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I can't find the phrase on the page, so is this what you intend the topic to be? Oh, thanks @CynicalScouter. In any case, the solution is "Increase Skill Mastery." A pandemic is no excuse. Basically, more time in open air is also our solution. We met in a park through the warm months last year, and it really helped our boys practice and master skills. Even as we are looking at lower restrictions now that most of our adults have jabs and virus-laden kids pose 1/20th the risk, we plan on repeating that practice. We were fortunate that our district made efforts to keep things rolling, literally. Even though Klondike had to be postponed and it was a little weird mounting tires on those sledges, two of our patrols participated. Funny thing, in the climb to be best patrol, our scouts learned stuff, and we were pretty busy with BoR's over the past few months. None of this lot asked to perform a virtual campout, and fortunately we had the depth of adult leadership to fill in when someone was sick. On the other hand, we only succeeded in providing about half as many weekends as normal. Oh @69RoadRunner, keep up the social distancing. Less then two weeks is too soon to let your guard down. I'm not trying to discourage you (or anyone else) from camping with your scouts. Just keep things ventilated (windows down or burkas on). The charts from the clinical trials are clear: the 20x advantage really does require 14 days, not 10. Before 14 days after last dose, the margin of difference between vaccine and placebo is not all that great.

Gas prices were lower this last drive south, but Mrs. Q and I made up for it. If we bought any more d/o’s, I could have mounted matching hubcaps on all four wheels.

Well, obviously, the victims who are convinced that filing suit does them no good would not be among the 8 in 10,000 scouts/alumni who have joined this class action. The totality of victims who’ve ever opened up to me were abused outside of scouting. Nevertheless “disease of the soul” is apt.

Society has made propositioning for this thing not fall under "sexual activity/discourse." This might be unacceptable in your your scouter-verse, and for good reason. But if a complaint went up the chain, this guy probably argued a "I didn't realize that's what they meant ..." clash-of-culture defense. Bottom line: if youth didn't observe it, you'll be hard-pressed to call it a YP issue.

@Armymutt, unfortunately, as clear cut as this is to you and me, this is not necessarily a YP issue. As my cousin Robbie has stumped for decades, adopting a permissive sexual ethic opens the gate for acceptance of polyamory and, consequently, adult-adult interactions involving proposals along those lines. So, you are wise to check with council, in your right to select leaders who will put youth ahead of liaisons, and in your right to have a low opinion of someone else’s ethics. But, worrying about what folks at a district level or in another unit give you ulcers needlessly.

That’s not “creeped out.” It’s patently offensive (even among sexually permissive circles) to assume that a single mom would be amenable to polygamy. Stick up for your moms. Reject this guy.

Of course, that calculus is impossible because families aren’t obliged to report any abuses that happen while their children are not In scouting. But based on our current understanding of the pathology, it is a reasonable guess that youth are at much greater risk when an uncle, sibling, or friend takes them camping. 84,000 is a drop in the bucket compared to the estimated millions who have been sexually abused as minors over the past 50 years. Remove BSA and its various methods of accountability, break the budget of every CO and remove them as contributors to youth programs, and we merely increase the isolation of vulnerable youth. We could create tenfold more victims than we compensate.

@ThenNow, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone would beat your dad to the punch. But think on this: if you didn’t want your corrupted troop to die then, why would you want the many wholesome troops to dissolve now? ETA: To be clear ... this is not an attack. This is an attempt to understand how what happened before influences the negotiations now.

So, I think the best way to implement your ticket is to lean into the patrol method and MB counseling. How about this for a goal: Develop and market patrol-oriented MB instruction. Develop an invite along the lines of “Mr/Miss Leader of the —— Patrol, You and the youth you lead are invited to schedule a weekend or set of evenings for my —— MB challenge.” Promote your program to the troop(s) you serve. In other words, think of the MB’s you teach. Go over the requirements. Identify those that might best be performed as a patrol activity — especially if there is a convenient resource in your community where that activity could be done. Explain that you will only handle one patrol at a time. Ideally, there will be one patrol who will take the bait. But, if not, at least scouts will have met one adult who takes them as a patrol seriously.

I would suggest that an intransigent attitude has nothing to do with tenure. I’ve seen this with leaders who’ve only had a couple of years under their belts and their kids are still in their unit.

Kool. It could monitor how systems are abusing our kids, and hold them accountable. Heck, it could go straight to the source ... families. It could provide re-education camps for wayward parents. It’s a recipe for success. I’m sure predators would never corrupt such an oversight entity.

