text:
If you want to really get to know a new bow well, or perhaps just learn more about the influence a given part of the modern recurve/Olympic bow has on the system then you might consider following the example of the military.
Most will know that the typical soldier is taught to completely dismantle and then properly reassemble a weapon, so often that they will dream about it and even do it blindfolded. NOT suggesting anything quite so drastic for you or your archer, but as a coach you should do what I am about to suggest. Once you have done it you may see the value in having your students do this, particularly those that are showing promise of becoming dedicated to the sport. As I well know, the coach does not get to be there at the most important matches and it is coach's duty to prepare the archer for those moments. Knowing the bow and ALL of the components and how/why/when to change them effectively is crucial to reaching the top step.
Start with: riser, limbs, served bowstring, arrow rest properly attached relative to the thickness of the arrow shafts, arrow shafts with nocks/points(no fletching), clicker if you will use one, and plunger.
Set the plunger to have no give, using Rick Stonebraker's matchstick method, or else if it is a Beiter you can probably just tighten the spring down till it doesn't move. We want raw influence, no "buffering" by the spring that might lessen visual evidence. Set the depth of the plunger to the skinny/shallow side, where it is just barely touching the side of the arrow shaft. Set the brace height to a middle-of-the-mfr-spec, and set the tiller to zero. Put the nocking point(s) to zero with a bow square. These settings are going to wrong to some degree (we want that!), and you are going to set them right by shooting bare shafts (only) close enough to the bale to not miss it, but far enough away to allow the arrows to be in the air as long as possible. You will want to pay attention to the symptoms, that is the way the arrows fly. Minnowing up and down, porpoising left and right, wobbling because of excessive weakness, flailing because of a grossly high angle of attack from a really wrong nocking point, skewing due to the hugely wrong centershot, are the clues you want to see, and ultimately eliminate on your way to perfection.
Also you want to note the angle of the arrow in the target. It will be off perpendicular, but with tuning you can make it less of an angle, and if you play your cards right, they will look just like fletching arrows! With X10 arrows, the barreling causes enough aerodynamic influences that even at 70 meters an elite archer will find his way to the gold routinely, regardless of whether there are vanes on the shafts.
Let's start with the premise, that a perfect tune for the archer's technique will result in the energy from the bow pushing through the center mass of the arrow completely, yes, well, "perfectly". When it does that, it is a joy to witness, a knowledge of perfection for a brief moment. The feeling every archer strives for, "YEAH, I did that…". When a bare shaft arrow porpoises, when it fish-tails, flails about, energy is being lost because it was injected off-center. So tuning is bringing the elements to balance, to harmony, to reduce the energy wasted outside of the center axis of the arrow. "Tuned", the arrow behaves like a dart, and its flight is a beautiful thing of purity to behold.
SO! With the plunger "off" and the tension on the spring 100% so it doesn't give, the center shot off, the arrow will minnow left/right. With the nocking point wrong, the arrow shaft will porpoise, up and down. Fix the nocking point first because it is simplest. For this exercise, use a tied-on floss nock, with sufficient tension so it can be rotated/screwed up and down the serving but stay set between shots. Shoot, adjust, shoot, till the arrow no longer porpoises up and down, or at least, does so as little as possible.
Next, change the center shot gradually by moving the plunger deeper into the riser and pushing the arrow further from the riser. As with the nocking point, you are learning the impact on the flight of the arrow this device has. And as the minnowing decreases you know you are getting closer to the better center shot setting. As it re-increases you know you have probably passed that point.
Through all of this you must decide each shot whether your release messed with the arrow too much and caused an energy diversion, or whether your release was as good as the tune at that point. Do you see truth or artifact? When you minimize minnowing, you might re-visit the nocking point position.
I was taught by the greatest coach I have ever met that tuning is like kneading dough. Adjusting the nocking point in the right direction is like pushing a ball of dough down, which makes it (the arrow pattern) squeeze wider. So you adjust the plunger, squeezing the ball taller, more vertical (the arrow pattern). Working in the right direction you gradually end up with a round ball of dough (the arrow pattern) that is smaller than when you began. The size of the ball at the end depends also on the spine of the shaft – a just-right spine's doughball will be smaller than that of an arrow with too weak of a spine. You ask about the too-stiff spine? It will be smaller still but only when the release is perfectly consistent. A too-stiff arrow will likely be unforgiving of an inconsistent release. And once you have fletchings on the arrow, a too-weak spine will be more at risk for hitting the bow particularly with inconsistent releases. A slower release – stiff fingers – magnifies the flexing of the arrow, all other things being equal, resembling a weaker shaft – "dynamic" flexing.
Once honed to the best bare-shaft arrow behavior, the perfect plunger depth/center shot, the ideal nocking point (for that brace height/tiller), it's time to start weakening the totally stiff plunger to find the best arrow flight again.
React to the arrow flight, the angle in the target, and the pattern of impact points on the target face. Remember that you will need to make smaller adjustments – for example, you may find that moving the nocking point by a single serving thread diameter yields a profoundly better tweak to the group!
Remember that fletchings serve to average out the imperfections – in the arrow shaft. The point weight/forward-of-center. The tune. The release. The wind. By causing the arrow to rotate through 360 degrees continually, the vanes reduce the flaws. They were critical when arrows were wood and vanes were feathers. As long as the device loosing the arrow is human fingers, there will be imperfections that vanes can mitigate.
SO that begs the question, in a perfectly tuned compound bow shooting with no winds, why are vanes useful? Well, a compound bow needs tuning as well. I suspect that due to the built-in accuracy associated with a bowstring in tracks with a string-guide, with a magnified sight with a level, and yes, with a defined wall and a mechanical release, most compounders never learn to micro-tune and are unknowingly relying on the vanes to mitigate subtle flaws in the tune.
Doing the things I suggest will result in a much better awareness/knowledge of the bow, the arrow, and the relationship the archer has to both. It may even result in better scores.


text:
LEGO Shop Home Categories Books BrickJournal #27
BrickJournal #27
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Explore 84 color pages all about the creations, techniques and secrets of the best LEGO® fan builders in the world: Iron Builders!
Learn from the best of the best builders in BrickJournal #27!
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text:
Testimony :: P. Terrence Hopmann
Professor and Research Director - Brown University
Mr. Chairman and Distinguished Members of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe:
I am honored to be here to testify before you today about the performance and potential of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in the fields of conflict prevention and resolution. The tragic events of September 11 have reminded all of us of how fragile our security is and of how interdependent we are in this world - security issues originating anywhere on this planet can have a direct impact on our daily lives. This is true of the OSCE region, where the new security threats emanating from non-state actors and terrorist networks have been manifest for some time, especially in the Caucasus and Central Asia and even within the Russian Federation, and where the events of last month will continue to resonate far into the future.
Since the end of the Cold War, a major focus of the OSCE has been on the prevention and resolution of local and regional conflicts to avert their escalation and global diffusion. Yet this important role that is performed routinely by the OSCE and its missions and field activities has gone largely unnoticed in governments and especially in the general public, not only in the United States but in much of Europe as well. We are all painfully aware of the failures of conflict prevention in the former communist regions of Southeastern Europe and Eurasia. Names like Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Chechnya - previously known only to regional specialists - have become household words and appear in our media almost daily. Yet successful conflict prevention receives virtually no attention since, by definition, "nothing happens" - and we all know that "nothing" rarely makes the news or excites the attention of most policy-makers and public officials.
Therefore, when the "dogs don't bark" - when a potential conflict does not erupt into violence or when an old conflict remains dormant for many years - we may easily overlook the fact that this may be due to skillful and foresighted diplomatic initiatives taken outside of the view of the general public. In fact, I would submit that patient, but often overlooked preventive diplomacy by OSCE missions and field operations has often made a significant contribution to the avoidance of violence in a number of potentially dangerous situations in the OSCE region, and that other conflicts have been moderated or prevented from escalating further due to the rapid, but often unseen work of these OSCE officials.
If I may draw an analogy with the field of medicine, the principle that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" has long been accepted by our colleagues in the health field. The United States government and private sources devote billions of dollars every year to research on preventive medicine, because we know that the best way to deal with the most deadly killers of our population such as cancer and heart disease is by preventing their occurrence in the first place. Unfortunately, this simple truism has not yet been widely implemented in the field of foreign policy. To cite one obvious example, in the current fiscal year the US assessment for all activities of the OSCE amounts to about $20 million. Yet we are spending more than that amount every two days to support the US military commitment to SFOR in Bosnia-Herzegovina and KFOR in Kosovo. In this instance, an ounce of prevention is equivalent to more than "ten pounds of cure."
