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I find high school recruits make a different sort of scout. They discover their friends are training to go on high adventure: Philmont, Sea Base, etc. They decide they want to go too. So they join for a year, go on the shakedowns, go on the high adventure trip... Once the trip is over, we rarely see them again. Crossover scouts are more interested in earning rank advancement and merit badges, especially in the middle school grades. So that they are ready to go on high adventure in high school. Occasionally we get a lapsed scout who comes back later in high school, deciding they want to advanc
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From where we are, many kids drop travel sports (which consumes weekends) when they reach high school. They transition to high school teams which play during the week. The sports conflict is then usually limited to practices conflicting with troop meetings.
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Scouting must be able to operate along with sports ... our Troop always has; however, there are limitations. It is tough to form solid patrols if kids are absent every weekend all year. The only benefit of the increasing cost of scouting is I see fewer scouts who have low participation rates. One of our ASMs brought up a good point. From what she has seen (two kids both high school grads), sports picks up a lot during middle school, but drops (for many kids) early in High School. I've seen the same ... many kids & parents drop sports Freshman year as school gets more challenging a
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Mandated?? A unit is "mandated" to participate in nothing. If a council ever told us we had to participate in something, we would just ignore them. You should have zero problem with this. If, by the mere location of geographic boundaries, a unit in Council A happens to be closer to all facilities and support in Council B, then there should be zero issues with them getting their Scouting groove on in Council B. Furthermore, if Council B's training and support (like a Scout Shop or camporees) are better, then units can (and should) vote with their feet. Units DO NOT exist to -
Scouting Adventure should start in 4th grade. more later
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Scouting is tilting at the wrong windmills when it compares itself to youth involvement in sports. Many youth simply find sports more fun than scouting. Some people may be delusional about professional sports careers or scholarships to D1 schools, but for most families, sports is merely a good activity for youth to be involved in during middle and high school careers. Even if they don't make a varsity team in high school, or make the team but spend a lot of time on the bench, they are still spending 4-5 days afterschool practicing, involved in team spirit events, involved in clinics and practi
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Agreed. I am blessed to live in an area with multiple active troops. But so many of the Pack parents are strapped for time, they decide at the last minute to visit one troop in the early spring to satisfy AOL requirements. After they crossover to the same troop, they decide they don't like it and assume everyone does the same program, so they drop scouts. First-year summer camp is a big deal and the Cub parents have no idea. We stress to our Pack AOL leader to finish crossover by March so the scouts have time to acclimate to the new troop. Really that's barely enough time. We have alread
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Determining where a unit "exists" and how it is supported
Tron replied to MyIndianNameIsSpoon's topic in Council Relations
Literally just went through this. My district had a unit meeting in a different district. No national policies that could be found. The unit belonged to the district of the mailing address of the charter organization. The only real issues were that the unit was not communicating with the district executive, so he couldn't help them figure out how to solve their problem (which appeared to be the charter org wanted the unit out but didn't want to just drop the charter so they were being nobs to the parents and leaders). As a volunteer trying to help the unit once the district knew what was going -
After the whole Hawaii thing how did we not see something happening? I don't think this is that big of a deal. Sure name change, but, we still have shooting sports. We're a very broad topic youth organization, not a shooting sports organization. The reduction in options is not that big of a deal, if a scout really likes shooting, and wants to get into different styles, different calibers, super serious with reloading etc ... why can't they go shoot clays on Tuesday night at their gun club, and roll into their troop meetings on Wednesday at the local church?
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We're straying a little but I'll bite on this one. The internet thing is a big deal where I am at. There are parent/leader lounges at most of the camps in my state to allow remote work for parents. Last year it doubled the number of adults able to accompany my sons troop to camp; I agree that we need to keep the scouts off of that wifi, but we need amenities like this to keep some families in the scouting game so-to-speak. Sports are a big deal in my area as well. Most families are delusional with these 4 season sports and the traveling/club leagues. Most varsity teams for any sport ha
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There are a lot of possible "shooting" sports, some not so sporty, some just humor. Shooting marbles, shooting pool, shooting baskets, and maybe even shooting mouths. They all still have rules of sorts, though too often ignored in the broader world. I suppose I just shot myself in the foot, as I am going too far afield. 😇 -
WOW. I wish that would have been the case for friends of mine. One friend of mine had the cable line across the street from his house. His house was less than 100 feet from the poles they were using, and they would not connect him. Worse was the friend who, lived on a corner lot. because his physical address was on a street not in their service area, they would not connect him to the network despite the cable going through his side yard, and connecting neighbors on the street his address was not on.
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I thought range and target sports better includes archery. I don’t see archery as a shooting sport. -
We are pretty remote. They paid a couple hundred thousand to run fiber optic under/above ground for about 3 miles. But I guess we're not that remote if we were able to get it. Just expensive!
