Eamonn

"How much do you guys compare yourselves critically to Scouts elsewhere?" From where I sit and from what I've seen the BSA doesn't spend hardly any time looking at or comparing itself with other Scouting organizations. There are in the forum a few members who really know and understand this from a historical point of view. When I was Scouting in England, I was a little smug in thinking that we (The English.) In someway had the inside track and kinda owned Scouting. Back in the day, I remember teaching young English Scouts all the good stuff about Lord Baden Powell, his time in India, Africa and of course Brownsea Island. Heck, I even thought the Windmill on Wimbledon Common, was some kind of a shrine to and for Scouting. I read a lot about early Troops in the London area. While seeing how these Troops came into being and overcame all the stuff that got in their way. I think I was willing not to see how really unorganized they really were. Here in the States, the story about the Unknown Scout gets a lot of attention. It truly is a great story, but many people are unwilling or just don't know that selling magazines and papers was a big reason why Scouts and Scouting crossed the pond. It's clear that James E. West and BP didn't get on that well. I think in part because BP seen that West was trying to make Scouting in the USA more like the YMCA was. Even today many of the people who visit me from the UK, who are involved in Scouting have a hard time understanding a lot of how we are set up. At one time the Council where I live had a bigger staff than we had employed at Baden Powell House offices, before everything moved to Gilwell. A very dear and close friend of mine spent a lot of years and is still involved with The Council of The Scout Association (UK). While he is a wonderful guy with a deep understanding of Scouting, when he was invited to sit on the council he wasn't representing any group. His involvement was because of his own involvement and past history in Scouting, serving at many different levels. Here in the USA, because of the way units are set up, each unit being chartered by a outside (Normally. There are a few units chartered by Friends of groups.) organizations. These organizations have a voice in the running of the organization. I think that the LDS Church at times takes a lot of unnecessary heat and blame for what some see as the failings of the BSA. I don't have the numbers at hand, but last time I looked, while they did I know at one time have the most youth members, they didn't have the greatest number of units chartered. While I no longer think of myself as being young! I also don't think that I'm past it. -Just yet. Still it's very hard for any organization the size of the BSA to really have committees that understand everything that is going on at the grass root level. When I served as District Chair. I'd say that the average age of the members of the committee was mid to late 40's. Add ten years, maybe more to the age of the Council Executive Board? I also sat on the Area Committee, I was the youngest person there. So I think the age of the guys in charge of the BSA is a very long way from the age of the parent who is signing their son up to join Cub Scouts. Many of us, not so young people have a hard time accepting change and an even harder time when this change has to do with something that we might have been brought up to think of as being wrong. I know friends of my wifes family who wouldn't attend my son's baptism because it was in an R/C Church. My wife was unsure how she was going to tell her Grand Dad that she was marrying a Catholic. This sounds silly today, but for them it was just something that was. I have a hard time when I go to churches with female preachers, even a bigger hard time when they are dressed in black with the collar. They don't do a bad job and don't do anything wrong, but for me that's just something I have a hard time with. Like it or not, the BSA is the biggest Scout organization. It has a lot of money, all of which gives it a lot of power and influence. Scouting here in the USA mainly caters to middle class, white Americans, who tend to be the people who are Church goers and have middle class values. I sometimes get upset because people tend to think that because I'm involved with Scouts and Scouting that I hold to some conservative, right wing point of view. When they find out that I don't, they blame it on me being a non-American. Ea.

I send all my shirts to a shirt service. I'd sooner pay the $1.75, then have all that messing around. Work shirts, I go with heavy starch and medium for the rest. Pants are $2.25, but as a rule I wear pants more than once. HWMBO used to take care of this, but it became a little much when she became ill. Funny how many people comment on how sharp my uniforms look. Before anyone hits me with the Scout is Thrifty. I earn a little over fifty cents a minute, so it's cheaper in the long run and that's not counting the water, power, and whatever else is needed. Ea.

Greg, I agree. I've also had chats with guys who have molested little girls. While I'm not in any way an expert or authority on this. I believe that molestation has more to do with a misuse of power or authority than sex or sexual orientation. Ea.

