Leaderboard

I flip back and forth on this. My experience is that scouting units (packs, troops) need relatively light policy and procedure documents. Document habits. When do you meet? How much are dues and when? How do you share fundraiser profits? ... A new parent guide ... Beyond that, I find little need to document policies and procedures. RECOMMENDATION: Resolve the situation first. Then, outside the situation, discuss whether a policy is needed. I've sat in too many committee meetings where hours are spent debating a well written policy that is driven by one or two situations. T

Don't fall for it. The council doesn't have the authority. The council can't force a Chartered Organization to accept anyone in their unit. If the parent doesn't like your unit, invite them to go elsewhere.

I have a number of thoughts on this, and like the rule they're not going to be completely crystallized. First, in all of this discussion the thing to keep in mind is that the enforcement mechanism for any of this, or said differently, the benefit conferred for compliance with any of this, is continued membership in BSA and to a lesser extent coverage by their insurers for things that may go wrong. BSA is not the only organization that does this. My religion has provisions for excommunication for certain acts, even if those acts occur outside of church or church functions. Lots of empl

Yes. Really. No one-on-one contact. That is about as clear a line as can be drawn. Now, in order to more fully answer your question, I have to venture into the area of opinion, which you asked me not to do. BSA intentionally made YP rules knowing that the adult leaders could not and would not follow them. The rules were made to be broken. No scouters in their right minds would forbid their son from ever having his friends over to the house to play. Does it violate the YP rules? Yes. Do it anyway. Will BSA ever say it's ok for your son to have his friends over to the house?

This so spot on. You do not need a policy to have common sense. Many units paint themselves into corners with policies and multi-page (with colored tabs no doubt) Pack Procedure manual. This takes away the ability to really manage the issue. In this situation basically they want YOU (The pack) to provide an accommodation for their son similar to the School system. The schools are a public items, governed by a myriad of laws, guidelines, rules. The pack is not under that guidance. Situation - Cub is disruptive and needs to be removed from the meeting. That is the issue, deal wi

As one who spent a career writing and interpreting safety and health laws and regulations, these BSA rules clearly smack of "CYA" on the part of the BSA. They are there in case anything happens, then the BSA can say, "well, we told them not to do it." The BSA has NO authority over me and my interactions with my own family.

I think that if you start looking at the G2SS and trying to justify exceptions you are going to get yourself all twisted up in knots. I think @David CO said it well - the one-on-one rules in the G2SS will require you and your family to stop doing things that have been a normal part of life for many years - sleepovers, baby sitting, being one-on-one with your niece or nephew. I suspect that the BSA knows this, but wanted to be show leadership in this space. As such, they have set a very high bar. If you are a leader in the BSA, you should live your whole life according to the rules in

I would send her email with the District Executive on the email stating that you aren't able to provide this and that the parents are welcome to attend the events and help their child. If that isn't acceptable, mention how the District Executive may know of a pack that is able to do this for their son.

Well, I have some experience in almost this exact situation, including the threat of litigation. Unless the pack has done some kind of harm, there is no litigation. Fred is correct that there are thousands of unit policies hanging out there that nobody knows about because of one-of-kind behavior problems. My best advice is deal with unusual cases individually. In this case, the problem is the parents wanting a dump off place for their son. There really is no easy answer, either babysit a scout that doesn't want to be there, or tell them no. I's a very sad situation that gets worse as

I view parent attendance aligned with a term a girl scout professional taught me years ago: progressive responsibility. Lions - Parents should be there 100% of the time. Arrow of light cubs - often separate. New Boy scout - mostly separate 1st class - almost always separate Eagle scout - don't even ask It's a progression and it often depends on the youth ... and the parent ... lol.

I had scouts go to a camp outside of my Council (Montana) last summer. The Council that covers Wyoming requested a copy of our council insurance for my unit for my unit to go to this camp. This tells me that your insurance will apply to your unit, even if you go outside of the council.

Lions must have a parent, per BSA. I know some packs that have imposed the parent rule at least for the younger ranks.

Tent with my son on an outing?? That would mean that we would need to speak with other on an outing, possibly make eye contact, and horrors, he would need to acknowledge that he knows me and potentially have interaction with me. As none of those are going to happen, the whole tenting together is not happening. Plus he has BO and talks in his sleep.

