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SiouxRanger

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Everything posted by SiouxRanger

  1. Not crossing it out-you have NO legal argument. Crossing it out, you preserve your legal argument. Is the legal argument preserved worth much-not likely as you note. Can you stand tall at the front counter and Rant with authority-you bet. And if you file suit, the council is DOWN about $10,000 in legal fees before the first eye is blinked. At the end of the day, we register, we pay, and we stand tall to be sheared by National so it can profit. ut tAnd National conceals the risk of harm to our kids. Lovely. I attended all but one campout that my 3 sons attended, so they were always close by, though I did not hover, but they knew IK was there if there were issues. But not every parent attends every campout, or even one campout. "Hey, It's Scouts. That's safe, isn't it?"
  2. This is an incredible number. Some time ago, I came cross an article about a compilation of all of the places where Jews and others were concentrated or exterminated during WW II. It was at least 40,000, and perhaps even more. I think that Yad Vashem was compiling the list. Many of us recognize Auschwitz, Sobibor, Majdenek, Treblenka, Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald, and Dachau, and that leaves 39,993 none of us are familiar with.
  3. Thank you for posting this. You are precisely right. "Come walk with me, no not that way, just turn 2 degrees this way, Hi, smile, all is good, take a dozen steps, then turn another 2 degrees…in a mile, you are headed 180 degrees-a complete reversal. Soft, slow, and imperceptible-yet, now evil never happened-actually evil was a good. You should show no alarm-all is well." But it isn't. Evil is always evil. "The price of Liberty is eternal vigilance."
  4. I've commented on this before, some time ago. And to be brief. The concept of "bankruptcy" is that a legal entity, National BSA in our case, as a corporation, can obtain legally binding forgiveness from part of all, or all of all the debts legally enforceable against it. Chapter 11 is the part of all, and Chapter 7 is all of all. This is a critical concept. Creditors of National, who ONCE HAD a legal claim against National are simply not part of the concept of the bankruptcy law. They are NOT claimants in a bankruptcy sense. So, NATIONAL proposes, through its PLAN, contrary to all bankruptcy law, that scouts, now adults, who no longer have any legally enforceable claim against National (due to the passage of time, and having passed statutes of limitation), should be included in the class of claimants entitled to a settlement payment. "And why would that be?" -Carson of Downtown Abbey. Because National BSA has to havSadly, I just hang on words.
  5. BINGO. Where is the meaningful change? Like the Wizard of Oz, "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain." I am sick of the secrecy. Us volunteers FUND National and the Local Councils, all not-for-profits, yet all the financials are hidden. Nothing is GAAP. At least that which does see the light of day. Time for a change.
  6. As an attorney, I can absolutely assure you that that is precisely what I heard. And I was as alarmed as you. For the same reasons.
  7. There is the Ice Age Trail in Wisconsin. Devils Lake in Wisconsin is a neat place. Asolo brand boots and trail shoes. I've bought a dozen pairs over the years, at least, for myself and my sons. My unit adults t about another 6 pairs, upon my recommendation. And their kids another 4 or 5 pairs. Start there. If boots, trail shoes, don't feel very comfortable in the store, they are wrong. Keep trying. Hiking poles. Always TWO, not one. But, learn to use them. They are not some affected bauble to look cool. They maintain balance, which saves you a TON of energy trying to maintain balance. They propel you forward moving some work from your legs to your arms, which are generally underused in hiking, and, on the down hill, they can be used to virtually eliminate the shock of your knee absorbing the dropping load of your body and pack as you hike downhill. (Extend the length of the poles for downhill hiking, and plant the pole in front of you before you plant your foot on the downhill, and your arm will help softly lower the load to your foot which can be placed gently with no shock to your knee.) This takes practice and it helps to be a musician, because if you consider your footfalls as "the beat," you'll be planting your poles on the beat, before the beat or after the beat, depending on what you are doing. If you are traveling some distance, and perhaps at anytime you are "underway," always, always have your footfalls land on the beat, that is, a uniform rhythm. So, that means, if you are steaming along a flat stretch with feet falling at a second per step (actually pretty slow), and you come to a spot where you have to take baby steps, let your foot hang so that it lands in the rhythm. Breaking footfall rhythm consumes mental energy. Hiking from Dan Beard to Kit Carson Museum at Rayado with a pack in less than 12 hours-mental energy is a precious commodity. Down. The only sleeping bag filler worth having in my opinion. Period. "It won't keep you warm if it gets wet." (There is a story about a bad night at Harlan camp, I'd rather not admit to.) Don't get it wet. 900 down means 1 ounce fills 900 cubic inches. 