fred8033

That statement invalidates toxic masculinity. The boys I know were naturally inclined toward fire, knives, shooting sports, skills mastery, etc. Boys have a natural tendancy toward agression. I've always connected it with testosterone and hormones. I place toxic masculinity with emphasizing destructive hormonal behaviors. For example, the old days of fighting it out to solve your differences. Or when the boss was the toughest guy who could keep people in line. Think of the old westerns with John Wayne pounding heads until everyone agrees. Or John Wayne fighting Maureen O'hara's

A fundamental problem is BSA markets adventure, but delivers JROTC. My statement is absolutist, but reflects a chicken and egg issue. Which do we emphasize first and which comes as a natural result. I write as I'm often sad when I see "Sometimes it feels more like an adventure club than a scout troop." A valid statement made by a respected scouter, but it does so so make me sad. My personal view is that scouting is best served by focusing on adventure and activities. Getting the scouts out going places and doing things. Then, the structures necessary to achieve adventure and act

IMHO, most of the training should occur while doing the activity. Canoing strokes, launching, landing, etc should be done while canoeing down a river. It's a great way to pass time too. Camping is often best taught by the scoutmaster as part of setting up on campouts. Friendly pieces of advice. When it's all offered, then the scout has earned the badge. Wood carving ... start carving. Then make sure each scout learns the different parts. This gets to a fundamental question that I have that I'll put in a different thread.

I'm tired. Forgive me if I babble. "First Class First Year" ... It's about program planning. The stats may be self-fulfilling stats. Motivated scouts rank up quick and stay in. Scouts less interested won't earn and won't stay in scouts. It's absolutely not our job to pull kids forward. It's their job to rank job. We help. We inspire. We encourage positive experiences. We are there for our scouts. But it's their journey. It's about program planning. A troop that supports "First Class First Year" has a planned program that has "OPPORTUNITIES" for scouts

It does. Check the vendor specs for the buoyancy coefficient of the sleeping bag.

Your representation and reasoning is correct. And I suspect the legal situations follow your reasoning. Like many, I'm frustrated because the connection chain does not exist. The simple fact is many of these cases were not pursued back in the time when it happened. Not by parents, police or society. Also, often the cases could not have been pursued. Laws were different. Society were different. Infrastructure was different. Mandatory reporting was not a concept. Extended automatic data analysis was not possible. This is only possible by applying today's environment to a past world th

Patriot Scout? There is something about "Eagle Scout" that has gravitas. Continuity. History. Legacy. Association. It's like saying RC Cola is the same as Coke. Personally, I like the taste of RC Cola, but it's not Coke.

I'd expect 95% was before 2000. The abuse drop in 90s was more than about BSA. Society as a whole finally realized the nature of abuse. Before then, society as a whole did not handle it well. If you reach back to the 1970s/1980s even, parents would not believe kids. Teachers, police and other officials would often brush stuff under the rug. If you reach back to the 1960s and earlier, that was absolutely true. Some see cover up. Others see BSA as doing more than the rest of society did. IMHO ... in the era of mimeographs ... before the internet ... before automated backgroun

You are right. That will be the result. It's just not fair.

.... Not only before leadership. Federal law should consider "donated" assets and "when" the donation occurred and if the assets are fully cashable without killing the purpose of BSA. For example, a large part of Philmont was donated after most of the abuse. Paying past abuse kills the good will of the separate person who donated the assets. I really question the value of penalizing a current non-profit for what effectively were society wide ills.

"Youth run" is often in the eye of the beholder. The simple fact is the other troop is marketing better or people have a perception that the other troop offers better options and experiences. The issue is changing perceptions or building better relationships. IMHO, the troop shopping choice when "FINISHING" cub scouting is one of the most destructive things in scouting. It should be a continuum with each year having more and more experiences and more growth. No need to emphasize a big choice. No need to pit unit against unit. It's one of the reason we have mega-troops while many o

Not really council, but unit. With national not paying rent to councils and councils needing to reduce overhead ... and with more sales on-line (reduce overhead) ... maybe there is the slightest chance patches, advancement, uniforms and printed materials could become cheaper. I understand $10 for a scout handbook, but the leader materials should be free as PDFs.

