MisterH

My Cub Scouting days were back in the 1980s, with the yellow and red beads marking progress toward Wolf and Bear, and with the gold and silver arrow points for electives. While I had lots of fun, I especially loved getting a new bead or arrowhead because of the sense of progress and accomplishment it gave me. Plenty of the other boys in pack felt the same way.

I'm somewhat confused with what I've been hearing regarding the new program launching later this year as pertains to Cub Scout awards like World Conservation, Outdoor Activity, Summertime Pack, etc. I understand that the Nova/Supernova awards are being discontinued at the national level, but will still be offered at the council level if the council so chooses. (Side note: I'm relocating soon to the Raleigh-Durham "Research Triangle" area, so I would HOPE that particular council keeps the STEM programs going!) I've seen presentations on the new program say that very few scouts ever pursued

I appreciate TWP's position; it was exactly the same situation I was in when I first tried volunteering about 7-8 years ago when I still lived in the Midwest. Even though I was a certified local teacher with years of experience teaching math to middle and high school students, I got the cold shoulder for not having any kids. The people I spoke with at the council office were very standoffish. "Why do you want to volunteer with us when you have no kids in the program?" "It's very unusual for someone in your position to volunteer; a lot of parents might have a hard time accepting you since you a

Thirteen years of teaching middle school and high school has taught me that the lessons students remember best are the ones they figure out for and teach themselves. It then becomes my job to gently nudge them in the direction of figuring out the correct answer so they'll think they did it all by themselves when they find it.

"Why in the modern day are we so attached to symbols and traditions from another century when we have a rich scouting history of our own to draw upon? " Among the mythology of early America are the stories about new settlers from Europe learning from the indigenous American peoples how to survive in the wilderness of North America. It shows up in the stories of "The First Thanksgiving", and in a lot of American literature set during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. Since many of the skills taught in scouting involve outdoor survival, it makes sense to acknowledge the lessons learned by

This x 100. In over a decade in education (and longer than that if you include college courses in the subject), I've seen too many different definitions of "equity" running the spectrum from common sense to neo-Marxist ivory tower claptrap. Fortunately it looks like the scouts seem to be on the "common sense" end of the spectrum. Equity becomes a practical issue whenever you have a stated goal of having everyone reach a certain minimum standard of achievement, be it earning the Wolf badge or passing the state's end-of-course Algebra 1 exam, and everyone is starting from different points i

Given what ThenNow and others have said about how many victims wrestle with the aftermath of their abuse for decades until finally talking about it, it's entirely likely that we'll never know how many children were abused in 2010-2020 until the 2030s, '40s, or even '50s. Given that long of a lag time, if I were BSA I would consider offering to have both national and the LC's to pay into a fund in perpetuity for victims of the recent past, present, and future as part of any settlement. It might show good faith about addressing the issue long term going forward, plus make it less likely for the

Respectfully, though, isn't one of the main complaints about the Catholic Church fundamentally different than the main complaint about the BSA? The Church has the power to relocate clergy as it deems necessary, and it was using that power to quietly reassign molester priests from one parish to another. Priest molests kids at St. Anthony's church and school in Town A, bishop finds out, reassigns said priest to St. Bridget's church and school in Town B without telling St. Bridget's about the troubles at St. Anthony's. Unless I'm misunderstanding the charge, it's not like BSA national was r

I've spent enough time interacting with academia over the past 20 years to notice this, too. IMO most colleges view "Eagle Scout" as just another civic-oriented extra-curricular activity, but I've met more than a few professors who dismissed the Boy Scouts as "a right-wing, paramilitary hate group", particularly prior to 2014 when the BSA started lifting their official bans on homosexuality.

Also from the Prohibited Activities List: 9. Extreme or action sports and associated activities that involve an unusually high degree of risk and often involve speed, height, a high level of exertion, and specialized gear or equipment. These activities include but are not limited to • Parkour Understandable on parkour. My younger brother got into it in college back in the late 2000's. One time when I was visiting him on campus I watched him climb the outside of a building to a height of about 20 feet. Our mother would have had a heart attack had she seen it. Fortunately that was ju

I joined as a Wolf in the 83/84 school year. My Bear year (84/85) was the first year our pack had Tigers. We had a large and active pack at the time (60 or so kids), so it wouldn't surprise me if they started a Tiger den soon after the program launched in 82. Cheers to the memory of Pack 279 at Our Lady of Grace Catholic School in the now-defunct Calumet Council, and camping as a pack at Indiana Dunes in early March (brrrrr!) I always thought the point of Tigers and now Lions was to get the kids into Scouting before other activities could sink their claws into them.

How did the BSA end up being forced to pay for both their own lawyers as well as their opponents' lawyers?

I'll take that fate 100 times out of 100 if it means avoiding a Chapter 7 liquidation and the demise of the program.

I'm seeing a date of December 14, 2018 on that article. Have you seen anything from this council since the Chapter 11 filing where they continue to assert this position? UPDATED: Welp, here's a link post-filing to a story about the council where I now live promising, literally, "business as usual" at the local level despite the national bankruptcy. https://www.news-press.com/story/news/2020/02/19/southwest-florida-troops-promise-business-usual-despite-boy-scouts-america-chapter-11-filing/4804994002/ So, yeah, this might be the official position of many of the local councils.

Agreed. This is a problem all over. However, public school districts are notoriously difficult (and in some cases impossible) to sue over cases like this, so you don't get the attention-grabbing headlines (and case numbers and dollar amounts) like you do with Catholic dioceses or the Boy Scouts.

I'm trying my best to understand the new legal document posted by ThenNow. It sounds like the lawyers are arguing that BSA and Arrow aren't really distinct from each other given the terms of the debts between them, so the Summit property (and related assets of Arrow) should be considered assets of the BSA for purposes of the settlement. I didn't know Summit was only 10 years old. I remember hearing about Northern Tier, Philmont, and Florida Sea Base from when I was a kid, but I had never heard of Summit until I started looking into volunteering as an adult. Guess that's why.

My 70-yo mother caught Covid back in December, survived it, and then got the first Moderna shot in early February. She had redness, swelling, and arm pain at the site of the injection for a week, and now she's really hesitant about getting the second shot. Having already survived Covid once, she's thinking about skipping the second shot and taking her chances. Finally, someone else who went through this! My father had a similar reaction to a flu shot he got back in '99 when he was in his early 50's. What he came down with looked a lot like Guillain-Barre, but in the end wasn't exactly.

I think that's a good guess. The further down the chain the lawyers go, the more blame they'll get. Going after BSA national is one thing, but going after Prince of Peace Lutheran PTO for an abuse case that happened before the current pack leadership was even born will leave a very bad taste in everyone's mouth. From my perspective, having the most visible lawyer for the abuse victims rant "Burn it all down!" repeatedly on Twitter and in the media is not a good look. To a relative outsider like me, it looks as if the other side is negotiating in bad faith, given his stated end goal is not just

Hello! I'm a long-time resident of the Chicagoland/NW Indiana area who has recently relocated to SW Florida following a family tragedy. I had a blast as a Cub Scout back in the 80s, and I enjoyed volunteering to help my younger brother with his Cub Scout experience in the 90s. I have over a decade of experience as a high school math teacher, and I was planning on applying to volunteer with the local council once my circumstances settle down a bit more. In particular, I'm really excited about the STEM opportunities that scouts have today, and I hope for an opportunity to be useful to Scouting.