fred johnson

I am sad for you.

IMHO, people aspire to the labels assigned to them whether those labels are good or bad. I really hope I never talk about Eagle Scout being too common or awarded to bad kids. That's wrong thinking. Essentially, I've seen many people that remember they are Eagle scouts and they have tried to act better. Having that rank influences behavior to be better. It's a mark that they are stuck with and many any spend their entire lives trying to live up to the ideals of Eagle Scout. I'm with Sentinel947 on this. Encourage and develop a value to the ideals of Eagle Scout. But don't try

As people on this forum know, IMHO, I think the concept of "troop shopping" is a broken BSA concept. Hurts troops and damages relationships and just gives cubs an excuse to quit. Heck why promote a big decision after five years of scouting? If ya don't like the unit the charter org had you in for Cub Scouts, you are welcome to switch at any time. Instead, you offer a big decision after five years of scouting. Heck, the best decision I know after five years of Cub Scouting is to try something new. Karate. Sports. Other. I feel hard on this one because our local DEs get good revi

Little league? It discriminates because it splits genders into "separate but equal" groups. The gender groups are NOT equal in focus, resources or performance. When was the last time the "girls" little league championship made national news. Seems like Little League would need to hold gender-less try outs to see who can play in which group. I know many 2nd grade girls that could out-hit 2nd grade boys. ... IMHO, it is arrogant to assert who discriminates and who doesn't. Heck, most high school sports teams discriminate strongly because they favor the kids who've been in the s

It's also a hole to fill. Years ago, the hole to fill was communication, personal mgmt, budgets, health, fitness, leadership, etc. Schools have really geared up to handle those since the the 1920s. In fact, it's embarrassing that many of the eagle required badges are much better handled by the school system. BSA has it's twist, but those topics are now covered most years in school. So where can BSA fill in a gap and where do boys want to experiment? Welding. Wood working. Many of the hands on merit badges. IMHO, I would like to see a merger the badges covered in school

Merlyn ... You are just not intellectually honest. You are often disrespectful of others beliefs and you work toward purging BSA of it's long time religious aspect. You suggest the UK group start it's own group to practice their own religious principles, but you have spent ten years in this group pounding your dead horse. I pity those who think all we are is worm fodder.

moosetracker wrote: "But there is the faction of atheist who want to enter, then kill the religious tradition of BSA, by stamping out any religious aspect." Very true. Look at the YMCA that in the name itself has Christian and started as a Christian fellowship for men. Continued that way. When I grew up, our YMCA had a Cross and religious pictures. Now, they are all gone.

You continue to be a spiteful hate monger.

FOR THE SCOUT .... "The boy is now a life and working on his Eagle project but in no way whatsover is representative of an eagle scout." ... That is wrong thinking. Period. Leaders support the scouts. It would be WRONG for the scout leaders at this point to work to STOP the scout from earning eagle. That is not what we do. BUT ... the leaders can and absolutely should work to solve behavior issues. IMHO, his behavior is a memership issue. Same with the dad. But the troop has lived with the behavior for years and the scout is now a life scout. At this point, the scout pre

That is absolutely a fine choice for YOUR troop and in my opinion, your troop should be able to make those leadership choices. When I think about the family membership of my troop, you would lose half the members if any of the direct contact leaders were publicly gay. And to be honest, I'd switch my own children out of the group too. Not because of a youth protection risk but because of lifestyle marketing that automatically happens because every adult leader sets an example by how they lead their lives and by what the youth see. With that said, I hope BSA changes their policy so t

I have an "interesting" den this year. I have multiple older brothers in the den who are in boy scouts and those boys could often attend. I was thinking about "asking" that if they want to attend they are welcome, but that they should wear their boy scout shirts and that they would be serving at the direction of the den chief. For example, we are doing the athlete pin. I'd like to see the adults planning and the den chiefs and boy scouts putting the cubs thru the push ups, pull ups, etc. Perhaps even doing them with the Webelos. What do you think of this idea?

