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You're fufilling your destiny @InquisitiveScouter! Become my apprentice, and learn to use the dark side of the force!

The most tragic legacy of abuse scandals in both the Catholic church and scouts is that truly decent adults who want to reach out and help kids in need now often feel that they can't. Not only can't. Shouldn't.

You are exactly on point. It seems people don't think much about that, instead focusing on the other two. It is an absolutely critical piece. Further, deterence by virtue of locking the doors and being on high alert isn't completely effective without repercussions. If someone does manage to pass through undetected and commit a crime of abuse, it must be met with the other side of deterence - grave consequences. There is a reason you see surveillance cameras next to statements to the effect that, "Violators will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law." From my reading of massive amou

we could build a bridge out of it.

Good point. I looked this up and 4H came out of a 1914 law that set up the cooperative extension programs at land grant universities to help farmers. While the BSA got a charter, 4H got funding. Sounds like a better deal to me. They also have plenty of donors, though. Either way, compare 4H's national budget with BSA's and they still run a tighter program. 4H has revenues much higher than expenses and all of their numbers are in the 10's of millions of dollars whereas BSA is losing money and they're in the 100's of millions range. Think of your favorite expense, the summit. I've been

We can agree to disagree. From a purely objective - add motive to opportunity and access - assessment, no other organization I can think of has as many vulnerabilities as Scouting. Yes, others "had similar issues," but you would have to combine multiple other youth activities to come up with one year's worth of Scouting. To qualify, this is only my personal experience with Scouting, other youth activities as a child/youth and as a parent. I can only share from what I know and what I've considered, so always open to being wrong. I try to avoid falling into my dad's "often wrong, but never in do

The only way to end this menace is to cast the swallow into the fires of Mount Doom where it was forged. Hatched Whatever

What have I done?

If it weighs the same as a duck...

Is that an African swallow or a European swallow?

About as much as an unladen swallow?

Having grown up Catholic (directly across the street from the Cathedral), involved in music, theater and sports, I can offer my view. I also have degrees in sociology and psychology and have considered the question, both on my own and as spurred by the topic interwoven throughout the forum. After considering it for a while, Scouting is unique even amid other many other vulnerable activities involving adults and children, before the late 1980's. It occupies different category because of the sheer range of activities that create opportunity. We had/have swimming, overnight camping, hiking,

How much does and Airweight Smith and Wesson not weight?

It is a challenge with the age of accusations and the time in which they were handled. When I was a DE (Back in the 80's) there was a issue in one of the districts. None of the families wanted to formally involved the police. The CO (a church) did not want the police formally involved. As there was not a required reporter laws NOR shield protections laws, if we (the council) had called the police, that could have opened us up to slander issues. We terminated the alleged abuser's membership in the BSA, put his name in the file, and that was all we could legally and legitimately do AT T

This year is the 50th anniversary of the Girl Rangers! Article below follows Outside article by former Ranger Betsy Teter. “We always knew we were doing something groundbreaking," Teter said. “I wish this sort of outdoor experience existed for everyone. It was formative.” Dunlap and the other former Girl Rangers agreed. “At the time, I knew, you couldn’t be a girl in the 70s, in a Boy Scout uniform, and not think I am doing something different,” Dunlap said. “We did everything in terms of outdoor adventures that the boys did. It felt like a nice leveling of the playing fiel

I'm going to disagree with the premise that the fact the brain is still growing means they don't have the physical structures necessary to start thinking like adults. If we want youth to start thinking like adults, we have to start treating them like adults. Yes, you make allowances for their age and inexperience but you don't coddle them. They aren't infants. Heck, the term "young adult" USED to refer to this particular age group (as opposed to 18-25 year olds) -- and I think still does in the book publishing world. One of the reasons I said that the skills needed in years

Sorry, other people don't get to tell me what symbols mean to me. They can ask me what they mean to me, we can talk about it, but they don't get to define meaning nor action to be taken. It's lost on the postmodern crowd that by giving words and symbols control over their emotions they infantilize themselves.