Back in the days when I was a little fellow it seemed that sins and being a sinner was a really bad thing. While there were of course big sins and little sins, both were very much frowned upon and at worst led to all sorts of stuff, none of which was nice or good. Sin and sins were looked at as being offensive to God and a sure way to land in hot water with people in authority. Again as a little fellow I was really happy to be R/C and thought that being able to go to Confession was my Get Out Of Jail Free Card. There were fairly big repercussions for getting caught doing something that you ought not to be doing. A big part of which, apart from the punishment was the guilt trip laid very firmly at your (My) Feet. While I'm not sure if it was ever spoken out loud or not? I seem to remember the idea that if I didn't mend my ways, I was going to be doomed to hellfire and damnation. There was not a chance I was going to get past them pearly gates. Somehow, someway things have changed. Today the idea of not blaming the person, but placing the blame on the sin seems to have taken hold. While there is 101 reasons given for why people do wrong doings, when all else fails we seem OK to just blame the sin. This seemingly lack of accountability is something I'm having a hard time with. Ea.

Seen an ad on TV last night for Disney world. It's been a very long time since I was there, 1980 or maybe 1981. I don't have any plans to return anytime soon. But the ad said it cost $67.00 a day per person for a family of four. I have no idea what you get or don't get for $67.00. Still I couldn't help thinking that this about the same cost as sending a Scout to summer camp. Summer Camp V Disney? Ea.

" thet would be Little Abington, we use it quite a lot, it's close enough that we can spend evenings there. It's due to have some new facilities put in some time soon and the village now has its own scout group that operates from there as well!" Talking about facilities, another hight-light of that weekend was me finding a Patrol heating up soup in the latrines. Needless to say I passed when asked if I wanted any. Ea.

I don't claim to know a lot about gays or being gay. Talking with and at times over-hearing what some of our older youth members say. It seems that for them someone being gay or being openly gay, is not a big deal. Back when my son was having his 16th birthday party, he invited a Lad who was openly gay and while maybe the adults thought it was odd, the kids at the party seemed not to care in any way. I have had some fairly in depth conversations with guys in prison who have been convicted of molesting little boys. They claim they are not gay. This might be due to the fact that very few inmates do admit they are. Maybe out of fear? There is how ever a lot of documentation that states that there is a fair amount of sexual acts between male inmates. I have read different reports that all seem to know when someone finds out what their sexual orientation will happen. I can't ever remember when I found out that I liked girls more than boys? While maybe we don't like to talk about it or discuss it. I do remember that as a youth in Scouting there was a lot of what now might be called experimentation. We boys were curious, we wanted to know who had the biggest? A lot of us had just discovered masturbation, in my case I found out about it from an older Scout. For many young Lads going through this period of experimentation and self discovery is a time of real turmoil. Looking back, I suppose some of things that went on and I participated in, might be seen as being homosexual? I don't know. At that time I remember trying hard to get past "First Base" with girls I took to the movies and not getting very far! But it wasn't for want of trying. At that time I don't think the word gay was being used? There wasn't to my knowledge a lot of gay or homosexual clubs, pubs or that sort of thing. We viewed homosexuals as being queer, dirty old men who hung out in public restrooms. Near to where I went to school that was a common (Public Land) Where gay men met and had sex. While I was still at school a gang of boys went to the common to go "Queer Bashing". They ended up killing a gay man. When I was at school, I don't think anyone no matter what they might have thought that their sexual persuasion was would ever admit to being attracted to someone of the same sex. While I do now think that it's more healthy for people to know if they are heterosexual or not. I do worry that there are some boys who go through a time of experimentation and because of it and what they are doing are boxed into thinking that they are gay. At our local HS there seems to nave been a very large number of girls becoming pregnant. Talking with a friend of mine who teaches there he made a joke saying that half the school is pregnant while the other half is claiming to be gay. (Not funny, I know.) She went on to say that there are a lot of boys who now seem to wear being gay as some sort of badge of honor. What gregharewood posts about: "Teach your Scouts tolerance, respect, health and safety - Then trust them." Makes sense to me. I'm not in my comfort zone talking about sex, especially talking with young people about it. The topic does come up because of the stand that the BSA has taken. Nearly all the older Scouts seem to think that the BSA is wrong to discriminate. In the Ship we have both male and female members. We did have a slight problem with a boy and girl who were going out at the time and the Quarterdeck felt that they needed to ask this pair to cool it. They (The Quarterdeck) felt that Scouts wasn't the place for kissing and that sort of thing. I agree with them. I'm happy for Scouts and Scouting to be a Sex Free Zone. I also think when it comes to talking about sex with other peoples kids, they can do a lot better than talk to me. Eamonn.

