yknot

The context for his letter and the quote were, as I cited, the hundreds of lawsuits that had been settled, gone to court, or were still pending at that time and were what pushed BSA into bankruptcy. BSA's liability for the child sexual abuse cases had been definitively established by 2019, which was why the organization had to file for bankruptcy. However more you may want to try and minimize the BSA's admission in a letter that was already expertly crafted by lawyers and PR advisors to minimize and deflect that responsibility, the fact remains that BSA does have an established history of covering up for child predators and it's documented in that letter.

In a May 28, 2019 letter to Congress Chief Scout Executive Michael Surbaugh admitted that BSA did allow credibly accused child abusers to return to scouting. That is covering up for them, and it was exposed multiple times in many of the lawsuits that were resolved or pending prior to the bankruptcy. It was reported upon in multiple places as a follow up to his earlier December 2018 letter to Congress in which he had denied such events ever took place.

The information is conflicting but at this point it doesn't seem like that would be helpful. The Korean hosts wanted WOSM to end the event before the closing ceremony so the best courtesy towards them might be to stay away. A lot will depend on how the weather forecast unfolds.

They are 120 miles away at Camp Humphries. It's not possible to hike in if that's what you mean.

Document what you have experienced and present it to not just the CO but also the Council and confirm that it has been received. Kids who are being bullied or hazed by adults or other scouts are kids at risk from more than just psychological harm. A side effect of bullying/hazing is that it can lead to poor decision making and bad or ill informed judgements in safety situations. Leave, but do your best to protect the scouts you leave behind as you are thinking to do.

Wisconsin and the Illinois area are represented only because they are the most recent regions. This has been working its way through several regions over the past couple years. I think NY state and Massachusetts were a year or so ago if memory does not fail.

It has nothing to do with predator recognition, more a comment on how it is a reminder of abuse cases where adult men lured scouts through various activities involving undressed states. I saw that statue in WDC as a kid and even then audible jokes were made by people viewing it.

I don't think there is any issue with nudity in public art because it's everywhere. I think the issue with nudity or near nudity in the DC BSA memorial statue is due to discomfort because of the history of child sexual abuse in scouting. Seeing a large near naked man looming behind a boy scout in light of today's situation is uncomfortable for many.

That's the national scout memorial in Washington, DC, lol. If I remember correctly, it was installed in the early '60s -- which in scout years, would be like the 1930s -- so I guess that's why it is evocative of the imagery of that nationalistic era. The male and female are supposed to represent the support of American man and woman hood in scouting. Poor choice of depiction in my opinion as well but at least there are a lot of other statues of male boy scouts to view if you don't like that one.

There have to be more than a half dozen bronze statues around Bechtel, most depicting men or boys doing something scout like, such as hunting, biking, falconry or at least hanging out with the eagles, fishing, etc. The only statue, and the first statue, they could think of to depict women scouters was a mythical one? What is the symbolism of this? All the male statues are showing people already enjoying the scout ideal; is this female statue inferring that scouting is something women are aspiring to when they are already doing it? It would have been better to show a show a female scouter hiking -- or actually rock climbing without needing action hero wings to do so.

School based means school based, so they are not outside entities. Frankly, I understand it. A lot of schools are being overwhelmed by a fire hose of requests for access to students and facilities.

It's a good book. It changed my outlook on the topic and made me take a hard look at the advancement and youth leadership development process in scouting.

I've seen the opposite occur when the program unduly values extroversion over introversion; a significant percentage of less extroverted scouts eventually leave. There's a good book I've recommended here before -- Quiet: The power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking.

We and other groups were allowed to meet but not recruit. One of the issues at least where we are is that the number of organizations that are seeking to use the school community as a marketing channel for their offerings has increased exponentially over the past 5, 10, 15 years. Schools cannot handle the onslaught and many districts feel the volume of messages can compete with their own important school related news and events directed at families. Many manage it by saying no to everyone that isn't school based. School based clubs and sports, yes. Outside organizations like scouts, no.

Vaya con Dios, Fred. You've always been a kind and thoughtful presence.

I think the quote and some additional history regarding BSA's early involvement with the Klan can be found here under a thread with the rather problematic name of Just Ku Klux Kluxin Around. It's under scouting history.

