The Patrol Method

Well, I guess I've bought my last box of cookies.  Sad.

On Wed. night, the GSUSA posted on Twitter and Facebook “Congratulations Amy Coney Barrett on becoming the 5th woman appointed to the Supreme Court since its inception in 1789.” Their post included photos of all five female Supreme Court Justices with a Girl Scout green background. Their post quickly set off a fury of online criticism such that the GSUSA deleted the post and apologized: “Earlier today, we shared a post highlighting the five women who have been appointed to the Supreme Court. It was quickly viewed as a political and partisan statement which was not our intent and we have removed the post.” The tweet also read, “Girl Scouts of the USA is a nonpolitical, nonpartisan organization. We are neither red nor blue, but Girl Scout GREEN. We are here to lift up girls and women.” https://www.newsweek.com/girl-scouts-post-tweet-congratulating-amy-coney-barrett-then-delete-it-after-criticism-1543079   Buffalo Chip cookies coming soon?

Not all Chartered Organizations like to announce their scouter appointments in advance before a vacancy occurs.  Mine doesn't.  People just have to wait and see.  Sometimes it's an obvious choice, and sometimes it's not (if the CO is looking to make a change).

Sometimes it depends on who's doing the asking.  I was CC for the better part of 4 years for our Pack before taking over as CM for most of our final year until my son earned his AOL and crossed over.   One of the hardest jobs I had as CC was to fill the open committee positions, and I had a lot more say "No" than say "Yes", but what really bugged me after the fact was that many of the parents that said no to me, said yes to my replacement.  It turns out that they were all very close friends outside of Scouts, and I was an outsider to them, so it became more of a club for them and an excuse to hang out more.

I will tell you something I've seen put to good use in COVID times: parents as Unit Reserve Scouters. During a Zoom session you need to have 2 registered adult leaders. So, the ASM and who else? We got parents who do not want to commit or get scared at the prospect of being an ASM ("I know nothing about the woods. Too busy for IOLS or anything.") and we do not have a giant committee. My troop has recruited 3 Unit Reserve Scouters, got them YPT compliant and they now sit and listen and watch what their scouts do. PLUS it helps the burn outs. We had a parent who was a 4 year den leader in a pack. Crossed over with the son and said "Done. Done, done, done done. DONE!" and I can respect that. But we just got him to redo his YPT and made it clear we need him around for flexibility reasons. He's ok with being the second warm body for purposes of two-deep leadership. Now, in a year or so, when he's had some distance? Totally see him as a committee member.