yknot

Almost no time in the lower 48 is not hungry black bear time. They woke up in my area earlier this week when the temps briefly went above 40 degrees and were on the move and hungry looking for a midwinter snack. Black bears are not true hibernators except in the extreme north. Don't pay attention to the calendar, pay attention to the thermometer.

Seems kind of stupid to me to not allow a parent to tent with a scout if you want scouting to survive in the pandemic era. Then you are requiring a scouting family to buy two tents and possibly twice the gear just to accommodate a bizarre requirement. On the other hand, being completely liability driven, I do not advocate flaunting BSA policy. I do think BSA needs to issue some interim temporary policy modifications to make outings easier for scouts during the pandemic. It is also not safe to have scouts tenting alone in some situations. Far better to have a tent buddy, especially in bear terr

That is the reality today. If you don't figure in all your hidden overhead costs when setting your rate, fee, or bid, you will not earn a profit and survive. A hundred years ago it was just a guy and his hammer and stuff you could cut down or dig out of a field. Now it's insurance, workers comp, licensing fees, materials, vehicles, etc. etc.

When teams of lawyers are earning $400-$2000 an hour sometimes the percentage approach works out better. Have you ever gotten a legal bill and seen how much it costs for the simple task of having an admin level person at a law firm put something in fed ex lol? It's mind boggling, but sometimes the percentage approach actually caps the legal fees.

Someone once corrected me when I said most of our Troop achieves Eagle because the percentage didn't include cubs but I did not double check them. Our base unit is pretty much an Eagle Mill (not my choice).

These are some of the arguments against herd immunity, which is a seriously misapplied term from production animal medicine where it really refers to either vaccination or slaughter. Vaccines can not only mount a better immune response than natural infection they can also help better avoid undesirable sequelae.

Textbook is the key point. The problem is there is no real time, real world data yet on much of anything. We're just a few months in. DOI might wind up being very good but we just don't know yet. Covid 19 is definitely not the most volatile viral agent out there, but it has been surprisingly unpredictable. We will just have to see. It is truly a novel pathogen. Regardless, I am very grateful that I was able to get my first dose.

Duration of immunity and efficacy against emerging variant strains are kind of two different things. Duration of immunity is still a factor even in very stable viruses, like rabies. Efficacy against emerging strains in more volatile viruses is obviously evolving. We don't know the answer to either question at this point, but the more we can contain the virus through any and all means, the more we can at least tamp down mutations that lead to vaccine resistant strains. I know vaccine manufacturers can reformulate the mRNA vaccines pretty quickly to target variants, but the concern is if they ha

- I had a couple days of an achy arm after first dose of Moderna but I've had that before from other vaccines. Not seeing it as consequential. - Roll out has been amazing but it's not really man on the moon. The mRNA platform has been around for awhile, it's not really that new or scary technology, and it's already been trialed for other vaccines and applications. Cutting through all the red tape to get it to delivery has been the most revolutionary aspect. Hopefully we will do the same to adjust vaccines for emerging variants. Glad to hear of people getting it. Stay well my friend

I think this really depends on where you are. Also, the 6% is misleading because that includes cubs. We historically lose somewhere between 50% to 80% of our scouts at or right after crossover. I think it's more relevant to look at the percentage of troop age scouts who graduate to Eagle because that's why a lot of them stay in scouting. In our area, much is made of Eagle in the cub years.

This is the norm by me. Eagle early because the demands of AP, sports, other extracurriculars, summer enrichment, and college search and process are all consuming by high school.

I don't think there is anything really wrong with what this kid did. He's obviously committed and he met all the requirements. My issue is that this kind of thing -- zipping through to Eagle and extreme badge-ism -- is routinely held up as the ideal when it's not.

Times are changing and people are less likely to have time for dinners and banquets. People are busy and when they have time they want to spend it on a family dinner, not a banquet. Even our Blue & Gold and Red & White have become sparsely attended with little interest. I've had better luck with early morning coffees at the local coffee shop before work. Quick, easy, time limited.