The reason that makes sense to me is that it will give BSA a larger infusion of cash at the earliest possible date. It also will also allow them to obfuscate the membership total and boast of a large membership bump as registrations come in through the new scheme. They don't care too much right now about impact on the local units, they are trying to survive nationally. This also allows them to claim membership retention for as long as they want to extend the national invoicing window disconnected from local reality.

An exception is the British monarch; he/she is still commander in chief and is the only one in Britain with the power to declare war although that is fairly well delegated. Prince Phillip was in WWII, the Duke of Kent, an aviator, died in it, and there's Andrew and Harry... Anne is probably the one who most reveres the military but did not go to war. She did, however, do the modern equivalent of a princess riding off to do battle for her country when she competed for a medal in the 1976 Olympics. The sport of Three Day Eventing is modeled on the pre-mechanized cavalry and at the time she competed, had only recently been opened to non-military participants. In her capacity as a multi-year member of the British Equestrian Team, she does have medals she earned representing her country that she could also wear, but does not. She, her father, and her daughter Zara Tindall are unique among the British monarchy in having those kinds of medals.

I've pretty much left off commenting on things scouting because it feels too much like speaking ill of the dead.

You have an MPH plus a DVM degree? The only other person I know who is military and had both is a friend who wound up a Brigadier General assigned to the Pentagon. You have a unique background for today's challenges and are perhaps being a tad modest.

About 500,000 youth annually are involved in 4-H shooting sports programs, more than scouts and it's a lot more involved. I haven't heard of any similar tragedies in 4-H, although perhaps there are some.

If Council camp properties are going to survive, then there has to be a place for innovative programming like this. The council camps near us that focus on traditional summer scouts only programming are falling apart and failing. The ones who have adapted their programming to welcome non scouts with various camping options and non scout families to open activities throughout the calendar year are the ones that still have the doors open and can pay the bills. Keeping the Council camp open for scouts is one way of serving the mission of scouting. It does have to be balanced with also effectively running the day to day operations of the Council and serving its scouts.

There is no way scouting can hang on to all the property it currently has. If part of its mission is to be a steward of the outdoors and get the nation's kids out in it, then councils should have some form of long term management and succession planning for their properties. That would entail identifying future public or private partners for the land that would guarantee continued scouting access in exchange for reduced land costs or other concessions if/when they have to sell it. Instead, far too many councils have either been shortsighted and ill prepared for this stewardship role or they have regarded donated land resources as piggy banks to be raided when council salaries or operations are squeezed. There have been a few bright spots over the past few years where councils have partnered with land trusts or public agencies or even private developers to ensure some or all of the land remains mostly undeveloped and accessible to youth. I hope there will be more cases like this because the loss of these properties forever is sad. The reality though is that many of these properties are currently mismanaged, underutilized, and inefficiently operated. That is one area where the national organization could actually help by providing legal and land use expertise, turn key programming, marketing support, and central purchasing and contracting, among other things, that might keep more of them viable and under direct scouting control.

Those camps pull scouts from a number of councils that are within an hour or two. There is also some degree of crossover from the neighboring cub scout camp. I hope they are reaching out beyond that council and the troop levels. This is the third similar type bathroom incident related to scouting in the region in the past year or so and the 4th if you include a nearby Y camp. Very sad and concerning.

Keep in mind that's not a 23% drop in three months, that's just the reconciliation of memberships that were still on the books on Dec. 31 2022 but were not on the books one day later on Jan. 1 2023. The January '23 membership announcement was strategically timed to be able to tout the higher combined figure, which was the same strategy used the year prior. I always prefer to look at the March numbers. So I'm not concerned about that. What I am concerned about, though, is that we have been officially post pandemic in a relatively normal world now for at least about a year and those numbers are not going up. Whatever post pandemic membership recoup there was, was gained late 2021 and earlier in 2022. At one point, the actual membership was at about 650,000, so there was a one time bump back up to about 800,000, That, however, seems to have plateaued over the past year despite very aggressive recruitment in many areas. The cub scout numbers are showing a small bump, which one assumes might translate into a scout bump, but one of the concerns there is that there is significant girl cub scout membership. Right now, girls have far more limited crossover opportunities to troops and many in those cohorts will be lost unless something changes.