Eagledad

Me too. Often. Barry

I’m just trying to start a discussion of raising the bar, 1 in 10 is an acceptable ratio. Ordeal should weed them out even farther. Still, 28 nights is only 12 camp outs and one summer camp. Not that 30 nights isn’t enough to be an outdoors expert, but most troops don’t even encourage high adventure until 14. Is 12 Car Camping campouts and one summer camp the definition of expert outdoorsmen? I really believe exceptional maturity is the goal along with exceptional expertise of the 8 Methods. You can pick the age, but I believe 13 would be minimum. honestly, I don’t believe this cultural will allow elitism in the program other than Eagles. That is why OA became what it is. This is the generation of mediocrity. Barry

Double, maybe even triple the camping requirements and restrict the number of scouts elected to 1 for every 15 scouts in the troop. Barry

LOL, I truly feel your pain. There seems to be no end of redefinition of expression during these Political Correct times. What next, burn all the old books? But, to be fair, OA started out as a service organization. Well, service and camping organization. The early Arrowmen focus on service and outdoorsmenship They were the best of the best. Selection was more stringent, which is why most Arrowmen early days were looked up as the better Best) Scouts in the unit. I think if OA is to make some kind of comeback, the organization needs to go back to the higher standards of outdoorsmenship and selfless service. I'm not sure how they can go about in this toxic social media world, but even today, there are scouts, then there are the real scouts. OA needs to focus on selfless service (which are really outward actions of the Oath and Law), and expertise in outdoor activities. Those scouts will standout out as noble in the scouting movement. But, I think the change will have to come from within, National hasn't got a clue. Barry

Call the local scout office and ask them for the numbers to the units close to you. Ask them for the day and time of their meetings and go visit. You will likely run into friends. Barry

But they are very close. And the committee sits at the pleasure of the CO, not equal. Council does not like to upset COs because they would rather the COR be the bad guy with enforcement. Council will train and counsel COs, but they rarely wrestle with them. Barry

I'm holding little hope for common sense in our culture anymore. The local paper commentary congratulated the new girls joining the Boy Scouts. "Now the girls aren't treated like second class citizens". My first thought was what the GSUSA thought of the comment. Barry

Ok, I ask the wrong question. You think you were being kind? Sometimes you surprise me. Barry

Do you really believe that’s the same thing! Sheesh! Barry

Up until the 60s (Bill Hillcourt), the BSA had visionaries and founders who when they spoke, everybody listened. We don't have that today. There really is no accountability because there isn't a vision to relate with. Oh, the BSA has their Vision and Mission Statements that hold many of us accountable, but I would guess 2% of scouters could even get close to repeating the intent, much less the words of those goals. Scouters work outside the lines today because there is very little instruction to describe those lines. And if they find themselves in trouble, they dig in because they invested so much of themselves into the role. Humility is rare in this culture. Barry

And to be fair, most of what we get here is one side of the story. As well as our responses tend to be idealistic because we don't have all the story to be pragmatic. We had a troop of 250 scouts with a very Eagle Mill reputation. When I asked some of their scouts and parents why they joined that troop, it was because they really like the program. Is that really so bad? Not my style, but 250 families had no complaints. Barry

It depends a lot on the program. The adults camp is set around 100 yards away from the scouts. Or as out of sight as we can. The adults even reserve a separate campsite at summer camp. The distance prevents that father son camping question. Each have to go out of their way to see each other. Barry

Is there any other benefit to learning skills? What about the practice of setting the goal of learning a skill and developing a plan to to reach the goal? And what about the practice of communication to ask for help to learn, or to show the learned skill. Scouts who practice the traits of initiative, planning, and communication have more self confidence to push the boundaries of their comfort zone. They accel in many of their life decisions, not just advancement. As some here are describing of their own experience, consider the life skills a scout can develop through the practice of learning skills during their scouting experience. Barry

Run your Fall open house a couple of weeks before Cub recruitment night in September, and be sure and get the names and phone numbers of all the youth who visited. Make sure the list is divided up into age groups. Call the parents and explain that you are building the dens and you are just verifying they are still interested. If yes (and most are), ask the parent if they would be interested in being one of the den leaders. Make sure you use plural leaders so they don't feel singled out as THE leader. Its a couple hours of calling, but in most cases we had all our dens built and ready to go before Cub recruitment night. If you get enough new leaders, you might even be able to get District to send a trainer for a private Den Leader training session before they do their official district training. You will be rocking and rolling right out of the box. Barry

Yep, so are our opinions of not focusing on advancing so much. One other thing, our opinions are for all troops, not just one gender. Seems to make a difference I wasn't expecting. Barry