qwazse

American parents often want lots of details, and the announcements for both Jamborees are pretty sparse. Here’s how I informed my troop. (Iin case you are looking to do something similar for your scouts, feel free to use. No point in reinventing the wheel.)

There was an official announcement. Your sources are correct. And that is the website to get on the mailing list. World Scout Jamboree opens shortly after National Jamboree closes. There’s no hard-and-fast rule that Jambos have to be on opposite did-numbered years. Each scheduling strategy has advantages and disadvantages.

So, when did BSA have troops with mixed races? Sometime before 1919: https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2021/03/24/new-research-reveals-an-even-earlier-black-eagle-scout-hamilton-bradley-of-new-york/. Let us not forget that this is a big country, the black experience has never followed a single narrative, and the strategies BSA deployed to reckon with varied accordingly. But to the OP, scouts can and do attend and speak at town meetings in uniform. From time to time, those events are noted here, and similar objections are raised. Invariably scouters conflate endorsing a political candidate with engaging in civil discourse at town meetings.

Although I may concur with the sentiment, it’s on par with purging the organization of atheists. You’ll never know who most of them are until they’ve done a world of good for your community’s youth.

Upon consideration, my gut says that these system-wide traces of YP statistics will disappoint. Whatever number comes out of them, it will either be deemed an under- or over-count, and their interpretation will be debatable. Most importantly, there's no control sample. But, equally important, there will be multiple sources of reporting bias. If the goal is to benchmark how well a program is being implemented and how safe kids are, we would do better with independent research using de-identified random sample surveys of scouts and alumni. Such controlled research will have power to actually nail down the rate of YP violations or CSA by asking tough questions, like: How frequently do scouts recall being 1-on-1 with leaders? How often have scouts experienced CSA? Was the perpertrator an youth, adult, relative, elder? Were they in scouting? In school? Some other venue? How often do scouts report CSA? How long after an incident do they take to report it? To whom do they report it? Similar questions could be asked of scouters. It's critical to get good data that can be compared to national norms. Otherwise, someone could claim their new YP program is working wonders when it's merely an artifact of national trends. E.g. the CDC's 2019 stats show CSA prevalence in males is down to 3.4%; and in females 11.1% (https://yrbs-explorer.services.cdc.gov/#/graphs?questionCode=H19&topicCode=C01&location=XX&year=2019 ). The 2021 survey will be especially interesting. But, beyond national norms, it's critical to answer questions of YP compliance and how that may correlate with CSA prevalence reduction. Until now, we (not just BSA, lots of youth-facing organizations) presumed that it did. This involves spending real $s for independent auditors who will guarantee methods and results will be published (and ultimately, peer-reviewed). A really well-executed survey may eventually fund itself as other organizations might want to purchase the same bench-marking service.

It's like those Arrowmen are evil twins to my Venturing. I am the guy in the troop who says, "Squirrel!" And that's why I stump that our goal is to imbue in youth a vision of the pinnacle scouting experience of hiking and camping independently with your mates.

I’ve put that burden on scouts who wanted a crew. I told them if they could bring me 5 buddies who weren’t in scouts, we’d get rolling. Yep, cover the twelve steps. That will get the DE involved. It will also build the mindset that you need. Regarding churches, they really need to be able to dedicate the space and provide a COR willing to give oversight.

Thanks @HelpfulTracks. The larger problem, I think, is that Eagle rank has been oversold. I fight this constantly in my troop. New parents come in and think that our troop is something special because some of us adults are Eagle Scouts. Meanwhile, the majority of other adults have put heart and soul into the life of the troop, helping us in countless ways. We Eagle Scouts don’t do all that much besides wear a nice knot. There’s a lot to be gained in taking pride in one’s advancement — be it Eagle or Tenderfoot. And it always breaks my heart when someone says, “I only earned [insert award that’s not Eagle here].” Drop the “only.” Remember your scouting career with pride!

What point diminishment? And wouldn’t the converse be true? If all a person can do is a point increment and nothing else, then that would not be contributing anything either. If it is true, shouldn’t you be aggressively asking someone to expound on why they might agree with you, if they haven’t taken the time to do so? Anyone who doesn’t see things the way I do, they are welcome to downvote. It means a lot to me. I won’t bully you for anything beyond that. I believe the only correct reply (if it didn’t clutter up the forum) would be, “Thank you for weighing in.” My apologies to anyone who expected that from me and didn’t get it. For those of you who’ve ever upvoted anything of mine, please consider getting professional help.

But, the CPC will be permitted to publish its own evaluation of changes (or lack of change), no? That alone could serve as an advisory to concerned parents. My biggest problem from a boots-on-the-ground perspective is that my parents aren't concerned. They think I and my SM's are saints. I am happy to say that we are worthy of a little elevation, just like the old Handbooks said. But parents should be raising the bar on us. A report from the CPC would go a long way to helping them understand that.

I thought I made clear, @David CO, that if it's just a paper Eagle story, it should stop there. But how would one troop know if it is just that? The political angle is a significant one where I live. Scout alumni in my district have been elected to public office. Scouters in my unit have run and are running for office (and even have their campaign signs on my property). If there was a hint of pretension in any of them, not only would they have my endorsement withdrawn, they would have my vocal opposition. If it were just me being a curmudgeon, I'm sure my observations would go nowhere. But, if someone in more than one or two other spheres also noted a cutting of corners ... it would amount to a lack of public confidence worth exploring. And, that's what reporters are for: to connect dots that we don't have time to observe.

