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Also, do you or your friends or family have a big old field nearby that a troop may camp on? Naming a few weekends where you might be available to go there with the troop could be a great way to provide everyone options. But don’t just think about camping. Our schedules are booked for this month, so we can’t fit an overnight in. The SM, however, is conditioning for a hiking club challenge, so we’re planing a meet-up at a local park to accompany him on one of his warm-up hikes. Memorial Day is coming up fast. Maybe there are ceremonies you all could be in. There are certainly cemeteries where flags might still need to be put up or markers need to be cleaned. If you’re from my hometown, I’d be deeply touched if a stranger left a small wreath at my dad or aunt’s and uncle’s marker. I have a friend who does that with her kids for a different marker every year and it warms my heart. At the very least, you all could walk around town to learn about any memorials you may have. Obviously, I’m using this by way of example. But, if there’s something close to your and your scout’s heart, see if you can share it and bring a few more scouts and leaders in. If that’s successful, you may ask us about the gory details of advancement given that knowledge that you really have extended your scouting family!

When will they ever learn? Rule #1 Don't ask for a rule, you'll live to regret it. A grant is not fundraising. A grant is a commitment to partner with an organization who might provide the necessary funds to accomplish a project but cannot itself employ all of the laborers. Son #1's eagle project was grant-funded. Son #2's was expensed as part of his church's budget. In neither case did we push fundraising paperwork. You need to heed your LC's guidance when it comes to funds that will build your troop's treasury. You need to heed the grant's funding agency's guidance when applying to fulfill one of their projects. The only consideration would be if the project looks way bigger than your troop can handle. If so, loop the LC in to see if it can be done in concert with multiple troops in your district.

Welcome to the forums and thanks for all you do for the youth.

First, it's really easy to go down a rabbit hole over any scout who leaves over how you do things. Especially if you start insisting on things that you might not have before. The question to ask yourself, are the other scouts happy with the decision? Secondly, is everyone becoming more worried about equipment than about scouts? This happens when troops invest in more and more gear to the point that patrols have a lot to maintain? Putting it together, I take kids on backpacking trips that not everyone in our troop wants to do. (Those of you who hike a lot would consider these to be very easy excursions.) I get thank-you notes from a scout or two (at most) ... that's about as many as I get from new scouts who enjoyed their first summer camp. So, looking at the positive, I consider backpacking on par with summer camp for this lot. Based on the positive reviews of the orienteering course at summer camp, I thought we would be doing a lot more of it this year. It didn't turn out that way. Scouts are still smiling. I'll call it a win.

I hate the marketing "spin" on this. It doesn't open doors to any more young people than previously. Previously, fifth graders could still participate as a Webelos II. That gave them the opportunity to visit the troop along with their parent/guardian on both meetings and activities. Meanwhile they would be learning some basics with other 5th graders. It gives a 5th grader whose never been in scouting or never engaged in advancement while a Webelos the chance to hang with his/her buddies in case they've crossed over. I guess that's a good thing. In lean years, we might appreciate the opportunity to recruit at the elementary school. Right now, we're swamped with cross-overs as well as one or two new 11 year-olds.

Granted. But there are two other possibilities: Such people are more rare than my friend who was raped by her grandfather, the neighbor who remembered an assault by his dad at age 3, the teacher who left town in disgrace, the institutionally raised man who was propositioned by an instructor as soon as he turned 18, etc. ... Something about being preyed upon as a scout makes it less likely to disclose abuse from that sphere of one's life than if a person is preyed upon as a family member, student, etc ... I warrant that I'll eventually meet a friend/family who discloses that their CSA happened at a scout camp, but based on the numbers published so far, I'm likely to meet many more survivors who were betrayed by home, church, or school. To be clear, that doesn't mean that the abused in scouting stories aren't important. I have paraphrased them when talking with scouts because when they understand the magnitude of the problem, they can appreciate how we adults are trying to be accountable to one another.

