yknot

Somebody mentioned that OA is the scouts All Stars. I think that's a good thought. For that to be true, though, you are talking about one or two kids out of maybe 15=20. The top ten to twenty percent. To get away from Native American imagery, but to still keep it focused on an outdoor related symbol that does not impinge on Eagle, what about Order of the Oak? Strength, durability, service, endurance, honor, liberty, faith, virtue, and camping and the out of doors...

Completely agree.

It's tragic when any kind of public art or history is destroyed or censored because it represents something offensive from the past. It is true that BP, like many historical figures, held views that are offensive today. To destroy or remove his statue though just erases a piece of history and serves no point.

Why we do this. And not because he got Eagle. Because he's just a great young person being his best self because of scouts.

Totally agreed. Also, anyone who is an advocate for the out of doors needs to pay attention to what is and may well be happening in the months and years ahead. BSA and scouts are not the only ones looking to unload properties or cut budgets. Universities, private institutions, churches, and county and state park systems are all potentially facing financial issues. The first thing on the block is generally valuable property currently used for environmental or other outdoors related access purposes as well as the budgets that allow them to remain accessible. We are going to be in a real fight in

These camps were often gifted or earned through blood, sweat and tears of prior generations. Their loss is incalculable. Frankly, a better steward would have found a way to make sure the property remained close to its original use. There are plenty of opportunities to work with conservancies, land trusts, or government agencies to recoup some funds but still keep the property accessible to the scouts or the public or at least keep it from being developed. Our scout LNT or OE directives, even if not explicit, should at least encourage our actions in those directions.

I really don't think it matters what governors say whether they are being sensible or not. I think it matters that we are scouts and we try to do the right thing no matter what everyone else is doing. In this case, a lot of people would say it's more important to protect grandma. That's my opinion. I recognize not everyone agrees but I applaud and thank anyone who is being very cautious and not selfish because their actions are helping to keep me and our remaining matriarch alive.

I wish I were.

You are proving my point. For the most part, routine national travel for business or pleasure has not resumed. Businesses other than local are not sending their employees across the country. People are not traveling to weddings and graduations, and college students are not returning home from school because they are already there. People so far have not resumed vacation travel. And we've been relatively OK. A trend to send people farther afield from one region into another will likely paint a different picture.

From an epidemiological standpoint, having a lot of people travel from places like NYC and MN to NM -- higher transmission areas to a lower transmission area -- is not a good idea. Asymptomatic is not the same as non-infective. Also, you don't need a camp to be trained for contact tracing. I'm doing it online. It's very similar to BSA online training.

NM seems to be one of the few sane states. It makes no sense to have kids coming in to your state from other geographic regions. This thing isn't knocked back yet. The focus needs to be on getting them back in school in the fall.

I assume this is adults? I don't think that limit applies to kids. We can't do any school or sports stuff at the moment either. As far as adults, most people I know aren't even doing work meetings in person. They are even zooming between offices in the same building lol.

Never. And that's why that argument makes no sense. People join because it gives their kids something they can't get elsewhere. But they will only put up with it or seek it out if it's affordable and not too stressful to belong.

I appreciate your enthusiasm but need to point out it is illegal is most states for kids to ride in the back of a pickup on any public road. It is also disallowed in GTSS on lands public or private. For good reason I think? All of the times I have been in the back of a pick up truck have been just one click away from mayhem and maiming lol. Instead of a plaque for the kid who did 300 hours of service (very impressive) what about small donations in his honor by his buddies to some of the recipients of his service? I'd rather have that than a plaque. If the kid is that driven to help other

Has anyone asked West Virginia residents, especially those in Fayette County where Bechtel is located, whether they want all these people coming in from other parts of the country? Despite a recent spike in cases, West Virginia remains one of the lowest transmission areas of the country. Are they seriously going to allow participants from the Northeast, one of the highest transmission areas, or other places, to travel to this facility? That is opposite of CDC recommendations, which I thought BSA was following... Additionally, temperature taking is not predictive. A significant percentag

Scouts is not a particular bargain. It's just as expensive as any activity today, even when you try and do it cheaply. Between me and my kids, we've done just about every youth activity there is and the cost is dependent more on how involved you want to be and at what level. Scouts has got to stop with this inane argument because it's a naval lint exercise used to prevent addressing some of the issues why families are increasingly turning away from scouting. Any parent with young kids involved in multiple things today knows it's not part of the family decision making equation. The local value

I also have little faith in BSA's tech expertise. However, this is not as difficult as it seems. Almost every other youth organization uses one of these systems. It can't be that hard to adapt one of them. The systems that manage sports leagues are very similar for example. Instead of troops and patrols, you've got leagues and teams; you've got rosters with contact information; waiver and health forms to fill out and file online; coach and volunteer positions; clinic and lesson sign ups similar to camp outs and conference requests; alerts and news update features; online payment options. How i

If any help was coming from Congress, it would have been here by now. I'm not sure what value anyone thinks that charter holds. I'd love to see Congress step in and buy scout camps en masse as a national initiative. In the summer they could serve as scout camps or dual community/scout camps; off season they could serve a host of other purposes that this recent crisis has identified. However, it won't happen.

I think a lot of us have followed that kind of strategy for years, however I have become increasingly concerned over the years and even more recently this year with liability issues. If you are not following scout policies and procedures it does raise some problematic possibilities. I have always carried a large umbrella policy but the judgments today are becoming astronomical. What I once considered large -- $2 million -- no longer gives me peace of mind.

This is not scout worthy. This will encourage scouts from higher transmission areas to attend camp in a low transmission area and at full capacity no less. It's one thing to try and find a way to get scouts on an HA trip that has been two years in the planning, especially if there are kids in the crew who will age out. To me it's another thing entirely if you are just talking about getting kids to routine summer camp. They'll live if they miss a summer. Do we really think we are that important that we need to risk importing kids from all over? And what happens if there is an outbreak at that

I just received a communication today from one of our local councils and it is as clear as mud. I have no idea what they are saying they are doing.

Should we expect updates today from the HA bases? I thought I read that we'd get updates every two weeks -- 1st, 15th, 30th -- but that could have been wishful thinking or a hallucination on my part. Late edit: just saw Philmont posted something yesterday but I'm more interested in Sea Base

It's a valid concern, especially given our motto of Be Prepared, because based on what I've seen regarding HA and Summer Camp, we are not. Sea Base, for example, is expecting all participants to bring their own supply of hand sanitizer.

With all due respect, flu season runs through April and even early May in some years so that theory doesn't make any sense to me. I'm not sure what you are trying to say..

This is a nice story for scouting but on the other hand it highlights the concern that we don't have a real handle on this virus or know what it can do in kids: https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/14/us/teenager-cardiac-arrest-coronavirus-illness-trnd/index.html Temperature checks, diagnostic tests, and antibody tests would have been useless in this scenario. There are now hundreds of cases of pediatric effects like this in Europe and the U.S. Possible infection is not being picked up until after an acute event, if at all, but there still seems to be a link. Communicable disease plans can'