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Camping, hiking, etc. are definitely fun. I just got back from our mountain bike camping trip and the scouts had a blast. Do you know what doesn't look like a blast? Days and days of merit badge classes to complete the required merit badges for Eagle or talking about cooking/camping/etc. vs actually doing it. Uniforms that are designed for ceremonies but not actively working in cold or hot weather. Kicking kids out before/during their senior year of high school as they magically become an adult before their friends. I can go on. There is potential and a lot of scouting is fun, but I

Is Scouting Fun - depends on how the unit is run. Is it a game with a purpose? Yes there are many forms, impediments, and potential oversight challenges, but actually the GTSS leaves open many many items. For our unit we eschew district and council events, they are waaay to much not fun. When you get the 40 page PDF and have a 45 minute safety briefing at the leader meeting can be trouble. Someone asked if one of us should step in and help plan, our feedback was life it to short, there are some ingrained folks that run those so better to move on to more fun things. One headwind w

Fun is determined by the Patrol; both in their analysis of the activities and the choice of them. If a patrol says they aren't having fun, then they need the encouragement, assistance and authority to choose more fun activities. Troop, District, Council and National all need to support the Patrol in words and deeds. Regarding cost, the problem most have is that little/none of the $ to national or to council is viewed as benefitting the individual scouts and patrols. They do not see the value of that sunk cost, or the value is not commensurate with said cost.

Regarding national, I have seen National ignore volunteers, and not only the unit serving Scouters, but big, national level ones. Anyone remember the national Philmont Committee finding out about the mortgage AFTER the fact, the Cub Scout 411 Committee that had the program they created changes about 18 month into it without any input, or the national Sea Scout commodore, finding out that national was looking at dropping Sea Scouting's age limit to 18 when parts of the CHURCHILL REPORT got leaked? What is national good for? Training has been dumbed down. Current uniforms are made of crappy

I wouldn't put too much on feedback from someone that hasn't been part of Scouting for at least 50 years. It's been half that for me and I couldn't tell if you if was fun anymore. The proof will be in the pudding: does Scouting thrive compared to today's alternatives.

I had an interesting experience yesterday. I have a part-time weekend job. One of my co-worker is a 71 years old retired cop. Great guy. ... I somehow referenced scouting and he asked "oh, you were in scouting?" I briefly explained. I asked if he was in scouting. His comment was ... without using "only" ... Yes. He made it to Life Scout, but that was back when scouting was fun. ... I really found that interesting. Unprompted, his first comment was about that scouting was not fun anymore.

@Cambridgeskip , the idea of scouts making decisions and leading other scouts is strange for a lot of scouts as they transfer from cubs to scouts. But they don't see that as much as they will have to listen to the older scouts and do as they're told, much like listening to adults. That's their first shock. Their second is learning how to tell the younger scouts what to do years later when they become older. Now that you mentioned this I wonder if that isn't what makes scouts unique and, more importantly, is what parents and kids don't understand about the benefits of scouting. At lea

Is scouting still fun? Post Bankruptcy My answer to that is that in my troop, this past weekend at a camporee, absolutely. The teamwork and leadership of the scouts was outstanding and the program put on by one of the other troops was just great. The theme was pirates and our patrol won because of excellent enthusiasm and, thinking way outside the box, they gambled all their dubloons with the scout running one of the stations and won. The older scouts decided they wanted to have fun that included the younger scouts and the result was magic. The adults ate well, took naps and read the

But, @DuctTape , it is just so much easier if we all just do the same things together!!! Same meals, same activities, same campsite, same trail, same badges, same skills, etc... LOL Can't tell you how many times I have heard that... When was the last time you saw a summer camp that was patrol oriented? I mean, really patrol oriented?

This is the problem with the funding of councils, the funds that go to keeping camps running and maybe the salary of a DE (in theory) none of the fees help troops with their running of their units.

There are waiting lists to join Scouting in Sweden after the pandemic, and interest in getting out in nature rose here too. The base interest is there. https://www.forbes.com/sites/monicahoughton/2018/04/16/why-camping-is-rising-in-popularity-especially-among-millennials/?sh=67c1885916c0 https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fresh-data-indicates-camping-interest-to-remain-high-in-2021-301273611.html https://www.sunset.com/travel/wild-lands/interest-in-camping-is-at-an-all-time-high-following-covid-19-outbreak My scout said they bragged about going camping all day when t

Locked as this thread hit its end. Various other topics spun off, but to continued discussion re: Bankruptcy can be found below.

Understatement of the year. There are so many rules, regulations, and hoops that have to be gone through, that folks are becoming disgusted. Look at the new rule on Cub Scout pack camping limiting to 1 night on their own, yet can do multiple if a district/council function. No rational was given for this, even when multiple people and on multiple websites, and even councils, have asked why the new rule is being implemented. The rule that limits 18-20 year olds in regards to what they can do, yet also demands that they follow all YP guidelines nonetheless, is a major concern for me as I ha

Another example of some adults overstepping. It sounds as if they are suggesting the youth, or the troop, or both do not have the intelligence or understanding to follow the pretty much bullet pointed form. Oh my gosh, someone might use imagination or out of the box thinking. Seems sad to me, and if it was from my district I would be on them directly, as I did once when someone on the district "Eagle Committee" told us that we had approved a project that was out of line with the intent. I had to actually read the detailed phrases and then ask them to explain how it was not done right or ac

I think this is how he will try to proceed. He doesn’t share his parent’s inclination to fight this kind of thing, and I can’t blame him. He just wants to get it done and see his work translated into a finished series of trails. (Un-ironically, the ‘just get it done’ is what made him not want to use the Advisor in the first place.) As of an hour ago, our former committee chair has asked to become an Eagle Advisor for the Troop, so that if our District is dead-set on forcing scouts down this road, at least they have a choice in Advisors.

Periscope Film over on YouTube has a playlist of Scouting-related films and PSAs from the 1920s until the 1990s that they've been digitizing with an eye towards preservation (they got their start archiving a lot of old military-related, government-produced films, but they've expanded into a stock footage house that specializes in archival films.)

Has he told the coach he isn’t interested in any coaching, but here is my proposal, please process?

Running the current numbers as of right now:

(sarcasm on) My council should be rolling in the dough. They sold one camp for over 10x the court appraised value, and that paid more their share of the settlement. (sarcasm off) Unfortunately councils will pass on their costs to the Scouts, making it more prohibitive for some folks. And some council are in denial about mergers. I am a rumor-monger for bringing that up at a public meeting. Funny thing is, so far all my "rumors" are turning out to be true. For that I am thankful to everyone here. I get more accurate and timely info here than in my council. Heck I found out abo

There is nothing inherently wrong or against the rules in what you're describing, i.e. an unregistered adult teaching skills to scouts. For instance, about every other year our PLC invites one of our local police officers to come in as a guest speaker for our scouts. They give a general talk, some about personal safety, some about careers in law enforcement, etc. They also teach how to do fingerprinting. They cover about 90% of what is needed for Fingerprinting MB, and then we have one of our leaders who is also registered as a Fingerprinting MB counselor, complete the mb with any scout int

I was using this loophole as a way to "qualify" new ASMs and parents. We have an influx of new scouts and parents. The parents don't know me and my leaders, we don't know them. But as soon as a parent comes into the picture I ask about their interest in outing participation. If they have one, I first encouraged them to register as a MB counselor. We need more anyway. In our council this meant a background check, registration with Scouts BSA and YPT being recorded. That established a minimum bar for my comfort level on youth safety for them to attend an outing. Then I would invite them