Its been a long climb to this point. A decade ago, Scouts UK's challenge was a lack of adult volunteers to support the demand. My observation is that scout alumni are more likely to take up roles as scouters before they have children vs. after. @Cambridgeskip or @Pint might want to elaborate.

@yknot, I will gladly send my grandkids to Catholic programs in a heartbeat. Compared to the “Me Too” moments my mom had with orthodox priests a century ago (nobody believed her either), the dioceses in our area have a striking increase in level of accountability. Protestant programs can be described as shoddy at best. Secular programs … well let’s see their public records of CSA rates before pretending that they are a safe haven. Once again, my boots-on-the-ground experience with abuse victims is one of predators being family, peers, sports coaches, clergy, and school teachers, in roughly that order. I’m certain that some of the abused in scouting are nearby. They just haven’t arrived on my doorstep yet. I’ll agree that one would have to live in a perverse world where 0.5% CSA might be considered an improvement in safety. But I would rather my kids understand that we live in a perverse world than pretend that keeping away from organization Y will be safer than going to the mall with their mates.

It depends. If indeed 800,000 were actually abused but 720,000 were somehow hushed (maybe because all of those advertisements had the reverse effect and suppressed survivor turn out), then the legal threats driving this bankruptcy should be considered an utter failure. If an identified survivor would get X, then it amount should be X/10 until all of those others are identified and duly compensated. The wholesale liquidation of BSA would be in order. If the 720,000 found healing from abuse, then we need to find them, figure out what worked for them, and purchase and promote it to the other 80,000. Then, we need to warn parents that scouting is no better than background at mitigating CSA risk and any further revisions to YP should be considered to be experimental at best. This especially important because if BSA’s programs for girls attain parity, the reasonable expected future rate of CSA could be from 10 to 20%. Meanwhile, we need to promote any other organization that has a verifiable lower rate of CSA. If the 720,000 were successfully protected from abuse as a result of their participation in BSA, we need to aggressively promote BSA, underwriting costs of further improved YP so that we can reduce the National rate of CSA below 1% … hopefully for both boys and girls. This might include federal funding of all background checks, training materials, and quality improvement. Morality has nothing to do with anyone’s feelings or personal pride. The moral way in light of the pain revealed by CSA survivors is to act so as to promote healing in those who need it and increase the percentage of Americans who never experienced CSA. Strategies that provide solace to some survivors but deny the opportunity for kids to live 10 times safer than they would be elsewhere are patently immoral.

@johnsch322, the reason why is because, as some lawyers have noted, 800,000 expected victims have not come forward. (That is at the rate of 7% of adult males who reported CSA when asked - in a single survey with no expectation of compensation.) That's what we'd expect if BSA was performing no better than background. As inadequate as the IVFs were, it is a reasonable inference that 9 of 10 scouts who would have been victimized were spared. No other organization has been brought forward to be scrutinized to see if they have done better. No survey has been done of a large enough body of survivors to identify the specific organizations where they experienced CSA. As I've mentioned, I've met CSA survivors mostly out of scouting. I'm fairly convinced that absent BSA, predators would have had a much easier time of it. So, when, even in 2019, that 5% of male and 17% of female high school students experience sexual violence (again with no offer of compensation based on how they answer), I look at BSA as part of the solution. It's absence would only put more youth at risk. I hate that so much about scouting triggers so many victims. But I hate more that the mundane about other spheres of a child's life triggers ten-fold as many survivors. (IF they managed to survive at all.) Therefore, I choose to volunteer what little time that I have in the organizations that give a respite from the mayhem.