Imagine how much we might have saved if we had only devoted more resources, attention, and effort to conflict prevention before the conflicts in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo exploded into violence! Imagine how much we might save if we redoubled our efforts to find a political solution to the current crisis in Macedonia before widespread violence breaks out! This is not just a matter of saving budgetary resources, however important that is, nor of avoiding politically difficult choices about deploying US troops in yet one more overseas operation, placing our soldiers once again in harms way, although that too is an important consideration. But it is mostly about preventing the tragic consequences of war for the innocent people who are its inevitable victims. Before the NATO-led deployments took place in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, thousands of citizens of these regions lost their lives; physical infrastructure, homes, farms, schools, and factories were destroyed; the bare rudiments of social connections across different ethnic groups were severed; and the human spirit of the peoples surviving in all of these regions was crushed by the violence that swept across their societies.
Rebuilding from the physical damage of war is the easy part; re-establishing mutual trust among peoples who have lived alongside one another for centuries, and who must inevitably continue to do so for the foreseeable future, will be far more difficult. Yet this is essential if the foundations of a functioning civil society are to be constructed, if individual human rights and the rights of persons belonging to minorities are to be respected, and if democratic governance and political stability are to be established. For all of these reasons, one clear lesson that emerges from our recent experience in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo is that it is a lot harder to "put Humpty Dumpty back together again" than it would have been to prevent him from falling off the wall in the first place.
A quotation found at the Franklin D. Roosevelt memorial here in Washington states the goal of the OSCE succinctly: "More than an end to war, we want an end to the beginnings of all wars." This is the principal challenge that faces the OSCE today. Furthermore, there is no other multilateral institution or individual country that can perform this vital role today. Even before the end of the Cold War, Europe was crisscrossed with a wide variety of multilateral security institutions. Since 1990, most of these have revised and expanded their functions, and the web of institutions has become even thicker: NATO has been enlarged and transformed, and the European Union has expanded and adopted a "common foreign and security policy."
Yet within this region only the OSCE – in particular the Conflict Prevention Center with its missions and field activities as well as the High Commissioner on National Minorities - has a clear mandate, organizational structure, and significant acquired experience in the field of conflict management. When combined with the "human dimension" that infuses all of the OSCE's work, this conflict prevention capacity constitutes the special contribution that only the OSCE brings to the European security "architecture." This is an especially important function that needs to be nurtured and strengthened with the active support of the OSCE's largest, wealthiest, and most powerful participating states, especially the United States.
In the written statement that I have provided the committee, I have attempted to highlight the many functions that the OSCE performs in the conflict prevention and resolution field on a daily basis. It has achieved numerous successes: most notably, I argue that the OSCE played a decisive role in preventing a potential outbreak of violence involving Russia and Ukraine over Crimea that could have affected vital U.S. interests. On the other hand, violence has broken out in places such as Chechnya, Kosovo, and most recently in Macedonia that the OSCE was powerless to prevent, but where OSCE missions are working to try to re-establish the essential conditions for peace. My overall assessment, therefore, is that the countries of Eastern Europe and Eurasia are better off today than they would likely be otherwise because of the work in those regions by the OSCE missions and field activities.
I also believe that the potential for the OSCE to play a more effective role in conflict management in the future is much greater than the modest results that have been achieved so far. I thus suggest in my written statement some measures that might enhance the capacity of the OSCE to play a more significant role in preventing and resolving violent conflicts: 1) enhancing the professional qualifications and training of its mission and support staff, 2) strengthening its capacity to mediate serious conflicts that appear to be on the brink of violence or that have become frozen in the aftermath of violence, including making better use of "eminent persons" to assist these efforts, and 3) attracting more active support from its major participating states, especially from the United States, to strengthen the OSCE's capacity to intervene early in potentially violent conflicts when diplomacy still has a chance to win out over force. Only when the United States, Russia, and the European Union countries step up to their responsibility to convert "early warning" into "early action" will the OSCE be able to fulfill its role not only in finding "an end to war....[but] an end of the beginnings of all wars."
Thank you for your attention and your interest in this important subject.
This written statement is submitted to supplement my oral presentation to the Commission about the performance and potential of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in the fields of conflict prevention and resolution.
Introduction: The Special Role of the OSCE
Since the end of the Cold War, conflict prevention and resolution have moved to the forefront of OSCE activities. Yet these roles performed by the OSCE and its missions and field activities have gone largely unnoticed in governments and especially in the general public, not only in the United States but in much of Europe as well. We are all painfully aware of the failures of conflict prevention in the former communist regions of Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia: Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Chechnya. We have also learned that intra-state conflict and the resulting regional instability can create a breeding ground for terrorist and criminal networks to organize and operate.
Yet when the OSCE is most successful at conflict prevention, it generally receives little attention or credit. This is in part because its most effective roles are performed in thousands of small-scale interventions in remote parts of the world, far away from the attention of the international media. Further, when conflicts are prevented, "nothing happens," and the media, public officials, and even scholars seldom pay much attention to "non-events." Therefore, when the "dogs don't bark" - when a potential conflict does not erupt into violence or when an old conflict remains dormant for many years - we may easily overlook the fact that this may the result of patient efforts by skilled diplomats working outside of the glare of public scrutiny in an effort to achieve concrete results.
In fact, I would submit that patient, but often overlooked preventive diplomacy and conflict management activities by OSCE missions and field operations have frequently made a significant contribution to the avoidance of violence in a number of potentially dangerous situations in the OSCE region, and that other conflicts have been moderated or prevented from escalating further due to the rapid, but often unseen work of these OSCE field missions and officials.
Drawing upon an analogy with the field of medicine, the principle that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" has long been accepted by our colleagues in the health field. The United States government and private sources devote billions of dollars every year to research on preventive medicine, because we know that the best way to deal with the most deadly killers of our population such as cancer and heart disease is by preventing their occurrence in the first place. Unfortunately, this simple truism has not yet been widely accepted in the field of foreign policy. For whatever reason, it seems to be easier to achieve a political consensus behind the deployment of large and expensive military peacemaking and peacekeeping operations than to provide the much smaller resources generally needed to carry on the activity of multilateral preventive diplomacy. Thus, for example, the entire annual U.S. assessment for all OSCE activities, including its missions, amounts to only about $20 million in the current fiscal year. At the same time we are spending over $4 billion each year to pay for the cost of US forces stationed with SFOR in Bosnia-Herzegovina and with KFOR in Kosovo. Thus the U.S. contribution to conflict prevention in the OSCE region is approximately equivalent to what we spend in just two days to maintain our military presence in those two regions where violence occurred. As budgetary pressures become more stringent, and political opposition grows against the large-scale deployment of US troops overseas, perhaps we will learn that the need for such interventions might be averted if we invested even a small fraction of those resources into the less visible, but often more important work of conflict prevention. But this too requires a shift in our institutional focus: while it is NATO that implements peacekeeping operations, the North Atlantic alliance has little or no capacity to engage in conflict prevention. That vital role in conflict prevention, management, and resolution represents the comparative advantage of the OSCE, and it is to the OSCE that we should give our country's support to perform this role more effectively.
It is interesting to speculate about how much we might have saved if we had only devoted more resources, attention, and effort to conflict prevention before either of the conflicts in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo exploded into violence. At this critical point in the history of Macedonia, it is also appropriate to consider how much we might save if we redouble our efforts to find a political solution to the current crisis in that troubled country before widespread violence breaks out. The deployment agreed to just last week of 210 unarmed OSCE monitors in Macedonia, protected by a force of 1000 NATO soldiers from Germany, France, and Italy under Operation Amber Fox, is illustrative of the kind of joint cooperation among security institutions that is necessary to prevent the further outbreak of violent conflicts in this fragile region.
This is not just a matter of saving budgetary resources, however important that is, or of avoiding politically difficult choices about deploying US troops in yet one more overseas operation, although that too is an important consideration. But it is mostly about preventing the tragic consequences of war for the innocent people who are its inevitable victims. Before the NATO-led deployments took place in Bosnia and Kosovo, thousands of residents of these regions lost their lives; physical infrastructure, homes, farms, schools, and factories were destroyed; the bare rudiments of social connections across different ethnic groups were severed; and the human spirit of the peoples surviving in all of these regions was crushed by the violence that swept across their societies.
Rebuilding from the physical damage is the easy part; re-establishing mutual trust among peoples who have lived alongside one another for centuries and who must inevitably continue to do so for the foreseeable future will be far more difficult. Yet this is essential if the foundations of a functioning civil society are to be constructed, if individual human rights and the rights of persons belonging to minorities are to be respected, and if democratic governance is to be established. For all of these reasons, one clear lesson that emerges from our recent experience in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo (and for that matter from the Russian experience in Chechnya) is that it is a lot harder to "put Humpty Dumpty back together again" than it would have been to prevent him from falling off the wall in the first place.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt once observed that, "more than an end to war, we want an end of the beginnings of all wars." Preventing the outbreak of war throughout the entire OSCE region is the principal challenge that faces the OSCE today. Furthermore, there is no other multilateral institution or individual country at present that can perform this role. Even before the end of the Cold War, Europe was crisscrossed with a wide variety of multilateral security institutions. Since 1990, most of these have expanded their functions, and the web of institutions has become even thicker: NATO has been enlarged and transformed, the European Union has expanded and adopted a "common foreign and security policy," and the OSCE has created institutions such as the Conflict Prevention Center, the Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, and the High Commissioner on National Minorities. The United Nations continues to have an important role to play in European security, as does the Council of Europe and the Western European Union. Yet within this region only the OSCE has a clear mandate, an organizational structure, and significant acquired experience in the field of conflict prevention and resolution.