650 down means 1 ounce fills 650 cubic inches. As the down number goes up, the cost goes up drastically. I have a 650 down bag good to 0 degrees, or -10, and a 900 down bag good to 20 or so. the 900 down bag cost as much or more than the 650 down bag, weighs half or a third as much and is like a cloud. An 800 down bag or higher will not disappoint you, and worth every cent. They are great all winter long in the living room to keep warm watching football, too. (Put them away from the cat as it will likely like to burrow into it with the attendant claw snags.) I have owned a dozen synthetic fill bags, though only through the synthetic fill technology of about 20 yers ago. They are fine in mild temps but quickly crushed down and lost much of their insulating capacity. Modern synthetics might be better. If all else goes South, your sleeping bag is your last bastion of refuge. If you are cold, you cannot even wait out a catastrophe for some days in relative comfort. Colin Fletcher is the Father of modern backpacking. Author of The Complete Walker. Four editions. I prefer the first edition, as the others include new equipment, largely. I've read large parts of all of them. He has a number of books of his endurance hikes. Thousand Mile Summer. The Man Who Walked Through Time. River. There are others not quite so directed at endurance hikes. Tents. Having owned numerous Kelty tents, North Face, and finally a Big Alice (just not sure what to make of that name from a marketing standpoint), my one person Big Alice Copper Spur 1P is a work of art. Go to REI and set up a dozen tents, re set them, make a nuisance of yourself fiddling with tents. I did. Check head room, width, space for stuff, etc. Have good travels.
  8. My unit always strikes out the release by a line run through each line, initial the block of lines, make a copy for the Troop file. No one has mentioned the practice-even Philmont. But we have our evidence if issues arise. I've heard pros mention that even if folks don't sign the photo release that, "There are ways around that." Lovely. We are all just sheep to be sheared against our wishes.
  9. My comment was directed at my concern that program would not look like what it was-and negatively so. But, I think you may be suggesting that the failed administrative aspects of Scouting will be gone. One can only hope. Either way, my friend, it is a hideous mess. War, and litigation, are like that, civilities and pleasantries, the grist of diplomacy, devolve into slaughter, cruelty, devastation, and death. The tempest settles and clears, and the survivors pick up the pieces, and build anew. I've quoted Churchill before, and this quote specifically, but I will repeat it here. How the Great Democracies Triumphed, and so, Were able to Resume the Follies Which Had so Nearly Cost Them Their Life Winston S. Churchill The Second World War, Vol. VI And, to put meat on the bone: National exits bankruptcy (Triumphed), and went back to business as usual (Follies-concealing abuse claims, not reporting claims to its insurers, insurers being duped into believing that there are no claims, and thereby not raising premiums nor alerted that there should be an independent measure of effective oversight and management of claims), and resuming National's "business as usual" model which will carry National right back to today, just 30 years from now. Not having learned a whit from its near-death experience. As one poster commented, paraphrasing, "I see nothing in the Plan that actually reorganizes National." ("Resume the follies which had so nearly cost them their life.") Apparently, National resists any meaningful oversight of abuse claims. And why would that be? (Carson-Downton Abbey. "Well let's move on." Same Carson.) NO, with National, we cannot and will not "move on." We should NOT merely "move on." We should Stand And Demand. If National is unwilling to take reasonable measures to protect children, then reasonable measures should be imposed upon it. The "Youth Protection" program is a huge step forward. BUT if there is no independent monitoring of claims and independent evaluation of the effectiveness of the BSA Youth Protection Program, and a mechanism to suggest refinements, the fox is again in charge of the hen house. And, frankly, the "hen house" is a bankruptcy courtroom. Nice work, if you can keep your job. If no abuse claim reform with independent monitoring, all us are just back in the same fog National enjoyed for nearly a century. Which brought National, and thousands of children, now adults, to a reckoning, of sorts, in Bankruptcy Court. Just reflect on the hundreds of old newspaper photos showing a troop marching down Main Street, flags waving, scouts smiling. And imagine that in the shadows of the crowd, if the abused scout even attended, or several them , wishing they could march with their friends and enjoy the moment but who shrunk back, compelled to contrive forced explanations to their parents on why they lost interest in scouting, though craving to "belong," and denied that experience for reasons they could not tell anyone. Trustworthy.
