skeptic

Far too many, from my observations and "hearsay" over the past couple decades is that the majority of boards are just political place holders and rubber stamp voters for an under overseen executive. The board includes all the COR's, but few even know they are actually p;art of the board and never vote except by proxy, controlled of course by the few. This is in my experience, or view, the biggest reason so many councils have issues. Our camp is in moth balls based on a very questionable decision that shows many inaccurate info, especially in regard to the actual p;program and reports from "a majority" of actual leaders and scouts, not just the few that complained that were in the minority by far. There is no doubt there are budget issues, but again that falls on the way the board has worked for decades, kicking cans down the road and ignoring experienced leaders. The inevitable loss of old time and viable Scouters and the National fiasco has contributed, but we now have no go to camp though we still hope to see a cooperative agreement come out of it all. Just the old guy griping?

Sadly, most of the issues are political in my view. We now live in a loosely garbled society that makes claims for fairness and "diversity", but often does not demonstrate such. When we have done the new Citizenship badge, the youth did not get why we needed to do it, as we already pretty much accepted everybody if possible. And, most pointed out that all the "stuff" in the badge was already an expectation, though not in their words, of being a scout and a Brother to other Scouts. We will never get total acceptance or even feigned acceptance from those that choose to be selfish and labor under skewed perspectives. But, overall we do a good job, and most problems seem to me, frankly, to come from adults intruding on the youth and their interactions. One of the things I always noted as a kid was how easily Huck and Tom got along when left to their own interactions. And history is replete with how often plantation children of the "owners" played with the children of the "slaves" and did not know the difference until the adults decided it was time to separate them before they actually found friendship as adults. Where this need to somehow be "better" or more "important" comes from as we get older has never quite been clear to me, though in my own family there was, and still are difficult and prejudiced people.

Other than the announced dates, not anything not already known. Hopefully the subject matter will still be available for Scouters and others alike.

I wonder why we speak of high adventure as differrnt fom camping. They are related. even simple overnights.

I have noted recently that there seem, or so it seems to me anyway, a number of groups coming out with YP type things along similar lines as Scouts America. And, if my memory serves, even before the bankruptcy and so on, BSA (then) was recognized as a leader in YP developments. It is sad that it took all this mess to make the larger society sit up and take notice. Still a huge problem in our society though from what I read. Slow progress. Reality of course shows that ever step forward will be met with new ways around the barriers. Constant attention to following the YP rules is our only recourse. And that goes for society at large as well.

Complete closure can never happen, sadly. Some may be better at partitioning things off in order to function, but everything is locked up in some manner within each of us. And on occasion, something erupts to send us over the edge into despair or ecstasy.

Due to our county's muddled legal system, we can look forward to more of this type of thing unless someone finds the courage to "fix" things so lawsuits are not the go to thing to dismiss personal choice or responsibility, or the long lost ides of common sense.

Sadly, I fear the over the top patch circus has taken over much of the focus. By getting more involved, the exchange and "selling" of patches gains more involvement, but the focus is not on Scouting, only one up and frankly, what profit can we make. Cynic and skeptic both are ingrained in me I guess. Trying to focus on the real Scouting ideals can get frustrating so often. On the other hand, I saw a lot of real Scouting comradeship at the jambo over the years, especially when properly overseen to keep the poorer players under control.

While I am happy many seem to enjoy NOAC, I have never seen it as more than a fundraiser, especially for many councils. The ridiculous patches and over the to hype is just not what I once felt the Order stood for. But I am old and could never afford such luxuries when I was younger. But, some that have attended seem to have enjoyed the opportunity. Sadly, I seldom found improvements locally on their return. They still read ceremonies and were seldom proactive is camping service. My new middle name is "grouch".

So, can a young person that considers themselves "an old soul" receive special benefits for the elderly? Just curious.

going through some old ones from our past we found a number of way past use items, and at least one or two that no longer are even legal. Tiny tubes and bottles that needed special handling and disposal. But we did not review the tape and pads at the time, so we need to find where the old things are, as our rooms are being worked on by he church and stuff went into hiding for a bit. Likely do not have any, but who knows? We had two of the old snke bite kits hanging about.