Hi Skip, We need a few more people who can speak English. I've been here so long that it has become "Home". Still have a few pals who are active on your side of the pond. Along with a brother and sister in the Smoke. I have watched and tried to follow the changes that have gone on. Lat time I was in the Shop on Buckingham Palace Road, I loaded up with the then latest program books. Some really good ideas and I like the direction things seem to be heading toward. Not sure if they would fly on this side of the pond? Many years back took a Troop from Fulham to camp just outside of Cambridge, can't remember the name of the site or village? -Little Something or other? (Maybe Little Abbyington??) We arrived late on a Friday night, in part to my getting us lost and in part because the road to the site was marked with a big No Entry sign. It was pouring down with rain. The Patrols had to set up camp, in the rain and not make too much noise. -Guess you can imagine how that went. We were using Patrol tents. Six man tents with no sewn in ground sheet, a sod cloth and a ground sheet. Seems that one Patrol put the sod sloth on top of the ground sheet. Next morning a couple of Scouts came explaining that their bags were soaked. I was none to happy, knowing that someone would have to find a laundry to dry out the bags. I kinda snapped at one Lad (Nicky Plumber, who got a try out to play for Chelsea, a great kid.) I asked "Didn't you feel your bag getting wet?" He answered "Yes Skip, I woke up and thought Core, I ain't half got sweaty feet!" Drove into Cambridge found a Laundromat. Remember having two little old ladies give me a hard time, making sure that the bags were really good and dry! Welcome. Eamonn. (Nothing to do with Andrews or This is Your Life!)

As I posted parents are willing to spend the money in order to see their son have a quality program. Where I live it seems that the parents are not the problem. Scouting has become attending the District Camporees, maybe a couple of Troop weekend camp-outs and a week at the Council Summer Camp. I really don't think that anyone asks the Scouts what they might want or like to do. In many ways it has become accepted that it is what it is. While not wanting or wishing to put down the Scouter's in the area for most of them this is what they have offered for years and for many is a repeat of what was offered to them. Of course many might see this as being all they have to offer? We are not doing a good job of retaining Lads over the age of about 14. While I can't back it up, I do think that maybe the Scouts by the age of 14 feel that they have done it all and that Scouts and Scouting has nothing more to offer them. I can and do see that no one wants to offer a program that requires endless fund raising events in order to pay for it. Anymore I think how a family goes about paying for things is very much up to the family. My deal with my kid was that I'd pay half and he had to find ways of coming up with the rest. -The end result was that the cost of grass mowing went up! Ea.

I really do think that the people who come up with things like 58 pages have the best of intentions. I don't think that they are power hungry so and sos who are trying to make life difficult. One big problem that seems to pop up when people try to re-write what the BSA has already written is that people feel the urge to add a little something. Some years back I was asked to sit in on a meeting of our Council Advancement Committee. The guys at the meeting were all long time Scouters. They came up with the idea that the Council needed to guide the unwise and unwashed about the minimum amount of hours that should go into an Eagle Scout project. When I politely tried to point out that this was covered already. They were deeply offended. Much as I hate to sound like an old Book Thumper, I have to disagree with "Nothing prevents units from recommending uniform standards for their members." We all know what the uniform is. Love it or hate it. It is what it is. So there isn't a need to recommend uniform standards. At the end of the day this game of Scouting shouldn't be that hard. Each and every unit that I've been in has become more than a unit and more o something along the lines of a family. We don't always at times see eye to eye and there are times when people mess up and things don't go right or maybe as planned. Still there is a bond, that something that makes doing what is right and what is best for the kids that we serve paramount the thing that we do. We do it not because of a 58 page constitution or sets of bylaws. Some of us might have a deep love of the organization, but all of us do it because we think what we are doing is important and because we like and sometimes love the kids we are doing it for. Ea.