Being one such leader, and a scout who has benefited from such leaders, and a father of scouts who have benefited from such leaders, I see nothing but good. The method is adult association, not parent association. Tenure has nothing to do with perilous leaders. Or, if it does, nobody is publishing stats on it.

@yknot, I get where @David CO is coming from. If we don't give 11 y.o.'s some responsibility, they can't build resilience, in turn we deny them agency, then the abuse hits double-hard. Not only are they a victim, but we confirm that things are beyond their control. Then, once adults, they have to face incredible challenges like accepting love from their spouse, raising their kids, etc ... and they can't say, "I didn't believe that I could do X to make things better. I want to now believe differently. I want you to believe as well." Ours is a systems culture. To a large degree, we think a well-balanced system can be worked to keep the worst of our natures in check. And, to a large degree, we're right. But, at some point our youngest citizens need to be introduced to that system in ways that enable them to drive it to the good. This has nothing to do with scouting in particular. By age 11, a youth needs to know that they might be more saint than adults around them -- that they might be the real Santa in camp.

Welcome to the forums. All of the above is sound advice. Getting specific to the needs of your troop, consider the following goals: Host one promotional event at a school or a public place where youth gather. Invite your troop to participate in that event. Identify a service project in your community that would be suitable for 3-5 scouts to undertake together while in uniform. (E.g., working a booth at a carnival, serving a community food bank, etc ...) Identify property owners within a reasonable distance from your troop's meeting place who would let scouts camp or pass through hiking. Provide this list to your SM and scouts. Learn about all of your district's activities that would be available to your scouts (either as participants or organizers), and present the list to your troop. More challenging ones: Identify the most popular media outlet in your community. (Local paper, online group, etc ...) Find out what kinds of stories about your scouts would interest them. Share with your troop how to do this. Attempt to submit one story. Survey youth and parents in your community and find out what they know about scouting, what they like, what they dislike. Share the results with your troop.

The only surprise by the weather in Western PA is when it is unnervingly calm for more than 18 hours straight. Those bright sunny days with little breeze give me the willies.

By now, scouts that have had school in-person a couple of days a week should have mastered mask management. They certainly should have been doing it at meetings. Hopefully the SM has taken them on some hikes and camp outs to observe their behaviors. Hopefully they've learned what materials survive a wet pack. Often times, when we say masks are mandatory, it means inside or working in close quarters. And we call our scouts on it "on the fly." Ours have not pushed back. I'm quite proud of them. This year will be different than last year and SM's will need to adjust accordingly. And they need a committee to stand behind them. Let me emphasize, this should not be a troop committee decision. If the SM wants to apply the better part of caution, and it is posing no risk to the scouts, there is nothing to discuss. The SM is at the most risk of complications along with vulnerable relatives in the scouts' households. His/her sense of caution should be respected. There might be SM's out there who are totally reckless. Or there are parents who are unnecessarily vocal and want to go beyond guidelines one way or the other. And that's a different story. We have committee to keep us from stupid or from caving to parents when reason says we should do otherwise. That's a different situation from the OP. Finally, we can't base this summer's decisions on an extended emergency use authorization. It will come too late for many troops to react for summer camp. And, it probably won't reach down to 11 year olds. If we can get 80% of our adults vaxxed, it will forestall a lot of death. That 52% of parents planning to vaccinate their kids that @hiker67 referred to is a mighty fine number, but not one that I'd fret over until the end of summer. Those parents are more likely to be caring for an elder or more vulnerable relative. The other half of parents who are likely not in those situations are right to think long and hard about risk vs. benefit.

Nope. I send scouts wanting the badge to a counselor who is more than happy to verify his activities via Email. None of my scouts have asked for exceptions on account of the pandemic.

It’s more complicated than that. The rate of outdoor transmission is low. But, we don’t know how much is mask vs. contact transfer. Moreover, an environment with low rate of transmission is only useful in areas with low prevalence. In areas with high prevalence, even low transmission activities will result in a few new cases — even if masks are used. Keeping scouts in the habit sanitizing surfaces is still a really big play. There’s lots of stuff out there besides this virus. But even a garden-variety cold could sideline a scout and his/her family a week before tests come back. I haven’t found the summary data for the pediatric EUA on FDA’s site, so I can’t comment aside to say that broad vaccination for kids under 16 are unlikely to be available until fall. It’s a really tough sell. If too many kids get sick from the vaccination (even if the number is quite small) it could trigger a backlash against the entire strategy. So the pandemic guys must tread carefully.

