Leaderboard

LOL..reminds me of the time when I was Cubmaster and a parent called to demand to know when meetings were going to start. I said, "as soon as you volunteer to become a Den Leader"...she got furious and demanded to speak to my "supervisor"...so I handed the phone to my wife.

I appreciate the optimism. 😊 My personal observation and experience -- especially with Scouters -- is that when a local, solvable problem is identified, there are always folks with creative solutions or just stamina who are ready to jump in and try it. The "empowerment" issue is not about them -- it is about convincing the people with authority over that area to say "yes -- go for it." I have seen far too many skilled, eager volunteers give up on solving a problem because the person or group that holds the keys or writes the checks won't approve the effort, or won't decide, or won't even l

That is a good description, based on what I've read on the BSA Polaris Method website and the content of the videos. The fundamental weakness is "the expectation that those employees and volunteers are then empowered to go solve those problems." It isn't an absence of individual employee and volunteer empowerment that is preventing problems from being solved. It is that, with minor, strictly local exceptions, the problems that Scouters and units face on a daily basis arise from societal issues, demographics, program design, program policies, institutional inertia, and council budgets -- con

It was interesting to see the thread about misconceptions as I had deliberately logged on to post something. yesterday I spent 40 minutes on the phone and my Group Scout Leader (my manager, don’t think you have an equivalent) had spent 2 hours on the phone with the mum of a scout who was having a bit of a moan. She had various things to say but they all stemmed from the fact that her daughter has not made PL or APL yet. Her daughter is disappointed. She’s not the first and won’t be the last and in herself is not a problem. The problem is that her mum does not accept how scouts operat

Exactly! Because I was the Council JLT Chairman, I was asked to join a National sponsored forum with other Council Youth Training Chairman to discuss and pass along suggestions for the new NYLT course. Very few, if any suggestions by the list ended up in the course. I’m not quite sure why National wasted our time. Barry

Units are autonomous and can do what they want: entire packs can go canoeing, unrelated girls and girl siblings can completely mix with boy dens for all activities and even "unofficially" earn advancement, etc. Troops can make up their own advancement policies including when or if a Scout can have a conference with his SM, BORs retesting Scouts and then denying advancement, having SM, CC and other adults' daughters tagalong on camping trips and "unofficially" earn advancement. The list goes on and on. Another good one is that district and council volunteers are paid employees. So as a Dis

I believe this started to change in the!late 1980s. My father taught voc ed from early 1970s through 2000s. In the 1970s and early 1980s kids that went into voc we were interested in the trades as a career. The were good kids that worked hard. Then many schools decided that voc ed was a great location to put kids that misbehave. My father who became a director of a voc ed school was already having trouble hiring good teachers as most could make more doing their profession. Then the classes started filling up with BD kids. My dad complained and the response from the school was that they

Don't know anything about boys vs girls. My son's school system pushes students to attend college, not just encourages, but emphasizes college as the goal. My wife and I have several degrees but feel college is not for everyone. The recent highschool graduates of our extended family have gone on to college because that's what they were told they needed to do. Both dropped out the first year after getting sizeable loans. Now both are pursuing law enforcement and possibly EMT. Those seem like skills better suited to them. My son's school had a job fair and not a single trade was ther

That Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts are part of the same organization, not two different organizations. (I've been hearing that for years.)

Scout leaders (Troop and Pack) are paid professionals. I was shocked by that one and heard it more than once.

Scouting Magazine reached out to me, it will be awhile, but I think this can be good. @CherokeeScouter - I would surely if I used any names.

It's called Boy Scouts for a reason ... Well, the "reason" is to stand in contrast to military scouts -- to use the same skills but towards peaceful ends. This is quite the opposite of some folks' impression, who think our net effect is to fuel the gears of war.

I'm a little unclear, the reason I say the BSA should stay out is because they are not experts and don't any authority. While the parents were working with their child in therapy, how should the compassionate scout leaders work with the scout? What if the scout leader's compassionate mentoring is contrary to the therapy? Or is therapy crap also. Your attitude about this subject scares me the most because your opinion is set and closed. This is a very complicated subject and the point of the article is that experts are not getting it completely right. The BSA needs to stay away because ma

Hello fellow Scouter: If you posted on the Polairs Method Forum. If you have question on The Polairs Method please call or email and I will give your the facts. I have been a part of the The Polairs Method since it began and have the backstory. My name is Bill Goebel I am a volunteer, 336-202-6485 and my email is Bill@gmanc.com. Polaris-Brochure[5].pdf

PETA = People Eating Tasty Animals 'Vegetarian' is an old Cherokee word for 'Poor Hunter'.

Yes, I wonder why they did not use "stripper" meaning to reduce or strip layers?

They can call it Polaris or whatever they wish. At the end of the day, it's nothing more than another series of committee meetings. Because scouting really doesn't have enough of those. Results: - Low hanging fruit--small changes that could have easily been made before all of those meetings and flip charts--will be heralded as proof of the BSA's new-found flexibility and concern for scouters. - Big annoyances, the true morale breakers, the things that really need to change--these will remain the same. Sure, the Polaris teams may delve into some "problem admiration" regard

It seems I mis-read it a bit. I got confused with some of the comments and thought it was the pack that was equivocating here. I stand corrected and apologize. I still do not care for this situation though. 1) If a troop invites the den, you can't back out because a girl is a member. You do your research ahead of time. if there is a girl, you whole invite her to participate too. 2) If a troop invites a den, they invite the whole den. If the den is mixed gender, then they simply make clear that there isn't a linked troop here and come joining time, there isn't a membership o

Gosh! Is scouts still going?

The common misconception is that BSA is an altruistic organization composed of selfless volunteers with the mission of building boys into men of character. The reality is that BSA is a corporation driven by corporate motives. Money - not altruism - drives BSA, just like any corporation. While many BSA volunteers may indeed be selfless, BSA corporate leaders largely ignore and dismiss the opinions of front-line volunteers in decision-making.