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Issue #5 - JULY 22, 1999
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FROM THE WEBMASTER
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Hi fellow Scouts and Scouters!
It is really a delight to know that 1500 of you have signed up to receive our electronic newsletter. And for those who have been waiting wondering why such a long time between newsletters, I offer my apologies. We will continue to try to do better at keeping in touch.
In the past few months we have been hard at work adding content to both the http://usscouts.org and http://clipart.usscouts.org websites. Some recent additions include:
------HISTORY OF SCOUTING HONOR SOCIETIES
Ever wonder about Scouting it is early years? In the days before the Order of the Arrow was a National Scouting Honor Society, almost every camp experimented with honor society programs designed to recognize honor campers to encourage them to return for the next summer. There were literally dozens of these organizations across the country. Some of the early ones really took hold and spread across many Councils. This hisorty was almost lost, but thanks to Dave Eby, Paul Meyers, and contributors like Bill Topkis, we now have a very large index to these early honor organizations complete with scans of some of the early patches these societies used. Please stop by and have a look at: http://usscouts.org/honorsociety/honorscout.html
------EAGLE SCOUT CONGRATULATORY LETTERS
We've updated the listing of people who are willing to write Eagle Congratulatory letters at http://usscouts.org/eagle/eaglecongrats.html and have added many new links to more resource information related to Eagle Scouts at http://usscouts.org/eagle/. Mike Walton offers the following advice for requesting an Eagle Scout Congratulatory Letter:
When sending notes to people asking for letters of commendation, please include:
Your son's FULL NAME (not just "Sparky" or "Jimmy" but "Samuel James Jackson" or "James Ray Morrison")
Your son's TROOP NUMBER AND COUNCIL NAME (the Troop number is that white number on the red background on his left shoulder; the Council; the Council
name appears on that patch right above it)
and A SHORT DESCRIPTION of the Eagle Scout Service Project.
Many people writing a letter to acknoweldge an Eagle Scout would also like to know how the person earned the badge. This gives them more than just a "congraduations, Johnny, on your achievement" line and also can allow the letter to be a bit more personalized than boilerplate letters.
------BOY SCOUTING
Try these new features:
http://usscouts.org/boyscout/jwlaw.html Boy Scout Law as Interpreted by John Wayne
http://usscouts.org/netresources/lead.html JLTC & Leadership Links
http://usscouts.org/boyscout/TROOPORG.gif Junior Leadership Organization Chart
http://usscouts.org/boyscout/TROOPORG.rtf Junior Leadership Organization
http://usscouts.org/boyscout/leadershipskills.html Leadership - 11 Skills of Leadership
http://usscouts.org/boyscout/mbcounselorform.doc Merit Badge Counselor Form
http://usscouts.org/boyscout/Patrolbadges.pdf Patrol Badges
and last but not least stop by http://usscouts.org/advance/
-----CUB SCOUTING
Baloo's Bugle is your first stop for the most recent in program and themeideas for Cub Scouting at http://usscouts.org/bbugle/index.html
We now have material online supporting both the August and September themes!Try these new features:Advancement Tracking Spreadsheets by Richard Diesslin http://usscouts.org/cubscouts/WOLF.exe Wolf Excel 97 (Self-Extracting ZipFile)
http://usscouts.org/cubscouts/WOLFq.exe Wolf QuattroPro 8.0(Self-ExtractingZip File)
http://usscouts.org/cubscouts/BEAR.exe Bear Excel 97(Self-Extracting ZipFile)
http://usscouts.org/cubscouts/BEARq.exe Bear QuattroPro 8.0(Self-ExtractingZip File)
http://usscouts.org/cubscouts/WEBELOS.exe Webelos Excel 97(Self-ExtractingZip File)
http://usscouts.org/cubscouts/WEBELOSq.exe Webelos QuattroPro 8.0(Self-Extracting Zip File)
http://usscouts.org/cubscouts/e.exe All Ranks Excel 97 (Self-Extracting ZipFile)
http://usscouts.org/cubscouts/q.exe All Ranks QuattroPro 8.0(Self-Extracting Zip File)
http://usscouts.org/cubscouts/jsn.html Join Scouting Night (School Night forScouting)
http://usscouts.org/cubscouts/bobcat1.pdf National Says No To Upside Down Bobcat Ceremonies
http://usscouts.org/cubscouts/planning.html Planning for Success
----VENTURING
Although we want to do much more to develop this area, please stop byhttp://usscouts.org/venture.html to see the latest offerings at USSSP.