If patrols were in fact pods spaced a hundred yards apart, you could relax mask wearing. But, that’s probably not your reality. Cov-sars-2 seems perfectly content with half as many targets in which it may flourish. Your state needs higher numbers. 80% of adults vaxxed is a passing grade. Let your SM be the SM in this case. Have him talk to other SMs in your district and observe how the scouts behave. This is not a committee decision.

Don’t worry about the DEI badge. It is stalled in committee. We should hear by the end of next month if it is available. I can’t imagine it becoming required for another 6 months. Even so, he has to knock out a lot before even considering if he has to move one of his elective badges toward an insta-palm.

And they rightly resist putting up HAs. Victims’ lawyers should be concerned as well. Sell the HA’s for a quick buck, strangle income, and their clients stand to miss out on billions over the next 20 years.

The IVF existed because law enforcement had no such mechanism. If all BSA did was notify the police, any number of things could have happened, but none of them would have included registering these perpetrators nationally. At the time, the most likely lawsuit would have been from those ineligible volunteers who would sue for libel, should the list be made public. The thought of the FBI tracking a hundred thousand citizens KGB-style would not sit well with anyone in the 70s. That BSA undertook this, with great difficulty, on its own is a credit to its tenacity. It is also betrays a bit of arrogance that it could do it. What we don’t know, is how well it worked. It could be that millions of children were spared profound indignities because of this strategy.

There’s always a variant ... most years we just aren’t bothered. My pandemic guy gets on a call with his buddies, and they pull a mix from their war chest that they think will match whatever’s spreading around. We tease him badly if he’s wrong. He tries harder the next year. It’s the highest-stakes gamble on the planet. Pediatric trials are starting. Meanwhile get your scouts out camping. We’ll know by autumn if a vaccine for the youngn’s does more good than harm.

I agree about variability in moral code. In Momma's frame of reference, what are now called micro-regressions wouldn't count for much. I had no business doling them out. (A bar of soap would be waiting for my foul mouth.) But, I'd better be prepared to endure them. She would call parents of a kid to let them know what they did to set me running home crying, but she would turn to me and say, "You've got to get big." It was an old-country way of thinking that she didn't call on often. But she applied it here. YP has increased the level of adult-to-adult accountability. That's a plus. There are probably even better ways to convey information if organizations weren't afraid of lawyers swooping in and using any disclosed data as justification for seeking damages. Limit tort, focus wrath on first line perpetrators only, and it could further increase transparency. That's the next step to help adults understand the sociology of this in the age of new media. But, still, it might not help the front lines. Potential victims don't know what to do. I'm afraid we adults are going to need to be a little more forthcoming to children. Even in my Sunday School curriculum, I see how it skips chapters that some young men and women would need to grasp sooner rather than later.

I have far too many points, because the problem is far bigger than the BSA. The bitter truth, Americans, is no matter where you go, there you are. Deconstruct every organization that one or two predators may infiltrate, and thousands will flourish given this nation's nuclear family structure. The manuals on how to do this are encoded in some of the vilest American literature and pop culture. Read that literature, find the family beleaguered by life who "needs a friend", whose kids aren't doing much with others, infiltrate. There is no patriarch or matriarch monitoring whose spending too much time with whom across multiple families in the tribe. Fewer families are part of organized groups where underprivileged parents can learn "the signs." We are in a culture where kids grow up isolated and the ones who should urgently "call that number" are terrified to because the media the watch terrifies and isolates them. Inside or outside of the BSA, if anyone tries to address this with adult solutions in adult forums, be it training or courtrooms, they will fail. The only solution that I can think of is what Mamma did for me. I can remember it vividly. It was during a bath time ... well before puberty. She explained ... Nobody had a right to handle my genitals. There are people who will assume that right. Be they friends, family, or priests, oppose them with all the force that you have. There are good people in the world. Find them. Report to them. Repeat. Later lessons were to not gawk at someone else's spouse, if she ain't your wife she ain't your spouse, treat sex like a Christmas present, stand up to bullies, be kind to the oppressed, don't be the oppressor, etc ... I more or less remembered those. But that first one was clear. I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only kid in the neighborhood who got that first lecture. Someone must have tipped off the moms in our community about something. We can debate the specifics of her approach, but her bottom line: adults don't stop abuse, the abused do. The underlying philosophy was to build resilience in the kids because there is no time-cop roaming the streets to take out abusers before they commit their first act.