Leaderboard

There are few traits I would list as being utterly essential for a Committee Chair. Hopefully you find something on this list useful! - ORGANIZED Wow, how I wish our current Troop Committee chair possessed this trait! The best Chairs come into meetings with agendas ready, goals in mind, and a strict schedule they try to stick to as much as possible. They respect the time of the group, and work hard to ensure that meetings are productive, Scout-centered, and open to all interested parties. - POSITIVE The best Committee Chairs try to maintain a positive attitude during all activities

I spent 7 years as CC and have now been ASM for 3 years so have a good perspective on both sides. My thoughts, in no particular order: Get trained. Get everyone else trained. People do a better job when the know that their job is (and is not). Follow the program - this is the BSA's program, do it the way they say even if you dont agree with it. Insist on the same from everyone else Be fully engaged. My successor started out well but then life got busy and she rarely attended a Troop meeting and rarely held a committee meeting. She had no goals for the committee or th

The GSUSA organization is a wonderful group. After taking GSUSA Camper training, I can tell you it was light years better than my BSA Outdoor training. My BSA Outdoor training was 90% flip charts, and an obsession with leave no trace. . . we were taught to always hike in groups of 5 or less to minimize impact on the environment, wear special soft sole shoes to not crush grass or worms, walk on rocks when possible, always pack out your used TP and Poop in zip lock bags, always carry a bear locking canister, use window screen to screen the dirt where you camped to gather all the micro tr

The September-October issue of Scouting Magazine makes it clear that BSA is betting the farm on girls. Cover photo: Family Scouting Letter from CSE: Justifying girls in Scouting with claims that it was all in response to popular demand (his lies just never stop) Commissioner's Corner: How to welcome girls into Scouting Recruiting Article: How to get more girls in Scouting with Scout Me In Order of the Arrow Article: Welcoming girls into OA staring February 2019 Roundtable Article: Welcoming girls into a pack Scouting FAQ: Uniform Q&A with feature photo of

@cocomax, you are a far braver, stronger scouter than I! There are two things that I cannot sit still for any more: 1. A LNT zealot going on and on. The whole LNT industry contrives to make human contact with nature more and more restrictive. To listen to them, one gets the impression that we humans are so awful, so disgusting, that to protect nature we should just stay home. As a Tenderfoot, I was taught "take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints." I think that's LNT in a nutshell. Minus the laminated LNT card packs to hang from one's belt, of course. 2.

WOW!!!!!!!! That's not how a course is supposed to be run. And like Chris1 said, I've known GSUSA volunteers to go through BSA training, and use BSA materials, because fo the challenges with their GSUSA council. I do not know if others do this, but one thing I do is IF I know someone has a lot of experience in a subject area AND they are going through the course as a student, is that I have them teach the specific area. For example, backpacking and land nav expert ( Eagle, Philmont 2x, summer camp staffer) was a student. First Aid expert was a combat medic who also is an Eagle

Sometimes we need to be reminded of perspective. I've often offered up the undisputable fact when someone is arguing for or against the relative risk of a scouting activity... that more than likely the most dangerous thing we do in scouting is riding in a vehicle, for multiple hours at a time, with other non scout drivers on the same roads.... The most dangerous thing we EVER do in scouts (by far) is driving to and from scouting events... and no one thinks twice about it.

They work right up until the phone's battery goes dead. There's a reason the GPS is always secondary to the map / compass / orienteering skills as primary. The primary still works when you have no power or you can't lock onto the satellite for some reason Its all very elementary in the classroom setting, or even on a course in the local park... things get very real when you are 3 days out on Northern Tier in an area with nothing but a bunch of dotted lakes hooked together with little dotted portage trails and the patrol of scouts have a difference of opinion about which portage trail i

I started writing this post with quite a lengthy response to quite a few of the comments above. Then I deleted it. Instead I thought I’d post this link. http://12thcambridge.org.uk/blog/2018/08/26/summer-sun/ Its the photos from my troop summer camp which also included the cubs from our group for half the week. as a group we have a well above average number of girls. (For those not familiar with my comments on here I’m British so used to fully coed scouting) They come to us because they like what we do. So summer camp this year meant hiking, caving, rock climbing, pioneering, a

I've seen this too. And I strive as someone who has been to WB and is a trainer, to not patronize the folks I train, and to include their experience in the training. Most of my training are more of a group conversation and hands on skills vs a lecture, but I've sat in alot of training that is not that way.

