Leaderboard

You might be surprised to learn that I think the desire by the girls is even less than "not that great". Based from my experience of life, I believe most of the Eagle push here is the adults. I don't have the experience of working with girls in advancement, but I have worked with them in competitive sports and their motivation to participate was more about fun than winning. The difference isn't obvious when the girls played girls, but quite obvious when they played the boys. Barry

A one legged Scouter at our Council Scout Show had a wooden leg loaded with unit brands, countless signatures, and many clever quotes burned in the wood. Pretty cool really, but I often wondered if that leg led to scouts getting patrol and troop tattoos. Barry Side note: My oldest son once mentioned an interest in a tattoo. I told him it was his decision, but it better say "Mother" if he hoped to ever eat dinner at our house again. Still no tattoo 15 years later.

A woggle is a woggle. Part of the attitude of those adults that you had to deal with is part of what I have issue with woodbadge. Some people make such a big deal about Wood Badge that people that take the course are better scouters than others. Wood Badge is a good course, I know many people that have taken wood badge that take every short cut possible, and I know people that didn't that do more for scouting that is above and beyond what is expected. IMHO, the course has nothing to do about ones character and work ethic, it may just enhance the ethic on the good and bad side. I have

Our soccer girls were vicious competitors. (Half my job as crew advisor was talking them out of wanting to finish the season with a red card.) But they also conditioned in the off-season with the boys, so that may have influenced their attitude. That said, I tried to pitch awards and recognition to the lot -- because many weren't pursuing a GS award -- and it fell on deaf ears. The same went for the boys who weren't already scouts. There is a down-side to that lack of interest. It translates into a lack of commitment to organizing activities. But, it doesn't help when parents "take up the

Organizations', plural: decades of GS/USA leaders who thought they knew what was best for all girls (and it wasn't Golden Eaglet or First Class) and BSA leaders who thought their girl-facing counterparts were right. That all leadership training (detached from the outdoors and patriotism) was leadership training and the youth would never know the difference. Bill Hillcourt pulled BSA away from that brink, but their was nobody to do the same for GS/USA. Thus was generated the vacuum that parents and empathetic scouters (and girls themselves) asked us to fill. But what I find quite

As a Scoutmaster and an attorney practicing commercial litigation, these are risks I have considered. I too confirmed my umbrella liability covered the activity. In most negligence cases, the biggest issue is determining whether a defendant violated the standard of care (driving too fast for the conditions, running a soccer practice in dangerous weather conditions, maintaining property, etc.) There can be a lot of gray area in defining the standard of care for those examples. The standard of care is the care and attention a reasonable person would exercise under similar circumstances

I've scouting in other countries and even picked up a few turk's head woggles made of different material, from yute to leather. My two cents is the WB woggle should only be worn with the WB neckerchief. If any youth can make a turk's head, go scout! I've seen many with paracord of colors to signify patrols too. I believe the initial WB woggle leather is related to the tread powered sewing machine cord, about the same stuff. I did have to come the rescue of one new adult that made a woggle while at summer camp. She was so proud until some WB'er told her she couldn't wear any woggle.

When my financial advisor found out I was a Scouter, he strongly suggested an Umbrella Liability Policy. State Farm wrote one which I have bundled with all my other insurance. Costs a coupla hundred bucks a year. I don't trust the BSA or anyone else to cover my backside.

I went from being a 17 year old JASM to an 18 year old ASM in 1971. At that time I was old enough to be drafted and go to Vietnam. I was old enough to vote in my first presidential election the following year. I was old enough to be invited to attend Woodbadge, when the age dropped from 21 to 18 the following year I was old enough at 20 to be invited to serve on Woodbadge staff. At 20 you are old enough to vote, to serve in the military, to do anything any other adult in the country can do (other than be president, but who wants that), but as of last year you do not count as part of 2

All the math in this topic encouraged me to look back through our troop records. We don't track any of this stuff, but since we've been good at keeping advancement records online the info was all there. Also - we're a farily large troop (about 75 active scouts) and have had a pretty stable program for many years. This means lots of records to through On average over the past 20 years we've averaged: 20 new scouts per year 12 1st class Scouts per year 7 Eagle Scouts per year Average troop size has been about what we are now - 75 scouts. Every year about 15% of the

Thank you. I always think I know everything. I'm corrected and appreciate the information. It was once explained to me as a measurement of the whole scouting journey Tiger to Eagle. How many join and how many finish. The number seems much more reasonable then. I trust the number of Eagle is fairly steady (maybe growing), but the expectations are better defined and youth have many more resources. Then add that the number of members has drastically dropped resulting in those that are in the program are probably from families that really value scouting. And, thus want their kid to

Actually, I started holding regular uniform inspections with my Webelos den during the last few years I was with them, and the results were dramatic and successful. I taught the boys why we wear uniforms over and over again, and I held myself to the same standards as they - we were all expected to look our best, as a team, and with a few very small incentives (a special ribbon for the den flag, or perhaps a treat after a few weeks of consistently good scores), we eventually had a den of boys whose uniforms we ALMOST ALWAYS perfect, from the socks to the necker to the hat. And this eventually a