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My breaking point happened 10+ years ago when My wife, who volunteered on our crew's committee, came home from a youth protection class where a fellow student tossed out the, "I thought we had Girl Scouts for girls." One scouter told me I was wrecking the program (promoting venturing) when in fact I was giving our boys more hiking/camping hours. Adults blew smoke over local adult-contrived boundaries that youth rightly found to bIe stupid Yet on each adventure, in a dozen different ways each time, I reaped youths' smiles. I broke. I did. I broke in favor of as many

When it is not fun anymore. It is still fun when I am out with my scouts.

It's all about balance I think. When it stops being fun, or becomes too stressful, or life away from scouting is suffering then it is time to take a step back. Whether than means standing down altogether or just dropping some of what you are doing. I went through a phase where I took on too much. It didn't do me any good at all. I made a conscious effort to step back and delegate. In other circumstances I may have stood down altogether. For the OP I'd say take a step back, pause for breath and be ready to say no to things. And take it from there. With regard to age I think a spread o

The old-time scouters always inspired me when I was a scout. Many of them were the best outdoorsmen in the unit. And some could still out-hike and out-cook anybody. Even those that could not longer physically handle the stress/strain of a heavy pack, long miles on the trail, or camp life, I still respected their years of experience, their personal example, and their stockpile of great scouting stories. Seeing them in their old uniforms, clean and neat but with clear evidence of wear and tear from the field...their patches and emblems from a long-gone era...they never ceased to impr

I never saw it that way. Old timers were part of my game. My SM mastered backpacking in his late 60s because I wanted to do a local 50miler. Adult association has no upper limit.

We played British Bulldogs the other day, it was glorious and the Boys Scouts thought it was geat

My breaking point is going to be 2019. I'll be starting graduate school, and I just won't have time any longer. When that's over, I'll reevaluate what the situation looks like. My life mentors I've met in Scouting. My closest friends I've met through Scouting. Scouting has been the biggest influence in my life, just behind my family and my church. Looking forward to NYLT Staff this summer, and providing the incoming Scoutmaster in my unit with the experience and institutional knowledge I've gathered from the last 13 years with my Troop. As for girls, I'm all ok with girls i

Scouters of different ages help create a richness in the adventure. Yes, a younger adult can strap on a pack and lead the boys on a great hike. Any older Scouter can help at Camp, telling stories, imparting wisdom to the boys. One of my most memorable conversations as a scout was with an older Scouter who helped me through a time on a trip when I got myself in a 14 year old snit. He helped me to see the bigger picture. Explained to about how I was technically correct, but was missing the bigger picture. I think of him to this day. I hope the experienced Scouters continue to keep

I’ve said several times on this forum that humility is the greatest leadership trait because it is the ultimate action of serving. Jesus washed the feet of his disciples (fulture leaders of the Christian movement) explaining the first should be last and last should be the first. Humility doesn’t stop with age and actions of humility shows the Scouts that our character is always evolving. 18 is the age limit for being labeled a youth in the BSA, but it’s not the limit for the game with a purpose. I became a better father, husband and community citizen because of my scouting experiences at age 4

So many programs would be so better off if we did a better job remembering that. We learn so much better (adults & kids alike) when we're having fun. For me, in a great program the advancements are a byproduct of the learning which is itself a byproduct of adventure and fun.

My breaking point was getting too old. Aside from that, I would have discontinued my association with scouting if my church/diocese had pulled out. In the grand hierarchy of things, my religion is more important to me than scouting.

one other thing . when you are the RSO that is your only job. keep the range safe! Just like a lifeguard has one job. to guard life do not let yourself be distracted by anything a friend calling your name, a fight between two scouts at the archery range, nothing stay focused.. and I wish I had your job.

Assuming that the weather in New Hampshire is like that of Vermont, I second the long pants. Also helpful when hot brass casings are flying about. Good shoes you are gonna be on your feet a lot. A spotting scope if the range does not have one, a fan if you have access to power, helps keep the bugs away at night. A good head lamp. a lockable trunk. a multitool or swiss army knife, a pillow. a small light for your tent. The two most important things however are a "lifeguards eye" that can look at 10 things in 10 seconds looking for the screw up that is about to happen, and the

In that case you want a fan that will blow across you at night, both for cooling, but more importantly mosquitoes. Before you answered the question about electricity I was going to say that 10 weeks in a tent is very different from one week. You need to be sharp and on your toes all day, think hard about what you need to do to get a good night's sleep every night.

Bring a hoodie and long pants... I worked at a day camp and somehow it was freezing often.

I am happy to say that in my sons' troop, the troop guides taught them how to light campstoves and lanterns on their first campout, and how to cook on the campstoves.

I don't think this program will take off. Despite what the priests and nuns might want, even the most devout Catholic men and boys don't want to spend every waking moment of their lives saying the rosery.

Sorry if that came off sounding a bit snarky, I just think you are showcasing a loophole that will barely exist.

Yes, these numbers are crazy. Randall Stevenson made 1000 times what I made as a teacher. So what? This is the problem we have when they pick Fortune 500 types to sit on our boards. They have no concept of reality. They will pay a half-million to a scout exec and spend a billion dollars on a mountain top retreat. It is crazy.

Are you kidding? You don't think there are millions of people who would like to take the job for less than $700,000? If there aren't, I would be more than happy to volunteer for the job myself. I'll even settle for a measly half-mill. I know that it is a big sacrifice, and a big drop from my usual teacher's salary, but I'm willing to bite the bullet if it will help out the scouting movement.

Token Brit reporting for duty... Executive Summary: I like it. Important Note: We'll still have the world membership badge, that's not changing. The swoosh logo felt really old fashioned to me, and looked so bad on social media type stuff that HQ put out (i.e. nearly everything, they think social media is the answer, I don't know what the question is) that they hadn't used it for years, instead using a scout arrowhead on its own, which I liked more than this, but I guess at small sizes the star points disappear a bit. This new one, looking at the brand guidelines, I like

To be honest I'm ambivalent, but then Im no artist! The previous logo was difficult to manipulate online although equally I'm not sure why something techie couldn't have been done to cure that. I do like that it's simple so a Beaver could draw it. I also recognise that things like branding have to move forward otherwise you look dated. On the other side of the coin it looks closer to the 1908 logo than the last one! Writing this on a phone so can't figure out how to embed that so go look it up if you're curious. Its all part of a wider new 5 year strategy that we've all got say

Last year we were the only British group at the Spanish National Jamboree on the Canary Islands (a bit less than 100 miles off the coast of Morocco, west Africa). I've just written up the text below for our annual report, and someone thought more uplifting pictures would be nice, I dunno about uplifting, but they're to hand so...enjoy... In total there 57 of us, 11 Scouts and leaders, 35 Explorers, 4 Network, and 7 Explorer leaders. There were around 3000 attendees and we were the only British group there. It was obviously mostly Spanish groups, but there were also groups from Argentina,

Could be worse....