NATO has long been an important institution for deterring aggression against its members by promising a collective response in defense of its member states if they are attacked from outside. In the past decade, it has also developed a significant peacekeeping capability as well. By its very nature, NATO is a military organization that can support but not supplant diplomatic institutions in preventing the outbreak of violence and promoting the resolution of existing conflicts. Almost by definition, the introduction of NATO troops into a country experiencing conflict means that the point of no return is about to be, or already has been, crossed. At this point, efforts to achieve political solutions have usually been abandoned in favor of providing some form of "temporary" military security. The role of the OSCE missions and of the High Commissioner on National Minorities, by contrast, is ideally to enter into a situation long before it reaches the violent stage. By trying to assure full rights for all citizens in multinational states and by providing facilities for mediation and conflict resolution at the grassroots level, they seek to head off incidents before they reach the boiling point.
A further limitation of NATO is that it is still viewed with considerable skepticism in many of the regions of Eurasia most threatened with conflict, a legacy of the cold war and of the fact that some countries, especially Russia, are not members and are not likely to become so within the foreseeable future. To be effective in conflict resolution at the local level, it is necessary that outsiders not be perceived to be injecting global political issues onto the already complex set of local issues. Once again the OSCE has a comparative advantage over other institutions due to the universal participation of all states in the region where it operates.
The European Union has also sought to play a major role in some conflicts in the OSCE region, and the adoption at Maastricht in 1991 of a "common foreign and security policy" was supposed to signal a more active collective diplomatic effort on the part of the EU. However, so far European Union efforts have been plagued with considerable inconsistency and policy differences among its member states, and the outlines and priorities of the common foreign and security policy have emerged slowly, if at all. Furthermore, there has been a tendency for the European Union to try to demonstrate its bona fides in the field of conflict prevention and resolution by intervening in situations where other institutions and NGOs were already at work, often causing confusion, "institution shopping" on the part of disputants, and at times even undermining other efforts that might have promoted a successful resolution of disputes. The EU also suffers from the fact that two states whose contribution to European security is absolutely essential are not among its members - namely the United States and the Russian Federation. In short, I believe that the European Union has an essential role to play in contributing to the economic recovery and development of its neighbors to the east; the prospect of eventual membership provides a beacon for those states to undertake the difficult tasks required by democratization and economic reform. But its role in conflict prevention, resolution, and peacekeeping has yet to be established or validated on the basis of its record to date. Many of the same limitations apply as well to the Council of Europe and the Western European Union.
This leaves the OSCE as the only multilateral institution in the broad European region with a mandate and capacity to carry out the functions of conflict prevention and resolution in areas of tension within the region it covers. Furthermore, this capacity has grown considerably throughout the past decade and, as I will argue below, its potential for further growth is great. When the Conflict Prevention Center was first created by the Charter of Paris in 1990, it had a very limited mandate and a minute budget and staff. After the sad experience in the former Yugoslavia in 1991, its capacity has gradually grown to the point where today there are OSCE missions and other field activities in some 20 countries and regions of the former Soviet Union and the former Yugoslavia. In the cases of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, and Kosovo those missions have also grown quite large, as the OSCE has been charged with significant political roles in rebuilding those war-torn regions, operating in two of those venues alongside the NATO-led forces of SFOR and KFOR. The missions have also been supported by two OSCE organs based outside of the country, namely the Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), which supports missions activities in areas such as democratization, elections, the rule of law, and human rights, and the High Commissioner on National Minorities, who works with missions in conflict prevention and resolution activities in conflicts involving ethno-national groups or between central governments and persons belonging to minority groups. Further high-level political support is frequently provided by the Chairperson-in-Office and other member governments serving in the OSCE Troika, as well as by officials of the OSCE Secretariat and Conflict Prevention Center in Vienna.
Specific OSCE Conflict Prevention and Resolution Activities Since 1991:
Over the past decade, I have engaged in a research project attempting to evaluate the effectiveness of OSCE missions and field activities. I have done considerable research on the activities of a substantial number of these missions, including extensive interviews with Heads of Missions, review of their regular detailed activity reports to the Conflict Prevention Center, attendance at numerous meetings of the OSCE Permanent Council and informal meetings with Heads of Mission in Vienna, and on-site visits to several missions in the field. I have been assisted in this endeavor by a Fulbright Fellowship to the OSCE based in Vienna in 1997 and a Jennings Randolph Senior Fellowship at the U.S. Institute for Peace in Washington in 1998. As a consequence of this research, I have categorized OSCE field activities into five different functions that they perform in countries experiencing potential or actual violent conflict. Most missions and field activities perform multiple functions, but for purposes of my report here I will focus on prominent examples that illustrate each of these different functions. My statement will thus highlight each of these functions and present a brief evaluation of the major accomplishments and shortcomings of the OSCE in performing each of these functions:
1) Long-term conflict prevention through democratization, election monitoring, support for the rule of law, and respect for individual human rights and the rights of persons belonging to minority groups: It has become a generally established finding of social science research that democracies generally do not go to war with other democracies; furthermore, intra-state or civil conflicts are less likely to occur in societies that have well established procedures for the nonviolent resolution of conflicts of interest among their citizens. Therefore, the establishment of democratic processes, the creation of governments of laws and not of individuals, and processes to integrate persons belonging to minorities fully into the institutions of the state are together the best long-run guarantors of peace. Examples where the OSCE has played an important role in this regard include Estonia and Latvia, where the OSCE played a significant role on behalf of large minorities of ethnic Russian denied citizenship rights in these Baltic states. Furthermore, the OSCE has recently embarked upon an effort to defend democracy in Belarus against an authoritarian government that has reversed that country's early post-Soviet progress in the field of democratization. As one of a very few international institutions operating in Belarus, the OSCE Advisory and Monitoring Group has played a vital role in providing international protection for non-governmental organizations and a severely restricted political opposition within that country.
However, it is important to realize that democratization is an extremely difficult and long-term task even in the best of circumstances. Centuries of authoritarian rule throughout the region have created a climate in which few persons if any were alive in 1990 who had ever lived in a democratic state. As a result, the transition to a fully democratic society, in which more than the outward appearance of democracy is established and in which democratic values are truly internalized throughout the population, is unlikely to take place rapidly. Democracy is inherently fragile in all transitional societies, and more immediate measures of conflict prevention and resolution will frequently be required in order to avoid an outbreak of violence that might set back the democratization process by a decade or more. The linkage of security to political and humanitarian concerns epitomizes the special role that the OSCE missions have come to play in societies undergoing radical transformation since the collapse of communism.
2) The prevention of violent outcomes in potential conflict situations: As noted above, a major function of the OSCE has been to prevent "Humpty Dumpty" from falling off of his wall. The organization's record in this case is mixed. In my opinion, however, the OSCE has often been blamed unfairly for failing to prevent conflicts. Too often OSCE inaction was the result of the refusal by one or more of its participating states to take action recommended by OSCE mission heads or other officials such as the High Commissioner on National Minorities, i.e., by the failure to obtain the consensus that is required to take decisive action. Furthermore, in the early post-cold war years the OSCE did not have a sufficient structural capacity to respond to brewing conflicts. Thus the conflicts in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina were well underway by the time the first CSCE mission of long-duration was sent into the field in late 1992, following the Helsinki Follow-on Meeting that summer. In the case of Kosovo, the OSCE was hamstrung by the fact that it had suspended the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from participation in May 1992. Although there were many good reasons for this action, it also had the perverse effect of preventing the OSCE from having any access on the ground in the Kosovo region until tensions had passed the point of no return. By the time the United States, led by Ambassador Holbrooke, persuaded the parties to accept an OSCE Kosovo Verification Mission on the ground in October 1998, it was a case of too little being done much too late. In my opinion, a similar decision a year or more earlier, however, might have prevented the bloody war and subsequent international occupation of Kosovo, although of course it is always impossible to prove "what might have happened if...." But it is very clear that the OSCE and especially the special representative of the Chairman-in-Office, Ambassador Max van der Stoel, provided substantial "early warning" of impending disaster in Kosovo, and it was failure of key participating states - including the United States - to take "early action" that in my opinion was largely responsible for the violent outcome in Kosovo.
