Leaderboard

I apparently didn't handle it well. My kids suffered because I did not have as much time for them as I devoted to other kids. I was determined not to give them preferential treatment because they were mine and in retrospect was actually harder on them than I was on other kids. They also could never have a day off because if I had to be there, they had to be there although I did miss some critical moments in their lives outside of scouting because I had to be at the scout event while they were elsewhere. This created some resentment towards scouting on my part. Further, if I was trying to be n

I suspect your background check will take longer than most.

Not really. The standard is "Who is going to contribute the most to den life?" A mom with a negative experience (in her mind), but willing to give a different pack a try, or. A "might-join" adult with district credentials, but not much else going for him. The guy's pack folded. If it mattered to him and his kid, I would have expected a phone call yesterday. The DE has phone numbers. Same would happen if some single dad left a pack because some ladies kept pestering him about dating. Now, it could turn out that @Armymutt's parent-victim and her friends do push boundary

I feel for you and your scout. I've often described scouting as shining when a magical mix occurs. The right fellow scouts. The right leaders. The right unit culture and experiences. If that happens, scouting shines. Far too often, one or more falls flat or even becomes a huge negative. if your son finds that magical mix in scouting, then celebrate. If not, it is always okay to find somewhere else where your son can shine. Our kids are young once and it goes fast. They need somewhere they can succeed and feel special. I hope it's in scouting. If not, that's okay too.

Yeah. I've seen that. We left a troop because of how another leader was treating my son's friend when it was really that the leader did not like the dad. It was their way to get rid of the dad. It damaged the son. Still makes me screaming mad today. An absolutely great comment. Scouting is supposed to be one part of a rich childhood. For us adult volunteers, we often get pulled in deep and it takes a lot of our personal time. I wonder if we could apply an analogy here. Supposed you and your wife talked about being extremely tight with money all the time when the k

I am Connor MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod. I was born in 1518 in the village of Glenfinnan on the shores of Loch Shiel. And I am immortal. 😮 https://clanmacleod.org/

Each victim gets about 6k, the lawyers get about 5k, the perverts who committed these terrible acts go unpunished, and future generations of american youth are abused by being deprived of a scouting program. Yup, sounds like a real good solution to me.

Sorry, but I think that is a terrible answer. It should be about right and wrong, not about who is most valuable to the unit or council. In many cases, this is how BSA got in so much trouble, siding with the people who contribute the most.

Not a SM, but as a DL for my youngest son sometimes i felt like he was getting short-changed. During some meetings where parents assisted their scouts in some activity I couldn't always assist him due to checking on everyone else. The few meetings that he didn't attend, I think where easier for me.( Is that bad?) In hindsight it may have been better for him to be in a different den. He liked that i was his den leader, but I think his scout experience could've been better.

It's hard to reconcile my great admiration for the Boy Scouts of America and their youth development program with the way my Scout has been treated. He has a lot of ill feelings toward his leaders because of the way he was treated and just wants to be 'done'. I understand why he feels this way but there is so much more to experience within the program. It makes me sad.

When I was CC I had an active Committee Member step down because her son just didn't want her involved in Scouts anymore. He was a Life Scout and wanted to get to Eagle without his mom involved. I understood and respected her decision. My own Scout was treated poorly by Scoutmasters who didn't appreciate my leadership and took it out on him rather than speak to me. They would use monthly Committee meetings to get in snide comments about him and try to embarrass me but would never address anything with me one on one. EVER. I was asked to step into this role after a huge blow up in t

I'm guessing the non-supervised stick fights we had as kids are a non-go. Used to be fun. You find a stick and smack it against someone else. If yours breaks, you retire and find another. on second thought, technically, you aren't striking other participants. You are striking their stick. Maybe we were following the guide even in the 80s.

Sorry to hear that. It is tough to balance. I struggle with same, and find myself often in the same territory you describe... Thank you for all your efforts. I hope your kids will see the enormous amount of positive impact you are sure to have had, and realize that some of their sacrifice contributed to that positive impact on others' lives.

You can shoot paintball at non-human targets... G2SS: "Activities where participants shoot or throw objects at each other, such as rock-throwing, paintball, laser or archery tag, sock fights, or dodgeball" Q: Can Scouts, Venturers and Sea Scouts shoot paintball or airsoft guns? A: Scouts, Venturers and Sea Scouts may shoot paintball guns and airsoft guns at targets only; they may not shoot at each other or at any form of a human silhouette target. https://www.scouting.org/outdoor-programs/shooting-sports/shooting-faq/

That's not my sword.

Who is asking? I was my son's SM. We talked and I told him I was on campouts as SM, not as dad. I didn't actually see him very often on campouts but when I did we had fun. I always enjoyed joking around with all the scouts so it wasn't that hard. As he got older I told him I didn't care if he got eagle and there was zero pressure from me to get it. He was just like most scouts and decided at the last minute that he wanted it. I did not help him other than buying lunch at his project. But my son really enjoys the outdoors. He liked the campouts until about 8 months before he aged out and s

What little I remember of GS is that there were typically 2 or 3 different ages in the troops I saw. It was more important to have friends in a troop than a single age. That might have not been typical or allowed, but that's what I saw. Make advancement a bit more flexible in cub scouts, it's already repetitive, and I think it would help. This is more a change in how and when to recruit than anything else. Friendships and similar personalities are just as important as program. When my son took a break from cub scouts it was more about the personalities. After 2 years of 2 scouts that just

Different databases. Your local council records could have been destroyed as in a fire or expensive and difficult to access. Our council had a fire a long time ago and some records were lost. Like most councils, older records are stored with a records storage company and accessing those records takes time and costs the council. Some councils absorb such costs while others charge. They may have a policy about the reasons that are considered reasonable to access records. The paper record keeping before computer databases is known in general to have more issues with completeness. The r

And thus expired the LARPing crew that one of my scouts thoroughly enjoyed ... next time you ask where did all of the venturers go ... point to that.

Venturing started out well here in NE Ohio and then, over the years, mostly disappeared. The five closest crews, with which I helped as asked, all closed as of two years ago. But, then, between finances and management, this has been a weak area. All the five defunct crews mentioned are shown as active today oblue n the Council website, but the closest has not met in six years. Nothing has been posted on their website since 2011.