At camporee last weekend, the SM got in the "wrong" line first, and we were allocated spots on the "light" grounds before they realized that we were camping "heavy." Our boys had no problem taking multiple trips to schlep gear that 1/4 mile. The ones I talked to would do it again. Although, I'd much rather hike in from 5 miles out with everything on my back ... that's not my troop culture. So, I suffer with them and do things like stop at a local Mexican grocery and buy: lamb (and lime and mango in which to marinate it), fresh tomatoes and jalepenos canned tomatoes, corn, and garbanzo beans tostadas, hot sauce red beans and pinto beans, 1 bag each. FYI, if you want passers-by to stop for a chat, empty a pretzel jar to pre-soak beans overnight. I was astounded by the number of scouts who stopped to ask about it. My scouts just asked what happened to the pretzels. (They were in the chips bag, of course.) Oh, and a dark chocolate bar from Mrs. Q's trip to Switzerland. I called it "My Big Fat Greek Vegetarian Chili." The boys did not complain about the extra haul. After breakfast, it kept me and one of the new dads cooking and out of their hair. After lunch another dad cooked down a couple of steaks for the base of a spaghetti sauce, and by the end of the evening there were two options to mix and match with the pasta. For any boys who lingered at the campsite, we told them: Here's a box of (maybe 300) patches, grab handfuls, give them away, don't let me every see them again. You aren't muddy enough, go fix that. Sometimes we have to make sacrifices ...

Our past few SMs have not hauled the trailer. It’s better that way. We’ve had numerous “transition blindsides” over the years. Roll with it. If the new SM isn’t available for every event, that’s not a problem. I’ve assisted SMs on numerous occasions by being the point person for an event, campout, or summer camp. It works. Of course, I have great parents who will haul the trailer and maintain better gear than I could ever imagine. And, the SM pushes paperwork well. Your bigger problem is that your COR is removed from the leadership selection process. You must fix that. The key three should be in touch at least quarterly.

We are saddled with Modern thinking in a Post-Modern world. There is nothing intrinsic to Christian principles that suggests its members are incapable of falsehood. In fact the opposite is true ... they are in a perpetual state of penance for a variety of sins, or they aren't Cristian. Fifty years ago, somebody looked at an atheist kid family who may have been having trouble with reverence and duty to God, equated them with Godless Muscovites, and made a federal case of it. They violated my rule #1 Don't ask someone for a rule, you'll regret it. The answer, on the other hand, is built into the plain English of oath and law: It's ".. duty to God and my country ..." Not "my God and country" ... Not "someone else's god and our country" ... Certainly not, "the Judeo-Christian God in a Theocracy" The more appropriate expansion of that phrase would be "God as I my persuasion understands and my fellow citizens' as their persuasion understands." Reverent always had two parts: 1) giving honor to God as my family and I understand, and 2) defending others' giving honor to God as they and their family understand. Accomplishing those two necessitates the free sharing of each others' understanding. I would argue that the forming of philosophical gerrymanders around whose "in" and "out" religiously precisely undercuts what it means -- or how it is even possible -- to be reverent. I don't see Buddhism as an exception that BSA has a problem with, but rather one of a number of solutions to BSA's problem in cutting atheists out of a narrowed definition of reverence.

With questions like these, my standard reply is, “It’s a big country.” I can only base my thoughts on the CSA survivors who I know — nearly all their perpetrators were not scouters, and some folks who’ve posted on forums like these. Survivors do participate in the organizations/families where they were abused. Some even have decent work/family relationships with their erstwhile abusers. So, certainly, do many of those who endured scouting-related CSA go on to be scouters: probably at every level of the organization. I can’t imagine that it is the case for a fraction of the survivors of such things. I do hope that, because of their experience, they are contributing to all of us being proactive in putting up barriers to abuse.

Your council would be half nuts with rage if you were to do that!

Mods, it was brought to my attention that, among other typos, I mislabeled “Voice of Democracy” using instead the name of the radio station that, in the ‘80s in Europe, had the second best American accents. (First prize for flawless American accent went to Radio Moscow.) Any chance we can have an edit?

A cautionary tale … branding your councils with fancy names that leave people who see your shoulder patch with no idea where your nearest major city is does nothing for recruitment.