-----WEB LINKS
Our collection of links to Scouting related websites is now growing at therate of 30 to 50 a week. In the past few months we have added over 1000 newlinks. The total number of links is probably around 5000 to 6000.
----NATIONAL JAMBOREE 2001
Visit the Official BSA page athttp://www.bsa.scouting.org/jamboree/index.html to see what the JamboreePatches will look like.
-----JOIN SCOUTING NIGHT
We've been adding resources on Join Scouting Night athttp://usscouts.org/cubscouts/jsn.html and though some of the material isfrom previous years, it still has a lot of good ideas.
-----HONOR BADEN-POWELL
If you haven't already received one of the many e-mails floating around thenet on this subject, please take a minute to read further. Time, Inc. has awebsite where you can vote for the person you think should be the Person ofthe Century. Please take a minute and go tohttp://cgi.pathfinder.com/time/time100/poc/century.html and cast a vote forBaden-Powell. I just have to think that a man who influenced 500 millionyoung people to develop better character deserves mention more than AdolphHitler, who is now running 3rd in the list right behind Elvis Presley.
-----PERSONAL DATA ASSISTANTS
Own a PDA? We have a growing collection of programs and files that you canuse on a Palm Pilot and other PDAs. Stop by http://usscouts.org/palm/ tosee the latest. You can even load up files for each of the 11 skills ofleadership, an advancement tracking program, or an old fashioned Sun Compassprogram.
-----A WORD ABOUT SAFETY ON THE NET
In the past few months too many Scouters have learned the hard way thate-mail attachments can be dangerous transmitters of hostile or maliciousprograms. In most cases a simple e-mail in plain text cannot transmit amalicious program. If you enable html or word in your mailer, code embedded in a message can be activated when you open a mail. Here are some tips about safe Internet practices: 1. If you receive unexpected e-mail from a source that is unknown to youdon't feel compelled to open the e-mail - it may be safer just to delete it.
2. If an e-mail has an attachment, think before you open the attachment. Yes, it is true that most attachments are legitimate and it is one of the wonders of e-mail, but there are some attachments that contain maliciouscode. If you aren't sure about the source, weren't expecting the attachment, or it doesn't look or feel right, just hit the delete key. Alot of Scouters were sharing a file called happy99.exe that displayed fireworks. Turned out that the real fireworks were in the hostile program that it installed on their computers, which then used their e-mail addressbooks to send out mail. (You can learn more about this one athttp://www.symantec.com/region/uk/avcenter/venc/happy99_worm.html)
3. If you surf the net, make sure you have a good anti-virus programinstalled and that you update this program on a regular basis. If you arestill using the anti-virus program that came with your computer, the chances are good that it is out of date and does not offer you very much protection.Most good anti-virus software companies offer an update feature that allowsyou to update your software every two weeks or so. This is really important because each week hundreds of new virus programs seem to show up on the net. Again - Use an anti-virus program and update it regularly. If you have anolder anti-virus program, visit the website for the anti-virus vendor andfind out how to get updated.
4. If you have decided to use one of the new high-speed connection services like DSL or a Cable Modem, you need to think about installing your ownpersonal firewall for your computer. When you have DSL, you normally areassigned a static IP address that is much easier to hack than a randomlyassigned address like when you sign on via AOL or some other service. This static address can be a hacker target. Personal firewall software program scan be downloaded from the web for about $50 and up. If you are using aCable Modem, webreview.com advises that you should be aware that thesemodems work like a telephone party line. You and your neighbors share acommon connection. If one of those neighbors is a bad guy or if a bad guyhas installed a packet sniffer on one your neighbor's machines, that bad guymay be able to eavesdrop on traffic intercepting login passwords, email, andother information. You can find out more about this at http://webtechniques.com under the August 1999 issue. Their recommendation is to install a personal firewall and they have several that they think cando the trick.
5. Backup you files from time to time. If you do get attacked by amalicious program that really damages your computer, it is a lot easier toreconstruct things, if you have a backup of critical files. If you areusing Windows, you should make sure that you also have an emergency startupdisk.
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THANKS FOR SUBSCRIBING
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MEMBERS ONLY PAGE
As a member don't forget to stop by a special page devoted to you at http://usscouts.org/membersonly.html. Past issues of this E-Newsletter are also available from this page. I am afraid that I've fallen behind here, but will be updating this page soon. Thanks for being one of our 1500 subscribers and allowing us to share ourexcitement with you.
CAMP-CARDS (Electronic Postcards)
Stop by our new electronic greeting card area called Camp-Cards athttp://usscouts.org/cards.html and send a Camp-Card to a friend. We have over 40 Scouting images to choosefrom.
