Eagle1993

I’ve seen several kids hit trees (not scouting) while sledding... luckily no ER visits.  If you are not careful you can easily misjudge your speed (and thus length of run at bottom) or your ability to control yourself going straight.  My heart goes out to this family and it will make me think twice when I send my kids out sledding without helmets (we’ve never used them for sledding or seen them used).

This looks good to me.  We also have energetic Scouts and a few tips that helped us:

Parents discouraged from attending den meetings after Tiger.  After Tiger they are just in the way and can distract the scouts.

Having keep busy activities available for the time before Pack meeting starts.  In some cases bins of legos, others Holiday card making, etc.  Something to keep them occupied.

Den Meeting whistle.   Some may frown but Iit works.  I had a den leader forget his whistle one day and it looked as if he had PTSD after the meeting.  

A council had hooters help sponsor a camp???  My company won’t even reimburse Hooters expenses on corporate cards (they lump them in with the “gentlemen’s” club list).  I love that sassy ass response from the DE.  I’m surprised he didn’t reference the wings.

Wow. What next?  Bars, smoke shops, strip clubs?  

Let’s talk about some of the metoo “victims”

#1st tweet was on Harvey Weinstein by Ashley Judd (Oct 5)

Roy Price was taken out Oct 11... 

Larry Nassar Oct 18...

Kevin Spacy Oct 29...

Roy Moore Nov 9.... 

Louis C.K. Nov 10...

Matt Lauer Nov 29...

Garrison Keillor Nov 30... at first I thought perhaps this one was a reach, until MPR came out with a bit more info...

Russell Simmons Nov 30...

Al Franken Dec 7

Mario Batali Dec 11

Gary Goddard Dec 20..

Read about these.  Which men should be put back in their position?  What I see is man after man in positions of power sexually abuse, assault and harrass men and women for years and decades with no fall out.  

I’m sure there are some (I think the figure published is 2% but it’s probably higher) that have false acquisition.  The beginning of this thread was that metoo was bad for women and men.  I call BS.  Status quo is bad for good people.  Taking a stand against individuals who abuse their power is always a good thing.  

As scout leaders it should make us relook at and ensure we are enforcing YPT.  Larry Nassar was able to sexually abuse countless girls including Olympic athletes for years.  Girls parents believed the abuser instead of their own daughters.  No 1 on 1 contact must be strictly enforced.

In my home time in the 1980s a child accused a Catholic priest of rape.  A few days later it came out that he lied.  I remember my parents saying what a sick boy that kid was for lying.  Only he wasn’t... Years later that priest was found with another boy.

I don’t think now is the time for scout leaders to send messages that are being sent in this thread.  Many of the posts seem to be much more about judging the accusers than encouraging openness and getting to the truth.

I guess my question to you is what do you want to see?  I want women to feel unpowered and report instances of sexual harassment and assault.  Those reports should be fully investigated and guilty individuals should lose their jobs and freedom, if appropriate.  Too many times women (and men) have been silent as we have seen over the last 3-4 months.  

@Pselb

I guess I’m more worried about the next Jerry Sandusky or Larry Nassar.  Both were accused and their accusers were ignored for years.  

1 hour ago, Pselb said:

 

I would think that as this dynamic impacts other organizations, they too will feel the effects.  Face-to-face contact is becoming less frequent and it is most obvious between male and female,

What dynamic?  I understand the concern of false accusations but I haven’t see waves of men fired unjustifiedly.  I have seen bad men finally loosing their jobs and  freedom after years of ignoring their previous accusers.  

I haven’t seen any changes at my workplace; however, we have had a rigorous sexual harassment program along with a great omsbud system.  Over the last 20 years, I know of three people accused.  Two were fired, and rightly so.  One was exonerated with no impact to his career.  We still have one on one meetings with females, no issues.  It’s been really difficult, but I’ve managed to keep my pants on for all of my meetings with my female coworkers.  The general discussions at our workplace is the shock in how out of control some workplaces must have been to allow this behavior to continue as long as it did.  

3 minutes ago, Jameson76 said:

Was it they just wanted to focus on FOS?  (and popcorn and camp cards and golf tournaments and and and)

Not clear.  It was just the fact that I saw no engagement from council on several matters other than FOS (and other fundraisers).

