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@ThenNow some councils are more tightly knit than others. Lots of reasons for this. But, I don't think the SE would be acting with a particular prejudice. In general they are shuffled around the country, a lot. The more urgent concern will be one of youth still being harmed. As mandatory reporters any evidence that a scouter might be an abuser has to be reported to the authorities. I would not be surprised if SE's were directed to review claims for names of any reported perpertrator who is still registered. None of us would be privy to such a directive. But, I also would not be surprised if an SE (or many SE's) would take this task on independently. Furthermore, I can't see how an SE could withhold this information from law enforcement. PA's law is written with current abuse in mind, but I don't know if the wording has any true limitations to that effect. In general, once these claims are verified, is there any reason why they should be kept from the scrutiny of law enforcement?

A good question for which I don’t think there will be a good answer. I don’t think disclosure to the police would be based on statute of limitations. That particular case might not be prosecuted, but it still could be used as evidence to solve another more recent case. But, the key part of your question: who’s hand is at the tiller, is unclear. The only potential case that I’ve ever had to deal with had already been conveyed to law enforcement, and I got a phone call from a council executive. That was regarding a possibly ineligible volunteer — for which there was an established chain of responsibility. It’s not clear at all who in the organization would be able to act on a claim from these proceedings.

Savvy predators like them too … it reduces the number of eyes that may spot the hidden cameras.

Definitely get some time in at a natural waterfront. Go over Safe Swim defense and Safety Afloat. The more your scouts prepare, the more they’ll enjoy.

Not required, either or.

Oh, numbers! So the Dube et. al. study gave no incentives for members of a San Diego HMO to report childhood sexual abuse, and came up with a rate of 16% in males and 25% in females. That's twice the average of some broader surveys of adults, but take it at face value. Large (some would say exaggerated) incentives were given to erstwhile scouts to report CSA and less than 1% of members (and that's after deducting an estimate of those who might have died and whose estates might not care to lay claim) came forward. If one were to make an ecological hypothesis based on the rate reported by a San Diego HMO, there should be over a million victimized scouts. Either: The TCC's methods of finding victims failed. A vast majority of victims want nothing to do with this litigation. The rate of victimization in scouting is ostensibly lower than outside of it. None of these possibilities are reasons for complacency among scouters. But, it is a chilling thought that discouraging organizations to support programs shown to reduce risk of abuse might have the unintended consequence of exposing America's youth to increased risk. BTW, Dube et. al. weren't really trying to estimate population rates of CSA. Their paper is very interesting because it examines the elevated odds of long term problems among folks who reported CSA. Here is their concluding paragraph (which is probably worth a whole topic in and of itself):

If I could thank and like and upvote at once, I would.

Ditto @jjlash. Take the course. Come back with questions. Have you met some of the scouters in your district?

There have been a couple of conversations like … Post: I/he/she did it this way … Reply: That’s dumb Post: I do it because … It works … I recommend it …. Reply: You are a terrible scouter if you do it that way … you’re ruining it for the kids … no wonder people don’t want to join scouting anymore. If you think this a healthy way to respond to a post, you couldn’t be more mistaken. It’s fine if you don’t like a strategy. It’s fine if you would rather scouters do something else. Tell us what that is. Let us know how it worked. Pro’s? Con’s? Historical references? Spell ‘em out. It’s totally inappropriate and not healthy for you to demean a scouter because they don’t agree with you. Look down on too many such folks, and the hypoxia from such an altitude must be suffocating. To save a scouter from such a dire fate, I’ll report such attempts to denigrate a scouter to the moderator, but I can only do so much after the fact. Instead, I am going to offer a method of resilience against scouters who suggest something you are sure is utterly stupid, will never work, and is emblematic of something wrong with society. Since these are rarely matters of health and safety. here’s what I suggest: Try it. If you really want to prove someone wrong, try their method. Let your scouts know you’re experimenting with uniform/patrol/outdoors/adult association or whatever and want to do one thing differently for a few months. Ask their evaluation after a good run doing it differently. Go back? Keep on? Tweak it for us? Then, let us know what your scouts/scouters/parents say. Then, instead of wasting your words trying to cut down a scouter, you will give us one more data point for us to decide what might actually help our unit. scout (v) = explore, observe, report

