PeterHopkins

My Girl Scout troop as well. Adults cannot even drive children other than their own without being registered and background checked.

This surprised me more than anything else in the letter. In recent versions of Youth Protection Training, youth-on-youth abuse is addressed, but it is not emphasized. Twenty years ago, I don't recall the subject being included in Youth Protection Training. If this is really true, this is something important that those who complete YPT should have known. It should have been emphasized to such an extent as to have made it unforgettable.

I can take a guess as to why (which doesn't make it the right decision). Tigers would not be able to attend resident camp unless they had a registered (and background checked) parent with them.

The BSA is being sued by GSUSA in an intellectual property dispute. If the program were still called Boy Scouts instead of Scouts BSA, there would be less of a case. There have also been some who have been a bit too enthusiastic and called girls in Scouts BSA troops Girl Scouts. In my district, we were instructed at the roundtable never to do this. I'm not sure everyone got the message. It took a while before the Girl Scouts of the USA caught up to Campfire Girls, which was started with assistance from some of the BSA's founders. Within GSUSA, some legacy organizational resentment st

You and I are not talking about the same thing. You're talking about a district that has widespread challenges that essentially define it as a ScoutReach district. I'm talking about carving out portions of a district and essentially treating them as a virtual district. Again, I know this is not done with the intention to segregate along racial lines. However, it has had that effect. I was an ASM at the 2005 National Jamboree. Our council sent four regular troops plus LDS and Sabbath observant troops. Every Scout in the regular troops was in a traditional troop. Over the course of 10

I realize that these units need different support, and their unit and den leaders need someone in the council office to whom they report, but I haven't seen (in two different councils) these units integrated with traditional units.

I agree that is not the intention. I also believe that ScoutReach make makes the program, at least a taste of it, available in places where it may not exist. However, the outcome it produces is segregation. Yu just said yourself that you were a commissioner for such a district. Why are ScoutReach units grouped together and treated as a district? What would be so terrible about them attending a camporee with traditional units? In addition to the noble goals of ScoutReach, I think there is a motivation to operate it in a way that maximize membership numbers. That isn't necessarily a ba

As I recall, Dale was a very young ASM in his troop. Under, for lack of a better term, the don't ask, don't tell rules of engagement in place at the time, Dale stepped over the line. He brought photos of himself taken at an event that clearly indicated he was gay. One Scout went home and told his parents, who called the council, which, in turn, revoked his registration. I am aware that there was never a don't ask, don't tell policy, but that was the de facto way in which things worked in many councils. I believe Dale got help (and publicity) from the ACLU, and that turned it into a n

B-P's original Scout Oath was On my honour I promise that— I will do my duty to God and the King. I will do my best to help others, whatever it costs me. I know the scout law, and will obey it.

Don't we still have segregated districts and simply call them Scoutreach now?

I respectfully disagree that this is a political activity as the BSA's rules contemplate. I would regard a political activity as one that supports a candidate or a party in an election. Perhaps I would also include supporting a yes or no vote in a referendum. If the girls were meeting with a public official to try and et a traffic light installed at a busy intersection, would that be a political activity? I would say it isn't. Similarly, I don't think that helping people register to vote or encouraging people to vote is a political activity. It becomes one when you advise them about

Which government would you keep? Federal or state?

I'm presently a Cubmaster. We have not discussed this with the Cub Scouts, and I doubt any of them other than my daughter knows the BSA is in bankruptcy. Oddly, as I was reading page 46 of this thread, my daughter asked me what it was about and then asked why the BSA is in court. So, I told her. I have discussed the case with our pack committee, which includes a bankruptcy attorney. No one commented.

It looks like you want the answer to this question, so I'll oblige. Blood pudding can describe a variety of sausages. Essentially, they contain animal blood, animal fat and a grain. Commonly, you'll find blood pudding made with pig's blood, pork fat and oats. In Ireland and the UK, this is often called black pudding. It is served as a breakfast food alongside your eggs. The sausage is sliced, and the resulting discs are cooked on a frying pan. In the past, it was common to make blood pudding from beef or sheep. Instead of oats, barley is sometimes used. Blood pudding is also som

Fairness. The post that started this discussion asked whether the LC contributions were fair. There's real fair, and then there's bankruptcy court fair. I haven't seen anyone here express an opinion that real fair is achievable. Bankruptcy court fair is a different thing. The court is about money and nothing else. It is cold and emotionless. In a Chapter 11 case, provided the debtor can demonstrate its viability, the court will protect the debtor's right to emerge from bankruptcy and remain in existence. We, as a people, have created a mechanism that allows a debtor to go t

I love blood pudding. I was born in Brooklyn and am a dual citizen of the United States and Ireland.