Looking at the other side of the coin, the OSCE has contributed to the successful resolution of potentially violent conflicts in several regions of Eurasia. Perhaps most notable is the role played by the OSCE in mediating between nationalistic ethnic Russian politicians in Crimea and the central government of Ukraine that was critical in reaching a solution to that volatile conflict that could have easily exploded into violence. Russian nationalists wanted to separate Crimea from Ukraine and perhaps return it to its pre-1954 status as a part of the Russian Federation, and the Ukrainian government was prepared to do anything necessary to prevent this from happening. Special credit here goes to the OSCE's High Commissioner on National Minorities, Ambassador Max van der Stoel, whose continuing intercession, often using a process known as "seminar diplomacy" or "problem-solving workshops," played a major role in promoting a nonviolent outcome in this potentially grave situation. Ambassador van der Stoel's work was also backed up by continuous efforts of the OSCE mission members in both Kyiv and Simferopol to broker a solution guaranteeing substantial Crimean autonomy while preserving the territorial integrity of Ukraine. Furthermore, this effort was especially important due to the strategic significance of the region. Needless to say, a war in the mid-1990s between Russia and Ukraine would have created a severe international crisis that would have affected the vital interests of the entire West, including the United States. Even if this were the only accomplishment of the OSCE in the past decade, I would argue that this alone was worth all of the effort and resources that have been put into the entire organization by the United States and our European allies.
But this is, of course, not the only significant accomplishment of the OSCE during the past decade. At least until recently, I would argue that the OSCE mission to Skopje (the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) has played an instrumental role in preventing that former Yugoslav republic from falling into the kind of violence that has swept across Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Kosovo. Of course, the results of those efforts have recently been placed in doubt as violence has expanded in regions of Macedonia inhabited by large ethnic Albanian populations. Several factors largely beyond the control of the OSCE have conspired to push the situation in Macedonia toward the brink of violence, including the collapse of the government of Albania in 1997 and the looting of large supplies of light weapons and munitions from its storehouses that made their way into Kosovo and subsequently into Macedonia, the removal of UNPREDEP from the northern border regions due to Chinese opposition in the UN, and the growing ambitions of some ethnic Albanian politicians to follow-up their "success" in Kosovo with a similar effort to split heavily Albanian-populated regions of Macedonia off from the rest of the country, perhaps eventually creating a "greater Albania." Through all of this, the OSCE mission has remained on the ground and the High Commissioner on National Minorities has not slacked off in his efforts to try to hold this fragile society together before it follows the path taken by Bosnia and Kosovo in the recent past. It is clearly in the direct and immediate interest of the United States to see that these efforts are successful. Further instability in Macedonia will potentially undermine all of our efforts to date to bring stability to the Balkans region, and this may also require additional costly and politically unpopular deployments of US troops in the region. At this critical juncture, the OSCE deserves the full support of the United States government, because preventive action NOW is our only hope to avoid difficult and unpopular choices in the months ahead.
3) Cease-fire Mediation: Once violence breaks out in a country, the OSCE role has generally been limited. One exception, however, was the first war in Chechnya that started with the Russian military assault in December 1994. Shortly afterwards the OSCE Permanent Council created the OSCE Assistance Group, which set up operation in Grozny in 1995. Russia, as a country that still clings to its self-image as a great power, was of course reluctant to permit any presence by a multilateral organization on its soil. Therefore, it was somewhat surprising when the Russian government permitted a small OSCE "assistance group" to be established in the very vortex of the fighting. Under the able leadership of the second Head of Mission, Ambassador Tim Guldimann of Switzerland, the OSCE expanded its activity beyond monitoring human rights violations and war crimes and assumed a role as an active mediator between the Chechen leaders and officials in Moscow. Guldimann's shuttle diplomacy, involving more than 50 trips between Grozny and Moscow, was largely responsible for setting up the meeting at Khasavyurt between Alexander Lebed and Zelimkhan Yanderbiev that brought an end to fighting and a withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya in August 1996.
Subsequently, the OSCE assumed the major role in preparing, conducting, and monitoring the presidential elections in Chechnya in January 1997, in which Aslan Maskhadov was elected. Sadly, the internal situation in Chechnya degenerated into anarchy, with frequent violence directed at outsiders, even those representing international humanitarian organizations. This was followed by a renewal of Russian military action against Chechnya in 1999, after the OSCE Assistance Group had moved its offices to Moscow due to fear about the safety of mission members if they remained in Chechnya. Tragically, this also resulted in a decline of OSCE influence over the parties, and extensive efforts to re-establish a mediating role for the OSCE, undertaken at the Istanbul Summit in November 1999 by the United States and several other countries, failed to bring results; indeed, only this past June did the OSCE Assistance group finally return to Chechnya. This tragic outcome, however, should not cause us to overlook completely the potential for the OSCE to play an important mediating role, even in the midst of violent conflict, as it did in Chechnya in 1995-96.
4) Conflict resolution after a cease-fire is in place: Since the major OSCE conflict prevention functions were created after the spate of post-cold war violence in the early 1990's, a major focus for OSCE missions has been to try to broker longer-term resolution of the conflicts that had produced the previous chain of violence. In addition, the OSCE has sought to prevent the renewal of violence in situations where serious tensions remain. This has been the major focus of the OSCE missions in Moldova (regarding Transdniestria), Georgia (especially regarding South Ossetia and to a lesser degree Abkhazia where the UN has taken the lead role), Tajikistan, and the so-called Minsk Group dealing with the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh.
In this area, the OSCE record is clearly mixed, and there is probably no single aspect of the work of the OSCE where so far performance has failed to meet expectations. On the positive side of the ledger, in none of these regions has large-scale violence reappeared since the OSCE missions entered. In most cases, the OSCE has played a useful role in monitoring the performance of peacekeeping forces, especially those of the CIS, mostly from Russia. In addition, OSCE activities in democratization, human rights, the rule of law, refugee resettlement, and support for the rights of persons belonging to minorities has assisted local authorities in keeping tensions below the boiling point. Perhaps of greatest importance, in each case the OSCE has played a third party role in keeping lines of communications open and negotiations underway between former belligerent factions to try to resolve some of the important issues underlying these conflicts. Most of these conflicts have become frozen in place: there is no settlement, but also no return to mass violence. This is no small accomplishment, but it also leaves open the potential for the OSCE to improve its effectiveness at managing negotiations to enhance its ability to bring about long-term settlement of frozen conflicts so that life in these divided states may return to some state of normalcy.
5) Post-conflict reconstruction and security-building: After episodes of significant violence, social relations within society are usually badly broken. Hatred, anger, and the desire for revenge become dominant emotions that often reinforce the differences that produced conflict in the first place. Rebuilding war-torn societies is often a long and difficult task. It would not be appropriate to expect Serbs, Croats, and Bosniaks to forget about their long and bitter struggle in a few short years. Thus one of the major challenges facing the OSCE has been to try to assist societies torn by conflict in their efforts to rebuild. NATO can help by providing security, both for international personnel and to prevent opposing sides from resuming violence. The European Union and other international financial institutions can assist by contributing desperately needed economic aid to rebuild infrastructure and jump start economies so that they can begin to grow on their own and thus reduce the poverty that so often becomes a breeding ground for violence. But in virtually all cases of violence in the European region, the primary responsibility for reconstructing political institutions and developing a democratic political framework for resolving differences peacefully - the most difficult task these regions face - has fallen overwhelmingly to the OSCE.
This activity has been the major focus of some of the largest of the OSCE missions, including the missions in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Kosovo. It has also been the primary task of the OSCE Presence in Albania, as well as an important function of the missions in Georgia and Moldova as well. In many ways, OSCE activities in this category resemble those of the long-term democracy building activities mentioned in the first category above, only here these activities face the especially difficult challenge of operating in a post-conflict situation. OSCE's close cooperation with other security institutions, especially with the UN, NATO, and the EU, is especially necessary in these regions. In the effort to revive these war-torn societies, the OSCE cannot succeed alone, but its contribution is nonetheless essential to the successful accomplishment of this task.
Evaluation and Recommendations: The OSCE Balance Sheet and Proposals for Strengthening the OSCE
In summary, when one surveys all of the myriad activities that the OSCE has undertaken during the past decade in the field of conflict prevention and resolution, one cannot escape the conclusion that, in spite of all its shortcomings and failures, it plays a much more significant role than it is generally credited with. In my opinion, it deserves a place of at least equal status with NATO when we in the United States evaluate the role that multilateral institutions play in contributing to security in the North Atlantic and pan-Eurasian region. Its role often goes unrecognized in part because it works in so many relatively obscure locations, and most of its successes are the consequence of thousands of small accomplishments achieved day-by-day, village-by-village, rather than any single, dramatic result that can readily be pointed to.
