skeptic

Meanwhile, back at the ranch: The perpetrators, the ones actually responsible are long gone for the most part. The local authorities and political or power brokers that protected the actual perpetrators are basically ignored, since they are either some civilly protected entity or are conveniently untraceable. Most of the claimants likely are not in the so called Perversion files, as they were shielded by those connected entities or their family's chose, at the time, to NOT put the claim into the public eye. And, if the claim is actually in the Ineligible Volunteer File, there are notes as to what was done outside the BSA that resulted in no charges or minor charges. After fifty plus years, most of it is really like the charges lodged against political people that date back decades. Yet we do not see them being held accountable. Why? Because there is power and money that is willing to sweep it away, and the lawyers do not see a pay day.

This reminded me of my foolish young scout days. I was in a troop as an 11 or 12 years old and we were camped for a few days, summer of 1955 or maybe 56, in the mountains near Slide Lake which is in the Pomona area of So Cal. Anyway, two of us were hiking and we ran across deer tracks and started following them. I was wearing my proud acquisition from selling Christmas cards, a belt ax with sheath knife, and I had a hiking stick as did my buddy. We noticed the tracks were farther apart and wondered if we were close and scared it. Then we realized there was another set of tracks now, and they were not deer, but large cat imprints. That was when we decided tracking the deer was not a good idea. We took my hatchet and knife and put points on our hiking sticks and then we turned around and headed towards camp, constantly jumping at noises and peering into the scrub and mancinita. We never saw the cat or the deer, but when we turned around, the deer was obviously moving much faster, as were we in the opposite direction. Funny how I had almost forgotten that. As an adult, we were camped on the Sespe at Bear Creek. It was early summer or late spring, and we had not pitched tents. I got up the next morning and wandered away to water a tree, and on the way back into the site, I saw fresh tracks in the damp sand of the river bar just a few dozen feet from where we were sleeping. The tracks came within about ten feet of one scout, who was still asleep. When he woke up, he did not see the tracks, but when I pointed them out to him, the look was pretty funny. Wish I had had some plater, as the tracks were deep and fresh. Would have been great to capture them.

Interesting comment. Harks back to the early days of Scouting and one of the requirements. What to do about a rabid dog? That was actually an issue in those days.

Glad there is a video attached. Otherwise, I might have referred them to YP guiidelines.

Reality is that Ms. Ireland likely met and surpassed most of the requirements in her other earlier Scouting involvements, and that she is qualified in spades. Most of the push back seems petty to me. As far as First, or leading the list, or whatever, it is really not important. What is important that we have pushed past another barrier that can do nothing but improve the reach of the program, and may even enhance it much more than many realize. Congratulations to them all, and perhaps special kudos to Ms. Ireland for sticking to her guns and helping to open the program to young women who so choose. Like prejudice, misogyny has no place in Scouting.

We might add the possibility that society as a whole was equally responsible in that the responses to these things were completely different in that earlier period. So, once again, taking the sin/bad behavior out of its own period to be measured against a different view and response mechanism is blatantly unfair to most involved. And to remove the actual perpetrator from the picture, basically because they are dead or too senile to be held accountable to modern "standards (?)" seems even more unreasonable. As we have noted before, ours is almost the only country in which this would even be happening. I truly do not understand why these bottom feeders are even allowed inside a courtroom. It would help of course if the yellow press would change their stripe and tell the complete story, rather than just the most heinous and headline grabber. You would think that other groups, especially youth serving, would be doing all they could to aid the BSA, as it will move to them too soon enough, as the GS already have found; along with at least one youth study group in university research.

I simply want to know if this is the original Beavah posting? If so, great to see you are still keeping the eye on things.

(Comment) The fact that she thinks having earned Eagle Scout in 20 months means she's gotten everything possible out of the program does not say great things about her mindset with regards to participating in scouts. Though I'll admit this viewpoint isn't exactly uncommon. While I cannot vouch directly for this specific young woman, my overall observation to date on those in this "special category" of Eagle candidates almost all are from long established Scouting families with traditions that they often had to view from the outside. But many families in these situations simply let the female children participate as they could, without the official recognition. Many of those young women have shown themselves to be head and shoulders above the male candidates we see. These young women were already getting more from the program than many male youth. It will all shake out in time, just as most transitions tend to do. Then many will look back and make comments about why are today's young female scouts seemingly not as bright as the the earliest ones. When push and shove come into play, it is not really much different than our experience with previous youth. Some are highly motivated and balk at barriers, sometimes pushing us to our limits, but great Scouts. Others are not likely to advance far without the interference of adults that do not understand the intent of the program. IF most of them come out of it with a positive experiences and have a better grounding in the foundational tenets, then we have accomplished our goal. It has little to do with rank, but rather "Character".

