walk in the woods

Here's an article from March 2013, after it became public the board was looking at local option but before the grand compromise of 2013: http://mynews13.com/content/news/cfnews13/news/article.html/content/news/articles/cfn/2013/3/23/boy_scouts_launching.html Stemberger is quoted as saying: Here's one from May 2013, http://www.citizenlink.com/2013/05/16/onmyhonor-net-announces-nationwide-rally-for-scouting-to-oppose-openly-gay-boy-scout-resolution/. The description at the end of onmyhonor.net is: And here's one from November of 2013, http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/Former-Defense-Secretary-Gates-to-lead-Boy-Scouts/45199.html, referencing Stemberger from a July interview with NBC: So I think it's fair to say the founders of TLUSA have been consistent since the start and that these previous statements match up directly with their current values stated at http://www.traillifeusa.com/whoweare/. As for atheists, I'll take TLUSA at their word, http://www.traillifeusa.com/generalfaqs. Scroll down a bit and you'll find this Q&A: Are non-Christian youth permitted to join a Trail Life USA Troop? Our Member policy allows for boys of any faith (or no faith at all) to participate in the program of Trail Life USA. Local Charter Organizations satisfy the specific ministry goals of their church or organization. In some cases, that may be as an outreach ministry to boys in the community. In other cases, that may be as an in-reach ministry specifically to minister to the families or members of the local church or organization. Therefore, individual Charter Organizations may have more specific membership requirements that limit Troop membership to boys of a certain faith or membership in a certain organization.

At the risk of identifying myself because I've told this story before...On our first troop campout to a local state park, a young man headed for the kybo. It was a nice enough building with a decent seat. A few minutes later the young man runs out and yells Mr. WITW it's just a hole in the ground!

http://www.scouting.org/filestore/mission/pdf/Fiscal_Policies_Procedures_BSA_Units.pdf. this doc suggests the co keeps the gear or turns it over to council.

Thanks for the thoughts. When I was thinking about critical mass I was thinking more about the membership level necessary to keep the fixed costs afloat. In theory one could raise prices on all the variable stuff (clothing, gear, activities, etc.) although I suspect the demand would be very elastic. Then again I suspect that would also hold for an increase in charter renewal fees and annual membership fees. It does seem like getting a unit off the ground in the council ownership model would take much longer. I don't know the GSUSA model. I assumed they had the concept of a local committee as well as local leaders. If that was the case once the committee for a unit was running wouldn't they pick up all the same things the current committees handle? Finances get trickier I suppose.

I'm not Catholic, I just know what I hear and read, so take this for what it's worth. Pope Francis spoke on this very issue yesterday. He basically said divorced and remarried people, absent an annulment are absolutely welcome in the church but that their behavior still prevents them from the sacraments. Here's a paragraph on it from a WaPo story: "The pope, speaking at his weekly general audience at the Vatican, underscored Catholic teaching on divorced Catholics who remarry without an annulment, saying, “the church knows well that such a situation contradicts the Christian sacrament.†But he emphasized, “these people are not at all excommunicated.†I don't know if it would affect leadership of a scout unit but it seems like the Catholic church is engaged on the issue with consistency to biblical teaching rather than today's society.

Well, I suppose the seeds were actually planted when National attempted to backdoor the local option in 2013 but got burned in the process. The way I read their FAQs they also accept atheist youth and gay adults that are willing to stipulate to the statements of faith and values.

I don't know the criteria for VFW membership, but, Legion membership is open to anybody who honorably served on active duty during the official conflict date windows, regardless of where they served. The current membership window has been open since Desert Shield/Storm. I don't know how hard you'd want to push but you might remind my brother that openly gay service members are eligible for membership in their post. Now, that doesn't mean they'd have to appoint them scoutmaster but it is curious. If this post is like most of them I'm familiar with the membership is heavily weighted towards WWII/Korea vets and few if any DS/OEF/OIF vets.

Should also add that I have a Mophie Powerstation. It charges from the Nomad fine but gets really hot. I get about 1.5 charges on my phone from it so it normally lasts me for a weekender if I'm not using my phone much.

