Eagledad

You might have made some points if you could have included some non-female firsts, but instead you proved my point that this was more a celebration of a political victory than the individual accomplishment. Your response cheapens the honor of Eagle. Barry

Yes, humility is the fertile ground of morality. I don't have a problem with the BSA bragging a little about this, it's marketing after all. What I can't stand is that the recognition is more about a political correctness victory than the personal accomplishment of 1000 individuals. Which gets back to my comment about hypocrisy, is there any mention of the GSUSA as single sex scouting program? Probably the only single sex scouting program left. Activism seems to go only one way in this hostile culture. Barry

Seems like you poking the GSUSA in the eye to me. I'm tired of hypocrites using girls in the BSA as a prop to brag about girls in scouting without any comment of the existing Girl scouting organizing that does not promote a co-ed program. The BSA took a lot of heat for not being, well lets say progressive, but the GSUSA gets a pass. Comes off a pollical male bashing to me. You have your coed BSA, now go deride the GSUSA like you did to the BSA and push for the first 1000 Gold Award males. Barry

So, you believe the GSUSA Gold Award is not as worthy of an accomplishment as the Eagle. Irony is that I find all discussions of BSA girls showing off to the GSUSA as sexest as the intent of the bragging. Better to say nothing because there is no moral high road in such comments. Barry

I find that, in general, adults ignore what the youth want. Certainly the National doesn't listen to their members of any age. But, I think the biggest driver of integration will be the need for volunteers. Truth is that true patrol method troops require very few volunteers. But in this helicopter parenting culture, patrol method isn't being driven in the program. Barry

Because of the title, most folks give the CM and SM higher stature than the positions deserve. In the hierarchy of the units, the CM has a pretty simple job of taking care of the pack meetings and supporting the Den Leaders. But, supporting the Den Leaders is really dependent on the personality of the SM and committee. .A good committee can deal with them with the right leadership. Our pack was pretty organized, so support on my part basically dealt with recruiting and training leaders. Scouts love fun pack meetings, so I spent most of my time planning fun meetings. I find that dealing with tr

This is a warped discussion with the book ends of helicopter parent protectionist to patriotic extremists. Thank goodness Matt brought reason into the discussion. i was talking to one of our past scouts who Eagled 10 years earlier. We ran into each other at Walmart and while he was holding his two kids. I don’t remember how the subject came up, but he told me that one of my Scoutmaster minutes made an impression on the kind of person he wanted to become. The story was about A few soldiers who played a joke on a new recruit by dropping a dummy grenade in the group. While group al leaped aw

Media! There are several forum members here who used harsher words to describe the BSA that need to own up to the hypocrisy. Barry

Every single person has a different set of standards, especially in moral decisions. And most people don't want the weight of being the person who sets those standards (expectations) on the group because that is a huge responsibility with a huge risk of hypocrisy.. But, by default, the SM usually is who everyone expects to set minimum standards of behavior. whether the SM realizes it or not. Everyone should be responsible for their own actions, but the truth is the SM is by default responsible for everyone's actions in the program. The difference between inexperienced and experienced Scoutmast

All units go through this. The definition of integrity in every unit is what the culture expects and practices. For your scouts to develop habits of making good decisions, they have to feel it's right when nobody is looking. The expectations has to be culture expectation. That doesn't happen overnight, cultures have to be formed. And it is the nature of humans to take the path of least resistance, so yes, human nature will seek the most lenient accountability. For both adults and youth. I think you are making a mistake taking scouts out of the process of accountability because you

The ticket is the most educational part of WB because it's On the job training. As the WB ticket counselor (Troop Guide ASM), I would guide you to write the ticket toward getting experiences in your position. And, it's a lot more fun too. Barry

Great post. We used the first MB to guide scouts in Building confidence for contacting adults. We showed them how to write down on a piece of paper the scouts name, the troop he is with and the reason he was calling. He could practice his first call simply by reading the list. The list is really a crutch to help them through brain lock. We also contacted the parents to encourage them to cheer their son on if he needed. This was also a passive way of saying “let your son do this”. We originally thought a scout would need to do at least 3 MBs to gain the confidence for calling adults,