Furthermore, as I noted previously, when it is most successful, very few people notice and thus very little credit is given where credit is due. The failures - Bosnia-Herzegovina, Chechnya, and Kosovo - make headlines. The successes can be uncovered by outsiders only with painstaking and difficult research about potential crises that never materialized. The many accomplishments on a daily basis, often small achievements individually but of great importance collectively, are easily overlooked. The men and women who serve in OSCE missions in the staff in Vienna, the Hague, and Warsaw, and in national delegations to the OSCE institutions are often making significant accomplishments in keeping us out of crises for which they seldom, if ever, receive the credit they deserve. The OSCE is certainly not a panacea and cannot bring peace to Eurasia alone, but without its steadfast work throughout the region it is extremely likely that violence, violation of human rights, and degradation of the human spirit would be far more widespread than they are today.
That having been said, the next question that naturally arises is, can the OSCE do better at its conflict prevention and resolution functions? And if so, what needs to be done to strengthen it? My answer to the first questions is definitely "yes." The question of how to strengthen the OSCE is somewhat more complex. One of the strengths of the OSCE is that it is a relatively small, non-bureaucratic and flexible body, in notable contrast to many other multilateral organizations. Any effort to strengthen the organization must also be careful not to undermine its flexibility and resilience that are essential to its ability to respond in a timely fashion to brewing conflicts.
Nonetheless, there are several modest steps that might strengthen the OSCE's capacity to work effectively in conflict prevention and resolution without entailing great costs or the creation of a large, cumbersome bureaucracy:
First, the OSCE needs a more professionally competent, well-trained staff, especially in its missions. At present, it depends too much on short-term volunteers and personnel seconded to the OSCE by the participating states. Many of these people go into the field with little or no knowledge about the region where they are being sent, and little or no training about the process, skills, and techniques of conflict resolution. They are usually on short-term contracts that too often expire just as they are beginning to get a grasp of the issues with which they are supposed to be dealing. Many people are selected to serve on missions either because they are available for short-term assignments or they are seconded by governments since they are not needed elsewhere. In spite of these limitations, many OSCE personnel have done an excellent job. Yet they could do much better with proper training and enough time in the field to really learn their job and how to perform it effectively. The REACT Program has improved training somewhat, but this program still depends on each participating state to train its own volunteers, and the results are inconsistent at best. Heads of Missions are generally very qualified senior diplomats, but they too often have to work with very limited resources and inexperienced, inadequately trained personnel.
Similarly, the OSCE could benefit from a strengthened analytical office and information resources in the Conflict Prevention Center in Vienna. A small group of highly trained specialists in each of the major mission functions - elections, human rights, rights of persons belonging to minorities, democratization, freedom of the media, conflict prevention, mediation and conflict resolution - could provide extensive support to each of the missions when needed. A better library and access to internet resources could provide an enhanced capacity to support the work of missions in the field, which often work in isolated locations cut off from access to the vast stores of knowledge and information available in major global centers. Furthermore, this analytical center might assist the OSCE missions in getting "early warning" messages about incipient conflicts rapidly into the hands of those capable of developing an early response, so that action may be initiated prior to crossing the point of no return in the cycle of violence, when effective preventive action is no longer sufficient to head off an escalatory spiral.
Second, the OSCE also needs to develop a greater capacity to engage proactively in order to mediate series conflicts that appear to be on the brink of violence or that have become frozen in the aftermath of violence. The High Commissioner on National Minorities represents a model of an OSCE official who can enter into disputes rapidly and without any special mandate, enabling him to respond on the spur of the moment. Many other OSCE institutions, however, remain mired in potential paralysis created by the need to find consensus (or approximate consensus) within the Permanent Council where all 55 participating states are represented. Moving from the recognition that a problem is brewing to a political decision to initiate a timely response remains the Achilles heel of almost all international organizations. In order to begin to overcome these obstacles to timely response, there are several things the OSCE might do:
1) It could create a greater institutional capacity to bring "eminent persons" to intervene on their own initiative in extremely sensitive or urgent situations. This can be done in part by upgrading the status of the OSCE's Secretary General, who now plays primarily an administrative role; as a consequence, the Secretary General is not generally available to play the kind of role played by the UN Secretary General in many severe crises where his personal intervention may produce positive results when all other efforts have failed. Political leadership for the OSCE is provided by the Chairperson-in-Office, but this position rotates every year so that there is not sufficient continuity or consistency from one individual to the next to enable this person to play a long-term role as ombudsman or mediator. Until recently the best known personality in the OSCE was the High Commissioner on National Minorities, Max van der Stoel, who retired this past summer. It will be essential that Ambassador Rolf Ekeus, who seceded van der Stoel, be given comparable support by the participating states so that he can carry on the important role that the High Commissioner has played since the office was created, namely to intervene, often on very short notice, into potential conflicts to try to resolve them before they escalate out of control.
At the same time the OSCE needs to broaden its institutional capacity to react in a timely fashion on issues that do not fall under the mandate of the High Commissioner. Sometimes, of course, the OSCE can rely on eminent persons coming from among its participating states, as was the case when Richard Holbrooke assumed an important mediating role in the conflicts in both Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. However, it is far better in principle to have such individuals operate within the OSCE framework, except in extraordinary circumstances, since the representative of a multilateral institution will generally be accorded greater legitimacy by disputing parties than will the representative of any single participating state.
2) OSCE's participating states must accord the organization the attention and support that it deserves within the overall framework of European security institutions. Although the OSCE is by no means the only or the primary European security institution, it definitely has a comparative advantage in many important areas, especially in the "human dimension" as a result of its cold war legacy and in the conflict prevention domain due to its newly developed capacity since the end of the cold war. Only if its unique strengths are recognized and utilized can it be effective in converting "early warning" into "early action," the essential ingredient for preventing the "beginnings of all wars."
This means that the United States government should give OSCE priority in dealing with broad European security issues of at least equal importance as NATO, while recognizing the different strengths of each. Unless the United States can help enhance the OSCE's capacity to prevent new violent conflicts and to resolve conflicts that recently produced violence, we are likely to be faced with a continuing series of hard choices: either we will have to send more US troops abroad in politically unpopular missions or we will be forced to stand by while violence and instability spread across regions of Europe and Eurasia, causing greater humanitarian tragedies and possibly threatening vital national interests.
Similarly, we cannot count on European institutions like the European Union or the Council of Europe to deal with all crises that arise on their own continent. Our European friends also need to give the OSCE significant priority alongside their efforts to enlarge and strengthen the European Union. They need to be realistic about the ability of an expanding EU to reach a consensus about foreign and security policy. Even if they are successful in that endeavor, their capacity to implement effective action is likely to be limited without the close cooperation of the United States and/or Russia. And such cooperation can best be achieved when they work within the framework of the one European security institution in which those two countries are represented, that is, the OSCE.
Finally, we need to encourage the Russians to take their own rhetoric about the potential for the OSCE seriously. In the early post-cold war years, Russian rhetoric emphasized the primacy of the OSCE among European security institutions. They seem to have largely abandoned that effort following their failure to block the enlargement of NATO. But that doesn't mean that we should give up encouraging them to make more effective use of the OSCE to deal with the many and serious security threats that surround them on all sides, threats in which NATO has no effect on Russian security one way or the other. Furthermore, we can best convince the Russians to take the OSCE seriously by taking it seriously ourselves. Russia is naturally reluctant to accept a significant OSCE role of intervention in conflicts within its own borders and throughout its "near abroad," while the OSCE assiduously avoids any involvement in any Western country, even those experiencing problems comparable to some that have arisen in the former Soviet republics. In short, we need to convince Russia than an effective OSCE will serve their own long-term security interests by providing greater stability in regions of vital interest to them, and that it can do so in an even-handed way.
In the process, we might also come to realize that the OSCE also serves long-term US interests by helping to create a more stable, peaceful, and democratic regime in those regions formerly ruled by communist governments. Indeed, this is a vital interest that all OSCE participating states share, even though they do not always fully recognize this convergence of interest. Promoting collective action to support these goals of common security throughout the OSCE region thus ought to be a high priority goal for U.S. foreign policy as we enter the 21st century.


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AAPA heralds Clean Diesel Bill Reauthorization?
December 22, 2010
The American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA) today applauded congressional passage of the "Diesel Emissions Reduction Act of 2010," or DERA, which now goes to President Obama to be signed into law.
The bipartisan bill, introduced on the Senate side as S. 3973 by Sens. George Voinovich (R-OH) and Tom Carper (D-DE), and on the House side as HR 6482 by Reps. Laura Richardson (D-CA) and Doris Matsui (D-CA), is a five-year reauthorization of the beneficial 2005 legislation that established a voluntary national and state-level grant and loan program to reduce diesel emissions.
Susan Monterverde, AAPA's vice president of government relations, said in an interview that the biggest obstacle to getting this bill passed was "timing."
"The bill was not introduced until November 18, so the fact that we got this passed in both the House and Senate before the end of the year, was quite an achievement."
According to AAPA President Kurt Nagle, the ports association has strongly advocated for the bill's reauthorization, and grants available through DERA have been invaluable in reducing emissions from older diesel engines, including those in use at America's seaports along the Atlantic, Pacific, Gulf and Great Lakes coasts.
