From <@tcuavm.is.tcu.edu:owner-scouts-l@TCUBVM.IS.TCU.EDU> Fri Apr 3 03:24:24 1998 Return-Path: <@tcuavm.is.tcu.edu:owner-scouts-l@TCUBVM.IS.TCU.EDU> Received: from tcuavm.is.tcu.edu (TCUAVM.IS.TCU.EDU [138.237.128.148]) by cap1.CapAccess.org (8.6.12/8.6.10) with SMTP id DAA20919 for ; Fri, 3 Apr 1998 03:24:24 -0500 Received: from TCUBVM.IS.TCU.EDU by tcuavm.is.tcu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with BSMTP id 7921; Fri, 03 Apr 98 02:16:12 CDT Received: from TCUBVM.IS.TCU.EDU (NJE origin LISTSERV@TCUBVM) by TCUBVM.IS.TCU.EDU (LMail V1.2a/1.8a) with BSMTP id 1353; Fri, 3 Apr 1998 02:11:07 -0500 Received: from TCUBVM.IS.TCU.EDU by TCUBVM.IS.TCU.EDU (LISTSERV release 1.8b) with NJE id 1118 for SCOUTS-L@TCUBVM.IS.TCU.EDU; Fri, 3 Apr 1998 02:09:54 -0500 Received: from TCUBVM (NJE origin SMTP@TCUBVM) by TCUBVM.IS.TCU.EDU (LMail V1.2a/1.8a) with BSMTP id 1116; Fri, 3 Apr 1998 02:00:34 -0500 Received: from ALPHA.IS.TCU.EDU by tcubvm.is.tcu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with TCP; Fri, 03 Apr 98 02:00:17 CDT Received: from mx1.dynasty.net (mx1.dynasty.net) by ALPHA.IS.TCU.EDU (PMDF V5.0-5 #20456) id <01IVEZ3GJ2WG00EA1E@ALPHA.IS.TCU.EDU> for scouts-l@ALPHA.IS.TCU.EDU; Fri, 03 Apr 1998 01:58:37 -0500 (CDT) Received: from jessica ([208.205.50.116]) by mx1.Dynasty.Net (Netscape Mail Server v2.02) with SMTP id AAK155 for ; Fri, 03 Apr 1998 01:58:11 -0600 X-Sender: blkeagle@mail.dynasty.net MIME-version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 1.5.4 (32) Content-type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Message-ID: <1.5.4.32.19980403075835.00aff158@mail.dynasty.net> Date: Fri, 3 Apr 1998 01:58:35 -0600 Reply-To: "settummanque, or blackeagle (Mike Walton)" Sender: Scouts-L Youth Group List From: "settummanque, or blackeagle (Mike Walton)" Subject: Re-Introduction X-To: scouts-l@tcu.edu To: Multiple recipients of list SCOUTS-L Status: RO X-Status: Hi Scouters! As it is customary that those that leave the list for a significant period of time and return to us all "stand up and re-introduce ourselves" to our fellow "virtual Roundtable members", please allow me to briefly (yes, I did say BRIEFLY...more on that in a minute or so!) re-introduce myself to you all. My name is Mike Walton. I am a longtime volunteer Scouter, currently serving as a non-registered Advisory Board member with the Buffalo Trace Council in Evansville, Indiana. I've been Scouting off and on for 30 years, have occupied key positions at the unit, district, local Council, Area, Regional and national levels and have been honored to serve on five different local Councils as an Executive Board member. And Mike Walton is my *real name*, not a made-up one for someone serving with the BSA in an official capacity. I assist Jon (Eidson), "Professor Beaver" (Mike Bowman), and "the MacScouter" (Gary Hendra) with managing our list. It's my quarterly postings and reminders to please let others know where you get all of this great information from and to please don't forget the small rules of the list that many of you know me from. (nah...you know me from "settummanque" (set tum man quay), the blackeagle). I co-own Blackeagle Services of Kentucky, a computer literacy and information management firm in Henderson, Kentucky. I am also an Army officer by trade, currently standing by for deployment orders to Europe and the 7th US Army's 21st Theater Army Area Command. I also serve as Senior Contributing Edtor for this nation's premiere Scouting reflection and informational journal, _Scouter_ Magazine_. I have been blessed with serving as primary leaders in Cub Scouting, Boy Scouting , Exploring, Varsity Scouting , and as Sea Exploring Skipper and Skipper's Mate. I have been also on lay committees within each of the BSA's programs. "So, the man must be single with no family life, right??" Nope. Married, and the proud father of a daughter and two sons. My wife, Jessica (Jessiann) and I are going through those many hoops to adopt a girl so that the family will be completed with two boys and two girls. The name's been picked -- Kailey Ann . A little about my background. I have been extremely blessed (and that's the only way to describe it!) with knowing so many volunteer and professional Scouters while I was growing up on several military installations. Many of those folks have went onward to serve the BSA in key national and regiional volunteer and professional positions as well as to serve as Council Scout Executives all over the nation. Many of these men and women worked alongside me in my pre-professional days and others I have worked for them as a youth leader, as a volunteer or as a military officer detailed to coordinate Scouting programs on two large military installations. I have been a member of Scouts-L since we got started, and have been a member of the online community since 1988. That's how I met Jessi and how we manage to keep things "real" as the kids say, all these years. I can be found, in addition to being here with all of you, on America Online {tm} from time to time as well as within the USENET Newsgroups rec.scouting.