walk in the woods

I'm curious to hear folks definition of millenials now. The one I most often hear is for people born roughly between 1980 and 2005. So early millennials would be parents to cub scouts and potentially young boy scouts today using that definition.

Maybe, but I think our outdoor model doesn't fit with the National Forest Service use model. BWCA parties are limited to 4 canoes with no more than 9 people, parties can't follow each other, etc. So each patrol in a troop could be a travel party, assuming you can get two leaders for each patrol and no more 7 youth. Our travel group was split 6/3 and frankly I'd have preferred a smaller group. I was day- hiking down at Mammoth Cave a few years ago in their backcountry side. The camp sites were limited to two tents and 4 or 6 people, I don't recall the exact limitations. The sites I visite

Another take on millennial participation, http://blogs.voanews.com/tedlandphairsamerica/2012/08/30/join-the-club-please/. I thought the short paragraph about individualism was interesting. To LeCastor's questions, how did we deal with the dynamic? Well, frankly, we failed.

We aren't alone in this, but that's been said here before. My experience with young millennials is they turn out well for short-term (i.e. 1-day or few day) service projects. There's a group in my office that puts together a couple of them every year. It's a social experience and a feel good experience. Turning out for a long-term commitment kind of thing doesn't seem to be in the cards for them. One of the money lines from this article, to me anyway: ~~Most millennials or Gen Xers, however, would never dream of joining a club that seems geared toward their grandparents. Thatââ

These make me smile. Whenever any of my boys asked why they needed to learn to start fires or cook or tie knots my default answer was "chicks dig it."

It's not a loss of moral compass Stosh, just a recalibration.

I should also add to my earlier post of the things we failed at after 9/11 is the whole torture, extreme extradition, black site, CIA stuff. I think Sen. Feinstein had purely political reasons for releasing her report but it was needed and the government doesn't have permission to torture in my name. The fact that unconstitutional surveillance been going on since the 60s certainly doesn't justify our government spying on us without authorization from the courts. In fact it makes it all the more wrong. And the fact the government felt it necessary to codify their actions in law proves, at

I had to think about this based on the way you phrased the question. It's easier to point out where we went wrong with the internal surveillance stuff in the USA Patriot Act, warrant-less wire tapping, NSA data collection on citizens, etc. What's worse to me is the number of citizens who said things like "if you aren't doing anything wrong you have nothing to worry about." To me that's tantamount to "show me your papers." We let, and to a lesser extent continue to let, fear control our actions. ~~Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deser

I was just going to comment on the irony of France arresting people for speech the week after they declared that free speech is so important but the quote was just seredipitous timing. There was an AP story yesterday that justified the anti-semetic laws in France on the history of WWII. That's all well and good but ultimately the people of France in this case, and in all western democracies in general, are choosing winners and losers in the regulated speech market place. That may be ok as well, but, when anti-semetic speech is outlawed and anti-Islamic speech is celebrated, one can

Well, in general I agree that this is a bit of a straw man argument but it's not totally without merit. The administration at Duke accepts Federal Student Aid I suspect. So if they are accepting money from the US Treasury are they then an agent of the US Government distributing funds on their behalf? Might be an interesting case.

Related to freedom is responsibility. It will be interesting to see if any of the survivor's estates pursue civil action against Charlie Hebdo once the dust has settled. I think the concept in the U.S. is that speech that endangers others isn't covered by a first amendment argument (shouting fire in a crowded theater). I wonder if some might make the argument that publishing the cartoons endangered the victims, including the police and maybe the civilians in the deli.

Then again, the 2013 Jamboree is over. So, while there was a lead up to it and it had a life for 10 days or so in 2013, it no longer exists. Since it no longer exists it can't be half way from anything can it?

Eagles are not required to hold an EBOR. SMs are not required for a troop to go camping. If your SM can't make that particular weekend the correct answer is to say "No problem, I'll lead this outing."

If your district has a roundtable, attend. Network with other Cub Leaders. You might find a pack that would be willing to host you at their PWD/B&G. At a minimum you can get ideas on what's next, what's available and where to go from them.

SMM, I generally agree with both of your posts. Your most recent post would be better, IMHO, if in the second paragraph you stopped at "those young ladies should be talked to and dealt with." But, you went on in that paragraph to be sure to put down boys even though it had nothing to do with the subject of the paragraph. Then in the last paragraph, rather than just stop at boys should behave themselves, which they should, you jumped to a extreme position about burkas and separate facilities. Those items were never in the conversation. Seems to me the right answer is scouts should beha

AND we should address the girl's actual behaviors when they stir things up intentionally rather than blaming boys for basically being who they are......

I think the OP is on the right track but not thinking big enough. First let's eliminate the age overlap between Boy Scouts and Venturing. Then we should move the Star, Life and Eagle ranks into Venturing as a track in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th level of recognition. All the merit badges would move into Venturing as well. No need for them in Boy Scouts if they are part of Venturing. Then, make a set of requirements for Venturing 1 level that is equivalent to T21. That way girls,or boys that weren't interesting in Cubs or Boy Scouts, could join Venturing, do a proof of skills for the V1 rank and

I think one can forgive but that doesn't imply restoration of trust. Trust like respect is earned through repetitive successful encounters. Or, as we used to say in the Navy, One Aw S**t erases 10 Atta Boys.

441: I think I'm with you. If someone uses a phrase like "great spirit of the wind" because it has some actual spiritual context to the person or their religion then that's fine. I don't have to believe and it won't have any spiritual meaning to me but that's all good. If people are using the phrase because it's cool to make something sound "indian" then it's not so fine. I seem to recall from earlier posts that you are a youth member so take this for what it's worth from an old guy. You will find over your scouting career there are a lot more people willing to blast whatever effort you

BEGINNING If I was going to point the finger of blame, or attempt to find the root cause, I supposed I'd say something like we never actually listen to each other. This goes beyond just active listening. The listener must also validate the concerns of the speaker rather than consciously attempting to invalidate those concerns. By attacking the other we can comfortably hold firm to our own hard positions. By surrounding ourselves with the like-minded we find strength in the mob. I would argue part of what challenges our society and the BSA is there's limited shared vision of what the

I was told by our county food pantry that for every $1 donation received they can purchase $6 of food through the local food bank. This was a few years back but I suspect that's probably still true. Not to mention they can purchase what they need at that particular moment.

Not sure why you are calling me the name of a beef pasta dish though. Odd.