walk in the woods

Even as population declines, as long as areas of the world are still being lifted out of poverty by the free market, there will be new demand for products. In addition, as new and ever more innovative products are created, demand will be stimulated. The future's so bright I have to wear shades! 😎 https://www.humanprogress.org/

Population growth rates have been slowing for decades: https://www.learner.org/courses/envsci/unit/text.php?unit=5&secNum=4

So have crop yields. In 1924 the soybean harvest averaged 11 bpa, in 2015 it was 48 bpa (https://www.usda.gov/nass/PUBS/TODAYRPT/croptr16.pdf). In 2018 in Illinois it was 64 bpa (https://farmdocdaily.illinois.edu/2018/09/exceptional-2018-corn-and-soybean-yields-and-budgeting-for-2019.html). That's a 480% increase in soy production in the US alone. Corn yields have a similar if not so dramatic story as well. And those crops are being produced by a tiny fraction of the number of people today vs. 1924. Malthus underestimated human ingenuity when unleashed in free markets.

https://www.npr.org/2019/05/15/723518379/u-s-births-fell-to-a-32-year-low-in-2018-cdc-says-birthrate-is-at-record-level

Those rules only apply to unit fundraisers, not council sponsored fundraisers.

If you start with socks, by the time they're young adults it'll be milk shakes and molotovs in the streets of Portland! Is that what you want???? 🤣 Seriously though, nice job combining a fun activity with a community service.

This story just popped up on my news feed.

A review of his book, https://academic.oup.com/jsh/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jsh/shy107/5203598. Anybody else tired of the evil white men using toxic masculinity to destroy the world and corrupting youth narrative? Tedious and sententious.

Tell the boys there is root beer and ice cream at such and such coordinates and they have 30 minutes to get there before the scoutmasters start eating it all. They'll figure it out. I played with the Polaris GPS app on Android years ago. It used to have maps and such, waypoints, etc. It might be worth a look, the free version used to have ads.

@John-in-KC and @RichardB While I agree with you that the PTC programs are great for families (my family also enjoyed them), that's not the question on the table. The question on the table is whether or not the increased programs are going to impact those scouts and scouters on treks. Your responses don't address the question. @John-in-KC those trips sound amazing and I'm glad you got to enjoy them with your father. That said, doing them at 12 and 13 makes you the exception, not the rule. If that wasn't the case I assume the G2SS wouldn't limit HA trips and wilderness/backcountry to those 14 and over in the age guidelines.

My experience with the new BSA is that experienced scouters are being told to sit down and shut up. A new day has dawned and our experience is no longer required.

@desertrat77 I wonder if the problem isn't creep. PTC participants hiking on Wednesday on a few restricted trails; mustangs, and mountain trek in the back country with Philmont staff guides are one thing. But, Families climbing the tooth of time with their 7 year old is another (https://www.philmontscoutranch.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Philmont-Family-Adventure-2019-Guidebook.pdf). Full disclosure, I've done PTC and wished I could have hiked more trails, but I've never trekked. I could see running into a whiny 7 year old on the tooth detracting from a 17 year old's experience.

An interesting podcast over at the Art of Manliness site if you have 45 minutes to give.

Or why they didn't stagger departures more because of the infrastructure concerns?

In fairness to the airline and airport, I wouldn't have put in any additional permanent infrastructure to accommodate a once-in-a-lifetime event. I wouldn't put any money into it even for a once-every-four-years event. When 8000 people show up at the queue at the same time, there will be waiting, regardless of how many stations they might have had in place. Nobody is going to engineer systems around that. And TSA, don't even get my libertarian juices flowing on that disaster......

Salt water suggests there could be considerations for tides, no?

Depends on what type of sports you are talking about. Speaking only of the rural community I grew up in, and second one I used to live in, the schools are the heart of the community, part of the community identity, and, often in a multi-generational way. School sanctioned activities are higher priority than non-school activities. It has nothing, or at least very little, to do with dreams of scholarships. It's simply the reality of where people place their priority. In some cases it is the school activity that keeps the kid in school. It's a really short decision tree between camping with the Scouts, or, being at a Saturday practice/game/rehearsal.

Thanks for your service, good luck and congrats! My only advice, let folks know, set a hard exit date, and stick to it.