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On the name change... because removing the word 'shooting' makes it much safer. (Yes, that's sarcasm.) 'Range and Target Activities' sounds much less troublesome, if you're the type to be troubled by shooting, but if that's what they were after I think it's a mistake. It's not only okay to let kids know something is dangerous, but going into it with that in mind helps reinforce the seriousness of handling not only firearms, but any instrument that sends a deadly object flying at great speeds. -
You are lucky. There are some places that are so remote, big telecom does not provide internet services. Only option is satellite, which is extremely pricey. Sadly out state legislators nixed local government agencies from forming their own after big telecom complained about losing customers in the two areas that had it.
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Our camp upgraded it's wifi to help leaders who need to work. While it's only accessible from "base camp" and not at the campsites, it seems that the password gets leaked to the scouts and they end up sitting all over the place. It turned into an "encampment" and it was disturbing. Resolving one situation created another one.
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Oh, I see! That makes sense. I was a little surprised that you wouldn't have noticed at all. I also appreciate your willingness to explain your thinking process in several steps, and your thoughtfulness. I've enjoyed talking to you, too.
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35-40 minutes away is the McDonald.
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We are just now gearing up for travel (or "club") basketball in my household, which starts in 3rd grade. I assure you, I'm not delusional. My son will never play pro basketball or receive an athletic scholarship. My only hope for him is that he's able to play varsity basketball in high school. We live in a large suburban school district. There are currently ~50 boys in his grade participating in the high school's youth program. Only 8 will ever get to play varsity basketball. Beginning in 5th grade, the school sorts the kids by ability through the formation of "A", "B", "C", and "D" teams
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Your camps have a McDonald's nearby !?!? 😛 I'm jealous. Our favorite council camp is way the heck out there. It's delightful ... until you need something.
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Apologies, @AwakeEnergyScouter - I see were referring to internalized suffering that was mentioned in another post, which I have no problem believing is real (I think we can all relate to some degree). I initially read your post to mean suffering by society from the outward projection of masculinity (also real, but debatable IMHO). I tagged you simply because I thought you've added a lot of thoughtful replies and I've enjoyed engaging with you in this thread.
- Yesterday
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Another aspect of this is that today's 11 year old is less mature than those of 20 years ago. Whether it's cell phones, social media, games, helicopter parents or whatever, kids have less ability at dealing with hard, challenging stuff.
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Your camps have wifi? LOL Seriously, wifi in the past has been a serious concern. There is one camp the troop likes that has extremely pour internet, to the point where their office staff will take turns driving into town to use the local McDonald's wifi.
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You may be missing the whole "community" aspect of the travel sports lifestyle. You are more than a family, your child is an (insert sport here) athlete. Yes there is time, but no real planning other than financial commitment. You drop them off for practice, pick them up. Go to games, hang out, head home. You hang out with the other families and commiserate on how much time all this takes up. Kids also get burned out and the casual participation declines considerably after 8th grade. Also good observation in that if the fees for travel (can be $3k or more per season / 2 seasons ann
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Posts
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I find high school recruits make a different sort of scout. They discover their friends are training to go on high adventure: Philmont, Sea Base, etc. They decide they want to go too. So they join for a year, go on the shakedowns, go on the high adventure trip... Once the trip is over, we rarely see them again. Crossover scouts are more interested in earning rank advancement and merit badges, especially in the middle school grades. So that they are ready to go on high adventure in high school. Occasionally we get a lapsed scout who comes back later in high school, deciding they want to advance to Eagle at the last minute. -
From where we are, many kids drop travel sports (which consumes weekends) when they reach high school. They transition to high school teams which play during the week. The sports conflict is then usually limited to practices conflicting with troop meetings. -
Scouting must be able to operate along with sports ... our Troop always has; however, there are limitations. It is tough to form solid patrols if kids are absent every weekend all year. The only benefit of the increasing cost of scouting is I see fewer scouts who have low participation rates. One of our ASMs brought up a good point. From what she has seen (two kids both high school grads), sports picks up a lot during middle school, but drops (for many kids) early in High School. I've seen the same ... many kids & parents drop sports Freshman year as school gets more challenging and sitting on the bench watching games loses its appeal ... especially sports that take high time commitments. The ASM said we should be recruiting 8th - 10th graders as they may have dropped out of cubs, never did cubs or didn't bridge over to Scouts immediately. The ASM is a member of our Council's executive board and has raised this suggestion, but the focus is on recruiting Cubs. -
By InquisitiveScouter · Posted
Mandated?? A unit is "mandated" to participate in nothing. If a council ever told us we had to participate in something, we would just ignore them. You should have zero problem with this. If, by the mere location of geographic boundaries, a unit in Council A happens to be closer to all facilities and support in Council B, then there should be zero issues with them getting their Scouting groove on in Council B. Furthermore, if Council B's training and support (like a Scout Shop or camporees) are better, then units can (and should) vote with their feet. Units DO NOT exist to be cash cows for councils. Yes, you must register in the council that your CO physically resides in. Your DE is 100% right. -
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