SiouxRanger

Over the ankle if wearing a backpack. And also if hiking trails with a lot of loose rocks (double fist sized) that you'll be stepping over. Philmont seems to have a lot more rocks on its trails than I remember from the 70's. But, if you think about it, trails which have larger rocks uphill from them, pretty much self-trap rocks as they are loosened by rain and roll down the hill and land on the trail. There really is no erosive process to move them off the trail as properly constructed trails are not nearly as steep as the hillsides they cut across. As it has been about 50 years since first hiking Philmont, I think my theory has some likelihood of being at least partially accurate. You might do fine with a below the ankle boot but twisting an ankle 10 miles from a trailhead could be trouble.

At an Eagle Court of Honor years ago, just as I was about to speak, as I looked across the audience assembled for the 3 Eagle Scouts, it struck me that the majority of folks there were not active in Scouting and likely had no inkling of the number of requirements the Eagles had completed, the range of skills and topics those requirements spanned, the years it took to do so, and even more telling, the vast number of campouts and meetings each Eagle had attended to complete just a requirement or two. As it is our Troop's practice to provide each Eagle with a 3 ring binder with an extensive collection of certificates, letters, etc., and having one before me, I turned to the print out of Ione of the Eagle's entire scouting history, showing the dates that they earned each requirement and merit badge. I spoke for just a couple of minutes about what it takes to earn Eagle-mentioning the items above. My point is that Scouting is a complicated program. Touching on topics and skills few adults have unless they've been through the program as a youth. Knots, life-saving, archery, kayaking, first aid, canoeing, rifle shooting, fire building, fishing, cooking over a fire, gas stove operation (and repair), whittling, shotgun shooting, tree identification, range safety, camping skills, knife and axe… And it is not merely these skills which are a challenge, but also being a unit leader mentoring and counseling youth whose ages span a number of years and taking into account the emotional and academic differences among scouts of different ages. And it is "immersive." Weekend campouts and summer camp weeks are a far cry from an event lasting an hour or two. I can understand parents being reluctant. The program is daunting. Few adults active in my Troop have a scouting background. It is not the program I grew up in. Many merit badges are "homework" oriented-much more paperwork-which has been growing over the last several decades. Most scouts struggle to motivate themselves to complete merit badges that are mostly paperwork. My generation is late 60's to mid 70's. Many boilers are running out of steam. Who will pick up the load?

And my Catholic unit remains unchartered, and apparently no catholic units in my diocese have been rechartered,

And perhaps you are right. "Darkly" Yeah, lawyers are inclined that way. But things rarely resolve by themselves to the better. I love the program and the principles, and followed my 3 sons and many other Scouts to Eagle. But the individuals who manage BSA operations at National? No, they should all be fired. Tell me if you can, where is the bright light in National's bankruptcy? It is an UNMITIGATED DISASTER. What part of "unmitigated disaster" cannot be understood? BSA National senior staff should be trashed. All of them.

DE. Hmmmmm. A DE is likely a recent college grad, and in my Council, many were never a Scout. None have a Juris Doctor degree nor licensed as an attorney, and thereby are not licensed to give legal advice. And so, given that THE ISSUE on the table (National filed bankruptcy over this issue) is whether adult unit leaders are legally liable for abuse claims against other adult leaders in their unit, why-oh-why would anyone seek advice from a DE? I have earned a J.D, and am a licensed attorney. Opinions of DE's are irrelevant to me.

Not crossing it out-you have NO legal argument. Crossing it out, you preserve your legal argument. Is the legal argument preserved worth much-not likely as you note. Can you stand tall at the front counter and Rant with authority-you bet. And if you file suit, the council is DOWN about $10,000 in legal fees before the first eye is blinked. At the end of the day, we register, we pay, and we stand tall to be sheared by National so it can profit. ut tAnd National conceals the risk of harm to our kids. Lovely. I attended all but one campout that my 3 sons attended, so they were always close by, though I did not hover, but they knew IK was there if there were issues. But not every parent attends every campout, or even one campout. "Hey, It's Scouts. That's safe, isn't it?"

Mods-No more Holocaust comments from me.

This is an incredible number. Some time ago, I came cross an article about a compilation of all of the places where Jews and others were concentrated or exterminated during WW II. It was at least 40,000, and perhaps even more. I think that Yad Vashem was compiling the list. Many of us recognize Auschwitz, Sobibor, Majdenek, Treblenka, Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald, and Dachau, and that leaves 39,993 none of us are familiar with.

