walk in the woods

Districts were merged in my council this year. The top numbers are for the new merged district, the sub district (my word) is the former constituent district.

Nope, and there's no need. If humanity is actually facing an extinction level event then open Yucca Mountain, build nukes to replace the fossil fuel plants, radcon train the people from the ff plants for the nukes, and move along smartly with all those toxic Co (the next conflict mineral) battery powered cars!

In round numbers, 2150 youth in 80 units. Exurbs of a major metro.

It's a good question but I don't have an answer as I wasn't at the meeting.

Well, additional numbers for my district as of 1/2/20 (according to the report): Total traditional membership: -10% (Cub Scouts: -13%, Boy Scouts -5%, Venturing -12%) For my sub-district: Total traditional membership: -15% (Cub Scouts -18%, Boy Scouts -4%, Venturing -30%) And before anybody yells about my use of "Boy Scouts" that's the word on the report. Edit: The good news is we're having a one-year celebration event of girls in Scouts BSA. Boys are invited for the day, but, they can't spend the night.

Most of us just quit, so yeah I guess.

It already is. When I was a UC, FOS, Popcorn, and Camp Cards were the first agenda item on 9 of 10 monthly meetings during the scout year. Maybe 8, charter renewal fell in there a couple of times as well, but, that's also about cash.

I generally agree with the quantitative vs. qualitative arguments. That said, I think JTE creates a lot of make work for leaders. For example, if I submit a charter in year 1, and again in year 2, then things like retention and recruiting should be automatically recorded for my unit. Same for advancement and Webelos-to-scout transition. Leaders have already turned in all the paperwork required to calculate those numbers. Requiring unit leaders to gather a bunch of data for a paper form at the end of the year is crazy. The metrics for things like weekend camping are of limited value. As suggested above a unit saying they have 10 weekend campouts a year is meaningless. At a minimum it should be something like percentage of scout nights camped. If a unit has 10 scouts, and runs 10 2-night outings, that's 200 scout-nights camped maximum. If we're going to use a quantitative measure then gold should be something like 90% of scout-nights camped. The long-term summer camp metric is better. These numbers should be automatically generated from Scoutbook if we're going to say it's the system of record. Same argument for service projects. Pick a number for a standard, say 10 hours of service projects per scout per unit. My hypothetical 10-scout unit would then have a metric of 100 service hours per year so gold would be 90% of scout-hours available. Generate the unit score automatically from the JTE system (assuming of course that system was actually integrated with the rest of BSA IT). Trained leadership should be a generated number from the BSA IT systems. That information already exists in some system. No unit leader should ever have to fill out a JTE scorecard. The BSA IT systems should generate that information after each recharter season from the available data.

I apply a simple three-part test: 1. The Enumeration Test: If ordering your coffee requires the enumeration of more than one option (size), it's not coffee. An order that passes this test sounds like "I'd like a large, please." 2. The Grandfather Test: If my grandfather would recognize the beverage as coffee, it's coffee. 3. The Millennial Test: If my millennial nieces or son recognize it as coffee, there's a 99.3% chance it's not coffee. :)

#TRUTH! Coffee is coffee, sweets are sweets. Nobody needs them mixed together.

Nope, enforce it. When rules aren't enforced they are ignored. Start dropping volunteers and units. Volunteers will either start complying or units will end. I doubt National nor the Councils have the courage of their convictions.

If National or Councils want confirmation every year the least they could do is just offer a recert test. Pass the test and move on. No reason to sit through the same two hours of videos year after year after year.

I'm neither condoning the behavior nor condemning the BSA's actions. I'm just saying for the rest of us "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."

Amen. Sadly not part of the call out culture.

According to Wikipedia "The median income for a household in the city was $38,255, and the median income for a family was $41,786. Males had a median income of $32,348 versus $21,772 for females. The per capita income for the city was $14,960. About 6.2% of families and 7.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.4% of those under age 18 and 11.1% of those age 65 or over."

If we kick every leader out for a momentary lapse in judgement there won't be any leaders.

My district numbers are +1 for number of units (2 girl troops added, one crew lost) and -11% membership as of last week. We'll lose 2 packs and 2 troops with the LDS departure at the end of the month.

There's definitely more going on. Here's the money quote from the article:

Indeed, this is the metaphorical frog in the pot of water, unable to determine the temperature is slowly rising.... The difference between cultures is interesting. I found this particular bit of the page you referenced disturbing: I bolded/italicized the bit at the end. I'm not a lawyer, but, if this is indeed the case, I believe we'd call that unconstitutionally vague over here. I mean if we're talking 4 years in prison and an unlimited fine, I'd want to have some protection against a judge having a bad day.

That's why the founders gave us the fourth amendment: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. Sadly most Americans are too stupid or too willing to be subjugated to the government "for safety" to appreciate the wisdom contained in those few words. Thank you very much but I'll carry whatever it pleases me to carry, in the manner of a free man.

You can keep them but only if they aren't pointy and sharp! https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-44278556

While I appreciate the video from Scouts, the final logo could just as easily been for the Red Cross or the YMCA. It doesn't differentiate Scouting. One doesn't need scouting to learn those skills.

It's just curious to me that multiple stories, all referencing the AP article by Crary, have different text in that paragraph (even though several have the identical picture). Some suggesting to me a new line of credit, others suggesting the mortgage was to secure debts already incurred.

The AP story linked above says: The same two paragraphs in the Salt Lake Trib (https://www.sltrib.com/news/nation-world/2019/11/22/boy-scouts-mortgage-vast/) The Pittsburg Post-Gazzett reports the language from AP. Colorado Public Radio uses the language from the SLTRIB article (https://www.cpr.org/2019/11/22/facing-sex-abuse-suits-cash-strapped-boy-scouts-of-america-mortgages-the-philmont-scout-ranch/) Just wondering if they mortgaged the ranch for new debt or existing debt. And if existing how much have they already drawn down?

@desertrat77 @qwazse @RememberSchiff. Thanks for your input. I'll step back but color me skeptical.