fred8033

@ThenNow ... I appreciate your insight and regret your experience. My apologies. Truly, I am sorry. I'd like your thoughts on scouting specific versus broader societal problems. I can't speak to your specific situation as it sounds like the worst case, a trusted leader inflicting abuse over a long time with multiple youth. My thoughts are scouting issues paralleled most organizations where youth were present and reflected a society that was not educated or prepared to address the abuse. My understanding is scouting tried to address the issues before many other programs. Clea

Our old SM used one for 20 years and swore by it. Not my style, but a great hat.

I'm hoping by next summer that we can begin to do things. Our troop has been mostly suspended for the last six months. My family caught covid through my son's job. His co-workers follow the rules, but he deals with 15 - 20 customers a day that don't believe it's real and refuse to wear masks or stay home and quarantine. By the time we knew he was sick, we were all infected. Most everyone in the family had minimal symptoms. I've been the hardest hit. I was very sick for two weeks (fever, cough, exhaustion, etc). I'm still feeling fatigue and other minor symptoms after five weeks.

Outstanding. Kudos. I appreciate the info. In some ways, I could see individually chartered patrols as a nice option. I think several of my sons would have liked that. The only challenge would be as youth drop out or age out, how to keep the patrol alive for the remaining scouts. It's the issue girls scouts have. Girls that want to continue often are left without a Girl Scout troop because so many have left.

I wish you the best. Your kids are only young once and you have to decide what is best for them.

It's about money. Pure and simple.

Maybe advocate for Biden / Trump to designate Philmont a national historical landmark.

This cries out for higher court intervention. I don't understand how a few states can retroactively open liability for things that happened in other states. Retroactive? Across state lines? Organization existing in another state? Seems like this cries out going after the laws that opened the liability.

From a fair number that I read, the cops were called. Not all, but a good number. Things did not happen in isolation. As for "secret files" ... people need to think about technology. There was no such thing as an easy background check until around 20 years ago. Even worse, it was very hard to tell if the person was the same person. Joe Carson of Kansas versus Joseph Carsen of Tampa. These files existed to block volunteers and from what I saw, it did work. The real problem is these are being turned around against BSA instead of being held as an example of BSA trying to do

"Should" have been, yes. But no one understood the need and ... from what I understand ... no other youth program had an effective YPT before BSA. This is an understanding change that has happened continually since the 1980s and has only become well understood late in the 1990s to early 2000s. IMHO, BSA did a good job. Consider these cases go back to the 1960s ... if you assume 3 million average members (assume turning over every ten years ... some more ... some less) ... that's 18m youth members. Abuse is never good, but I suspect statistically it's about the same as any other youth orga

Really? I never heard that. Is there a reference I could read? I'd like to learn more.

I laughed until I realized ... Dallas Cowboys ... yeah, you're right.

Question ... What is the claim for ?

Your icon of "Leadership Corps" made me read up on BSA's leadership corps concept from 1972-89. Now that I've read, I can see local troops that still implement that concept. It fills in a hole on why I always wondered their troops did things different than how I had been taught. But I've been taught based on later BSA writings and earlier intentions. I was never introduced to the "Leadership Corps" concept. Interesting. Leadership Corps essentially is like a patrol of troop guides that helps the troop function. It addresses the older boy problem, provides benefits but also introdu

There's confusion between "troops" and "packs". You quoted a question about "troops". Packs = Cub Scouts (k-5 grades). Troops = Scouts (11-18 ages). Crews get mostly lumped with troops for rules, mostly. Packs (aka cub scouts) can shoot BB guns, archery, air pellet (webelos) and wrist rockets (sling shoots). Cub shooting ranges only need a BSA certified range master. Troops shoot riffles and shot-guns. Crews can shoot pistols. Rifle and shot gun ranges require a NRA skilled instructor and a NRA RSO. I don't know all the ins-and-outs of those certifications. Page 67 of

Yep. That's been my understanding too. It's when opening a riffle range or a shot gun range that you need an RSO and a NRA riffle instructor.

Teddy Roosevelt? Nope. He's out too. https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2019/03/21/teddy-roosevelt-legacy-100-years I get tired watching history being erased. We should just stop naming things after people. People are flawed. ... except Jimmy Stewart. That guy was cool. The conversation movement did not just happen on it's own. People advanced it. Hornaday was a focal point. ... IMHO ... It's okay to celebrate an achievement without being interpreted as saying the man was perfect. Change the award. Fine. It's just a sad thing to watch.

It gets tiring to watch history being erased. Maybe we should just stop naming things after people. People are flawed. ... except Jimmy Stewart. Now that guy was cool.

?? Requirements have been changed to require a NRA rifle instructor to open a BB-Gun range or archery range ?? Cubs are not allowed to shoot riffles. Or are we mixing Cub and Boy Scout requirements?

Night hikes are often the best.

I totally get that. When my sons were in CUBS, it was before "adventures". We were often trying to piece together activities to close out individual requirements. Perhaps the new Cub "Adventures" is the response to that requirement focus. I'm not sure if it's better or just different.

Though I'm late to the game, I just read the BSA 2019 Nov/Dec advancement news. Great article for ALL unit leaders in it. I'm putting this under "Program" as it's a comment about focusing on "program", not advancement. Read "Advancement Is Based on Experiential Learning" on page 6 in BSA 2019 Nov/Dec Advancement News. https://filestore.scouting.org/filestore/advancement_news/2019_Nov-Dec.pdf A few comments Advancement is natural outcome. Program over advancement. Scouts attend because of program. Growth is tracked thru advancement. Keep inside the PLC the plann

Yeah, to be honest, you've probably hit at one of the areas that we are less good. Our troop follows BSA G2SS strictly for hikes, camping, service, etc. But if it's a social event such as movie theater, food shopping, going to the mall, going to the high school football game, then no we don't make sure adults are present. We're just glad the scouts want to hang around together and grow their friendships. We count both camping, service, etc, AND social events as patrol activities. It's just the type of risk and type of activity. Plus, I can easily find adults to go on hikes wit

G2SS has the core rules. Swimming, shooting and other activities are easy to find. We do the best we can. We're in a time of change. Watch for updates, but keep running your program doing the best you can to follow the rules as you learn them. At some point, you focus on your program and any rule changes are minor issues.

Cool. Keep that. It's a family heirloom.