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@Cburkhardt the one striking omission: older youth -- especially 18-20 year olds -- do not need a pair 21+ year old adults of the appropriate sex to meet and plan adventures. They would rather risk (or perhaps are ignorant of the risks of) the potential abuse inherent in meeting on their own in the absence of adults (or in the presence of just one adult of the opposite sex), and bring in, as needed, the occasional adult based on his/her qualifications to supervise their activities of interest. IMHO, this, above all other things, undercuts BSA's ability to fashion venturing into the umbrella program that it once was. In the face of that, these other items are immaterial, but could go a long way to recognizing venturing as a viable "next step" for many scouts: Advancement is immaterial. My guess is about 0.1% of youth in this age range are interested in obscure awards. I don't think ALPS is discouraging to youth, but I do think it lacks appeal because of the lack of connection to American scouting. The dissonance in award names is a huge problem. I believe First Class Venturer, Star Venturer, Life Venturer, and Eagle Venturer would convey real value to anyone with a scouting background. Along those lines venture scout rolls off the tongue way more easily than venturer. Finally, program should be identifiable with only epaulets on the standard BSA field uniform shirt: a color for cubs, a color for scouts BSA, and a color for Venturers. Epaulets for persons in both programs should have combined colors. Basically, the obsession with branding differently will have to end.

Exploitive teachers are nothing new. The issue is what schools are doing to screen out such teachers. Schools that are under the auspices of a larger organization may face legal action similar to BSA. How likely that is depends on the wealth of the organization.

@5thGenTexan, I agree with @Eagledad. A couple of MB’s and mastering basic scout skills is a great start. I’m told that down your way, maximizing time swimming is essential to beat the heat. For my family, who spends a lot of time on water, those instructional swim periods took a load of of my mind.

No, the image means we give everyone the tools needed to pick the maximum number of apples so that the cobbler gets in the dutch oven before nightfall. It's about free markets, pure and simple. It means some people get a lake, others a pool, others travel to a nearby park/college with qualified supervision, but all learn how to forestall death.

Again, equality is "everybody goes to Jambo." However that event is not merely some prize for scouts with a fortune ... If your scouts agree that your troop would be best represented at Jambo by a scout with little means, then yes the equitable thing would be to support him/her. The expectation should be that that scout would more likely return with enthusiasm and novel ideas to benefit his/her fellow scouts. More importantly, if one of us only had $500 to spare for jambo, and there was a potential ASM who was qualified but limited in funds to go, equity dictates we give what we have to make sure our scouts are tended to by who we trust the most.

You are describing "true" equality. Not equity. Equity is: our camp only has a lake. But a qualified supervisor can safely arrange an aquatics area so that scouts can still master aquatics in order to forestall death and -- as a byproduct -- earn aquatics awards.

We got swamped with new scouts. Enthusiastic ones. So much so that they are recruiting their buddies. Nice problem to have, but the NSP is getting an increasingly wider spread in advancement to scout rank and beyond. I told the PLC that they have until the end of the month to distribute this dirty dozen (now baker's dozen) into their respective patrols. That way they can start drilling with the guys who will be in the tent next to them at summer camp, and the Troop Guide and fall back into coaching the few who haven't made Scout Rank yet. Still, we're continually flexible. And if eight 1st-years want to be their own patrol, we'll support it.

You've revised the definition of equity. Equity does, in fact, take into account that some of us came into the world with an inability to give "it the old college try." For example, when I was getting manipulated by my school district to pay more taxes than my neighbors did because I had just arrived and lacked the privilege of a lower home assessment due to a rising market, I could ask for an equitable decision in spite of the letter of law that was written in favor of long-time residents of the district. The judge saved me thousands. Equity lets someone who has come lately to the game take their swing. Not merely because seasoned players might have an unfair edge, but because the newbie might bring something to bat that could be a blessing to us all who love free markets. My point: scouting teaches boys how to find equity (in the plain English sense of the word) ... for themselves and others.

@MattySchnides, welcome to the forum. We don't give fundraising $'s to council. We do let a representative come and pitch FoS to our parents at a local CoH.

@Tired_Eagle_Feathers, it seems that people have forgotten plain English. From Webster ... That's from the online version which is an oversimplification, so from the Collegiate Version (1980, omitting #2 for the sake of brevity) ... Anyone who has ever been accused of so much as a parking ticket hopes for an equitable judge. In our county's perverse system of taxation, I've relied on a judges equity more than once. (Which eventually translated into home equity ... which is #3 in the definition.) How dare I expect to walk into court and expect equity? Well ... In college, a judge who was invited to speak to our Sunday school told us that from the bench he owed defendants and plaintiffs both justice and equity. A few years prior to that, my troop took a day hike to the county court house and met with our judge, the sheriff, and a few other public officers. In other words, I strongly encourage your scouts to learn plain-English definitions of equity -- from people who have to meet it out when our fellow citizens might be facing cold justice -- and proceed from there. (A bonus would be if you can find a nice camping spot in reach of the magistrate's office.)

I hate being thrown back into the Cold War and catching up on reports like Dad scoured the paper every evening. However, I found this young veteran to be refreshing and educational. Here he devotes the first half of his blog explaining the patrol method US NCO corps. File: why we do what we do.

A roof over our heads and place to store our stuff without charging rent! If we have that, we’re happy. Our boys keep the place tidy and when asked will do some heavy lifting (as in getting the old linoleum tile off the floor). Maybe folks call the latter a service project … around here we call it ‘redding up’. They run a food pantry and we collect for it. We also participate in scout Sunday service. The CoR makes sure her chore night is on our meeting night and drops by to chat regularly. It would be nice to arrange a meeting with the institution head the CoR, CC and yourself. If that doesn’t happen, make sure you touch base with the most significant person in the organization: the janitor. The boys need to know everything that needs to be done to keep the building in perfect condition. That starts at the janitor’s closet and works outward!

Welcome, and thanks in advance for all you’ll do for the youth!

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.