FireStone

We're on the front page of CNN right now, with a photo and everything. https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/06/us/boy-scouts-of-america-lawsuit-could-open-door-to-more/index.html It's nothing all that new as far as I can tell, except for another vivid tale of abuse. I can't fault any of the victims for pursuing this, they deserve their day in court. But what I do take issue with is this part of it: First, I don't raise anyone else's kids. But that's a whole other discussion. More to the point, I'm again absolutely frustrated with the notion that the BSA is still operating in the same way it was years ago. We've come so far and done so much when it comes to YPT. Our YPT program is far ahead of what many other youth organizations, sports programs, etc., have in place. And yet the public perception is that we're a haven for pedophiles. The BSA may have to face these lawsuits and possibly settle them or pay out when they lose. But the thing that baffles me is why they are also losing the PR battle in this when it comes to the modern day BSA and current YP. Why is it not even mentioned in these articles? Where are the BSA representatives to respond to comments when asked for these articles, the people who can and should point to this extensive training program and vetting process that is exactly what victims like the gentleman quoted above are asking for? If the BSA goes under, it's not because the BSA loses a lawsuit, it's because they lost the PR battle of public perception and failed to inform the public about what we're doing now to protect scouts.

Agreed. The possibility of a lack of consequences in this case is what concerned me most. Imagine if this guy got a pass and nothing happened. That would validate the notion that this behavior is ok, that the reporter put herself in the "line of fire" as some of Callaway's supporters have suggested. No female reporter could stand with her back to a crowd, since we've now given men the "ok" to slap/grab without consequence. I know this isn't the case, and he's facing serious consequences. As I believe he should. I just don't see the other side of this, how we (collective society) could just say, "We forgive you," and let it go with no penalty for his behavior. The harm that kind of free-pass would cause is worse than any individual incident.

But his interview/statement doesn't seem to indicate that he fully acknowledges any of that. He makes excuses, suggests that he may not have even touched her backside, and then dances around an apology but never really gives one. It's easier to forgive when the person in question at least truly realizes what they did.

Just what the BSA needs right now, a leader slapping a young female reporter on the butt on live TV. Tommy Callaway, a 43-year-old married father of two, is facing charges filed by Savannah, GA WSAV-TV anchor Alex Bozarjian, 23. On the surface, it's a stupid thing to do and unacceptable behavior from anyone, anywhere. The matter is made worse by a few factors, one being his lack of a real apology (he dances around it in interviews but is defensive and says he thinks he just "touched her back"), and as it relates to all of us, he's a Cub Scout leader. I always put myself in the shoes of a Committee Chair. What would I do if this guy was a leader in my Pack and I was the CC? I think I'd have a hard time not asking for him to resign. How could I just let this go? He doesn't seem all that remorseful, and frankly I think he's a YPT risk since he publicly slapped/grabbed the behind of a young woman who could could have been a teenager. She appears very young (she's 23), but for all he knew she could have been a high school intern working for the local news. At the very least his judgement as a leader in a youth organization should be in question, and at worst his membership should maybe be revoked. Surely it will be if he's convicted of a crime here.

First, I'm assuming innocence until proven guilty. That said, I'm struggling with the "at retreats and meetings" part of things. What was happening at meetings that there was ample opportunity for abuse to take place? This implies a massive breakdown in YPT procedures. Obviously we don't know all of the details, but I'm struggling to imagine many situations in which this could go on unnoticed by other adults, and so I'm inclined to agree with @ParkMan that the whole unit should be looked at with great scrutiny, possibly even suspended/shut down.

Our Pack has done "Pack Pride Day" in the spring, wearing Class B t-shirts to school, but mostly as a recruitment tool. I could see this being done in Class Bs, but wearing the full uniform to school can be tough for kids. I know they should be proud to be scouts, and most are, but wearing the uniform in school rarely has the intended effect. Unfortunately it invites more criticism than compliments. I wouldn't even ask my son to do it. But ClassB he's ok with.