* I collect CSPs and some other patches and insignia and can be found on Patch-L, soaking up the experience and discussion there from some of this nation's best collectors and traders of Scouting memorbilia. I'm also an Arrowman and from time to time contribute to discussions on Arrow-L as well. While my days as a unit leader, District/Council leader and Area/Regional committeemember are over and done for the most part, I am a very strong supporter of what Scouting can do and have done for the youth of this nation. While I don't always see eye-to-eye, nose-to-nose with some of the BSA's national and local leadership, I do have a deep appreciation and an even deeper respect for what they do and how they do it for all of us. I am a product of all of what the Boy Scouting program can do: a holder of the Arrow of Light, Eagle Scout and one of the first holders of what is now called the Exploring G.O.L.D. Award. I am the holder of the William T. Hornaday Gold medal, a Heroism Medal, and several religious awards including awards from faiths outside my own General Protestant faith. I also received a merit award from the British Scouting Assocation and a St.Georges Award from one of the German scouting associations. I hold the SeaBadge and am a Wood Badger -- a proud fellow Beaver like Mike Bowman and some others here. I alos hold framed Wood Badge beads as an Exploring leader and a ELI (Exploring Leadership Institute) Gavel. I've served on several Wood Badge staffs, the last one in the fall of 1991, and hold six training awards, three Keys, the Distinguished Commissioner Service Award and the District/Division Award of Merit. I've been honored twice with Council Spurgeon Awards, with the National/Regional/and two local Council Exploring Leadership Awards and with the Bronze Big Horn Award from the East Central Region. I also hold a Scoutmasters' Award of Merit and a Young Service Award lapel pin for my service to rural and low-income Scouting in three states. I also hold the Silver Scouter Award from Eastern Kentucky University. (a lot of stuff on a uniform shirt...and nope, I don't wear it all even though I can!) I'm a Brotherhood member of the Order of the Arrow, and a member of the National Eagle Scout Association.. I'm also a Pershing Rifleman and a member as is my wife, of Alpha Phi Omega, a national service fraternity based on the Scout Oath and Law. I pledged again while my wife was pledging so that I would once again accept the Cardinal Principles as a couple. I am a member of both the Association of the United States Army and the Reserve Officers' Assocation. Finally, to bring all of this to some sort of closure, I'm the author of two books and currently working on the third, illustrating various aspects of life as a Scouter and/or Scout. The first one, "Patches and Pins" almost made it to a publisher. The second, "The Commandments, Those Laws and My Rules", was finished in 1994 and has gained recently its 40th "yellow (rejection) slip. (Writers aren't supposed to be happy about rejection, but when the time comes, it'll be published!). Extracts and chapters from those two books appear here frequently (okay, not so frequently lately, but I've been busy!!) as well as on my website where you can find out more background about me than I have lines to do. Lastly, I love to post and write. Can't you tell?? I try to pretend that I'm not just talking with the folks here that have been in Scouting for years on end and explain some of the details to those that perhaps have just joined us for the great Game of Scouting. Sometimes I don't get the details exactly right, and for that, I apologize in advance. Other times, I'm right on the button. Remember that my comments, opinions and other words are MY words unless I say otherwise, and don't worry, I try hard to make a difference between what the BSA says or explains in their large amount of literature I'm surrounded with this morning --the books, manuals, binders and other materials -- and how I feel about an issue or item. Geezo, it looks like a book, doesn't?? I was going to be brief, and after several "cuts", this is as brief as I can make it. It's great to be back with all of you and to take my logseat and to sit and listen, to comment, to laugh and to cry with all of you here at my "second Scouting home" -- Scouts-L!! Settummanque! (c) 1997 Mike Walton ("no such thing as strong coffee,...") (502) 827-9201 (settummanque, the blackeagle) http://dynasty.net/users/blkeagle 241 Fairview Dr., Henderson, KY 42420-4339 blkeagle@dynasty.net kyblkeagle@aol.com or waltonm@hq.21taacom.army.mil ---- FORWARD in service to youth ----