All good advice above and spot on. Alert your District Commissioner and District Executive that this is coming. 99% of us are just volunteer parents with no special training or ability in handling special needs scouts. We all are willing to do the best we can, but that obligation applies to ALL the scouts in the unit, who also expect a good program. If it gets ugly or she just doesn't get the message, they can be removed from your unit at the unit's discretion.

Holy moly... That is either a woefully uninformed parent who thinks the BSA is somehow connected to their public school system, or an informed but still incredibly ballsy parent to demand that a mostly volunteer-run organization provide that kind support for their child. I want to believe it's the former, but suspect it's the latter.

Parents are not required to accept responsibility for other people's kids. We are all volunteers. If you are not comfortable, then don't do it. It's also acceptable to not do it if it's hurting the experience of the other cubs. "IF" the parent has already said they would talk to the council, then I would suggest they do that. The council does have special need units. They probably do have a special needs pack that would accept the scout. I would require the parents to stay until the cub says he's okay with them leaving and you are comfortable with the cub staying witho

good ideas. I'd start with some of the old info from the 1950s Patrol Leader Handbook. Also, could it be a communication tool for Patrols Leaders around the country to share ideas and commiserate.

Ideas for agendas for annual planning, PLCs, etc The only other thing is don't go after a single answer. Provide ideas / resources, etc. As I've come to learn, there are many ways to do scouting. There is no single answer. I've found my reason to have my sons in scouting is often very different than the reasons of other people. The experience I want them to have is very different than what other's envision.

BSA is not Babysitters of Anyone. Inform the mom that we are volunteer run organization. As such, we look forward to the helping a wide range of youth with their advancement in the program. However, that only happens when the adults volunteer to help guide the youth. Given that her child requires additional attention, this is a great program for her to go get trained and be an assistant den leader. This will insure that her child experiences the best of the program. Ask "dont you want the best for your child?" Then state that the volunteering to help will fulfill that desire. Ther

The purpose of BSA's ambitious but ambiguous pronouncements on YPT are based on liability and to avoid the following type of headlines: "Boy Scout Leader Charged In..." because that is what the media will focus on no matter where any alleged incidents occurred. However, while I have always tried to follow BSA policy as closely as possible, sometimes you do have to apply commonsense. A family member is an acceptable guardian of a scout, whether that is mom, dad, or an adult sibling, grandparent, aunt/uncle or cousin. As a parent you simply have to be vigilant to that fact that these relat

If you're not fishing for opinions, I think you already know the answer. The BSA rules are very clear and well documented.

A few comments. I have no issue with people scanning records. If scanned, you need to assume it will exist for a long time ... longer than you planned and ... in more hands than you'd ever expect. It's unrealistic to expect volunteer parents to cleanly purge records. It's unrealistic to expect volunteer parents to cleanly follow paperwork procedures. At least with paper, it's a physical limitation. Where's the paper ? It takes space. It requires explicit hand off. They don't proliferate without action. I've found paper records

Really? So what are they? Where is this clear line drawn? Can you point me to the right paragraph because I can’t find it. That is why I’m asking.

I was exposed to porn by an older sibling’s boyfriend. That guy was a creep but was not a Scouter. I’m very aware that abusers are usually close friends and family members. But that doesn’t change the fact that close friends and family members sometimes have to be trusted to be alone with kids. I guess that written line in the sand is as imaginary as I was afraid it might be?

The policy states no one on one contact with registered youth inside or outside of Scouting. The FAQ makes exceptions for if it’s necessary to your career or if it’s your own child; but those are not part of the written policy and in fact by the letter of the policy they are contradictory. FAQs are not intended to answer all questions about policies, just the frequent ones. So the lack of clarification on adult family members other than legal guardians doesn’t mean much, if anything.

I never said not to share opinions. Just that this wasn’t what I was looking for. I’m not inclined to dictate what people can and cannot post in reply. Opinions are at least interesting. The policy, as you state, is clear and doesn’t give exceptions, even logical ones. But the FAQ definitely makes a few exceptions, and in the example of a sleepover, it says “if” the friend is a Scout then the policy should be followed. Fortunately we have 3 adults in our household and 2 of us are registered Scouters. But I have no issue abiding by the example in the FAQ. We recently had a