walk in the woods

Sadly, I'm aware they actually covered his skintone and lack of ability to use contractions in an episode. It had to do with making him different enough that people could identify him from a "real boy." And Worf once said Klingon's didn't talk about the change. That said, I think the Logical Fallacies could be a good drinking game during campaign season, or the name of a punk rock band.

The idealist in me loves the idea of all-for-one, one-for-all, the realist in me laughs because I've never seen it work out. It's easy to blame the parents but scouts also recognize when they've taken the 10th popcorn shift and nobody else is participating. Maggie said it best, "The problem with Socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money." I would extend that to include time and resources as well. Stosh, I love your dedication to servant leadership. That said, there is a line that exists between servant leadership and servitude. It's a very elastic line and different for everybody. Honestly the BSA suffers from pushing this line all the time. That's probably a discussion for another thread though.

As with any enterprise, free resources are exploited until they are exhausted. If the 20% doing the 80% aren't seeing sufficient value for their investment they'll take that investment elsewhere.

Interestingly, at least to me, I was just this morning listening to a podcast talking about the balance between the realist and the idealist in us all. This particular situation, and the drop-off thread, seem to test the elasticity of that boundary for all the players. I suppose the challenge is a mis-alignment of the boundary between all the players. I don't know what I'd have done. I have said in committee meetings myself that it's wrong to punish the boy for the actions of the parent. I suspect I'd have let the boy participate and tried to deal with the parent separately, particularly if it was the first time it had happened. The 2nd, 3rd or 10th? Hard to tell.

I'd add "The Right Stuff" If we're going to take The Ten Commandments off the list because it's unique to at least two belief systems, and might be offensive to some scouts, then we're going to have to take a really hard look at a number of these films: - Lion King: Requires belief or acceptance that our ancestors can guide us from the heavens. Probably issues with mystic practices of Rafiki. - It's a Wonderful Life: Requires belief in or acceptance of the idea of angels - How the Grinch Stole Christmas: Requires belief that Christmas is something beyond commercialism - Fantasia: Requires belief or acceptance of wizards - Wizard of Oz: Depicts witches in stereotypical and inaccurate ways - Mulan: shows some oriental characters in stereotypical ways. Just look at the way her eyes are drawn on the cover art. - Davy Crockett: Potentially offensive to Native Americans and Mexicans by celebrating the American frontiersman. - Field of Dreams: Requires belief in or acceptance of an afterlife where one can play baseball. - The Lord of the Rings: Mystical imagry might be upsetting to young children - The Great Escape: Depicts Germans a murderers. Might be upsetting to scouts of German decent. - Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo: Promotes violence and warfare. Could be upsetting to scouts of Japanese decent. - Ben-Hur: specifically Christian and Jewish themes. - The Sound of Music: Anti-German, Anti-Austrian and it shows the Catholic church in a good light. - Vision Quest: Promotes unsafe weight loss in pursuit of sporting goals - Peter Pan: Some folks believe the character represents a being that escorts dead children to heaven (Neverland). That's why the kids never grow up. Totally upsetting. I'm sure if we worked at it we could disqualify all of them. Were there any minorities represented in Lem's troop?

The BSA would make a great business school case study. One could probably take the better part of a semester unwinding the organization and it's issues. The opening paragraph of the scenario reads, "One hundred year old business finds that despite significant investment in infrastructure (the Summit), revenue (membership) continues to decline. Multiple surveys have been completed with significant stakeholders resulting in mixed feedback between the traditionalists (the process has worked for over 100 years, we're just not working/marketing/selling hard enough) and the change agents (it's all broken and needs to be replaced). The financial performance of the regional offices is inconsistent at best. Your team has been hired to review all the relevant business practices and survey data, perform a SWOT analysis and to recommend a national strategy to keep the company viable as a going concern (i.e. relevant)." One of the challenges with balanced scorecard management is that managers at all levels tend to micromanage the metrics and measures rather than look at the processes surrounding them. The first reaction is always "we've always done it this way" which results in the "we need to work harder, recruit harder and sell/fundraise harder" mentality that burns people out and is only successful if the actual problem is people aren't working hard enough. My impression is that's where the BSA finds itself today. I find the outpost idea at Woodfield intriguing. It meets kids and their parents where they are (at least some of them) and it beats the heck out of holding another school flier blizzard recruiting night. It might be interesting to combine the idea of the outpost with the idea of a traveling trailer. I also find the idea of STEMscouts interesting. It's certainly not traditional scouting but under the heading of "going concern" one has to consider alternative ideas or be the last buggy whip maker standing. More importantly I'd be interested in hearing what we're doing to benchmark ourselves against other youth-serving organizations. Internal surveys and navel gazing are only going to take us so far, that is to say nowhere. For example, 4-H is nearly as old as the BSA and is still going strong. They've managed to move beyond their rural/ag base and county fairs to embrace STEM without damaging the former. They run camps, hold national meetings, etc. They obviously have the strength of the USDA behind them but are there ideas we can steal from them to improve the BSA? Likely. With the warning that not every change is an improvement but every improvement is a change, ultimatley, in order to change our reality, BSA will have to change. Part of our challenge might be in recognizing that what used to be a strength (getting boys into the wild overnight without direct parental oversight) might actually be a weakness with today's parent demographic. Regardless, we do need clear leadership with a clear vision and an understanding that the change might be painful. But hey, scouts are brave, yes?