More and more as I look over the threads that having been coming up as late, it seems to me that we (Volunteers in this organization.) Are being hit with so many rules and regulations that I see a time when there are just so many that it will become impossible to know what to do and what not to do. At work we have just had a big fuss over a poorly written side agreement between the local union and management. The way it was worded made it very clear that both sides were right! The end result was it was clear as mud and both sides were upset. Crafting rules and regulations is not always easy. We only have to look at some of the things that the BSA has come up with to see that. I have never been a great lover of books of rules and regulations. Kinda strange that I work in a place where just about everything is covered by a rule, regulation or policy. There was a thread the other week about a Den Leader and how he managed the money from a fund raising event. This got my little gray cells working. I have served on a lot of different Scouting Committees. For the most part these have been very informal. More a meeting of friends who get together to help get the job done. A few times Council Executive Board meetings have got hot and heavy and there has been the need for people who know about this kinda stuff to chirp up and share with us know nothings how things ought to be handled. Trying to come up with a set of rules for the youth members is to my mind un-needed. The Oath and Law cover the big stuff. What's left is covered and can be found in other BSA publications, most times as a recommendation or suggestion rather than a hard and fast rule. Troops tend to go a little over the top when it comes to rules about attendance. When it seems the BSA has come up with its own definition of what "Active" is. Troops waste a lot of trees setting rules for uniform. What the uniform is can be found without too much hard work, but again the BSA has made it clear that it isn't necessary to have or own a uniform in order to be a Scout. With that in mind, it seems kinda wrong that a Troop would demand it. The BSA does a fairly good job of setting out what is expected from the guy and girls who work with our youth members. With all this in mind if I were to try and set down on paper a set of rules, I think they would have to do with how and what the Troop Committee does. Even then I think that I could cover all that needs to be covered on one side of a sheet of paper. Of course a CO might want to add a few rules and regulations that it might have. Ea.

When it was made known that I was going to be a WB CD, people came out of the woodwork hinting and asking to be considered as staff members, other people who had served on staff asked if their friends, relations and whatever might also be asked. Some when they discovered that they hadn't been invited, didn't take it that well. One of the things that I was looking for was people that were good presenters. Like it or not, the people who had been involved and with training and had proved that they could do a good good of presenting. I haven't been involved with the NYLT course, but when as Council Training Chair I was selecting a SM for JLTC, I was looking for Scoutmasters who understood the methods of Scouting and had a record of being able to work with the youth would make up the Staff. Finding a staff for JLTC was really hard. In fact one year I wasn't able to get any takers and the Scouts from our Council attended the course the Council next door was running. Sometime after my term as Training Chair was over, my son was on JLTC staff for a couple of years. I was invited to attend the feast that they were having. The day of the feast it was raining really hard. I arrived at the site to find the SM in a poncho standing in the rain grilling steaks. I have to admit that when I seen him cooking with a group of Scouts watching, I couldn't help but think that he just hadn't got it. I still stand by what I said about staffing courses where the youth are doing most of the work. The staff need to have the know how and the knowledge that takes time to develop when it comes to working with a youth staff. Of course a newbie will learn a lot but that isn't what the course is about. It has to be about presenting the best possible course for the participants. Wood Badge has come a long way and done a lot to get away from the good old boy network. Sure some of it is still around, but more and more I'm seeing people who took the course one year being invited to staff the next. Back in the day, that just didn't happen. Ea.