"The DERA program helps ensure that verified emissions reduction technologies are put into place earlier than would happen otherwise," said Nagle. "Reducing emissions from diesel engines provides significant public health benefits for port communities and port workers. Lowering emissions from engines used in ships, trucks, trains and other port-related freight handling equipment has improved air quality for entire metropolitan areas."
Nagle further noted that DERA grants support American jobs. The program provides grants to fund engine upgrades and retrofits, many of which are manufactured in the United States. He said that installation of new engines or retrofit technology is usually done on or near the site where the engine is used, further benefiting U.S. employment.
the nation's commerce needs and be good stewards of the coastal environment, and have used DERA grants to reduce emissions in some of the country's most densely populated areas.
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Do you ever wonder how you're going to tackle the challenges in your life? You may change your outlook when you meet the teenager in this story.
Jesse Wagstaff of Cape Carteret was born with a rare medical condition. His mother was told he may live six months to a year.
Sixteen years later, Jesse wanted to tell his story so you'll see that anything is possible.
Jesse often writes inspirational messages on his Facebook page. Things like, "Life is good," "Laugh when you want to cry," and "Today is a great day."
When you meet this 16-year-old, you realize how truly special those posts and he are.
Jesse says, "I've been through a lot of bad things in my life and I thank God I'm living today."
Jesse was born with Metatrophic Dysplasia, an extremely rare form of dwarfism, with less than 100 known cases.
Jesse has a tracheotomy, is on a ventilator, oxygen and a feeding tube 24 hours a day 7 days a week, and only has the use of his hands. His mom describes the wheelchair, which he just got a couple of months ago, as a mini-mobile ICU. Jesse says it's a big improvement over the one he had that didn't allow him to sit up.
But that has never stopped him from enjoying life... whether it's a trip to the beach, visiting Disney World, attending a major league baseball game, feeding the horses, or heading out to talk about overcoming obstacles.
"One of the main things I like doing in my life is making a difference in people's lives," Jesse says.
It's probably clear by now that Jesse doesn't let his challenges get in the way of doing what he wants. In fact, he attends high school just like any other teenager.
Jesse rides the bus to and from school, and doesn't need any help zipping through the hallways at Croatan High School in Carteret Count.
Friend Jessica McCaw says "He's just really fun to be around. He just brightens up everybody's day. He's just one of those people that can do that."
Teacher Michael Grice says he works hard in all of his classes.
"It's just amazing to see the amount of work and caliber of work he's able to do."
Jesse is also active outside the classroom with school activities. He's been in the school play, has been a manager for the basketball team, and is a member of the group "Kids Against Bullying in Schools."
Victoria Kroll has known Jesse since elementary school. "I have my ups and downs, but to see what his obstacles and everything it makes it look like if he can get through it, I can get through it." McCaw says, "And he is an example for me because just because you have hard times in life doesn't mean you can't overcome them and do things." Grice says, "I think he's an inspiration to the teachers as well as the students."
And Jesse believes inspiring others is part of his purpose.
"Encouraging people not to give up," he says.
While Jesse says he has wondered sometimes why he has this rare condition, he doesn't question it.
"I know it's God's way of making me different because everybody's different."
And Jesse is proving everyday, whatever the challenge, it doesn't have to stop you. That's a spirit he lives by, and in the process, motivates and inspires others along the way.
Jesse has some words of advice: "Keep on trying. Never give up."


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Thanks guys. It was a great hunt and could not have ended better!
Thanks guys. It was a great hunt and could not have ended better!
I hunt because......
So I got my copy of EBJ 81 the other day. My full story didnt make the cut for publication but I did get an honorable mention in the successful hunters section. My boy was super excited to see his picture in the magazine and laughed and giggled I didnt get mine haha. Now he has the best first hunt memory ever... Thanks Eastmans you made his day seeing his smiling face in there!
so for those who like stories here is the full story and a few more photos.
I hunt because......
I heard a bugle from in front of us, and a chuckle from behind us on our back trail....then it all happened.
This hunt was one that will be with me in memory for a lifetime and then some. Let me back up to how it all came together. It was June and I had been thinking about the upcoming elk season. I had put out the feelers to see if I would be solo, or if I would have company for this year's hunt. It was not looking like any solid commitments from anyone to be there, yet I knew I was committed no matter what.
My oldest son was nine now. I knew in a few years he would be old enough to hunt, yet needed so much exposure and training before that time was due. I thought about it for a week and finally talked to my wife about taking him along. It was a big moment, and a lot of understanding that I could not hunt with him and expect him to be perfect.
I am a single generation hunter. Everything I have learned has been from the Eastman's forums, EBJ, or from shows on TV, along with several years of in the field trial and error. I am huge on taking youth into the field, and had yet to be able to. This was my year! My oldest was going to go along and elk hunt with me. I was so excited. My wife and I were in agreement, and I broke the news to my son. He just about jumped out of his skin in excitement that I was REALLY taking him hunting this year!
I shopped till I was blue in the face to properly outfit the little guy in good hunt clothes that met my expectations. I spent weeks online, and shopping two major name brand outfitters here in Idaho. I even emailed a major complaint to one and spoke face to face with the manager at the other.
Everyone says take a youth hunting, but the options to outfit one are not backing up the concept. Finally with a week to spare, I had put together my boys gear and we were ready to go. I had just spent 17 months in flight school, working my tail off to a new start in life as a helicopter pilot. I needed to hit the mountain and restore my soul. My son and I could hardly get to sleep the night before. As my wife tucked him in and they said their night prayers, he was hoping for a bull elk. It would be my first, and of course his too! He so wanted that moment to come true.
We packed up and headed out early Sunday morning. We had a few hour drive to get to my camp, and set up. He was a soldier jumping in to help do whatever I asked as we set up camp. He was tired, worked hard and yet so eager to hunt. We spent about an hour practicing around camp with set ups, him calling and reading my hand signals for when it was his time to hit the cow call.
We got up at 5:30 Monday morning. He was eager to get going, yet so confused why we had to get up in the dark! He wanted to sleep in. I laughed and told him we can't bud, we have to get going. He was grumpy but moving. We drove to the trail head and started our hike into where I know the elk are. The hike in is about a mile and uphill at 7000 feet. We took it slow, and he kept up. I was stern with him on being quiet and reminded him often to walk softer and pay attention. I showed him every track I saw, shared with him all the sounds that were going on around us. We witnessed lots of things important to good tracking skills, reading the age of sign, and how to look for a trail or detect a change going on in the forest as we hiked.
We reached a spot that I showed my boys last year when I got my first elk, a cow, and had told them I took a nap there. They named the spot "nap rock hill". He was excited to see it again and we stopped, shed a few layers as we had gotten warm on the climb up to it. Once we were settled and had listened for about 15 minutes, I started calling. Nothing was moving and not one thing, save for a crow called back. My son wanted to try his call and I let him. Knowing after about an hour nothing was near, I decided to help my son have a better experience, so I bugled a few times and let him call some more.
About 11 we decided to hike some more, and move to a wallow area that a friend I met through the Eastman's Forums had dropped a bull two years ago. The hike was slow and steady for him to keep up. Once there the wallow was all sorts of tore up and I was excited! I spent some time there, and we called and waited. Nothing showed up.
About 2pm he asked if we could go back to camp and let him play for a while. AHHHHH I was not supper excited about that, but after a few minutes, I realized…..he was nine. So we packed up and out to the truck, and enjoyed pancakes, eggs, and sausage in camp. I played the guitar, and let him romp about on a big boulder in camp. Day one wasn't so bad, I was a coach now, and I had an eager player. I was happy to see things going slow, but going well.
We had gone to bed early so he could get rested better. We were up at 5:30 again and he was getting dressed before I was. We were faster today and were able to hit the trail thirty minutes earlier. We went right up to nap rock and made a stand. Again nothing was there. I was getting bored, and so was he. I so wanted to have a good experience for him. I told him of a meadow I knew of over the mountain we were on. I knew it was a few miles to get there, but told him it wasn't too far. We moved out.
Taking it slow, and taking breaks to listen, and even a Mountain House lunch along the way. We made it in about two or three hours and it was awesome! I stopped us as we entered the bowl the meadow sits in. I listened to the woods, and made a few cow calls to see what may call back. After not hearing anything, we moved on down into the bowl to a stand of timber in the center of it. I knew of a wallow on the far side. We got there and I showed him where one of my buddies had sat on stand for an elk that came in there two years back. He was excited to sit and try out the natural jack pine blind. I started cow calling again. He wanted to try and so I let him hit his call a few times. Then to give him a bit of a show and let him experience the hunt, I bugled a big ol screamer with a chuckle……the woods roared back!!!
I was shocked. I heard a bugle from in front of us, and chuckle on our back trail. I told my son I didn't have time to move anywhere else like we had planned, and so I moved about 10 feet to his left as far as I could and still have a shot, then I whispered to him. I said "we have elk or another hunt group but we were about to find out which very quickly!"