This just came up on Talk About Scouting on FB. Few will have this concern, but there are a lot of collectors and older troops may simply have old first aid kits hanging around. Take a look. Better safe than sorry. " NOTE: Since today’s Girl Scout memorabilia post is about first aid kits, we thought it might be a good time to repeat this special notice… Got picric acid? You might! First aid kits made in the 1930s and 1940s by Johnson & Johnson (including Girl Scout kits) often included gauze pads soaked in picric acid, which was a very effective burn ointment. The problem is that as picric acid ages it crystallizes and becomes an explosive. A few years ago, after being warned by a museum curators organization about the picric acid hazard, we discovered a few pads in first aid kits in our collection. We talked with our fire department and they sent out the Denver bomb squad. Our pads were carefully removed and taken to Denver International Airport, where they were detonated at the farthest end of the longest runway. A collector in California laughed that we thought a 3” gauze pad was dangerous. But eventually she contacted her local fire department, who immediately evacuated her neighborhood and detonated two pads in a pit in her back yard — and that blew a hole in her cinderblock wall. After that she was a little mad at us, but didn’t laugh. If you discover that your old first aid kit has picric acid gauze pads, immediately contact your local fire department and ask what they think should be done. We’ve given this advice to dozens of people across the country (including many eBay sellers), and their fire departments have always taken the picric threat seriously; we hope you will, too"

Since my camping is now restricted to drive in sites, or ones we can drive easily to anyway, but have few or no facilities. Water is often needs to be carried in so cal, and some campgrounds do not have serviceable toilets, or enough for larger crowds. But there are a lot of more remote spots that do not have any at all, but you can camp there and fend. As a well seasoned person, I no longer deal well with the needed process, other than peeing in the buses. My family has a five acre plot in the desert that is on the edge of Joshua Tree, but we do not live on it, and we have not put water or electric in either, though the kids may at some point in the future. But, I take the group out to my house on a third acre and we deal with one bathroom and portable urinals, but if we want to use the acreage, it has no facility. I was looking at available portable items and note they are not too expensive for the basic needs. Does anyone have any thoughts or experience with these travel potties?

Like the term "awkward scouts". I would agree that is a great description. Also feel that the labeling that is common today is part of the problem. The youth's peers too often pick up on that and it becomes far more difficult than it might otherwise. Always a balance, and helping both the "differentand his Scouting peers deal with things is part of the challenge. Yet I have seen many of them come into their own when encourage by scout peers to get involved. Learning for them all, and for many adults I think too.

Sadly, our society generally gets in the way of this common sense approach, especially the looming black feathered birds of the legal system.

https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/?s=siple Great piece and the type of public exposure we need badly. The mention of the current NESA program for similar types of opportunity is really important I feel. And we need to make all of those participants and what they do public and do it loudly. Whatever we can do to show the overall value of the program is important. Scouting, and Scouting America will never be perfect, and it never was. That is just reality. But, the overall positive elements in the history and possible going forward is still there. And today, our society, and really the world needs that badly. JMHO of course as a well seasoned old goat.

The problem, of course, with false or skewed reports is the damage is done before it is sorted out. We have seen this myriad times, and it is far worse with the instant media options. Yet, the reason we ended in the mess, aside from our twisted legal system, is that such things often are very difficult to verify, and sensitive, especially to families.

As appears to often be the case, there is a point of confusion on the link, https://www.scouting.org/health-and-safety/safety-moments/scouts-first-helpline/#:~:text=As part of its “Scouts,put a youth at risk. that is part of the notice from Krone. Scouts First Helpline Adult Audience Only The above seems to me to make this confusing. Obviously, there is no way to keep the material from youth, so what is with the heading?

I suppose this reminder may be needed, though if we Are Prepared, it shoul fnot be. As the medic said each day at meal assemblies; "Drink water; Don't Puke!" Do remember that pop of any kind is not good for hydration. Also, encourage neck cooling wraps and be sure hats are worn. Heat stroke is often the result of an uncovered hear, and your brain frying. Of course chap stick and sun blocks of some kind, along with wicking shirt with long sleeves in many cases. Sun glasses are good, though they easily get lost, even with adults. Insect barriers can be useful. Some people have laughed, but when I went to camp I always took garlic pills morning and night and kept dryer sheets in the top of my hat and in pockets of shirts. It helped dramatically. Some staff copied me and told me it helped them as well.