One of the ways we were able to track MBCs in our district was require them to come to our training once a year. The training was a half hour long. Now, things are more complicated and challenging, but I threw that out there for ideas. Barry

Stopping discussions with self-righteous declarations isn't going to contribute toward a working resolution. Don't you agree? Barry

There is a famous statement, I forget who said it, but it goes something like "debates and discussion are intended for the purpose of learning, not winning". I remember back when the BSA started requiring MB counselors to register; the explanation was the new policy was to protect the counselor as much as the scouts. So, I personally don't believe only protecting scouts from abuse ends the discussion. This is a complicated situation that forces the a look at the intention of the MB process as well of its benefits in the present day. The subject has to be discussed with some depth, a

True, this is one method. Hmm, have you ever worked with boys? I see the detail orientated style of girls eating this up, but not the big picture boys. I think we just found a place where your extremism is more extreme than mine. But, I don't think you were a SM. The simplicity of your suggestion triples the resources for a scout to track his advancement. True, once he learns the management style, he will take that life skill with him. But, the chaos of scouts loosing track will force a lot of new procedures and adult interventions. If scouts can't keep track of their books, a few notes o

This is worth discussing. When I was a scouting the 70's we had 3 fold advancement cards instead of using the handbooks. I imagine that changed in the 80s because loosing cards was so easy. But, as a SM, I collected more lost books than any other item except for hats. And, since more scouts quit in their first year of a troop than any other year, that is a lot of books there that are wasted. because the advancement part is partially signed off. I would be willing to go back to advancement cards again so the handbooks could be reused. Of course that doesn't help funding. Barry

Yes, me to. I was impressed how dad wanted his son to prove himself with us. He was a great scout. He resuscitated a baby found face down in a pool. Came back a hero from Afghanistan. I am honored to have been his Scoutmaster for the year he was with us. I wish we had him from Webelos. He would have been amazing in our program. Barry

Withholding? Please! Self righteous posturing comes off uncouth-like. Better to ask questions so as to better understand the Poster’s opinion. Equiping scouts to succeed while letting them fail is complicated. But I’m reminded of the father of a scout ready for his ECOH. He appeared at a meeting to discuss his son’s struggle to complete and submit his Eagle packet to the district advancement committee. He was lost and felt we werean’t cooperating. The 17 year old scout moved from another state and joined our troop 6 months earlier. He only had three MBs to finish when he joined. Once

It's not that attention should be paid first to the struggling units, it's that those are bigger fires that need attention. I know that sounds the same, but typically struggling commission corps are the cause of struggling units and they in their unstructured mind only fix big problems. Units would likely see their UC in a well run corp. But, many folks feel they should see their UC every week, That is not the case. You contact the District commissior. Infact, all units should know the District commissioner. They are usually the one that handles the more challenging problems. UC's are

Wow! What a mess. First off, you claim your running one of the best programs, but not getting any feedback. What feedback do you want? My experience with a struggling Commissioner corp program is that the resources are applied to units that need help. Do you need help? You state that the commissioner is the liaison of units to the Council. Commissioners are the liaison the DISTRCT. The DE is your liaison to the council, if you need it. Whether the DE does their job through commissioner corp or personally is up in the air and dependent of their character of how they work. What do you

This is an interesting idea. The only issue I could see is if the leader and expert have a difference of opinion for completion. Happens with scoutmasters all the time. I'm not sure there is an easy answer. When learned that parents envision Sandy Hook possibilities in their unit, there is no way they are going to let a stranger work independently with the scouts, even under your idea. I see virtual meetings becoming a real path for these things, but I don't believe the scouts will get the same benefits as they would from a personal experience with the MBC Barry

First class requirements. Barry

Like the cooking MB, I don’t believe camping should be a required MB for what a Scout should be an expert at doing anyway by age 14. A Eagle Scout should be as much of an expert in the woods as a first class scout. I feel the rank badges should require the minimum number of Scout skills to qualify the scout to be a confident outdoorsman. The Eagle should be more skilled in public speaking, group management and leadership. i like that first-aid qualification idea. We did that as a troop. Barry

Which minorities? My high school teacher son has been teaching in higher risk schools for over ten years and he says that resistance to higher education (or even K-12 education) is a cultural issue, not an opportunity issue. Barry