You can find it if you google Methodist Common Service Table BSA restructuring. It's on youtube.

This is what I think is going to be the problem. A lack of easily obtainable, affordable, liability insurance. Who in their right mind would insure scouting right now.

It's interesting that you are not denying the duplicity but are instead rationalizing it. Argue what you will but it would seem the drastic membership declines of the past four years do not support your claims. More ever, you are also not processing the point that the membership losses are not necessarily due to resistance to girls joining scouts but to the dishonest way in which BSA enacted it. The organization demands much of its volunteers but has always been able to bind them to it by claiming a high moral code--a code that resonated with volunteers. Once you abandon the moral code, howev

Even if the surveys were not guided to produce falsely inflated percentages, there is no defense for BSA reneging on its word to members to proceed thoughtfully and cautiously. Even proactive councils were left with egg on their faces when BSA abruptly changed tactics midstream. That is also a laughably weak defense for lack of transparency -- that the reason results were not publicized is because they would have been criticized. Behaviors and rationalizations like these are why BSA has lost support even among some of its most ardent supporters.

Of course the surveys were positive. They were designed to produce those results. That's what I mean by a guided survey. The surveys were not designed to do objective research but to provide statistical coverage for a foregone conclusion. That's obvious, because the BSA is on record in the GSUSA lawsuit as having already decided it would admit girls before Surbaugh ever launched his "town meetings' tour on the question. It was a duplicitous strategy that played out in real time in a lot of councils. As far as girls, I was initially hesitant because there are so few places for boys to be b

Scouts handled the internal roll out the same way. Surbaugh initially told everyone it was just under consideration and any changes were a long way off and would be well thought out. BSA sent out guided surveys that all but forced positive responses to the question of whether girls should be added to the program.. Like a week later, or at least it seemed to us, due to "overwhelmingly positive responses" from the guided surveys, it was announced as a fait accompli. It caused incredible turmoil in our council and led to people leaving because the way it was handled was so duplicitous. It was al

There is indeed a greater urge to get outdoors. The problem is that the urge has decreased within scouting. It's become very advancement and Eagle Scout driven. It's not universally attracting that many outdoors types. I've been pointing this out for a long time. Liability issues are more involved than just worrying about whether you have a lawyer's kid along on the trip. You still need to have some kind of insurance, policies and procedures, etc. People may be enthusiastic about it until there is an issue and they are faced with personal liability.

I don't think you are being ignored, I just think the reality is that scouting is done and that it will be almost impossible to continue it as a grass roots activity. A group of parents will still need public goodwill and liability insurance.

Eh. When in scouts, I feel like the scout honorific has priority to build corps de sprit. I would never refer to someone as Dr. or Col. only Scoutmaster or ASM or Mr./Mrs. Some people here say they combine them together, such as Dr. ASM or Col. SM, but I think that is unwieldy.

This is often the case with so many issues that arise on this forum and it's why many of us are often here. So many of these issues could be resolved if BSA would clarify what it means. I understand that in many cases, legal liability is the reason for the vagueness or lack of a policy. But there are so many other issues where a a little more clarity or definitiveness would simplify things in the field.

I think this is something best left to the particular troop culture. If you have kids who are completely intimidated by adults, then allowing use of first names might relax them. If you have kids who lack basic respect and manners, then setting the tone with a Mr./Mrs./Ms. might be the way to go. They are used to the Mr./Mrs. model in school and most other youth activities so I tend to follow that. Personally, I don't think most American kids have a big problem with confidence. That's one of the few metrics on which U.S. students habitually outscore international students. I have sometimes add

That scenario assumes BSA would survive a post bankruptcy reorganization and be able to make future contributions to a fund. BSA's membership has declined for reasons other than just the abuse scandal. Corporate level fundraising has also declined, and I think it will be even harder to inspire donor enthusiasm when donations either directly or indirectly would fund compensation.