I mostly agree with you. There is a slight difference though from the perspective of not actively reaching out to open a can of worms. I've seen five charter orgs. I've moved units between charter orgs too. Only one requested to get monthly copies of the bank statements and did an annual audit. With that single charter org, I'd absolutely ask how they want to handle the money and equipment and closure of the unit. In the other four charter orgs cases, the charter org was never involved in any way other than providing space and signing the recharter form. They never asked to see

Focus on what is fair. Who owns it, the charter org. BSA has zero ownership. Who has a right to it, the scouts in that unit. ***************************************** Usually I tow the BSA line 100%. But in this case, I think about what is fair. Plus ... BSA Article XI has two sections that seem to contradict each other. The second starts with "in the case of a chartered organization"? Isn't that all units? They all have chartered organizations. Fair ... IMHO, if BSA is not responsible for the debts and did not raise the money, it has no claim on the money. And, it is

It's really about style versus motivation. A scout can be motivated by self-less altruistic reasons or motivated by self-achievement. Same with a boss. He might be motivated by helping others or by promotion and money. Good leadership can be driven by many different motives. It's not a one versus the other. And in fact, even self-less leader and ladder climbing isn't mutually exclusive.

Obedient? I hate seeing leaders fall back on that one. I'd like to remember that a scout is not submissive. Scouts is not the military and not a dictatorship. Too many leaders confuse obedient and submissive. Too many leaders confuse leadership and dictatorship. Sounds like by BSA by-laws, the issue is really the troop should not have accepted non-Catholics as members. If you want to be a faith based youth program (which BSA scouting can be), then you need to only accept scouts and leaders of that faith. More specifically, you can't make a deal with the devil where you have a

Both servant leaders and advancement leaders happen. That's fine. People do things for many different reasons. That's fine. That's the scout's choice and the scout's option. I sort of view it as at work. I know some managers who like helping their employees. They really like developing people and helping their people succeed. That's great. I also know managers who are only there because they get a bigger check or it paves the way for the next rung on the ladder. As with scout advancement, both are fine. We can never expect that every person out there will be altruistic.

By merit badge class, I meant a special opportunity such as a Saturday morning in a local field to discuss the requirements and do the initial measurements. I did not mean during troop meetings. Essentially a special unique opportunity. Scouting is best when it offers unique opportunities.

My son enlisted in the Marines last year. Thru that, I've gotten to know a local military recruiter. That recruiter is probably the most physically fit person I know and the leading expert I know on nutrition and health. QUESTION #1 - He has volunteered to come in and lead the Webelos Athelete pin. What do you think? Is that a good idea? QUESTION #2 - He probably would volunteer to lead a Boy Scout Physical Fitness merit badge class? Is that a good idea? I have a lot of respect for the man. But I'm not sure how other parents would view it.

How long do you keep a den chief? How do you switch if a kid from another troop who needs advancement wants to be den chief and your current den chief doesn't need it and made less than 50% of the den meetings last year?

Why don't Venturers do the same thing at Boy Scout Troops? Easy. Boy Scouts and Venturing ages overlap. Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts ages don't. All groups have membership declines, but Venturing pulls members from Boy Scouts during a key age. Boy Scouts has already had an older-boy problem. Now ya want to pull them into a separate program? Ya know ... it's a bad design. BSA shoots itself in the foot. A program redesign needs to be done. I'm not sure what, but things are broken now and need to be fixed.

Make the patrols be long lasting patrols and let the scouts pick. Initially, put all the new scouts in a patrol. If they want to switch to be with a friend, fine. But let them pick. People voluntarily get together with friends and people they enjoy. People will not long-term (years) socialize in forced groups.

Commitment? Support? I'm not sure what that means? Advertising? It is pushed plenty. Far more than the percent of scouts in it. But BSA is not cash rich for advertising. They can't do commercials everywhere on every program under the BSA label. It's not that BSA is trying to kill Venturing. BSA is trying to fix multiple programs that are broken in multiple ways. *********************************** Venturing brand is just not there *********************************** Everyone knows about Eagle scout. Eagle scout is almost legondary. It has a myth abo

This is what I do too. I just don't care if the bottom of my tent gets dirty or even slightly torn. The bottom of the tent is NOT to keep you dry. It exists slightly to keep bugs out and mostly to help keep the shape of the tent. Plus the bottom of most tents is a mesh and most ground clothes are solid plastic. So if water is between the floor and the groundcloth, I want the water to squirt out of the tent, not into the tent.

Over hype and under delivery is a continual marketing failure in all BSA programs at all levels. Push excitement and thrills is in contrast with the best experiences that are the fellowship and simple activities. BSA can't deliver Disney World. But it can deliver good times throwing a football, hiking, canoeing or sitting up late at night with your friends. All the good will has been built up on the simple stuff. If scouting markets excitement and thrills, that is how it will be graded and it will fail.

Voting member means a fairly consistent attendee or essentially not a 1st time drop in parent .. interesting. I could see need for that. I must admit our units don't vote and it's not a democracy. We try to always run by consensus, but our committee is more a hierarchy and not a voting body.