"Past" depends on your time frame. But over the past few decades, in some locations, BSA has networked with counseling services to make them available for any victims of trauma as a matter of course. I have seen it happen for non-CSA trauma, and received mixed opinions from the parents who tried to take BSA up on the offer. Only 50? That's less than 1% of the names in the IVFs. They must have found more who found a revolving door. If not, that would imply that the IVFs were >99% effective. On the other hand, it's hard to say how many of the 7.8K IV's would actually have been pedophiles. I think one of the sociology studies was going to look at how many "2nd attempts" were identified in the files. But I haven't seen any publications about it. (Press releases, but I give them little credence.)

IF you dig through some of the older topics, there are posts of erstwhile scouters summarily removed from the program asking about how to lodge appeals for reinstatement. (There was no such process.) We obviously would have no idea if posters of such topics were perpetrators of abuse, but those strangers on the internet were, by their own admission, thwarted. At least, other forum members were of no help to them, at the time. We haven't had a lot of victims posting about their experiences. Those who have were scouters themselves trying to make the world a better place. I only recall a couple of them, and I don't remember them telling any details about if and how they sought and got help. As a parent and a Crew Advisor, however, their testimony was very helpful and I think made a more attentive leader of me. I have heard of and known scouts who were victims of trauma offered help from our council. However, the trauma was not from CSA. As a policy, counseling from independent centers is made available, but my understanding is the wait times are much reduced by scheduling via one's health plan.

http://www.inquiry.net/uniforms/neckerchief/uses.htm lists 44 mundane uses on one page, and http://www.inquiry.net/uniforms/neckerchief/1st_aid.htm lists (albeit garbled) 47 uses in first aid. (Mods' feel free to branch in new topic.)

I’m not sure why it’s so hard to believe. Although, I’m kind of glad you weren’t in school with wannabe klansmen. Their reaction to the way the world was going (and would, in fact, become): “Unbelievable.” I’ve returned to my hometown, and it warmed my heart to meet some minority business owners. A trivial gain statistically, but meaningful nonetheless.

@robert12, I strongly suspect so. But do you have a source?

This mostly from Jambo patrols, Venturers, and the occasional provisional scouts who have camped with our troop ... 1. Training, training, training. If a scout is not working in a patrol at home, he/she will be overwhelmed in a patrol of strangers. As an SM/Advisor, you will have to coach that scout along. Read the pertinent pages in the Handbook (which the scout may have never read), and encourage the scout to get up to speed. Obviously, if you have more than one inexperienced provisional scout you will have to make this a more public discussion. Be upbeat, recognize the challenges facing them, and establish high expectations. 2. Courtesy. Kindness. Helpfulness. If a scout hasn't mastered this in with the patrols in his/her troop, it will show up in the patrol. Ask a scout like this to help you with a task. It might involve a chore, meeting with other scouts/scouters, or a brief conservation project. I had one scout tell me nobody in his troop ever asked him to do anything because he had established a pattern of not doing anything when asked. I made it clear that I tend not to ask favors of the scouts who are already finding chores for themselves and working. I did see a change in outlook that trickle down to his patrol later in the week. 3. Reverence. Scouts must go through this world as if it's a gift for them to tend.

Welcome! And good luck on your hunt. There are several sites whose owners maintain discontinued badge requirements (e.g., http://www.inquiry.net/traditional/badges/master-at-arms.htm). Have you contacted them regarding their sources?

So much for individual showers.