My sister-in-law passed along some of my dad’s awards. Among them was a pin for representing the VFW in the Voice of Democracy essay contest at my high school. I didn’t think much about it, and we teased him that it was his way of getting his picture in the paper every year. I even submitted an essay which we then had to read to an audience of our teachers while being recorded (audio, no video). Even though my classmates produced much better work — thus getting their picture in the paper with Dad, I found it to be a rewarding and thought-provoking experience. Still, it didn’t click as to why this meant so much to Dad … even after years pocked with many conversations — with veterans of various countries, former POWs (their and ours), self-described freedom fighters, occupiers and occupied. It didn’t click until last month as we witnessed the post-modern world’s most magnificent tyrant expend a tenth of a division of the most formidable army on the planet … as we are about witness him hazard as many more soldiers and arms in the coming month. Some think he didn’t expect such losses. I think he knew his special military operation would be very, very costly. Why squander so much? Why provoke the Free World? Because, scouts, this dictator’s neighbor had taken up the the most feared weapon on the planet: a populace able to speak their mind — in the language of his citizens, no less. Precious little could pose a greater existential threat. Over the past century, men like my father, the teachers who assisted him, our scoutmasters, and many other volunteers in this country and around the world have spared time to train youth to master speaking their mind trustworthily, courteously, kindly, and bravely. If you’ll allow, we will train you to do it too.

Don’t forget guys getting paid time off International Women’s Day! (I’m told it’s a thing among Russian office workers. Not so much among military.) But, really a scouter can make what he/she wants out of the diversity goal without dreading some PC police. It’s actually fun making the effort.

@skeptic, criminology is difficult. So we have to take each of these reports with a grain of salt. This report covers maltreated children of all ages, and most infants and toddlers are primarily exposed to their moms. There’s a whole lot gone wrong with a mom who kills or nearly kills her kid, but most scouters are dealing with kids after they have survived that hurdle. It’s the wise scouter who knows that one or two of the youth in his/her charge may have survived the depredations of relatives. We do what we do in hopes of steering youth away from becoming such terrible parents/aunts/uncles/siblings/coaches.

A statistical resource from the US Department of Health and Human Services: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/cb/report/child-maltreatment-2020 It took a couple of hops from Bryan on Scouting to find it, so I thought I'd drop it at a top level here. There are overall national stats as well as executive summaries from individual state agencies. Regarding maltreatment Regarding fatalities

Hi @GeoJeff83, welcome to the forums. The possibilities are endless. And how you shape it really depends on your current role. Teach scouts about the different religious awards. Register as a counselor (or recruit counselors) for Citizenship in Society or Disability Awareness MB. Invite your unit to visit a unique community or cultural center who is hosting a special event. Make a round table presentation on the first scout or first Eagle Scout of a minority group who interests you, The trick: think of something that you would consider fun to do in your current scouting position, but you just haven’t got around to it yet. Do that.

Welcome! And thanks for all you do for our youth!

@yknot, by “people”, I am specifically referring to people who are not parents who will insist that a given pack should persist in their community under the sponsorship of their organization. My parents were thrown into chaos two years ago, but I told the committee that I would take a troop to any camp on any week that they could find if one other adult with integrity would go with me. Given my offer (it wasn’t charity on my part … I needed it as much as the scouts did), the parents from what was then two troops rallied to make it happen. There were a half dozen folks like that … including our COR who was in no condition to meet with any of us, but kept in touch with each committee chair to let them know that the CO wanted them to keep up the good work. That got passed along to parents. Not in a “you have to do …” tone but in a “what you’re doing is really important…” tone.

As I’ve mentioned before, a pandemic is a terrible reason to halt program. I understand that’s harder to do in some places than others. From what I could tell in our pack it was done with tremendous cost in outlay of time and talent. They rarely asked us in the troop for help. They are still working on a delayed schedule. They mentioned cost concerns at a committee meeting that was primarily about crossovers and B&G, and I emptied my wallet in the spot. (Don’t worry, it was mid week, there wasn’t that much in it.) But, like any youth program, you need people who have to want it to be there. We have those people. I’m sorry @mashmaster’s successors do not.