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  2. We're both probably missing stuff here as not everything is available/clearly defined yet. Supposedly the SB+ stuff is being cleaned up right now and some of this confusion should go away. I really wish they had just published hardcopy leader guides for the wolves-aol. Hoping back and forth between the handbooks and the website is going to get old fast.
  3. Let me kick the hornets nest here. During the NAM the marketing presentation broke down the demographics by race and locality of BSA and made some crazy claims. Specifically nationals marketing was concerned about over-representation of Asians and Whites, and suburban and rural. I had to just accept the numbers on what national considers suburban/rural/core city membership (right?); however, they gave percentages of membership race composition and I took those right away and compared them to the 2020 US census national composition and BSAs racial makeup is +/- 1% by racial composition. Ther
  4. When you asked those people to step up did you provide any written position descriptions? In my experience literally taking the position descriptions out of the leader guides and providing them works wonders. Written position descriptions sets fair barriers for people. Did you explain that volunteering for the position is not forever and is a 1 year obligation that they can renew or walk away from? I am involved with several units and I will compare and contrast the best functioning to the worst functioning. The best functioning literally just runs the program; no bullshit, no "we do it
  5. Today
  6. But I know not how to rebuild an eye lost to trauma, nor repair a broken bone, nor restore breath to a crushed body. I DO know how to discuss safety in advance of horrific loss. Extremism in defense of Safety is no Vice.
  7. And for mixing discussions of nonsense and safety. I am known for, and sometimes derided for, being a a "safety nut." And the safety issue of convoying entirely escaped me.
  8. This triggered a long ago memory when I was a new district commissioner and attended a cub recruitment at a local elementary school (when we were still invited). The person in charge got up in front and welcomed them all, then immediately began separating the kids, and their were a number of them then, into age groups. Once that was done, he turned to the parents and adults and asked. Okay, who is going to give their time to make these excited youngsters have their program? A couple hands went up, but that was it. So, since there was far too many for two people to handle, he again turned
  9. Excellent point. A bona fide data point to evaluate the wisdom of convoying. I've seen that in funeral processions with 20 or 30 cars. Running stop signs en masse, etc. I once saw a strange pattern of streaming traffic coming off a side road onto a state highway (very rural)-all running the stop sign. No hearse in view, and given the layout and topography, had there been a hearse, it should have been in view, but apparently it was so far ahead of the procession as to be out of sight. No vehicles had funeral running flags on the hoods, nor headlights on… All confusing to me. No traffic
  10. This is one of the "lightbulb" moments that come from this forum that make it so helpful. At our Court of Honor last night, the plea went out again to the new parents to step up and help. This is probably the third or fourth time it has been said. That simple statement above will help redefine how we ask for help and what we're asking for help with.
  11. I love Mike Rowe. This echos everything I believe about the BSA and I was that young Scout, too.
  12. Interestingly, I just ran across this, from Mike Rowe. It say much that can relate to this subject. I agree with most of what he suggests, and I even like the song Be Prepared that is linked. https://mikerowe.com/2018/05/otw-death-of-the-boy-scouts/
  13. How about we simply agree that actual convoying is not the best idea, and that defensive driving and obeying the law are paramount. Call it follow the leader, or don't lose the others, or convoying, but it has been discouraged in whatever form for a long time. A policy, maybe not on paper. Common sense is all we need. Why do we need to make it bigger than needed? My last comment, as I have little patience at my seasoned age for nonsense.
  14. Recently I was driving somewhere and it became apparent that I was in the vicinity of a few cars that were in a convoy. Their driving to maintain proximity and eye contact with each other created a dangerous situation, These other drivers were oblivious to everyone else due to their primary objective of staying in a group. Since I was able to discern which vehicles were involved, I was able to maintain being safe. While I am sure some very capable drivers would be able to drive in a convoy and maintain safety, it does add just one more item by which one could be distracted.
  15. Yesterday
  16. "Aye, it be more of a non-recommended technique than a 'policy''. Three cars, mebbe. More'n that, them traffic lights and things interfere, dun ye know...""
  17. Following up on this promise to inquire, I spoke with a superbly capable Cub and Troop leader, on Saturday, an electrical engineer for a fortune 50 corporation. A sharp and impressive individual, calm, measured, and balanced in his reaction to everything. Because he is confident in his understanding of circumstances and ability to respond appropriately. A role model to though he is 20 years younger. Said he'd never heard of an anti convoy policy. This month's Round Table in my district (no reason given) has been cancelled, but I plan to attend the next in August and present a written
  18. Concur and withdraw my conclusion. (Wish I could edit above, but so be it). As you noted, per Jeremy Castleberry, "the council offered to a a boys only also.. But the idea lacked interest from boys only troops." Therefore no argument can be made that this is a problem as the non-elected group chose not to have a like event.
  19. If you read the comments on the facebook site, the council did offer a boys-only version, but there was not enough interest. If true, then there is no issue here, huh?