  10. Yeah. Things measurable by physical count, attendees, easy. But how does measure commitment of soul-loyalty?
  11. It will not be anything like we are accustomed to recognize.
  12. I figured the LC contributions would need to double. Maybe a bad bet on my part. The LC contribution is pathetic.
  13. Yep. A third to a tenth of their actual liability? My guess as to the range of their exposure. Save your company $3.2 billion, get a designated parking space.
  14. It depends entirely on whether this objection has been subject to a hearing on the merits. If no hearing on the merits of the objection for 2 years, it is still live. Passage of time does not weaken legal arguments or the significance of legal truths. If it did, our Constitution may well have been supplanted by a limited warranty from Montgomery Wards.
  15. This is English? "Tom gets 6 marbles, Al, and his brother Art, if the wind is from the Northwest, on the third Tuesday of July, get 5 marbles going to the brother who has the best of three Rock-Paper-Scissors match..., otherwise, those marbles go to..."
  16. I don't think that the financial carnage is over. The judge may end up having to choose which organization the judge leaves hanging-BSA or Catholic Church, or...??? I also suspect that even if the LC's get a third party discharge, if any major defendant is left facing state court suits, the LC's and BSA, though no longer liable for damages due to discharge, will still have to respond to subpoenas in state court cases as occurrence witnesses, endure discovery, etc. All the while incurring defense costs. "Death by a thousand cuts." I think that BSA and the LC's only avoid the role of witnesses if all the major potential defendant groups are discharged. I also wonder if the LC contributions are going to be increased. Per the TCC council analyses, though some councils are barely hanging on as it is (and likely facing death by merger) others are flush. It will be interesting to learn who blinked first. Just some thoughts and questions. No answers here, sadly.
  17. Having 3 sons and having attended at least half their summer camps for the full week, and the rest for half a week, and 4 Philmont treks, Scouting is not inexpensive. It is a very expensive program and requiring a huge weekly time commitment certainly if one gets drawn into District or Council level work. I grew up in the program having an older brother who earned Eagle and went on a Philmont trek. Scouting was all I wanted to be involved in, and wanted my sons to participate in, and I participated with them-virtually every campout but 2 or 3. I did not watch them from the stands for an hour as a spectator, I sat on a stump in the rain and shared their experiences and taught them how to cope as a participant and mentor. It was clear that the time allotted to me, as a parent, to "pour myself into them" was limited and that the best place to do that was by involving them in Scouting and by me participating fully in their activities. And I did. Not hovering, but there, mostly at a distance, but there were many "Teachable Moments" which I used. Perhaps annoyingly so, but not burdensomely so. One Eagle Scout in his speech at his Eagle Court of Honor mentioned that "Mr. SiouxRanger would always talk to us about history, scout skills, nature-birds, plants, and knots...during our rides to campouts, and such, and how it was tiring. Well, perhaps. Let the record reflect that that Eagle Scout got to about 7 months before 18 showing no interest in attaining Eagle, and was missing a number of merit badges not having made progress for half a year. At one troop meeting he announced that he wanted to earn Eagle. "Well, you need to call me and make an appointment and we will work through the merit badges, but I am not calling you to push or cajole. And he did call, and he worked diligently and he earned his Eagle. Every Sunday for months we worked for 3 or 4 hours. A scout of a single parent family of mixed race. No one was in his corner but me. I don't regret a cent of cost or a minute not spent anywhere else where I would not be with my sons and mentoring them and their friends. Isn't this what Scouting is about?
  18. I have always paid full price for my attendance at summer camp not being interested in scouts and their families paying my way. And I am self-employed, and the sole income producer in my business, and it costs me not only the camp fee, but also all my office overhead, and loss of all billable time for a week. About $5,000 a week.
  19. Ah ha! That explains a lot. I cannot imagine any attorney, at any time, under any conditions, recommending that a client not file an objection by the due date unless the "deal is inked." For if the perceived deal falls through, the time to object has passed and client has lost its right to object. I can not imagine that any attorney in this particular case would consider the "deal inked" unless it is the Judge's ink on an Order confirming the Plan, or whatever Plan comes out of mediation. I would expect the TCC to file an objection simply to preserve its ability to object if things fall through. The TCC can always withdraw its objection if things work out to its satisfaction.
  20. The Plan as put to a vote, or as changed so far to date, or are additional Plan changes anticipated? And why no objection by the TCC? Also relying on a prior objection, or does this signal an agreement of some sort?
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