We can never have too many well placed and well constructed benches. When you get to my age, that will be more obvious.

It works for me. But, here is the item again, I hope.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10105193357292214&set=gm.1708260512655110&__cft__[0]=AZVhjhg0Pp-4lPkTeWKdf_gCzK9L8mfYCUgri0vhKn1gVy8J0klAMKxR5vx220y2G8nZX0yZocJ3cHB2miJjiruPGl9E9tdufnFZ5tBVjFtP5ClYAWyaqytBpNGCQ1sXffLkY2WqYPmKK_sbfKfGQjycBXf_MPM81uHzUArUsojCtvEMiT7Q1TbuM0nMDXeb4JwPrE3Ox4tSl_qHi6_6B28k&__tn__=EH-R

Yes, we were far more rural in the earlier days. I am hoping to find more now that I have added Newspaper.com to my list. They have actual Ventura papers, but not all the way back to 1910. It is that first couple of decades that is so sparse. I stumbled across the first apparent unit in 1910 just scanning through microfilm. Have yet to find anything more on that unit, other than the Congregational church minutes officially terminating the group in 1914. I suspect it was not overly active during that period, or it would have shown up a bit. No names of even the leaders. Good news is that I have been contacted by the local museum to start working with them, once they can let me in again. I just wish I could find a bit more help with the digging. Funny things pop up though;

As I continue to probe for historical bits and pieces for our local area Scouting, I have discovered one seemingly fairly common thing. Most of the earliest units were formed at churches and often in conjunction with the Y. Since our council did not exist until 1921, tracking down records is pretty hard, though we have found a few through National. Ironically, we know that we had a unit at the Congregational church in 1910, and that it was there in some manner until 1914. But, other than the newspaper notice of its formation in 1910 and some records of the church officially dropping it in 1914 we can find no National verifications. Similarly, other than newspaper mentions of at least a couple dozen various "scout groups" in the period from 1910 to 1921 when we started our council, there are few found items in National, so we do not know for sure about those early groups. Furthermore, while we can validate our first council Eagles in 1921 and 1922, we cannot validate other rank issues prior to the council. With the number of charter scouts when the council began, and that the first two Eagles happened almost immediately, one would think a possibility is there that someone might be lost in the maze of the early records. But, National has declined my request to have access to the Eagle files that were the basis of the great CD compilations that they issued that were the result of serious work by dedicated people. But, based on the duplications in our files, and also just the fact that many early registrations were small rural locations that have literally fallen off the map, there is the strong possibility one or two even earlier Eagles could be sitting in limbo in an undetermined file. Also, confusion with current councils and the many defunct ones surely caused some misdirections or simply unknowns. It the unknowns that I wish I could see. I hope those records are still actually properly stored. It is odd how few news articles actually designate awards to the earliest scouts, but only talk about courts of honor generally and Tenderfoot tests. Lots though on outings and such, which is great. Just figuring out what units of the time were there is more difficult, as it often just mentions names or towns. Fun and games working on our centennial next year. The most common CO's in those early news accounts are the Congregational, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Catholic Churches, along with the Rotary, Kiwanis, Lions and LDS, though it is rarely noted, even though became official for them in 1913. Our area may not have had enough members for the early scout units, since it was mostly agricultural.

Why?

The hostel angle is just one of many to think about. The main thing is to hopefully have usage for local youth and small groups in some manner while also having service opportunities for the serious needs that abound. The church appears to already be decided on it being a place for outreach.

Specifically VCC, Council 57. The city is Ventura, and of course right on the beach, as well as fairly easy access to the larger So Cal area. It is still in the early stages of local discussions, but some small uses may be allowed in the discussion periods. My thing is doing whatever we can to display the best of Scouting and just do it. That is the real challenge, not getting led from our primary reason to exist by ignorance and people with tunnel vision.