One moment that stands out was I was sitting there with a knife, sharping stone, map, compass and GPS in my pocket. Just 100 feet away was my truck filled with camping gear and my back pack ready to go on a 3 day hike. I also had 2 more GPS, a box of compasses, and a satellite messager I was prepared to help. At the "ice breaker" I explained in detail my life experience and having lived in the woods all my life and I got a pretty odd reaction. The instructor only asked in a harsh manor , "But do you have any BSA training, have you been to wood badge?" I felt like I was stepping on our ins

@cocomaxWOW I am sorry to hear how bad IOLS was for you. That is NOT at all how that course is supposed to be taught. It is nice to hear of a good GSUSA council that does good outdoor training. In my area we used to see a fair number of girl scout leaders taking BSA training, because the girl scout council didn't offer any.

It was IOLS, The evening was all leave no trace, all flip charts. In the morning we watched a guy cook us breakfast over a large camp stove and we ate on paper plates. We had a class on the flag and posting the colors that was all flip charts. Next class was on wood tools, we got to look at axes, saws, and knives (but not touch), we learned the safe way for a scout to use an ax is to hold the ax against the wood and hit the back end of the ax with a hammer. The instructor told us that there was no way to sharpen a saw and she did not know how to sharpen an knife so we skipped that. Next

We just had our recruitment night, and had pretty fair turnout. A lot of higher grade youth, both boys and girls.

"Now tell me why boys should not feel they have lost their Scouting program? I predict BSA will lose more boys than girls gained for a net loss of overall membership. Faced with this reality, they'll change to program to make it even more girl-friendly. Boys are the failing segment of our society right now, and nobody cares - nobody. " The crux of the argument to me is in this sentence... I don't think ANYONE believes this is not a great opportunity for female youth. But, did anyone stop to ask IF it was in the best interest of the male youth? Yes, males need to learn how to interact wi

Perhaps that is true for a Cub Pack (can't really say because I'm quite ignorant about the Cub Scout program), but I see definite advantages to youth experience for Boy Scout adult leaders. Speaking only of my own situation, my passion for Scouting comes directly from my youth experience. It would be hard for me to generate the same level of dedication as an adult leader without that youthful passion as reference. In a very selfish way, I want my son (and by association his Scouting friends) to have the same kinds of opportunities and experiences that shaped and influenced me so profoundl

I will say outright that if I were to use my own experiences as a youth in Scouting as the basis for how I lead my den now, it would be a DISASTER. My experiences in Scouting as a kid varied from utterly forgettable to downright miserable, with only a few bright (or at least glow-in-the-dark) exceptions. One of the reasons I have become so invested in Scouting now is specifically to prevent this next generation of boys from going through the mire I trudged through growing up, and to ensure they get a TRUE, successful, positive Scouting experience. I believe in the program, but it can be damage

She's taking over because your pack, troop, crew, and district have weak leaders who don't know how to lead a group of people. That she is a women is not the problem. I have lots of very strong female leaders in our pack, troop, and crew and it works perfectly fine.

I think it's how our wives have trained us. Barry

Wood Badge is the Family Life MB of adult training. It's too much information for someone in their first year of Scouting and not enough useful information for someone in their fifth year. Naturally.

