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LATEST POSTS
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By HelpfulTracks · Posted
I think Badge Magic is a BSA semi-hazing, rite of passage. Most people fall in love with the magic of Badge Magic, only to be horrified by the evils of the black magic later. THEN everyone says “oh yeah, that stuff it horrible”, but only AFTER you have learned this for yourself. It seems no tells you to avoid it upfront. Snipe hunting, anyone? -
Thanks for the reply. I appreciate it. Let me bring this back to the topic of preparing for girls in Scouting. I know we're going to have troops that will look to do things their own way in regards to membership rules. My point continues to be that I'd rather see troops be upfront and organized about pushing the boundaries breaking the rules. For example, I'd rather see a troop be upfront and try to go co-ed than to simply skirt the rules by having a paper troop for girls. That's not to say that I think troops should be rude or openly hostile towards the council and national leadership. I believe that as adult leaders, how we conduct ourselves when we disagree is as valuable lesson for the Scouts in our troops. For example, the Scoutmaster of our troop, and several of the ASMs, are openly critical and hostile towards council decisions and leadership. Their actions bother me immensely. I would much rather see adults who disagree, do so openly and professionally, than simply criticize but still follow the rules. This has come up on our troop. The Scoutmaster keeps saying "if girls want to join, we'll just create a fake troop and let them join." I think that's wrong. If we really intend to run a co-ed troop, then by golly, let's be honest we're running a co-ed troop. if the DE stops by and says "no", then we say thank you and register the Scouts anyways. If the council still says no, then OK, we create a paper troop, but we be upfront with everyone that this is exactly what we're doing. At the end of thy day, organization in Scouting is an inverted pyramid. The council and national are here to provide the program to the units so we can bring Scouting to youth. I'm fine with extending this concept to other issues in Scouting (as long as safety is not compromised) - but since that's not the topic of the thread, I'll leave that comment there. -
Registrations come in continuously, not just in the fall. This probably the case with Packs whose tag-alongs have been chomping at the bit to be official. On the flip side, since attrition really is tallied until rechartering, that hasn't been counted, so BSA is playing a little fast-and-loose with the stats. I got a new tent and I don't care who borrows it. How's that for infrastructure? -
Feel confirmed! Advancement milestones and terms in PoRs don't have to line up. Actually, a lot of our scouts have PoRs since year 1. So they often might be wrapping up the last two months of one and starting another at the beginning of their time as a first class scout. Those scouted will be ready for Star after their time in a PoR -- any of them covers 4 months. So, a First Class scout who started a year commitment as a DC could use that position for Star and Life ranks and part of Eagle if he's diligent with the MBs and pedagogy requirements. Since many of our scouts take a few years to achieve 1st class, they often have the requisite number of MBs, and achieving Star and Life that way is pretty common.
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Some folks in other patrols really struggled with identifying ticket items. Our troop guide made us come up with five ideas the first afternoon. We each of us put them on our own white board*, for our other patrol members to see, and comment on. This allowed for rapid development without angst. As individuals we brainstormed each others ticket items until everything was baked by Wednesday. We all thought about our items before arriving, so it was just a matter of mapping them a WB dogma. None of the 25 tickets items were the same. * we got to meet in a training room, with miles of whiteboards.
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