Thank you for posting this. You are precisely right. "Come walk with me, no not that way, just turn 2 degrees this way, Hi, smile, all is good, take a dozen steps, then turn another 2 degrees…in a mile, you are headed 180 degrees-a complete reversal. Soft, slow, and imperceptible-yet, now evil never happened-actually evil was a good. You should show no alarm-all is well." But it isn't. Evil is always evil. "The price of Liberty is eternal vigilance."

I understand, AGREE, and I stand with you.

I've commented on this before, some time ago. And to be brief. The concept of "bankruptcy" is that a legal entity, National BSA in our case, as a corporation, can obtain legally binding forgiveness from part of all, or all of all the debts legally enforceable against it. Chapter 11 is the part of all, and Chapter 7 is all of all. This is a critical concept. Creditors of National, who ONCE HAD a legal claim against National are simply not part of the concept of the bankruptcy law. They are NOT claimants in a bankruptcy sense. So, NATIONAL proposes, through its PLAN, contrary to all bankruptcy law, that scouts, now adults, who no longer have any legally enforceable claim against National (due to the passage of time, and having passed statutes of limitation), should be included in the class of claimants entitled to a settlement payment. "And why would that be?" -Carson of Downtown Abbey. Because National BSA has to havSadly, I just hang on words.

BINGO. Where is the meaningful change? Like the Wizard of Oz, "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain." I am sick of the secrecy. Us volunteers FUND National and the Local Councils, all not-for-profits, yet all the financials are hidden. Nothing is GAAP. At least that which does see the light of day. Time for a change.

As an attorney, I can absolutely assure you that that is precisely what I heard. And I was as alarmed as you. For the same reasons.

There is the Ice Age Trail in Wisconsin. Devils Lake in Wisconsin is a neat place. Asolo brand boots and trail shoes. I've bought a dozen pairs over the years, at least, for myself and my sons. My unit adults t about another 6 pairs, upon my recommendation. And their kids another 4 or 5 pairs. Start there. If boots, trail shoes, don't feel very comfortable in the store, they are wrong. Keep trying. Hiking poles. Always TWO, not one. But, learn to use them. They are not some affected bauble to look cool. They maintain balance, which saves you a TON of energy trying to maintain balance. They propel you forward moving some work from your legs to your arms, which are generally underused in hiking, and, on the down hill, they can be used to virtually eliminate the shock of your knee absorbing the dropping load of your body and pack as you hike downhill. (Extend the length of the poles for downhill hiking, and plant the pole in front of you before you plant your foot on the downhill, and your arm will help softly lower the load to your foot which can be placed gently with no shock to your knee.) This takes practice and it helps to be a musician, because if you consider your footfalls as "the beat," you'll be planting your poles on the beat, before the beat or after the beat, depending on what you are doing. If you are traveling some distance, and perhaps at anytime you are "underway," always, always have your footfalls land on the beat, that is, a uniform rhythm. So, that means, if you are steaming along a flat stretch with feet falling at a second per step (actually pretty slow), and you come to a spot where you have to take baby steps, let your foot hang so that it lands in the rhythm. Breaking footfall rhythm consumes mental energy. Hiking from Dan Beard to Kit Carson Museum at Rayado with a pack in less than 12 hours-mental energy is a precious commodity. Down. The only sleeping bag filler worth having in my opinion. Period. "It won't keep you warm if it gets wet." (There is a story about a bad night at Harlan camp, I'd rather not admit to.) Don't get it wet. 900 down means 1 ounce fills 900 cubic inches. 650 down means 1 ounce fills 650 cubic inches. As the down number goes up, the cost goes up drastically. I have a 650 down bag good to 0 degrees, or -10, and a 900 down bag good to 20 or so. the 900 down bag cost as much or more than the 650 down bag, weighs half or a third as much and is like a cloud. An 800 down bag or higher will not disappoint you, and worth every cent. They are great all winter long in the living room to keep warm watching football, too. (Put them away from the cat as it will likely like to burrow into it with the attendant claw snags.) I have owned a dozen synthetic fill bags, though only through the synthetic fill technology of about 20 yers ago. They are fine in mild temps but quickly crushed down and lost much of their insulating capacity. Modern synthetics might be better. If all else goes South, your sleeping bag is your last bastion of refuge. If you are cold, you cannot even wait out a catastrophe for some days in relative comfort. Colin Fletcher is the Father of modern backpacking. Author of The Complete Walker. Four editions. I prefer the first edition, as the others include new equipment, largely. I've read large parts of all of them. He has a number of books of his endurance hikes. Thousand Mile Summer. The Man Who Walked Through Time. River. There are others not quite so directed at endurance hikes. Tents. Having owned numerous Kelty tents, North Face, and finally a Big Alice (just not sure what to make of that name from a marketing standpoint), my one person Big Alice Copper Spur 1P is a work of art. Go to REI and set up a dozen tents, re set them, make a nuisance of yourself fiddling with tents. I did. Check head room, width, space for stuff, etc. Have good travels.

