David CO

2 hours ago, walk in the woods said:

In fairness, this is a bit disingenuous.  The "creative planning" will involve skipping most or all Council and District events, and likely most or all summer camps.  The local option is great in not forcing units to go co-ed, but to assume you can plan around co-ed scouting is naive.  Unless of course your CO is large enough to request and be granted a special week (e.g. LDS weeks at camps).  

It doesn't sound disingenuous at all. It is no more difficult to plan a camping trip to a privately owned facility than it is to attend a BSA scheduled event. We do it all the time.

2 hours ago, Longhaired_Mac said:

 

So here is where I freaked-out. 

 

I don't blame you. This is no way to approach a prospective SM.

27 minutes ago, MikeS72 said:

We do not look at it as freeloading, as the DE is the one in our District who sets up school nights, is the one who visits all of the classrooms at the school, arranges and pays for the building use permits.  All we have to do is show up at the school on the designated night, explain the Pack's programming and organization to parents, and sign up those new Scouts.

Sorry. I guess I misunderstood your previous post. When you said that the pack was the "host" of the school night, I assumed that the pack had organized and paid for the event. 

1 hour ago, MikeS72 said:

DE.  It was not said in a 'this is what happens if you don't take girls' manner, but rather to state that if the Pack that normally host the school night at that particular school will not be taking girls, they will try to find a nearby pack that is going to have a girls program attend school night, thus giving those family an alternative.

A DE cannot invite another unit to your event. 

I can't imagine myself going to all the time, effort, and expense of putting on a nice event at the school only to have the DE invite another unit in to freeload off of all my hard work. No way. If a DE wants to organize a second scout night at the school for the co-ed unit, he is free to do so, but he is not going to do it on my time and my dime.

36 minutes ago, Chisos said:

I've been thinking of using the "Unit Scouter Reserve" (91U) position for folks like this.  Does anyone actually use it?

Nope. We don't register parent volunteers. We would like to keep our registration fees to a minimum. No reason to give BSA any more $ than we need to.

2 hours ago, scoutldr said:

Why are they registered? 

I think we all know the answer to that one. BSA is insisting that every volunteer be registered. Since we don't have a registered position for a parent driver, they get registered as either a committee member or ASM. I don't blame the volunteers for not stepping up to do the job they got registered as, instead of the job they actually volunteered for.

1 hour ago, MikeS72 said:

We were  told that no pack will be told they must be co-ed, but that when we have school nights those pack who choose not to accept girls will have representatives from other pack present to offer those families a place to go.  I cannot imagine that if we have a family come in with both a son and daughter who want to join, they will put the son in one pack and the daughter in the one who accepts girls.  Those packs who choose to remain all boy will have to understand that they may lose some boys due to the resulting family decision as to where they can enroll both children.

Told by who?

It has always been the case that the school can invite or not invite any unit(s) they choose. 

22 minutes ago, cocomax said:

 

The act of changing "Boy Scouts" to "Scouts BSA" gives people the impression that you have made Boy Scouts COED, that is confusing.

 

It really doesn't matter how many intermediary steps BSA takes to get to a co-ed program. They will eventually have their co-ed program. The liberal social engineers who guide their actions will accept nothing less.

47 minutes ago, Eagle1993 said:

You can leave it down, but this artist has a long history of very right wing questionable cartoons.  The fact that his collection of work can’t be shown here (probably valid) would indicate aspects of his character.  His take on BSA aligns right with his other art.  Given his character I don’t find him amusing.  

Who are you talking about?

3 hours ago, Buggie said:

The other day I was driving my son and daughter somewhere and the conversation somehow ended up on an old Disney show (Kim Possible). At first my kids were amused that I could sing the first few lines of the theme song. 

I am amused that you consider Kim Possible to be an "old" Disney show.

3 hours ago, RememberSchiff said:

 

That said, nearly every family in my unit has a family member who had one of these diseases.

Both my sons had the Lyme bullseye and were quickly treated with antibiotics. Their doctor's wife who was also a doctor is a Lyme victim. She is now wheelchair bound. Mrs. Schiff has recurring Bell's Palsy from Lyme.

 

You sure know how to sell the scouting program, you smooth talker. Do you include this in your recruiting speech?

Sorry to hear about Mrs. Schiff. I hope she is feeling better.

3 hours ago, RememberSchiff said:

Here's a positive step that Scouts might take - a tick drag.