Depends a lot on your neighborhood. I walked a lot of rural/blue collar community with my son, he asked a lot of people, and we never, never had that experience. We had way more $1 to $5 donations to the unit than popcorn sales. Even true at our table sales. People looked at a small bag of popcorn for $20 and laughed. A single person can get a weeks worth of groceries at Aldi for $20 if they shop well. Our best fundraiser by far was Christmas greens. People were going to buy them anyway from the local nursery that supported us, so it was easy for them to support scouting, and the business, in the community.

So how does adult supervision prevent the lawsuit? You're an adult, scouts are hiking in front of you, one stumbles and breaks his leg. If a parent is litigious are they not going to sue anyway? Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating for complete end to adult supervision. But, the way things are now, I can't send a small group of 17 year old Eagle Scouts out geocaching in a 300 acre city park without 2 over 21 YPT trained adults tagging along. That's just stupid.

Wow, a lot to unpack there. So, here goes: 1. Is there a market for a youth serving organization to place kids outdoors without supervision?: First of all, this is a question a follower asks, not a leader. When Apple created the smart phone do you think they asked "is there a market?" or do you suppose they thought, if we build this we'll create a market. The latter is the thought process of a leader. 2. What would it look like? I don't know, maybe we could ask https://letgrow.org/our-mission/ for advice or maybe just pick up an old BSA handbook. 3. Do I anticipate Mom signing their kid up? See 2 above. They are signing up and being challenged to let their kids do stuff alone. 4. What are the expected outcomes? Character, Leadership, and Citizenship development. 5. How it came to be? This is interesting question. The world is safer now than it ever has been yet youth serving organizations, and society in general, are caught up in a desperate race away from living to just existing in safe spaces. As Mike Rowe suggested in his blog, the world needs BSA now more than ever. Unfortunately, we've accepted the incorrect argument that kids are incapable of doing anything without adult supervision. 6. The authorities in people's lives. This is where the BSA could differentiate itself from the crowd on nanny state nonsense. It requires courage and integrity. Unlike many organizations we get an audience every year with the nation's elected leaders. We should be in their ear every year telling them to stop the stupidity because they are destroying our society. Of course that would require courage and integrity from politicians. Sigh. I had a B-School professor that always scoffed at companies that occupied the squishy middle, taking whatever market share came their way. He was a big proponent of differentiation. The US is currently full of fearful parents raising timid children. We have a choice, submit to the mediocrity they desire, or differentiate ourselves. This story from Reason is a good read. About half way through you'll find a really nice description of the patrol method. We should consider using it. @ParkMan's suggestions would be a good place to start. As for how it goes with my kid, let me tell you a story. My son is autistic. He didn't learn to ride a bike until he was in late grade school. When he did learn he kept asking to ride more and more. After we got comfortable with his skill and ability to handle situations, we let him strike out on the country roads around our home. One day he missed a turn coming home and got lost. When he realized he was lost he found a safe looking country home (after bypassing a couple he didn't like the looks of and getting off his bike to walk because he ended up on a busier highway), knocked on the door, asked if he could use the phone, and called for a pick up. He was upset, his mother and I were panicked. But, when it was all said and done, he realized he could handle a difficult situation. If we had coddled him the way society demands he'd have never learned that lesson. It also happens to be the moment we got him a cell phone, you know, like the kids in the dropping story. The world needs courageous people to say no to the zeitgeist. The BSA can be a leaders or accept whatever crumbs fall to the squishy indistinguishable mediocre middle.

Unfortunately, the BSA has been actively engaged in destroying this kind of scouting adventure. It was only 4 years ago, give or take, that National forbid the adult-free solo patrol activity. We are in retreat in the name of safety. We'll regret that decision.

Actually, it can be done in 2019, just not under the auspices of the BSA. The FRK movement is figuring it out. Our elected officials, and the nanny state nonsense they've created, are the cause of the problem. They certainly won't be the solution. Brave folks like Lenore Skenazy and these parents are the solution. The BSA could be part of the solution as well if developing kids were more important to the organization than the organization is to itself. I think Mike Rowe summarized it nicely in his blog: If @qwazse will forgive the paraphrase, if we don't provide the service, the kids looking for it will find it else where.

No doubt. But your quote could apply just as easily to a patrol of boys going geocaching or taking a day hike in a local park or a pair of buddies walking to a MB session at summer camp.

Maybe our risk-adverse country needs just one organization to be brave enough to say "Stop! Enough of this nonsense!"