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New to Scouting?

Questions and answers for parents and leaders new to Scouting.


236 topics in this forum

  1. Big Problem

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  2. New Leader.

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  3. Webelos II Advancements

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  4. Joining BSA

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  5. Where do I start?

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  6. balloons

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  7. badges

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  8. Use of Scout Salute 1 2

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  • LATEST POSTS

    • To earn the Cycling Merit Badge a Scout rides a minimum of 150 miles if taking the road cycling option, or 52 miles if taking the mountain bike option. (NB if they do Motorboating they have gone a minimum of a mile, if Horsemanship 60 feet). I do not interpret 2a to be 100. miles in addition to the merit badge, I interpret it to be including the badge. So, if taking the road cycling route the Scout needs an additional 50 miles above and beyond the Cycling Merit Badge.   This does illustrate some of the inequity in the award, it is easier to achieve road cycling than mountain biking, which is itself easier than horseback riding or skating. But to earn the award via any of the tracks you have to show a commitment to the sport beyond just getting the Merit Badge.
    • And love this one from Stage 2, Undisciplined Pursuit of More - Coinciding within this stage is the loss of key talent. “The right people” begin to leave because the organization has lost sight of its core. Mediocrity permeates performance as tenure supercedes actual performance or growth economies forgive incompetency. Either way, the organization regresses developmentally from people first to product or strategy first. The flow of cash and/or profits hide the inefficiencies so that cost growth is compensated by price increases instead of greater efficiencies through disciplined action and thought.  (check, check, and check!!)
    • Hmmm... Stage 4: Grasping for Salvation - Grasping for salvation suggests the organization has lost awareness of the soul of its own greatness. (check) - Change for change sake through a series of “silver bullets”, such as leaps into new technologies, new markets or new businesses become the thread of searching for the “home run” that can bring the organization back into the black (check) - The gap between the ideal and what is real gets larger as “hype precedes results”.  No longer wedded to the brutal facts, the focus shifts to imagineering the organization’s saving grace. Chronic inconsistency permeates each new “revolution”, “future state” or “dream” of what could be similar to a pied piper leading lemmings to their demise. (check)   Stage 5: Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death - The demise of the organization is at hand and either the leadership prepares for a fire sale, while it hunts for a saving organization ... or unable to capitulate to the impending demise, leadership remains true to the same logic that put the holes in the ship and rides it into the deep blue abyss  (Watching for this... seeing signs now)   So, we are firmly in Stage 4, progressing on to Stage 5.
    • Random thought this morning, what happens when people realize that Tenderfoot is a derogatory name for a beginner and people get upset at being called a "Second Class Scout"?  Is that suddenly where BSA/SA will put its foot down?  Seems kind of arbitrary.  If you can change the name of the organization, why can't you change the names of the ranks?  On top of that, why have ranks?  The rest of WOSM doesn't have ranks, except for the top one in each program.  How inclusive is it to say you can't be a certain rank if you haven't spent this certain length of time as the previous rank?
    • And the Hawaii tragedy was on a council property... https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2023/06/17/boy-scouts-admit-30-shooting-investigations-near-misses-prior-big-island-scouts-death/
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