Leaderboard

A Note, from a Moderator i still remember my Mom being my Den Mother. I remember a ton of old magazines we had in our hall closet, to support activities. I still remember The Law of the Pack, and later I remember learning the Scout Law. I remember being told as a Boy Scout the Scout Law was a positive description of who I should be. Boys like clubs. Boys like “no girls allowed” clubs. 8 year old boys aren’t always ready to mix with eight year old girls. Sometimes, a boy will get, shall we say, boisterous in telling that to a girl. may I submit a good path to deal with t

Hey all, I attended a Course Directors Conference recently. I'm a backup course director for a NYLT course in 2019. One of the Pros from Irving was there so I was able to ask some of our favorite topics of conversation. I've figured we mostly had answers to these questions, but it's good to hear it straight out of the horses mouth so to speak. I've summarized his answers below. I was impressed by him. I was surprised National sent a pro from Irving out to Midwest on a Saturday, and he was at the event all day, and being available for 1 on 1 face-time. He had some real enthusiasm a

Scouts has the advantage over public schools, in that it is an activity that the family has chosen of their own free will. In Girl Scouts, at least, anyone registering has to agree to abide by the girl scout law -- for the girls being registered by their parents, the parent agrees on their behalf. (Really -- there is a checkbox on the registration website that you have to check off, or you cannot register. ) That is one of the beauties of refering the kid back to the scout law . The adults' whims are not the standard of behaviour; the scout law is the standard of behaviour. And

Sadly, I've heard your view from scouts too. Add also discussions from them on why many different types of laws need to change. Laws on everything from liability to the oldest profession laws. ... I've always been amazed what we can overhear as adult leaders when you are good at blending into the background.

I have never really considered myself overly religious, but do consider myself to be quite reverent. I rarely attend church now, I have attended regularly in spurts over the years, but not now. I work with people of several faiths and beliefs and respect their customs. I am not closed to their thoughts or actions. I respect their needs to pray, say grace before meals, attend services,etc. I participate in such activities when I am with them but not usually at home with family. It was not the way I was raised or my husband. The Scout Law says be reverent not be religious. There really is a

Hello Scouters! I am positioned to be the new Scoutmaster for our girls youth Troop starting next year and am honored to have been approached by our Committee to fill this role! I'm trying to wrap my head around getting program started for these new youth. As much as I want the Troop to be youth lead, I also realize that the youth will be starting with little to no scouting experience. I believe a couple of the girls have been with GSA, most have not, and have only experienced Scouting through their brothers. We will be sharing a Charter, Committee and ASMs. I should be able t

I attend the Weekly Meetings and PLC Meetings (1 hour prior to each Troop Meeting) as an ASM, I make it to about 90% of all the campouts (Once a month). I attend the Monthly Committee meeting. Besides that, I don't truly spend any extra time as a ASM on it. Our unit is a well oiled machine (so it seems) and has been running smoothly for awhile now (85 years charter). In fact, I maybe stepping up to become SM here shortly, and I don't see my time being added on. Being active on the Pack level is a hole different animal. And I don't include my time as a District Program Chair as t

Hi @shortridge. I was a scoutmaster for 12 years. The real question here, if I may be so bold, is will your wife be okay with all the hours? Scoutmaster conferences, eagle projects, packing for said trips, going to blue and golds, training, just spending time figuring out how to crack some nut. Those are some of the things you've forgotten. I'm sure there are more. Some of this has to do with the size of your troop as well as how many adults will actually help. We estimated 1 hour per month per scout in the troop is what all of the adults put in together. How much of that will people

I'm following your point. I do think it would be good for a Troop to apply the same standard to any member. But, I do think folks would look at behavior problems warranting a parent and physically or mentally disabled scout requiring specially trained individuals as unique cases. I don't think being a girl is an exception case like these. A "boys only" troop asking any invited, co-ed dens to provide proper supervision seems like the right way to go. So, in cases like the one in this topic - there is an easy solution with no impact on the troop. I do understand that this specific

Outstanding news, glad to hear they are giving these girls the chance to join and earn all the way to Eagle. Not going to lie, I might tear up a bit if I get to see Sydney Ireland wearing an Eagle medal. 😥 That girl deserves it, she's shown bravery and scout spirit above and beyond.

I would do exactly this with my Brownie and Junior girl scouts. (Same age as cubs.) I'd pull the girl aside for a quiet conversation. I'd have the girl start reciting the scout law and then I'd stop her once she got to a relevant point, and ask her whether what she had been doing was living up to the scout law. (We never got past "honest and fair, friendly and helpful, considerate and caring" before finding something relevant.) Ususally the response was a realization of why what she had been doing was wrong, a fervant determination to do better, and improved behaviour. (At least until

Welcome @Podscouter. The only happy thing I can think of is having a sit down with the council exec, president, etc. It's time to make connections and relationships.

Presumably it’s the asymmetric way that women can supervise boys but men cannot supervise girls.

Well, let's start from the bottom up. The BSA didn't create a unified program at the Scout BSA level, they created a gender-segregated program. It's no secret I don't agree with the decision to bring girls into scouting, but, anybody with a brain saw the gender-segregated solution was going to cause more problems than solutions. As for the Cub Scouts, we don't have the discussion because the packs are co-ed but the Dens are segregated. Mostly a cosmetic difference but a difference non-the-less. Working around family vacations, grandparents, custody, summer jobs, summer school, and

Do you have evidence this is really happening or are you just catastrophizing? I agree that scouts are scouts and should have all the same access to services regardless of gender. Any council that actually does otherwise should be called out. But creating a worst case scenario and then demanding everybody get in line is unhelpful. I don't agree that anybody is diminished if a particular camp runs boy-only, girls-only, and mixed sessions. In fact I celebrate it. The more camps we have offering options for all scouts the better off we'll be.

Yes I did read the FAQs. And I am pointing out how it is a double standard that is insulting to male volunteers. And as Shortridge pointed out, the issue of her camping with her father was never addressed. I though the entire purpose of allowing girls was to be "Family Friendly." If a girl cannot camp with ther dad, doesn't seem to be Family Friendly to me.

I don’t see this as a long term need, but adding girls to Scouts is new for us. BSA will still have many units who desire to remain boy only. The vast majority of Scouts will be boys. If there are enough units that are Boy only and desire a bit only camp it should be offered. As long as girls are not regulated to the inferior camps or very limited weeks we should be able to accommodate these units. Boys and the parents who want them to have a boy only experience should still have that option in the BSA. Girls have that option in GSUSA and they have the coed option in BSA.

They want $17 for those socks. And I thought the $8 or the standard uniform socks was way overpriced. I guess if I want that vintage look I will just have to use my vintage socks

Report just came in that we are at 45,856 girls. A DE noted that the majority of them are in southern states as northern states generally start school later. I know several Join scout nights in my area are just starting. Who knows but thought I would pass it on.

This is an exceedingly wise decision.

On a side note, we had 27 NEW Bobcats last night with 17 of them being tigers. The pack has doubled in size from last year and just three of those are girls (from my count), taking us to a total of five. I have to wonder if this might end up being one of it not the biggest jumps in applicants BSA has ever seen - and of course will get larger still in February when older girls can join.

Probably because BSA didn't come up with the idea first.

Why not just recognize the already-existing Corps of Discovery?