@NDW5332 clearly, the scouts would go home, pull out their smart phones, and one would video the other using his/her phone to navigate. They would then post videos of them doing this task to their patrol leader, who would sign off in the scouts' handbook at the next meeting. Of course they would cc the SM, ASM and concerned parents to maximize YP. @ShutterbugMom, the SM is the one who sets the boundaries. The committee needs to quickly reply firmly that they will stand behind the SM's decisions as to what tools scouts may keep on their persons at meetings or camp. They need to let this parent know that if she deems it important for her son to be under leadership that makes rules to her own liking, she is more than welcome to start her own troop. Frankly, if I were SM or ASM I would send notice to all parents and scouts regarding anyone who adds blanket rules. I would tell the troop that they were misrepresenting the troop committee and myself. When we share a policy change, we give the reason, and set a time for when the committee will evaluate the usefulness of the rule.

I’m gonna push back, just a little. Scouts like being recognized for their achievements. They don’t like being recognized for things they didn’t do. And they regard less highly people who give an award just so they don’t feel left out. If you have a tight knit den, obviously they are going to earn their rank patch simultaneously. But, what if a scout skips a required adventure and doesn’t want to do it with a parent or guardian? The best thing you can do for that scout is to award the other scouts promptly so that he/she may reconsider and make-up the requirements for the award. If you wait until end-of-year, you deny that scout an opportunity. All that said, don’t make monthly awards suck the oxygen out of the room. Each DL lists awards earned by whom, then announces the next months activities.

Well, I can see that offering you to see our Civic Light Opera or Transmissions by Lucille won’t come off as particularly hospitable. There’s a bit of a disagreement on when one should downvote. I’d like people to downvote me when they disagree with a post and don’t otherwise want to comment. If I’m just rude (or using this site to sell something) report it, and I’ll soon get a personal message from a moderator. It’s not a problem. Reputation seems to do with how many upvotes minus downvotes one gets. I’m not sure if it’s a good thing. Unlike software forums we people upvote things that they’ve tried and actually succeeded in using, a lot of upvotes here are opinions, I think. Well, it’s nice that someone thinks what I wrote sounds nice, but I’d rather a post be upvoted if folks have experienced the same thing on some practical level. So, you’re doing us all a favor if you like stuff that you’ve seen actually “work” and do the opposite if you’ve seen it fail. Comment if you’d like to add nuance or specific personal experience.

Knowing what can put a hurting on you around here is pretty standard training. And generally I don’t limit scouts to the BSHB for that information. Over time we train them on where to look for the latest notifications.

Yes, it would be nice to have empirical data — not for individual decisions, but to determine how to help schools make better policy going forward. Unfortunately camps aren’t required to — nor would they be capable of — fielding a public health officer who could report either COVID or salmonella outbreaks. (The latter could be truly harmful in this population.) That would be a mission of your state’s public health office. Volunteer to pay more taxes and it might happen. Data costs real money, and statisticians don’t come cheap. But, based on the few studies that I’ve read from last year’s camp season, a positive COVID test or two for every thousand campers would be reasonable expectation. Assuming a majority of adults and older campers/staff would be vaccinated … symptoms, hospitalizations, and deaths, among camp participants would be increasingly rare. How that translates into some unvaccinated adult back home getting sick is the largest unknown, but that’s the most likely downstream effect of youth infections.

Way to take something to the dark side @jcousino. I’m sure @5thGenTexanwould have acted and not posted if the “poke” were a physical assault. The CM is a an uninitiated insignia wonk. That’s all.

I wouldn’t stop him/her. The SPL may dock a point on inspection but it would be worth it if the scout is that loyal to the den.

2.5 MB’s a week. If each MBC in your district counsels 5 or more different MBs, that’s 25 people to contact. Even without any “high-speed, low-drag” adults in the vicinity, it sounds doable for a scout who starts at a more mature age, and this is his/her sole hobby. My wish is that one in ten of those badges sticks with the scout and forms a hobby or occupation for the rest of their life.