The Patrol Method
Lessons and questions of Scout leadership and operating troop program
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LATEST POSTS
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By InquisitiveScouter · Posted
Sorry, I put this in the wrong thread... ------------------------------------ The biggest unadvertised cost of Scouting is the amount of volunteer adult support it takes to make a good unit level program happen. No "pitch" that I have ever heard (outside of our unit) tells parents that "We welcome your kids, but you have to come along, too, to help us put on the program." When you do get them to agree to help, then explain that "help" means a variety of getting trained, learning Scout skills so that you know what 'right' looks like, being a merit badge counselor, serving on the committee to help with budget, managing adult training, onboarding, advancement, uniforming, equipment, fundraising, etc, etc, etc, Oh, and we need drivers and adults for camping, too. Once they learn those needs, many are out. They want to take their kids to programs where they can dump and run, or show up occasionally with a tray of orange slices and some juice boxes. Once upon a time, when I served Uncle Sam, our mantra in the Air Force was "We recruit Airmen, but we retain families." And we did PR, ads, benefits, and programs to support that. Attract individuals, but make our environment such that, as they start a family while serving (which many do), we make it comfortable for their family to have the service member stay in. (This mindset varies across the services, though many of the family programs and benefits are duplicated in all services. Health care, base housing, commissary and exchange, MWR [morale, welfare, and recreation], etc. ) Scouting should be, "We recruit families, but we retain the Scout." Get the family on board, and give them benefits for their Scouts (a program of adventure) , and the youth will stay, keeping the parents involved. -
By InquisitiveScouter · Posted
The biggest unadvertised cost of Scouting is the amount of volunteer adult support it takes to make a good unit level program happen. No "pitch" that I have ever heard (outside of our unit) tells parents that "We welcome your kids, but you have to come along, too, to help us put on the program." When you do get them to agree to help, then explain that "help" means a variety of getting trained, learning Scout skills so that you know what 'right' looks like, being a merit badge counselor, serving on the committee to help with budget, managing adult training, onboarding, advancement, uniforming, equipment, fundraising, etc, etc, etc, Oh, and we need drivers and adults for camping, too. Once they learn those needs, many are out. They want to take their kids to programs where they can dump and run, or show up occasionally with a tray of orange slices and some juice boxes. Once upon a time, when I served Uncle Sam, our mantra in the Air Force was "We recruit Airmen, but we retain families." And we did PR, ads, benefits, and programs to support that. Attract individuals, but make our environment such that, as they start a family while serving (which many do), we make it comfortable for their family to have the service member stay in. (This mindset varies across the services, though many of the family programs and benefits are duplicated in all services. Health care, base housing, commissary and exchange, MWR [morale, welfare, and recreation], etc. ) Scouting should be, "We recruit families, but we retain the Scout." Get the family on board, and give them benefits for their Scouts (a program of adventure) , and the youth will stay, keeping the parents involved. -
What type of fees does each council pass on to the national level? Wondering what the fees to the council will be if there are fewer councils. I must agree that adult training is a joke. The few DEs I knew well enough to talk honestly, their training was just as bad. Ask one about a YPT question, and his answer is that it is coming in level 2 training. -
You should take some time to understand that in the market basket of extracurricular activities scouting is competing with everything from a pack of kids in a basement playing dungeons and dragons to $400 a week private league sports. If people are getting a good return on their time and money, they will spend the money. League sports are growing 43% year-over-year while scouting is shrinking and currently at 20% of it's peak membership. -
This is what I understand. The membership churn is killing the membership numbers. We did recruit 260k "new" scouts in 2025; however, based on the numbers shared with me we lost somewhere between 300k and 500k existing scouts. If we don't deliver on our promises of an excellent outdoor leadership program scouts and their families will keep voting themselves off the island and leave scouting. National needs to enforce quality control and modernization; how can expect a unit to properly execute the program when 4 out of 5 adult leaders are so incompetent they can't do free online training? Paid scouters are scrambling to save their jobs, they don't care to save the program; national must force council consolidations to get the focus back on program and off of fundraising.
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