Some background info on Mr. Bourke: His change.org petition (https://www.change.org/p/lincoln-heritage-council-reject-the-boy-scouts-of-america-s-anti-gay-policy-2) A separate news source, http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2015/08/04/gay-scout-leader-rejected-louisville-parish/31136129/ His SCOTUS Law suit http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/bourke-v-beshear/. Some of his own writing, https://www.glaad.org/blog/greg-bourke-michael-de-leon-advocacy-and-raising-teens-multi-racial-family-lgbtqfamilies-day. Some other articles from GLAAD, https://www.glaad.org/tags/greg-bourke

Cross-posting this story from the thread about the church in Louisville saying no to a gay scout leader, http://m.wlky.com/ne...p-role/34538506, just to say this. This is the BSA's chance to start rebuilding trust with its conservative COs. A statement from Dr. Gates, et. al. saying something like "The situation with Mr. Bourke in Louisville is exactly the type of situation we anticipated with this resolution and the decision of the Louisville Archdiocese fully in keeping with the letter and spirit of the resolution. We are fully committed to allowing the Louisville Archdiocese, and all religious institutions, to operate their units according to their deeply held religious convictions. Further, we stand ready to support and defend them in any way. We sincerely hope Mr. Bourke finds another way to serve the BSA and will work with him accordingly." My preference would be for National to do this before the story becomes a national headline.

I wonder how WLKY found out about this situation.

Trust is built by a pattern of actions over time. The decision that had to be made is made and the impact will be what it will be. If National is serious about restoring trust with the remaining members of the conservative wing of the organization it will be done over time, one decision at a time, one defense of this policy at a time, regardless of the internal or external pressure brought to bear by SfE or HRC or rogue councils inside the BSA. Whether the rift becomes a full blown schism depends on whether National rigorously defends this policy, including aggressively defending the religious exemption, over the next many years.

I think Dr. Gates' two-year term is up next May at the NAM. The new CSE starts sometime this fall.

I have the GoalZero Nomad 7 with the battery pack. It was effective at Jambo but not great. I didn't carry it around on my day pack but rather had it out on my chair/tent when I was in camp. The battery pack would charge my Samsung Galaxy S4 overnight then the solar panel would charge the batteries during the day in good conditions.

We'll have to disagree on the denigrated part, I found it offensive. I'll concede to the speed of response.

No doubt. My initial response was overly cynical. I do kind of like the frontiersman/explorer idea (Order of the Blade/Bowie?) but I'm not sure any cultural emulation would be acceptable if we were starting today. Maybe we'd have to go with Order of the Forest to keep with outdoor themes and just be scouts?

Terry said when he started that same thread: Substitute Christian for Gay in points 1 and 3 above. Do the moderations rules still apply?

It's funny. In Terry's thread about scout-like behavior, DigitalScout said: Your photo above is meant to denigrate a group, which I agree with Terry, is very un-scoutlike. The silence of the moderators is deafening. [Moderator Note: Cartoon in question has been hidden.]

I grew up in a Mic-O-Say spin-off, The Tribe of the Silver Tomahawk (brought to Iowa by Earl Ring). The Tribe was the reason boys came back to camp every year. Younger boys wanted to be in the Tribe and worked hard at advancement and tenure requirements to be tapped out. Older boys came back every year to enjoy fellowship, provide adjunct camp staff, and provide the service required to move up in paint. Silver Tomahawk was actually a merged Mic-O-Say/OA lodge when I was a youth. When the council merged in the 90s the Tribe lost it's OA charter. As I understand it the Tribe now exists as an Honor Society for my old camp with only a minor OA presence. I think the advantages of Mic-O-Say probably far outweigh any concern about dominating. My experience with Mic-O-Say matches the comments of WAKWIB.

Might be a better fit for a local FFA or 4H chapter to adopt the old guys.

Because the choices are: 1. Fight and be drug through the mud as a hateful, homophobic, backward, narrow-mind, religious bigot. 2. Drop Boy Scouts and move on. It's a short decision tree.

How long would it take before folks were complaining about the BSA celebrating the genocidal occupiers. If we were starting over today I'd guess there would be no such symbolism allowed from any prior culture.

my first assumption when people defend political correctness is they are so insecure in their beliefs that they attempt to shutdown debate on every issue by using the coercive power of government or organizational leadership to stifle debate or descent. Or they chose to denigrate the beliefs of others by using terms like narrow mindedness.

but only for proper American bourbon.