Good Morning.

It's a week after class wrapped up, so time for a wee after-action report.

No, not Bentley. I was again part of the bi-annual "Woodbadge" Scout Training course. Working in the kitchen as I often do, keeping about 75 staff and participants well-fed and happy for two weekends.


A year ago, the course I was on collapsed because of lack of registrations. This year was quite different and we had a "full" course of 42 participants. That hasn't happened in a number of cycles.

Ah - but the week before the course was the National Meeting in Texas, and a couple of our senior course staff were present. On opening night, we were chatting amongst ourselves, and the statement was - "You're not going to believe what they want to do now."

A long, painful sigh through gritted teeth later - "Who does he want us to hate this week?"

Fortunately or not, that wasn't it. National is planning on rolling out another new program, something called "Chipmunks", which is based on the UK Scout Association's "Squirrel" program, which is for 4-5 year olds.

Yeah, you read that right.

I'll be Mister Horse right out of the gate....Hmmmm. Hmmmph. No sir, I don't like it.

Those of us in the business have long called ourselves the "Babysitters of America", because many of the parents see us as some kind of after school or evening care program, despite the requirement of parental involvement for the younger-aged Scouts.

Not going to debate the point, but would any of you take your precocious offspring to a random church or school, drop them off with a bunch of other kids, supervised by a program leader that you just met and a school signup night and merrily go on your way?

But I digress.

In any case, that sparked a larger conversation on the future of our movement, and whether or not we can survive the external forces acting upon us. You're probably not aware that one of the first things the Tang-Coloured Tyrant did was threatening to remove all military and government support for any of our programs unless Scouting complied with the Pentagon DEI regulations. (News Flash: We caved.). A couple of merit badges that he disagreed with, chief among them, Citizenship in Society, have been altered or eliminated because they're too "woke".

The future of girls in the program has not been addressed yet, but I'm sure they're working on ways to alter or eliminate that as well.

The heart of our conversation though, was at what point do all of us start to re-consider what we're doing here?

Two of the staff, including my psychologist friend of whom you have heard tell, noted that their own children are trans, and in various stages of figuring out where they want to be in life. My friend stated, "The second the program wants me to do something to hurt my own child, we're out.".

As for myself, I have already publicly stated that "I will not be a member of Trump Youth".

Fortunately for many of us, The toddler-in-chief also has an attention span like an angry two-year-old, so with all the global distractions going on right now, we've dropped off his radar.

For now.