For sometime now I have been posting that in the area where I live commissioner service is dead. I dearly love our Council Commissioner, he is a really nice fellow. Still even for him the idea of Service has been replaced with doing what is needed to keep the people he reports to happy. For a number of years I sat on the Area Committee. This Committee seemed to be more about meeting the goals set by National than having anything to do with helping Councils who were facing problems. Councils who weren't living up to expectations rather than getting the help they needed were given or threatened with a Provisional Charter. Council Commissioners did whatever was needed to avoid this at all costs. I became a District Commissioner back in the late 1990's. As with just about every new task I take on, I was full of enthusiasm and as ever thought I was going to save the world! By 2000 I knew something wasn't working. I just wasn't sure what? I was doing everything that the good books said that I ought to be doing, but still I wasn't seeing anyone knocking on my door begging to be accepted as a new Commissioner. Even with a staff of over 20 for 42 units, I wasn't able to get these commissioners to do the job. I thought I was doing something wrong. So I decided that I needed help. I packed up the car with HWMBO and kid an spent a week at Philmont attending a course on Delivering Commissioner Service. The two guys charged with presenting the course were both very nice, one was a DE the other had served as Council Commissioner. Both were from Erie PA. (It seemed a little silly that I drove from PA to New Mexico to talk with guys who were just a three hour drive down the road.) I went thinking that I had problems. Sitting and listening to what the other participants were going through made my problems look tiny. I had a great time, really enjoyed my week, but at the end of it came away not knowing any more about delivering commissioner service that I had before I'd went. While I do believe that everyone has some redeeming features, the truth is /was that I had to work really hard to find them in the group I was leading. Most were way past their sell by date. Some could only visit units during the daylight saving times, due to not being able to drive at night. With a good many units not meeting from when school ends for the summer and restarting in the fall, they didn't visit a lot of units. Reports at the monthly Commish meeting often were about someone saying I bumped into so and so at Wal-Mart and he says that everything is fine. A couple of the newer guys became so close to the unit that they might well have been leaders in the unit, some caused real problems within the unit and I had to deal with CO who wanted to know what the heck they were doing there? It was a joke. Still once a month I attended the Council Commissioners Meetings. Four meetings (4 months) were spent dealing with charters. Getting ready for, tracking, and then finding out why the ones that weren't in, weren't in. After a number of years I was given a plaque, a knot and the most hideous bolo tie ever telling the world I was a Distinguished Commissioner. The truth is that I didn't feel very distinguished. I did feel that my input as a member of the Key 3 was and had been worthwhile, the sames goes from my attending the District Committee Meetings. But deliver of Commissioner Service? -Forget it. I don't have the answer of how to fix it. I think in place of Commissioners we need a core of District Trainers, who can deliver the right training's to the people who need it. All these new super duper toys that I'm reading about sound great. If only we had the people to use them. Ea

"if I had to guess, I'd say that our more expensive trips typically have better" Thanks Oak Tree, I find that very interesting. Ea.

While I'm sure that there are expectations to every rule, the going rate around where I live for a Scout to go camping for a weekend is somewhere between $10.00 and $20.00. A few years back there was a ad on TV selling mufflers where the person buying the muffler made it very clear that they weren't going to pay a lot for that muffler. The SM's in our area must have taken this thought to heart and seem afraid to ask parents to come up with anything more than this going rate. The end result being that the Scouts do the same old same old. We have some wonderful opportunities to do all sorts of adventurous activities near to where we live which the Scouts would really enjoy. I'm thinking White Water Rafting and along them lines. The problem is that they come with a price tag.(Whitewater Merit Badge costs $129 for 2 days of instruction) I have always held the opinion that parents are willing to spend the money in order to see their son have a quality program. I'm not saying that each and every weekend needs to come with a big price tag. But I do think that doing more adventurous activities kinda acts like the carrot that holds the interest of the Scouts and keeps them active (Not quiting!) I can and do see that by offering a more expensive program that some families will need to fund raise to be able to afford this type of program. So my questions are: Do you offer these more expensive outings? If not why not? If you do, how do you go about planning them and having Scouts being able to afford them? Eamonn

"How does "The Commissioner's Corner" sound?" Where I live it sounds like a very lonely spot. When I was a little fellow, being asked to stand in the corner was a punishment. How about taking a page from Save The Whales and changing it to Save The Commissioners? I see no harm in an area for Commissioners. Ea.