Anyone have a good resource for someone who knows zero sign language to learn a few Scout-related phrases? Most importantly, how to sign "Be Prepared", but any others would be a nice bonus for me to know. I've done some googling but I'm not knowledgable enough with ASL to know what the proper sign is, ASL vs. standard sign language, etc., and I don't want to get the wrong signs. I made the classic scout leader move of volunteering to teach this and will now go about figuring out how to do it so I can teach it. 😄

I've been asked to do a demo at a Pack meeting on how to stay comfortable overnight while camping. Tips and tricks for staying warm, being comfortable in the tent, etc. This is one of multiple "stations" at the Pack meeting, round-robin-style and I'll be working with small groups of 5-10 scouts at a time, mixed ranks/ I've done it before and gone through the usual basics, best-practices with a tent to stay dry, how to stay warm, and little tips like bring a pair of slip-on shoes/slippers for those middle-of-the-night bathroom trips so you don't have to lace up boots. My problem is that this is all very "Let me explain this to you" in format, and Scouts get antsy and lose interest. How can I make it more interactive or fun? Another Scouter suggested making it into a game somehow, but I'm at a loss for what kind of game you can make out of learning how to stay warm in your tent. Any ideas?

Kind of a minor observation, but I sort of get a chuckle when I see US scouts and scouters so quickly switch from the tight neckerchief to the loose friendship knot style as soon as they get to jambo. And I wish they kept it that way when they got back home. I think we're a bit too tightened up when it comes to uniforms compared to many of our overseas friends in scouting.

That's right. It's not just a scout not wanting to hang out with another scout. Bullying is intended to inflict emotional harm, or to make someone feel less-than or inadequate. So instead it would be something like a scout telling another scout that they don't belong in the troop, they should leave, "this troop is for xyz, not you," etc.

We argued this over the recent bullying incident in our Pack, because the offending actions happened repeatedly throughout one Pack meeting, not over days/weeks/months. Some deemed it not "repeated" because it occurred during one day/event. I disagreed because the offending scout sought out the victim throughout the meeting, seeking to find her and harass her (on the basis of gender) repeatedly even when he had no reason to be around her (they were in separate groups for an activity). I guess "repetition" is certainly debatable, but context does indeed help to clarify it.

YTP does give some helpful criteria for defining bullying. For good reason, deciding what bullying is should not be left up to unit leaders or parents. You would run into the exact problem I ran into, where some adults just chalk it up to "kids being kids". It's not as vague as would be expected from the BSA. Broadly, they define forms of bullying as: Verbal—name calling, teasing, threats Social—spreading rumors, leaving the target out of activities, breaking up or manipulating friendships Physical—hitting, pushing, shoving, physical coercion Group—intimidations, ostracizing Criminal—injury, assault, sexual aggression Cyberbullying—using digital technology such as social media, gaming, texting,etc.,for any of the above Within YPT, if I recall correctly they go into more detail.

The BSA does provide some guidance, although some of the steps are kind of vague. They advise the following: Action Plan 1. Stop the abuse, bullying, or policy violation. 2. Protect the Scout/Youth 3. Summon assistance needed from other leaders, authorities etc 4. Take corrective action 5. Notify council Scout executive when warranted 6. Check back with the target youth to insure the problem behavior has stopped

Bullying is a Youth Protection issue in the BSA and there are guidelines that leaders must follow when it is reported. As with all YP issues, leaders should take it extremely seriously. That said, it doesn't need to escalate to extreme discipline right away. Those guidelines start simple, with a talk. Sometimes that is all that is needed. The guidelines do suggest elevating the issue to a scouting professional at the district level if warranted. But before that, steps should be taken to stop the bullying and hopefully handle the matter within the troop to just put a stop to it. If those guidelines are not being followed, talk to someone else. But try to allow the process to play out in the troop first. I know this is a tough issue to deal with. Saying "bullying" throws up a lot of red flags and defenses as soon as it is said, especially since bullying falls under Youth Protection. I've flagged a bullying issue in my unit and it was met with a lot of resistance to even take any action. Many people don't even want to deal, they chalk it up to kids being kids and just goofing around. It's not. It's serious. And it should be pursued seriously by leadership.

My understanding is that we're not supposed to do this. We can't solicit donations, even when they come with a bag of popcorn. We accept donations when offered, but our Pack's resident legal/financial guru has really hammered us on never asking for money. We sell products to raise funds. I suspect that units doing meat sticks or other cheaper fundraisers see a lot more of the "keep the change" sales. I'd love to hear from anyone who has direct experience with this, how profitable cheaper items end up being in practice. The risk of cannibalizing higher-priced sales is for sure a risk. But I think an acceptable one. I really don't like the optics of our really expensive items. We're a community organization, and when we get repeated negative comments about the absurdly expensive popcorn we sell, I just wonder what the long-term effect is on how the community perceives us and if we're doing harm to the BSA brand. Popcorn doesn't raise all of the required funds for some units, additional fundraisers are sometimes needed. We do a spring fundraiser, selling yard flags. The appeal is that we can tow the line with our Council and do popcorn, but then really make a bunch of money to find Pack activities and expenses with our spring fundraiser, which is far more profitable per sale than popcorn, is easier to sell, and requires less time from scouts and families to participate in. Parents do hate fundraising, but we haven't found a way to get them all on board with hitting our financial goals so we have no choice but to ask them to do more.

