Jump to content

David CO

Members
  • Content Count

    3172
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    105

Posts posted by David CO

  1. I just want to put out there that, in units steeped in tradition, this form of "nuclear option" doesn't go over well.

    This is especially true if your COR hasn't even dropped in on committee meetings in a while.

    If it's his way or the highway, but half the room hits the road, all he gets is a lonely highway and nothing to haul on it.

     

    Yes, that is a good point.

     

    I would add that the IH and COR are supposed to be representing the Chartered Organization. They are not doing their jobs right if they are acting on their own private agendas. 

  2. IH is institutional head, correct?  Would that be the PTO president, or the School principal?  

     

    You would need to check your charter.

     

    Every unit must have a designated Institutional Head (IH) and Chartered Organization Representative (COR) listed in the annual rechartering papers. 

     

    In my unit, the Athletic Director is the IH, not the principal or the pastor. 

    • Upvote 1
  3. Scouting today is whatever anyone wants.

     

    It always was, to some extent.

     

    I guess I am a little more aware of it than some folks because I was a Lone Scout. I didn't grow up with the same scouting experience as those who were part of a troop. Yet, Lone Scouting has existed since the very early days of scouting. It is not some new experimental program.

     

    I sometimes roll my eyes when members of this forum go on and on about leadership. Leadership is not a big component of Lone Scouting, so that was not an emphasis in my childhood scouting experience.

  4. If not it is a guarantee that the product delivered to the customer will not be consistent throughout the organization, a problem we are experiencing right now.

     

    The scouting program, as delivered to the scouts, has never been consistent throughout the organization. There is actually quite a large difference in the "product" from unit to unit. Always has been.

     

    Some units are wealthy. Some are poor.

     

    Some units are expensive. Some are free.

     

    Some units are uniformed. Some are not uniformed.

     

    Some units are religious. Some are secular.

     

    The list of differences goes on and on. BSA does not promise boys a consistent scouting experience. Not every boy gets to go to Philmont. BSA doesn't promise that they will.

    • Upvote 2
  5. Sadly I don’t understand the waterboy reference.

     

    Barry

     

    The heroic character, Gunga Din, was a water bearer for the British army in India in a famous Rudyard Kipling poem.

     

    Adam Sandler played a comic character, a water boy for a football team, in the more recent movie, The Waterboy.

     

    One of these was a great work of art. Can you guess which? Anyone? Anyone?

    • Upvote 1
  6. I'm not a fan of by-laws 

     

    Neither am I. Organizations have by-laws. A scout unit is not a separate organization. It is owned by a Chartered Organization.

     

    Creating by-laws for a unit implies autonomy. Boy Scout units are not supposed to be autonomous. Rather than wasting a lot of time and effort on writing by-laws (and arguing about them), a scout unit would be better off by strengthening its relationship with its CO.

  7.  I still don't see what gender has to do with it.

     

    Gender has everything to do with it. There are women and girls who become highly agitated when confronted by men. They feel it is demeaning to be in a subordinate role to a man.

     

    We have had male teachers point out dress code violations by girls, and had the mothers respond by filing complaints stating that the male teachers shouldn't be noticing how their daughters are dressed, implying that the men are leering at their teenage girls.

     

    Apparently, the best defense is a good offense. I put up with this nonsense at school because it is my job, but I don't want to have it in scouting. 

  8. Your anecdotal example seems like a good result. A scout behaving poorly and a leader taking care of it. No other scout did anything inappropriate based on what she was wearing. Seems like a win to me.

     

    I wonder how many male leaders had seen her inappropriate behavior and chose the safer path of not confronting her. 

     

    I wouldn't hesitate to correct one of my female students at school, but I wouldn't want to do it at a scouting activity. It is a lot less safe to do the right thing as a leader in scouting.

  9. I am not aware of other coed organizations now suffering a rash of old false sexual assault accusations. Are you? If so, can you share them?

     

     

    I could share hundreds of stories of false accusations against male teachers. 

     

    I wouldn't say there is a "rash" of false accusations. Nor would I say that it happens a lot. I would say that it happens often enough to give men a good reason to not volunteer to work with girls.

  10. We have recently seen many instances of people being accused of bad behavior many years after the incidents are said to have occurred. I have no idea if these specific accusations are true or not, so I won't speculate. 

     

    I have no sympathy for the guilty, but it makes me shudder to think that an innocent man might be accused of misconduct. My concern is not so much that girls in the scouting program might make false accusations today. It is twenty years from now that worries me. 

     

    I am really glad that we didn't have girls in scouting thirty or forty years ago, when I was a young scoutmaster. I don't think I would advise a young man today to become a scout leader, like I did. 

    • Upvote 1
  11. One also has to remember that even if the public has access to a lake, does not mean it has access to any private docks or shoreline around the lake,  

     

    Except in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

     

    There was an old Indian trail going all the way around the lake. Even though most of the lake shore properties are privately owned, they have a public easement for people hiking on the trail around the lake.

     

    But since the easement only covers the trail, hikers must stay on the trail. They can't stop to picnic or fish. They can't use private piers and docks. They can't cut across yards to enter or leave the trail. They can only enter or exit the trail at public access points.

     

    It is a fun hike. I've done it with my scouts.

×
×
  • Create New...