"According to their complaint, the trio were summoned to a hearing room and quizzed about their sexual interests or attractions in front of around 25 people" Heck all the had to say was that they were all avowed and they could have played ball. Or not played ball depending where they wanted to play and who they ..... Ea.

Hi deaker, I'm not sure how things are done in your area, but around where I live CD's normally invite the people they want to be on staff. I don't mean to cause any offense but from what you post it seems that you might be a little off base. While we all learn something from having served on a staff. We need to remember that the course isn't about us or for us, it's about the participants and for the participants. I've not had a lot to do with NYLT. I was Council Training Chair and back then we had JLTC, I selected the CD for theses courses and when asked helped the CD find staff both youth and adult. I don't think that we would even consider an adult for JLTC who hadn't shown some considerable experience working with Boy Scouts and shown a good understanding of the program. While NYLT is not the old JLTC and a lot is very different, I still think that a good in depth knowledge of working with the youth who will be participating is essential. If I were in your shoes, I'd accept the invite to staff a Wood Badge course, if and when it comes and then get five or six years working with older youth before even thinking about staffing NYLT. Ea. (This message has been edited by a staff member.)

Is there a time when a Troop should dissolve? Yes. When there aren't enough adults interested enough to work at doing what is needed. This isn't the same thing as thinking that the Troop should be saved. Most problems can be overcome as long as there are enough adults who are able to work together and will to roll up their sleeves and work. It is a big help if the chartering organization is on board, but all too often even in successful Troops the CO doesn't know and sometimes doesn't care. Membership that is recruiting and retaining members can at times seem like an up hill battle, but it is a battle that can be won. It takes time and a little luck. But most of all it takes a few people who are willing to take the bull by the horns and who can work through the tough times and keep at it. The Troop that I had been a Scout in fell on very bad times. It's a long story, but the Troop Committee was made up of people who had been on the committee since just after WW II. They bought the land and built the Scout HQ, they mastered the art of raising money. The SM who came along while I was in Venturing took a young Lad who wasn't a Scout to an overnight Scout activity. He assaulted the Lad, was convicted and sent to prison. I was very happy not doing very much as an Assistant Cub Scout Leader in the Pack that my church was connected with. The Committee Chair came around my house and asked me to come back as Scout Leader. I agreed, but I was Scout Leader of a Troop with no Scouts. I went to the Scout HQ not knowing what to do and a couple of Lads one white and one black asked what was going on? I explained that this was a Scout Troop! They asked if it would be OK if they kicked a soccer-ball around. I said that it was. That was on a Wednesday, they came back on Friday with two more Lads and all were happy to just kick a ball around. After a couple of months of not doing very much but kick a ball around. The District five-a-side soccer competition was coming up. I said it was a shame that we couldn't enter because they weren't Scouts. We won the competition and a Troop was born. Eleven years later when the Troop got to having over ninety Scouts, it was becoming too big and we split it. The committee kept on bringing the money. I never had any more than six assistants. I don't know what made them two Lads stop in that night. One went on to be a great P/L the other guy quit after about a year and started running with a bad crowd doing drugs and stealing. His parents asked me to talk to him. I did and I thought I'd got through, sadly I hadn't. Last I heard he is doing a very long stretch in jail. Maybe if you think that the Troop can be saved? You need to forget anything that has to do with dissolving it and roll your sleeves up and get to work. You can make it work, you can recruit the adult help you need. It all can be done. It just needs someone to do it. If there really isn't anyone willing to do the job? What's the point of having a Troop anyway? Ea.