"I’m not following your point. In your council activities are not done due to fear of legal repercussions?" No, our council has mothballed our main camp and the other is on the sales block, so we have no local camp anymore. Their reasoning was arrived at by a small group of people, most of whom had not real contact with the program or camp directly. While most unit reviews of the camp were always very positive, there were some that focused on things NOT there, such as a lake, and also on our annual dining hall struggles that were affected in part by some odd legal things about not fixing just some things; it was all or nothing apparently with the local code people. I do not know for sure, but I was told they even made notes of any serial numbers on older equipment, and said it they were replaced, then all the other stuff had to be done as well. Drought also has affected, but mostly the seriously skewed report based on poor info and using a National sheet for camp expectations. Much of the stuff on those "expectations is "pie in the sky" and smaller camps are un likely to be able to do them. Yet, we have unique facilities too, such as a quarter scale authentic frontier fort which has been made into a campfire amphitheatre, and very good access to mountain bike trails and higher trek locations in the area. You can hike to the top of a 2000 foot plus mountain and camp on its back ridge, for example. And that has been a part of programming along with the many mountain bike trails. The final straw seems to be the lawsuit, in my view. But, it was also related to a very poor council communication and poor planning, and perhaps some other issues. When the uprising happened they got rid of the SE, but they have not reached out to the actual users of the site which, still could be open to basic camping and special events without having summer camp. Limbo time, and still a less than, in many local Scouters' view, good focus on the program and youth. They simply seem, to me, to not care to reach outside the box. The camp, and its predecessor were both made possible by the local community involvement, and I do not see any real effort to appeal to that, though it seems, to me, to be there still. Finding cooperative partners to use the site, while not making summer camp viable with our small size, would still be possible with a bit of imagination and so on. As far as other organizations, the lawsuit and its predator lawyers has put fear into many on the legal front. The threat of CO's being dragged in on flimsy data killed many units and has badly wounded others. Even though the issues are not now, or ever were, just Scouting problems. They just did something no body else did; keep records to try to stop negative things, corrup;ted of course to the Perversion Files by the lawyers. Yes, poor decisions were made in some cases, and even one is not forgivable, but it was not the pattern of the BSA, but an intrusion of the large societal issues. JMO of course, and I recognize a few will find it deplorable. Complete rehabilitation is not likely really possible. But surely it is clear progress has occurred and IF we follow ALL the guidelines, most likely issues will be diminished. But Scouting America cannot ever solve the larger societal issues, only do their best to defend themselves and their youth.

Aaron on Scouting continues to share great items on his FB page, things most might be able to try if they were not paranoid about the legal vultures. https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2024/07/12/celebrating-100-years-of-camp-gorton-plus-other-positive-news-this-week-in-scouting/ And it is not just Scouting, it is many other once community focussed groups and clubs that did things because it needed to be done, and they were not afraid o be sued if something went awry. Technically the non profits and good samaritans are shielded, but the twisting of intent and meaning has made many not want to try, as the cost of defending is just too high, even if they might win at the end. And we all know that there have been some really ignorant judicial judgments, and suits that most osther countries would toss at the start. It is not helped by well meaning local rules, also based on shallow thinking because something unusual happened and somebody was harmed. It was not like to be an issue again if review with clear thinking, but again, our system makes it too difficult and expensive. We are on the edge of losing our only viable camp due to deferred repairs, mostly brought on by too many regulations that simply should not apply, nor keep other repairs from happening. Permits for one thing should not logically impact permits for a totally different thng; yet they seem to often do. Many activities carry a small possibility of injury, no matter what you do. If someone trips on a tent stake, is that really negligence, or just a sleepy or careless person? If a mountain biker falls is that reason to simply ban the program? It appears that is the case in some places. And this applies to say the Elks, Lions too. The threat of legal attachments on these beneficial groups by the greedy chasers has made many afraid to support not just Scouting America, but many other things in communities. These groups were, and still could be, major factors in better communities and society. From my perspective of 8 plus decades, it seems clear that we need not only a serious rework of our legal system, but maybe a magic wand to put bring back "common sense". Just my couple of dollars, once two cents, worth.

And now I do not go to camp as my body does not like it much. I miss it though, but need to be smart. They do not need me having another major health issue while there. Right now, we do not even have a local camp anyway, though the younger leaders are taking them to a unit week not too far away. As one local leader says regularly after posting photos; "get 'em out there".

Yep, it is the acclimating that is important. And that always included my telling the members, adult and kids, that the swim check was NOT a race, and they could wait a day if need. We went from sea level, literally, to a mile hight or more most years. Between the hot, dry atmosphere and unheated pool, or other water, it could zap you. As I got older, I always did my check the following day, both because of the change, but also my trying to keep up with the routines.

https://www.facebook.com/nationalscoutingmuseumbsa/videos/864680685508371 Note that Seton is given credit in this, and also how clearly the original concept fits into our societal problems today. Also recognize this is based on some of teh earliest artifacts of B.P.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-12907335/sydney-ireland-fought-nine-years-boy-scouts-movie.html