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It's a good book. It changed my outlook on the topic and made me take a hard look at the advancement and youth leadership development process in scouting.

I've seen the opposite occur when the program unduly values extroversion over introversion; a significant percentage of less extroverted scouts eventually leave. There's a good book I've recommended here before -- Quiet: The power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking.

We and other groups were allowed to meet but not recruit. One of the issues at least where we are is that the number of organizations that are seeking to use the school community as a marketing channel for their offerings has increased exponentially over the past 5, 10, 15 years. Schools cannot handle the onslaught and many districts feel the volume of messages can compete with their own important school related news and events directed at families. Many manage it by saying no to everyone that isn't school based. School based clubs and sports, yes. Outside organizations like scouts, no.

Vaya con Dios, Fred. You've always been a kind and thoughtful presence.

I think the quote and some additional history regarding BSA's early involvement with the Klan can be found here under a thread with the rather problematic name of Just Ku Klux Kluxin Around. It's under scouting history.

The reason that makes sense to me is that it will give BSA a larger infusion of cash at the earliest possible date. It also will also allow them to obfuscate the membership total and boast of a large membership bump as registrations come in through the new scheme. They don't care too much right now about impact on the local units, they are trying to survive nationally. This also allows them to claim membership retention for as long as they want to extend the national invoicing window disconnected from local reality.

An exception is the British monarch; he/she is still commander in chief and is the only one in Britain with the power to declare war although that is fairly well delegated. Prince Phillip was in WWII, the Duke of Kent, an aviator, died in it, and there's Andrew and Harry... Anne is probably the one who most reveres the military but did not go to war. She did, however, do the modern equivalent of a princess riding off to do battle for her country when she competed for a medal in the 1976 Olympics. The sport of Three Day Eventing is modeled on the pre-mechanized cavalry and at the time she com

I've pretty much left off commenting on things scouting because it feels too much like speaking ill of the dead.

You have an MPH plus a DVM degree? The only other person I know who is military and had both is a friend who wound up a Brigadier General assigned to the Pentagon. You have a unique background for today's challenges and are perhaps being a tad modest.

About 500,000 youth annually are involved in 4-H shooting sports programs, more than scouts and it's a lot more involved. I haven't heard of any similar tragedies in 4-H, although perhaps there are some.

If Council camp properties are going to survive, then there has to be a place for innovative programming like this. The council camps near us that focus on traditional summer scouts only programming are falling apart and failing. The ones who have adapted their programming to welcome non scouts with various camping options and non scout families to open activities throughout the calendar year are the ones that still have the doors open and can pay the bills. Keeping the Council camp open for scouts is one way of serving the mission of scouting. It does have to be balanced with also effectively

There is no way scouting can hang on to all the property it currently has. If part of its mission is to be a steward of the outdoors and get the nation's kids out in it, then councils should have some form of long term management and succession planning for their properties. That would entail identifying future public or private partners for the land that would guarantee continued scouting access in exchange for reduced land costs or other concessions if/when they have to sell it. Instead, far too many councils have either been shortsighted and ill prepared for this stewardship role or they h

Those camps pull scouts from a number of councils that are within an hour or two. There is also some degree of crossover from the neighboring cub scout camp. I hope they are reaching out beyond that council and the troop levels. This is the third similar type bathroom incident related to scouting in the region in the past year or so and the 4th if you include a nearby Y camp. Very sad and concerning.

Keep in mind that's not a 23% drop in three months, that's just the reconciliation of memberships that were still on the books on Dec. 31 2022 but were not on the books one day later on Jan. 1 2023. The January '23 membership announcement was strategically timed to be able to tout the higher combined figure, which was the same strategy used the year prior. I always prefer to look at the March numbers. So I'm not concerned about that. What I am concerned about, though, is that we have been officially post pandemic in a relatively normal world now for at least about a year and those numbers are

It's not uncommon. It's not just kids who are over scheduled and who are used to helicopter parents -- that is one aspect of it -- but it is also the fact that a lot of kids are being raised with the idea that no social peer can or should tell you what to do. Two exceptions to that are scouts and sports but not every kid has exposure to these activities. Harassment, Intimidation, and Bullying laws in many states, which have been reinforced through the educational system for at least the past ten years, also teach kids not only to not listen to peers but also to not necessarily trust them. Scou

This has the December 2022 membership, a number that was reported in January. Someone on here said at that time that certain positions have access to the membership numbers in real time. Does anyone know if those membership numbers held through March 2023 and the first quarter? Up or down?

Do you mean this? It's Miquin Woods now. https://www.co.hunterdon.nj.us/DocumentCenter/View/2961/Miquin-Woods-Preserve-Trail-Map-PDF?bidId= https://www.co.hunterdon.nj.us/DocumentCenter/View/2960/Miquin-Woods-Preserve-Brochure-PDF?bidId=

I think you are in the majority. This perspective is part of the curriculum and/or character education programs in a lot of public schools today, maybe most, beginning at the early elementary grades and has been for at least 10 years. Kids who learn one level of awareness in the school and community setting are frequently uncomfortable with the different viewpoints and practices that they encounter in the scouting environment. We went from having a handful of OA candidates each year to having zero for the last several I was involved. The NA aspect wasn't a draw, it was a deterrent as far as we

One of the issues is that there is no central "government" for many of these groups. There is controversy and disagreement within the NA community about who is or is not in a position to speak on these issues. There is no consensus, so the issue for BSA all along has been that it cannot truthfully claim that it has the permission or the blessing of any group to continue its questionable practices. There is no centralized, universally recognized group equivalent to a national government. This has not changed over the hundreds of years that Europeans have been interacting with native Americans b

If, for some reason, you put a few hundred kids in flying monkey suits in the night sky above you, and you knew they were there and unseen in the dark, you wouldn't risk pointing your laser up there during an astronomy lesson, would you? I would think you would want to give their eyes a wide berth. I'm not a Leave No Trace instructor, but I think the whole point of LNT is to universally leave things that are out there in their own habitat unharmed and undisturbed within it as much as possible. At least by scouts. Googling pretty much confirms that lasers are harmful or at least disruptiv

Well, try Mr. Google. You can learn all about how lasers are used in bird dispersal. Or there are Audubon chapters in almost every state. Stop by and talk to someone sometime. We're supposed to be an outdoors conservation minded organization. I would think stuff like this wouldn't exactly be news.

We have an observatory in our state park and the astronomers don't use laser pointers for scout talks during spring and fall migration. Songbirds migrate at night. The beam doesn't have to be pointed at them to disorient them.

Bring the binoculars, leave the laser pointers at home. Just fyi, as per below, lasers can be disruptive to bird species, especially during migration months when many migrate at night, and are not allowed in many parks. Using lasers at night is not in alignment with leave no trace principals. https://www.nps.gov/subjects/watchingwildlife/gear.htm Also, regulations regarding possession, safe usage, etc., can vary by state and even municipality. Some shore communities have completely banned their use.

That, and the fact that the cub program itself is very redundant with the school curriculum. They are doing a lot of these things two, three, and four times in the course of a couple years. In my district, almost every kindergarten class goes to the police station and the fire station. Plus fire stations are a popular kid party place. There leventy nine other examples of that in cubs.

In the current bankruptcy case, I am pretty sure I saw some cases that were "estate of... " Maybe one of our legal eagles would remember or know where to find where those cases might be listed to provide an example.