Advancement Resources
Scouting ranks, merit bades, and the advancement programs
2443 topics in this forum
-
- 2 replies
- 1.7k views
-
- 30 replies
- 9k views
-
- 1 reply
- 961 views
-
- 4 replies
- 1.6k views
-
- 6 replies
- 2.7k views
-
- 6 replies
- 2k views
-
- 13 replies
- 3k views
-
- 10 replies
- 2.9k views
-
- 3 replies
- 1.3k views
-
- 5 replies
- 1.9k views
-
- 2 replies
- 1.1k views
-
- 12 replies
- 3.1k views
-
- 8 replies
- 2.2k views
-
- 4 replies
- 1.8k views
-
- 4 replies
- 1.8k views
-
LATEST POSTS
-
Yep; lots of selfish and greedy people. Meanwhile, back in the trenches we struggle on to live the Twelve and carry on the Spirit as designed. , -
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/25/us/politics/pentagon-scouting-america-lawsuit.html It's just a rinse and repeat of the same people looking for any way to throw mud on scouting from any angle. Look at this guy suing to get the MOU from the pentagon. Literally nothing changed on the Scouting America side so this dude is on a fishing expedition to see what he can sue about next. This is what scouting is up against, a constant barrage of people who hate the movement and will do anything to dredge the name of through the mud at any chance. This MOU non-sense was basically over-and-done and we were all moving on, now Hegseth is going to get a burr up his you know what and the movement is going to come under fire again. -
We're basically wrapping up the very tail end of crossover season here in my district; we know right now that arrow of light scouts who have not crossed are basically never going to join a troop. This time period has led my district to look at who the "winners" and "losers" of crossover season are; the results are staggering. Over half of our districts troops received ZERO crossovers this year. When we (district committee) looked into this we noticed a trend. The units that received ZERO crossovers had all of the same attributes in common. Units with untrained leaders, small leadership groups, and little to no advancement of current scouts were the big losers that received no crossovers. We also identified "super losers" in the crossover situation; these were units (we had multiple) that have not received a crossover in 2 or more of the past 4 years. We are very concerned with those units as they are in a situation where they have a structural gap of little to no young scouts for the older scouts to lead, and in a few years (if they troops survive) they will have no older scouts to lead the potential younger scouts. I know other activities are pulling families away from scouts; however, I think bad units are also pushing families away.
-
I am not sure if this is a general prompt for discussion, if you are triggered by something, or if I missed a question. I agree with your final statement that we must be active and vigilant to protect. I would say we need to be vigilant and active to protect everyone, not just children; there are a lot of monsters out there. If you follow this link the statistics are dark. https://laurenskids.org/awareness/about-faqs/facts-and-stats/ 33% of female youth are sexually assaulted. 20% of male youth are sexually assaulted. Everyone hates on scouting; however, in the settlement the statistic was 4% of scouting youth were assaulted. Scouting paid a heavy price for a serious crime; however, scouting actually has a history of being safer than the general American population.
-
I don't disagree but kids and parents are not staying away because of a flyer. They are also not joining because of a flyer like this. Upper middle class suburban... The largest classes of Cub Scouts typically occurred when the popular mom(s) signed their kids up. It was based on parents connections. We would see anywhere from 35 Lions to 10 depending on what moms sign up. Unfortunately, regardless of who signs up, we continue to see decreases at the Troop level. Since the addition of Lions, retention of AOL cross overs has plummeted. Parents tell us they are looking to focus their kids in middle school and most are choosing sports. Our community is heavily focused on sports, parents make friends over the travel teams their kids join and it's tough to compete with that. I'm sure experience varies over the country, but unless there is some sort of change of the view of scouts, I think it will continue to decline in terms of enrollment.
-
-
Who's Online (See full list)