It's all good so far

It has been a while. This is the first entry with the iPad. Took the opportunity to do an upgrade for the IPad 3 with Retina Display and more memory. It is much quicker and cleaner than the 2.0 but the wifi seems quirkier. I can see a repeater in every bookcase in every room or a move to the apple wireless router in the future.

The iTunes Store just doesn’t move quickly on downloads even when the MacBook is plugged into the current modem with the thunderbolt to adapter. Not first world problems, more like first world irritant.

Things are going well. Job feedback has been very good and progress is getting made. There are still some starts and stops, and the hurry up and waits, with the occasional – we probably need to be doing that – why don’t you take care of its.

There are new explorations into excel functions as I try to achieve an if this drop down is selected, then a specific value is sought, found, and entered. This has the old dog scanning the net for new tricks. It is a good challenge.

Survive the stress test, and the cardiologist said that things were functioning the way the should. Just that with the weight the risk remains. I have been able to get more exercise in. I am not just carrying the work out gear as I travel, I am using it. The gap is during the weekend. I need to think long and hard about buying a home treadmill.

Diet discipline is always going to be a challenge. I found calorie acceptable lunch dining near the office. I do need to fight the free snacks offered in the break room. Food on the road will depend on location and time. It will be a long term battle. The goal is to have myself in the shape I want to be in before I retire. The timeframe is shorter now that I am halfway through my 50’s.

Doubling up on entries today. Getting last weeks draft out first then thinking about the second one. I have been watching things going out in that world. It is still apparently a crime to be a public figure that was born and raised in the South instead of one of the upper border states.

We continue to live in two different countries. One with its population dense packed into urban areas that are dependent on the other with its ability to extract and produce goods and materials. The second is wide spread, self sufficient.

One has the media and banking stationed within it. Does this influence the reporting and development? How can it not.

One has decided to live with post Judeo-Christian – secular world, consistently rejecting historic values and beliefs. The other living with feeling that their right to maintain traditional belief based system of values is under attack.

How does one reconcile something that is perceived as a right by some and a sin by others? Civil discourse is unlikely when it is in the interest of the media to fan controversy and fuel sales.

Can a reasonable balance be achieved? It is not likely when political moderates have become an endangered species and the extremes of the parties control their own rank and file.

We used to have the option of immigrating, going somewhere else and setting up a system according to your beliefs, unfortunately we have run out of new places to go. We now have the ability to reach out and meddle with the internal affairs and rights of others in other places.

The ability to continue to communicate and cooperate is essential for civilized survival. Otherwise we will continue to divide and diverge tongue point we have diluted our national strength and end up wobbling into insignificance.

Starting this one while compressed in an airline seat in route to Pittsburg. While I have been in the job a little more than two months, I am still not to the point of routine. There is a lot of travel to be done. I need to see each of the facilities so that I can understand the issues, practices, and level of care given/needed at each.

I have been given the policy and the charge to assist the facilities in implementing it successfully. I am designing the infrastructure with both tools and procedures. Letting folks know what we need to do, and giving them a means of doing it. Getting feedback from them so we can prioritize issues and training.

Building tools that are accessible and scalable, tools that can grow as the company grows. I also need to be sure the tools make compliance easier for the facilities and I need the tools to provide the data I need to measure progress.

The first challenge is getting the data in. I need to know what we have and how we are currently handling it. I do already know that we have four accounting systems and I am getting cooperation from accounting that will help get vendors, volumes, and costs. It will also get me access to third party records.

I also need facility data, the who does what and how. I am looking of commonalities. The more uniform the issues, the easier it is to build documentation. Where one size may not fit all, we will still find that it will fit most. Build the core then address the outliers.

I am learning that it is not going to be a quick process. Others have different priorities, so we have to work forward or move to the next component while the delegated data gathering is dependent on others. So in the interim, I put out the occasional fire and do the needed travel.

The support and cooperation that I have received has been great. Compensation has not been shabby either.

Watching the fallout from the recent decision by the scouts to change their membership policy. The decision was a compromise that was thought to preserve/extend the program. National thinking that the decision would satisfy the majority and get the corporate donors back.

The words of the compromise have been about inclusion, they push ” Duty to God” back to the unit level. I have one group of dedicated volunteers that see the program crumbling, their mainstream denominations with a definition of sin that conflicts with a litigious group wanting inclusion. Good people who have given their time and talent in what they have always viewed as an extension of their ministry, are leaving the program. These people are not backwoods bigots, they are main same middle America. They are the living examples of Duty to God & Country. They believe the program change conflicts with their core beliefs.

I don’t know the percentage of youth that have been denied participation in the program. The original policy was aimed solely on the primary adult leadership and somehow over the past ten years this has refocused on any member youth or adult.

Some of the folks wanting change are not satisfied with the compromise. For them it does not go far enough. They want full inclusion for their “open and avowed”, regardless of the conflict with the Churches that sponsor the vast majority of the units. I am afraid that the next set of battles, will be framed on God being the problem to be removed from the program, so that the atheists and open and avowed can have full access.

Then there those of us still in the program, trying to find the balance. To be sure that the program/ministry is provided to all youth, but also maintaining the core values of the Chartering unit, the Church and the Scout Council. Youth protection will still be youth protection. We are still going to screen our unit leadership. They will have to live within the precepts of the Church.

None of us are perfect. But, we are still responsible to be sure that we as adults conduct ourselves in a manner that does not distract or disrupt the program.

Most of us have not spent a great deal of time having to define or discuss our core values. There will be many of us doing just this in the days ahead. This is not a bad thing. I come from a credal denomination, I am comfortable professing my beliefs. It may not be as easy for others, but they too should have a voice. It is going to be a challenging time ahead for us.