I just came back from one of the most depressing District meetings I had been to in years.  There was a proposal to create a council wide camporee for Cubs through Boy Scouts, with a goal of 1,000 Scouts .  The council voted it down as it was not in their best interest.  Now the Districts are left hoping they can pull something together.  Another topic came up regarding councilwide service project... no support from council.  FOS ... well, that is the focus for them this year.

From my limited experience, the order should be Program - Recruiting - Fundraising.  If you put on great council events, it will improve your ability to recruit and then you have more people and excitement to donate. Putting all your focus on squeezing that last bit of juice from your current membership is not a great long term play.

I always liked Churchill’s quote “Plans are of little importance, but planning is essential.”

 OR Tyson...”Everyone has a plan, until they get punched in the mouth.”

To be fair, the complexity is jumping up on YPT and overnight requirements.  I think a BSA sponsored YPT playbook armband should be coming out soon.

31 minutes ago, NJCubScouter said:

It is my understanding that, at least in the current early-adopter program, the pack leaders are making an express commitment to the council to keep the boy dens separate from the girl dens.  Is that incorrect?

Assuming that is the case, I would question the comment that the pack wouldn't have to pretend.  The pack would be making a direct promise not to do something, and then do it anyway.

Update:  Well, here is the agreement, at least in my council: https://ppcbsa.org/wp-content/uploads/SUS-2018-Family-Scouting-unit-application-final.pdf.   I suppose it isn't as crystal-clear as I thought, but it does imply that the girls are in their own den.  I think I have seen a document that is more explicit than this, but I guess this is what the pack and den leaders actually sign.

This was much more formal than our arrangement however the rules are consistent.  I have heard of some Packs taking in paper applications and others accepting 5th grade girls.  I’m sure some have already combined dens.

The separate sleeping arrangements was an area of widespread agreement  ... but I expect some Packs to screw that up.

One of the moms, current GSUSA leader asked “what grade do you earn that coveted Eagle”.  I explained that it has nothing to do with age or grade as there are some *shudder* 12 year olds that have earned the rank. I went through the requirements and we talked about all of the Eagle projects around town.  I then explained EBOR and she said it sounded like defending a dissertation.  

I also agree explained (a bit) about the patrol method.

The more the GSUSA members learned about the BSA program the more they saw the benefits.  

Had first parents meeting last night and there was a lot of pushback regarding separate dens.  The general consensus was that why is BSA adding girls to only keep them segregated.  Why wouldn’t the girls just go to Girl Scouts.  We got through the discussion but I have a feeling the separate den wall will fall in the future.

We also have several current GSUSA scouts coming on board and it is clear that this decision will cause loss in the ranks of GSUSA.  Not only are scouts but leaders are looking to transition.  I dug in a bit and the two comments I heard were GSUSA program can be boring at times and BSA seems more grass roots.  Im not sure if that is BSA’s intention or simply how we run our Pack.

First Girl den meeting next week and I expect to see several applications in over the weekend.  

1 minute ago, EmberMike said:

 I hope people aren't doing this just to make a statement or for self-serving publicity. 

To be honest, when I read this story and saw they person who created the Pack was a deputy DA I thought.... political move.  

We had a meeting with parents of some of our new girl members last night.  One of the biggest complaints and questions was regarding separate dens.  The comments were all similar ... why should any girl join if this won’t be coed, why shouldn’t all girls then simply stay in Girl Scouts.  We explained that the Pack would be coed and that seemed like to help a bit.  I wonder what families and supporters of GSUSA will think of all Girl Packs.  Clearly that doesn’t help families go to one organization in terms of planning their time.  I don’t understand how creating a girl Pack is family scouting, and given some of the comments I got regarding separate dens I can only imagine what current GSUSA supporters would think about it.

The council must have kicked off this story as a recruiting message.  Drum up some support in prep for launch.  Most seem focused on the Cub Scout program when working with the media, not sure why this council led with 1,600 girls ready to join and then got all the media tied in with a fake BSA girl Troop.   Seems like this can only cause confusion.

I’d recognized not reading comments at the end of articles.  It’s not clear if they are trolls or simply disgusting human beings.  

Great ideas, thanks.  I agree, the $600 amount caused me to push back.   We are planning on thanking him during our Blue and Gold and I’m trying to get several Boy Scouts who were Cubs under him to attend as well.  I love the flag idea and several others.  I’ll continue to push back on the gift card, and it will definitely not come out of the Pack budget.

Does this impact both hands?  What if he just used his left hand instead?  

Thanks for the suggestions. I should note that he was talking about a $600 gift card.