It's curious. Our council asks the candidate to send out a form to those from whom he requests a reference. The returned letters go to whomever is coordinating the Eagle package (adv. chair, scoutmaster, anybody but the parent). The Eagle package isn't stopped for lack of letters but we advise our young men to request multiple references from each category.

Will the attendees not know they are in a RC church if you don't carry the flag? . There's no harm here. The unit is sponsored by the church and the CoH is being held in their building. I'd not be making a mountain out of this mole hill.

I have to admit, I'm not a fan of the OA sash at OA events only rule. I do think it's fine to wear at formal occasions even if it's just outside the rules. If the SM actively trying to promote the OA then absolutely he should wear it and I'd interpret that as inside the rules. If the Lodge is 3 hours away there is probably a chapter closer, or just reach out to the nearest troop to see if some arrowmen would like to attend your CoH. It doesn't have to be Lodge sanctioned event if they're just stopping by to say hi. The camp promo is a great idea, the chapter chief has it on his JTE goals anyway I suspect.

I think Q and Scoutgripper have it right. Of course you help your son. You'll be dad forever while you'll be his scout leader for just a few years. Maybe help him plan the January meetings and volunteer to hold the ILST in January if the SM isn't able.

Normal as noted above and there might actually be two references written by the parents if the boy doesn't have a formal religious institution or leader to provide that reference.

I've heard Yellow River State Park in Iowa is nice although I've never been. Not sure there's 4 or 5 days there based on the description, http://www.iowadnr.gov/Destinations/StateForests/YellowRiverStateForest.aspx.

I didn't mean to come across terse in my previous post. My apologies if it sounded that way. I agree. I much prefer a physical book to an e-book for anything I'm reading that I might want to remember past tomorrow. I'm not clever enough to mark multiple pages on my e-reader and flip between them like I can with my fingers between pages. I just don't see that with the small sample of youth I deal with regularly. No doubt about it. I had map/compass and GPSr with me on our BWCAW trip a couple years ago. I was glad to have both. Like make change? That's probably a different thread.

Not to take too much of a tangent but this is a data management problem, not a media problem. You mentioned you keep your books on a shelf. If you left them outside in the rain the paper medium would be as unusable as those floppy disks. I don't think physical books will ever go away, but they are being minimized, particularly reference books. When is the last time you purchased a dictionary or encyclopedia? When is the last time you used an online dictionary or encyclopedia? Why should the BSA handbook and fieldbook be any different? The medium the handbook and fieldbook are delivered on is immaterial in my opinion. Instead of arguing that your batteries might die, therefore you should carry a physical book, we should ask the scout how they plan to be prepared to carry an electronic reference. What are the trade offs? A heavy book that contains 12 of 14 chapters you absolutely won't need that weekend vs. your phone which you were going to carry anyway plus a charger brick or solar panel? Which weighs more? Which is easier to take care of in the conditions we expect to encounter? Which do you find easier to use and why? How long does your battery last on airplane mode? Do you plan to leave it on all weekend or just turn it on if you need it? Many learning opportunities for scout and scouter. To the original question and my attempt to tie it together, yes, there is a need for a handbook and a fieldbook, but only because it's nice to provide a single source for the scouts to have available. The medium it is delivered on and how the scouts consume it, or not, is up to them.

No again, unless you are Mr. Gates you don't get to speak for relationships the BSA has with other entities. Participating in events is very different than the then CEO saying specifically yes we have a relationship.

That's our course. I've staffed a few times. It's not Northern Tier but I think the 35 and rainy year was worse than the cold and snow years. Anyway, we have some fun, we drink some hot chocolate, camp without bugs and get to have a safe environment to give it a try. Not to mention patches, hats and bling.

In fairness, it's an older video and GSUSA has backed away from the position publicly. They also draw a distinction between the National organization, and WAGGGS, local councils and individual units, etc. that might have a relationship with PP. Blah, blah, blah.

From the online G2SS: ~~Patrol Activitiesâ€â€A Boy Scout patrol or Varsity Scout squad may participate in patrol activities with the permission of its Scoutmaster or Coach and parents/guardians. Appropriate adult leadership must be present for all overnight Scouting activities.

There's a decent chapter in the fieldbook, at least the old one. Check the OKPIK manual from your local scout shop as well. If you're anywhere close to NE Illinois come take our course!

No, it's not wrong of you to feel defeated. I did the small Troop and small Pack thing for 10 years. The small Troop is infinitely easier than the small pack because a small troop simply becomes a patrol. The infrastructure do handle that is significantly smaller than a small pack. I absolutely enjoyed small troop scouting. A small pack (our's fluctuated between 10 and 20 scouts but most recently was down to about 6) is harder to manage because it depends on Den's, and all the surrounding leadership, to be successful. When every den meeting is effectively a pack meeting it's difficult at best to honestly address requirements for each den at the level they need to be addressed. You're the only one who has any idea if recruiting will have any impact on your membership. That said, I'd argue that if you can't reasonably expect to recruit 10 or more additional scouts across all the den's this fall, plus leaders for each den, you don't have enough critical mass to maintain. Don't feel bad about it. Take your son, and any that want to follow, give them a good scouting experience in the other unit and maintain your sanity.

Depends on what the market will tolerate, no? We collected $40 dues in our pack to cover charter renewal, boy's life and insurance. If I'd asked for another $40 or more in dues to cover recognition and the like we'd have had no scouts.

I understand your argument (and Q's before you) and for the most part I agree with all of it. However, I think there's a difference between some people not working as hard and some not working at all. The difference describes the line between servant leadership and servitude.