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Showing content with the highest reputation on 11/26/20 in Posts

  1. The beatings will continue until morale improves.
    3 points
  2. Back to the OP...my 3 cents. One major crisis early in the BSA was to get all the many splinter groups to agree to come into one organization, One being the Rhode Island Boy Scouts which still exists today as a trustee organization. Another crisis faced (this will be requirement number one of the new DEI MB), was the pushback of the YMCA to allow Catholics, Jews, Indians and "Negroes" and other ethnic and racial boys into the program. In 1972 the BSA membership peaked at 6.5M youth. What to do about this? I know let's start the ISP. I was part of a 50 Eagle Scout group wh
    2 points
  3. BSA is nuts to make this badge required. The issue is part of one which has the US bitterly divided and has zero chance of attracting more scouts to replace those who leave or are pulled out by their parents. This "like it or leave" stuff can fly in a company where people rely on employment to get paid, but not in an organization dependent on volunteers who pay for the privilege. Oh, and in other news, costs are going up again. Whether or not we individually agree or disagree is besides the point, a hefty chunk of scouts won't be coming back because of forced idealogy like this. It's like BSA
    2 points
  4. 1. "Charter and Bylaws of the Boy Scouts of America June 2019 © Boy Scouts of America ... Section 3. That the purpose of this corporation shall be to promote, through organization, and cooperation with other agencies, the ability of boys to do things for themselves and others, to train them in Scoutcraft, and to teach them patriotism, courage, self-reliance, and kindred virtues, using the methods which are now in common use by Boy Scouts [1915 language readopted in 2019]." So was it "sound" for BSA to pursue increasingly different purposes? 2. BSA fought for years
    1 point
  5. Good point yknot. Such a study must include those who never signed up for a Scouting program but were aware of it; those who were members only for a meeting or two; and those who were longer term members but left early (before aging out or reaching a top rank such as Eagle, Summit, or Quartermaster). The youth in those groups often have inaccurate contact. It would be especially helpful to survey them immediately after they leave and at 12 months but the local council and national do not know that they have left until the next recharter. Only national has the information at all. Such a st
    1 point
  6. I'm going to disagree with the premise that the fact the brain is still growing means they don't have the physical structures necessary to start thinking like adults. If we want youth to start thinking like adults, we have to start treating them like adults. Yes, you make allowances for their age and inexperience but you don't coddle them. They aren't infants. Heck, the term "young adult" USED to refer to this particular age group (as opposed to 18-25 year olds) -- and I think still does in the book publishing world. One of the reasons I said that the skills needed in years
    1 point
  7. Good considerations. My take is different. BSA Scouting took some wrong paths, which seemed to respond to the times but did not. Get back on the right path with the old map. My $0.02,
    1 point
  8. I think it is an interesting exercise but I would put it this way. As PACAN noted Why the decline? There's a lot of internal pointing that there were programmatic failures and that BSA National caused its own downfall. I also want to suggest something else: BSA Scouting has run its course, was created and functional of a certain time and place that no longer exists, and that it will shamble on a husk NOT because of anything BSA did internally but because the environment changed. In other words, the "crisis" in Boy Scouts of America was it was designed, shaped, built, premised
    1 point
  9. Fascinating. One adult Eagle's story from 1959, much later than 1948: ... "Gallagher started as a Tenderfoot at the age of 38." Perhaps this was regional? If this would encourage greater adult volunteer involvement,, support, and commitment, maybe it's not as crazy as it looks. It could have a special designation, such as Silver Eagle Scout. Again, I am just thinking in terms of what would help scouting survive, not what it means in a program sense. And here's where the contradiction comes into play for me: I don't agree at all with the way that the Eagle marquee has become monet
    1 point
  10. I want to apologize for my snarky comment. I had just read a FB post stating that 18-20 year old ASMs serve no purpose in a troop. I am sick an tired of folks denigrating young adults, and I took out my frustration on you. Regarding the brain and development until age 25. Something that appears to be conveniently forgotten is that is that lifelong learners and folks starting new professions, basically anyone still learning stuff, has the same brain scan patterns as those under 25. If I can find the study's report, hopefully on PubMed Central, I will post the link. Unfortunately I no long
    1 point
  11. In my experience as a Scout, we changed SMs pretty regularly, probably due to overwork although it was invisible to the Scouts. We just kept on keeping on. The SM who formed the first troop I hooked up with as an adult Scouter only left because of a job in another state. Another father stepped in for him for a little over a year but had to resign because he was working an hour north and it was just too rough on him to get back down in time for meetings, much less everything else a SM has to do. The third SM lasted about 4 or 5 months -- he took it personally when members of the committ
    1 point
  12. That right there should have disqualified her from any position of responsibility if National wasn't so disconnected from reality. I know some excellent PhDs but no one I've met with a PhD in "education" has seemed to know a dang thing about teaching. Field experience should be the first and foremost thing they look for at National. When you look at who gets selected for the Board or President positions in the past 15 or 20 years, it's almost like the organization wanted to destroy itself.
    1 point
  13. This is very educational and disturbing. But it kind of makes sense, adults who think they have a better idea and want to prove their theory by messing with an already successful design. We see it on this forum a lot. Scoutmasters who brag about a grand theory and work their program outside the box, only to disappear quietly. Even recently bragging adults showed how they fast tracked their new girls troop through the ranks and skills to show up the boy troops at competitions and to get the Eagle in minimal time. I'm guessing the top leaders at National have no accountability to hold
    1 point
  14. IMHO, in BSA history our national leadership was been isolated, lacking; outside influences aggravated their bad decisions which were further exacerbated by not communicating with exasperated scouters. Some top of my head examples Founders fighting over control, competition from other scout organizations and YMCA dropping troops , White Stag leadership training replacing our old Wood Badge which focused on scoutcraft and Patrol Method , society changes in 60's and 70's, Improved Scouting Program, ..arrggg where's my aspirin. Summit Bechtel, economic downturn,..
    1 point
  15. Likewise. Which is all I'm looking for. But by the chosen phrasing, I fear that this is NOT what we are seeing. If "white privilege"/"check your privilege" or "systemic racism" is brought up as a given fact they have to learn about, then we are in an unnecessary fight. BSA has already put out a press release supporting BLM and IMMEDIATELY turned off all commenting. They stated "We condemn the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor..." Taylor's death was NOT murder and George Floyd's death is under dispute. We should NOT be involving ourselves in these matters with
    1 point
  16. The leadership of the BSA is largely center with most leaning to the right rather than the left. They have many volunteers at the national level still working on the unit level. The realities that the National Executive Committee and National Executive Board must address often dictates decisions. For example, the BSA had no policy on transgender Scouts prior to a couple of years ago. At that time, there was a sudden attention paid to transgender youth in the country. The reality was that at that time 16 states allowed parents to change a child's gender at any time and they were protec
    -1 points
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