I'm starting my fifth year of being active in my daughter's Girl Scout troop. I've only stayed on two overnights. Many of the Girl Scout volunteers make male volunteers feel very uncomfortable, if you're too involved and want to camp overnight. So, I usually just do a drop and run. There's also a significant contingent within GSUSA that really does not want male co-leaders in troops. They want men to play a supporting role only. One of the reasons I have my daughter in both programs is because I believe girls can benefit greatly from something that is specifically designed for girls and h

I am actually a GSUSA volunteer. There are background checks renewed every two years, but there is no specific youth protection training and no training at all that needs to be renewed on a continuous basis. The huge advantage GSUSA has in this realm is that the adult leaders are overwhelmingly female, and there is scant participation from fathers of the girls. When I attend monthly service unit meetings (roughly district roundtable equivalent), the attendees are typically 20 to 25 women and I. In the overwhelming majority of child sexual abuse cases, the perpetrators are male. Little

So, 20 years ago, those of us who were volunteers were watching 90-minute videos every two years as our Youth Protection Training. The experts who appeared in those videos gave the BSA lavish praise as a leader in this area. If such praise was truly warranted, one would think the BSA would be immune from claims that its neglect led to abuse, but that isn't the case. A Scouter in my district in the 1990s was convicted for abusing his Scouts. He was a Scoutmaster and would routinely invite the senior patrol leader to his home for planning discussion, and that gave him the opportunity to com

@CynicalScouter - I am a Cubmaster of a pack chartered to a Catholic church in a diocese that has already gone through its bankruptcy. I'm coming up on three years there. I spent a few years with a troop chartered by a Catholic church in a different diocese 20 years ago. I've been other places in between. I don't feel like the oversight of the diocese is particularly robust. They ask us to get separate background checks at the pack's cost done by a contractor they chose. There is a formula that determines the number of background-checked adults we need present for activities based on the

I have a question for the lawyers in the room. Is it possible for the BSA (or any youth-serving organization) to have youth protection rules so robust that they could successfully defend an action in a state court? To be clear, I am not saying that is an appropriate response to a victim. What I'd like to know is whether a youth-serving organization as a respondent in civil litigation could be held not liable, because the plaintiff is unable to show the organization was negligent, because the organization did everything it could have done to prevent the abuse. I expect the answer may

First, my post was primarily an attempt to intervene in the communication problem @CynicalScouter and @HelpfulTracks seemed to be having. They both appear to be of good intentions in my view, and I didn't like seeing CynicalScouter's message get lost. The solution I described was my impression of CynicalScouter's wishes, not a creation of my own. I'm not convinced the BSA needs that level of pubic disclosure, but it certainly needs some. That being said, no other youth-serving organization has yet been identified to have this problem to the level the BSA has. We may someday find that this

I don't want to speak on behalf of @CynicalScouter, but I've read many of his posts on multiple threads in this forum. I think the exchange you and he have had in this thread has resulted in a communication breakdown. You're not getting the message I think he's trying to send. The BSA has been opaque in its dealings with the general public throughout its history, and it remains so to this day. CynicalScouter did some research and found that many youth-serving organizations list their board members on their websites, and the information is easy to find. Since the tax returns of the BSA and

Well... I said in my post that i think the language can be improved. The intention with my words was not to set the bar at anything that is comfortable for everyone. However, tweaking may be necessary, since you read it that way (and others may as well). The points I want to make are Adults and other youth (thanks @BAJ) should not be requesting, suggesting or directing Scouts to remove articles of clothing in the absence of a legitimate program, safety or first aid reason. I see a compromise of a Scout's modesty as the Scout ending up showing more skin after an adult or other

I agree with this, particularly given the age range of Scouts BSA youth.