David CO

I don't mind the comments about wood badge, positive or negative, if they are kept in the wood badge forum. We have a forum for that. Let's keep the critters in their cage.

Can't be done. Adult awards are given for only one reason. It is to butter people up so that they will make larger donations. An adult award is nothing more than a solicitation.

Yes you should. My students read TKAM in seventh grade. What took you so long?

Perhaps so. But that's not a small number of people. It's like limiting it to only those who have been bitten by a mosquito.

You say it like that's a bad thing.

It's hard to believe that there are people out there who still believe BSA was innocent.

BSA is not a winning team. BSA is bankrupt. BSA is in the midst of a horrific sex scandal. Calling BSA the best youth program in the country is not only incorrect, it's delusional. At this point in time, talking up scouting in this manner looks a lot like a slap in the face to all of the victims of sex abuse. It tells them we don't get it. It might even tell them that the only solution is to end BSA.

Parents don't care if you have an incredible impact on countless lives. (You don't.) They want you to have a reasonably good impact on one life. Their kid's. Parents don't see the necessity of spreading and growing the movement to every child. (Neither do I.) They are only concerned about one child. Their kid. Maybe the rah rah talk goes over big at national. It doesn't really work anywhere else.

Scouting is a good youth activity. I wouldn't have started a unit if I thought it wasn't. The biggest detriment to the scouting program is the unrestricted zeal of its most ardent supporters. They treat scouting like a cult. It is a real turn-off to the average person.

But it is not the best youth program around. Scouting is very popular with a small segment of American families, so it has a place in our society. But it is hardly the biggest or best program around.

The Chartered Organization decides that. As the owner of the unit, the CO is entitled to place restrictions on where the unit may or may not camp.

I totally agree. Scouters donate their time for free. The execs get paid. There is a tendency to infer that the volunteer's time and labor is of little value compared to that of the paid staff. This drives me crazy, especially when the inference is more than an inference, and it comes from the execs.

The only thing I hate worst than the executives is technology. So this is the most effective pro-pro argument I've heard so far.

I don't mind a council charging a facility fee to those who are voluntarily using their camps. They could charge a million dollars a day as far as I'm concerned. We don't use them. Their fees are none of my business. It's when the council charges fees to those scouts who never use their facilities that I have a problem. It's not fair. Hopefully the bankruptcy will end this problem.

Charging scouts a $50 council fee has zero value to those scouts whose units don't attend council events. For the boys in my unit, there would have been no return on that fee. It's just another tax.

Can you say that with a good John Wayne impersonation?

I wouldn't expect that you would tell a volunteer how to run their unit if you thought they were doing everything right. Why would you? I think we can take that as a given. You only interfere when you disagree with someone. So you're really not limiting yourself much when you say that.

Exactly! This is why councils are so horrible. All of the competent people are driven out and replaced by compliant sycophants.

I'm not surprised. The council president is always on the side of the execs. He basically works for the SE. He does not represent the Chartered Organizations, the units, the volunteer leaders, or the scouts.

I've been to a lot of bake sales. They are all a game of chance.

True. It will be renamed FOR SALE.

I suppose they would be, if there actually were any.

I believe that's true. It's all about the money.

I'm sure the volunteers who said that were just trying to be polite. They knew they weren't equal to him. They're better than him.

Not soon enough for me. All of this isolating stuff is driving me batty.