  20. Iteration is the number of events occurring of the same type. Normally one reviews what happens and make changes for the next event with an eye toward improving. I think you are creating a strawman. The event doesn't address any of the concerns you bring up. Frankly, it create more friction by identifying girls as special members rather than equal members. If this was something like the Catholic Camporee in that it is hosted by the Catholic Committee on Scouting and the Knights of Columbus are cooking a dinner and a breakfast for the participants, but it is open to all Scouts, then I
  21. A Council-sponsored exclusionary event raises red flags. Perhaps those issues were addressed in the Council before announcing this program. Any program in Scouting which explicitly excludes a portion of the membership should be scrutinized (not necessarily barred). There are a few questions which must all be answered "yes" to establish this is consistent with Scouting values 1) "Is the exclusion of a portion of the BSA programs consistent with the Guide to Safe Scouting?" (So, only Cubs, AOLs and Scouts, Cubs and Scouts doing Cub stuff, only Scouts doing Scout-age stuff, only Crews doing
  22. That would be entirely logical. The position largely invalidates the perspective.
  23. When I go to most camporees and summer camp, the vast majority of scouts are white males. If our scouting organization wants to include other demographics, it may need to have recruiting efforts or events targeted to those demographics. It doesn't mean changing the program or, hopefully, removing standard events. Each year at summer camp, the leaders of the one girls Troop that attends has raised concerns about behavior. Over time, I've seen less girls attending. If BSA wants to remain primarily a program for white males, then don't make any changes. If they want to expand to
  24. I certainly don't trust people who make it clear that they don't think I should be where I am to give me advice or support. I am curious about whether that it's girls only scout craft catch-up says something about just how stiff that cultural resistance is in that council. In principle, just make it a scoutcraft basics camporee open to all new units. But why didn't they? The comments that remain make me wonder if the reason is that so many male scouts are opposed to girls that it wouldn't work to help the girls, or that the council had solid reasons to think it would end up there.
  25. I agree that the quality of the program is going to fall on the den leaders to make sure they are choosing to do the engaging fun stuff instead of just what is easy for them, but that has always been the case - that's not a change. I'm not sure what you mean by "wiggle room" in what's required where, but in the case of Bear Habitat (which is rank required) there is only one activity suggested for requirement 7, which is the one I posted above. Unless Scoutbook doesn't have requirement 7 as required, which I can't check right now, it would seem that Bears are still required to make animal
  26. On of those "what if" things for me. I was an ASM for a troop at Spangdahlem AB in the sixties, predating I believe the Normandy COR. But it would have been on our radar for sure if was there when it happened. As it turned out, I was moved anyway to a remote sight with no scouting, and only seven of us. Later I took a pass to France, but did not get to Normandy, though wish I had now. I did visit the Luxembourg cemetery, and the one at Cambridge in England. The first one, Luxembourg was a real eye opener for me, as I had yet to see Pearl or Arlington. Cambridge is unique in that it has
  27. Hmm, CBS link still works for me. Here is same story via youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_8nxlfT0Q4
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  • Posts

    • We're both probably missing stuff here as not everything is available/clearly defined yet. Supposedly the SB+ stuff is being cleaned up right now and some of this confusion should go away. I really wish they had just published hardcopy leader guides for the wolves-aol. Hoping back and forth between the handbooks and the website is going to get old fast.
    • Let me kick the hornets nest here. During the NAM the marketing presentation broke down the demographics by race and locality of BSA and made some crazy claims. Specifically nationals marketing was concerned about over-representation of Asians and Whites, and suburban and rural. I had to just accept the numbers on what national considers suburban/rural/core city membership (right?); however, they gave percentages of membership race composition and I took those right away and compared them to the 2020 US census national composition and BSAs racial makeup is +/- 1% by racial composition. There is no racial disparity in BSA; contrary to perceived exclusion, or whatever people are thinking, statistically the disparity is not there. Yet again there was the claim that Asians and Whites are over-represented; it's just a DEI dog-whistle. National also talked about male vs female but with far lest zeel except that female membership is a constant year-over-year increase. Female membership is currently right around 8% of the total membership. That's the BIG disparity; which is why we're changing our name from Boy Scouts of America to Scouting America. Our energies should be on recruiting as many people as possible; however, our target should be more than just growth, but exceptional growth for young women. They're 51% of the population so statistically speaking we're underserving young women until they reach 51% of the membership. This effort though is going to get watered down and distracted from because nationals marketing and HR/DEI are more focused on why we're over serving Asian and White males. 
    • When you asked those people to step up did you provide any written position descriptions? In my experience literally taking the position descriptions out of the leader guides and providing them works wonders. Written position descriptions sets fair barriers for people. Did you explain that volunteering for the position is not forever and is a 1 year obligation that they can renew or walk away from?  I am involved with several units and I will compare and contrast the best functioning to the worst functioning. The best functioning literally just runs the program; no bullshit, no "we do it this way because" no "we've always done it this way" no "well the unit leader likes it this way" its STFU we're doing it by the book. This is your position description, we want you to do your position specific training so you have a baseline idea of what the unit leaders do, we're asking you to do this for 1 calendar year, and if you want to stay on after that for another year, great; if things are not working out and you want to try something else great. This unit has every position filled except FOS chair. Contrast that to the unit that is the worst functioning: it's a total s-show admixture of some book stuff, some a unit leader 20 years ago made shit up stuff, the new unit leader wants to put his stamp on it made up stuff, position descriptions are made up and barely recognizable to the literature, people outright refuse to do training, and there are people guilted into staying involved after their kids leave the program and EVERYONE sees that and is scared of stepping up. This unit has about half the functional roles filled and of those roles there are multiple that are filled by people who start every parent meeting with "my kid is no longer in the program I am leaving at X date!" which turns into X+N when that date hits and no one has stood up. The unit is going to implode, just totally collapse if one of these parents gets a new job, or get sick, just has one of those really good only a monster would blame them for quitting reasons.   
    • But I know not how to rebuild an eye lost to trauma, nor repair a broken bone, nor restore breath to a crushed body. I DO  know how to discuss safety in advance of horrific loss. Extremism in defense of Safety is no Vice.
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