David CO

9 hours ago, ParkMan said:

Can we please stop taking every opportunity that arises to complain about those Wood Badgers who go over the top.  The continued negativity towards the program adds up.  

I don't mind the comments about wood badge, positive or negative, if they are kept in the wood badge forum.  We have a forum for that.  Let's keep the critters in their cage.

On 2/6/2021 at 6:58 PM, wearrepair said:

How could a district make their event interesting, a must attend event which all would want to attend?

Can't be done.  Adult awards are given for only one reason. It is to butter people up so that they will make larger donations.  An adult award is nothing more than a solicitation.  

45 minutes ago, Eagledad said:

 I wonder, should I be shamed for reading To Kill A Mockingbird in high school back in the 70's? Should the school be shamed? 

Yes you should.  My students read TKAM in seventh grade.  What took you so long?

39 minutes ago, Eagledad said:

Why would anyone have a negative opinion of that unless they have some personal negative experience?

Perhaps so.   But that's not a small number of people.  It's like limiting it to only those who have been bitten by a mosquito. 

16 minutes ago, CynicalScouter said:

Exactly. At this point Boy Scouts is synonymous with intolerance and an anachronistic view of the world.

You say it like that's a bad thing.  

12 minutes ago, fred8033 said:

BSA is caught in a legal mess as many things get caught in legal messes when society changes.  Maybe BSA was more vulnerable.  Maybe.  BUT, society was at fault as a whole.  BSA had a system before many organizations to try to block abuse.  It worked and did not work, but BSA tried.

It's hard to believe that there are people out there who still believe BSA was innocent.  

9 hours ago, ParkMan said:

I do find that lots of people talk up Scouting.  That's a good thing too and is very healthy at the unit level too.  Most people want to be on a "winning" team.

BSA is not a winning team.   BSA is bankrupt.  BSA is in the midst of a horrific sex scandal.  Calling BSA the best youth program in the country is not only incorrect, it's delusional.

At this point in time, talking up scouting in this manner looks a lot like a slap in the face to all of the victims of sex abuse.   It tells them we don't get it.  It might even tell them that the only solution is to end BSA.

1 hour ago, ProScouter06 said:

The incredible impact it has had on countless lives, and the necessity of spreading and growing the movement to every child.

Parents don't care if you have an incredible impact on countless lives.  (You don't.)  They want you to have a reasonably good impact on one life.  Their kid's.  

Parents don't see the necessity of spreading and growing the movement to every child.  (Neither do I.)  They are only concerned about one child.  Their kid.

Maybe the rah rah talk goes over big at national.  It doesn't really work anywhere else.

Scouting is a good youth activity.  I wouldn't have started a unit if I thought it wasn't.  The biggest detriment to the scouting program is the unrestricted zeal of its most ardent supporters.  They treat scouting like a cult.  It is a real turn-off to the average person.

1 hour ago, ProScouter06 said:

We must, as others have alluded to, find a way forward so more kids can beneift from what we know is the best youth program around. 

But it is not the best youth program around.  Scouting is very popular with a small segment of American families, so it has a place in our society.  But it is hardly the biggest or best program around.  

2 minutes ago, carebear3895 said:

Quick question, does your PLC decide that? or You? 

The Chartered Organization decides that.  As the owner of the unit, the CO is entitled to place restrictions on where the unit may or may not camp.

7 minutes ago, elitts said:

The problem with "free" is that people tend to automatically infer that if something is free it is of little value. 

I totally agree.  Scouters donate their time for free.  The execs get paid.  There is a tendency to infer that the volunteer's time and labor is of little value compared to that of the paid staff.  This drives me crazy, especially when the inference is more than an inference, and it comes from the execs.

6 hours ago, ParkMan said:

What if everything was done by Zoom?

The only thing I hate worst than the executives is technology.  So this is the most effective pro-pro argument I've heard so far.  

56 minutes ago, scoutldr said:

My Council has started charging a facility fee for camps...1.50 per person/per day. 

I don't mind a council charging a facility fee to those who are voluntarily using their camps.  They could charge a million dollars a day as far as I'm concerned.  We don't use them.  Their fees are none of my business.

It's when the council charges fees to those scouts who never use their facilities that I have a problem.  It's not fair.  Hopefully the bankruptcy will end this problem.

31 minutes ago, ParkMan said:

I agree that program fees are preferable to FOS.  Yet, we need to recognize that program fees need to be accompanied with tangible value add from the council.  Charging a Scout $50 per year to fund council operations need to then be accompanied with some sort of obvious return on that fee.

Charging scouts a $50 council fee has zero value to those scouts whose units don't attend council events.  For the boys in my unit, there would have been no return on that fee.  It's just another tax.

2 minutes ago, TAHAWK said:

Not hardly. 

Can you say that with a good John Wayne impersonation?

1 hour ago, ProScouter06 said:

I would never tell a volunteer how to run their unit, unless they were offering a poor product.

I wouldn't expect that you would tell a volunteer how to run their unit if you thought they were doing everything right.  Why would you?  I think we can take that as a given.  You only interfere when you disagree with someone.

So you're really not limiting yourself much when you say that.

3 hours ago, TAHAWK said:

At her job, she rocked, and he sold tickets to events like crazy.  Still, I was told she had to go

Exactly!  This is why councils are so horrible.  All of the competent people are driven out and replaced by compliant sycophants. 

3 hours ago, TAHAWK said:

We had a Council President, who told our distirct Key Three that he wished all volnteers were employees so he could "fire the lot."  

I'm not surprised.  The council president is always on the side of the execs.  He basically works for the SE.  He does not represent the Chartered Organizations, the units, the volunteer leaders, or the scouts. 

11 minutes ago, fred8033 said:

I expect next summer to arrive at summer camp and everything (camp included) will be renamed.   

True.  It will be renamed FOR SALE.

4 minutes ago, ParkMan said:

I'm constantly reminded that we are all here as servants of unit level Scouters.  I think a SE and DEs who recognize this this are an asset to their profession.

I suppose they would be, if there actually were any.  

4 hours ago, InquisitiveScouter said:

 

BSA is only really worried about the money.  They have gone down the YPT route because of fiscal reasons, not for some sort of altruistic desire to protect kids.  If they weren't facing massive lawsuits, they wouldn't have acted.

 

I believe that's true.  It's all about the money.  

1 hour ago, InquisitiveScouter said:

 "Volunteers who think that when they put on the uniform, they are equal to me."

I'm sure the volunteers who said that were just trying to be polite.  They knew they weren't equal to him.  They're better than him.

46 minutes ago, TMSM said:

The pandemic will be over soon enough 

Not soon enough for me.  All of this isolating stuff is driving me batty.