He had his cow call ready. I knocked up an arrow and took hold of my adrenaline that was screaming through my veins. "Composure man!!! Composure in front of this little guy, get it together," I told myself. I cow whined and called. Nothing answered back. I tried again and he asked if he could so I let him. Nothing was talking. I decided to bugle again. We heard another bugle in front of us farther away this time, dang it a bull was pushing cows away from our challenge….and thump, thump, thump from behind us.
My son heard it too. I looked over my shoulder and didn't see anything. I waited staring at the wallow in front of us only 30 yards away. The meadow had gone silent. No birds, just our breathing and I think a shaking dad about to encounter a bull elk in front of his son. I finally bugled again but this time I tucked it under my arm and away from us to see if it would draw the bull in for closer look.
Then I heard it behind me. A snort! I looked over my left shoulder and there 34 yards away was a bull standing in a wallow I had not noticed tossing mud in the air like a boss. He was showing off like he owned the place! I was freaking out now. I had a hole in the jack pine I was sitting next to the size of a grape fruit to thread an arrow through. I looked at my son, pointed so excitedly behind me and he knew it was game time!!
I rotated my body, threaded my arrow through the hole to line up my shot and drew back careful to keep my alignment with the hole perfect. I settled by 30 yard pin top and my 40 yard pin low. The bull was tossing mud but had his back straight at me. I needed him to turn.
I looked at my son, and opened up my release hand, the signal for him to call. He hit that cow call, and the bull froze. I looked back at him and opened my hand again, he called again. The bull looked over his left shoulder right at us. Then he snorted again. I looked back one more time at my son and signaled again to call, he did. The bull turned left and presented a left quartering away shot. I took a breath, found my calm in the moment, focused, and let my arrow loose on my first bull.
Whack!! It nailed him and he sat right down in the mud. My son started cow calling like a champ nonstop just like I had told him too if I took a shot. The bull gathered his feet and tore off across the meadow at a dead run. I could see color coming off my arrow as he piled out of the wallow, and I knew we had a good hit. I ran out of my jack pine blind to see where he was headed and he was already down across the meadow!
I called to my son to come out and we HAD A BULL ELK DOWN!!!!!! The bull had run 140 yards across the open meadow and piled up. We gave him about 5 minutes and then he was ready to be checked out. My son was jumping up and down and we took some really cool pics.
With a phone call to my good friend Will in town, he was on his way with help to pack him out. I called my wife and shared the news!!!! She was supper excited too. We are getting the bull mounted and will be able to enjoy Dad and sons first bull elk!!! What a way to start a young hunter in the world of fare chase DIY over the counter elk hunts! Now my camp is three years successful, and has been named "Hat Trick Camp"
Last edited by wolftalonID; 01-18-2014 at 09:50 AM.
I hunt because......
This is our camp all set up, my son was a trooper helping with everything
Here is a shot he took of the four big guys hauling out the elk, Yes it was bow season, but my trusty rifle made that recovery trip to ensure our safety from wolves and or bears. Nothing like walking in the deep woods with a raw steak on your back!!
I took this shot on his first morning of our hunt. I guess later he told me he was not too happy about waking up while it was dark to go on a long hike!! haha
This is of the two of us after we got back with the meat hauling pack and butcher kit....and the real work began. My son was actually amazed at how much work it is to take one apart and now he appreciates the food in the freezer ever so much more.
I hunt because......
That is awesome and I'd say that is a World Record elk laying there if you know what I mean!! Excellent, just excellent.
NRA Life Member
Montana Wild Sheep Foundation
Boone & Crockett Club
Montana Bow Hunters Association
"One loves to possess arms though they hope never to."
Thomas Jefferson


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April 29, 2013 | 242 views
Opposed to 'excessive testing'
Some parents opt out of state exams
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A Malverne father, who asked not to be identified because he fears retribution from his child's school, said that he struggled with his conscience for days before instructing his child to go to school but to refuse to take the state English Language Arts test last week.
The man said that he read the "rules" for refusing to take the test online.
"I told my child to sit down at his desk, read the first two pages of the test but make no marks on any page — not even write a name on the paper," he said. "I told my child to ask to go to another room where the test was not being administered, but his teacher refused. My child had to sit there for a few hours while the other kids around him took the test."
He said that he was opting his son out of the test as a protest against the high-stakes testing system that he says made his son physically ill and disdainful of school.
"I am all for standards and like the Common Core curriculum," the man said. "[But] with the focus on testing and accountability, the kids really aren't learning anymore. All they learn is how to take the test. There is little social studies, science or foreign language teaching anymore. It's all about pliance rate would lose state aid in future budget negotiations.
The English Language Arts test was given over three days, April 16-18. The math exam was scheduled to be given this Wednesday through Friday.
A number of parents chose to opt out, beginning what many are saying is a movement that will likely grow each year.
Two students opted out in the West Hempstead schools, a district official said. The official would not say what grade or grades the students were in, saying only, "We don't talk about individual kids or test situations."
Robert Fenter, a deputy superintendent in Oceanside, said that 15 students in the district opted out of taking the test.
In Malverne, there were two opt-outs, one at the middle school and another in an elementary school.
Island Park officials declined to give a number, but said in a statement that both the Board of Education and district administrators "believe that there are too many tests these days, especially those related to the new student learning objectives."
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KeywordsMalverne, Schools, New York State Tests, Objections,
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Looking for admissions, majors or financial aid? Visit our Admissions Site.
You can afford a quality education at Grand View. Designed to bring college class costs within your family's reach, Grand View financial aid awards are made on the basis of ability and demonstrated need.
Financial assistance comes from a variety of sources, including scholarships, grants, loans and work programs. PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR FORMS, LOAN INFORMATION AND MANY OTHER RESOURCES.
Typically more than 98% of our full time day undergraduate students received financial assistance totaling more than $36.5 million. The average financial assistance package for new first year students exceeds $24,500 with $16,600 in grants and scholarships and the remainder in loans and workstudy.
Graduate students and students enrolled in a degree program through the College for Professional and Adult Learning may qualify for financial aid. Military personnel may be eligible for military tuition rates at the undergraduate level. For students whose tuition can be reimbursed by an employer, Grand View offers an Employer Reimbursement Plan.
Financial Aid Office
515-263-2820 or
800-444-6083 ext. 2820
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Email: Financial Aid
The information in this handbook is designed to help you understand the types of financial assistance available to you during your years at Grand View University. Grand View's Financial Aid Office staff members can assist you in understanding your financial aid, budgeting your resources, and managing your loans. If you would like assistance, please contact our staff toll free at 1-800-444-6083, ext. 2820, or locally at (515) 263-2820 to schedule an appointment.
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The Federal Student Aid website provides all kinds of information about federal student loans, grants, tax incentives and other tools to help you pay for college and manage your loans.
Iowa Code Section 261F.2 and Sections 487(a)(25)(A) and 487(e) of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, require the development, administration, and enforcement of a code of conduct governing educational loan activities. Educational Loan Activities are those associated with any loan made under the Federal Direct Loan Program (FDLP) or any private educational loan. Loans issued to student or parent borrowers are under FDLP are the federal Stafford, parent PLUS, Grad PLUS, and Consolidation loans. Officers, employees, trustees and agents-including the alumni association, booster club and other organizations associated with Grand View University agree to the provisions of this Code of Conduct and will refrain from:.
Grand View University is committed to providing the information and resources necessary to help every student achieve educational success. To accomplish this goal the financial aid staff will consider each student's individual needs.
A comprehensive Code of Conduct detailing permissible and impermissible activities has been provided to all Grand View University officers, employees and agents affiliated with this college and may be reviewed at the link below. The Code of Conduct for Educational Loans has been endorsed and approved by the Grand View Board of Trustees.
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The six digit Federal School Code for Grand View is 001867. This code is used when completing the Free Application For Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). (It is also referred to as the CEEB code.)
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EXPAN Scholarship Search is a free web version of the College Board's FUND FINDER scholarship database. The database contains listings of scholarships, loans, internships and other types of financial aid programs from 3,300 national state, public and private sources. The database is updated annually.
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Hispanic College Fund Scholarships provides information about scholarship opportunities for qualified Hispanic applicants.
Visit the College Planning Center for more information to help you plan your college career.
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I am trying to access my calendar with Snow Leopard's iCal. I can read
it well, but any modification attempt ends with:
You cant change events or to do items in the "Calendar" calendar.
Only the calendar administrator and any delegates with permission can make changes to read-only calendars. To make changes to the calendar, contact the calendar administrator.
This was after upgrade from Tiger. I upgraded the connector to latest
version from Zimbra Support portal (Zimbra iSync Connector 5.0.18 GA for Mac OS X, version: 5.0.17_GA_2957). I deleted the iCal account and recreated using Zimbra preference pane. No change here.