I think mourning describes exactly the response by many of us. Scouting has, or had, a purpose that wasn't just a marketing slogan. We experienced the true effects of growth from our scouting experiences both as youth, and as adults. Those who belittle others for not embracing the new program are naive to understanding the power of the traditional program in helping boys develop lifelong habits of character. Those who show frustration with opposing opinions can't seem to rationalize how many of us consider their condescending tone to be un-scout-like. We don't just believe the power of p

Many of us not wholly excited about the changes to the program are heavily involved in the program and have been now for many many (oh so many) years. We are running / working in our units day in day out, week in week out, monthly outings, Saturday night campfires, taps being played in the evenings, flag ceremonies, Courts of Honors, meeting with Scouts on advancement, running merit badge sessions, engaging the troop in high adventure, developing leadership among the boys, working to have them in patrols...all the scouting stuff one does out in the mud and the woods. We see the changes

I concur; the simple fact is that boys and girls are supposed to meet in separate dens. That is one policy you cannot, nor should you even attempt to, get around. I would rather work with one stalwart kid alone in a den than try to bend the rules to facilitate what I think is best - or most convenient, as is more often the real case. Mind you, I have often had periods of time when I only had one kid in my Webelos den - other leaders tried to get me to combine with other groups for the duration, but I have learned something extremely valuable in my years working with children and specializing i

With the passage of time, I'm confident that everyone in BSA will be in support or at least go along with these changes ... because those opposed will leave the movement. Voila - problem fixed!

This is correct. What gives me the creeps are the rah-rah cheerleaders who wholeheartedly endorse anything National says (usually on Facebook). It's definitely no fringe group, but if BSA could prove even a simple majority of supporters in BSA4G with the results of the internal survey, they would be trumpeting it. Instead we get to endure celebrity endorsements (OMGosh, Ashton Kutcher!!!), erstwhile martinets ignoring a very big rule about how the program is to be implemented, and a never-ending drumbeat from BSA about how great this is. And I've never finished an issue of Scoutin

Yes - we would all like to see the data. But even if released, the survey was crafted to be so manipulative, designed to elicit only one response - any data from a survey like that would be pointless, in all reality. Can you at least give me room for rage over such an insulting process?

I thought it was just me. Glad to hear I'm not alone. The majority of the photos, no matter what the topic had girls in them too. Overkill is the right word. Kind of like shoving the concept down our throats.

So one of the fun things about being a scouter is watching young men follow in your footsteps, or maybe not ... I've told you all about how some times we wanted to grab the "Eagle Project of Troop ###" banner that often hang by some of our more public works, grab some spray paint, and add a footnote: "we take bad kids." Just like can happen in land navigation, a scout can choose to take "the long cut" into adulthood and all you can do is watch. Especially thanks to social media, there are a few moments you wish you could unsee, but there they are. And there you (or your wife, or your

They told me that if you find a snipe and take it home, it will carefully peck all the old badge magic off your uniform.

Most training in anything is designed around the student having some knowledge of the subject. That worked fine for the BSA until the membership change in 1990. The percentage of adults joining the bsa before that change was more than 50%, closer to 70%. Then the number jumped below 50%, dropping below 40% in just a few years. So you can imagine the shift of students with ZERO knowledge of the scouting program, at both vision and skills. You can respect the challenge National has in developing a training program that teaches an adult with zero knowledge of scouting, while not driving awa

What a load of horse dung. Apparently, girls you know don't like to do fun things with their friends, be that camping, hiking, running, exploring, or building things. Girls don't like to feel like they belong in a group, and apparently teamwork is anathema to the way they grow. Girls apparently can't learn through associating with adults. And girl leadership? Ha! Girls are biologically inferior to boys, am i right? No point in wasting valuable time teaching them to look out for their fellows. We'll just go ahead and ignore the historical fact that girls picked up BP's Scouting just a

whining: present participle: complain in a feeble or petulant way That's all I hear out of these conversations about girls in scouts anymore. Whining. Parents and leaders do a lot for scouting but the lack of actual scouts and the funds derived from them dictate the programs and events quality and even longevity more than anything else. So while recruiting may initially go up and give us a lift, it's doubtful Scout retention is going to remain up or down significantly with the adding of girls. Fact is when boys get to a certain age they stop coming to Scouts. The younger

We are already there. . . Two years ago there was a camp-o-ree that for the events they had stations set up with pop ups and folding chairs were the scouts were taught a subject using flip charts. Packing a back pack, leave no trace, basic first aid, and navigation were some of the subjects taught. Patrols were awarded points for paying attention and answering questions at the end. After finishing one station they would rotate to the next station. I asked around why they were running things that way, without the boys actually doing anything and was told it was modeled after Wood