I think your math is "reasonable" but off. I bet the stores break even if they average $100 per hour of sales. The issue is the profit. I'm betting the average profit is 50%. Some profit is higher. Even clearance is probably at least 20%. ... Space at $40k to $50k per year. With the store open 3,120 hours, that is space at $15 per hour roughly. Space at $15 per hour plus two employees at $13 per hour. Make it $20 per hour each with benefits. That's an overhead cost of $50 to $60 per hour. I'm betting $100 sales has store breaking even. Annually, breaking event at $300k

Councils will need to shed assets. Ideally, shed office buildings to save money Ideas If offices are needed, put those offices on "camp" properties. Move as much of operations "on-line" as possible. Most is already there. Re-partner with "Walgreens" or another vendor to sell scout shirts again. ... I really think scout shirts and stuff in neighborhood stores was a big-time marketing tool. My first exporsure to scouts was at the local five & dime with their four/five feet of scout stuff. Pros Save money on facility, staff, et

Absolutely true. Many volunteers WANT to be involved even if they don't have the skill. Districts rarely do the majority of their roles well. Way too consistently scouting under delivers it's promise. Scouting often does a really poor job of teaching leadership in a situation that is natural for teaching leadership. Aka pulling defeat from victory. There is not much a district volunteer can do to significantly drive membership. FOCUS ON DELIVERING THE PROMISE The promise of scouting is adventure, friendship and skills. That's why scouts get

Absolutely. Without any doubt in my mind.

Two year rule ... My fear is driving kids out of scouting. The two year rule minimizes tenting options. As some kids are immature or even just jerks, I could see good kids leaving scouting because their patrol does not have enough kids in their age bracket to mix up the tenting partners. As much as I like scouting, I would be completely reasonable for a kid to leave scouting if his only option was six years of sharing tents with someone he does not want. Your discussion is one of the reasons I like letting scouts pick their own patrol, but starting them together when they join. Scou

I must disagree. G2SS is close to the exact set of youth protection rules I'd promote. Of course, there are entries I roll my eyes at. My repeated example is playing laser tag or even paint ball. Those two games are the modern day version of playing tag. If when scouting can't help teach responsibility in games like that, then scouting is making itself an anachronism. Worse, our scouts have to pretend not to be scouts or not to be part of scouting at that moment to play laser tag or paint ball. But even as I get frustrated with those two entries ... and others ..., scouting is muc

That does sound like a good idea. Though it might be viewed as the grey area, it's about the amount of difference where it would be raising flags for me.

GOOD - Names and troop numbers were obscured to make anonymous. GOOD - Everyone created their own rank 1 to 10 and then we compared our numbers and defended our vote. Some people adjusted their number after. It was fairly clean. BAD - Many of the nominations were still easily identifiable even without names. But anonymous did clearly help. BAD - Nominations were strongly influenced by how much effort the person put into nominating the person. Reference letters. ... RECOMMENDATION - When a nomination is made, leave time to help improve / groom the nominations to the s

LOL ... I've been on too many camp outs with scouts. Scouts are not angels. Also, SPLs are not angels; nor are SPLs usually long experienced leaders. Key point is G2SS is adult responsibility.

That was a natural response. Scouts (and all youth) learn very quick to give deference to adults. I can't speak for your troop, but most scout programs emphasize the difference. I'm betting each and every scout can tell multiple stories of where an adult used his position (or age) to put a scout in his place. I know that "adult interaction" is a method in scouts, but I really think we need to be more careful of when and how that occurs. In fact, we need to interact in such a way that the program grows the backbone of the scouts to stand up for what is right. I remember our first sc

Bigger troops are not the issue. My ideal troop size is 35 to 50. Baden-Powell said 32, but corrected for society changes, I think larger troops of 75 to 100 are okay. One great benefit is to do more campouts / activities and a greater variety of campouts / activities. The issues are ... Not recognizing long-term existing BSA policies, etc. MBC is not a troop position and has never been a troop position. MBC has always been a council approved position. MBC app allows to say what troops to mentor, but also has bold stating counselors are encouraged to work b

Silence falls on the scouts as the brave young girl launches an arrow true, spearing the large troop, custom-wrapped, double-axle trailer. Hushed tones carry her name ... mocking jay.

This MB discussion is very disheartening.