My unit always strikes out the release by a line run through each line, initial the block of lines, make a copy for the Troop file. No one has mentioned the practice-even Philmont. But we have our evidence if issues arise. I've heard pros mention that even if folks don't sign the photo release that, "There are ways around that." Lovely. We are all just sheep to be sheared against our wishes.

My comment was directed at my concern that program would not look like what it was-and negatively so. But, I think you may be suggesting that the failed administrative aspects of Scouting will be gone. One can only hope. Either way, my friend, it is a hideous mess. War, and litigation, are like that, civilities and pleasantries, the grist of diplomacy, devolve into slaughter, cruelty, devastation, and death. The tempest settles and clears, and the survivors pick up the pieces, and build anew. I've quoted Churchill before, and this quote specifically, but I will repeat it here. How the Great Democracies Triumphed, and so, Were able to Resume the Follies Which Had so Nearly Cost Them Their Life Winston S. Churchill The Second World War, Vol. VI And, to put meat on the bone: National exits bankruptcy (Triumphed), and went back to business as usual (Follies-concealing abuse claims, not reporting claims to its insurers, insurers being duped into believing that there are no claims, and thereby not raising premiums nor alerted that there should be an independent measure of effective oversight and management of claims), and resuming National's "business as usual" model which will carry National right back to today, just 30 years from now. Not having learned a whit from its near-death experience. As one poster commented, paraphrasing, "I see nothing in the Plan that actually reorganizes National." ("Resume the follies which had so nearly cost them their life.") Apparently, National resists any meaningful oversight of abuse claims. And why would that be? (Carson-Downton Abbey. "Well let's move on." Same Carson.) NO, with National, we cannot and will not "move on." We should NOT merely "move on." We should Stand And Demand. If National is unwilling to take reasonable measures to protect children, then reasonable measures should be imposed upon it. The "Youth Protection" program is a huge step forward. BUT if there is no independent monitoring of claims and independent evaluation of the effectiveness of the BSA Youth Protection Program, and a mechanism to suggest refinements, the fox is again in charge of the hen house. And, frankly, the "hen house" is a bankruptcy courtroom. Nice work, if you can keep your job. If no abuse claim reform with independent monitoring, all us are just back in the same fog National enjoyed for nearly a century. Which brought National, and thousands of children, now adults, to a reckoning, of sorts, in Bankruptcy Court. Just reflect on the hundreds of old newspaper photos showing a troop marching down Main Street, flags waving, scouts smiling. And imagine that in the shadows of the crowd, if the abused scout even attended, or several them , wishing they could march with their friends and enjoy the moment but who shrunk back, compelled to contrive forced explanations to their parents on why they lost interest in scouting, though craving to "belong," and denied that experience for reasons they could not tell anyone. Trustworthy.

I can's say as I understand you. Could you explain? Thanks.

Yeah. Things measurable by physical count, attendees, easy. But how does measure commitment of soul-loyalty?

It will not be anything like we are accustomed to recognize.

Exactly. "Lunch at school is great!"

I figured the LC contributions would need to double. Maybe a bad bet on my part. The LC contribution is pathetic.

Yep. A third to a tenth of their actual liability? My guess as to the range of their exposure. Save your company $3.2 billion, get a designated parking space.

It depends entirely on whether this objection has been subject to a hearing on the merits. If no hearing on the merits of the objection for 2 years, it is still live. Passage of time does not weaken legal arguments or the significance of legal truths. If it did, our Constitution may well have been supplanted by a limited warranty from Montgomery Wards.

This is English? "Tom gets 6 marbles, Al, and his brother Art, if the wind is from the Northwest, on the third Tuesday of July, get 5 marbles going to the brother who has the best of three Rock-Paper-Scissors match..., otherwise, those marbles go to..."