there, no problem. I figger you'd know best about this. Thanks dudes!, Cdr Cody [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.codyak.net PS Duane, good luck with your mower. The grass isn't growing here yet but in a couple months I'll wish I had a mower exactly like yours :-) _______ To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe rangernet" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Eat the hay & spit out the sticks!" RTKB&G4JC! Autoresponder: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://rangernet.org