I agree that the editor would not (and should not) publish a single letter regarding a single incident. However, it may be receiving reports of a pattern of incidents. The pattern could be regarding this one Eagle scout. (For example, he runs for office touting a prestigious resume. However, along with this evidence from the troop, the paper has on file a report of grade inflation, questionable signatures on a petition to be put on a ballot, etc ...) Or, it could be regarding multiple scouts. (E.g. -- this locality might have a spate of paper-pushing parents sweeping up accolades from multiple youth organizations. It might be a cultural phenomenon.) It could be that this council sweeps other things under the rug. (E.g. -- malfeasance with Eagle applications might also parallel a failure to report abuse to authorities.) Before taking such action, it is fair to consider that the troop might be in the wrong. Maybe they've raised such a high bar that paperwork moves ridiculously slow, and the scout and his parent felt they had no other choice but to seek help beyond his own unit. It could be that this troop is unique in its troubles; however, If @UpstateNYCC is accurate in the depiction of events, the troop might wrongly feel alone, isolated, and left out to dry by council. One way to break this cycle is to communicate to the Fourth Estate. To be clear, I would not want to do this. As a rule I've kept the press at a distance from matters involving scouts. And, if a reporter asks for some exclusive interview from your leadership about some written statement, decline. Your statement should speak for itself. (Yes, I've disappointed a reporter by saying just that. Still, the paper quoted the statement, and we all saved time.)

Specifically, the troop can send a letter to the leader’s COR and IH advising them that, with regard to the advancement of a scout in your troop, this leader broke trust. Regarding publicity, the troop could write a letter to the editor of the newspaper that this scout claimed an award under false pretense.

One forum member is verbally bullying members who down-vote his (her?) posts. This person claims to want more explanation, but to my knowledge has never asked for an explanation from anyone who up-voted a post. This abusive behavior puts a chilling effect on forum members who, with no further comment, may wish to disagree with our posts (a service that I value highly). IMHO, this is unacceptable. [Note: I am just pasting here so there is a standard note when one needs to report unacceptable posts.]

The scout leader who falsely reported a scout’s advancement is untrustworthy. A scout is trustworthy. Remove the leader, he’s not a scout. You should have suspended the scout immediately upon hearing that he conspired with his mom to violate the 1st point of the Scout Law. You now live with the consequences of your inaction.

JMHO, fretting over scouts in various states of undress does nothing to deter a predator. Ten years from now, shirtless might be the cultural norm, and harping over uniform shirts might be considered CSA. (Come to think of it, one of the victims who has been kind enough to recount their story here mentioned how their SM obsessed about scouts’ patch placement, getting out a ruler to measure them during inspection.) If YP reporting is flooded with these kinds of complaints, it will be completely useless to anyone.

BSA agrees ... https://filestore.scouting.org/filestore/merit_badge_reqandres/safety.pdf Note the bibliography, page 79. Both Home Repairs and Safety MBs have Underwriter’s Laboratory in their listings. Has anybody taken their scouts on a tour of an underwriters laboratory? There’s one near a favorite camp of our scouts. This conversation is inspiring me to add this to a list of potential activities.

Let us note that the name of the MB is not Home Building, or even Home Remodeling. Corded blinds will not disappear any time soon. Scouts will need to repair them for decades, as recommended by the consumer products safety commission: https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2001/CPSC-Window-Covering-Industry-Announce-Recall-to-Repair-Window-Blinds If you leave scouts ignorant of how to repair such things, they will do it wrongly … or not at all. The carnage that you claim to prevent will ensue. Keep the requirement, revise the pamphlet if needed, forestall death.

As long as girls can dress like an authentic young Pocahontas at Jamestown …

If one is to assume that the rate of victimization in scouting is on par with what has been reported in general population(s), the majority of victims did not bother. Either they saw the "talk of equitable compensation" for the large compromise that it would be, solicitations never reached them, or monetary compensation at the expense of today's scouts was never part of their formula for healing.

These are all non-problems. 1. We don’t need a lot of scouters to have done every scout skill. Only one in every troop. As far as I knew, my SM was the only person in my troop to have mastered them. And I never saw him swim, but there was a WAC vet who made it her mission to make sure every child in the county could keep aquatic death far off. 2. Have no idea what you mean. A skill mastered in a troop is valued at deer camp — as some of my scouts realized after receiving multiple invites to work them. 3. Again, I don’t need most scouters to read the book. I need them to find me property to camp on, ranges to shoot at, lakes to fish in, community leaders to visit, people to serve. 4. MBs? Guard certifications? Venturing?

While unjamming some window weights today, my recollection of that diagram of a window-sash in that merit badge pamphlet borrowed from the troop library umpteen years ago came in handy.

And, BSA could exact some coin for what scouts could learn by routinely camping with a troop. I don’t miss them.

@BadChannel70, welcome to the forums. All this site can offer is a place for you to hash things out. But, I hope it helps in the healing, and makes all the wiser those of us who were fortunate to avoid such malefactors in our childhood.

Modern tents are almost knot free. Teaching scouts to make a shelter with tarp and ropes gives them a life skill.