Order of the Arrow
Discussions for OA Members and those interested in Scouting's Honor Society. Also includes a private sub-forum for OA Members only.
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LATEST POSTS
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By Runningwolf · Posted
Eagledad is spot on. Don't erase boys. I am applying a broad brush for brevity. Use your brains and apply a Pareto distribution. Keep your OFF cans out of my campfire. And so, we vent: Been with BSA over 50 years. Currently on a troop committee. A very successful troop. Thirty boys with six eagles in the last year. We’re one retirement away from total collapse. 1) If we write here like we’re afraid a Scout might read it, this is nothing more than a cracker barrel. 2) I believe victims. They deserve way more than they will ever see. I’ve seen severe abuse in the BSA – and reported it. I was 15. I was hunted for a few hours through the brush and trees before the perps were driven from camp. As an adult, I chased some bare-______ perp away from camp with my vehicle. Then I called the sheriff. In the end, there is very little even a sheriff can do to a guy who was “only taking a leak.” The guy was let go with a warning. I'd still be happy to chase that _________ with my truck. BSA gave me that oppotunity. 3) A trans kid’s smile is the same as a straight kid’s smile when they learn for the first time at my waterfront that they can swim. Wow! Isn't that smile great! YES! Those bronze gods actually do something out there on the docks! 4) BSA has evaporated from my local market. When BSA became inclusive, for every Scout gained, 9+ were lost, effectively excluding 9 out of 10 interested boys. With that nine went 18 parents and 36 grandparents. This market is now a wasteland, devoid of most Scouts and nearly all alumni. The math is simple. Inclusivity brought about mass exclusion. When the cataclysm came, a DE blithely said to me, “Well, now we can do it the right way.” I said, “Dude, you can’t do anything if you don’t have clients.” The recent poll concerning mixed troops was extracted from youth. Youth are not the clients. Parents are the clients. Will mothers will send their sons on overnighters with someone else's daughter? Will fathers send their daughter overnight with someone else's son? And, who’d a thunk it? Will wives send send their husband overnight with another woman? “Good riddance,” SmartyPants might say. But the straight kid’s smile is the same as the trans kid’s smile when he learns to swim. But the straight kid is not at camp. Momma said, “Sorry kiddo. We’re not doing that.” 1 - 9 = -8. Don’t erase boys. -
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By RememberSchiff · Posted
Bird Banding Campout "On one recent weekend, 18 Scouts from BSA Troop 639 held a bird banding campout in northern Minnesota. The experience was a first for all involved, and made possible by one Scout’s grandfather, master bander and White Bear Lake resident Frank Taylor. Taylor greeted the troop at the banding site with the day’s first capture already in hand: a sharp-shinned hawk. He proceeded to tell all about that species’ physical features, diet and migration. He then enlisted the Scouts to help him record the bird’s measurements and information from its newly attached band. One fortunate Scout, Declan Johnson, was chosen to release it back onto its journey south. As he worked, Taylor showed the Scouts his equipment, talked about the banding process and shared more about raptors and their migration through northwestern Minnesota. He explained that since the vast water of Lake Superior doesn’t produce the warm air thermals the birds need to make their long migrations, they are funneled down the North Shore. As a result, they pass his banding station—and Duluth’s famous Hawk Ridge—in large numbers each fall." ( Read link) Scout Owen Tollefson remarked “It was just so cool. I felt like I wouldn’t have an experience like this, probably never in my life again.” What a great program idea. Scout salute. Much more (including photos) at sources: https://www.presspubs.com/white_bear/news/white-bear-lake-master-bird-bander-widens-scouts-outdoor-world/article_ef7e8408-9678-11ef-851b-87c14a58c2b1.html North Shore Banding - Frank Taylor https://bandingreports.blogspot.com/ -
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Transgenderism is a future liability issue that was discussed on this forum a few years ago. One example of Nationals membership changes that are ironically making scouting more exclusive. Barry
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