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Post by fox on Dec 28, 2008 10:24:37 GMT -6
I saw this on the Ten Thousand Fencers Forum. The author is one Pearce Wilson...
Boys' Life is doing a story about our Venturing Crew fencing team. Venturing is the older/coed program of the Boy Scouts of America. Our kids are 14-20 years old.
Boys' Life is published by the Boy Scouts of America and is aimed at boys 8-20 years of age, though most readers are under 16 years of age.
I'm not sure in what issue it will appear. The photographer came to two of our practices and one of our tournaments last month.
Hundreds of thousands, if not millions of boys will see this article.
If there are any coaches or club owners interested in offering an open house to Scouts, I suggest you call your local Boy Scout Council office and let them know you exist. Scout leaders are looking for interesting things for their kids and what could be more interesting to a young boy that sword fighting!
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Post by One Pearce Wilson on Oct 22, 2009 13:53:21 GMT -6
How strange it is for a nobody to find a reference to himself on the internet!
Hey the "Boys' Life" article will be in next month's (November 2009) issue.
I urge fencing clubs to contact your local Boy Scout and Girl Scout offices and offer an open house or some fencing demonstrations.
We really want to see a bunch of new Scout fencers. We held the first annual BSA-Venturing National Fencing Championship last month. We want to have a 2nd annual Scout Championship next September. So get working! We want to be overwhelmed by the numbers of Scout fencers!
Pearce Wilson, Crew 1826, Millstadt Illinois (www.myspace.com/Millstadt_Venture_Crew)
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Post by schlager7 on Jul 25, 2010 10:10:54 GMT -6
I revived this thread after finding an old text available for a free as a pdf download. It is Master-at-Arms Badge for Boy Scouts: How to Gain the Badge, published in 1925 in Glasgow. The blurb reads: " The Boy Scouts long have issued a Master at Arms Badge. In the U.S., the Badge was retired in 1911. In England the badge lives on and can be fulfilled with many great sports such as Target Shooting, Archery, or after-school Asian martial arts. However, to many western martial artists, it lives on as a pale shadow of its former self, consisting all too often of “a note from the boy’s Sensei saying, ‘yes, he attends class regularly’."Ah, but in “the good old days,” when politicians represented the will of the people and the grass was greener, the Master at Arms Badge reflected a more western heritage by requiring skill in any two of Singlestick, Fencing, Boxing, Quarterstaff, Ju Jitsu, Wrestling, or Gymnastics."Anyway... The first page of the text states at the top, "A Scout must attain proficiency in two out of the following subjects : SingleStick, Quarterstaff, Fencing, Boxing, JuJitsu, Gymnastics, and Wrestling." The whole file is only 39 pages. As stated, the download is free and can be had here. I seems an intriguing idea to revive a merit badge that might require fencing.
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nemo
Blademaster
mobilis in mobili
Posts: 729
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Post by nemo on Jul 25, 2010 10:30:02 GMT -6
I believe Davis Jno-Finn was involved in some kind of day-long demo for the Boy Scouts this spring on behalf of BCFA. I want to think I heard it was at Reliant Center, but I could be wrong there.
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kb
Squire
Posts: 261
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Post by kb on Jul 25, 2010 21:05:06 GMT -6
Correct. It was Reliant Center, Scout Fair is held annually. Not that I have detailed knowledge of Davis' activities, just that we were very involved with scouting for years, until that kid of ours took up this weird sport called fencing...
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Post by schlager7 on Aug 29, 2010 11:26:44 GMT -6
Speaking of fencing & the Boy Scouts Fair held a few months back in Houston, I found this vid on YouTube. I doubt even Davis knew this was floating around.
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Jett
Maitre
On the back![ss:Default]
Posts: 112
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Post by Jett on Aug 29, 2010 15:13:15 GMT -6
lol, I didnt even know this existed!
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Post by joevisconti on Jul 12, 2014 12:04:06 GMT -6
It is from 2008, but while searching for something unrelated on merit badges I found the following discussion on a forum called MeritBadge.net. I include just the link since, as with many threads on for a, it runs long to be just copied-&-pasted here. Fencing Merit Badge Discussion
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Post by schlager7 on Jul 12, 2014 12:12:04 GMT -6
A while back I posted some of this on Facebook. The boy scouts, very briefly, had a Master-at-Arms merit badge. I found a wiki with only a bit of info: meritbadge.org/wiki/index.php/Master-at-ArmsBasically, it reads, "The Master-at-Arms badge was one of the original 14 "Badges of Merit" issued by the Boy Scouts of America in 1910 in the temporary "Original edition" of the BSA Handbook. It was not included in the 1911 edition of the Boy Scout handbook." The requirements, according to the wiki were: Master 3 of the following combat skills:
single stick, boxing, ju jitsu, wrestling, quarterstaff fencing. To get a copy of the "official" requirements one fellow on Lulu is marketing a reproduction of the original manual: www.lulu.com/shop/james-brown-son/boy-scouts-master-at-arms-badge/paperback/product-12190315.html"The Boy Scouts long have issued a Master at Arms Badge. In the U.S., the Badge was retired in 1911. In England the badge lives on and can be fulfilled with many great sports such as Target Shooting, Archery, or after-school Asian martial arts. However, to many western martial artists, it lives on as a pale shadow of its former self, consisting all too often of “a note from the boy’s Sensei saying, ‘yes, he attends class regularly’.” "Ah, but in “the good old days,” when politicians represented the will of the people and the grass was greener, the Master at Arms Badge reflected a more western heritage by requiring skill in any two of Singlestick, Fencing, Boxing, Quarterstaff, Ju Jitsu, Wrestling, or Gymnastics. "While myth, as usual, overshadows reality, I was excited to read the post by Robert Reinberger of www.budoforum.net when he made the 1925 English text available in raw scans. I am grateful that he has preserved this text and given me permission to republish."
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Post by schlager7 on Jul 12, 2014 12:35:38 GMT -6
As a final note on the Master-at-Arms merit badge, I found this web site regarding the badge in the UK: scoutingeverywhere.wordpress.com/2012/04/03/master-at-arms-activity-badge/"To gain this badge, Scouts must complete the requirements below: 1. Attend regular training sessions in a chosen activity (fencing, shooting or archery) and demonstrate an improvement in skill. Training should be for at least five sessions. 2. Know the safety rules associated with the activity and demonstrate their use. 3. Take part in the chosen activity at an officially supervised contest and discuss performance with the instructor. Notes Reference must be made to the activity rules in Policy, Organisation and Rules relating to shooting and archery. If you need help designing alternatives to these requirements for those with special needs please contact the Special Needs Office at Gilwell Park."
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Post by greekfire on Jul 12, 2014 13:12:27 GMT -6
The "Handbook for Scout Masters," (copyright 1913 and 1914, carried an extensive bibliography in the back, broken into rather lengthy subgroups. Group II: BOOKS ON MERIT BADGE AND KINDRED SUBJECTS was alphabetized by topics, one of the last being "Play and Games." In that section I did notice they listed Fencing by Edward Breck. Handbook For Scout Masters
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