Leaderboard

I've always thought that underdeveloped rural areas face many of the same challenges as impoverished inner city areas. Crime, drugs, poor schools, broken families and few economic opportunities. As others have already said, there are people and leaders of character in every community that are fighting the good fight. You need to find those people and partner with them. That starts with not going about it in a judgmental manner. These people may have different lifestyles and challenges in their lives than you do, but that's not always a reflection on their character and capability.

I think this is a reaction to the present political drama with president because I’ve seen a couple of anti rural stories this week using the same language. The bigoted tone is the result of rural communities unchanging support for the president. Barry

Sounds like that Council Executive has given up. Of course traditional Scouting still works -- at the unit level, if you have leaders who know what they are doing and an active program, especially an active outdoor program. Traditional Scouting isn't working nearly as well at organizational levels above the unit because the layers of bureaucracy above the unit level aren't adding much value to unit Scouting and instead are a drag on the movement.

Day 4 of a bike trek we were headed into Angel Camp, one of the groups more daring riders lost control, careened into and flipped over a barb wire fence landing on a fair size Timber Rattler. Luck was on his side - it was a dry strike so no venom. However, we took him into Angel Camp, found something called a Medical center, not much more than a first aid station that deals with minor stuff such as colds and tummy aches. Watching the nurse go deer in the headlights when told I had a kid that was snake bit was priceless, all she could say was, "we've got no protocols for snakebite!". Assur

The "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" movie "Deliverance" predates the current constitutional crisis by some decades. One might recall how President Carter was ragged on by the Eastern and Western elites of his own party until, in his old age, he became a leading attacker of Bush the Younger. One would think that if working with certain people is terrifying, you would simply not do it.

For a great story around the evening campfire, ask the lads which of them have ever kissed the dead lips of the young lassy known as the "L'Inconnue de la Seine"? Google is your friend.....

Regarding retention ... In our LDS troop of 30 Scouts, I know of only 2 boys who plan to continue on with a different troop. So I agree with the opinion that less than 10 percent will stick with Scouting beyond 2019. Regarding lower standards ... We all see the BSA program evolving with the goal of accommodation, but should we blame individual Scouts for that? When one of our Scouts was recently visiting a prospective new troop, the legitimacy of his rank advancements and merit badges was questioned (he inferred because of his LDS affiliation). Even I admit that this

The headline follows from story lead. The story is about Grand Teton Council's membership loss (Titanic disaster ) and their response (care for the survivors) - retention. IMHO, the cost of retention is less than the cost of recruitment. The Titanic analogy is a good one in terms of the number lost due to arrogance and stupidity of the big wigs. I too wish Grand Teton Council and every Council the best. Keep as many as you can. In my memory, never has National upset so many members for so many different reasons in so short a time. My $0.02,