So confused with tags and such. Just give me a basic forum and let me type. Anyway, we have an interesting possible opportunity locally with the closure of a major church with considerable property with its campus. The church is being run by the Methodist District and there are plans in the works for using the property for outreach. I have proposed that part of that be a distinctly inexpensive spot for traveling youth, Scouts or otherwise. Also, picture us developing a resource center with historical material that can be reviewed and possibly utilized in modern context, or a "How it was" way. It might include locally run uniform banks, even for non scout groups, a possible motor home capability with limits (it has a large parking lot), and some on site things like maybe a couple of compass/orienteering courses. It is in a prime location in the middle of the city, and right acrross from the local JC as well. In conjunction with local non-profits it likely will include homeless and indigent options, great service ops and the, or so it seems to me, a chance to just do what scouts do, at the core. Any thoughts on how a hostel type thing could be included, and various ways the Scouting Community might be at the core? As an extension; are there similar options that in our re-inventioning phase might be considered on the BSA nationally.

So, another "go get the stick" distraction. Maybe we should simply "do our best" to save the basic and solid foundations and grow them with the youth in mind, no matter their variants in beliefs or other seemingly important distractions foisted by a messed up society. Just saying; these scenarios are fun, and even have some place, but our focus needs to be where the compass point meets the direction arrow.

https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2020/08/28/saving-grace-scout-creates-inspirational-worship-videos-for-eagle-project/

It might be a great challenge to the youth to form their own teams to work at it from that all important side of the knot. But, only in BSA would such a marass of issues be on the board. It might even be interesting to have the same basic scenario, but in another scouting family or two in other parts of the world. Playing outside the box and realizing other shapes exist.

After my parents passed, I was cleaning out drawers and collected a trove of coins, many silver. I checked the dates against an old coin catalogue, then took them to a local dealer and let him know I had checked the dates. Three, I think, of the silver ones were worth more as collector items than the silver, and he took that into account. I ended up with close to $400 in silver content, plus a few bucks for some older pennies. I still have a jar of the lead ones I think, just for fun. Had a smaller jar that I took to scouts and new boys were given on when we did our first review. Have run out of those now. Most had no idea what it was. It is a good thing falerists are not banned, or memorabilia collectors would be in a panic.

Not sure where you might get an idea of this replacing Hornaday. Currently, from reading the announcement, it appears it is not yet a long-term award, though it could become one. But I see nothing in the article that would suggest it replacing Hornaday. If anything, it might become an additional qualifier in the Hornaday stable. And we do not yet see if there will be a younger boy, Cub, award, or if the muli-level World Conservation Award will have any play in it. Think positive and ask that the head of the EPA and the President earn the equivalency of the recognition.😇

We get back to interpretation; but this does appear to rule out fencing. As noted of course, with proper supervision and equipment it is likely as safe as many other activities still allowed. I am confused by the last one: "Intramural, interscholastic, or club sport competitions or activities". Are they saying that scouts cannot participate in normal team sports in school or the various youth sports leagues? That is what it appears to say to me, which makes not sense at all. What am I missing on this one?

The basic idea seems okay, but the arrangement of the pieces is out of whack. It should be starting from the youth side and the support then being available.

I believe they are seriously moving in the right direction. We do not have all the facts, nor any idea about many of the peripheral considerations. What I perceive, partly based on some discussions at PTC last summer, is that a sea change has begun. Are there still people in National that may try to buck the change, or are too bull headed to understand the seriousness? Probably. But I have studied the history of the program for over fifty years and have many theses and studies and actual professional meeting and conference minutes and reviews. The first thing that makes me cautiously optimistic is the already in place move away from a professional in the driver seat. The man has obviously come into it with the perspective of the volunteer, and those mid level council people I know that have met him assure me he is the real thing. Whether or not I am correct in my perceptions now, only time will tell. But I refuse to bey at the moon about how awful National is, and how they are all only out for themselves and a bunch of non Scouter miscreants or whatever. As my nickname suggests, I am always skeptical. But I also feel that I am able to make rational decisions and judgments based on what is presented. If I am wrong, it will be very sad. But, I do not see how some can continue to carry the negative water to throw on the positive firelay. JMHO. Good Scouting. We have youth in our home fronts to lead and mentor. No more responses on this portion of the novella.