When they grant official licenses to companies like ClassB.com to make and sell BSA-branded goods, that message is getting a little muddy. They decide who to give a license to, and when they allow a company with a name that contradicts brand messaging to have a license, I'm thinking they're not really that serious about that policy.

We're supposed to get Council approval for fundraisers? 😁 We didn't get approval for our spring fundraiser, we just did it.

I'm a little confused on how the report of drug possession was basically blown off and ignored. Or was there more to it? unless I'm reading this wrong, he told other scouts he had weed, it was reported to the SM, and... nothing happened? He possibly had drugs at a scouting event, in camp, and was allowed to stay without consequence. What am I missing here?

There's a weird thing going on in our justice system lately. This all reminds me of the case of that college kid who was given a 6-month sentence for rape because of his student athlete status and the judge's belief that he's not a danger to anyone. The idea that judges are now passing sentences based on some sort of personal belief of future life potential rather than the facts of the case is disturbing. Especially when the facts of the case, such as this Eagle Scout case, seem to suggest otherwise. The kid not only bragged about the assault but he seemed to be proud of it, based on the text messages he sent to friends afterwards. Scary behavior, certainly not anything that would make me think he'll live out the rest of his life crime-free. It says something very "Minority Report"-esque that our legal system takes into account the subjective views of judges who think they have some crystal ball to see the potential future of the accused and judge current cases based on those views.

My Wolf den this past year completed 10 adventures, out of the 19 available. We met for den meetings once per month and asked scouts to complete some requirements at home in between meetings. Usually just one or two requirements, or one project for the relevant adventure. With a pretty light meeting schedule we knocked off half of the belt loops. I have no doubt that doing all 19 is entirely feasible, and honestly not all that difficult. I've heard leaders say that a den would have to meet weekly to do all of the adventures in the book, but I don't believe that to be true. On top of the 10 we completed as a den, some scouts did additional adventures on their own with parents, some as many as 3 additional adventures. So again, with a pretty light schedule, we have scouts who completed as many as 13 adventures out of 19.

Yeah, but we're not going to change to a night event. Think I might test clipping a blacklight over the track. Or just put one over the "on deck" area where the cars are set up pre-race.

Here's a shot of the tracks. One of the things I've been trying to figure out for our next Pack derby is how to get black lights set up along our track. We run our derby in a school gym with lots of windows, so I'm not sure it's possible at a day-time event. Been wondering if a couple of black light tubes on each side of the track would work. Now that my Pack is allowing those black-light-sensitive wheels, it would be fun to get them glowing for the races.

One other quick note: The organizers of this event were great. Super helpful, generous, and ran the event very well. One thing that stood out to me, and this is purely based on my observation and not on anything I know to be factual, but I'll say it anyway. They gave awards for car designs, one category being "Most Patriotic". I remembered earlier in the day seeing a car that was just amazingly painted, stars-and-stripes done perfectly in what I can safely assume was not painted by a scout. And that car was not the winner. The winning car was a different car sporting a very well-done paint job by a scout. And one more thing... One of the staff took the mic to announce that a $50 bill had been found on the ground and was handed in to staff. Only at a Scouting event do you see that kind of thing happen.

Hahah. yep, it's one of those. The majority of participants were from the local host council and surrounding areas within driving distance, but I'd call it a national event at least, though not a "world" event. On the race results screens I frequently saw competitors listed from greater distances than the NY area, including Ohio, California, Florida, Arizona, Kentucky, etc.

Neither did I until my son qualified. After the district races our CM told us he could enter the World Championship and I said, "The what??" We also didn't have district races last year, so no scouts in our Pack could have even qualified. The World Championship has a rule that qualifying scouts must have placed top 3 in their rank at a district or council race. They used to actually run this event outside in Time Square, but it has since been moved into the Marriott Marquis. Which is still phenomenal, it's a huge venue, right in the heart of Times Square. I highly recommend going if any of your scouts qualify. The event this year was attended by scouts from all over the country. I heard something about over 100 councils and over 20 states represented.