EmberMike

I also like specifics, and I'm curious about what anyone who thinks things will change when girls show up would suggest removing from the program.

I think most Cubmasters would be pretty bummed to know their gift card took $600 out of the pack fund. Our pack gave a gift card to our popcorn kernel (a modest amount, NOT $600), but that didn't seem inapporpriate to me because the guy did an insanely good job this year, doubled our sales from the previous year.

Isn't that exactly what you did? You suggested that I did not understand the founding intent scouting, as a means to dismantle any argument against masculinity being the core of the program. Actually I tend to feel like I'm with the minority opinion on this forum most of the time. If you've only gotten one downvote so far, you're more popular than I am around here. Why is it so amazing that you have to defend ideals that are over a century old? There were many things BP believed that would need considerable defense in today's society. His belief that footwear choice was an indica

If character development wasn't so important back then, why was it one of BP's four aims of Scouting? In his own words from his published works (I own most of them, or reprints at least), those four aims were "... Character and Intelligence, Handcraft and Skill, Health and Strength, Service for others and Citizenship." I've read those books and your assertion that developing boys into honorable men was such a prominent feature of his philosophy seems like your own unique interpretation of his writings. He did reference knights and gentlemanly behaviors, so one could argue that he wanted h

Nailed it. Thank you for this well-worded response.

What I think I'm going to start trying to stress more is age-appropriate, progressively hands-off car building & instruction. I don't expect a Tiger to build a car completely on his own. But by Bear I think it's reasonable to expect that. Webelos at the latest. But incrementally, dad should be progressively more hands off. If done right, those early years of helping and teaching (something often lacking in the process, doing vs. instructing and demonstrating with purpose) should give way to the knowledge, ability, and skills to 100% build a car on their own by their 3rd or 4th car. I

I'm still struggling with the "masculinity" part of the equation. For starters, I never felt like cultivating masculinity was ever a keystone of Scouting. The whole "turning boys into men" thing, I know that's the ultimate goal of Scouting for some folks here, but officially it's leadership training and character development, as it has been for ages. Two things that are gender-neutral and not dependent on masculinity to achieve. Masculinity isn't under attack as the author of the article in the original post suggests. It is being redefined, and I think rightfully so. The writer longs for

That's encouraging, especially seeing new volunteers. And a pretty substantial group of potential new scouts. Excellent news from an early-adopter pack.

Maybe...

I have no idea.

Maybe I&P will just naturally settle down. Things are still heated on the issue of girls in the BSA, because that's pretty new. But you dont see any more threads about gay scouts or scouters, about transgender scouts, etc. That stuff is long-since settled and there's not much use in debating it anymore. Today's issues will go the same way. Will there be other I&P topics to debate in the future? Maybe. But I doubt any like what we've been through in recent years. Maybe there will be the discussion of athiesim in the BSA, but I don't see that one going far. We've literally ju

The one I know of personally is Pharma, many of my clients are in that industry. Certifications and degree acronyms are mostly seen after names in the quality assurance area, regulatory affairs, and some specialty sciences and research areas.

Does it better protect youth? Think about it: If men are the abusers in child sexual abuse cases 90+% of the time, is adding in an adult male really a good solution if you want to better protect kids? Of course it's not realistic to eliminate men from a program that is so dependent on current male leaders, with them making up a huge chunk of the adult membership. But if you really want to make things safer, one could argue that the kids are safer with just the two women leaders. So is this about protection? Or is it about equality? Because I don't think we can check both boxes at t

It's standard in some industries. Not lame at all. It is expected in some industries that some certifications appear in titles, or even right alongside someone's name. It's especially common in QA and regulatory jobs in pharma.

Even though that makes for sensational evening news drama, statistically it is extremely rare.

I threw that out as a mostly random number, with maybe the slight logic behind it being that it's the number at which I would guess it becomes impossible for National to maintain their operations in the existing structure. 2 million, and it's already happening. They just cut pensions. Pay cuts and job cuts will follow. Absolutely. But the governing body of the organization will have to be completely re-thought. It can't be this big corporate operation anymore. I don't think 100% volunteer-run is sustainable, if you want good people to run the show they need to b

@VentureScoutNY Are we talking about new tents? A lot of new ones come with the seams already sealed. It's not exactly a fun job sealing seams, so if it's a small difference in price for a tent that is pre-sealed, it's probably worth it. Older tents (or new ones with unsealed seams) can be sealed up using the products mentioned above.

GSUSA has had a long-standing policy of inclusiveness when it comes to sexual orientation. It goes back to at least the 90s, although really they had the policy all along, as there was no ban on the books. I don't think they ever had a policy on transgender scouts either, but there was an issue in 2011 where a girl was kicked out and then later re-admitted, so I guess you could say their policy became more "official" at that time. They won't allow boys. There's no need to. I know this will sound kind of jerky, but... there aren't any boys that want to get in to GSUSA. Unless they c

We've lost a lot more than 2-4% some years. Some years lately it's been 6-7%, and as high as 8% one year as I recall. From 2012-2016 membership declined by 400,000 scouts (Cubs and Boy Scouts). When you can lose close to six-figure numbers in a year and membership is around 2 million, it doesn't take a whole lot of years to get us to a point where things really start to fall apart. And we don't have ot get to zero to close the doors. National probably can't maintain the business as we know it if we get to less than 500,000 scouts.

That's all well and good, but not many people are going to even give someone the chance to show their character until after they've already submitted a resume. And a resume needs all of those titles, accomplishments, etc.

I like the approach @T2Eagle mentions. Resumes allow for some descriptive text, so you can put down that you're a Life Scout, and then elaborate a bit on "working towards Eagle..."

You suggested that I believed that scouts should not treat people fairly and equally, in response to a comment I made about equality in regards to the oath and law. Now you're talking about Scouters and YPT. If you're going to erroneously attributes words to me, at least get your fake story straight.

I wasn't talking about recent business. I was talking about radical shifts in what they did that lead to success. Nintendo before they made video games, Suzuki before they made automotive products (they used to make silk looms). Kodak should have been entirely out of business by now but they shifted to go digital and are surviving. That alone is impressive for a company that by all accounts shouldn't have been able to survive the digital transition.

What's your evidence that they didn't do enough? Do you have some inside line to what National has been doing in regard to the new policy, or for how long? Surbaugh has said this was in the works for years. Do you really think "minimal" research went on during that time?

Please quote me on where I said that, or where you think I even implied that.