I am modifying my own primary calendar, not a shared one, so I definitely should have permissions.


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May 29, 2016
The Salvation Army is struggling with dwindling donations across the country that will make it hard to give long-term assistance after a disaster. A spokesman for the charity says "we have to hope and pray" this year's hurricane season is mild.
The organization will continue to provide the basics, food, water and shelter, said Maj. George Hood, the Salvation Army's national spokesman.
But it isn't likely to offer more costly recovery aid, such as the $10,000 grants that were given to Hurricane Katrina victims to help them repair their homes.
The religious charity also has given mortgage, rent and down payment assistance to disaster victims in the past.
The Salvation Army's cost-cutting moves include plans to close two offices along the Hurricane-prone Gulf coast: one in Mississippi's Hancock County Aug. 28 and one in Metairie, La., in December. Both were Katrina recovery centers.
Click Here to access the online Public Inspection File
Viewers with disabilities can get assistance accessing this station's FCC Public Inspection File by contacting the station with the information listed below. Questions or concerns relating to the accessibility of the FCC's online public file system should be directed to the FCC at 888-225-5322, 888-835-5322 (TTY), or firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Great job Midgard!
This map shows the lands described in Robert Jordans Wheel of Time novels and the Wheel of Time RPG. The map was created entirely in Adobe Illustrator CS3, and the only element I did not make myself was the map border, which is a pattern brush available in a standard installation of Illustrator.
The original map in the books was painted by Elissa Mitchell. Because it contains a significant amount of intellectual property belonging to the Jordan estate and Tor Books, this map is available strictly for personal use and may not be redistributed. The creation of this map in no way represents a claim to ownership of these assets.
The WIP thread, in which I have posted the city icons I used, may be found here:
Great job Midgard!
My Finished Maps | My Challenge Maps | Ghoraja Juun, my largely stagnated campaign setting.
Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
Well done!
Beautifully done - very nice colour scheme and mountains!
Looks real nice. Better than all the previous maps I looked at.
ViewingDale Map maker and VTT . Recent CG posts . Keyword Index . Intros Index . Member Locations . CWBP Place Index
Very nice finished product.
I think, therefore I am a nerd.
Cogito, ergo sum nerdem.
Check out my blog: "The Undiscovered Author"
It's the story of a writer... follow me in my simple quest to get published, and share your own writing stories, adventures and writerly tips.
Pimping my worldmap here. Still WIP... long way to go, but I'm pretty proud of what I've done so far...
You appear to have forgotten Andor's northern border.
It's very nice map just the same, though.
I also missed a label when I did a color change. "Elmora" is blue, but it should be green.
If it hadn't already been printed, I'd definitely change it. I'm not sure I have the energy to dig out the files and do another revision at the moment, though.
We'll see how much it bugs me.


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Goldstein Hat Trick Leads To Cyclones Win
NORMAN, Okla.- Senior Emily Goldstein pulled off a hat trick to lead the Iowa State soccer team to a 4-1 victory over the Oklahoma Sooners on Sunday at the OU Soccer Complex.
Turning point of the game
With the Cyclones (7-7-2) leading 2-1 in the second half, Goldstein fired a shot into the back of the Sooners (3-10-1) net off an assist from Koree Willer to put the game out of reach. Goldstein would continue her hot-streak, scoring a total of three total goals as the Cyclones cruised to a 4-1 victory earning their first Big 12 win of the season.
Discuss it now. Visit our Facebook page to have your say on the turning point of today's game.
Cyclone game ball goes to…
Emily Goldstein. When the Cyclones needed someone to step up, the senior did just that. Goldstein delivered three huge goals for Iowa State in the second half to put the game out of reach. Goldstein scored her first goal in the 56th minute to put the Cyclones up 2-0, but she wasn't close to being done. The senior fired two more goals into the back of the Sooner net to finish the game with a career-high three goals. Coming into the game Goldstein had scored just two goals this season. She becomes the first Cyclone to complete the hat trick since Kaeli Flaska accomplished the feat on Sept. 11, 2011 against Loyola-Chicago.
Cyclones notes
* Emily Goldstein becomes the first Cyclone to complete a hat trick since Kaeli Flaska accomplished the feat against Loyola-Chicago on Sept. 11, 2011.
* Emily Goldstein is now tied for the Cyclone lead for goals scored this season with five.
* Goldstein is just the 13th Cyclone to ever record three or more goals in a game.
*Koree Willer scored her fourth goal of the season, good for second best on the team.
* Senior goalkeeper Maddie Jobe finished with five saves bringing her career total to 302. She is just the second Cyclone to ever reach 300 career saves.
* The Cyclones still have yet to be defeated this season when they score at least two goals in the game.
Fan tweet of the game
Way to get the hat-trick @goldstarofdavid !!! Great game @cycloneSCR 4-1 for the W!— Michelle Shealy (@mshealy10) October 13, 2013
After each game, one tweet will be chosen as the "Fan Tweet of the Game". Fans are encouraged to tweet @cycloneSCR during the game and should check cyclones.com to see if their tweet was chose as "Fan Tweet of the Game".
On deck
Iowa State returns home Friday to take on the Baylor Bears at 7 p.m. at the Cyclone Sports Complex. Results will be available on Cyclones.com after the conclusion of the game. Fans can follow Iowa State soccer's twitter account @cycloneSCR for live updates on the game.


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DFG's new process for buying a fishing license is a big hassle
Have you gone to your local sporting goods store to purchase a fishing license as a stocking stuffer for Christmas? All fishing licenses expire Dec. 31.
I went to store after store. Because of the new fishing license sales program instituted by the Department of Fish and Game, numerous stores quit carrying and selling licenses.
The Department of Fish and Game does much good, but once in a while, it makes some awfully stupid decisions. And now, it has a lulu.
In past years – up to last year – you could walk into a store, lay down your cash and purchase as many licenses for as many people you wanted. All you had to do was provide a name for each license.
Some anglers take a party boat onto ocean water, and the skipper could issue a one-day license to anybody without a current license.
Not anymore.
There's now a lengthy computerized process to obtain a license. First and foremost, you have to provide the user's name and date of birth. Next, you need to provide a state ID, which can be the intended user's driver's license or identification card number, passport, green card, military ID or foreign government ID number.
If you find a store that sells licenses, you won't be able to purchase one without having that data.
Oh, you can purchase a voucher for each person for whom you hope to obtain a license, but that just means the person then must revisit the store to provide the data you didn't have.
I finally went online, and you can make the complete purchase and have the license mailed to you. The process accepts most credit cards. At the end of the process, you can print a copy of the license, which will be good for use until you receive the real one.
To purchase a fishing license online, go to www.dfg.ca.gov and click on "License Sales." Another couple of clicks will get to the sales portion.
I feel assured the DFG can produce pages of justification for this move.
Hunting and fishing license sales have seriously decreased over the years, and the new, utterly idiotic process will just further alienate the fishing public.
California can pretty much guarantee further decreases in license sales – or more people hitting the waterways without going through the hassle of buying a license.
Why Folsom Lake is kept at minimum depth in the winter
People often wonder why lakes like Folsom are kept at a particular minimum depth rather than filling as rains allow during the winter. Folsom Lake and Lake Shasta have twice the amount of water than what they had at the same time last year.
Today, they're releasing massive amounts of water to maintain the lake at the minimum depth and allow for the current round of storm rainfall as inflow.
But why the minimum depth to begin with?
In the mid 1960s, there was a major problem in the hills. The dam at Hell Hole Reservoir gave way, and there was something like a 20-foot wall of water rushing down the canyon, headed straight for Folsom Lake.
Knowing all that water was coming down the hill, they opened the gates at Folsom Lake. It was the first time in the American River's history to hit flood stage. It was unknown whether the dam at Folsom would hold due to the pressure of the onslaught of water.
The dam, of course, did hold. But, to ensure there's always space in the lake for rain inflow in the winter and snow runoff inflow in the spring and early summer, the lake is kept at a minimum level throughout the winter.
Current fishing
American River: The traditional opening is Jan. 1, and most anglers who wish to pursue a fresh-run steelhead look forward to the upper stretch of the river re-opening to fishing.
However, with the current releases out of Folsom Lake and, concurrently, Nimbus, the river would be much too dangerous to fish. Water clarity is seriously affected, and you couldn't add enough weight to your line to get and stay anywhere near the bottom, where the steelies are.
Sacramento River: Considerable water is coming down the system, from the north out of Shasta with big additions from the Feather and American rivers. When flows become massive, they pick up debris from the shoreline that had been well away from the water line. There can be large rafts of debris to full trees.
Regardless how high the rivers rise, it never seems to have any effect on the water levels at the Port of Sacramento. And, if a window opens to allow you to get out, close trips to Lake Amador and Camanche Lake would offer good angling opportunities.
To our readers: May you have a very Merry Christmas and a safe and sane New Year.
Contact George deVilbiss at email@example.com.