A lot of people were of the opinion when I got married that it would never last. I was 26, living at home and very much a free spirit. Not sure how long never last is for? But 28 years later we are still both working and doing our best to get along. Over time we have learned where the soft spots are. We both know how if we want to cause hurt and harm to each other. We don't because there is no joy to be gotten or had from harming or hurting. I'm far too lazy to want to fight or argue. The biggest fight we ever had was over two fried eggs! That was when we were first married and HWMBO hasn't cooked me an egg since. -I'm not mad about eggs anyway! Mu brother who is four years older than I am was married at twenty-one. He was already a very wealthy fellow, thanks to being a great salesperson who was fortunate to start a business that was in the right place at the right time. He married a truly beautiful woman a few years older than he was. She came from a very wealthy English family, had all the trappings of wealth. Finishing school in Switzerland, fluent in French and all that. Despite his money, cars, house in a wonderful area he was still a working class Irish Catholic kid who used his wealth to shout at the world "Hey Look At Me! - I'm Doing Great." They were married by the Bishop of Winchester at Winchester Cathedral. They never really understood each other and never took the time to try and learn. After a few years their marriage fell apart. My brother moved in with us. -Great fun, three of us all in a one bedroom apartment (Flat.) I kinda think both would have been happy to call it a day and move on but the lawyers got a hold of it and the smell of money. Things went from bad to worse. Talking with my brother he said the thing that had really got to him was the shame. The shame of having been the first person ever in our family to ever go through or get a divorce. While I didn't think of it at the time. Sure he was the first to get a divorce. But hidden away in that place where families keep stuff that they never share was my Dad's brother my Uncle Johnny. Johnny and his wife never got along. So he went to work in England leaving her and his son in Ireland. He sent money to support them, but they never lived together. Being Irish Catholics divorce just wasn't an option. I met my cousin for the first time last summer when I was in Ireland. He knew very little about his Dad or the rest of the family. He resented the fact that he'd been left and cut off from the family. I think in many ways that had his parents been able to divorce and start again that maybe things might have been better for everyone. It is sad to watch parents of Scouts split and divorce. Very often it seems that the parents are keeping score of who can hurt or cause the most harm to the other. The kids get caught up in all of this. Mum tells them that Dad is a no good so and so and Dad says much the same thing about Mum. It must be so very hard to see a person that has been there, has loved and taken great care of you leave. The kid has to feel that the trust he had has been misplaced. While I do think that divorce isn't a bad thing. I sometimes wish that I could get both parents and bang their heads together. What they end up doing to the kids and the harm they cause, much of which could be avoided if they would remember that even if they can't get along as man and wife, they are still the Mum and Dad to a child that knows nothing but love for both of them. For me going out of your way to harm or hurt someone is a very big sin. Eamonn

Wow! I wonder how kind it is to use words like: " the perpetrators" Toward a group of kids we don't even know? While giving someone a nickname can not always be kind, sometimes it's done as a way of welcoming and maybe even affection. I agree that when someone says enough! Then it needs to stop and if it doesn't stop, steps have to be taken. The problem with zero tolerance is that it doesn't always make sense. Ea.