Scout Michael Kinsey heard of this research while considering Eagle projects. He reasoned that if Boy Scouts across the state (Texas) would incorporate a tick drag during their campouts, thousands of samples could be generated to accelerate the research. In the process, they would learn important information about protecting themselves from tick bites, and gain greater understanding of the outdoors.

https://www.txlda.com/texas-teen-turns-tables-on-tragic-illness/

Maybe Scouts can help mitigate this problem.

Another $0.02,

Which is the tick drag, the white flag or the dog?

The map says that all of the other states and territories are under 10,000 cases, but Puerto Rico is over 80,000. That is a disturbing statistic. 8x the rest of the country. I asked the question because I have a friend in Puerto Rico (yes, I do have friends), and I have been following the hurricane recovery stories.

Are there any Puerto Rican scouts out there on scouter.com who could tell us a little more about how this is effecting the scouting programs?

Statistics are a tricky thing. It might appear that the incidence of insect borne disease is increasing, but it may simply be that more people are seeking medical help. There are many possible explanations for the changing numbers.

It could be that more people have insurance. It could also be that fewer people know how to self-treat minor medical problems, and consequently see the doctors more often. 

I understand why Puerto Rico has been seeing an upswing (hurricane), but I'm not quite sure why my home state of Illinois is in the top 20%.

6 hours ago, RememberSchiff said:

Illnesses from mosquito, tick, and flea bites have tripled in the U.S., with more than 640,000 cases reported during the 13 years from 2004 through 2016.  Nine new germs spread by mosquitoes and ticks were discovered or introduced into the United States during this time. 

Does this include Puerto Rico? 

Not to mention the expected increase in cooties.

He assaulted a 12 year old girl? I have a better idea. Tell him he needs overnight camping training. Then send him with the scout fathers on a remote camping trip in a totally deserted wilderness area. Problem solved. 

1 hour ago, perdidochas said:

and it sounds dangerous to me, in terms of YPT. 

That's a valid point. Scouting was organized (in the USA) with this system of Chartered Organization ownership long before YPT came into existence. I'm sure there are many who feel that the two are incompatible. It wouldn't be the first (or only) time that BSA has instituted contradictory and/or incompatible policies.

25 minutes ago, DuctTape said:

I do not model this with the scouts or others.

Neither do I. If it wasn't for the badges on the uniforms, a casual observer of my unit might have had a difficult time picking out the leaders. Leadership in most tasks was based more on skill level than unit rank.

But if there was a serious problem or disagreement, we would immediately revert back to our formal rank structure. 

15 minutes ago, ParkMan said:

 

- It is possible that the COR, IH, or even the IH's managers extend that authority to others in the organization of the CO. 

 

Exactly. That is a very good way to summarize the question at the heart of this thread.

32 minutes ago, perdidochas said:

Then why do you say the teacher from the CO's school has authority to tell the Scouts in a  troop what to do, outside of school? It's a similar thing.  A teacher at the CO's school has no authority over the BSA units. Yes, the Pastor and the COR have that ability, but not simply a school teacher. 

...because the parish/school policy says so.

This whole part of the conversation started because I commented that my school gives broad authority to its teachers (and certain other staff) to supervise and direct students and volunteers. The teachers did not usurp this authority. It was given to them.

There has been a lot of splitting-off in this conversation. It started out with a question of whether or not a cub master can be given authority over the boy scouts in a unit with the same CO.

25 minutes ago, perdidochas said:

Similarly, if it were a CCD class, and a teacher from the school (not associated with CCD), told the kids to do something, I would step in.  

It is up to the pastor, principal, and Director of Religious Education to determine who has authority over the CCD program and its participants. It is not up to a school teacher, volunteer CCD teacher, parent, or student to decide such things on their own. 

16 minutes ago, perdidochas said:

Unless the teacher has a position in Scouting, IMHO, he has no say in what happens at a Scout meeting, even if he is part of the CO. 

It is up to the CO, not the volunteer scout leader, to decide who has a say in what happens at scout meetings. The CO owns the unit.

3 minutes ago, cyphertext said:

Pretty unique, as Catholic schools pale in comparison to the number of public schools.  Maybe not unique in the Catholic school world, but that is pretty small piece in the big picture.

And the point I was making is that the field/gym supervisor is not in charge of, and has no say in on field activities... coaches are in charge, as in our school system and those around us, coaching is a teacher position, not a volunteer.  Same teacher acting as the gym supervisor has no say in what the basketball coach is doing on the court.

That is true. There aren't nearly as many Catholic schools as there are public schools. But then again, it would be extremely unusual for a public high school to charter a scout unit. It almost never happens.

I think the analogy works better for a private school, since they are far more likely (than public schools) to have volunteer coaches and/or volunteer scout leaders.