Failing Units? One problem with posting anything in a forum like this is that you can bet your last dollar that someone is going to post that it just isn't so. So while I'm sure that in some places it isn't so. Here where I live something is happening and it has been accepted as being the norm.What is happening is that units are failing at an alarming rate. What gets me is that while Scouting in the area is going down and down, no one seems to know the reason and no one is doing anything. I asked our District Chair to tell me what the problem is? He puts it down to lack of manpower. The District which once had over 40 active units now is down to about 10. The District Committee which had about 45 members and an attendance of about 25 -30. (Not all members needed to attend each and every meeting.) Is now about a handful who turn up but either don't know how or are unwilling to get much done. The District Commissioner leads a staff of four, mainly old timers who need a place to hang their hat. It is a real shambles. Attendance at R/T dropped to a level where it just wasn't worth meeting and was replaced with a monthly conference phone meeting. Maybe the fact that there wasn't any staff to run the meetings was a big part of it? The meeting became about announcements, so maybe a call was all that was needed. The District Chair said that when the District was strong there was a choice from /of 100 people to do a job or task, today he can only pick from maybe ten and the quality just isn't there. The problem seems to be across the board, new units fail. This isn't anything new. New units start mainly because a few people want too for what ever reason start a new unit. Most times it isn't some organization that comes knocking, it is just a handful of eager beavers. From what I see the BSA seems willing to have a policy that's like planting flower seeds. You plant them all knowing that half the seeds are not going to make it and then even them that do are going to be thinned out. What is very worrisome is that long time established units are also failing. Troops that used to have 20 - 30 Scouts now have 10 or 12 and only half of these bother to turn up. While maybe I might not have been over joyed at what they were offering? The fact is that they had got by with that for a good many years and now it's just no longer working. The Troop OJ was in had over 35 Scouts, went to summer camp with over 20 adults now has seven Scouts, five are little guys who crossed over. I don't have the answer. I have noticed that the joy that was once there, the feeling of comradeship has disappeared. Scouting seems to have become a chore, like some kind of commitment that which while at times rewarding is a chore never the less. The passion is lacking if not gone all together. District support? Is now a DE who knows that his days are numbered. A District that is failing just can't afford to pay his salary. So now he hangs on for dear life pushing FOS and popcorn sales. Training's that were once a time and place to bring people together and share have become something that is do alone, late night, not out of love but out of meeting the requirement. New leaders come away knowing all the things that can't be done or shouldn't be done, but have no idea what they should or could be doing. Camporees that provided a program base for some Troops have become joint District events. The local touch is gone. The offers to help far and few between. While people have heard about this thing called "BSA Scout Branding". No one knows what it is. Sure, we know that the buggy whip has gone. Still we wonder what happened to the horse? What happened to having fun? Not just the kids, but the adults as well. The fear that someone will get hurt and someone will sue means that snowball fights, splish splashing in a creek or cooking bacon is now off the menu. The fact that no one knows or has met anyone who has been sued is never brought up. Of course not all the units that we had back in the day, were great, some were nothing to write home about. Still like the clock that stopped they were right every now and then and for the Scouts that were members these units were their Scouting home. While we all only have to look at the calender to know what the date is and like it or not it really is the 21st century, with i-pads and cell phones, still by now you would think that someone some where would sit down and look at what works and what doesn't and cut out the stuff that clearly isn't working. I long for the day when kids go home filthy dirty, covered in Lord knows what? Absolutely dead tired and worn out having had a great time and maybe, just maybe as well as having had fun learned a little something. Ea.

I'm not a great fan of SNL. It's kinda strange how some TV programs develop a cult following. People think that just because I'm English that I somehow should be the worlds leading authority on Monty Python and Bennie Hill. I'm not, even though I did work for the B.B.C. My guess is that there are a couple of Lads on staff who are SNL fans. For whatever reason they thought the name was/is funny. The first thing someone who feels uncomfortable with something should do is make it known to the people doing whatever that he or she is not happy and ask them to stop. I kinda think going to the camp director might be a bit over the top and could make this Lads summer a little tense. He does have to work with and live with the other staff members for the summer. I'd be inclined to ask the Lad where the name came from and then go to these guys and in a very friendly way let them know that they are not being very kind and are not setting a great example of living up to the Law and Oath. Ea.

We have a fair amount of kids visit and over the years have had all sorts of activities in the back yard and grounds. After the first couple of minutes and having checked everyone out the dogs tend to ignore all the visitors and get on with doing doggie type things. We have one Sea Scout who spends a fair amount of time working on the boats he carries dog treats in his pockets. They don't ignore him as much. I wonder why? Dogs are like kids -Will work for food! Ea.

OK even without the danger from the road. All too often we adults see what needs to be done, but forget who is supposed to be doing it. Little guys, who want to have fun and have very small attention spans. One sure way of having Scouts turn their backs on future service projects is having them be overwhelmed while they are still little guys. To be very honest I really wouldn't cherish the idea of spending very long up to my knees in thistles. After a couple of whacks I'd be ready to move on and have an ice cream. I think this would be a hard sell for a group of Boy Scouts, let alone Cub Scouts. But I'm known for being a bit of an old mother hen and at times remembering what it's like to be a kid. Ea.